* Posts by Lars

4256 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2007

It's been 230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

Lars Silver badge
Pint

Re: Hexidecimalization

@An_Old_Dog

That was silly, there is no reason for the 12, it's just one we chose.

One hour could be 100 minutes and so forth, and one hour 100 seconds.

But please use what ever you are brave enough to use before the EU and the bad world finds you.

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: Hooray for Avoirdupois and pounds, shillings and pence

"A 2x4 would be a "fifty-by-one-hundred",

Why not one to two.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: Hooray for Avoirdupois and pounds, shillings and pence

I won't admit I know anything about whores and inches, and I won't deny that I can at times exaggerate, but I will agree about the carpenters or should one say carpenting use of inches.

The inches do remain around Europe in some use and nobody is on the brink of suicide because of that.

And while I am sure, in advance, that car tires will have been mentioned before, I will mention them too, without any feeling that the metric system did not win.

I suppose one of the reasons for this was the amount of timber exported to Britain from the continent.

We exported a lot of "props" from Finland and it took me some time to understand why they were called props.

Here in Finland, in the norther parts, we have this world leading and unique measurement called "Poronkusema".

It has also fallen for the metrication and is now defined in the metric system as 7.5 km.

It's defined like this, using the Wikipedia and Google translate.

"Poronkusema is an old unit of length used when moving reindeer. Reindeer urine is the distance a reindeer can drive between (the reindeer's) urination breaks. Reindeer cannot urinate while running, and running for too long can cause paralysis. At its maximum, the reindeer's furrow can be up to 7.5 kilometers".

Nothing is perfect, not GT either, and where that "furrow" came from I don't know.

The opposition towards the metric system in Britain was due to the Empire nostalgia, like also Brexit, and costly for not only Britain.

And now I hope that same lunacity will be costly for Russia.

Ericsson's earnings slip as telcos rein in 5G spending

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: Speaking of your own failure

"capture further 5G patent license agreements" doesn't prove handset manufacturers doesn't use the technology in their handsets.

My handset shows 4G because I don't want to pay extra for 5G but will it only use 4G when 5G is available might be a different question. And I don't care.

Fine that we have both Ericsson and Nokia in Europe.

Surely you can't be serious: Airbus close to landing fully automated passenger jets

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: An step in the path to reduce the number of pilots needed to fly commercial.

"Mentour Pilot rocks!"

Well I do agree but I must admit I find it painful to listen to his great effort to speak educated English in Swedish.

Also I think he is a Boeing pilot only.

This video, well made by him, is a good example of how two pilots make more silly mistakes than any automatic landing system would do, most likely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-IuOnDBoGA

HOW could they let it GO THIS FAR?!

A very experienced pilot on both Boeing and Airbus is Juan Browne on www.youtube.com/@blancolirio

Lars Silver badge
Pint

@Graham Dawson

Just silly, being for something is not the same as being against something else.

You know that very well.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

@Graham Dawson

I am quite convinced you exaggerate that difference a lot.

Perhaps you could provide some good links.

And let's not forget that when it's about Boeing and Airbus the opinions tend to be rather bound to geography.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: An step in the path to reduce the number of pilots needed to fly commercial.

The first step is most likely to cut down to two pilots from three or four on long flights.

Which is one pilot at the helm and one resting flying, while leaving and arriving is with both pilots in the cockpit.

I cannot see a huge problem there.

Also one has to remember that a sane company cannot afford not to work towards those possibilities.

Flaming USB battery halts flight from Taiwan to Singapore

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: And this is why Teslas and possibly other EVs ..

Millions of cars and lorries are transported each year through the tunnel and the time in the tunnel is only about 20 minutes (50km at 160km/h), and as we are moving towards more EVs I don't think they will ban them.

But time will tell.

FAA sets 2024 deadline for preventing 5G crash landings

Lars Silver badge
Coat

A few words about the reason the problem is not quite the same in Europe would have been proper.

Oxford Ionics scores funding for scalable quantum chip technology

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: Pity Sir Clive isn't around

Luckily Hermann Hauser is still around. (born only 8 years later)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Hauser

Virgin Orbit doesn't

Lars Silver badge
Happy

@Felonmarmer

I think we have to accept that the first stage started from British soil, for whatever that is worth.

Tesla misses Q4 delivery expectations as stock keeps sliding

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: First to market isn't always the winner

The first to market was VisiCalc. I got it on my Apple II+ and I must admit I was impressed by it.

"VisiCalc (for "visible calculator")[1] is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers,[2] originally released for Apple II by VisiCorp on 17 October 1979.".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc

Miniature nuclear reactors could be the answer to sustainable datacenter growth

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: Wastes...

The problem with pressurized water designs for some Brits often seems to be that the French us it.

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Virginia or Ireland

"in power-constrained regions like Virginia or Ireland."

I don't quite get why this sentence is there?

What about Virginia or Ireland.

Since humans can't manage fusion, the US puts millions into AI-powered creation

Lars Silver badge
Pint

Re: Nothing new.

@Michael Hoffmann

Perhaps you can find something here, also look at the references.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAC_National_Accelerator_Laboratory

TSMC said to be considering first European semiconductor plant

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: CC Wei's comments

The normal course of business is what we are looking at now.

Brit MPs pour cold water on hydrogen as mass replacement for fossil fuels

Lars Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Burn Water

Just add some alcohol and you get firewater. (quite popular actually).

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/firewater

"A calque of a Native American language term, probably Ojibwe ishkodewaaboo (“alcohol”), from ishkodew- (“fire”) + -aaboo (“liquid”, glossed in older works as “water”). A number of other Algonquian and Siouan languages also refer to whiskey with compounds that mean "fire-water" (on which basis noted Algonquianist Leonard Bloomfield even reconstructed a Proto-Algonquian word for it, *eškwete·wa·po·wi, although this could not have existed). The motivation of the name is not entirely clear: It may refer to the “burning” feeling of ingesting high-proof alcohol.".

America's nuclear fusion 'breakthrough' is super-hot ... yet far from practical

Lars Silver badge
Happy

@prandeamus

You are referring to this:

The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational magnetically confined plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, UK. Based on a tokamak design, the fusion research facility is a joint European project with a main purpose of opening the way to future nuclear fusion grid energy.

On 21 December 2021, using deuterium-tritium fuel, JET produced 59 megajoules during a five second pulse, beating its previous 1997 record of 21.7 megajoules, with Q = 0.33.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: Laser ignition fusion

@bazza

"In the whole of the 1800s, we were all driving horse-drawn carriages."

Almost true but not completely true.

"Carl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, which is widely regarded as the first internal combustion engine in a self-propelled automobile."

And the bike, as we know it, did not "arrive" much earlier than in the early 1860s

(to be a bit pedantic)

US Dept of Energy set to reveal fusion breakthrough

Lars Silver badge
Coat

WATCH LIVE: Energy Department announces major breakthrough in fusion energy research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_y7Q3HrUYM

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: Might now be 20 years away

@Richard 12

"JET hit net positive a while ago".

Any link to that, and quite frankly I doubt it unless of course it's some sort of sales talk.

Lots of unnecessary pessimism about this topic among all comments. It will be just one step at a time and it will take years.

This is the best pay offer you'll get without more strikes, union tells BT workers

Lars Silver badge

Yes those who are payed less should get the higher % rise, of course.

Killing trees with lasers isn’t cool, says Epson. So why are inkjets any better?

Lars Silver badge
Coat

"Can we please dump scanners as well?"

Why, I at least scan every purchase receipt if there is a warranty.

And I scan old pictures and texts I want to save and or share.

I once scanned a girl but that was long ago and I wont tell you the details.

And should you go abroad it's a good idea to scan your documents, then you will never lose them.

And look, they use no ink at all unless you want.

Norway has a month left until sun sets on its copper phone lines

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: Over-simple analysis

Many details of course and I would add a few regarding Finland.

Wind is down not due to no wind but also because the windmills are frozen and covered with ice, and you cannot use them then.

Olkiluoto3 the fifth and newest and biggest nuclear power reactor in Europe is down due to unexpected water pump problems and for at least a month apparently.

The Finnish grid you find here:

https://www.fingrid.fi/en/electricity-market/power-system/

And I add the French because it's so well made.

https://www.rte-france.com/en/eco2mix/power-generation-energy-source

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: Universal service obligation

"if there are copper wires already there,"

Perhaps I don't get it, but if they use poles and they don't want to use them but dig down the fibre.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

@M.V. Lipvig

Just now Norway get its electricity from 92.3% hydro power, 6.8% from wind power and 0.9% from thermal power.

And of that they export 25% plus of course oil and gas.

https://www.svk.se/en/national-grid/the-control-room/

Not much to ban anymore, and banning the export of gas and oil will not make friends, I think.

Lars Silver badge
Joke

Re: The big problem

Climbing onto the roof seems to be good for your mother.

US commerce bosses view EU rules as threat to its clouds

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: "ensure that non-EU suppliers cannot access the EU market on an equal footing"

@codejunky

So?

And no I did not equate population with status but with business, with money.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: "The US doesn't like the EU".

@Steve Davies 3

Yes it's like the madder part of the USA is getting even madder.

All that was needed was Trump.

The two party system is lethal as it gives the alt right or alt left people no way to go but into the main parties.

In most countries they form their own fringe parties and have limited power.

Same problem in Britain just now.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: The power of the EU

"The US doesn't like the EU".

I suggest "like" is not a good word to use.

The EU is a competitor and an ally to the USA in so many ways, and worth attention.

Sometimes I feel some Brits live so far in the past that they also think EU is a competitor.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: "ensure that non-EU suppliers cannot access the EU market on an equal footing"

@Codejunky

You comment reminds me of this.

The 1950s Daily Mail headline: "FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE ISOLATED"

One can actually point out that Europe is about twice to the USA in population.

No need to be too subordinated.

BT performs U-turn, agrees to up wages for 85% of UK staff

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Good no doubt, but talking about a U-tern is just damned silly during an ongoing negotiation.

Redox OS version 0.8 is both strange and very familiar

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: Graphical

@StrangerHereMyself

"and are almost impossible to catch up to".

I can hear your voice, but I don't want to catch up with any of that "Fisher Price" type stuff they have become.

And to be honest I don't really know what I am talking about or if you are.

Driving a car I admit, if forced with a shotgun, that it's not just about going from A to B.

But using a desktop, a general purpose operating system, am I not just writing this.

Then again I am much past 30 years, and nor Microsoft or Apple have chaugth up with me, quite yet.

Japan successfully propels steam-powered spacecraft

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: EQUULEUS

Yes, like claiming a Jet ski uses water as fuel.

French cloud operator OVHcloud gets datacenter funds from EU lending arm

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: French company

@VoiceOfTruth

You don't seem to get it do you.

Why do you think EU countries create a not for profit bank if not to make it more favourable to get loans for EU companies.

And as the Wiki text says "It primarily funds projects that "cannot be entirely financed by the various means available in the individual Member States".

And banking always includes risk taking.

Have you adopted the f**k business thinking by Boris too

Lars Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: French company

@Justthefacts

More rubbish.

So you fell for the brexit propaganda and now you seem to respond to Putin's war in Ukraine exactly as he hopes for, getting worried there might be a cost in helping them.

I hope you don't represent all that many Brits, and I think you don't.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: French company

@VoiceOfTruth

Why do you write rubbish like that.

The EIB is a bank, an investment bank. Banks lend money to customers.

Regarding inefficient companies I have absolutely no reason to believe the French are worse than the British, non at all.

And if you are worried about "tax payers" money I suggest you support efforts finding out where billions ended up with your sorry PPE adventure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Investment_Bank

"The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States.[1][2] It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world.[3] The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions projects that achieve the policy aims of the European Union through loans, guarantees and technical assistance.".

"Since its inception in 1958 the EIB has invested over one trillion euros."

Britain used to own part of the bank too.

EU still getting its act together on European Chips Act funding

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: Les chips must be fabrique en France

@codejunky

"Sounds about right"

In what language?.

FAA wants pilots to be less dependent on computer autopilots

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: Also subscribe to MentourPilot

"He does some very clear explanations".

Yes quite often, but in this clip he also points out that landing without automation is less safe and creates more problems.

Lars Silver badge
Linux

2 pilots or 4

I think part of this is about long flights when two pilots have to be in the cockpit at the same time, while some are having a rest.

If they are allowed to have one in the cockpit while one is resting, they would no doubt save money.

And of course there will be more automation and input devices.

A few planes have been lost just because there was no way of warning the crew of lack of oxygen in the air, or it failed.

And then there is the scare of missing the "train" for companies like Boeing and Airbus.

Who is the first to certify something cost saving like that.

Icon for some reason I cannot explain.

Locked out of Horizon Europe, UK commits half a billion to post-Brexit research

Lars Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: "the UK remains open to association"

@Peter Gathercole

It is an EU program, what is it with you, unable to read or something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_Europe

"Horizon Europe is a 7-year European Union scientific research initiative, a successor of the recent Horizon 2020 programme and the earlier Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development. The European Commission drafted and approved a plan for Horizon Europe to raise EU science spending levels by 50% over the years 2021–2027".

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: "the UK remains open to association"

@Old Tom

Don't be silly Old Tom, Horizon is an EU project. The fact that they have also accepted some other countries to take part doesn't change that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_Europe

"Horizon Europe supports European partnerships in which the EU, national authorities and/or the private sector jointly commit to support the development and implementation of a programme of research and innovation activities. Horizon Europe expanded its partnerships beyond the 27 member states of the EU".

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: The brexit gift

@codejunky

As far as I know the "market" too the end of Truss and Kwarteng as a positive.

And seriously I don't think Britain has ever had anybody so empty headed as PM as Truss.

Lars Silver badge
Pint

Re: The brexit gift

@SundogUK

I have wondered for a very long time why Brits tend to open any topic by telling each other how big they (still) are.

Have you ever thought about the reason to that. Do you think other European people do the same constantly. I don't think so.

And as for France, there has to be a "France" in there too, you just cannot avoid it, yes they are just and just behind you still, but only by 8%.

I have no doubt they will catch up.

But the point is, so what.

What you poor sods are taught not to think about is how you are actually doing personally.

As per capita "ppp" you are 26th.

And per capita nominal 22nd.

And because the difference between the rich and the poor in Britain is so very high in comparison to most of Europe you would do even worse if the one "percenters" were left out of all those calculations.

And to understand the value of being number 6 in the world, adding together the 1 to 5 you find that number 6 represents about 4% of that sum.

(do you really feel that small or that big).

For a list of countries according to per capita ppp try this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

But take care all the same, the worst is yet to come.

Lars Silver badge
Joke

@ParlezVousFranglais

"and use that cash instead to prop up Health and Social Care"

You sound like a real great optimist.

Lars Silver badge
Happy

Re: If this was anything other than post-Brexit

@codejunky

Why do you claim AstraZeneca won when in fact this happened, The case was settled and you cannot say the EU lost.

"In April 2021, the European Commission announced that it would sue Astra Zeneca for delaying the timely delivery of Vaxzevria at a time when "every vaccine counts, because every vaccine can save lives".[110][111] In September 2021, the lawsuit was finally settled with AstraZeneca agreeing to deliver 60 million doses of vaccines to EU member states by October, 75 million by the end of the year, and 65 million more by April 2022.".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AstraZeneca#Lawsuits

Lars Silver badge
Coat

Re: "the UK remains open to association"

"The EU and UK agreed that the UK would participate in ongoing research projects, including Horizon."

There was no time frame set for those negotiations just a goal it would happen.

The EU is not forced in any way.

It has to start from a clean table without any outstanding questions.

Lars Silver badge
Pint

@ParlezVousFranglais

You choose to write that "the UK received about the same % of Horizon 2020 funding as it contributed to the overall EU budget".

But you could also have written this from the text you linked to.

Also note how low the British contribution is compared to also France.

"The United Kingdom received 12.1% (more than €7 billion) of the Horizon 2020 funding; by comparison, the country’s average contribution to the overall EU budget is around 11.4% of the total.

Germany took home the biggest percentage of Horizon 2020 funding (14.9%), but it contributes a higher percentage to the overall EU budget (20.9%). Likewise, France’s funding share (11.1%) was lower than its average contribution percentage to the EU budget (17%)".".