Posts by John Brown (no body)

Re: Fire, snow, plague, trade war and an earthquake

Apparently, in Oz, a joke did the rounds along the lines of "if you think you have covid and want a rapid test, call the English Cricket Team" :-)

Re: yes no no no yes no yes!

Jim Trott might have prior art on that :-)

Re: cupboard fancier

I thought he came out of the closet?

Re: The warranty on the device is for one year.

Yes, we do. There is an unlimited 2 year warranty and then there is a thing called "reasonable lifetime" where you should be able to get a repair or refund based on a sliding scale. This based on defects which should have been apparent from the time of manufacture. It gets a bit complex when it's software/firmware which technically you don't own, only licence, and the supplier has provided updates in the meantime. The supplier also has a right to try to effect a repair in a reasonable time frame. Personally, I'd take/send it back to the retailer and specify my "reasonable time frame" and then demand a refund when it's not met.

This is why I prefer to buy from reputable bricks'n'morter shops when possible. They will much more likely just hand over a refund, ship it back to the supplier for their refund and let them worry about the cost of repair/scrapping it.

Re: SMRs are expected to produce 300MWe per unit.

That sounds like a glowing endorsement!

Re: "it has no natural predators,"

"the only entrance large enough for it to physically fit is the locked trap door in the floor, and I have the only key."

Yeah, but what was that standard poodle doing in the machine shop late one night, after rummaging through your pockets white you slept. Are you SURE it's the only key?

Re: One of the best 5 minutes of my life

"Wot? A 40s era fighter -> 60s - 80s V bomber."

Depends on the personal preferences of the OP. Is he in love with fighters of the same era or iconic British aircraft in general? I was assuming the latter, you are assuming the former. We might both be wrong.

It was the first result on google.co.uk. Other results were more local and correct.

Yes. There may well be good reasons to shut down coal fired power stations and now start targetting gas fired ones too, and there may well have been some irrational fears over nuclear that shut down all the German nuclear plants, but no one seems to be too concerned about bringing suitable "clean" replacements on stream before doing so.

Admittedly, those shutdowns do seem to have visibly spurred wind and solar power development and deployment, but no where near quickly enough to match the rate of closures. It's almost as if politicians seem to think the power will magically be imported from adjoining countries. Except those adjoining countries have all done the same kneejerk reactions to the noisy, squeaky wheels without properly thinking it through.

It almost seems as if the entire EU is going to rely on the French fleet of nuclear power stations for their base load. I'm sure that'll work well.

Re: Upwards thumb

"one of the most attractive, artistic even, interfaces."

I might not go quite that far, but the authoes comment that it's "quirky" struck me as a bit odd. There is no "common user interface" guidance any more. No one follows what used to be there. Even MS don't follow their own CUI any more. So anything not compliant with the CUI is just different. And that is so many apps these days that nothing is really "quirky". Just different.

Re: On the topic of domain names expiring

"or the people that handle it are long gone."

I once had to deal with a "network issue" whereby some of the remote apps hosted at HQ worked and others didn't. It eventually transpired that the ones failing were the more "secure" ones that only allowed connections from certain IP addresses and the satellite office IP addresses had changed[*]. The ISP had sent notification emails to the company contact starting three months prior to the change and with increasing frequency as the great switch-over date approached. Unfortunately, the email address they were using was for a person who had left the company two years previouslly and no one was monitoring said address any more.

* Yes, it was a "fixed" IP address, but the business division of the cable company now known as Virgin Media thought that a "fixed" IP address was just one with a very long lease and they were in the process of (yet again!) re-segmenting their network.

Re: 7UP as a mixer

Be careful. If sand gets in it can ruin the experience.

Re: Classic cars...

"classic electric car"

For me, that phrase immediately brought up an image of late 1800's electric cars :-)

Re: 40 years in the making

Ah, so that's what the synchrotron is for :-)

Re: "crypto mining software is not malware"

Exactly. The very definition of cryptocurrency is converting energy to cash. Hence why in many parts of the world it's simply no longer economic to even try to "mine" it any more except on an industrial scale or by "stealing" electricity, either as per the article or b y actual criminal by-passing of metering systems.

As for the $5.80 per day, that sounds good to me. It's a more than the pay rise I've just been offered!!

Re: It's time for a 2001 space wheel !

Yeah, imagine a 6-way docking adaptor with a modified SpaceX Starship permanently attached at it's nose to four of the ports, leaving two for visitors/shuttles/lifeboats. Maybe modified Starships where the engine/fuel section is detachable so another one could dock in at the back. Two or more Starships lined up on those four permanent docking ports. Spin the whole thing slowly with a nice gravity gradient down the spokes.

Re: More misdirection.............

"All you need is the Bruce Schneier book "Applied Cryptography" and a modern C compiler."

Yeah, roll your own encryption works really well. As evidenced by no professionally built encryption ever being broken or having errors or bugs in the code.

Re: Boom .....

"One lamp (the white one IIRC from my uni days) is connected as you say - when in phase it goes out."

On a one lamp system, as related further up, how do you tell the difference between, "oh look, it's already in phase, that was lucky" and "Damn, the bulb must've blown"

Re: so long

I remember as a kid buying the first issue of 2000AD and thinking the future was still a long way away!

(which I'd kept it now, apparently it would have had some value!)

"but with an email provider, they watch and make sure their customers aren't sending mass scam emails and the like so you'll much less likely to have this issue."

I wish! Have you seen the shit that still comes out of MSHotmail. It'd be nice if they lead by example.

Re: EULA

Lawyers read EULAs, especially when it's one going out with their companies products.

People don't read EULAs.

Therefore, lawyers aren't people.

Re: This is the right direction!

I think you'll find Boris has legislated against that. We now use Great British Laws of Physics, not those puny ones previously imposed on us by the EU!!

I was, of course, referring to "fuel duty" specifically charged on fuel used for cars, buses etc. With EVs, yes, a heavier car will use more "fuel", but that can't be taxed at higher rates just for cars, it can only be taxed with the usual VAT and "green taxes" we all pay for all electricity usage.