Posts by Muscleguy

But surely the smaller the antenna the smaller the voltage spike?

Re: John Deere-ism Goes International

Also Apple gear, at least the older stuff lasts a long time. Typing this on a 2016 MacBook pro using an iPod touch with a screen smut (which still works despite) as a music player.

My Pa used to be a mechanical engineer for NZ Rail. They had a problem with the drivers putting their lunch tins or a brick on the dead man's switch they had to keep a foot on.

Re: "it needs to get its act together to compete with the deep pockets of Big Tech"

Except for the processing costs of course which will likely be beyond most science projects at market rates. That was the point of that comment in the article. Science will need big tech to come to the party.

Agreed, I lurked without logging in having several people’s twitter pages open for some time before taking the plunge myself in reaction to one fo them getting egregiously banned by the gender borg lying. If you cannot see what it’s like why would you join it?

Re: Are specially designed flying cars really necessary?

Probably while manoeuvring to land on the top deck of a parking building. Imagine it you are lining up a landing and someone comes up the ramp . . .

Re: Its always the simple things

The flat roof on our extension started leaking. This uncovered two Spanish practices here in Scotland. It appears to have been a self build. First the ceiling rose fused, this caused the kitchen lights below to go too. They were connected off the ceiling rose the wiring of it was arcane.

Second was our flat roof leak leaked into next door’s extension so no proper party wall. I did of course get a new roof sharpish.

When I got repiped for the heat pump install they found the floor was boarded in odds and ends not proper floorboards. All done on a shoestring The papers for the place say the council consented the extension post facto ie after all the crimes had been covered up.

Re: Ah, architects

Ah yes, as a former habitué of dark microscope rooms I know what you mean. I became adept at relaxing my eyes to infinity voluntarily since there was no horizon to look at. At times I couldn’t keep the Electron Microscope room dark since I needed light to see my big photomontages of cross sections through a whole developing muscle so i could spot and label the ambiguous profiles. There were ALWAYS ambiguous profiles which had to be checked.

When the tech printed the photos in mirror image from that of the sample mental gymnastics had to be employed when navigating to the next profile. Sometimes half the montage was normal, half mirrored as a different film was used. Fun and games.

Though I became adept at seeing little clusters of myosin and act filaments in the characteristic hexagonal pattern. They look sharper than ribosomes.

Re: powerful stream in the area

Lots of stuff indicates Mars once had a much thicker atmosphere and likely much more water. It would have been warmer but not exactly tropical. What happened on Mars was the core cooled completely so stuck in place. Our magnetic field is strong because our core is liquid and rotates at a different rate. The lack of a strong magnetic field means the solar wind is able to knock gasses out of it into space ionising them. So over time Mars lost much of it’s atmosphere and water.

Modelling suggests that much of the material which would have built a bigger Earth 2 Mars is in the asteroid belt. Jupiter started to move in to become a Hot Jupiter we see so many of in other systems. That might well have knocked the rocky planets out of orbit. It is thought the formation of Saturn pulled Jupiter back but not before it perturbed a lot of material which would otherwise have been accreted onto Mars.

So the lack of live Martians is Jupiter’s fault. But we can thank Saturn for being here at all.

Re: deep fried mars bars?

Battered and deep fried. Some places like my local will do black, red or white pudding too.

Re: Not a bad record. I'll give him some slack for being in the Apple camp for too long.

It is expensive only if you buy it new. It is well made stuff so decent second hand kit is available. I’m typing this on a used MacBook Pro. I have recently bought a reconditioned iPhone from eBay for less than £200. It plays better with the laptop than my Android and when I finish transferring stuff from the Android I will log out of my Google account with a happy feeling. They have become Evil.

Re: Ouch

As a school science tech with the fixit bent I fix things for our companion primary. I have been presented with a succession of laptop power cables with the lead to the computer being frayed in the same place every time. Some to bare wires I have to individually wrap with insulation tape before the outer layer goes on.

Next time I’m over taking stuff back curiosity will get the better of me. Does EVERYONE trap the power cord under their machines? Or are the kids over toothsome?

Re: You miniaturized that pipe a bit much

The clangers got the soup dragon to fly up and breath soup down the thruster pipes.

Because with careful exceptions which do not include brains when we eat animals we cook or at least cure them which kills pathogens.

Heating and curing denature proteins, the ones we want to eat (tender, tasty) and on the way those of microorganisms as well.

Re: Blockchain next..

Because the Scottish banks never misbehaved they never lost the ability to issue their own scrip. We currently have three sets of notes plus BoE notes. The three Scots trading banks must hold securities to cover each £ of scrip they produce. Since the supply of notes is pretty much a constant this is quite easy.

In various high security facilities in Southern England those physical securities include such notes, promissory notes and actual precious substances.

After Independence we could part capitalise our Central Bank by letting them continue to issue notes but hold electronic deposits in the Central Bank’s accounts instead of physical securities. Ideally in foreign currencies.

Re: rebooting the system

I work as a school science tech. I was given a multimeter by Chemistry to get working. Someone had pressed the Hold button. That it was holding was displayed on the screen. I checked the battery and contacts while I was at it mind.

Had a light gate control box which wasn’t recognising the light gates. Nowt wrong with the gate or the cable. The input socket contacts were dodgy mind. Cleaned them with magic spray and problem solved.

The amount of crud you find in things in schools has to be seen to be believed.

Re: Does half an orbit

Exactly, I have made many photo montages especially physical ones, for science research. I recognise the effect.

Re: Gwynne Shotwell now runs Starbase, the future of SpaceX. Give her some due credit.

Rain keeps the midgies down though. Also a decent breeze will also do it.

Re: Well...

Apparently the problem with Mastodon is choosing the right server. Seems nobody can advise which you will be presented with. It also seems hellish hard to change servers. That limits who you can interact with.

Re: You also get the problem ....

There’s a serious proposal to put a lander on Venus which is clockwork. Our electronics won’t survive so you ultra harden a small electric beamer for data but everything else is mechanical.

Re: Different ending?

Western Britain. I’m in Dundee, the sunniest city in Scotland. We’re in a rain shadow, the hills make rain clouds from the West slide north of us.

Re: Trying to escape IKEA

I’m in Dundee and the nearest one is South of Edinburgh requiring engagement with the dreaded Bypass. But you can order some stuff online now. So let joy be unconfined. Especially since I require no more furniture. Some of it is Ikea but with careful use it is still fine. Also bought long enough ago that it was actually solid stuff.

Re: I don't mind PDFs

Same with science journal papers which were the first big use of pdfs. Just like a section from the journal without having to pay for a colour photocopier. We basically almost completely stopped going to the library.

Used to be a weekly pilgrimage to go through the dead tree journals and badly photocopy the papers you wanted. With pdfs that was no more. A JANET connection meant data was not an issue as well. It was sweet.

The blood type on blood donation bags is still written in marker pen by hand. Because in a disaster situation the scanners might run out of battery and not be able to be recharged. Why despite modern auto blood pressure machines med students are still taught the old way with a stethoscope and sphygmomanometer. I have taught med students how to do that. Including the cheat for a noisy environment, like a large teaching lab.

During my PhD in the early ‘90s I had three boxes of 3.5” 1.5MB floppies with my thesis and data on. One was the working one, one lived in my bag and was backed up from working end of every day. The third lived at home. it came in for updating weekly.

This was in NZ AKA the Shaky Isles. I had no access to the server for file storage, just for email. Files were Mac anyway, I wrote in WriteNow smaller and faster than Word. It worked with Pro Cite my references database. I hate Endnote which replaced it. Pro Cite was a proper database End Note is nothing of the sort.

Re: Look to Dinorwig

Which is why here in Yurp we are putting most of the new wind turbines out at sea, sometimes way out at sea where winds are more reliable. Here in Scotland we have quite a few pumped storage installations now. Some built in from the start such as the Hole in the Mountain at the north end of Loch Awe, some retrofitted.

Whether a hydro station is pumped storage or not does not affect it’s spin up time.

Re: IgNobel 2023

I have been told repeatedly I look better in glasses. They make me look educated which I am.

Re: Well, I’m impressed… not

I am 90kg in my shoes. So 10kg max for my work bag it’s a go for me.