Posts by John Smith 19

Damm

That is neat.

Legal English

Limping into the 20th Century.

Who knows? In another 100 years it might make it into the 21st.

Might I nominate "Originated" to identify the person who 1st created these images, and (presumably) actually abused (or recorded) the abuse of children.

That would imply *many* creators, but 1 originator. which seems to describe the actual events better and leaves the current definition intact. Still not very good however.

thumbs down for such behavior.

@Matt Hawkins

Nice summary. All used. All *total* BS.

Thumbs up for handy reminder.

If only it had been Phorm

sigh

so damm big it's hard to believe *no* one can find a use for it.

300 ft wide is enough for some *very* large aircraft. Is there no runway nearby?

How tough did the DoD think was?

Within scope of similar sized crewed vehicles (IE doable now but this would be a safer option and *might* give a bit more payload)?

DARPA tough. IE Order of magnitude improvement needed.

12000 ft is quite high so any one doing this should be thinking about a much bigger set of rotor blades. IIRC the environment is also pretty warm, knocking down engine performance further.

As a performance spec 5000Lb across 75 miles does not *seem* excessive, but the hit from altitude and temperature may be bigger than it looks. Designing that into an airframe from scratch on a short time frame is looking pretty tough. The Boeing effort does not look like it's in the running.

7 feet long by 4 feet wide

That's a 48 inch chair.

That Club class is it not?

7 feet would be a bit short for 6 people though.

Also note, unlike the Shuttle it has *no* side door.

And now consider data growth.

Start with a 70 million record database, which is quite substantial by quite a few yardsticks.

Multiply by the number of updates/additions per year (we wont need deletions for at least a century) *including* death notifications and c1500 births a day over (say) 120 years just to be on the safe side.

Don't forget the separate biometrics database. Image compression on passports is quite efficient so say 70m x 100k or 7TB

And of course you'll be wanting to back this lot up on a regular basis.

No wonder IBM got the contract.

After all IBM Germany wrote the book on fine tuning a nationwide database to efficiently identify people for special treatment.

Will leak detection become a lot easier

Just follow your nose to find the bad battery.

Finally a product of the horned one worthy of his talent.

This seasons must have accessory for the evil villains lair

Just a thought

Still unclear why Hydrogen?

It burns hotter than most fuels and its very low ignition percentage (Not sure if its for air or 02 but H2 will explode at a level of 4%H2, making even small releases quite dangerous) means in principle it could be run at a very lean mixture ratio but it's hard to believe either of those will counteract the fact that it is a PITA to store any significant mass (Liquid H2 is roughly 10x less dense than any hydrocarbon)

LPG, Butane, Methane should all be a *lot* easier to store and take up much smaller room.

I guessed the developers just though it would be cool to build a hydrogen powered aircraft.

Precautionary principle?

They're gone. Asses what's on them and how well it's protected. How fast to crack the security?

Then consider what they are they going to do about it.

@Rick Brasche

"Try doing *anything* on most launch systems after a t-2 abort, much less in two or three days. "

That has little to do with rockets and a *lot* to do with their design. Cartridge starters, 1 shot use ablative panels that are difficult to replace are a legacy of the ICBM based designs. It looks like SpaceX have recognized that in a real commercial launch environment time is money and rather than hope nothing will happen plan to deal with it when it does.

@Ascylto

"All the Tories have to do is say "We're gonna cancel any contracts we don't like AND we'll introduce a law which gives us the right to do so which trumps any contract law."

The IT companies will run a mile."

As it happens the US Govt reserves the right (and has done IIRC since its founding) to cancel *any* contract it's in at *any* time *without* compensation tot he contractor. It is one of the shaping forces of gubmint con-tractors

1)Big (hidden) cash reserves to handle the *years* of screwing about while Washington decides what they want.

2)*Very* close links to politicians through assorted lobbyists to make sure it won't be canceled.

3)Charging for *everything* over and above the baseline contract requirements, so they get back *all* the money they wasted (which would have been lost if they lost the bidding competition)

A more practical Act might be one outlawing the insertion of "Poison pill" clauses (EG Cancellation of our ID card contract will require HMG to pay us 100% of our *expected* operating charges to them for our projected contract length) in government contracts.

Or something which gave the "Traffic light" reviews actual power to stop things happening. A Red means *no* further work until issues are resolved.

Most people find contract law and procurement slightly less exciting than train spotting but above watching paint dry. However when *billions* of pounds are at stake (Or 10s of Bn with the NHS IT project) the payoff could be quite substantial.

The world has enough HP/EDS, CSC's, CAP Gemini etc. It *really* does not need to create any more.

Lord West's masters seem keen to give everyone

experience of what a *real* police state feels like.

Why?

Just because most people have not eaten their own feces does not mean they *have* to try them to know it's not very nice.

Just a thought.

I wonder houw sales have been going

It's been a few years since MS bought up Great Plains and Navision (2 deeply different software packages) for their respective user bases in the US and Europe.

Oddly when I was last involved with them companies were strangely reluctant to bet their whole operation on what had become an MS product.

Somehow being a multi-billion dollar corporation (with a huge back catalog of fail) didn't seem to reassure them.

A lot of this stuff seems due to Working Group 2

Who (according to the Guardian article) deal with the effects of climate change and *not* with the underlying science.

They seem to be *very* slack in checking the provenance of their sources.

Coding like it's 1979

Or some other time when it was thought the turn of the century was *so* far ahead all the software would be re-written by then.

Good lord an FO cable with a metal wire support core

Whatever will they think of next.

Oh wait. Phorm.

The TSA, your CC details and travel plans safe in their hands

Or rather, not.

Does anyone think *any* part of TSA security is *not* sensitive. I think the words "Travel" and "Security" suggest it all might be.

I quite like the idea of government branding.

But I'm undecided.

Dry ice or hot metal?*

Any preferences?

*Naturally this would be a purely voluntary procedure for all staff to show their unwavering commitment to this plan and not some kind inhumane torture.

*potentially* 20mbs

Do the ASA have *no* say in allowing that one from *any* ISP?

There's always one who quite likes ol Frank

But I figure 1 Robbie Willams per million of the population is an acceptably low risk. Beside his tax revenue in later life should more than make up for any minor irritation earlier on.

Sadly

For every Julianne Moore, Clara Bow, Gillian Anderson, Molly Ringwald, Nicole Kidman, or Evan Rachel Wood

there is a Mick Hucknell.

Sigh.

why am I reminded of the film "Snatch"

"You like dags?"

Only I can think of quite a few people who won't be signing up to this.

@John H Woods

"Why not just store a partial hash of EVERYONE's DNA? Hashy enough to ensure about 50-100 duplicates for any given sample."

They *do* store a partial hash of DNA at present.

"When a sample from a crime scene does get matches you can use REAL POLICE WORK to find the culprit, as you only have a few score of suspects. "

Which I suspect is an order of magnitude above what they have to investigate now.

Despite numerous cop shows in *reality* they will look for the 1st candidate who is a) on the database b) in the area and c) has no or little alibi. And remember if they don't get a conviction ("But I'm 110% convinced he did it"*) they will re-try the case as the UK scrapped double jeopardy following the Stephen Lawrence retrial (with a little help from the best DS that money could buy).

They would not *have* to eliminate you from their investigation if you were *not* on the database to begin with.

Thanks for the warning. You were quite correct.

AFAIK things did get better in the US 1930-1970

So while people may have worked hard their was an *expectation* that I would work less hours than my parent and (generally) have a better standard of living.

It is my *impression* that since then while salaries have risen (how could they have not with inflation) so have employer expectations of hours to earn them (so actual hourly rate has effectively gone down). Bringing a return to the working hours of previous generations.

Mind you a *lot* of this does come under the heading of "It's the end of civilization as we know it! Run for the hills! This generation is a bunch of illiterate slackers! it was all so much better in my generation."

In perspective. Average life expectancy for Victorian England town dwellers 43, Average life expectancy for Victorian England country dwellers 53. Infant mortality rates 50%+

The good old days weren't.

Icon for one of the compaies that have done 8so* much to encourage a long working hours culture.

Heard of this before

Saw it on a documentary of unusual foods and what they can be made into. When tried it was commented that human breast milk cheese is *very* sweet by comparison with various more common varieties.

I hate to be a kill joy but I've a nasty feeling public health will complain that it's not pasturised and could act as a growth medium for dangerous (in some cases lethal) bacteria.

Now while some suppliers do use un-pasturised milk for their dairy products AFAIK they have fought an uphill battle to *prove* their plant is antiseptic and kept that way.

BTW A cow IIRC can produce 4litres per session. I doubt *any* human female could do that. Better place those orders *well* in advance.