Posts by 's water music

Re: Going off on a tangent

why does the government get to pick and chose which lifestyle choices get rewarded or punished?

because the super-abundance thing still hasn't worked out and so life is a series of resource management choices. Personally I think representative democracy is generally not a bad mechanism for this compared to most others

Re: Yelp is still a thing?

It is like HijackThis log report postings. Just one more thing to filter out in order to find useful information in a web search

Re: For some strange reason...

With Chris O'Dowd as the chief villain, Katherine Parkinson as Moneypenny and Matt Berry as 'M'. I'd watch it.

Add Noel Fielding as Q and you've got a deal (technically you had me at Matt Berry)

Re: One failed drive?

.. and it took the whole storage system out?

What kind of redundancy is that?

The kind delivered in an envelope to the architects' team?

Re: I remember this analysis from the SCO case.

There were never ending pundits to say the bad guy was going to win. That didn't work out.M

Well the options here are:

Lawyers

Oracle

Google

So bad guys winning seems like a safe prediction this time around

who facebook is for

I've never had a FB account and if asked I reply that its because I'm not a teenage girl

Shirely facebook is for teenage girls' mums or perhaps grandparents these days? People under thirty only have accounts for their parents/grandparents to follow a sanitised version of their online personas. DKUPATB

Re: The common sense lesson from the 'Roomba Poop' story

All of those things are things that (some) drivers already do on a daily basis. They all sound like things that could, at least sometimes, be trivially detectable by sensors and, at least sometimes, hard to detect with human senses. My kids regularly tread mud or dog shit round the house. I'm struggling to see your point beyond automated cars will get different things wrong compared to humans. Granted, there are issues of public acceptance and confidence to be considered but I am failing to see a fundamental problem

Re: TV Remote

it was the disparity of perceived volume between shows and adverts which was the problem back then

Perhaps Dabbs was too middle class to watch much ITV. I know I was so mine and my wife's childhood cultural references are a bit out of sync.

And not getting up to push a button on the TV to change channel was something I believe most appreciated

No younger siblings? In an emergency just sit within arm's reach of the telly

Number ranges

I used to get regular fax calls to my voice line and eventually I connected a modem up to it in order the receive the fax. It was from a museum in Nicosia addressed to the British Museum with a single digit error in the number. I replied with the correct number. Nicosia kept re-sending the fax so I forwarded it to the BM. Nicosia contined to periodically fax my line and never acknowledge my responses

Re: Quick Release or build it like it is in my head

Not that I once realised I'd left my wallet on the counter once I'd driven 100 miles

Well better that than getting to 100 miles before realising that you have left the removable steering wheel behind.

Incidentally, does this mean that if I use this technique to steal a VW I would be able to to join the class action suit for the emissions fiddling?

Re: Class divide

Yes, the vote was most likely the result of an underlying disatisfaction with current politics more than anything else.

Was Brexit a bad outcome - probably, yes. But it has highlighted the real problem with this country. Class bigotry. And not necessarily from the 'working class' either.

That seems very consistent with a PM feature 'Brexit Street' consisting of extended interviews with people from Sunderland. Last nights hairdresser seemed to have been largely motivated by the (justified) feeling that her region has been ignored for years by the political elites and her desire was to send a message by voting against what she perceived as the side supported by those elites. I was struck by the irony of handing back more control to Westminster (hardly likely to result in more attention/resources for the North East based on past performance).

I agree that the brands article was probably more about confirmation bias meets self-promotion and I share your worries about societal polarisation.

you need a head still attached to the body for an ambulance to be of any effect.

AIUI the decapitation angle was simply a made up tabloid trope. Still, not a very pleasant sounding event nonetheless.

Re: The hype cycle is getting shorter

Short hype cycle complaints?

...so five seconds ago

wait wat?

Re: What they need

They'll be rehabilitating using retro-phrenology next.

Sounds like a trepanner just took a marketing course

Re: Obsessive

# Boo, I got a back up plan to the back up plan

# To back up my back up plan #

Re: How hard can it be?

Because removing tax free allowances would hit the poorest hardest -not exactly a vote winner.

It wins votes from the rich and let's face it they can afford more votes

Re: Why would they have bought a new PC?

Would it have broken if MS hadn't decided to offer a free upgrade?

No, but if the upgrade had been paid then you could offset that mentally against the cost of a new PC with Win 10 included (I am aware that that cost would already include a Win 10 license component although the OEM license would presumably be cheaper than the retail upgrade)

I don't get the whole Pokemon thing. I've going on smartphone assisted hikes with the kids from a couple of years now. Geocaching, for which I happily pay (10 euro every three months or something). Except for the AR, how is Pokemon GO different ?

It isn't. I don't get how you could get one and not the other. Each to their own. I enjoy plenty of dull and pointless activities.

Re: Orchestra candidates

I wonder why the down-vote. I also had this is mind as a text-book example of demonstrable discrimination in selection processes. Whether it is, or is characterised as institutional, subconscious or just covert doesn't really matter. It serves as a good case study that suggests that if your selection demographics are skewed then it is worth critically examining why that is, whether you believe in good faith that they are fair or not.

Re: "A.I. is hard."

but blaming new tech with a high media profile for your inadequate driving skills is easy

Re: I'm lost.. . .

don't describe any group I'm familiar with or provide any useful point of reference

AO does make it sound a bit no true Scotsman. I have Kotkin sat in my reading queue so maybe that will be more enlightening

Re: Liu Cixin was right!!

well at least the Chinese have already built the world's largest radio telescope so now we have the trisolaran's coordinates we can get on with the transmission

Re: Creeping Americanisation

> never mind how big a baseball field actually is

They're all different sizes, so not a useful metric for anything.

I would have thought that that property was a strong advantage for many measurements such as those made by Humpty-Dumpty for example

Re: My real name is Terry Wrist...

...and the problems I have online now... Well, you wouldn't believe it.

There's probably this one weird trick that would solve them.

Re: Russia Snoopers Charter

@John Mangan

I'm puzzled, are you upset because of the constitutional technicality that the PM is appointed by the queen rather than being elected by anybody or something else?

Re: Pubic-Money cosy backroom Deals...

It makes me not want to pay taxes ever again! How do others feel....?

To be fair my feelings are unchanged. I have always felt this way about taxes :-)