Posts by Audrey S. Thackeray

@D. Geezer

"odd thinking by Lewis"

No, his thinking on this particular point is fine.

It doesn't matter that water moves in a cycle, there is still a finite amount of the stuff.

It's such a staggeringly large amount that we are unlikely ever to have to give it practical consideration though.

Helping people who don't have safe drinking water is a laudable aim - but not one that is incompatible with re-examining our own water supply infrastructure.

Intuitively there's something daft about making water that is safe to drink and then using it to flush our crap away but our first thoughts on the process aren't necessarily correct.

A single, national infrastructure to supply drinking-quality water for all purposes may be cheaper that a series of more local systems for water collection and re-use.

As the water itself is not 'wasted' it's reasonable to make a decision based on cost (you might want to include 'green' costs if you are that way inclined).

Re: Agreed

"Dishwashers use a *lot* less water than washing dishes by hand."

This has been asserted twice in this thread and by all my dishwasher-owning friends.

Where can I find the source material for these claims?

That London

"please will all the people in London stay in London - and not come and destroy what little is left of Britain's countryside building more houses, shops, roads. "

Those are all things that people in the sticks want - if anyone comes from London to the country they want it to be the country, not an extension of the dreadful suburbs.

Londoners do not care if country folk have no homes for their kids, no affordable shopping options, and slow, twisty commutes.

Frankly I doubt Londoners think that schools are necessary in order for people to grow ample bosoms and sell scones which seems to be their preferred rural option.

@Dave126

"Jony Ive's stuff is fashionless, not (un)fashionable. Like a Technics 1210, A Maglite, or a well made pair of boots."

The design may be but the desire to have one possibly isn't.

There are more people wearing trainers and playing their music at the back of the bus on a phone than there are wearing properly tailored boots as they spin up some vinyl on a classic turntable. Even in Shoreditch.

It's not impossible (though highly unlikely) that it could become a fashion faux pas to be seen with an Apple product and this would certainly harm their sales and their margins on those sales.

Apple do make very good phones and tablets but the margins they command is not down to this quality but to the brand and to the efficiency of their supply.

Ives continues the design, Cook continues the efficiency but Jobs is no longer around to maintain the brand.

It can be done without him but to assume that it will is to underestimate his importance.

Re: Apple's Success

"Many executives now use a MacBook - look in ... Starbucks"

Our executives have a yacht. Just saying.

Re: Assuming that...

"If, after well over a decade, you still don't understand why Apple's kit sells, you are not only missing the point, you are part of the problem."

What problem?

"If you genuinely want to help save the planet"

?! I really think you're on a different topic from the rest of us.

@T Treen

"It never ceases to amaze me - the number of people whose incisive insight is so vastly superior to that of those who run these companies."

Saying Apple need to do something is not the same as saying Apple's executives don't realise this and will not do anything. I'm sure the situation outlined is one they have considered.

"There is an awful lot of cars in the world right now. Only a very small percentage of them are Ferraris, BMWs, Jaguars. Don't see those companies wearing sackcloth & ashes and wailing "We're all doomed".

Ferarri don't make commodity items - in computing terms they are more Cray than Apple. They certainly don't even try and deliver the sort of growth that has fuelled Apple's recent rise.

Jaguar didn't make Ford any money - I don't know how it is doing for Tata. One of its approaches in recent years has been to make cheaper models just as BMW makes hatchbacks now.

Then there's Rolls Royce . . .

Apple are a long way from being in trouble but it would be naive in the extreme to think that they have nothing to worry about and never will.

Re: I had an Enterprise 128

"Acorn Atoms were still being used to drive experiments in the first-year physics labs at the University of Kent into the early 90s"

BBC Bs were still in use in the Oxford computing labs as late as 1994 (when I was buying my Viglen 486 PC).

Admittedly it mostly seemed they were used to play the second processor version of Elite.

Re: woohoo!

"an excuse to link to the oric emulator I wrote from scratch"

Does it faithfully reproduce the hugely irritating click noise I seem to remember the machine producing with each keypress?

Simple

"cut off their manhood and feed it to the goats"

Quite apart from the implications for our species if we convince goats our gennies are suitable fodder, I can think of quite a lot of people who would not be deterred by this particular punishment.

Re: got insurance?

"anyone else getting a mental image of the craft crashing right into the ISS?"

I have to confess that was one of my first thoughts.

Re: Industrial scale development

"Renewables receive by far the largest subsidy per useable KWHr generated."

It would be great to have a link to the analysis if you can provide it.

Re: hooray!

Not really sure how a government could implement that - would need a change from a democratic system at least.

@Filippo

"do you think that us pro-nuclearists are hypocrites? Personally, I'd pin that label on greenies with air-conditioning"

That would be hypocritical in all probability but that doesn't mean it's the only possible hypocrisy.

I'm sure many pro wind power people would object to having the windmills built near them and the same would go for pro nuclear people with those plants - it's normal enough. In the end someone's objections have to be brushed aside (or bribed aside with jobs and subsidies).

Incidentally, I don't know anyone who has air conditioning in their house, 'greenie' or not; is this freakish? I'm in the south of the UK and have family in the North of France.