Posts by The First Dave

@Martin

Sitepoint (sometimes/always) provide an ebook (in several formats) version of every printed book that they sell.

Well what do you expect? If you choose to block a site then of course it will appear to be blocked...

Is Android "open source", well no, it isn't by any definition other than Google's.

I don't care what the reason is, if it means a blackout of Wikipedia then I am all for it.

No, it really isn't the issue - if we are all going to drown I don't think I am alone in not giving a shit whether it is man-made or not, just stop it, as soon as possible, thank-you-very-much.

Same with alternative energy sources - oil is too valuable as a feedstuff for various chemical processes to be wasted by burning it to make electricity - that is what coal was invented for.

Just like cars, really. Your choice when you buy one - be an early adopter if you like, upgrade every year if you really want, or wait for the 3 release before you dive in at all...

To be honest, given Google's current position, I really don't think they are the best choice out there for an alternative payment system, particularly if they are going to do a PayPal, and claim that they are not a financial institution and therefore don't need to pay any attention to the FSA etc.

Small point - lots more energy is used to convert the wood into charcoal, making it much less efficient overall - better for something like this to burn the wood in its natural state, (after a little gentle air-drying)

Besides, the wood would be a much better carbon sink if not burned at all...

Something that was probably evident in the Raoul Moat incident - cops had a new shiny shiny and decided to see what would happen, rather than just waiting until he fell asleep. Dunno what they were thinking though - what did they expect to happen to a guy with his hand on the trigger of a loaded weapon when subjected to an electric shock?

OM101 - still going strong.

No, Rugby World Cup isn't for another three years.

I guess that may depend on the quality of your mains power - I am at the very far end of some long power lines, and thus pretty 'dirty'. My gut feeling is that tungsten is much more robust than newer tech, particularly when run through a dimmer at say 90%

judging at how often they need replaced.

Actually, established theory merely precludes the possibility of a particle _accelerating_ past the speed of light - if they start off going faster already, then the Maths works out perfectly.

In any case, one of the possible explanations is that the path these particles are following is actually shorter than they think, due to space-time not being uniformly 'flat'

So a bunch of policemen (I doubt any of them actually _were_ officers, more likely they were just constables) spent some time hassling this guy over something that he had not done, and you wonder why he got a little upset with them?

@AC

I thought that it was pretty clear that the site was being run "from her home" - so no miss-use of school bandwidth, and who cares what the computer is used for outside of working hours? Would it have been better if she was using it for destructive things like gambling, or online shopping for more shoes than her credit card can cope with?

RTFA please - the plasma produces UV light, that is turned into visible light by phosphors: exactly the same method as the good old 6ft tube, TV tubes and even the modern coiled-up CFL tube.

So what?

Test firings generally do occur from the least expensive platform, doesn't mean that a B2 cannot carry the same weapon, the main point of this test was to prove that the weapon itself worked.

Simple - for most techies, social skills are _far_ less important than technical skills (hence the name) and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that autism is a benefit...

Thing is, there is also something very similar to a direct debit, where only the originating company can cancel it. Total bugger to sort that one out.

The thing is, that what you have just described - a flat panel, all-in-one device, with no TV tuner, is essentially just an iMac.

Unfortunatly, all this really proves is that solar vehicles will never be practical for the majority: these are highly optimised prototype vehicles, yet they can barely manage highway speed for a single lightweight passenger, under almost optimum (solar) conditions. So, if you put the same amount of solar panels on a family-sized car then you will barely have enough power to move the vehicle itself, never mind a full load. If used as a boost / recharge for a plug-in electric vehicle, then the cost would be about triple that of the base vehicle, ie you would be better to buy three, leave one plugged in at home, one plugged in at work, and one to shuttle in between.

"No one should be allowed to post defamation."

Of course not, but under this regime, I can have almost any post removed from El Reg by saying that it defames me. According to this, there is no defence at that stage, to say that the item is not defamation.

In other words: "I am a rocket scientist, and your post defames me. Please remove it."

Given this was talking about the UK, I don't suppose there were many, if any at all.

I'm not saying I'm keen on it happening, but we all have to make sacrifices occasionally, and at least I wouldn't have to go to work any more...

Not hydrogen - ethanol. Works almost perfectly in a petrol engine, and works perfectly with only minor re-tuing. Easier to store and handle than Hydrogen, easier even than petrol, almost completely clean, similar energy density to Petrol, what's not to like?

Fair enough, but why does a small charity need a CEO ?

Yeah, I've seen some of those police drivers on TV, and staying within the limits of the law tends not to be a big part of their repertoire: "look how dangerous the car in front is, overtaking on a bend. See how clearly you can see him as we follow along behind doing the same thing..."

"Oh look, he has stopped suddenly and we ran straight into the back of him..." etc.

@Spodula

Pulsejet == Doodlebug (V2)

"The restrictions are designed to protect children from sexualised content."

and will therefore also prevent children from watching the X-Factor, and the majority of modern pop videos... No? Didn't think so. Yet that stuff is proven to be damaging our kids.

No, they didn't.

The price of £35 appears to be the price that the Indian Gov will charge people, so another loss-leader (sort of) similar to the Kindle Fire.

Personally, I hope that this _does_ go ahead, as it is so clearly wrong, as it may then be a catalyst for reform. It's not like the defendants count as small-business exactly.

@Jez

Thing about the walled garden argument is that Android is also a walled garden, but since it is made of chicken wire, Google can claim that it isn't, but the bad guys can still see through it, but you can't escape when you are inside.

Tax

(Which equals Government, so one level higher in the financial food chain.)

Come on! Almost every DECT phone ever made charges up by "just being dropped in a cradle"

Yet again, need to point out that Scotland is a little different, the £27,000 figure is _not_ UK wide.

"Pick up any paper and you can usually identify whether any given article is written by a good journalist or a bad one."

Yet people still buy the Daily Mail in their thousands, every day...

Clearly sensible people like you and I should have access to totally un-censored media, but the plebs clearly need "approved" media only.

"No, but in some areas of physics, 50% can be a great margin of error, some things have margins of error which are orders of magnitude."

Thing is, the difference between the measured speed of those neutrinos and the speed of light is a tiny percentage, so astronomical measurements are never going to come close to proving this one way or the other.

It's a wonder they didn't manage to get the words "world series" into the name somehow...

"Mainstream science has been insistent that the speed of light is an absolute limit for most of the last century."

It has always been a concern of mine, whether the limit really is the (max) speed of light, or whether it is actually something a fraction faster.

In any case, E=mc2 only really applies to 'normal' stuff with measurable mass - it has always seemed likely to me that there are particles out there that differ so much from 'normal' as to allow them to ignore this rule.

No.1 Why not sue the other driver?

No.2 Why do you need to pay hospital bills - don't you live in a civilised country?