Re: This is laudable
I don't see it as an orbit to ground weapon; as stated above, it doesn't have useful power. But I can see suddenly one-eyed astronomers complaining...
6265 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Apr 2007
A dozen years ago I was made redundant and spent a year writing a Master's thesis for the Open University: the degree I received was titled "Computing for Commerce and Industry".
Although I wrote code - lots of it - to demonstrate and prove my thesis, not one line of that code appeared in the final document, and nor was any of it assessed.
While I would not dare to speak for Americans as a class, I have noticed a number of times recently that there seems to be a usage of 'tyre' (or possibly 'tire') to refer to both the black rubber bit, and the complete assembly with the metal bit in the middle and the rubber bit around it.
Is it possible that this is simply a case of that usage?
Which is the major reason I use Mint.
It's not that it's intrinsically better or worse than other interfaces (for some value of better or worse) but that it's better for _me_.
(Though there are still some holes in the Mint world, particularly around the operation of menu bars).
Why the hell do Southern Water (or indeed any utility company) need to collect any personally identification? You are buying services from them; the only thing they need to know is (a) an address and (b) that the money keeps coming in. Some sort of customer number to link payments to location might be handy, but that is all they *need* until such time as you wish to terminate their service. At that point, it's reasonable that they require some sort of evidence that *you* are a person who has a right to terminate it (wouldn't want any Tom, Dick, or Harry turning my water off!) but it's *not* reasonable that they keep any such identifiable documentation... yes, send us a scan of your rates bill with your name and address, and we will note on our database that this was the document used to identify you.
What possible reason can there be to gather this sort of identification other than for this final case?
Fortunately, my ancient black and white Brother 2150N continues to print without caring what third party toner cartridge goes in, every five or six years. Now if only I could persuade the cartridge suppliers that actually, thank you, I *don't* need another cartridge every couple of weeks...
I was wondering about how to execute code from such a chip: my thought was that the obvious way to do this would be to send some randomish number to the chip, which performs some transformation magic and sends it back; if the printer gets back the (transformed) code it's expecting, then it's happy. So in that scenario, perhaps the rogue chip returns a lot more data, crashes the stack, and executes something on the return?
It would still need to get something into the printer's system that could be executed... but of course, since everything is unnecessarily connected to the intarwebs these days...
I had the enviable task of identifying every piece of equipment in the BBC World Service, discovering whether it had a computer/controller in it, and if so, confirming either that it had no date handling or that it could cope with Y2k. Most of it wasn't an issue. But I also had to sort out a couple of HP Unix boxes and it was quickly ascertained that the current OS couldn't handle it, and that the hardware couldn't handle the next OS which could. There were two suitable computers in the country, which we bought; I had to manage getting them to the site (not on the same truck!) and the new OS installed and tested.
That done, I went and spent Y2k new year on Copacabana beach with six million partying Brazilians.
I despair.
What an unmitigatedly pointless system. Delivery by air for those poor unfortunates who can't plan both a dinner party *and* the food required ahead of time? Or for those imbeciles who can't cope with a couple of days wait between ordering something and having it delivered? Even ignoring the risk to other air users (and as indicated, ground users too) this is nothing more than a self-aggrandizing waste of resources.
That's rather my point. As I approached retirement age I discussed this with my doctor, as to whether I would be likely to need my pension pot for years or if I should just pull it out and blow it on fast cars and fast women. He suggested that with three grandparents who reached a hundred (and one who died of silicosis in his eighties) and two parents going strong at the time in their eighties, I probably had a healthy set of genes irrespective of other issues.
Also, do I prefer my water delivered through plastic pipes (or plastic bottles) containing microplastics, or through lead[0] pipes as in days of yore? (I don't buy bottled water and I don't filter what comes out of the tap. My landlord thinks I'm crazy but last time I checked I wasn't dead yet.)
[0] Other metals are available, e.g. copper or iron, but I think lead is the least friendly.
Hmm. Which would I rather buy? A shiny new windows laptop with AS installed? Or last year's top end model, recycled by some exec who simply has to have the latest and greatest?
Hint: option two, followed by the immediate installation of penguins, is my normal way of buying computers...