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Diamond plated pans seem like a terrible idea, they may have high conductivity, but it would still have to go through the metal centre and then the diamonds as well, so why bother with the diamond? unless the pan was made of solid diamond.

Secondly, heat conduction is not the key, what you need is a high heat capacity, so that your heat stays nice and constant, and doesn't fluctuate if you lift the it off the heat to stir or toss the food, which is why a huge chunk of cast iron is extremely good.

Irrational Exuberance has some good analyses as well.

£475,000 in $. Your username is an accurate description. Fuck, I can't believe you're criticising someone else's statistics. Please accept that you are stupider than the average person (as also shown by your lack of ability to use punctuation and grammar) and decline from commenting on political matters.

Upgrade all the software on your system at once.

Upgrade any package on the system without needing to visit websites to search for updates.

Upgrade the system without cost to enjoy the latest features and security updates

Run Linux on a wide array of computers - the OS can follow the user.

Heavily customise or simply adapt the look-and-feel to suit their tastes (they do it to their homes and our hair, why not the desktop?)

Enjoy better performance with Linux on Mac hardware (at some tasks).

Enjoy some vibrant, rapidy growing user communities (Ubuntu (for instance) has a lot of buzz and enjoys very rapid growth)

Enjoy some of the best bling on the desktop today ;-)

Contrary to bad press from the early days of this young OS called GNU/Linux, much of these things make it a really convenient and fun platform to run..

4. Apple buys OPENSTEP and uses it to produce Mac OS X
5. GNU implements the OpenStep API as GNUstep

I think you have these two the wrong way around. GNUstep dates back to at least 1995, while Apple did not buy NeXT until December 1996.

Why so many countries involved in this - the address on one of their sites

http://www.medison.se/contacteng.html

is in the UK, here

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q =DA12+5JQ

24 miles away - perhaps I'll drive past and see what is there.

Once again the FSF are ahead of the game - by asking GNU contributors to please contribute their actual copyright to the FSF. That's how come the FSF don't take legal cases where some scumbag corporate is redistributing Linux without respecting the GPL (ie., illegally): they don't own the copyright on the kernel. (Fortunately lots of the basic toolchain are FSF's so in those circumstances there's generally enough FSF code to actually stop the bastards getting away with it.)

Linus is wrong about this and the FSF is right.

Once again the FSF are ahead of the game - by asking GNU contributors to please contribute their actual copyright to the FSF. That's how come the FSF don't take legal cases where some scumbag corporate is redistributing Linux without respecting the GPL (ie., illegally): they don't own the copyright on the kernel. (Fortunately lots of the basic toolchain are FSF's so in those circumstances there's generally enough FSF code to actually stop the bastards getting away with it.)

Linus is wrong about this and the FSF is right.

The point about fuel being held underground is being trotted out by lots of people in this discussion, but I don't think it is safe to assume that the fuel's volume doesn't change with the weather/time of day. And I have an anecdote to counter this ;)

I live in the UK, and several years ago I filled my car up only to have the fuel tank overflow later in the day because of the thermal expansion of the petrol. Early (before sunrise) on a very frosty morning I filled my car up at a BP petrol station that certainly has underground tanks (Google maps). I filled the car to the top (as I always used to do), drove the remaining few miles to work, and did my day's graft (i.e. bunking off and reading slashdot). Even though it was a winter's day, the sun had been out and when I went out to my car there was a bad smell of petrol, and it was clear that the fuel had expanded and overflowed out the filler cap!

As I said, I always used to fill my car to the very top[1], but had never before nor since had this occur, even when the car had been sitting in the summer sun all day with a full tank. I think that because I had filled my car up after a cold night and then left the car in the gutless winter sun, the temperature increase was enough to make it over flow. In the summer the car would get much hotter, and so surely an overflow would be worse? But I never had it overflow in the summer, so to me it looks like the petrol station's petrol does change temperature with the ambient temperature, and sometimes you can get more petrol than you're supposed to.

There's a few other things I'd like to mention... British filling stations often have quite a bit of metal sticking out the ground where the tanks get refilled, and this would no doubt have an effect on the fuel's temperature in the tanks. I also think that people here are assuming the tanks are buried quite deep... from the Google map I linked to above, you can see that part of the station's forecourt is concrete, the rest is tarmac. I should think that the concrete area is just large concrete slabs over the tanks, so how thick would that concrete be? 10 inches? A foot? That's not deep underground. Also, first thing in the morning the station isn't busy, so if the pumps are sitting out on a forecourt at 1 degree Celcius the pumps and pipes will be cold. Depending on the pump's design, the fuel might get a good chilling before it goes through the volume measuring guage. And I bet petrol's specific heat capacity is less than water: changing the temperature of petrol might be quite easy compared to the liquid we're all most familiar with.... /me googles... it is 4.19 kJ/kgK for water versus 2.13 kJ/kgK for petty.

The way fuel prices are in the UK, I am interested in anyway to save a bit at the pump. I should think that there are some petrol stations that, for whatever reason, are susceptable to the petrol getting colder at night than their competition. Also if you filled up from a pump that is less used on the forecourt (i.e. the one furthest from the shop door), it might be colder than the other pumps -> chills your petrol, more goes in the tank.

TFA talked about Canada having temperature aware fuel guages, the USA not. I don't know what we have in the UK, but there might be some pumps around that aren't temperature aware. Food for thought...

[1] I don't fill up all the way anymore, I tend to put in 20UKP's worth when the tank gets low. That's about 200 miles worth, and by putting in the same monetary amount of petrol each time I can keep an eye on the efficency of my driving easily if I reset the trip-o-meter at the petty station. Also, why fill the car to the very top - you're only wasting fuel to carry all that fuel. I tend to only fill up all the way these days if I'm doing a long journey (and so also won't be familiar with the local filling stations).

Why the fuck are fishermen and roads and a cruiseship dock there in the first place?

Here's a real easy way to save it. GO AWAY. Not just the tourists and fishermen either, everyone including the scientists. Just leave it alone.

Maybe shoot all the stray dogs first. Put a patrol boat a mile out and sink anyone that gets close to the island.

And don't whine about the displaced fishermen, build some fish farms. There isn't anywhere on earth with an ocean fishing industry where overfishing doesn't happen and the fishermen all wonder why there are so fewer fish. It's the clear cutting of the sea.

My initial reaction was that, come the European launch, if the iPhone doesn't have 3G/UMTS/HSPDA then it would be laughed out of court. However, on reflection, it sounds as if Apple's attitude is:

GPRS is good enough to check your EMAIL and gives good phone coverage. If you want a decent web-surfing experience on the train, subway or in a coffee shop, your best bet is if some bright spark has installed WiFi. So lets do a phone which makes a much better job of doing WiFi than the competition and not weigh it down and waste battery life by putting in 3G capability. We're Apple - maybe we're influential enough to put some momentum behind WiFi coverage.

(PS - am I right in thinking that EDGE/GPRS and 3G/UTMD/HSPDA are two incompatible "family trees" of protocols, and a phone that supports both needs a certain amount of duplicate "gubbins" inside?)

I have a (UK) phone that does GRPS*, UMTD & HSPDA*, bluetooth and WiFi and while 3G coverage here is ok (and HSPDA being rolled out - and very nice when you can get it) it wouldn't be much good without GRPS as a fallback. You certainly can't use the internet reliably on a train (I've tried - and did manage to send an EMAIL from a train here but it was a labour of love and certainly wasn't HSPDA!) The phone (MDA Vario II - AKA HTC TyTan) is a bit of a brick and it certainly doesn't flip seamlessly between WiFi hotspots (cough)WM5(cough).

PS - real Apple Fanbois should, of course, equip themselves with a backpack containing a laptop with a HSPDA data card and a compact WAP. Then they can whip out their iPhone and impress people anywhere with HSPDA coverage... (* OK - PCMCIA, as they say, so I'm trying out multiple permutations for the ETLAs and DETLAs here:-)

Microsoft Corp. is giving computer users up to 500 megabytes of online storage for their documents, music, photos and video.

Well, let's try it:

Google Search for "ODF file". Every single link appears to be relevant.

In particular, I draw your attention to the fourth item down: ODF Converter Add-ins for Offce - a 1.6MB plugin which allows both opening and saving ODF files in Office.

> It's been a while; is there any sign of the ucode updates being
> available, especially in light of the C2D/Q incorrect TLB invalidation
> + recent ucode to fix this?

That microcode update is not needed on any recent Linux kernel; it flushes
the TLBs in a way that is fine.

Would that be Burt Rutan, or a range of cheerful woven-palm furniture particularly popular for the modern conservatory?

And then I looked up this mistake on Google and found out just how common it is.

Oh well. Can't do anything these days without composite materials...

HP blade servers are 6U and fit up to 16 HP ProLiant BL30 or BL35p server blades

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/1233 0_div/12330_div.html

You can get at least dual-core dual-processor BL35p units

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bl35p+dual-proces sor+dual-core

Not sure you can get quad-core yet, but I can't imagine that'll be long when quad-core processors are getting more commonplace.

I think you can't quite hit these numbers - you have to put some extra support hardware in each rack. But it's not far off.

The Art of UNIX Programming

Interestingly, I read about a bunch of tiny worms on their way back from space. They've been up there long enough to produce 25 generations and scientists are going to examine their DNA to see if it's changed along the way due to aforementioned radiation.

Links at Google News.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=safari+adblock

First hit...

This http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arn umber=179738 if you can get it (IEEE login required, Idon't have one).

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Magnetic%20For ce%20Scanning%20Tunneling%20Microscope%20Imaging%2 0of%20Overwritten%20Data%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Then they suddenly became very friendly with Microsoft (not sure if it was connected with the change of management after Blair kicked the existing one out by saying bad things about Iraq or whether Bill came by with a sack of cash) - they developed iPlayer which was based on Windows Media Player, so now Linux and even Mac users were left out in the cold. In effect the BBC started discriminating against people unwilling or unable to pay the Microsoft Tax.

The BBC have lately promised to also make the content available on MacOS X eventually, but no dates have been fixed. In the end for it to work on the Mac they will have to offer their content either in an open DRM-free format or use Apples DRM. If they stick with the DRM route it will mean Linux and other OS users will be out of luck. FWIW (not a lot probably) here's a petition to make iPlayer cross platform (with a name like iSomething you'd expect it to work on a mac!).

Nice to see a classic troll still catching the idiots.

(It is one of egg troll's many masterpieces)

This has been doing the rounds since long before that.

What exactly are you going to be doing in NK?

You make me sick. Nuke the country? Saddam WAS NOT A RISK TO AMERICAN SECURITY HE JUST HAD LOADS OF OIL.

People like you should have your vote taken away. genocide is a minor thing to you isn't it?

http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?num=10&so=0& q=cia+duration%3Along&start=0

http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?num=10&so=0& q=iraq+duration%3Along&start=0

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=chatthe planet

how about you do some research into what is actually going on in iraq and what your country has done in its 'great history of supporting freedom and democracy'

You make me sick. Nuke the country? Saddam WAS NOT A RISK TO AMERICAN SECURITY HE JUST HAD LOADS OF OIL.

People like you should have your vote taken away. genocide is a minor thing to you isn't it?

http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?num=10&so=0& q=cia+duration%3Along&start=0

http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?num=10&so=0& q=iraq+duration%3Along&start=0

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=chatthe planet

how about you do some research into what is actually going on in iraq and what your country has done in its 'great history of supporting freedom and democracy'

Not just Google Earth: it's on Google Maps too.

Any yet the very first link when searching for WTC7 DAMAGE shows a clear picture of the building with a large chunk taken out of the lower section as well as first hand accounts of the damage from people who saw it first hand.

Funny that.

"Now, if only they would filter out the sites that CAUSE the malware and spyware"

That would be the responcibility of the ISPs and the host providers.

"so many garbage/search sites come up when you search simple things like drug names and such"

Try the Product Search .. :)

Google search on viagra (the high blood pressure drug formerly knows as sildenafil citrate and remarketed as an aphrodisiac) .. 64,300,000 hits ...

was Re:Google...

Funny, my first reaction to this was "Looks like this is the new version of the 'switcheurs' troll", and I was right.

BTW, doesn't Ellen Feiss count as a "switcheur" too?

A simple search on the subject reveals that HBO programming and, in my case, Braveheart on AMC are among the many selections now restricted for playback or recording by Windows Media Censor Edition.

I suppose it might be approaching $10 / imperial gallon, but the fuel I bought today was a little over seven dollars per US gallon.

Here's a table of UK prices.

It works out at about 10 UK pence (20c) per mile for my 1200cc car (which happily exceeds 80mph).

I've been using computers for decades, and I haven't memorised a fraction of the keyboard shortcuts I could find useful.

For some applications you can buy a keyboard with preprinted shortcuts on keys - Final Cut, for example.

At $150 this keyboard would have been extremely competitive with such products; special keyboards can easily cost $200. However, at $1500, it's less relevant.

Michael

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=intelligent+pig

Oink.

I am a zombie (or robot), and so's my wife. And so, dear reader, are you. If you're thinking "...but I don't feel like a zombie/robot, (a) how do you know what it would feel like to be a (philosophical) zombie or robot of equivalent complexity to your current state? and (b) I think you are watching the shadows on the cave wall and believing them to be alive.

A Defence against that attack vector already exists for the savvy !

just ask google

There's a great piece of kit made by Alvarion called GSM NOW which is basically a celltower cabin on the back of a pickup with a telescopic mast.

I don't know about where you are, but in remote parts of Scotland GSM coverage is provided by transportable celltowers which have a small cabin, an extremely sturdy mast and a diesel generator to power the lot. They need to be very strong, because in parts of the north-west we have pretty windy winters.

Maybe you should go and tell the members of the Scottish Nationalist Party and Plaid Cymru that one.

Again, looking at the definition of "nation" we find

A people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently language; a nationality. A relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country.

So, usually an independent government, but not always. The United Kingdom is a union of small nations. Those small nations live in small countries. Which together form a larger nation and a larger country.

Personally, I prefer the "supernationality" of being British over the constituent bits, but that doesn't mean I have to deny England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland any national identity. As for the passports, it's also got European Union on them, but I wouldn't consider myself European (or do I have no choice, now that it's written on my passport?).

I'm afraid I can't think of Sandra Bullock the same way anymore since that song by The Beautiful South.

Depends on what definition of "country" you use. For the definition the territory occupied by a nation, then England, Scotland and Wales would qualify as separate countries.

Unfortunately, that doesn't give me a full idea of what's going on, as if you don't know the area, you don't know what lane you have to be in at a given time.

If I'm travelling a strange route I'll usually go over the potentially tricky parts with Google Earth first. Assuming they have hi-res imagery of the area, you can get down low and easily see road markings and so forth to let you plan which lane to be in at junctions.

Mind, I got caught out when part of the route back from one place turned out to be completely different (due to a one-way system) and I ended up heading in the wrong direction on the wrong motorway :-)

And she isn't even blonde! Its not exactly a sat-nav story at all, she drove up to a rail crossing and didn't know how to confront the unusual mechanism in front of her. The biggest deal is that the crossing wasn't marked on the sat-nav, and this rail crossing didn't have enough flashing lights to warn of oncoming trains (they usually do, but this one was in the middle of nowhere - google maps simply doesn't know where Ffynongain is - its actually near here

Apart from the green light thing, she didn't have enough common-sense to open both gates and drive through and then close them, but in her defence she is 20 year old, and is cute as a button - see the original BBC news story

You mean it will be made after all ? omg http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22titanic+ too%22+%22missed+the+iceberg%22&btnG=Search&meta=

Unfortunately, there is another who remembers...

For instance, the layout of nuclear facilities, the locations and materiel of defensive bases, or the site layouts and security measures of critical but vulnerable civilian infrastructure (dams, nuclear plants, hazardous waste facilities, fuel refineries, chemical plants, etc). It used to be that taking high-resolution pictures of such installations, systematically mapping the civilian and military infrastructure, and giving them out to foreign governments was considered treason.