Posts by Francis Boyle

Re: Microsoft can't design a UI anymore...

Cheap? Do they have a version of Photoshop that charges them every time the apply a drop shadow? The flat thing is Microsoft trying to do stylish and failing miserably because it's just not in their DNA.

Let me fix that for you

You'd have to be a fairly serious pr0nophile to get to the point where you need to login to a free pornsite wity a name that isn't something like Chet Rockhard.

Re: Overlooked Problem? / submarines

This discussion of submarine technology is fascinating but almost entirely irrelevant. In general the military's 'economics is not an issue' approach makes their choice of expensive toys a poor guide for the rest of us. I mean you don't see ordinary people non-Americans driving around in Humvees.

"Huh? You wrote 600+ words on something that hasn't happened."

Yeah, I just don't get why everyone's talking about this Trump guy.

Re: And the lesson is...

I don't think amanfromMars was around then.

Re: We already covered this

Yeah, but Mythbusters busted that one.

The only successful things about Trump

are his ego and his choice of father.

Nice try

but I read the article to the end. The fraud there involved a candidate getting his friends/supporters to pretend they lived in his electorate so they could vote for him. Nothing to do with multiple voting and not something an ID card would likely prevent (though the existing system did so easily).

Re: £50m - why not simply pay the fees?

Or simply make the loan a tax liability. I like your idea better but sadly these days it seems almost utopian. (And I say that as a beneficiary of a free tertiary education - one more reason to feel old).

Re: My first thought was:

"The future's looking shiny."

But keep in mind it's only three years till we get replicants.

Nonsense

There was never any Doctor Who episode like that!

Now Silurian cities, that's not silly at all!

There's a grand tradition of distinguished physicists approaching retirement deciding to solve the problems of philosophy. The general response of philosophers to there ideas is a long the lines of "well that was a good solution when Aristotle/Hume/Kant/Russel first proposed it".

@You aint sin me, roit

"As for Hawking's physical limitations... neither of us know, but maybe he spends a lot of time just "thinking"."

That's the problem: Philosophy is done by thinking but you can no more do real philosophy by "just thinking" than you can do real science without peer review. Without the social structures of science even the greatest genius will end up a crank the way Newton and Tesla did. When the genius is a scientist trying to do philosophy the problem is only exacerbated.

As for philosophers not understanding science: It's pretty common for academic philosophers to have degrees in other disciplines. Unsurprisingly, physics is a favourite in that respect.

Re: Where did the 16 million year planetary age come from?

Legal? It's fine if you put in on page three of The Three Suns.

Encode it into your DNA and you would be able to produce it on demand (at least if you're male).

Re: Let's just go right off the rails with this one...

Look, either you're committed to "boldly going* where no man has gone before", or not.

*It is left as an exercise for the reader to make the appropriate substitution.

Re: I could do that job

I don't think those German speciality videos were approved for medical training purposes.

Re: TEM?

I was going to suggest lasers - we just need to work out how to genetically engineer tiny sharks.

Re: "Lindsay happy to turn on Kettering"

Didn't you read the article? It clearly states she will be "flicking the switch" which rules out approximately 50% of the population.

Roche lobe overflow

They were good in the seventies but these days they're just treading water. Or am I thinking of another band.

No it's an

iPlanet.

Re: camera phones

"Singaporeans"

Yes, I have no idea where they learned the stiff upper lip thing but since it's also known as sang froid I suppose it was from the French.

Re: second person plural

Struth mate, everyone knows the second person plural is "youse".

Re: Duchessing

Are you sure that it not in fact a ridiculous term for an even more ridiculous sex act? Because I'm not.

Re: I would like to know

Electric powered azimuth thrusters are common enough and manage to spend their entire working lives underwater without problems. The seals on the the Tesla's motors might are probably not that good but good enough to protect against constant road water should be good enough for a few seconds immersion.

It was worth £80M

just so someone could say "ground control to Major Tim". (Someone did say that didn't they?)

Seriously, I'm not British so I don't have a stake in this but doesn't it come down to whether you want to play with the big boys or sulk in the corner? Because, for the big boys 80 million is small change. Go ask Elon.

Re: That linked article is nonsense

"For what its worth, they aren't really a problem anyway."

You might have a different view if you lived in Syria.

Re: Monty Python had this sorted 45 years ago ...

Judging by how absurdly young Michael Palin looks, I'm afraid so.

Re: $763 worth of gear

Of course, here's quite likely to be repaired phones in a repair room along (probably considerably more) unrepaired ones. If the thief managed to grab just the good ones it suggest some degree of inside knowledge.

I noticed that

Then I thought "Sometimes an article needs to be manager-compliant".

Or

Bob Dylan.

Re: Well, no, not really..

Or they could simply decide to not have a baby until they both check out as safe. But that wouldn't generate any publicity.

Re: Beer pipeline?

Time to create a splinter sect of Pastafarianism. I've always thought that a beer volcano was a terrible waste.

Re: “one-man-and-a-dog computer dealer"

Wasn't he the gorilla?

Re: Not to derail the conversation...

Not only that he appears to be wearing a holdeck.