Posts by xperroni

Re: @xperroni

Established energy companies invest in new technologies, if there is a return on the investment.

Established companies of all kinds invest into incremental improvements to their core business infrastructure. Investing in anything "disruptive" – i.e. that obviates any relevant amount of current equipment, personnel etc – is either blocked or sabotaged by internal politics, as the bosses responsible for said kit and bods will fight to keep their departments relevant.

IBM saw the PC revolution coming a mile away, yet it couldn't for the life of it avoid crippling OS/2. Before that, Edison passed on the chance of adopting AC technology for his electric company because it would disrupt its intended business case of selling generators wholesale. Before that, Western Union snubbed the telephone because it didn't fit in the paper-centric workflow of telegraph machines...

The list goes on and on.

The smear tactics are used against "carbon" based energy, today. This is against everyone's interest.

You would think so, but in fact no.

All those fancy new "renewable" wind and solar plants people gush about – what do you think powers the grid when the wind is not blowing or the Sun isn't shining?

Tip: it starts with "fossil fuel" and ends with "plants".

The current "renewables" craze is doing wonders for the fossil fuel market, as every "clean" plant needs a couple thermoelectric counterparts to take up from where they let us down.

yet politicians are killing coal plants

Germany is deploying new coal plants like there's no tomorrow. I have yet to learn of any decommissioning of comparable size anywhere in the world...

[clean natural gas]

Natural gas is "clean" only in the sense that it releases less soot and sulfur than other fossil fuels, but it still produces large amounts of carbon gasses. It also got terrific price volatility, so you might want to think again about basing much of an economy on it.

I know how everyone loves electric & hybrid cars, but those are really dirty...

And anyway, you'll need something to power all those batteries.

I still stand by my previous point: incumbent energy companies will slow down adoption of technologies that pose a threat to their current businesses, just like companies in any other market. The fact they'll promote those technologies that secure and / or complement their investments doesn't change that.

Re: I'd laugh

Indeed. That's why I've given up owning a printer myself, when I need something in dead-tree format I load it to a pen drive and head to the print shop down the street. Then again that's rarely the case these days, as most times a digital copy will do just fine.

Re: Origin of _water_ on Earth

Xperrsonie, if you're going to say "crackpot theory" it's important to not look extremely silly by not being able to parse simple sentences and read Wikipedia...

This from the person who apparently had a seizure as he tried to write my login name.

"the late heavy bombardment of Earth by huge asteroids"

There are quite a few differences between "a comet" and "bombardment (...) by huge asteroids", but guess I shouldn't expect someone who bickers about the meaning of pronouns to notice.

Re: Ye Olde Titsup

I think you can still get at your old GR data for quite a while yet, so just go re-export it.

Actually, no – Google already deleted my Reader data, or at least de-listed it from Takeout.

Well, damn.

Re: They're kidding right?

Some manufactures and telcos consider their phones fire and forget.

"Some" manufacturers and telcos?

Just "some", you say?

Hahahahahahahahahah.

Seriously though, I've always thought this is one of the best chances for Firefox OS at differentiation: Mozilla's commitment to quality leading them to step on how many toes it takes to ensure ecosystem-wide updates. Google, despite noises to the contrary, is happy to let makers have their own way about it, as long as they lead more customers to the Collective their services.

Re: Pidgeons

I've heard that they're incompetent, and couldn't hit a pigeon on his perch if he was nailed there.

As for Bolivian presidents...

Re: Gotta hand it to the yankees, though - not really, long tradition we inherited

I suspect that only way to "take hypocrisy to a whole new level" would be to push historical ignorance in the same direction.

So the US government turns to their country's citizens and say:

"Oh, don't worry about that PRISM thing, we only use it to scoop on foreigners"

And then turn to other countries' governments (home of those very foreigners they seem to think it's alright to scoop on) and say:

"You know, if only you were good members of the international community, you would turn over this chap that revealed to the world at large our wholesale scoop tactics"

But according to you that's not hypocritical in the least, because other countries have done (something like) it before.

And of course, as we all know, two wrongs are damned sure to make a right...

Re: pre-release software may not be final version

It's not even unusual for APPLE to change things between the first beta and the final release (they've even been known to sneak in whole new features for new devices/hardware that is released at the same time as the code).

I think that zeroing in on whether Apple has made changes to its products before is missing the point.

The problem is that up to now, iOS7's design had been described by Apple (at WWDC as well as their own website) as a work of perfection. Both Apple employees and the user base faithful have copiously defended the new looks as the perfect blend of form and function, the ultimate distillation of their deep expertise in design. This included no end of patronizing the ignorant masses on how they can't "get" good design just by the looks of it, and how its true value would dawn on us when it hit shelves / update channels.

And now they actually come out and say "oh no no no, this is not the finished version, we might still tweak it some". It's the worst kind of about-face, to be all over something and then suddenly dismiss it as a work-in-progress.

Re: Vindication

Ha ha, the joke's on you because the NSA still use Amstrad's with green screen monitors. I get round this though by typing in code so the letters are numbers.

Oooh, clever!

And without any hint on what the numbers mean, the only way they could ever break the code would be to try out all possible combinations - obviously pointless, since this would take millions of years, unless they had vast networks of powerful computers

Oh.

Can't be them - the V2 worked and was quite effective and deadly...

It worked alright – but quite how effectively (and to whom's standards) is another matter. As Freeman Dyson put it, "… those of us who were seriously engaged in the war were very grateful to Wernher von Braun. We knew that each V-2 cost as much to produce as a high-performance fighter airplane. We knew that German forces on the fighting fronts were in desperate need of airplanes, and that the V-2 rockets were doing us no military damage. From our point of view, the V-2 program was almost as good as if Hitler had adopted a policy of unilateral disarmament."

Or according to The Hive Mind:

The V-2 consumed a third of Germany's fuel alcohol production and major portions of other critical technologies (...). The V-2 lacked a proximity fuse, so it could not be set for air burst; it buried itself in the target area before or just as the warhead detonated. This reduced its effectiveness. Furthermore, its early guidance systems were too primitive to hit specific targets and its costs were approximately equivalent to four-engined bombers, which were more accurate (though only in a relative sense), had longer ranges, carried many more warheads, and were reusable. *

Re: Replace the "call" button on each floor with a keypad -

This is how elevators work at the building where our company is hosted. It certainly adds a degree of amusement to the office routine every now and again, whenever a first-timer rushes into an elevator, turns to where the button panel should be, and stares in dismay at the blank wall they find instead.

Unfortunately its scheduling algorithm is pure pants. Time and again we've been at the hall waiting for a lift, and when an elevator arrives, it is directed to a single floor directly above ours. In come two or three people, leaving the remaining twelve or so to wonder why the damned thing couldn't be programmed to make a stop or two before its final destination.

Alas, I just hope the failsafe brakes at least aren't software-controlled!

Yeah, I remember working on an OpenVMS machine (running a DEC RDB server no less) in the early 2000's and thinking its path syntax was really awkward. I was also taken aback by the inbuilt file versioning, though time and again I've come to think modern OS'es could do worse than implementing something of the sort – as indeed they do.

Re: They've reinvented the portal!

Remember how one of the reasons to abandon Altavista/etc and start using Google was the minimal page design that helped to keep the information you're actually interested in more prominent? Google doesn't.

I bet they don't remember why everyone dropped the likes of Yahoo! Mail to hang with Gmail, either. The more Google "improves" Gmail, the more broken it feels...

Alas, have you noticed how far to the right have Gmail's link on Google's top bar moved? Eerie sign, if Reader's history is anything to go by.

Re: Amurrica Strong!!

This means NO CONFLICT because we, the West, just don't pick fights with someone who can fight back.

I hope you're right in that no war between the US and China ever breaks out, but as others have pointed out, if nations could be relied to act rationally we'd be short a couple World Wars.

Re: Landfill

Nokia is already selling non-WP phones as this article is all about, so obviously they are 'allowed' to.

The only reason Nokia keeps working on non-WP phones is because WP cannot be crammed into the price/feature niche devices such as Asha are intended to fill. But ever since Elop unleashed his plan to run Nokia into the ground for the enjoyment of his true masters overhaul Nokia's premium mobe line, anything that could pose as an alternative for WP* – Symbian, acquired platforms, internal mobile Linux projects – has been sold over or killed off.

So yeah, surely Nokia can work on sub-premium S40 derivatives to their hearts' content – so far as it doesn't compete with Redmond's offering.

Re: A poor anaysis from Reg readers (sorry).

Yes – because "legitimate rape" is surely a thing.

Right.

Re: Photoshop'ing like a bat out of Hell (was: Standards Dropping)

To me (...) it looks natural enough as a back-lit photo with "fill-in flash" lighting up what would otherwise be in shadow.

I'll take your word for it, but still I can't avoid the feeling.

Until you understand the difference between weather and climate, you probably shouldn't comment on threads about climate.

The gist of Pascal's message is that we shouldn't hold as ultimate truth and base our decisions on science that isn't reliable yet – though it may on the future, and then should be taken more at face value.

That you raced right past his main point, going straight to bicker on the difference between "weather" and "climate", speaks volumes on who really should think twice before commenting on threads... About anything, actually.

Re: No good deed shall escape unpunished

I think you're mum

I'm a man. By definition, I cannot be anybody's "mum".