Posts by Chemist

"it will just take a long time to get there"

How long have you got ?

Even if you can manage 10000 km/sec it will take ~120 years and you'll need >5E18 joules to accelerate to that speed in even a 100 tonne ship

"we(IT bods and bodets) are supposed to be the champions of change."

I think you're supposed to be champions of IMPROVEMENT not change

As far as I know depletion of ozone depends on ..

chlorine derived from CFCs.

The actual reaction is atomic chlorine + O3 -> chlorine monoxide and oxygen.

Unfortunately chlorine monoxide can react with oxygen atoms of which there are some in the upper atmosphere to regenerate chlorine atoms to perpetuate the cycle.

ClO + O -> O2 + Cl

A Non-fluorine containing material such as carbon tetrachloride is also an ozone destroyer.

I've not gone into the details of this ..

.. but I'd *guess* the patent is for the control of an application by gesture on a touchscreen NOT for the software to implement that. After all it could be by an ASIC or some other means.

Still thin-end of the wedge-ish

In the first Foundation novel (~1951)..

Hari Seldon's (?) new recruit, Gaal Dornick, wasn't offered the use of Seldon's 'calcPAD' or something similar to do a quick bit of psychohistory prediction.

It doesn't record if it was a calculator-like device or more like a tablet

x86

Sure, my workflow would be twin Xeon Linux workstation, if need more grunt x86 Linux farm (1024 nodes), finally supercomputer somewhere.

Sounds very high to me too.

It'd be costing ~~£150/year

Coming from the other direction I worked out ~180kg coal (~~equivalent to 630kg CO2) spread over the year would generate ~~30W which still seems high

Plenty of people are thinking about ...

Fuel cells (although AFAIK not chocolate powered ones)

Seriously it's just a device to show how poor the energy density of batteries is compared with (say) the equivalent weight of hydrocarbon. It's only the same as electric car range 50 miles/ diesel car 600 miles

Reminds me about the time ..

I wrote a 6802 assembler in 6809 BASIC. Took ~2 hrs to assemble ~ 500 bytes

"but space is curved by the various optics"

This is nonsense !

"Because there's just no scope of abuse there is there?"

It's only like ANY other legislation

Eh?

From LibreOffice help

"If you decide to enter a number directly as a text string, enter an apostrophe (') first. For example, for years in column headings, you can enter '1999, '2000 and '2001. The apostrophe is not visible in the cell, it only indicates that the entry is to be recognised as text and not as a number."

and it works for me !

Re : Why control key

Thanks, I 'd just read it as though it was necessary for SSH.

"between tinkering with the engine and driving to the shops."

Trivial beyond belief !

Having spent YEARS protein modeling, designing PCBs and writing software then all I can say is that internet access is a great addition but NOT the only use for my computers.

Not all will be sacked ....

for how can any business manage without HR ( now to be renamed Robot Resources) ?

By the way..

the greenhouse effect increases HEAT retention but heat != temperature. For example the same amount of energy might raise a cubic meter of air by x degrees or a cubic meter of water by y degrees depending on the Specific Heat of the materials involved. The more telling example is that ice at 0C will not change in temperature until sufficient heat has been added to melt the ice.

It just shows how complicated a picture it all is. It looks like it is difficult to calculate the balance of heat in v. heat out. Approximating the resultant temperature change must be a nightmare.

Certainly..

years ago I had £50000 transfered into my account ( this is when £50000 would have bought a nice 4-bed detached house in good area), unfortunately a few days later it left just as quickly.

Re : Patented salt?

One patents a use : the actual chemical compound is an example that is suitable for the use.

Well-known salts like sodium chloride can be included in a patent if a new use is found.

What !

It keeps plain text passwords in memory - good grief !

There's nothing in Relativity..

that denies FTL velocity. The only restriction is that an object with mass can't accelerate to c without infinite energy. On the other hand anything traveling FTL can't DECELERATE to c without an infinite energy.

"Any decent scientist will tell you that Einsteins theory of relativity...."

Any decent scientist will tell you that every theory is provisional and any hard negative evidence is likely to be its death-knell.

However Relativity isn't at that point - all tests show agreement. No rival theory matches it for the depth or quality of its experimental verification

Load of tosh

There's always been science and technology - the only difference now is the rate of progress and coordination of information combined with formal education

We'd never have become a more 'advanced' society without it.

Re : A skeptical dreamer

So all those Androids and iPads are waiting for a Windows to run on them to become usable ?

"Carbon dioxide is essential to life on the planet."

Low level are necessary but high levels are lethal - the argument is about the middle ground.and it's possible consequences.

It's rather like saying iron is a good thing full stop but not mentioning that swords, guns and tanks are built from it

Re : Prior Art

It doesn't stop prior art invalidating a patent.

talent upset you

IGNORANCE is pure bliss (in your case) !

If you want to grow plants

just release it to the atmosphere.

It's not that CO2 doesn't get converted to carbohydrates in plants it's the RATE of CO2 production that's the problem with the current use of fossil fuels. Not enough growing area to absorb it all. Putting it into a greenhouse only helps a little if at all and you need to make the glass.

This is rubbish..

Absolute rubbish.

Don't believe all you see on the Internet and esp. youtube