Posts by Chris G 6754 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007
I can see that noise may be a problem for some in addition to the ' you weren't in so we dropped your package down the chimney' type of message.
Aso how long before scallies figure out how to intercept goodies or even hack the drones.
I propose as a hack proof and silent alternative to use trained swallows to deliver small packages.
Interception?
A bird shot crossbow with fruit netting attached to the shot.
Let's hope that Bezos is not thinking of buying the presidency, he would make Trump look like an angel by comparison.
It is an indictment on society that people are put in a position where they are willing or obliged to work under such conditions and an indictment on governments that are willing to let their people be treated in that manner.
There are loads stories of the battles between the hindu gods on the sides of darkness or light, lots of wierd weapons and stories that would probably translate well, and that is only one of over 400 religions.
There are also a shed load of martial arts like Kilaripyatu ((possibly the mother of kung fu snd other oriental martial arts.
The Sikh Gatka is another martial art full of interesting weapons.
I suspect the carvings and statuary from Varanasi might provide the basis for somewhat more adult games that could have broad appeal.
No matter the boss's name, I bet he has the attitude even if he may not have pointy hair.
I love it when essential institutions bleat about their customer service call systems being overwhelmed with high call rates when there are problems, that's what the system is there for you idiots! Make it more functional.
Looks as though you have a fan/stalker Jake.
The basic idea for this tech goes back to the cold war days when both the Russians and the US and probably others played with the idea of mind reading/ control.
Since then quite a lot of work has been done on finding various ways to create a mind/ machine interface for both military, industrial and disabled applications.
Prosthetics have been a focus in some places and obviously weapons would be a focus for some but in spite of the clear opportunities for misuse the tech does hold promise for those who find the notion of transhumanism appealing and this is just a baby step.
As Jake points out, once you are connected, privacy and self determination may be a challenge, imagine being hard wired to FB or Amazon never mind any of our beneficient rulers.
"ByteDance might be ordered by Beijing to spy on millions of American teens using the popular mobile app, it is claimed."
So what is it exactly the the US doesn't want China to know about American teens, that they can't dance and are not any cooler than other badly dancing teens around the world?
There are also thousands of ground based telescopes including those of amateurs, many important discoveries have been made or aided by them.
Still we can't let science and the potential it has to advance our knowledge while also tracking potentially extinction event objects get in the way of money, can we?
I was listening to LBC yesterday, onevitem was about BJ and Cummings (mostly Cummings' idea) to shake up the civil service to make them more accountable for cock ups.
The bottom line apoeared to me to be more about reducing the security of tenure of senior civil servants that present a barrier to BJ and DC's latest plan du jour.
In spite of the many failings we see with the civil service, they often serve as one of the checks and balances against many of the exigencies of self serving politicians.
It used to be that politicians who played the right game could look forward to a peerage and a seat in the House of Lords where they could have a paid for nap in their dotage, nowadays their sights are set a lot higher and they play a more rewarding game for a seat on a board somewhere.
I daresay for more money and probably not much need to show up for a nap.
Aside from all of alarm bells ringing that Google should have any access to whatever you are doing in a hotel room, Google is unlikely to ever be able to duplicate the job that any reasonable Concierge can do.
Most of them, aside from being able to access various sources to fulfill your needs, often have personal knowledge of those recommendations and personal relationships with many of the people who run those recommendations.
" Hey Google! Self destruct now!"
Not only our own government but I suspect a lot of 'PR' comes from some of those lobbying the government for one thing or another, I also imagine that to be the case in other countries too, there are a lot more causes than those pushed by governments and arguably some megacorps may well have stronger and better methods than nation states at swaying populations.
"This flight today marks the first of many demonstrations and near term flight tests designed to reduce the technical risk and prepare for Agility Prime fielding in 2023.”
The quote from the article makes it clear these are not intended to be usable in theatre any time soon, merely as a platform from which to develop the concept if at all possible.
It is actually a case of the military putting some money where their mouth is, with multiple prototypes providing input, it broadens the approach and enables a range of ideas to be ticked off the list or approved for further development in parallel so reducing the time to achieve a functional result ( with luck).
Murdoch is 89, so unless they have cloned him or found a body donor for a brain transplant, he shouldn't be a bother in the not too fsr distant future.
My impression of Google is that they simply want to hsve full control all of the time, the supercorps all seem to believe they are above government meddling of any kind.
It's not only about the AI, it's also about very complicated engineering, to compensate for a directional change in stressing forces could require extensive redesign that could possibly be detrimental to the overall performance envelope.
I have never worked on modern combat aircraft but I did spend a few years as an airframe engineer.
The closest to combat aircraft was working on a WWII vintage T6 trainer.
I worked for a US copier company in London many years ago, I walked into the office of a potential customer and their head office people happened to be there.
The upshot was they wanted an initial ten machines with the potential for more, overnight the National Sales threshold was changed from a dozen machines down to ten so I lost the chance of making anything more than a £10 gift voucher for passing on a lead .
I went back to the customer and told them what my bosses had done and recommended a mate who worked for a different company as he could supply them with comparable kit at a better price and maintenance deal.
I left the company and split the commission with my mate.
If my company had recognised my work and didn't try to fob me off with ten quid, I may have gone with it but treating me like a pleb lost them the sale which ultimately turned out to be dozens of machines with a nation wide company.
WD40 is not a lubricant, at best it will provide some temporary lubrication due to dissolving oxides but that is likely to disappear as soon as it dries out, something that is usually a question of minutes.
Liquid lubricants in locks such as grease or 3in1 type oils accumulate dust which over time will clog up in a lock.
I had an acquaintance, many years ago who ran a small locksmiths shop, he was the go to guy whenever the plod needed to get past a lock or into a safe.
He learned his trade on the other side of the law but made more money that he was allowef yo keep by opening locks legally.
7 pin mortice locks, insurance rated padlocks an Abloy types of lock etc were not a problem for him.
A set of standards must be written up delineating maximum and minimum lnflated volume at a given pressure,rate of inflation using 'standard' lung power, hand pump or motorised pump,
Impermeability at atmospheric pressure at sea level, penetrative resistance and colour spectrum availability. Development and delivery times must be determined and samples provided all subject to tender, the decision to be based on a ratio of price/quality assurance........
and there's the procurement of the string,......
You need more than luck, you need everyone who has a vote to ensure that they will be able the use that vote.
If some of the articles I have read are true, there are a lot of obstacles to the votes of certain parts of the electorate being either allowed or the voters even getting their registration in time.
Checking that you actually have a vote should be done as soon as possible.
With increasing threats and embargoes on every aspect of trade between the states and China, the Chinese are unlikely to just take it lying down.
Presumably they will try to recruit anyone who can contribute towards their technical self sufficiency as well as working with Russia who are also doing all they can to achieve relative independence in electronics.
I prefer the slightly more tactile approach.
That is to say, approaching a recalcitrant machine with a well selected hammer and giving it a a touch of percussive maintenance.
It's important to have a tool kit that will permit incremental levels of maintenance with the largest hammer fully visible to the offending machine.
Here in my part of Spain (Valencia), we have a lot of wild pigs (Jabali), they are protected and generall don't bother anyone,. However, whacking one with a shovel is more likely to piss it off than make it go away, the guy on the beach was lucky, a pissed off pig can do you a nasty without much effort while the average non ninja is not going to bother a pig much.
Is leasing by any other name, with all the disadvantages of lock in that entails.
Decades ago it wasn't a benefit with copiers and typewriters and it will be no better now.
At least with Capex you can write off against depreciation and still own it at the end of the day.
With lease/rental you are at the mercy of the vendors, locked in to a service and possibly consumables deal and with software with the vurrent norms, likely to be nailed down to a per user basis as fixed period unlimited use contracts are not favoured by most vendors.
@A Non e-mouse
That is an excellent read, it looks as though British law has the measure of Uber too, particularly with the Duck Test.
Let's face it, they provide the client to the driver, they are the collectors of the fare and they subsequently pay the driver, sounds like an employer to me.
I have worked as a mini-cab driver in the '80s, in those days a driver would rent a radio from a company (£40 a week) and pick up fares who had called in to the office for a ride, the fare paid the driver who was self employed and paid his own way with regard to insurance, car maintenance etc.
Where Uber falls down is they want to handle the money first and dole it out to the drivers and have control, if they have control they are the employer, if instead they just sold a subscription to the app for a fixed period ( in a similar way to renting a radio) so that drivers and rides can connect, they would have far less overhead and would not be an employer in any way. Might still have to pay VAT in the UK though.
You think that isn't being done already? Even many of the comments in these columns could come into that class of political steering, it depends on the reader and their own leanings as to how effective or not such things are.
Re this; "In addition to imprints, the ERS said the UK's "broken" party funding system, and too little transparency over Lords' financial and lobbying interests were other issues that need to be addressed."
Funding in general and favourable financial consideration at all levels needs to be more transparent, how to actually achieve it though will be complex and difficult.
Not only the Lords financial and lobbying interests but those of many political appointment such as those who become heads of for instance the NHS or other parts of the government should be under similar scrutiny, considering they are targeted by business and lobbyists and seem quite often to go on to work for those they have concluded deals with.
I stopped going to school when I was fourteen, in the mid sixties. It was a good school but I was bored, didn't like wearing a uniform and tired of being berated for having long hair ( three of us were given red ribbons to wear if we didn't get a hair cut, this in an all boys school. I wore mine and it really annoyed the teachers.)
Instead of GCEs, I waited until I was 35 then got a degree because I was interested and that has always been my beef with schooling, rote lessons taught the same way year in, year out without any effort made to explain why they are teaching you e.g. differential equations and what they are for etc.
I could go on but I'm uneducated.............
Going into space actually gives us a far more accurate idea of what we are doing to this planet as well as providing the data that can help to devise mitigations to what we have done and are doing to the planet.
It would be far more helpful if everyone understood the materials used in everything we buy and the potential consequences for the environment and then either simply not buying anything that is detrimental or actively lobbying for alternatives that are not detrimental as well as doing as much as possible to recycle all that can be.
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