Posts by Cynic_999

No, China's facial recognition system is not significantly more accurate than anyone else's. They just have better propaganda promoting its use. It's a bit like the lie detector, which "works" only because the subect being tested believes that it works. The same is true of voodoo.

Re: Not surprised

If the judge still did not understand the relative advantages (and disadvantages) of using Skype as compared with using a phone, then it was because you failed to explain it to him/her. That was your *job* as an expert witness. There was no need to go into any technicalities - the relative pros and cons are easily explainable without any reference to the technical reasons behind them.

Re: NHSX devs apparently superior to Google devs

That makes no sense. A phone is not going to know it is lost unless someone sends a message to it telling it. And if you can notify the phone that it is lost, then the phone can reply immediately with its last known position. No need at all for bluetooth distress calls.

So you obviously object to the term, "child process"

Re: Entirely legal

Or because parts have been unnecessarily glued or welded together so that it is impossible to make any reasonable repairs.

Re: Roomy

And there was a certain naval ship accident that was attributed to having touchscreen throttles rather than physical levers. Touchscreen require you to look at the screen when operating the control. Physical levers can be located and operated by touch alone.

Re: The Crew Dragon has a payload capacity of 6000Kg

> The Soyuz system is either more expensive to launch than Crew Dragon, or they are ripping the US off shamelessly.

No, those are not the only alternatives. Crew Dragon may be selling its services at less than cost in order to gain a market. And whether the profit made by a company on its product is enough to be described as a "rip-off" is completely subjective. I consider that Apple's mark-up is a shameless rip-off, but many would disagree. Same with Dyson's products. At the end of the day, capatilist doctrine says that the market dictates what is a fair price and nothing else.

Re: Market price

We really cannot compare costs yet. A company that has a monopoly in a proven product will put a huge mark-up on its selling price, whilst a brand-new competior may well initially sell cheap (even below cost) in order to gain a foothold in the market. Only after both products have become established will the selling prices track the manufactuing costs more closely.

I'm not so sure that the consequences for making an *effective* protest would be a lot different between the two countries.

> How is the Crew Dragon more expensive at $55 million versus the $80+ mil the Russians were charging?

It was explained. It is effectively akin to comparing the manufactuing cost of your product to the retail cost of a similar rival product. The quoted cost of SpaceX is like the raw manufacturing cost without any profit being made, while the quoted cost of the Russian flight is what the Russians have chosen to charge their customers and is far higher than what it actually costs the Russians because they are making a profit.

Re: I don't even see an option to make a comment.

> Police use helicopters for this all the time, and that is not qualitatively different than using a drone

In addition, helicopters are considerably more expensive to operate than drones. Which means that there are fewer helicopters available, and they will be used far more selectively - only for events where it is deemed such surveillance is highly likely to yield significant information.

How many Internet searches do you make each month? How many do you think you would make if you had to pay £10 per search? The easier & cheaper something is, the more likely that it will be used unnecessarily or inappropriately.

Underground fibre is usually (always?) run by first burying a relatively large diameter pipe, and then blowing the fibre through it. This allows for far easier additional or upgraded fibre to be run later. So the detectability would depend more on the material that the pipe is made of rather than the fibre.

If the design is sensible, such pipes would have some sort of easily detectable marker built into the pipe, such as a metallic strip.

Re: The silence of the lands

Ummm -

1) The vast majority of GA training flights are in an aircraft with a fixed pitch propellor

2) In VP aircraft attempting to take-off in full coarse pitch would be a huge mistake and probably culminate in a failed take off or accident. So is a very, very rare occurance.

2) Take-off and initial climb in small training aircraft aircraft will *always* be done at full power.

3) The angle of climb will not affect the amount of noise - and in any case will be at the recommended speed (and climb angle) for the aircraft configuration. Attempting to climb-out much steeper than that will lead to a stall and probably a fatal crash - though a steeper climb angle can be deliberately achieved by the use of a different flap setting and climb speed, which is practised in the PPL syllabus as a "short-field takeoff"

Hybrid arragement

Aircraft engines need to be big enough to supply the maximum power demand - which is only needed during takeoff and initial climb. For the majority of any flight, the engine is producing significantly less than its maximum power.

So - you could fit a smaller petrol engine but have batteries supplying the extra power needed for takeoff and climb. As soon as the aircraft levels out in the cruise, the petrol engine can supply all the power the aircraft needs plus a bit extra to charge the batteries so they are ready for the next takeoff.

Such a hybrid power chain adds weight - whether that will be more or less than the weight saved by the smaller engine is a matter for the design engineers to calculate.

A hybrid arragement would also add to safety by giving an alternate power source in the event of an engine failure that would improve the chance of making it to a suitable place to land.

Re: Here we go again...

Provided you can supply enough current to meet the maximum charge rate of the battery, charge time has *nothing* to do with battery capacity. If it did, then using your Tesla example, you should be able to charge your phone in a few seconds! Or you could halve the charge time by using two 12.5kW batteries that you charge at the same time instead of using one 25kW battery!

In fact minimum charge time is pretty much the same for any particular battery technology regardless of the battery capacity.

Many (not all) training flights are booked as 1 hour slots - of which at least 10 minutes will be taken up by taxying and at the hold. So 50 minutes airborne is not ridiculously short - assuming that that includes a reasonable reserve so that the pilot can actually fly for 50 minutes rather than having to subtract a safety margin.

However if the aircraft is out of action for an hour after every flight to recharge, a flight school will need to have twice as many aircraft. Unless it can be fitted with a quick-change battery arrangement so that one set of batteries can be charging on the ground while the other set is flying.

And no CPU failure at high G

Re: re: 1) my phone blocks numbers not in my contact list

Many companies use number withheld for good reason. If someone from that company calls you and gets no answer, you would probably see the missed call and call back. You'd then get through to the company's switchboard, and the receptionist would have no idea which of the company's employees had tried to call you.

Good that you never need to take calls from numbers that are not in your contact list. I wonder whether your contact list includes all the numbers that may be used by your doctor, bank or the police?

Re: "Yes, Anon activists are back."

"

If you willingly failed to act on a situation or engineer a situation that results in death, isn't that murder too?

"

Failing to prevent a death is not generally a crime under UK law, no. There may be specific circumstances that give you a legal duty of care, but should you fail in that duty and someone dies, it would be manslaughter rather than murder.

As for "engineering a situation that results in death" - it would depend on whether you did or should have known that the situation you engineered was significantly likely to result in death or injury. Even then it would be manslaughter rather than murder unless it could be proven that you had the deliberate intention of killing or seriously injuring someone (not necessarily the actual victim).

I believe (but could be wrong) that France has a general law that requires its citizens to render reasonable assistance when a life is at risk.

Re: I'm not afraid of the police. At all.

"

How do you feel about the FACT that more cops have been killed by criminals than cops have killed innocents?

"

You are welcome to your own opinions. You are not however welcome to your own facts.

As another poster has pointed out, a quick search reveals that your "fact" is a complete lie.

Re: "Yes, Anon activists are back."

People who quote the "few bad apples" mantra usually never complete the quote. It is the few "bad apples" *that spoils the entire barrel*.

Re: "Yes, Anon activists are back."

You completely miss the point. Sure, criminals do bad things. But they do not do so with the backing and support of the government, and they will be punished if caught. When government forces do bad things without facing any punishment it is a completely separate and different matter.

The fact that scores of people were killed by street gangs does not worry me nearly so much as the fact that a police officer can get away with murdering an innocent Brazillian electrician and not even be rebuked - and his commanding officer is even promoted. Or that an innocent man carrying a table leg can be gunned down by police with impunity. Or a naked and unarmed man can be shot and killed in his own bedroom by police who raided his home.

" ... is an Andover over Dover on handover from Hanover, over"