Posts by Charlie Clark

Re: Tea and coffee

I metered power for hardware next: start with the drivers of electric vehicles who've already got the necessary cards and accounts. And, why don't we go back to metered network use?

I'm sure some companies are already looking at moving from work from home to full company store mentality where everything has to be paid for in BOFHCoins.

Re: No one really needs to know that; that's OLD news...

It's not an airfram incident. It's most likely a customisation issue do to the filling of an emergency door in an aisle. This is why the supplier, Spirit Aviation, is as much on the hook as Boeing. Airbus does not allow this kind of, presumably cost-effective, customisation.

Re: Sucked?

What's the difference? The transition from a high pressure volume to low pressure is both depending on how you frame it. But seeing as how we tend to use blowers in otherwise constant pressure conditions, and suction for sudden changes, I think suction here is the better description.

Re: > Fake news

Revanced tells me otherwise.

Re: Pretty sure you can't change the laws of Physics...

The car analogy is particularly poor. Developments in automotive technology over the last century have been embarassingly slow and improvements have often been actively held back.

Re: Wasted

They do it because it's cheaper than renting line capacity from OpenLink. They know that they can control speeds, and hence use, at any time. Any network can offer unlimited at 64 kbps! ;-)

Re: Any money...

Piggybacking onto wifi for calls is probably the least well-known advantage of an all-IP stack. Of course, it's usually your wifi, but it is practical.

Re: it would be great

All networks use the same spectrum but 3G is less efficient than later versions, so switching it off was part of making more bandwidth available. Most places that planned to switch it off have already done so.

Quite a lot of the new base stations are self-powered. I guess greater efficiency will allow for more, smaller base stations for more dense coverage. Possibly at some point we might even get fire-and-forget self-configuring stations.

But I don't see networks outside China increasing their spend just to get the new tech. Existing stations will be updated and replaced as and when.

Regarding the BBC, rights issues have got worse in the digital age with lawyers hoping to monetise even more parts of the chain and charge as much as each market can bear. Just get a good VPN and Get IPlayer and enjoy things while you can: continuing cuts at the BBC as a result of government policy are really hollowing it out.

I've moved a lot and books are bulky and heavy. I'm down to two bookshelves with my favourite books and some reference works, the rest is digital. I buy more books since I got a reader (Kobo) over a decade ago, though I always strip the DRM.

Re: Three point one pints please

I got the thing with the wine but wondered where he went wrong with the beer. Anyway, he also missed out on the liqueurs and spirits. Christmas without port and sherry? We must be fucking joking. Just picked up a bottle or marsala to go with the madeira so that we can have the holy trinity. 150 ml of port? Now you're talking!

But I'll need something to go with the coffee to help those mince pies* down, cognac will do nicely. 20 people need 20 cl each, ten bottles ought to do it.

* Stollenkonfekt actually here

Re: Plagiarism?

Meritocracy was originally proposed as a dystopia and it turns out that people don't like being told what's good for them: I think this applies to us all to differing degrees and it also assumes the scientists can agree. Personally, I think it's best when politicians and technocrats work together and the politicisation of the bureaucracy must be fought against.

Re: Three point one pints please

150 ml in a glass of wine? Tight git! Not coming to any of your parties! And when has three pints ever sufficed apart from as an aperitif?

Re: Plagiarism?

hm, kind of my whole point is that, even though they're odious and generally incompetent, they tend to know how to survive.

Re: I guess the truth hurts.

Don't say that in front of accounting if you want to be paid on time…

Re: Why?

Right, but what you say applies to machines that Apple have stopped supporting. Though this is less of an issue now that Open Core is working so well – it's on my reserve MBP 2016 so that I won't feel naked when I eventually update this machine. I guess I could consider doing something with my old MBP 2010 but it's hardly faster than an RPi, uses more power and makes more noise.

As for speed, depends very much what you're doing. Apple's own software for creatives is pretty well optimised. As for anything I install using MacPorts, it doesn't seem to run slower than on comparable Linux systems.

You're probably right, but I'm stuggling to think of a police force that might be considered better. Certainly not the Met. They may never have had James Anderton but it's difficult to beat their record of institutionalised graft, racism, sexism and violence.

Re: According to Musk, fraud is protected under the 1st Amendment

Didn't Herbal Life do just that?

I seem to recall that US advertising is generally a free for all with the truth being the first victim. However, regulation means that companies can be held liable for their claims. This is what leads to the schizonphrenic world that is at the same time paranoid about what the FDA might say about the publication of trial data and the massive advertising campaigns for drugs once they've been approved.

Generally unlimited liability tops free speech and the current case against Purdue and the Sackler family may reassert this.