In the US, with its less densely packed streets
Should read: In the US, where there are almost no pedestrians (unless you count the bit between car park and mall).
HTH
Posts by Chris Miller
1518 posts • joined Friday 6th April 2007 09:21 GMT
Re: Blinded by the light
The simple answer - it costs a lot (for a remote dwelling, an impractically large amount) to lay on a gas supply. But I agree that, where it exists, it should be used.
The more complex answer - the only practical way to generate baseload electricity is thermally*. Without gas, you'd be using (dirty ungreen) coal or nuclear (double plus ungreen), both of which are substantially more expensive than gas.
*Or hydro if you live near mountains.
The trouble with the €
Is that it's basically the DM with rounding errors. Greece leaving will achieve nothing except to switch attention to the next weakest domino (probably Portugal). The only way to save the € is for Germany to leave (possibly taking Benelux and Finland with it). It ain't going to happen, of course. To quote the PM of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker: "We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it."
Shameless name-dropping
The best investment advice I've received was passed on from Bob Metcalfe (we were discussing a similar IPO just prior to the 2000 Internet bubble): "If your stock goes up, sell; and if it goes down, don't buy it in the first place."
Re: The kids today
When I were a lad, we'd knock on doors and then run away. If we were caught, our parents would administer summary justice, which usually prevented it from occurring again.
Now the Internet allows any skiddie with a half-pint of Red Bull coursing through their veins to knock on a million doors and run away. Then they can post something illiterate claiming 'I am Anonymous - hear me roar'.
Point of information
That €8.2e12 figure is the amount owed by countries that adopted the € as their currency, and so excludes UK and most of Scandinavia.
Re: "spousal roles"
His missus is about to be ordained in the CofE.
As for IT slasher - can this be the very same Ian Watmore responsible for the new IT systems at the NHS? It surely can! Great cost-cutting expertise demonstrated there, then. I confidently expect to hear of lucrative directorships at Accenture and other organisations that have benefited from his largesse with our money.
Re: I moved from BT to TalkTalk Business yesterday (ADSL2+)
Sorry to hear that, Jess. I ought to explain that it was just the local loop that was being moved from BT - TalkTalk have been my ISP for some while (Nildram/Pipex/Tiscali/Opal/TalkTalk), and I haven't experienced the problems you have <touch wood>.
"One of the worst clubs in Stoke"
and, as you can imagine, that's up against some pretty stiff competition (© Blackadder).
I moved from BT to TalkTalk Business yesterday (ADSL2+)
Before 8+1Mb. Estimate 17.6Mb. Actual 18Mb+1Mb (raw data rate), tested throughput 15Mb.
Seems OK to me (and £5 a month cheaper, too). Thanks LLU.
I've just cancelled my annual sub to the RSPB because, like WWF, they've been captured by the ecoloons and ceased to be interested in protecting birds, preferring to focus on preventing the development of CCS systems. Anyone in Britain who wants to support birds would be better joining the BTO.
Re: Solution?
Until the base station fails or is unintentionally switched off in flight.
Back in the 90s, many US domestic flights had wired phones built into the armrests in all classes. I never saw them getting much use (except for the occasional 'guess where I'm calling from').
Re: Six of one, half a dozen of the other
Sensible organisations (there are many that aren't, of course) will select a level of security appropriate to their needs. For many, this will be substantially below 'NSA grade'. But if you identify a security hole in your own systems (perhaps by using an <ahem> security consultant), you can fix it, if to do so makes business sense. If it's in the cloud you can (unless you're Boeing or GM) do little about it except move to another provider (good luck with that).
Re: NO FUCKING P IN HAMSTER!!!!!
Except that there can be - it's a (secondary) alternate spelling.
Posted in Solving traffic jams with maths
The best way to improve traffic lights
Is to switch them off overnight (the value of 'night' being locally determined). In the US, they mostly go to 'flashing yellow', which turns the junction into that brilliant American* invention the 4-way stop. Anyone who's driven across a town at 4am will know what I mean - waiting for minutes at each (or, at least, half of) completely empty junction.
* Apologies if someone else got there first.
Re: Company that sells product ...
I'm sure you can save some security costs. All you have to do is include the magic word 'secure' in your service agreement, then sack all your technical staff and let the service provider handle things. What could possibly go wrong?
Re: Power Calcs
I think what's being said (rather inelegantly) is that the line has a capacity of 8GW, with an average annual utilisation of just over 50%.
Re: £546 a year for Sky?
Fair point, but remember that for many subscribers the Sky subscription will include phone and broadband too.
Re: Back of the envelope
I bow to no-one in my enjoyment of toast with a nice cup of tea, but I don't think I'd want to heat them on the bonnet (hood) of my car!
Back of the envelope
With a 100kW connector, you can charge your 30kWh battery in only 20 minutes (just time to get a cup of coffee). But how much heat does that generate? Do these vehicles allow for the dissipation of 10kW of heat (assuming the charging process is 90% efficient, which is probably wildly optimistic)?
More skiddies spraying their virtual graffiti. Best ignored.
Only one candidate
Some bookies are already paying out if you've bet on BoJo (Betfair have him at 1:100).
Posted in The Ethernet Alliance is thinking fast
Without Ethernet our networked world would cease to exist
That's a bit of a stretch. I was vigorously supporting Ethernet when many people were claiming that Token Ring or ATM was the way to go. But without Ethernet, we'd just be using a different (perhaps less effective) layer 2 protocol and the Internet (TCP/IP) would carry on just the same.
Ethernet's become merely another brand these days. The protocols that deliver 10G (let alone 10T) bear only a passing resemblance to what we used to run over banana cable. Can I have a 'long grey beard' icon, please?
Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho
Qu'est-ce que la propriété ? La propriété c'est le vol ! - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865)
Posted in Moon at annual perigee this weekend
Confused (what else is new?)
The moon has a perigee once a month, and once a year* this roughly coincides with a full moon, when the effects of lunar and solar gravity are aligned. So (ever so slightly) higher tides than a normal high tide that happens every two weeks. But does the tidal effect from the Sun's gravity also compress the lunar orbit to produce a marginally closer perigee than the one that occurred last month? And is this greater than the companion effect that should happen when perigee closely coincides with the new moon?
* The alignment of the perigee is fixed as Earth follows its orbit around the Sun.
Re: You what??
Insert the word 'harder' between 'to' and 'spy'. I always type 'wit hhaste' instead of 'with haste' - stupid fingers!
Re: Shoddy...
I think RCJ's job may be safe, married as he is to the Vice-chair of the BBC Trust. Nepotism, thy name is BBC ...
Anyone know what he read at Cambridge? I'm betting it wasn't a science subject.
Re: Sorry, but...
The Sun's backing will go to whoever they judge is going to win, just as it always has. Don't be fooled by "It's The Sun Wot Won It" headlines, it was Kinnock that lost it.
Bottling it
There are many good reasons to criticise Ofcom, but 'having their own branded water' isn't one of them. It's not expensive to get some frosted bottles with resealable caps and your logo on the side that can be refilled from the tap (or using a 'Sodastream' if you prefer fizzy) and used to impress guests.
Re: Yawn...
I don't have access to the full article, but the precis says that this is a quantum simulator that can be used to model sets of quantum particles beyond the range of current computation (which maxes out at about 30 particles). So it's not a general quantum computer, more a quantum analogue computer.
Re: Exactly right
Quantum computers can solve certain types of problem (factorisation being the best-known) that are inaccessible to standard computers. So it won't run Crysis 3 (sorry).
But I don't see why they couldn't use it to 'instantly' factorise a 90-digit number created by multiplying two 45-digit primes. For comparison, the largest such number factorised by conventional computers was 768-bit (231-digits) and would have taken 2,000 years on a conventional desktop.
Correction
... on an astrological scale it would take but a bad alignment of the planets and a grim Tarot deal to wipe us out.
Re: Stock buy-backs
I suppose it's pointless arguing about artificiality when you're talking about such an artificial concept as shares in a limited company. But for clarity:
I have a million share options to buy at $20. Share price is $20. Share options are worth zip.
Buy back 5% of shares. Price rises to $21 (other things being equal*). Share options now worth $1 million. Not bad for a day's work.
* admittedly you've reduced cash by an equivalent amount. But share values are (supposedly) more forward looking, so the 5% rise is probably close to reality.
Stock buy-backs
An effective way of increasing senior management bonuses through the back door (by artificially inflating the share price).
Re: Not just the BBC
Quite right. You wouldn't have a motoring correspondent who couldn't drive; you wouldn't have a sports correspondent who didn't know the difference between cricket and football (OK The Times had Lynn Truss, aka 'Sally Jockstrap', for a while, but that was just an in-joke, I hope). But it's (apparently) fine to have a science or technology correspondent who failed GCSE maths 20 years ago, writing about the latest developments at CERN or 'programming'.
and there's a Google doodle today in its honour (as well as St George's day)
Shameless plug
Oxford University Department for Continuing Education are holding a weekend course to celebrate Turing's 100th birthday on 23rd June. Only £100, it will cover many different aspects of his life through a series of lectures by leading experts.
Gosh don't tell me
Next you'll be telling me that Dr Shinya Yamanaka isn't Finnish either.
Is it 'cos I is Finnish?
Quite - Finnish institute proposes famous Finn for award.
Stem cell research has the potential to change all our lives for the better, not least in disease treatment. I admire and use Linus's work, but seriously now, if he hadn't done it, wouldn't we all be doing very much the same things using BSD or some other *nix flavour?
Posted in Stray SMS leads to aborted landing
I'm sure he didn't leave it on intentionally, Lee. But any flight with more than a few dozen passengers is almost certain to have at least one active mobile on board. I know I've accidentally left mine on at least once, and I'm the sort of anal retentive that listens carefully to safety briefings and follows instructions from the crew.
There's been a lot of research into the subject of radio interference with flight systems by people like the IEEE, and the conclusion is that it could cause a problem (though it almost certainly won't). Their view is that there's no point taking risks at 35,000 feet, and I heartily concur. It's unreasonable to expect cabin crew to be familiar with every type of electronic device and whether it's running iOS 3.1.2 or Android 4.5.7.1, so a blanket 'turn the damn things off during takeoff/landing' seems sensible to me.
Surely even the greatest iFan can manage without their pet for 20 minutes. You can do something else interesting, like marvel at the fact that science and technology allow us to propel hundreds of people through the air in a thin aluminium tube at barely subsonic speeds in almost perfect safety. Or you could even do something wild and reckless like communicating with another human (unless I'm trying to sleep, obviously). Wearing earbuds while the crew are shouting 'brace, brace,brace' probably isn't a good idea either.
It's instructive that, now there's money to be made from it, airlines are installing picocells to allow mobiles to be used in flight. Communicating with a local cell should ensure that signal levels are kept to a minimum, but I can't help wondering what will happen when the kit fails (or, more likely, is switched off by mistake). Dozens of mobiles will swiftly ramp up to max power in a futile attempt to contact the next cell 7 miles below (or 1,000 miles east if you're transoceanic). It will be an interesting test of the IEEE research, but I'd really prefer not to be on board the first few times it happens.
Posted in Stray SMS leads to aborted landing
"checked his messages rather than checking his readiness to land"
That's probably overstating it, perhaps for comic effect. Most airlines have a 'sterile cockpit' policy during critical phases of flight such as final approach. In any case, as the old safety maxim has it: "if there is any doubt. there is no doubt". Strange, unexpected noises (such as 'SMS received' tones) close to landing are a reasonable justification for a go-around, particularly in well-controlled airspace with no nearby terrain issues, like Singapore.
The story does rather give the lie to concerns that active mobile phones are a threat to flight safety. I'm sure they are inadvertently left switched on in cockpits on a regular basis.
27001 compliant solution
You don't. You have a trusted network, as nailed down as necessary to satisfy your evaluated security requirements, and an untrusted (wireless?) network, which can only reach nodes on your trusted network through your controlled VPN (probably, but not necessarily, via the Internet).
If your security needs are so stringent that this won't work, presumably you don't allow anyone to connect from home either.
Whatever produces cosmic rays would reasonably be expected to produce copious amounts of gamma rays and neutrinos. I think what they're saying is that there's no burst of neutrinos detected that can be linked to GRBs, so they can't be the source of cosmic rays.
Useless factoid of the day: the highest energy cosmic rays consist of a proton/other atomic nucleus having the kinetic energy of a tennis ball served by a Wimbledon ace.
Opinion
David McLeman
My 25 years of comical IT buzzwords
Tim Worstall
Time to take a sniff at the coffee, perhaps
Chris Mellor
Will they have to drag him back like last time?
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