Posts by d3vy

Re: Air travel is unpleasant - why pay more?

"There is nothing pleasant about air travel - from driving early to the airport, parking, queuing, being ripped off for food, being intimidated by security staff etc. etc."

See what we do is :

* Book flights later in the day when they are available.

* Use public transport/lifts or taxis to get to the airport.

* Use the money saved on parking to pay for use of the lounges and priority security queue.

* Online check in (Though if you have hold baggage this saves you no time)

We don't fly often maybe once or twice a year mostly UK -> Europe but Ive never really experienced any of the issues that you say you have, Ive certainly not felt intimidated by security - even when I say my bag getting pulled off the belt after the xray and me being called over for it to be emptied, at no point did I thinik "Oh god Im in for it now" it was more a "FFS what have I left in there?!" (It was a google nexus 7 tablet that I forgot that I had packed if you're interested).

:)

I agree with your sentiment about not spending more than is necessary, however what I consider to be necessary and what you consider might be very different!

Re: Single aisle transatlantic is not news...

"The thing is though, regarding other comments about single aisle planes and long haul flights, if you're willing to pay £150 to fly from Birmingham to Toronto (as an example) you can't really expect to fly it using a 747 or 777. It's cheap for a reason."

Is that an actual price? Because thats less than the price for me to get a train to London! The added bonus of course is that at the end of the trip I wouldnt be in London! :)

Re: Size matters

WAYY!

Balfour can re-open Blackpool airport and offer cheap flights to the US!

* Blackpool airport is basically a runway with two sheds next to it labelled "Departures" and "Arrivals", The morrisons supermarket next door has more floor space and the car park is bigger than the run way!

Re: The Golden Age of flying is over

"I've not flown for 10 years. Last international flight was 13 years ago. I think I'd have a very nasty shock if I were to see the changes in the last 10+ years. At 6'2", it was nasty back then (why do seats recline?), sounds far worse now."

I can only compare short haul but I dont think that they are that much different. With the exception that the likes of KLM and Ryanair imposing checked baggage charges that EVERYONE tries to get their entire luggage into the cabin with them as hand luggage now which means that if your not at the front of the queue for boarding youre sitting with your carry on bag between your knees for the whole trip.

Flew to Amsterdam on KLM last year and was shocked at how little went in the hold VS how much was in the cabin - it cant possibly be safe to have every overhead locker stuffed full and every seat to have bags stuffed under them.

That said, it did make collecting my checked in baggage much quicker as there were only 5-10 of us at the carousel!

Re: The Golden Age of flying is over

" as can be seen by the fact that your average city airport has more security personnel doing theatrical performances"

I particularly enjoyed the Manchester airport security staff rendition of Hamlet and am very much looking forward to Cats being performed by the Heathrow metal detector operatives next month.

Re: The WinTel Cartel...

@boltar

While I agree with you, the point that I was making is that for the VAST majority of what people are writing these days (At least business applications) speed of execution is not the primary concern.

The main concerns are (In no particular order, call .sort() on this list if you want ;) )

1. Can we implement feature x to give us an advantage over our competitor? Can we do it quickly.

2. Will the code be maintainable without having to spend a fortune (ie can we ship it to india)

3. When team member y who wrote the system leaves can we hire someone quickly and cheaply who will be able to maintain the system without spending months getting up to speed.

The point that I was making is that for a lot of what we need now there is no need to over engineer things, A web portal knocked up in ASP.NET MVC or PHP for the sales department might not be as fast or as lean as it COULD be as long as its FAST *ENOUGH* and it works.

Like I said, There is a time and a place for lean efficient code.. and a time and a place for high level bolted together solution. Knowing the time and the place for each is key get it wrong and you end up with either a badly performing system or a ridiculously over engineered system.

Re: The WinTel Cartel...

"Translation: Most fresh out of college code monkeys - or the 3rd world outsourced alternatives - just arn't up to it and can only cope with hand holding scripting languages where someone has done most of the hard work for them."

If you insist on doing everything from scratch and not using existing libraries and frameworks and not using a widely used (and easily understood) language then youre probably wasting your companies money.

There is a time and a place for lean efficient code.. and a time and a place for high level bolted together solutions if you dont know the difference you are part of the problem.

Re: Petty Speeding

"There's a stretch of road near my home that's had several fatal crashes in the last 18 months."

There's a national speed limit road near me that has been reduced to a 40 because sphere was a fatal crash... on the face of it seems ok... except the crash in question was a drunk driver doing 80+ who slammed into a lamp post head on. Until then there hadn't been an accident that I'm aware of on that stretch of road.

Sometimes you have to question the sanity of the people making decisions about the speed limits.

Re: " eliminate night-time deliveries."

Its a very short sighted view.. they should be looking at ways to work along side the emerging tech long term rather than trying to find ways to stop it happening....

"Trying to replace all of them at once and with immature tech is going to be difficult, meaning the Teamsters are currently bargaining from a position of strength."

Yes, they are at the moment but going in strong now isnt going to win them any friends.. friends they may well need when the tech is mature enough to replace them all.

Re: Horse carts vs delivery trucks again.

"Unless they change the rules on where drones are allowed to fly then drone deliveries not an option in most of UK due to proximity of other houses, roads etc.

If location is within current rules then its a long walk in your (IMHO huge) garden in (e.g. hail, torrential rain, driving snow) to collect your delivery, compared to merely opening your door to a human delivery driver (and she has had the PITA of dealing with UK weather)

Unless regulations have changed since I last looked to see if I could fly a drone near me .. must be at least 50m from people / property, and 150m from built up areas and large groups of people.

.. ignoring any other geofencing and other restrictions

So, most people would not be able to get drone deliveries in UK"

Ahh, now you see these are more valid points than the last guy who seems to think theft will be an issue.

As far as I can see these are all regulatory limitations rather than technical ones.. Once enough companies want to start doing drone deliveries and it can be proven to be safe I expect these to be relaxed for licenced operators.

Much the same as the requirement to have the guy walk in front of your car with a red flag was lifted when safety was proven.

Re: Adapt or die

"There are other options, depending upon your leverage - for instance, we still have tube train drivers on various London Underground lines that were designed to be run with no drivers, because the union shut down London if it is ever considered to go automated.

I expect we will have them forever"

I expect we will have them until the other functions that the union controls can also be automated...

Re: Horse carts vs delivery trucks again.

"The problem with that idea is that it's impossible to ensure the package gets to the correct person. Theft of parcels is already problem. Imagine the difficulty in getting parcels to only the rightful receiver if you have to drop it off in a public place. It'd be a thugs dream. Camp out, claiming to wait on a parcel, wait for something interesting looking to arrive (size/weight-wise) and either just grab it if no-ones around yet or jump anyone who comes to pick it up."

Yeah but as you say.. its already a problem.. You just need to have it dropped off somewhere reputable, like you do now, if your not home it either returns it or leaves it in a designated spot, like a neighbour or local shop.

Its a problem, but its not like anyone is suggesting that the drones just drop off in the middle of a public space and hope for the best.

Re: Horse carts vs delivery trucks again.

"Except that, in this case, no amount of clever drone technology is a realistic alternative to delivery drivers"

Speak for yourself.

There's at least two Amazon distribution centres within 45mins of my house (one of them is a 10 minute walk away) we have a garden big enough for a drone to land.

Last time I looked at the population data for the town (don't ask) there were 35k people here. There are other similarly sized towns within similar distances from the distribution centres.

Drone delivery is very much viable for us.

Hell, if you live in a city centre tower block all you need is a designated drop off point, like the roof or nearest shop (like Argos or loads of corner shops are now designated pick up points)

And then driverless cars/vans could fill in the gaps.

Re: "Companies try to hide behind "Security by obscurity"

"The exact route of the UKs high-pressure gas grid is a secret. "

Maybe it used to be. Pretty sure its not now*

Im in the process of building a system which makes the gas, electric and water networks searchable to enable safe digging maps for contractors.

The process went like this :

Me : [On Phone] "I'd like access to the gas network GIS data please"

Them : Who are you and what do you want it for?

Me: Im working for [REDACTED] and we are building a safe digs system.

Them : Theres a disk in the post, you'll get quarterly updates.

"There is a VM box on my garden boundary. For ages the lock had been removed and the door often hung open. I put a loop of cable ties round it. After a while presumably a visiting VM engineer cut the cable ties - and left the door still with its broken lock. Repeat every few months"

Either :

Take the door off.

Weld it shut

or (My favorite)

Put a confetti cannon on the inside with the string trigger tied to the door and then put your cable ties back on...

Then keep reporting faults causing visits, they will soon sort the lock out.

Re: Wait...

"A government department is trademarked"

Try sending your own letters on MOD letter head and find out....

Re: Shameful

"Also, the trademark thing is a real issue as daft as it sounds. If the NHS doesn't defend its trademark even on things like this then it could lose it and allow shysters to abuse it."

Exactly, When I started reading the article I was under the impression that this was an internal project and some people were being made redundant... I felt bad for them.

Then I got a bot further and saw that they were volunteers and thought WTF? Finally I realised that this is a group who got together with a noble cause but with no backing from the NHS, not at the NHS's request and decided to make an OS for healthcare (Good) but used NHS in their branding (BAD).

Like I said, based in the product name I assumed it was an NHS developed system... This is why TMs need to be protected.

Re: Issues with Bitcoin

I think you'll find that it would actually require a spork.

Re: So how much will this throw Intels release schedule out by?

"If it takes Intel 12-18 months of engineering and testing before they can release replacement architecture does that mean no CPU based speed increases before 2020?"

Dont be daft theres a software fix now, this wont affect the schedule at all, If we assume that they are working now on the CPUs that we will be getting in early 2020 I dont think we will see fixed silicone until 2021/22.

I'd put money on the new "FIXED" CPUs project not even being a dot on some project managers Gantt chart yet.

Re: Guess what?

Irn bru isn't tizer.

Re: Fighting talk...

I know that's meant to be funny... But that's not how that word is pronounced...

It sounds more like a Scouser saying lock him up.

Re: How to be English in Three Easy Steps

@bertha

Hey you, you're a pie.

Re: National scandal

We used to run a little shop when I was a kid in Stirling...

Can of strong lager and an askit powder was the norm for the alkies that came in first thing.

My understanding is that dissolving an askit in your lager will put you on your arse for most of the day.

Re: Is nothing sacred?

@handleoclast

Yer granny was a fanny.

Re: Is nothing sacred?

"Not to mention the deep-fried mini-pizzas"

Pizza crunch. Heathen.

Re: "you need dedicated ASICs"

"Now, if someone would just kindly donate three grand to get me started..."

You'll need at least double to build a machine capable of turning anything close to a profit.

Once you've factored in the power costs in the UK you're maybe looking at <£5 a day..