Posts by Neil Barnes

Re: Oh, and talk about a slapdown

What do you call it when 'project fear' turns out to have been an accurate prediction?

Re: When there's a component shortage

Yes. Sod the thousand dollar halo parts, let's see some jelly bean embedded processors, opamps, and even passives without sixty-plus week delays please.

Re: Cunning ?

do not open attachments from people you don't know

And that will happen, um, a day or two after the heat death of the universe...

Re: I haven’t found them in Germany yet…

Thank you - I've seen a couple of 'English' shops but the markup, while maybe explainable, offends my grasping Yorkshire soul :)

Re: Scheme

an ambulance driver can't work from home, and never did,

Er, my late father worked for many years as an ambulance driver - from home. Admittedly, he lived at the back of beyond and a good three hours from the hospital, even with blues and twos, but the ambulance lived on his drive and he worked from home.

An electric hovercraft! Just what I need.

Re: I/O

Apropos of which, I looked out for some eeproms from major retailers (digikey and mouser) last night. Both offered delivery dates expected at the end of 2023...

Re: Fair play to the asteroid

Wouldn't it be ironic if the official Hollywood way to solve an asteroid impact crisis - the atomic powers combine to blow the thing to bits - failed because the Russians had foolishly used all their rockets up?

Re: Awesome!

Well, the Special Projects Bureau nearly managed it with PARIS and LOHAN...

RIP Lester.

Re: I can see this working

A website might not need external verification: if you've been logging on for a number of years, the site probably knows how long (e.g. Vulture Central knows I've been posting here since 2007, possibly earlier) and if a client has been posting for a significant length of time, they're probably all grown up...

Re: How deep?

Feels about right. In a previous employment I designed deep well guidance control systems; we tested the electronics to operate reliably at 150C and were starting to look at 175 and 200C when I left. Even 150 is not easy; all the things you're used to with electronics start to change in subtle or not-so-subtle ways when they have to work across the range from -60 to +150...

Re: Sourcing everything from the UK

But where does the stuff that's sourced from the UK come from? Has the UK got production facilities and local sources, or are they assembling Made-In-China parts and waving a Made-In-The-UK paintbrush over it?

I'm not criticising; I think it's laudable to make things without dragging the components half way around the world. I'm just not sure the UK has the sources for everything on this project.

Re: Obligatory pedantry

And either way - since the recall is for hub bolts and not wheel nuts, it looks as if the whole hub is coming off. The wheel and tyre are mere courtesy details.

Re: "a hangover from the days when storage and CPU were too expensive"

absence of planning is planning for absence?

Re: Theocracy

Can you tie 'em in a knot,

can you tie 'em in a bow?

Re: Unicycle test

At a previous employer, three of us were apparently in the dangerous corner: one paraglider, one diver, one unicyclist.

Kinda assuming I really want to wear a computer.

Re: Seeking education here...

Thank you.

It strikes me that that might cause issues with varifocals; you'd really be looking for - as you say - a single distance prescription that doesn't change with angle of view.

My assumption is/was that the optics in the headset are infinity focused.

Re: Hm, I'd say..

I would agree. But the meat of the judgement seems to equate 'someone else could have used the phone' with 'therefore it's *not* personal data any more'.

Re: "Standard of living" wages...

rely on a tipping culture

"Thank you - you sold me this overpriced and unnecessary luxury item so well, here's a tenner for yourself."

Nah. Can't see it, somehow. If anyone ever did, I rather suspect that the lucky recipient would be hauled into the office to explain why he's stealing.

I'm a firm believer in paying people a living wage.

Re: That would be a huge change

Three reviewers per shift: one who can read, one who can write, and one to look after those dangerous intellectuals.

Re: Why

So sometime in the last century, the company diverted me to NYC. So far so good, apart from seeing a weather forecast for a bright sunny day and 28 degrees, which was a rude shock when I walked outside as I'd just arrived from Rio... why don't the USA use proper degrees?

Time to go back to London, and the airline couldn't find my reservation. Y'know, the one I had in my hand like you used to have when everyone carried little folders around.

Don't worry, they said, we'll either put you up overnight and send you in the morning, but we might be able to get you on this one...

Yup. They did. Back row, in the middle seat of a 2-5-2 layout. Surrounded by a large number of competitors of the marathon held in NYC earlier that day, none of whom had apparently found time to shower or change before flying home.

I've tried to forget, too...

Re: Speaking of things that have no intrinsic value

Not so bloody good this last couple of weeks, given that my pension is paid in Sterling but I spend in Euros...

Re: Specs

3-D photography, film, and TV has been failing religiously every twenty or thirty years since the 1843... seriously, you would not believe some of the technology the Victorians came up with!

Re: Memo to developers:

Yes of course, it all depends on which bit of the life cycle you want to emulate :)

Re: I approve

Quite. I have never understood what causes apparently normal people to revel in the delights of insulting and abusing someone to the point of suicide. It's not a question of the sensitivity of the recipient, but the motivation of the abuser.

And for any reason or none: you're the wrong sex, or the wrong colour, or you use a different OS from me, or you're tall, or you're short, or you're left-handed, or you like the wrong football team, or the wrong music, or you used an apostrophe in the wrong place... I'm mystified. Give me a world with variety in it, please, and a lot less abuse.

Re: Emergency credit?

My UK bank and credit cards are embossed. My DE bank card isn't.

And those who simply don't want, for whatever reason, to be forced to use a client application if a web application exists.

Re: Options are always good

I actually like the ribbon UI. It's a much more efficient use of space

Really? An unexpected used of the word 'efficient'. But each to their own, I guess.

Re: We are in the wrong business...

You are exactly right.

a few tens of quid on speaker cable

Not even that: five amp multicore mains flex is quite adequate for speakers; it's only if the cable is so resistive (i.e. thin) as to make a significant voltage drop across it that it does not allow the speakers to work properly.

Many years ago I was requested by a local hi-fi enthusiasts group to do some blind speaker cable testing for them in a BBC studio. I agreed, with the provisio that I might include a cable of my own in the mix, also blind.

That cable included in one leg a one ohm resistor in parallel with a power diode... none of them noticed.