Posts by John Brown (no body) 25376 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2010
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!!
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.
Only from the point of view of "blue sky" science and exploration. In terms of getting people and industry up there and possible future viable colonies either in orbit, on the Moon or Mars, commercial is likely the only way it's going to happen. Just look at what the USA is spending *per launch* on SLS. No way is there going to be a Moon or Mars shuttle to service a permanent base at those prices. More likely it'll be a public/private partnership with the likes of NASA/ESA/JAXA/China etc funding science and astronomy at a Moonbase if commercial providers build it and factor the leasing/rental agreements into their profit sheets. But even that is a stretch with current capabilities. What can be made on the Moon better/cheaper than on Earth to justify the transport and living costs?
"And once you've been tagged, stamped, filed, indexed etc as a child, who thinks this will stop when you leave school? Reach 18? Leave college?"
They already have an NHS identifying number. And, later in life, an NI number. The system is already in place and has been for years. All it needs is a government IT project to link it all up :-)
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.
"Anyone with any sense would avoid it like the plague and those without sense would end up with a piece of counterfeit junk instead of thousands of pounds of battery."
Clearly the solution to that is BlockChain Batteries! Not only do you know it's a "real" one, it comes with a built-in history of use (and abuse), so the price can be scalable to the condition it's in :-)
"get a train for 20 minutes (ish, im not certain, but it would be towards london), then another train (10-15mins) back out of london to get to the train station 'near' work"
That's probably the most salient point of your post. Most public transport is arranged on the assumption that people want to travel from the suburbs to the city centre. For many, many people, that's no longer the case, especially this last couple of years! Most people live out of the city centre and many of the jobs have, for years, been moving from the city centres to out of town shopping centres, business parks and industrial estates. We need buses etc that travel around the the towns as well. And I don't mean the "slow" buses that combine about 6 different routes in a single journey travelling through every housing estate. Neither the bus companies nor the local transport authorities seem to get this. If asked about it, they say there's no demand. How do they know? Because no one uses those non-existent routes of course!
A three wheeler only need the driver to hold a motorcycle licence and as others have mentioned, construction guidance allows for smaller and lighter build due to different safety standards. It's a slightly cheaper option and a little more accessible. I do, however, see your point. This is just that little bit more niche than the SmartCar.
"We already have such a thing, indirectly. It's the tax on fuel. Drive a lighter car (all else being equal), it'll be more fuel efficient (as less dead mass to move) - cheaper motoring. Drive more sedately - same."
In the UK, that's not the case (yet!) in terms of EVs. Being zero emission at point of use (excluding tyre wear), they are taxed at the minimum level. Whether it's a 2T SUV or a microcar.
At some stage, that will have to change. I suspect though, that the change will be Pay Per Mile rather than a scale of VED charges based on weight/efficiency. It'll be difficult to charge based on electricity usage since many will charge at home. Smaller cars being able to charge overnight off the house ringmain/standard 13A socket and not via a special charger will be impossible to monitor for "fuel duty".
Successive governments of all colours have been kicking Pay Per Mile around for years now.
Don't worry, it'll be back with the next Patch Tuesday along with the chosen MS settings, not any you may have chosen. It's done for you benefit, in case you changed you mind since you deleted it, took it out the back and shot it and then nuked it from orbit just to be sure.
Good point. And anyway, if we want remote storage, we can just set up some remote storage and mount it as a directory using SFTP or better, SSH. I'm sure someone could knock up a pretty GUI for those that don't like the command line (or maybe they have already?) Not to mention other solutions already out there.
"If the rest of the world, wanted to really see the Kim Regime fall (so basically everyone other than China), then the best thing they could do would be to work out a way to create a relatively safe and porous border across and out of NK."
An interesting concept. Sadly, they have a pretty solid and almost impassable border with South Korea, who would be ultra suspicious of anyone coming over anyway, a huge border with China who, as you say, have no interest in this and will send "illegal immigrants" back, and a short land border with Russia. I doubt Putin has any interest in the idea either. Which only leaves the existing sea borders, and that doesn't seem to be an option as few if any are trying to get out that way either.
WTF? I wonder why they weren't found guilty of "1. Failing to respond to a robbery-in-progress call;" but WERE found guilty of all the other charges? It must be some sort of technicality because at least one of the other charges pretty much damns them for not attending the call.
How easy is it to tell a pebble? When does it stop being a pebble and become gravel?
My first mental image when someone says "pebble" is something at least an inch across. I guess it's one of those highly subjective things. Clearly El Reg need to send NASA an up to date copy of the El Reg Standards
IME, AV already sucks the life out of PCs in "normal" use. There'll never be much left over for crypto mining. The user certainly isn't going to earn anything from it because each individual PC can only contribute a tiny fraction of the work required to "mine" a coin.
"Hell, one of the servers I deal with now uses the English date format (or whatever one is selected in the interface) for all user facing pages, but on any programming interfaces (API and Inventory import CSV) requires the date to be in the form yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss. I wouldn't mind that, but that fact is buried somewhere in one of the guides. It's not mentioned on the server, even in the error message you get if you get the date format wrong (it just says "Wrong format")."
Isn't that standard practice though? Use a "standard" internally then "localise" it for the users? It does rather sound as though the error trapping and reporting could be improved though.
"-not taking the least cost approach to infringement"
If a company is infringing laws, then the shareholders should be suing them anyway for bringing the company into disrepute and especially over any and all fines levied for same. A company infringing laws or patents must be punished and fined in such a way that any profits generated by said action are at least nullified such that being caught is more costly than taking the risk. Too many large companies see the fines for breaking the law as a business cost because the fine is often less than the profits made.
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