Posts by G R Goslin 326 posts • joined 1 Jun 2007
I never understood it when it happened, and I've received no info as to why. I only joined after being pestered by my daughter. I hardly used it, and then only for stuff coming in. As far as I'm concerned, it was no loss, and I've taken no steps to get back in. My daughter is still annoyed, though. But at me, not Facebook.
Why not just bung in another HDD,? After all, installing a drive is not exactly rocket science. On the other hand, you can get a USB, 4TB external drive, plug in and go, for a few quid over 100. Not much more than a years subscription.
Lord Marshall of Goring, was the name I was trying to recall. A gentleman in every respect.
I do wish reporters would get someone to read what they write. The laws of the Conservation of Matter indicate that you cannot make, or destroy matter, in any significance in our environment. So, you cannot 'form' or 'produce' uranium. You can break down its compounds and create new compounds, but the uranium you get was there before. Uranium is not particularly scarce. The one time head of the CEGB, ( I wish I could find the reference), Once invented the 'back yard unit' to put things into perspective. The 'back yard unit, was a volume of the soil in a typical housing plot. The plots in those days must have been a bit bigger than the present estate postage stamp sized plots. The average 'back yard unit', he said would hold about 2.5Kg of uranium, or a bit over 5lbs of the stuff. It's the reason for the past (and possibly present) rave against Radon emissions from soil. Bacterial sequestration is again, nothing new. I believe, at one time, the Japanese tried sequestration of uranium from sea water by nets of seaweed. Historically Iodine has been produced for years by burning seaweed. Reed beds are used to remove heavy metals from waste streams. The legumes (peas and beans sequester Nitrogen. The story goes on and on.
Surely at that height, clouds, condensed vapours would not exist. What people would see (if they could), however is concentrations of ionised gases. It's nothing new, at least, on paper. Many years ago Analog, the SF magazine, ran a story on the very same theme. In this case, it was to warm a freezing planet, by reflecting more energy back to the planet's atmosphere. The cause of the freezing was a period of lower than normal solar activity, oddly rather similar to the present forecasts of reduced solar activity from our own sun.
....The high regions of the Earth's atmosphere exhibit similar temperatures. The thermosphere (80-600 kmetres up) has temperatures up to 1500C. A reflecting heatshield is all it takes.
leaving aside the obvious detail, that Mars, in Olympus Mons, still has an active volcano, I don't see how this can produce a significant sample. Statistics, in dating rely on the enormous sample size to eliminate errors, and a significant loss of one or more of the decay series to indicate a start date. Counting atoms one by one does not seem to me to be a viable route to a large sample size
The usual way out of these situations is to make some statutory requirement that cannot be provided. Like requiring a huge third party insurance provision, that no insurance company would cover. It's been done before.
I do wish that people would not talk of the weight of a planet. Jupiter has a high mass, not a high weight
Is this US only? My Alexa App hasn't been updated, and one thread I read said that it was coming on Wednesday. But neglected to say what Wednesday.
Is this the 'ID's', thing? I tried to log into my facebook account after a lapse of a few weeks, and was rather surprised to find that it had been disabled. On searching for a reason, I got a long list of conditions I was accused of breaking. Not one of which remotely applied to me. I was notified that I could "appeal", but the appeals page had an entry for (ID's), for which no explanation as to what constituted a valid entry was indicated. . Since I was only reluctantly enticed onto facebook, it seemed a good point to part company with this appalling concoction.
They're essentially just the same. Despite usually being called "booster", all they are are a low power mobile mast setup, but only receptive to registered 'phones. They use your modem router to send the signal to the supplier. The advantage of the Voda unit, was that it was of a much higher power. I could get a full power signal up to 30 metres away from the unit, and that through several thick walls. The Three unit by comparison is much less effective, the signal level notable dropping off in the next room. I changed simply because of the incredibly bad customer service. In my entire life, I've never come across such consistently bad service, which applied across the whole of the company.
I had one of these units, when I had an account with Voda. It replaced a version 2 unit that was prone to losing contact. The first thing I noted, was that the unit became very hot. far hotter than experience said was good for an electronics package. I got rid and went back to the less than ideal ver 2. Shortly after that I gave Voda the heave-ho. Not from the reason of the femtocell units. The ver 2, when it worked had excellent range. No, the reason I changed supplier was the absolutely horrendous customer support service. Not just on one or two issues, but on EVERY issue. It didn't seem to matter where the issue was handled, England, Scotland, Sub Asia, User Forums, the results, or lack of results was just the same. I'm now with Three, and never a moments problem with support. How Voda holds onto its customers is totally beyond me.
Saying "stars were probably formed almost completely from hydrogen and helium." is a bit pointless. That goes for all stars, ours included. The proportion of elements other than hydrogen and helium is very small. . The other elements are only significant to us, because virtually all the hydrogen and helium has gone from our environment
Adding to my previous post. The concept of the solar wind accellerating the atmospheric gas to escape velocity, seems valid enough, but that surely, would only apply to that part of the atmosphere at the edges of the planetary disk. Across the sun facing side, the kinetic energy would be directed downwards, not up into space. Adding to that, the solar wind is comprised of hydrogen nuclei, positively charged. In the absence, largely, of a magnetic field, they would not be divered, but would be added to the atmosphere
Errr, The other elephant in the room is Earth, which does not seem to have suffered similar losses, despite being closer to the active sun. If you're going to create a hypothesis, then you should produce the effects of that hypothesis on other planetary objects with different mass and orbital characteristics. If your hypothisis does not explain their armosphere, then the hypothesis is not valid. But, no doubt, it probably pulled in a large slab of funding.
As a VERY ex customer of Vodafone, who has been mauled by the Customer Service Department, on a number of occasions, I can assure you that the in-house support staff are every bit as inept and useless as the off shore staff. About the only improvement will be that you can understand what they say while they're fobbing you off.
Why is it that only the bad guys seem to have system privileges? It puts the user (owner) in a totally helpless position, even if he knows that there is a problem
Much as I deplore Volkswagen's actions, My sympathies lie mostly with the car maker. Governmental Laws are often arbitrary and run counter to reality. The Emission Laws are one such. As part of my technical education, I did Heat Engines. What I learnt there was that to attain higher thermal efficiencies, you had to go to higher pressures and temperatures. Chemistry tells you that all molecular activity and chemical processes are easier at high temperature and pressure. So VW are in a cleft stick situation. They are required (by Law) to attain results that fail in either one case or the other, and cannot pass in both So they came over with tests that covered one set of conditions and hid the other. It has oft been said that human laws are always broken, and indeed are made to be broken, and that Natural Laws cannot be broken, ever.
I just reached out for my old 3MX, popped in two new AA cells and a new backup battery and 'beep' it was up and running. It still had the oldr Autoroute roadmap ard and a memory card with extra maps. With one of my purchases I got one of the free Psion official pocket cases, which came with two pockets for extra memory, or application cards, which the 3MX still lives in. I must see if the infra red comms port still works with the old HP laser printer. I shall have to search out my old backups and I'll be back in business.
I still reckon that the 3C was the peak of Psion's innovation. Much has been said about the S5's posh keyboard, but for usability in it's accepted function, the 3c was much, much better. You could type on the 3c with the thing in your hands, whereas the S5 had to be laid on a table. The clamshell design set up the display and the keyboard at the right angle, and ingenious rubber feet made it totally skid proof. At a time when anything portable had between one and three hours of use, the 3C would consistently do twenty hours. Replacing the batteries was a doddle. The two memory/expansion slots were a dream come true, and so ingenious. The OS was so stable, I never heard of a crash. Anything stored on the plug-in memory was permanent until purposefully deleted. The only change I regretted from the 3A, was the replacement of the old bomb-proof serial connector with the fragile Sony version. I loved the way that the contacts were automatically protected when you withdrew the serial connector. I could go on for hours.
The Series 5 was a dreadful device. I was a fan of the Psion from day one, but lost my enthusiasm at the Series 5. I introduced the Psion to the company I worked for and ordered for those who wanted one. . it had a number of drawbacks. The hinge was very weak and broke extraordinarily easily. The worst part was the battery drain. particularly the quiescent drain. I had a number of users almost crying. They'd come back from a fortnights holiday to find both main and backup batteries dead, and all their data vanished. Personally, for pocket use the Psion peaked at the 3mx. All was not lost, however, the netBook was and is a dream. I have one, and it's in near daily use
On the grounds that the merging of the two galaxies are bound to have an effect on outr climate, I'm sure it's not too early to start taking migrative measures.
... but to the ordinary user, it's just scaremongering. What he needs, (as I do) are lists of possibly affect-able kit, and tools to establish whether or not they have been compromised. If they cannot be fixed, I'm sure that most people with one of these will just junk it. After all, we're not talking about expensive kit. What we have here, is part of the mushroom culture. kept in the dark and fed bull...it.. If the likes of the people raising this issue can point the finger, why cannot we, the pointed at come to the same conclusion?
You're forgetting the overriding maim of capitalism, "All the trade will bear" MS have seen an opportunity to up prices, and have "capitalised" on it I, As a UK citizen can stand back and laugh, since all my kit is largely self built, and runs on free Linux. Clouds? I have my own.
With the observed abilities of the government, I'm not sure that I want them controlling the economy. Oh, they're already doing that. I wondered how we could have got into this mess.
I presume that like all the Android I've met up with, the thing has, or attracts more Google Garbage, that I've no wish to use and no means of deleting. On my current phone, more than half the memory seems to be used for these. If I want to add another app, I have to delete something I've added, in order to make room for it, And as the Google Garbage bloats, I have to delete my stuff to make room for the updates.. Iv'e moved all my data files to the SD card, and I'm still stuffed for capacity
Alexa does have a histoery function, but it's on the Android Alexa app, It gives what Alexa thought you said, and the reply 'she' gives you.
Play natural sounds. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks. Just right for a bit of background
It's a long time since I heard that wake word. Woke me up instantly.
To me, an ex-apprentice, it sounds exactly like the old-fashioned apprenticeship, except that your employer is also your tutor. A brilliant idea. Bring it on.. Not so sure about the degree, though. What's wrong with the old ONC/HNC. As someone who had to re-teach Engineering Degree graduates that came into my field, that experience is the best teacher, Degrees are far too airy-fairy. Many times, I've had to tell a graduate "You can't do that." and in answer to his query, "Because it's not physically possible"
will be pleased when they replace the old ATM's. At least the new screens will not be burnt out and faded to near illegibility.
The advertisers should be grateful to me for blocking their adverts. My phiolophy, in respect of ALL adverts, is that I will NEVER buy anything tackiliy, or splashllly advertised. So they should be grateful that I am not aware of this fact.
Surely that would only be the case if one's viewpoint was at the geometric point in a perfect sphere, or in an infinite environment. . I too could say the same, if I stood out in the open, in a dense fog. "It's exactly the same for as far as I can see, as far as I can see."
...any energy, in the past four years, simply because there was nothing on worth turning it on for.
Point is, with LOX, that you don't need a spark. LOX and any hydrocarbon will spontaneously burn (explode) if mixed. Ask any rocket engineer. Even with an oxy gas torch, greasing the couplings is a no-no-NO!!! operation.
As far as I can see, the whole affair is one huge money laundering scam, which Aplle is paying for by employing a number of Irish workers.
The snag with standards, is that they're all based on other standards. So ultimately, they're all based on all the other standards. So, which is the real standard? It's all about as real as the old story about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin
What about the heat generated by the plant? Underground facilities are cool, but that's because the rock is cool. But heat does not dissipate through rock very well. Particularly concrete reinforced rock. So, there is zero cooling effect from the surroundings, but an increased problem of transporting this heat to the surface. So, where's the gain?
Makes me all the more pleased that I'm locked into Linux. Simple, reliable and malware free. Oh, I do sleep soundly. And it costs me nowt.
But I'm sure that quite large areas of the Earth's land form would not pass the same test for organic life, too.
This rather reminds me of a unit in the measurement of radioactivity. The Bequerel, usually referred to as The Buggerall, since it's only significant in mega quantities. This is the case in this instance. It really should be considered in weight, per capita, per year. When you consider that ALL the stuff you take away from the supermarket, eventually ends up as waste, which includes apples, oranges, tins of beer, etc., the odd few grammes of plastic is insignificant. Particularly if you set it against all the other plastic, in cartons, bottles wrappings and containers that you carry out in these bags. I used to take the throw away bags back for a second go, as well as using them as kitchen bin liners. Which latter use has not ceased. It's simply gone to another plastic source.
bring back Lewis Page, I say. Always good for a realistic outlook and an interesting point of view
Personally, I loathe the teabag. It's leaf tea only for me. Unfortunately, unless I pay a fortune for real leaf tea, all I get is the dust that they put in teabags. The teabag was a real boon to the tea suppliers, no longer would they have to throw away the dust from the leaf tea manufacture. However, I eschew the traditional teapot, and use the standard filter coffee maker, using the normally supplied permanent filter. That way I get perfect tea, without the leaves being overlong in contact with the hot water. Too, the keep hot heater maintains the tea at drinkable temperature for a long period with no deterioration in taste. The milk, however still goes in the cup. Try it, it really does work. Disposal of the tea leaves, too, is a doddle, simply upend and tap the filter over the bin. There's no need to wash out the dregs, such as there are.
I mean, if a driver in , say, a Ford Mondeo, cut into you in traffic, are you going to be allowed to create a device which will cause all Ford Mondeo's within a sevan mile radius to run off the road and crash?
Strange that you say "those interested in knowing where, when and what you buy,", but the fairly extensive reading I undertook on the matter indicated that it's function was the same as the unit in the article. The only caveat made was that there was a risk that Authority might persuade the manufacturer to include back doors. I tend to agree with this thought, but it equally applies to ANY manufacturer of the unit, open source or no.
Isn't this the same as the ASUS TPM (Trusted Platform Module) unit that I bought from Amazon.uk, for £14 odd? Which again, I couldn't work out how to integrate it with my Linux system, or what it did, or how it did whatever it did, or didn't do.
Thgere are many things which would be improved with automatic control. Even in transportation. Planes can fly themselves, and usually do, Ships ditto. Trains ditto. But cars and commercial vehicles. No. With the former the pilot/driver, or whatever has plenty of time, generally, to take in the situation, before taking action. Not so, on the road. If the cars autopilot hands over control, it's likely to be mere seconds before disaster strikes. In the classic case where someone steps off the kerb as a car approaches, the drivers reaction time is likely to be more than a second. And the driver is supposed to be concentrating on the task of driving. If he, or she is not concentrating, the accident will be long over before the driver gets his/her thought into gear. The other thing, of course is cost. Frankly I don't think even the Government could conceive such a waste of money and resources as automatic control. The insurance companies, of course will have a field day. An excuse to put up premiums, and at the same time, a host of reasons why they can hive off the costs to other organisations. And, of course, nice fat spin-offs to the legal profession.
I must admit I don't understand the situation. The quality of HDD's does seem to have dropped, and would prompt a change to a more reliable medium. But, as far as I can see SSD's are still wincingly expensive and run somewhat lower in capacity. I currently run a Drobo FS, with five 4TB drives (16TB net) , nudging 80% capacity. I shudder to think how much that would cost me in SSD's
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