Posts by Mage

Re: Pyramids in Egypt

Newgrange, Stonehenge, Sumerian & Akkadian art.

“Epic of Gilgamesh" about 5,000 years old

The wheel.

See Picasso's comments on cave paintings.

Codex: UI to information using PAGES, about 2000 years old. Scrolls suck. Why don't browsers have a paginated mode like web on ancient Kindles have?

Codex (pages) allows random access. Scroll is only sequential.

Bring back absolute position knobs for volume and a knob + scale tuning, Quite possible with a grey encoded optical disc for volume and LCD tuning scale as on some Android phones. A few momentary action buttons and a menu that needs the manual is a RUBBISH user interface for car radios or portable radios.

Physical page buttons, menu, etc on eReaders, tablets, phones (camera button, zoom etc). Touch is great for links or highlights. Rubbish if used for everything. I blame Ives and Jobs.

Re: machines with 32-bit uefi and 64-bit Atoms

I found that Debian can install on those in 64 bit, but for Mint you've to copy a file to the USB stick because the Mint folk (quite reasonably) think why would a 64bit CPU have a 32 bit UEFI.

Also a place in hell for whoever in Intel decided to have a 64bit CPU with PHYSICALLY only 2G RAM addressing. I don't believe the package couldn't have had 1 (4G) or 2 more (16G) pins. Crippled from birth.

Or tablets & laptops with soldered in ONLY 32G Flash/SSD after Windows 10 launch?

Well, at least such HW can support 64 linux well enough, though if it's rotatable and has touch you may need a script to handle touch in portrait.

Re: the UI still feels a little last-decade

Oh, and also an application should NEVER force its own GUI unless a simple widget. It should use what ever paradigm / styles / appearance etc the desktop/GUI is set to. You can even write Java that does that instead of a designer selected (or Sun/Oracle default) madness.

Do you hear me Mozilla? Why should I have to install plug-ins to have a sane GUI, or switch to Waterfox because you want to make Thunderbird & Firefox look like an escaped madness from Google or a tablet/phone?

Re: epub

Still not as good as the ePub Plugin for 5.x Writer.

Both of which not as good as Sigil or Calibre.

Calibre is easiest and good when you understand the options. On Linux uses DOCX or ODT, on Windows DOCX or DOC (not sure on ODT).

Save as Word *OR* Open DOCX from Writer to Calibre seems to be a bit better than using ODT.

However source/Edits best done in ODT format.

Calibre is best solution to manage eReaders and create ebooks in ePub, mobi (old Kindles) and AZW3 (newer kindles). Or even ancient ebook formats. Pick Tablet output so it doesn't mess your internal image formatting. Download, browse for or create covers in Calibre. Add CSS rules if needed.

However, once you understand how Writer paragraph and page styles work, I'd rate even 5.x LibreOffice Writer better than any version of Word.

Importing existing user dictionaries is easy.

Like all WP, you DO need to change the defaults on Grammar and substitution.

Re: 646464

Except unlike Windows, there is no penalty in speed or code size running 64 bit Linux on Atoms (with 2G RAM) that MS only distributes 32 bit Windows 10 on. Also Linux 64 runs 32 bit programs better than 64 Windows and sometimes Windows 32 bit (on WINE) that won't run on even Win7 64bit.

Also 64 bit Linux fine on 32G Flash / SSD /HDD, which is getting to be a problem for even 32bit Win 10.

Likely there will still be 32 bit Linux for routers, set-boxes and Gadgets etc where 64 bit is too much expense and power.

Re: extra CCTV and number plate recognition cameras at the border

The Chief Constable said they'd not last a week.

I think that's generous.

Re: Completly missing the point

Dairy is big.

Milk produced in Ireland, bottled & made to cheese in N.I.

Most of it then sold in Ireland. Even as Irish Cheese (but with UK NI CE tracing on packet).

Same with bacon and sausages.

The Good Friday Agreement basically assumes UK & Ireland in same EU, the Single Market and Customs union. Which means freedom of movement of EU citizens (which May opposes, even though NON-EU immigration, nothing to do with EU, is the big issue and varies from x5 to x8 bigger. Home Office picks low hanging fruit on that, often illegally!).

So Brexit referendum seems to have had no research, no consideration of Scotland (You'll have to leave EU if you vote Independence!), Gibraltar or NI Good Friday Agreement. The Brexiteers STILL have no majority agreement on what Brexit entails or how to do it.

Cameron has a lot to answer for. A Second referendum is no solution, because what on earth questions do you put on it? No Deal is not an answer, yet Parliament voted to make that the default rather than cancelling Article 50 at the original vote.

The Article 50 clause was invoked with no analysis, or plan. The Future Trade is the only negotiable part. The actual Withdrawal Agreement is really box ticking defined by the Article 50 (which UK was main architect of) and limited by the GFA (which DUP NEVER EVER agreed to and want destroyed. Arlene Foster left Official Unionists and joined DUP because the OU accepted GFA and she didn't). T. May's red lines and GFA mean the Insurance Policy called the Backstop had to be added.

If UK was going to leave Customs Union, Single Market, end free EU movement and ECJ for Brexit as the hard liners want, then the Withdrawal Agreement EU agreed with May was inevitable and people BEFORE referendum said that's what it would be. The Withdrawal Agreement was never going to be a negotiation, but box ticking. Only the trade deal, not possible till after withdrawal (and clear in A50) is a real negotiation.

Other Trade deals: NO other trade deals can be FINALISED till after Withdrawl / Transition. Of the about 50 off 3rd Party deals EU has, the UK so far has only outline agreement to continue FIVE.

I used to have to cross the border for work. I needed paperwork (carnet) even for my own tools and test gear. It was a hard border even apart from security checkpoints. They were not fun.

"Why have you a UK driving licence and a Southern registered car?"

-- "I used to live in the UK"

"So what address did you used to live at in the UK?"

-- "I've forgotten"

"Please get out of the car slowly."

Re: Virus vs Bacteria

It was just a story.

However most poison by products of a bacteria might be generally toxic, like hydrogen cyanide.

The blood might have proteins, fat, glucose etc, probably generally utilisable. Blood can be used as a fertiliser for plants. It's mostly water. The main thing after that is protein. Low in fat and sugars. Some vitamins (possibly no use to aliens).

Blood is the only animal product mentioned in the bible forbidden to Noah (not Jewish), Jews and Christians of Gentile origin in the book of Acts (No doubt because of the Covenant with Noah). "The life is in the blood".

I've no idea why H.G. Wells picked blood. Curiously the ships mentioned were already obsolete when he wrote the story (1897).

"The quick pace of change meant that many ships were obsolete as soon as they were finished, and that naval tactics were in a state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the ram or the torpedo, which a number of naval designers considered the important weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but towards the end of the 1890s the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to a standard pattern and designated battleships or armored cruisers." — Wikipedia. Also stated elsewhere.

Virus vs Bacteria

Viruses are fairly DNA specific and related to particular range of hosts. The origin may even be broken host DNA.

Most bacteria are harmless. Many can feed on any suitable nutrient so much less species specific. Many are beneficial. Often it's the by-products that are poisonous.

Other biological risks are yeasts, fungus, amoeba, parasites (often narrower in range of hosts), insects and related bites that are poisonous or cause allergic reaction (spiders vs bees) and the largest are predators or antagonised herbivores. The Komodo dragon is unusual as it bites or scratches prey and then follows it waiting for it to die of blood poisoning, a symbioses with bacteria?

I researched all this to write SF. It's unlikely aliens would get the amino acids and vitamins they need, or we would eating their food. Even here vitamin needs and amino acids can be species specific. Few need vitamin C, some need vitamins that are not used by humans. Cats have more deficiencies than dogs on a vegan diet, they'll die on it without additives.

Sugar is simple, some fats are simple. Many Alien carbohydrates, fats and some proteins might be digestible to an extent (or ours by them). Without at least added vitamins and amino acids we'd die. Looking at weird life here suggest the reverse might be true for Aliens, or at least few foods might give trace things they really really need.

You'd die living only on rabbit.

Re: Remember Sun's Looking Glass project?

I think Sun ran out of money.

Compiz does stupid eye candy, but I suspect the windows near edge view spaced stack to pick a window might work as a compiz plugin.

Apple:

Yes, this is a good way to kill wider adoption of Swift and yet again shows USPTO isn't fit for purpose, unless that purpose is to raise revenue and insulate big companies with massive patent lawyer teams like Apple, IBM, MS, Oracle, Google etc.