Posts by launcap

Re: Self driving trucks and cars

> You're right, it's a government conspiracy to take over DHL

At least DHL have some pretence at professionalism. Unlike other couriers I could mention (Yodel - from hells heart I stab at thee!)

Re: Very good article, would read again

> But some are more wrong than others.

Except when they are not - in a 'stopped-clock-is-right-sometimes' sort of way.

Re: Today VW ...

> Who would spend £1000 on a car worth £1500?

Well - we have just spent over £4K on a car that has a writeoff value of £2500..

It depends on the car - in this case it was a 1966 Morris Minor and well worth the repairs. Would I spend that on a modern tin box? Probably not.

> RedmondHat Inside

More likely Redcap inside..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcap

> Agape!

Philio!

Eros!

:-)

Re: Software half-life

> anything I'd contributed to United's or Continental's portfolios of whoa woes

> had to have aged out of their systems by at least a decade or two

I suspect some of the middleware code I worked on while at Galileo in the early 90s might still be in place[1]. Which is a pretty scary thought.

[1] Assuming they are still using TPF

Re: Is there any case in the real world

> aniseed ball

>Well, at least they had good taste....

Pre-diabetes I used to really like those :-(

Ho-hum. Life goes (mostly) on.

Re: Smaller portions will not work.

> bottom of the diabetes epidemic, glucose or artificial saccharides

Part of the problem is that pretty much *any* carbohydrate that you eat will get eventually converted into glucose (or excreted). So, the thing is to look at glycaemic load rather than glycaemic index (GL measures bioavailability over time - so eating 3 apples is better than drinking the juice of 3 apples because your body has to work much harder to extract the carbs and break them down for use whereas the juicing has already done most of the work and your blood glucose rise isn't so much a curve as a vertical line..)

Re: Downvotes

> The ads pay everyone's wages here and we quite like having food and a roof overhead.

> Support El Reg, whitelist us today!

So do you get paid for just displaying the ad or only when someone clicks on it? If it's the former then I'd be happy to whitelist but if it's the latter then whitelisting you would be pointless because I don't click on ads..

Re: I did wonder

> There isn't a legit way of getting play store if it's not pre-installed

There is - there are multiple Gapps installs out there that an *end-user* can install. It might breach the T&C's that Google has for a supplier to do it but nothing prevents an end-user doing it.

Not Yodels fault?

It's *always* Yodels fault.. especially when they comprehensively fail to read the simple (not using long words or complicated grammar) delivery instructions and leave £200-worth of wine on the doorstep in full view of the road..

I suppose I'm lucky that they just don't chuck it over the fence. But that would involve the driver putting in some thought and effort..

Re: Not too long ago

> reasons beer was a drunk by all was that compared to water it had minimal dangers.

Unless you were from ancient Athens (beer was a foreign drink - proper civilised people drank well-watered wine. Well watered because it was uncivilised to be drunk in the morning and wine because it killed the bugs..)

What did the ancient Greeks ever do for us anyway?

Re: Windows only though

> I think the feature was a bit of a bad idea by Microsoft to begin with.

I suspect it's also the first step in Microsoft trying to provide the facility that Mac machines have - the ability for a bare-metal machine to do a full install from Apple via the Internet.

Of course, Apple has much tighter control over the hardware and firmware - Microsoft would have to trust that the OEM does a good job of making sure that all the relevent h/w drivers are also present to allow the machine to connect. And we all know how fully trustable the OEMs are eh?

Re: Good medical practice

> My local practice mailed out forms allowing you to opt out of everything.

So did mine. With the rider that opting out would mean my electronic prescriptions would no longer be delivered to the pharmacy of my choice (or any other). So in order to get my diabetes meds I'd have to put in my repeat request as usual, go back two days later, pick up the prescription forms, wait for them to be signed (30 minutes to two hours) then take them to the pharmacy (and wait 30 minutes for them to be filled).

Do-able but a pain in the fundament. Especially given that I work..

> once updating the world on your life on FB has embedded itself as a habit in your basal ganglia

Annnd we are back to the Laundry Files. So - is FB the computer equivalent of the Necronomicon?

Re: 32 years

> computer I deal with professionally is a poorly designed cash register.

That is to say - all of them. I've yet to see one that actually looks good, works well *and* is supported by a company with a clue..

Re: Just goes to show..

> Now that is what I call a secure PC!

You forgot:

Crush it with a Victorian Steam Press (hack that!)

Collect crushed bits in hand-forged steel box and weld shut

Cover steel box in concrete. We recommend at least 30cm thickness.

By rowing boat, take box to nearest deep ocean trench. Preferrably one of at least 2KM depth

Push box over side. Before pushing, check to make sure you are not actually tethered to it.

Run like hell when the Deep Old Ones come after you for littering.

Re: These include chocolate, of which Australians "eat the equivalent of 32kg" per year.

> "eat the equivalent of 32kg of chocolate" is 16Kg. Apples are 10%

Apples contain a good bit more than that - but it isn't generally available. The sugar in chocolate is generally sucrose which is only one step from glucose and easily converted so your blood sugar levels tend to look like the north face of the Eiger..

Apples OTOH, have a lot of their sugars as fructose and locked up within nice cellulose packages[1] that your gut has to work harder to open. So your blood sugar rise looks more like a small roundabout in profile and the broken insulin feedback system has more time to adjust.

Also, Apples contain citric acid and acidic things seem to also slow down sugar take-up (dunno why!).

[1] Which is why drinking sweet fruit juices is generally not a good idea for t2 diabetics - all the sugar is now in solution and much much easier to absorb. Even things like rhubarb juice contain a suprising amount of sugar..

Re: Frozen A/C, hot room

> And for much of the year - spring and autumn - we could keep the door open and welcome the cats in.

And productivity improved?

Re: Reduced drag coefficient?

> "As aerodynamic as a breezeblock"

As the old saying does - even a brick will fly pretty well if you put enough power behind it..