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* Posts by bmacd

4 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Oct 2019

Panic in the mailroom: The perils of an operating system too smart for its own good

bmacd
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Re: Computerized billing ...

Many a happy summer in North Bay visiting my grandparents! Grandpa was in the RCAF and they ended up staying in NB when he retired.

Anyway, I'll never forget a school tour of CFS Moisie (Pinetree Line) in northern Quebec. The "Rabbit Ear" height-finder made a great impression as they activated it while we were in the dome (thinking about it now, just the antenna actuator - as I recall the wave-guides were well over a foot across and we would have been well and truly fried if they had switched on the transmitter!).

This was just before the first Quebec "Sovereignty Association" (Separation) bill in the early 80's. I asked the Base Commander what would happen if it was a Yes vote and I can remember his exact words:

"We have contingency plans to render this facility inoperable."

... always took that to mean they were going to blow the whole station up!

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Talking a Blue Streak: The ambitious, quiet waste of the Spadeadam Rocket Establishment

bmacd
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Re: Nearby Airfield?

Thanks for the clarification - the "runways" did seem a little short!

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bmacd

Nearby Airfield?

Any idea about the nearby abandoned airfield a little northest of the google map linked to in the article? Looks like there are several abandoned aircraft there - of at least 3 different types. Two look like 50's era fighters, one type with straight wings (F80-like) and one with swept (F86-like). There is also what looks similar to an F-111 on the intersection of the two runways...

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Promise of £5bn for rural fibre prompts Openreach to reach for the trench-digging diamond cutter

bmacd

Power Lines

What about using the existing power lines to carry the fibres? Technology has been around since 1982 https://www.aflglobal.com/Products/Fiber-Optic-Cable/Aerial/Skywrap/AccessWrap.aspx

In my area of Sussex we had crap broadband but were all connected to overhead power.

(Our 0.5-1Mbps BT line was a joke - ran on poles for a few hundred metres then across the forest floor and *over* a barbed wire fence - literally deployed by someone walking along with a reel! Was cut about twice a year by the local farmer.)

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