Posts by Swarthy

Re: The future:

Have you ever ridden in a truly nasty cab? Now imagine that experience without being mitigated by the presence of another human being. The Internet has shown that people are less inhibited in their duchebaggery when there is not a person around to immediately judge them and they feel anonymous.

Much like people will spout vitriol in a forum or email (and even on social media, which has their name attached) that they would never consider saying in person, people will discard food/drinks/garbage in the floorboard of an autocab, and you will have people who take advantage of the "privacy" and leave behind traces of a more bodily type.

And after your ride is over you don't care for it. - This is actually the root of the problem; after your ride any mess in the autocab is "Somebody Else's Problem".

"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. "

that should have flagged something with AT&T

Speculation on my part: It did.

It triggered a soft-hearted reaction to a persistent sob story most likely "my phone was stolen, and I can't remember the security code because I had it written down (at home), and I am on the other side of the country for work, and I need to be available, can't you please just transfer my number to this SIM. (sob)"

As we see, it only needs to work once.

Re: Frozen winter shit.

THERE'S NO U IN TEAM

There's also no "F" in way!

Hmmm...

I would have thought that the formation went H₂ + H⁺ -> H₃⁺

Basically, you take H₂, slam a loose proton (positive hydrogen ion) into it, and you've got your H₃⁺, no need for emitted electrons.

Re: Save the women and children first!

@Steve Knox: "because doing nothing when you have the capability to do something is a choice in and of itself"

Ah, but doing nothing, legging it out of the situation, and denying you were ever there can be the same as not being there (for legal purposes). But if you switch the points (especially if you leave finger prints/evidence) then you were there, and may face legal consequences for your choice.

Re: "why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

"They've gone stark raven mad!"

Re: How are they planning to get there?

...neither does the US...

DUP to USD1,000,000,000

According to the highest authority 1 BEEELLION US dollars is about 0.773DUP.

Re: Missed Opportunity

Ireland seems to be going that way....

Semi-relevent Heinlein quote:

"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss."

Is it sturdy enough

For the rear windscreen? I would love to see some AR coating on those, the reflections from them can be blinding.

Re: graphite?

It may be pointless after shipping, but I am certain that for a few hundred quid extra, a precision rotating ...

Screw it, I'm not that good at this (which explains why I still have to work for a living). He'll see you a pencil sharpener dressed up w/ fancy words and charge £x00 for it. Maybe £x000 for an electrical one with extra woo an' fancy words.

Re: Hmm

@Ken Hagan

I really didn't want to upvote your post. The last thing we need is more advertisements. On the other hand, better methods of delivering them might make them suck less. On the gripping hand, a more efficient delivery system, with the concomitant reduction in suckage, would just encourage them to put in more ads until the suckage broke even (or had an overall increase).

Re: But, but...

Well, So far most of Trumps activities seem directed at undoing everything Obama did, so I'm guessing the latter.

Sign vs. PIN

I believe the signing vs. PIN is down to US credit regulations and fraud laws, I don't believe I've ever seen a PIN-enabled credit transaction.

I do know* that using someone else's credit card is not fraudulent, if you sign your own name; only if you forge their signature does it become credit card fraud.

*From personal experience with a "friend" having stolen an actual, physical card from me and using it. The nice policeman explained which of the transactions were fraud and could be prosecuted** and which ones were not.

**Not that the ever were, mind you, but they could have been. - Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Re: 18 for ramen and sprite

Oops. I had read that as Ramen and Spite. Which is what I lived on for the majority of my early 20s.

Re: Comets? Why bloody comets?

Katamari Damacy ?

Re: The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries

Numbers 14: ("Mad Science" means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?") and 32 (Anything is amphibious if you can get it back out of the water) also seem to apply here.

Re: Earth to the WEF ...

"That's the price you pay for not actually buying your house when you can afford it"

1) That you ever could afford to buy a house. I could, and did, but some never can; even without spending on booze and avocados.

2) That the money you need to "keep a roof" is rent/mortgage. Even if the house was bought and paid off, you may still need a significant chunk o' change for: maintenance, property tax, repairs (weather/catastrophe/vandalism/accidental damages), and/or insurance.

Re: Advantages?

Also, by locating the large hunk of temporary mass (satellite + rocket) at the Center of Mass for the plane, the CoM doesn't change (and with it flight characteristics, like not flying in circles) when the payload gets launched.

If one were launching 2 satellites at a time, a single fuselage would be preferred, as the gobs o' mass could be balanced on either side of the CoM. Bu that would take a much larger plane.

Re: Oh man, they missed out!

With a carbon composite heat-shield, it probably will be black. --at least it will be after getting scorched by the thermosphere of the sun.

Re: Side note (@ Pirate Dave)

Ramen.

Re: No infrared excess

My guess is that there was a planet in an unstable orbit that went inside of it's Roche limit and is breaking/has broken up. Iron-rich parts of the planet are falling into the sun and, iron being an energy-suck for any nuclear reaction, are slowing the star's fission, causing a dip in emissions. The dip lasts until the iron is fissioned or accelerated and ejected.

Re: Tingleize it!

Your attempt at Tingelization is a bit light in the saurian Sodomy department. But it is better than I could do.

Re: How about....................

I don't see that you'd have to choose the name, that would only apply to one, when now it's Qantas-Interruptus.