Posts by Mage

Re: 3D capture?

Yes,

I don't want to spend a week on 3D CAD drawing. I have maybe one original object and I need only one replica. Using latex or 2 part Silicone Rubber is a problem to replicate. Mechanical strength is needed too. I'm not replicating figurines but broken items not made for 30 to 90 years.

I need the high resolution 3D scanner too.

The "printed" parts need to be as smooth and resolution of cast, also as strong as Milled parts.

re: Stolen, Sputnik

By time of Sputnik the Russians had "sent home" their German Rocket Scientists and USA was doing Navy rockets that didn't work. So the USA let the Army and their German Rocket Scientists have a go. The 1st USA orbital satellite was a fraction of weight of Sputnik, not because Sputnik used valves (it did, but about 1/3 size of a pencil) and USA used transistors, but because the USA with Werner Von Braun was still figuring out Rockets.

So the USA (particularly) and USSR initially "imbibed" German Rocket Technology but by 1958 heading off in different directions. The Russian, Chinese and USA designs are quite different. No one at all wants to use the fuel the Russians used successfully for many years.

India, Israel, Japan, China, Russia, USA and European Space Agency (which isn't exactly EU, and curiously has their Spaceport in South America and provides Launch Pad for Russians, who now find their Spaceport is in a "foreign country", Kazakhstan) are all in the Club. Why did UK give up just as they about had it figured out?

I think it's a long time since the Chinese or Russians slavishly copied anything. The USA spy agencies DO help their large Industrial companies. Presumably everyone does this.

Re: Grid losses < 10%

8% grid but can be over 10% Depends on country and Region.

8% to 15% on Charger electronics

10% to 15% battery charging losses

All that is only irrelevant if you have cheap Fusion power or live in a country that doesn't mostly depend on Fossil Fuel. Wind often isn't there when you need it. Interconnectors don't help as that can be the case over all of Western Europe at same time.

Universal Electric cars only better than LPG if we have much cheaper and cleaner to produce Electricity Generation distributed across the countries.

Totally forget Hydrogen cars. Lithium batteries are far more sensible.

Re: 2560 x 1440 on a 5.5" phone

I was giving a simplistic explanation. You are correct, there is advantage to smaller than 1/2 resolvable. I was trying to explain that "maximum" is 1/2 of resolvable. It's also complicated by sub pixel addressing and layout

traditional sub pixels are same height and 1/3rd width

RGBRGB

RGBRGB

RGBRGB

RGBRGB

RGBRGB

Often now a basic colour cell is two rows (I think but may be wrong)

RG BG

GB GR

A "real" Blue, Red or Green LED is near monochromatic direct light source. An AMOLED display is really a kind of Electroluminescent panel and uses a mixture of phosphors and dye filters to get the desired R G & B. The life of AMOLED is thus poor compared to CRT or LCD.. Sony apparently has a real LED TV. Most "real" LED displays are very very large as they are not integrated panels. So called LED TVs in the shops today are just LCD with LED lighting instead of CCFL. The LED can be edge, back and using "nearly white" (Actually violet LED with phosphors) or most expensive are R G & B LED back lights.

Re: But, but, officer . . . .

"Yes you filthy non-consumer" The Car Avatar chips in "You were using email instead of Twitter, very selfish. That's why I called the cops."

Re:Giving up x86

I think out side IT circles, i.e. most of Mac user base, running Windows or Linux on Mac is very very rare. It's anecdotal, but none of the Arty types I know have ever run other than Apple's OS X. Or in the case of very long term users, previously OS 9.

Re: Olden stuff

Apple II or Apple ][

I was conned into buying this due to hype. Had to add a card for 80 columns and lower case.

Had to add a Z80 card to get a real OS and a better selection of applications.

Had to add 8" floppies. Even in 1980 / 1981 the Apple Floppies were slower and 1/2 storage or less than others.

Lisa was under powered and not enough resource. I guess they got it right with Mac.

I think even for people in late 1970s the only useful reason for an Apple II was Visicalc.

We switched to Supercalc on CP/M.

Hardly any schools waste £600+ on iPads?

Really?

Actually I'm suspicious of iPads or Android Tablets or Kindles for General Educational use. The Teachers aren't clued up enough.

Has there been a trial not funded by a Computer supplier that properly proves any claimed advantage other than Anecdotal Evidence?

Why should Schools fund a single "single source" & "proprietary solution" gadget?

Re: Intel can buy market share for as long as they want

Nearly true.

But Intel are NOT subsidizing their x86, just reducing the margin. The Intel Tax has ever been higher than Apple or Microsoft Tax on PCs. Otherwise AMD couldn't have got to market at all.

Who is selling them?

At least one International Tobacco company is selling them.

I don't know if this is good or bad.

Disruption

Coal in UK maybe hasn't been Globally competitive since early 1900s. During WWI and WWII it was important and production increased as fuel was hard to import. In 1920s a lot of miners unemployed. Mines have closed not because coal is exhausted but it's not competitive and not the demand there once was (Town Gas used to be made from coal).

There might even be several 1000 years of coal in UK. It depends how badly it's wanted. Coal now is out of favour. If there was no oil and gas you can be sure non-polluting Coal power stations and Gas production would be built. Meanwhile the Arab strangle-hold on Oil and Russian on Gas in Europe may be broken in a year or two as more shale & fracking comes online. USA may be net exporter rather than importer.

DISRUPTIVE TECH

Maybe solar energy will be deployed on African coast to make LPG from sea water and waste carbon, which can be then more easily/cheaply transported long distance than Electricity or Hydrogen. Or the problem of harnessing Fusion will be solved.

I don't think we are due to run out of anything even in our Grandchildren's life.

I for one

Didn't think it was a conspiracy to block people switching, just a piece of arrogant stupidity,

It's good their ego isn't too inflated and they can admit it and now address it.

Re: So

Mmm, not last ever exactly, but way after first few

8bit "PC" with I/O slots and keyboard (Apple II)

Bitmapped GUI desktop (Lisa, Mac)

Newton PDA

Pippin Game console

MP3 player

Phone with touch screen

Tablet.

Skinny stylish laptop

Media Streaming box (Apple TV)

Other products ...

iTunes may have been first legal one of it's kind? Not sure as I have zero interest in buying music and games that way.

Re: Password strength

A password Cracking program doesn't try all shorter than 16 letter combinations 1st.

It check all the words in dictionary and Celebrity names.

Pairs and triplets.

Versions with letters replaced by visually similar numbers

Versions of all above with various prefix and suffix numbers.

Probably alphabetic sequential and keyboard layout sequential such as ABCDE and QWERT

This all very much less than testing EVERY possibility and gets the majority of passwords quickly.

(No I've not done this, I'm sure a regular miscreant though will do it well).

I do let Firefox remember non-critical passwords. I wouldn't trust anything involving money to any password manager.

I do write them ALL down in a safe place with user name, site name and email used. Whoever survives me may need them.

Re: ambient listening

Only if you have installed some stupid app. I worked in Telecom / DECT / GSM/ 3G etc for 20 years and never heard of such a feature on Public Networks.

It can be fitted of course by miscreants. Such as "infinity bug" on Landlines. Or Facebook app.

Re: Getting cancelled has little to do with a show's worthiness.

Usually ...