Posts by werdsmith

Re: @45RPM

@codejunky

I was thinking about domestic hoovers where my new one makes light work of any job it faces.

I agree it wouldn't last 5 minutes in a commercial role, but its suction run rings around any other domestic one I've owned and its form factor makes life easier and therefore takes a fraction of the time.

Re: @45RPM

Vacuums, for instance, are much better now since manufacturers were forced to adapt and innovate.

The problem with stuff like kettles though, is if you half the power available, then to do the same job you have to use the other thing that can't be restricted - time.

If it takes a kWh to do a job then it will, give or take, proportionally more time to do it with less Watts. You save nothing.

If we had stuck with the old fashioned hoovers but with weaker motors, it would take much longer to clean up and the no power would be saved. Luckily these devices were forced to improve and this is how it's supposed to work.

Of course screen refresh cannot go by this measure, so gaming PCs are a different story.

Re: 6 states is not 50

Yep, Reno or Vegas for some things. Tijuana for others.

Coming back from Nevada you might get checked for having fruit in your lunchbox. (do they still do that?)

Re: My greatest weakness...

I had one twat of a bully nasty rantaing and aggressive bell end in my job. I dealt with it by refusing to take part in any meeting that he was involved in.

He's gone.

If you are on the instant ink scheme, where the printer phones home and for £1.99 a month they send out new cartridges when your old ones are nearly empty (subject to a page limit). Miraculously, the cartridges on this scheme go on forever, so 12 months of £1.99 a month and they are still going strong.

Funny that.

Re: if the size of the wave is smaller, you'd need a larger antenna

As a rule of thumb, an antenna will typically be about wavelength-sized

About half wavelength is a typical antenna design.

Re: "as frequency goes up antenna size goes down"

If only I had the outdoor space for a top band dipole.

Compare a TV antenna (UHF) to a VHF beam some people still have for FM radio. Look at the spacing between their directors.

Re: Avoidance

That's a bit playground level of argument. So if you don't like the government you have to leave the country?

Playground level? Wow, that’s seriously hypocritical. You come back with a Wetherspoons pub bore level straw man argument.

If you can’t see the difference in between choosing an alternative retailer and the upheaval of transplanting your life to another country then you’ve got no valid argument.

Re: Avoidance

As long as people keep ordering their Prime deliveries and watching the Grand Tour they have no place whinging.

The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch?

Drug dealing? Don't think that's on the roadmap.

Re: Am I missing something...

If the thing is deflected when it is far enough away, then the tiniest change in angle will be a huge change in trajectory by the time it reaches Earth.

Re: gimme gimme gimme

“ Hopefully the UK chose not to prop up Intel's shareholders.

UK can’t afford to prop up Intel’s shareholders because it spent all its prop up budget money on the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Stellantis shareholders.

Re: Curvature of the Earth

Curvature starts to become discernible about 34000 feet, if you can see enough of the horizon.

I think the curvature in the video is exaggerated by wide angle lenses, though I would expect to see it curve both ways depending on the position in the frame.

It's the same with politics. I assume that most people go into politics because they genuinely want to do good,

I think it's more about being sociopathic and narcissistic.

Re: Exaggerated hype

Orbital spaceflight is all about speed, and altitude for avoiding the drag that would deplete the energy and reduce that speed.

Re: Was waiting for this in 2004

it will be reliably sub-orbital for passenger transfer to orbital shuttles or satellite launch and recovery.

That would be a laugh, the speed difference between orbital and sub-orbital spaceflight should make for some very interesting rendezvous, or impacts as the case may be.

Re: Bring back Concorde - much more impressive.

My thought as well, Branson could have invested in R&D for a new supersonic passenger jet and would probably make a lot more out of it than space 'tourism'.

Branson has invested in R&D for a new supersonic passengar aircraft

Re: Green?

If they manage a flight a month, that's 48 customers per year. That's not a good revenue and more than 10 years waiting for some of those 600.

Re: Space Cadets

Being in "space" is going beyond the denser parts of the atmosphere. VG did that before falling back.

Sustaining an orbit is attaining a certain velocity and direction so your falling misses the atmosphere and there is minimal resistance to your movement to drain the energy, which is a function of your initial booster and fuel.

I'd say they were beyond the atmosphere. Being in space and in orbit are not the same.

Re: Miserable and small minded

I'm personally not a fan of Branson's abrupt reshuffling of schedules in order for him "to be first", but I can at least understand it.

Sort of like the 60s when it was all about being first to orbit, first to spacewalk, first to the moon etc.

Re: "Taking humans deep into that environment"

This is a plane flying beyond the atmosphere, it is not survivable for humans at airliner altitude. This flight was several times higher. My comment was about life supporting or not parts of our planet.

Re: "Taking humans deep into that environment"

Yes, deep. What’s the problem? Weird.

Burt Rutan retired in 2010 and Virgin Galactic stopped working with Scaled Composites around 2014.

Re: All that way and all that money

You might get to see that Roadster in 2091 but it’s way out of the way on heliocentric travels for now.

Re: Uses two planes...

And a fleet of Range Rovers.

The article states that the Eve plane climbed to over 50,000 feet, in fact 46,000 feet was the separation altitude.

Re: Bring back Concorde - much more impressive.

The combined throwaway budgets of two nations against the entrepreneurial endeavour of an individual? Not really a valid comparison.

Re: Space Cadets

Taking humans deep into that environment in normal attire (OK, jumpsuits but nothing special about them, made by Under Armour), in a vehicle carrying its own oxidant because there is insufficient at that altitude is brilliant.

And the astonishing view. What was out of reach is now starting to come into reach and as a beginning I think it’s an exciting first step, and it’s about where the will lead.