Posts by jake

Re: 4GB is plently enough RAM

I don't use teams on any size laptop. We use proper communications tools around these here parts.

Re: Apple prices without the desirability

Re-read what I typed. All will be revealed.

Re: 4GB is plently enough RAM

Pretty much mirrors my thoughts. Will it run Slackware?

Re: Apple prices without the desirability

"And crap resale value."

Unless you're the person it's being resold to ... Stick Linux on it and use it as a "who cares" road machine when going into iffy areas. Don't forget your travel insurance.

Re: What's that you say, NASA?

My use of the term marketing hype was in regard to AI, not symbiosis.

However, Lick's use of the term not withstanding, I stand by my opinion that it doesn't apply to a man using a tool. That's what I thought when I was at sail, and that's still what I think. Or do you consider me, an air compressor and a roofing nailer a three-way symbiosis?

Re: Blowing fibre.

We were discussing fiber, not water. And besides, I've found that a wet&dry vac does a better job in many cases than blowing the water out, especially in systems with many branches. What works even better is a drain installed at an engineered-in low point. Inexpensive self leveling rotary lasers are gawd/ess's gift to the cognizant DIYer.

Re: Blowing fibre.

For microfiber, sure. That's not what we were discussing.

Horses for courses.

Re: Closest I've had to that ....

Because the word is from the Middle English soudure would be my guess. Not our fault you lot corrupted your own word along the way.

Re: the difference between an engineer and sn installer.

Did he have the Martian accent (or whatever that was) to go with the look?

Re: Never work with children or animals?

A friend uses his ferrets occasionally. Tinned sardines as bait (YMMV).

While we're on this topic, a good tool for lobbing cable over hanging ceilings is a crossbow.

Re: Blowing fibre.

Hint: Don't use a compressor. Use a decent shopvac. Really. It works better.

Re: Beware mystery cable runs

Just to piggy-back on this one ... They do make what purports to be direct burial network cables. My advice? Always run them in properly installed conduit anyways. Trust me on this.

Re: Where are my pitchfork and my torch?

But just think of all the money they have saved by not purchasing software and the machines to run it on! What's a few missed orders here & there? And of course we save money by not fielding complaints! Maybe we should do away with the "support@" email address, it's a money-sink ...

Your Accountants listening to Their Marketing is running down the economy. Seriously, think about it ... How many Billions of dollars has Microsoft-induced downtime cost corporations world-wide in the last year? The last five years? The last decade? Two decades?

And how much would your company have saved in downtime alone (after re-training costs & etc.) had you switched to BSD & Linux twenty years ago?

"If you can no longer use the words "Master" and "Slave" in general computing context"

Ah, but you can. But only if you want to be understood by virtually everybody involved with technology on the entire planet.

"What is "we" in Microsoft context anyways?"

That's when they piss all over you.

Re: Look on the bright side.

How do you know all that? That's top secret R&D, that is!

Re: Jeff Bezos' Ring?

Chuck dropped out, moved to California, got into computers, and eventually became the contributor to this week's ElReg On Call feature. Finally, he has made it!

https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/02/on_call/

Re: ding dong ditch

We called it Ding Dong Ditch, Ring And Run, Doorbell Ditch or Knock and Run in Silly Con Valley. The terms were used interchangeably. This is probably indicative of the vast diversity of the origins of the inhabitants ...

Re: Ignorance is bliss

"does this mean it's processing it's data off the premises?"

Of course. Why would one install a simple circuit consisting of three pieces of wire, a buzzer, a power source and a button when one can use a computer that has to be networked to a massive bank of servers halfway around the world and requires a cell phone to properly use?

I mean, really! It's obvious, innit?

Re: Jeff Bezos' Ring?

Yo! Jeff! Sit on it!

(Probably dating myself ... )

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

The battlefield will sound like a billion invading hornets, striking fear into the very hearts of the enemy ... until the enemy switches on the electronic countermeasures and turns it up to 100,000W of transmit power. Then the silence will be deafening ... followed by the sound of $BIGNUM of drones hitting the ground.

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

Muscleguy writes: "This is all about the bravery of being out of range."

That is one of the single most idiotic things I've ever read here on ElReg.

This is all about not putting any more human beings into danger unnecessarily.

You are not even wrong, Jan 0.

Punt gun muzzle velocity was usually lower than that of a modern shotgun (blackpowder and poor wadding were the major factors). However, they were typically loaded with the very same #4 buck that I used in the above example. Lower velocity means lower energy on target equals less penetration. Punt guns were not devastating because of power, they were devastating because of sheer volume of shot, typically firing a pound of shot (~2160 pellets) per load ... and sometimes five or more hunters would fire into a flock simultaneously.

I have taken many duck, from all angles. The direction the ducks are flying makes absolutely no difference to penetration.

I have rarely shot a duck "in the back" .... a duck's back is on top when they are flying, and I am on the ground. Can't hit what I can't see. Not that it makes any difference to me, or the duck. Why would you think otherwise? Anthropomorphizing? Do you think food somehow magically materializes wrapped in plastic in the back room at Tesco/Safeway?

Re: Timing will be critical

How much of that was training, certification and other overhead?

How does that compare to other armies in other conflicts?

Not arguing, as I honestly don't know ... but I am curious.

"Wouldn't a drone mounted .22 have better penetration?"

Sure, but that's not the whole story.

#4 buckshot, with a diameter of 0.24", has a velocity of around 1300fps (mild 12 gauge loads), vs. a .22 at around 1200fps. The .22 weighs in at around 40gr, the #4 buck at 20.6gr. Doing the math, the .22 has around 40% more energy on target (at short distances) ... combine that with stability in flight and projectile shape, and the .22 has the edge.

However, given a single shot there are a lot more chances of hitting the target multiple times with the shotgun.The shotgun fires around 27 projectiles, all hitting an area under 1 foot in diameter (depending on choke and possibly with a few fliers). And even with it's much lower energy, it's still powerful enough for each pellet to do major organ damage. There is a reason they call it buckshot ... it's not for hunting mice!

Note: I'm assuming typical "home defense" distances in the above, which seems reasonable given the topic under discussion. Likewise the #4x27 shot, which is a good all 'round load for this kind of thing.

"duck feathers are a reasonable counter to shotgun pellets"

Interesting statement. Cite? Because my freezer says no ...

Combat shotguns shoot whatever loads are deemed necessary for a given situation.

Don't believe everything you see and hear on youtube ... The only reason any of it exists to get page hits. Especially that side of youtube.

Re: I wonder...

Exactly.

There is a reason that "Computer says no." as an answer can still be funny ...

Re: Windows?

But also being Windows, they have been conditioned by decades of Redmond "technical support" to turn it off and back on again to see if that helps.

A few minutes?

Probably under ten seconds ... The lock on that kind of box is usually very easy to get past. They aren't designed with security in mind, they are designed to keep idiots from electrocuting themselves.

Re: Drats!

You can buy one new (if empty) for roughly the same price, and kit it out any way you like. A friend of mine has a couple of them (bought at scrap prices[0]), one he uses for spare parts storage on track days, one he uses for all his drone kit, and another one in his nursery greenhouse for the little bits & bobs that he uses when starting seedlings, transplanting, rooting cuttings, and that kind of thing.

[0] Alan Steel & Supply in Redwood City in his case, call the scrap yard(s) near your local airport and see if you get lucky.

Re: glory of air travel

Scheduled air transport is awful. Nay, make that absolutely atrocious.

Military air travel can be OK, but usually isn't.

General Aviation is the only way to fly.

Re: Empty prose.

You're also getting the cart itself, which start at around that price new (sans drawers, logos, other decorations & etc., which are optional extras).

Re: Among the odder products of the COVID-19 pandemic are “flights to nowhere”

"Is "communist" some new USAism for commuting?"

I have never heard the term used that way here on the Left Coast, but I suspect they mean public transportation. The Right Coast has a rather poor sense of humo(u)r at the best of times.

"why would visitors wish to leave the Garden State in such a hurry?"

You've obviously never been there. To give you an idea of how bad that part of the world actually is, most New Jerseyites actually think Florida is a nice place to vacation.