Posts by Chris G

Re: clown-based fast-food

It's made from clowns?

That would account for that sort of grease paint flavour, I hope the clowns are ethically farmed.

Re: Next step: anti-drones drones

I am a fan of the whiff of grape shot but I suspect anyone developing autonomous weapons would also be thinking about defending against that same weapon.

I am guessing here but I would imagine one of the simplest defences to autonomous swarms would be directed EMP, I remember reading papers regarding non nuclear EMP weapons a good ten years ago and functioning weapons being close then.

I just found something called Thor, supposedly a hand held microwave emitter that works in 360 degrees and will apparently take a handful of UAVs at a time.

Failing that, rocket powered bird nets could be handy.

Re: The truth...

SShhhh! The loonies will hear you!

Re: Speck of land....

Sounds like several of the local pubs in Southeast London when I lived there.

There literally should be a law against auto-renewal.

I always check for it in any paid for service, a lot of insurance companies play that game in Spain.

If you want to change companies you need to send a dead tree letter at least 2 weeks before the renewal date, it has to be worded in a particular way (and they have to receive and read it in time).

If they have taken the money out already if you do it soon enough you can get your Spanish bank to rescind the payment and block further demands, that often leads to letters from a collection agency.

My wife has had the problem twice with different companies.

Re: "Roughneck Dolly" from Wickes. Which is not a sex toy,

"Anything is a sex toy"

Good luck with that Taser and lubed cattle prod!

Re: Hand sanitizer chasers

I was going to make a similar comment but on thinking about it, it's rather sad that anyone should be so desperate for a hit that they would drink hand sanitiser.

Re: It sometimes works the other way

@Doctor Syntax

That has become the standard for the majority of customer service departments the World over.

I think bean counters have realised the cost of actually serving a customer after a sale and have devised the cheapest way of appearing to care without actually having to do much. Most customers lose the will to live fairly rapidly with these systems and just go and buy a new thing.

Success for consumerism!

Re: The DeathStar analogy is apt...

Darth Vader?

More like Daft Bleeder.

His political manoeuvres are even less subtle, he is more a fan of Piranha Brothers tactics but without the sarcasm. Probably because he can't spell it.

Re: Ha!

Considering the number of articles in these pages in recent times, reporting on criticism of Google for not exercising enough vigilance on the Play Store content, I assumed the author of the piece had his tongue firmly in his cheek as he wrote.

Clearly they need to drill their staff and fill the gaps in their online hygiene.

Re: “Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads”

Absolutely! Google's business is to profit from the data it acquires, ultimately it will monetise that data and most likey to the detriment of the original providers and owners of that data.

Re: Thailand had 1 case yesterday

It doesn't seem that many people understand why wearing a mask is helpful; a mask will not protect you completely from becoming infected with covid if exposed to it but what it does help with enormously is to reduce your ability to spread it if you are in any way a carrier.

If you are wearing a mask correctly even if it is only a hanky tied around your face, if you sneeze or cough it contains the droplets and prevents spread, add to that the other aspects of basic hygiene like hand cleansers and avoiding proximity and/or contact and you have a significantly reduced spread.

Where I live in Spain (Valencia region) the lockdown has finished but we all take public hygiene and mask wearing seriously, I am not too sure what led to the resurgence in Barcelona and Madrid but it seems likely that everyone relaxed too much too soon.

On a side note: Vitamin D is important regarding resistance to covid as vitamin D binds to the A2 receptors on cells, the same receptors that are targeted by the corona virus so although it wont prevent infection entirely, sufficient D will help to reduce viral load and replication.

That's according to research articles I have read on US and other research; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5aCePGyOgg

Re: Pilot training

I am inclined to think that type approval and recertification is what should have been persued by the FAA but they are undoubtedly under pressure from Boeing, the US government and presumably the larger Boeing shareholders, to go for the cheapest option that sounds as though they are doing their job.

Time will tell if they went far enough, assuming the max is going to rise phoenix like into the air again, it will be flying without me that's for sure.

We are talking about the ' Del boy' of US presidents, he likes to show off about what he considers a good deal he has pulled off.

If he could, he would pull out a large wad of cash to show how well he did out of each deal.

The guy is a barrow boy.

Re: Its too late now

You may like to check out Greg Palast's thoughts on the subject.

https://www.gregpalast.com/

@Anonimouse

It is called ' The Art Of The Deal'™

Re: force manufacturers to reveal device lifespans

A better legislation would be to enforce a minimum guaranteed lifetime with support, particularly for consumer level products as the buyer is really only interested in buying an item and switching it on. Expecting the average consumer to keep up with security and continuing updates when most of them don't really understand how their electric kettle works, is asking a lot.

Re: Not really new

Looks like a good reason to have an old fashioned thermostat that prevents the software from allowing the the operating temperature to go beyond a certain threshold.

Too much equipment relies on software for safety critical systems without physical redundancy, some scrote hundreds or thousands of miles away can't hack a physical thermostat.

Re: They don't build them like they used to

There was a time when Rolls had that attitude, John Dodd of Merlin engined Roller fame was the engineer of choice for my father when he had gearbox problems with his Rover Coupe.

The Old man took his car to Dodds workshop only to be told 'I can't do the box for a few days, I have to fly to Brazil'.

John Dodd was an accredited Rolls gearbox engineer, they flew him and another mechanic with a gearbox to Brazil to change a broken one for no charge to the owner for the reason stated.

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/john-dodd-and-merlin-engined-monstrosity-infuriated-rolls-royce

Re: It's been so long …

Perhaps for those who have passed on while waiting, Virgin could throw them out of the airlock into a decaying orbit.

I am sure the marketing wonks could come up with a good way to sell it.

Re: Hydrogen is not the answer

The problem is the sheer scale of the brine produced, there is only so much use for sea salt, one small plant could produce enough salt to keep you in chips for decades.

Discharging brine into rivers could have serious longterm effects on the ecology and it's balance, possibly causing irreparable damage.

There is a wealth of research into the problems but still with no real answers, each site needs to have a thorough impact study performed because currents vary with topography and season, some site could possibly handle ten times the effluent compared to a similar looking site.

I have been involved in developing a domestic, solar water treatment system for some years, most of the technical problems to produce a product are surmountable, the effluent is one of the most difficult problems to overcome.

Re: Rabble

That is a hard one.

On balance STDs are treatable, marketers less so.

What I would really like to know is just much the average bloke who has a chance of a leg over, is going to be price watching?

Re: I haven't a funny quip to add to all these.

You could have just egged on the others.

Re: Cool

I run a wood burner in winter and use a stovetop fan to help circulate the hot air, that is the Seebeck effect, I suspect Danny has a similar stove using the same effect to charge his phone.

The reverse is the Peltier effect for cooling, far less efficient than conventional refrigeration but needs no compressor and liquid filled heat exchanger.