Posts by Panicnow 221 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jul 2012
Buy a noname android phone for $50 with a forward facing camera.
Glue to inside of window ( not double glazed )
Run 5v to phone and take the usb output to a electronic door lock.
Use Linphone to create a video voip app that just calls your own phone, switching on the camera.
Easy!
The solution is easy, default kill on selected traffic from all internet connections, then a small charge to re-establish them under suitable Ts&Cs. Most domestic users wouldn't even notice.
ISPs that didn't co-operate would find their whole net filtered. I.e the system is viral
All it needs is for one major ISP to value their customers sanity over the corporate "No one got fired for doing nothing" ( Being generous on their motivation here;)
( The authour founded PIPEX and Internet Watch, I DO KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!)
The project is looking to map the worlds resources and test the system for fragility.
If you want to worry about anything, then it is POLITICS that you should care about!
It turns out that we now have a finely tuned world. Like any system close to optimum, it is sensitive to perturbations of parameters,with wild swings E.g. Low global rice or wheat yields have resulted in riots.
A major perturbation, such as a trade war between trading blocks, can make the whole thing collapse.
E.g Europe is dependent on Russian gas, China is dependent on imported protein, etc etc.
While a big earthquake or Volcano are non zero risks, the big risks are idiot politicians!
Not the CEOs of the Big Banks who happily shift funds to Nigeria from Joe Public accounts without any sort of escrow arrangement. Or the current scam where they allow a new account to be opened, fund transfer from a dupe and exit in a few days.
No they will target the "pub landlord" who changes money on the side because the banks charge so much to make a cash deposit!
I've just founded a TV school where the student make real TV in real time for broadcast on real deadline, budgets and quality. They pay for the professional mentors, we get free TV programmes
Anyone fancy setting up a dept to do the same for coders. ( and get some code written for free at the same time!)
Lazy journalism is where they recycle other journalists output, without going back to the original source.
Certainly the UK running out of energy report, was about the LOCAL reserves, if International trade shutdown. E.g. The Ukraine became a east-west showdown.... The report SHOULD be a wake-up call to pollicy makers who assume business as usual has permanence!
Second, true we will never "runout" of resources. But the price and the cost of extraction can change very rapidly.
Third, one has to look at the timing supply chain adaptation. It has taken nearly a decade to restart the non-chinese rare-earth extraction supply chain. Converting refineries to changing raw materials...
Poo-pooing these reports is a dangerous game.
USE
Getting anything heavy around the third world is a nightmare. THis is where the sweet spot is IMHO i.e. getting equipment to third world minerals.
Also getting the minerals out is a nightmare too. Taking High value low wieght minerals such as Tantalum, Gemstones...
VARIABLE BOUYANCY
Steam has an attomic weight of 18 so converting water to steam would add bouyancy nicely, and its much lighter to keep it warm, rather than holding helium at pressure.
KEEP TETHERED
Why not keep the thing tethered to the ground and just use it to lower the axle weight. I love the concept of the Balloon Assisted Donkey (BAD) pulling a tonne along some mountian track. (But not on a windiy day!
I was at a meeting of children's charities and Cell Cos at the UK Telecoms ministry. The Cell CO's said to the minister they couldn't kill mobiles. I was there and pointed out that every mobile broadcasts the IMEI every time it moved cell, and that it would be a trivial task to kill mobiles on IEN.
The minister was SO angry that the senior Cell CO execs were prepared to lie when children were being mugged, that he made the Cell Cos do this is a few weeks, rather than the usual prevarication
Please stop repeating the great myth that education and wealth leads to smaller families.
It is, and has always been the reverse. That is why the landed gentry carry on enjoying priviledge, How China has transforming its wealth demographic, and why Nigeria isn't
Hmm, Do I want to pay taxes for people who CHOOSE to live in the middle of no-where.
I know plenty of people who move to accessible places to enjoy the benefits.
Next thing these people will be asking for subsidised petrol to help fund their unsustainable life styles
I ran Cambridge Red TV for several years and we had no trouble making 15 hr a week watchable local content. And we lost money slow enough that the BBC funding would put it into profit!
But its too late to apply, as you had to register interest 3 months ago to be eligable to apply.
If anyone local to Cambridge wants to volunteer.... redtv@dawe.co.uk
IWF check complaints from the public against a checklist of ILLEGAL material and if they judge it ILLEGAL, they simply advise ISPs, Phone cos and Web sites that their is in-their-judgement, illegal material at a site. It is up to the service provider if they take it down or not.
IWF may inform the police if a service provider does not take it down.
It is neither a censer, nor a court room!
It allows the public a single clearing house for complaints regarding ILLEGAL material and provides the service providers with a simgle filter for getting ILLEGAL material off their sites. Thus keeping the CEO out of court!
This is an eligant solution to ONE problem, but then I designed it and got an OBE for the trouble!
Founder IWF
"features like menu bars or buttons on window title-bars at all – Apple invented most of that stuff with the Lisa and later Macintosh projects."
Er, Not Apple, Xerox maybe, but most of these innovations had parentage elsewhere.
(EEK am I the oldest still reading this stuff?)
If you look at hte history of computing the architecture of choice is a (simple) function of the cost of use and utility of :- CPU, Storage, Bandwidth ( Bus, LAN, WAN) and a I/O, skill base plus the curved ball of applicable laws and taxes..
Mainframe - Mini- Micro - LAN mini - LAN Micrtos - Distributef WAN mini - Distributed WAN micro - Cloud...
Historically the price of moving the data has been the biggest factor. Putting all data into one place and just moving the I/O is currently best.
Note that if this is the case, then the BIG DATA farms where everyone can access the "global data flows" will win.
I.e. Google will win as they collect the most
Amazon's only defence is to put in a DATA sharing collective into their model. Though Google doesn't have the "privicy" problem as they "own" most of the data in their cloud, so don't fall foul of privicy laws
BTW. This doesn't just apply to computing, physical sales have followed the same function. with corner shops - super markets- hypermarkets- On-line - off-shore...
Exercise, do the line for virtual sales such as games and predict the future for yourself!
Is the EU's policy on bio-fuels sh*tty YES.
Are Bio-fuels bad? Not all!
Using crop residues for fuel is a GOOD idea. Straw in particular has half the calorific value of coal by weight.
On world markets Feed Wheat sells at £190 tonne and Coal costs £250 for the same number of Calories.
go figure ...
Vote UKIP
"If we could look back at this region of Antarctica in the 1940s and 1830s we would find that the regional climate would look a lot like it does today, and I think we also would find the glaciers retreating much as they are today," said lead author Prof Eric Steig, from the University of Washington.
He said the same was not true for the Antarctic peninsula, the part of the continent closer to South America. Here, more dramatic changes were "almost certainly" a result of human-induced global warming.
1) A hi-jacker will ignore the instruction to turn off!!!!!!
Corallary, give the flight attendants a sniffer to identify powered on devices ( UNPOPULAR!!!)
2) The report said the remote positioning stuff isn't encrypted, so the spoofing hack could
be done on land too. - If the Iranians can steal a UAV,,,,
Stay at home and save the planet ( And yourself)
A) All the fossil fuel we can economically dig out of the ground we'll burn. Regardless
B) Global oscilations in crop productivity per capita happens.
C) Distribution of valuables are "grossly unfair" ( A view held by you poor people in particular)
Conclusions:-
1) Build resilience in your (food) system or you or your descendants starve.
2) Party while you can
The banks justify their high margins by the level of risk they "bear". Reducing risk means that they can't justify gouging their customers .
That is why they rarely implement best practice. e.g.:-
Multi-factor verification,
Advance notification of transactions with STOP processes
Scanning a notification of spoof sites
Declaring security breaches
Escow to allow reversal of fraudulent transactions
Photos and other biometric on cards/online ( How can they say this is too expensive when they allow me to upload my own artwork for my card!!!)
....
Please add your own!!
If the banks reduce fraud, they cannot justify their high margin( Yes some do!)
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