Posts by Russell Chapman Esq. 49 posts • joined 12 Dec 2017
Have wondered about this and what popped into my simple mind was virtual particles. The quantum field is constantly fluctuating and causes elementary particles to pop into and out of existence very briefly. My question is this, measured out over universe, what is the average mass of these virtual particles at any given time, could they account for the 'missing' mass of the universe? Because they only exist for very short periods of time before anihilating, rinse and repeat across the universe, could that be an explanation for why we can't find dark matter and energy, because although the mass exists, you really would have to be in the right time and place to see and measure it before it disappeared and popped up elsewhere. Just a thought, but am interested if anybody has any thoughts and if I'm wrong, help me understand.
The country has some good things going for it, apart from my German ex-wife. They seem to want to genuinely protect consumers and take the work/life balance seriously. But everything is so ordered it is stifling, I guess we Brits all have a modicum of desire to bend rules and play the system to our personal advantage. Best wishes to them in taking on Amazon. Love the autobahn, the Weisswurstäquator and words like autoarschkrampe which describe perfectly a situation that very nearly went badly wrong. Don't live there but travel through it often enough. If you have a sweet tooth and you're near Heidelberg, do stop, the place has the most amazing cakes. I can not recommend marrying a German.
I've experienced F10, steady 8,regularly gusting 10 on a 15 metre boat. We were sailing across to Belgium, Reefed in but still exceeding hull speed down the waves, thankfully we were not in a following sea, would hate to broach. Lifelines on, the 3 of us taking turns sitting up in the bow, water-proofs on, waves breaking over, that was a hell of a ride.
I only eat bacon when I go home. Not even worth looking for it in Europe. Lidl sold something it called British bacon. As an experiment, bought a pack as it did look like bacon, was terrible all the gunk which came out of it. Dumped it in the loo. Dumped before eating, not after.
In a cafe or hotel, put teabag in cup and ask them to fill it from the espresso machine. Saves a ton of hassle trying to explain how the water should be boiling when they pour it on the tea. Works anywhere they have proper espresso machine and know how to make a decent coffee
I haven't lived in the UK for a long time now. Always bring back a box of Yorkshire Gold Tea when I visit family. If I want a cup of tea in a bar. I take my own teabag and ask them to put it in the cup and use the hot water from the espresso machine to fill it. They look at you a bit odd but it works
I'm guessing you are from a younger generation than me. Way back when, we had specific teachers for chemistry, physics and biology, each a specialist in their own field and they all loved the experimental lessons. Two lessons of each field of science a week, one theory, the other, getting hands dirty in the labs. It was all about the adventure of discovery, doing stuff that wouldn't always be in the exam paper but was fascinating to learn. This was high school back then, 11-18 year olds being presented with stuff that could blow your mind, or kill it, as per the cyanide gas demonstration. Yes, the gas is colourless but we were transfixed watching the experiment, knowing the gas could wreak so much harm, it was like watching silent death, we were in awe, so when the extraction chamber broke down it was frightening yet exhilarating to escape at the same time.
Not a fire story, a cyanide gas story. High school in the 80's, chemistry teacher decided to demonstrate how cyanide gas is produced, mixed the appropriate ingredients in the gas extraction chamber and we were advised to stand back, during the experiment, the chamber decided to break down and was partially open to the rest of the lab. Cue very urgent shouts from teacher to 'get the fuck out as fast as possible'. As the chamber was near the door we rather ungracefully exited via the windows. If the lab had not been on the ground floor, I reckon it could have turned into a pretty nasty situation.
Tesla share price today is based on expected earnings in the future, the P/E ratio. What that means is many shareholders of Tesla stock today, expect to see Tesla earn a lot of money in the future. If the shareholders lose faith in Tesla's ability to make money in the future, the share price will collapse. Share prices are not based so much on what a company is doing now, but what investors think it will do in the future.
Elon Musk got the EV market kickstarted, he will always be remembered for that, and I have a lot of respect for the guy, he is a visionary when it comes to new products. But. He tried to over-automate production, the likes of VW and Toyota are on the cutting edge of mass production using automation, however they have the experience to know which jobs are better served by human hands. I do quite a bit of work for a company which designs and produces automated production lines for car companies, customers include, VW Group, Kia, Jaguar/Land Rover. Unfortunately, Tesla doesnt have long term experience with mass production, it is still very much in a learning process. In the meantime, the big auto makers, who have been doing a ton of research into EV's, are getting ready to launch their own vehicles, the difference being, they have the mass production experience, the economies of scale and already profitable businesses and, will, in my opinion, eat Tesla's car business for breakfast.
I would also be closely watching the Chinese EV makers, they have been experimenting with electric taxis and buses in the big cities and are getting ready to hit the international market big time in the next couple of years.
In the middle of all this is the minnow, Tesla. Forget the cars, their build quality is similar to that of Kia 10 years ago, Tesla will probably licence its car name to one of the big car makers. Part of the problem arises from a person being a visionary running a company of growing complexity. They are too focused on the ideas and big changes, but have little grasp of the detail needed to make a company of growing complexity, work. SpaceX however, that is very hard engineering and is the future I see for Tesla, in this way Musk can focus on one big product and make it work beautifully. The car business is a different kettle of fish, not suited to his psychology.
Everyone in the software business thinks they can get away with it these days. Get something out the door, worry about patching and upgrading later, meantime you have to keep paying through the nose. I bet it will be Block 5 or 6 before things are ready. How much more will we have to pay. Yeah sure they have reduced the price of the aircraft, but they are clawing the discount back through software 'upgrades'
With the likes of FB and Google having data on millions, if not billions of people, I think politicians are now realizing they are not as high and mighty as they once were. As these companies are international, they can collect data anywhere, but base operations for the use of that data where they like, out of the jurisdiction of national governments. FB and Google etc, are in fact now, supra-national bodies, you can be sure they won't be so careless about similar operations in the future. This situation is simply part of the learning phase for them. It might already be too late to stop them.
We are a weird bunch of commentards, I don't work in IT but enjoy keeping up to date with technology, at the same time we are people who enjoy engineering and science. I don't feel like a dinosaur but I do wonder if we are dinosaurs, in the sense, people like us seem to be, becoming ever rarer.
Damn, you beat me to it. I was going to mention Clickspring too, he is an amazing engineer and his attention to detail is incredible. That clock he made! Here is the link to his channel for any who are interested.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA/videos
Good management is a real skill. I'm mentoring at a rapidly growing company which designs and produces automated production lines for the car iindustry. When you have, mechanical designers, coders, electrical system designers, hydraulic system designers, the robotics guys, the vision system guys, the machinists, the assembly workers, project managers, the accounts dept, sales dept, purchasing dept; all these need to work together and that needs effective management, communication skills, co-ordination and leadership. If not then everything would be chaos. There is a good reason why the skipper of a ship gets paid more than a deckhand, he is responsible for getting the ship to port and not bumping into anything along the way.
Good management is also about realizing the value of everybody on your team, make sure you employ the right people, in fact this company has never had to fire anybody, a very small number have left, but nobody has ever been booted out. Look after your people and they will help you look after the business.
Result: massive expansion and a full order book for the rest of the year plus an extra 2 month salary bonus paid to everybody in the company.
For example, Meltdown and Spectre, who knows what other weaknesses there are at the hardware level. Once your device is identified online, it can be accessed. Mandating an official software backdoor is simply a cover story, so evidence can be used 'legally' in court. Governments don't want people to understand that privacy does not exist.
Never flown with Vueling but I do fly home with RyanAir about 3 times a year. Two and half hour flight, view it like a bus service, take your own snack/lunch on board, lots of people do it. Also, leave your online check-in as late as possible, that way you will be allocated a decent seat. I never pay to reserve a seat. Admittedly it is easier when you fly solo.
Turkish Airlines, Vienna to Amman with an 11 hour wait in Istanbul for the connecting flight, get out of the airport, go see the city. Worse is flying MEA from Lebanon to Amman, getting out of seat to use the loo while in Israeli airspace is a huge no no, absolutely verboten.
I still shudder when I remember, years ago, looking in a box in the atic and there was a spider the size of my hand. I have a 9 inch span between the tip of thumb and little finger when my fingers are splayed. It really was that fucking huge, body was size of a 5p, with seriously hairy legs. Thanks for the memory :(
If Meltdown and Spectre are not designed in backdoors, then I don't know what it is. These are just the 2 we know about. How many others could there be? They are only asking for weakened encryption because they don't want people to figure out how they really get inside a system.
I commented on an article on FB about a physical attack on a LGBT person,I wrote, 'While I dont agree with the LGBT lifestyle there is no excuse for any attack, physical or otherwise. The person who carried out the attack should be ashamed'. Result, FB deleted my post and I got banned from commenting on FB for 24hrs for hate speech. This was 2 days ago.
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