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User: Myrddin+Wyllt

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Comments · 215

  1. Re:That's impossible! Got Bible? on Language May Have Evolved Earlier Than Supposed · · Score: 1

    My point was about interpretation, not scientific accuracy. The GGGPP dismisses a 6,000 year old biblical universe as 'misinterpretation', armed as he is with current scientific evidence that it is probably a little older than that. In the 17th and 18th centuries, minds as sharp as Kepler and Newton were happy to interpret the bible as indicating an age of ~6,00 years, despite there being 'really very little Biblical basis for it'. They clearly believed such a chronology was indicated directly in the scriptures.

    I am suggesting that the change in this interpretation, from 'oh yes, there it is' to 'really very little basis' is directly influenced by scientific evidence. Modern day Christians who accept a ~4 billion year old earth / ~14 billion year old universe won't see a literal chronology in the bible because it doesn't gel with the evidence. Previous generations had no such dilemma, and therefore no problem interpreting the chronology as literal.

    I used Newton and Kepler as examples of rational and deductive thinkers to demonstrate that the 'misinterpretation' was non-trivial. I didn't think that mentioning that a (relatively) obscure, Catholic-hating Irish archbishop agreed with them added much to my point:-)

  2. Re:That's impossible! Got Bible? on Language May Have Evolved Earlier Than Supposed · · Score: 1

    No, it doesn't say that. People misinterpreting the Bible say that.

    People like, oh, Kepler and Newton? They both put the age of the world at about 6,000 years based on biblical evidence. Did they 'misinterpret', or are you going to change all biblical interpretations on the basis of improved scientific evidence? In which case, what is the point of holding the bible up as 'unalterable truth'?

  3. Re:That's impossible! Got Bible? on Language May Have Evolved Earlier Than Supposed · · Score: 1

    we're already playing god.

    well, somebody's got to do it.

  4. Re:lift capacity, deadheading, and loss of helium on Boeing-Skyhook Airship Faces Technical Challenges · · Score: 1

    = 2,200 lbs, whereas the standard (non-metric) ton = 2,240 lbs. 40 lbs or less than 20 kg difference. So at the full 40 tonne load, the difference is about the same as an adult male.

    40 x 40 lbs = 1,600 lbs. An adult male what, exactly? Or is the obesity problem in the US even worse than they're letting on?

  5. Re:Biodiesel FTW on Mercedes To Phase Out Gasoline By 2015 · · Score: 1
    Biodiesel, produced properly, just recycles atmospheric CO2, so there is no net generation.

    Also, 75% (theoretical) and 45% (commonly achieved) efficiency in diesel engines beats the hell out of 'any other internal combustion engine', for values of 'any other' containing sparks or gasoline.

  6. Not a big leap on Mercedes To Phase Out Gasoline By 2015 · · Score: 1

    If the main focus of this is going to be diesel engines running on biofuels, there doesn't seem a lot of extra work to be done. Their light commercial diesels, especially the 2.1L fitted in the Sprinter van, is a phenomenal engine: quiet, powerful, economical and very tractable.

    I don't have direct experience of their diesel-engined cars (except seeing them go past me on the motorway), but I would imagine the technology is pretty similar.

    The switch from petro- to bio-diesel is a lot more straightforward than with gasoline, so I would expect this to be the area they focus on.

  7. Re:I find the obsession with tech in the class bad on How Technology Changes Classrooms · · Score: 1

    I think you learn significant things by reading poets like Ovid or Lucretius.

    Of course, to get the most out of these poets, you need to read them in the original Klingon....

    (Sorry, couldn't resist).

    A lot of important scientific works were also written in Latin, albeit a debased and bastardised form. I only did a year of Latin in school, so I can't say if there is a richer experience in reading Newton's 'Principia' in Latin as opposed to Motte's near-contemporary translation. 'Axiomata, sive leges motus' still sounds cool, though.

  8. Re:I find the obsession with tech in the class bad on How Technology Changes Classrooms · · Score: 1

    Your 'conceptual' approach appears to be an exact replication of the long multiplication algorithm. In fact I'm sure that is pretty much how long multiplication was explained to me in infants school, back in the 60s.

    I think it depends on how good the teacher is, mine made it clear exactly why we were doing what we were doing.

    I don't think that rote learning of tables aids mathematical understanding to any great degree, BUT it is still a worthwhile thing to do. I mean, 100 numbers (or 144 or whatever); at age 7 or 8 that stuff sticks in a week or so and stays there. Well worth the investment in time just for things like shopping bills, playing darts, settling bets, buying timber and any number of other day to day tasks.

  9. Re:LOTTERY!?!?! on Bletchley Park Faces Financial Rescue · · Score: 1
    I'm a maths graduate myself, but I always feel a bit peeved that Turing and the mathematicians get all the attention whenever Bletchley Park is mentioned.

    The actual design and build of the big machines was done by an engineer called Tommy Flowers, which introduces further semi-ironic coincidence as he was also responsible for designing and building ERNIE, the machine behind an earlier UK Government-run numbers racket

  10. Re:Use short NON-GIVEN name! on Best DNS Naming Scheme For Small/Medium Businesses? · · Score: 1

    I can't think of something more unprofessional than using given names for computers.

    Wow, that's a serious imagination shortfall you have there. Come and work with me for a day, I'll show you at least THREE things.....

    I think the main problem with 'themed' names is extensiblity, so yes, it's shortsighted and therefore unprofessional. Having said that, I worked at a place where the 'original' DEC servers were called 'NODDY' and 'BIGEARS' (yup, TWO servers, we were a largish high-tech outfit). Once there was 'a computer on every desk', rather than a VT100 in every office, the naming scheme went to a more standard 'Location-Function-IndexNo' schema for the new NT boxes, but the venerable old boxes kept their Blytonesque names.

  11. Re:it's apparently amateur night on Interview With Author of the First Spoof Language · · Score: 1

    Not according to my company's HR department. A few weeks ago they put out a job posting for a "Pearl" developer...

    So.....an oyster then?

  12. The Edsel of poker on Poker Program Battles Humans In Vegas · · Score: 1
    TFA says they will be playing LIMIT hold 'em. Limit works for some types of poker, but it makes hold 'em an ugly, grinding game.

    I can see computers doing well at this fairly soon, as the options are much more limited and (comparatively) easily enumerated.

    The pros they have lined up didn't ring any bells with me, but last year Phil Laak opened up a can of whup-ass on the machine. It will be interesting to see how it goes this time around.

    Incidentally, I think pot-limit is a more skillful game in tournament format; it takes away one of the few obvious moves fish have against pros. In a ring game, though, NLTH is definitely 'The Cadillac of Poker'.

  13. Re:Average live median age? on TV Viewers' Average Age Hits 50 · · Score: 1
    A lot of 'average' figures quoted in the media are actually medians; I'm thinking especially of house prices and salaries, as these have unrepresentative outliers on the high end which would skew the mean as a measure of central tendency.

    I can't remember ever hearing these figures described as 'medians' in a news report, so I suppose a lot of people who equate 'average' with 'arithmetic mean' just assume that is what is being stated.

  14. Re:Crowds not wise in sports betting, that for sur on "Wisdom of Crowds" Works For Individuals Too · · Score: 1

    Assuming you accept that sporting events are non-linear enough to ensure that there is NO practical way to determine the outcome beforehand, sports betting markets are actually one of the best demonstrations of the accuracy of the 'Wisdom of Crowds'.

    Weight of money makes the market, especially on betting exchanges like Betfair, and any statistical analysis you care to do will show a very close relationship between prices and long-term frequency. As the only commodity being traded here is information, these markets are frighteningly efficient.

  15. Re:Microsoft has company on Bill Gates Chews Out Microsoft · · Score: 1

    And by the way, Bill Gates was not frustrated over Windows in particular...he appears to have been frustrated by confusing names and un-necessary questions on the Windows website.

    Ahem... from the memo...

    Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

  16. Re:What about my A/C kicking into overdrive? on Power Consumption of a Typical PC While Gaming · · Score: 1
    I'd never heard of SEER before, very informative.

    I did smile a little at the units used (BTU/W*h), and the added conversion stages; it reminded me a little of my father calculating the size of motor required to lift nest-box lids on a chicken farm.

    Foot-pounds, horsepower, watts, hours, minutes and seconds... took about two pages.

    I did the same calculation in SI units in two lines and he looked at me as if to say "Where's the challenge in that, ANYONE could do it".

    I didn't realise Canada still used BTUs, or is that just because the A/C equipment is American?

  17. Re:I don't know about books... on Entertainment Weekly Bemoans Lack of Great Science Books · · Score: 1

    Outstanding book, I agree, but it was published in 1979 and so doesn't qualify as 'the last 25 years'

  18. Re:Okay, this calls for a heist. on Lego Secret Vault Contains All Sets In History · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If you've never seen it, check out The Lego Italian Job, part 1 and part 2, which were the first two YouTube vids I ever watched.

    Awesome.

  19. Misquoted by the BBC on The Beginnings of a TLD Free-For-All? · · Score: 5, Informative
    I actually listened to the original interview on Radio 5 Live (lunchtime today), and Dr Twomey's comments seem to have been taken out of context.

    Firstly, the interviewer started under the misapprehension that domain names were running out, which Dr. Twomey corrected, and said the problem was with IPv4 addresses. The following comments then followed, which concern the introduction of IPv6:

    Dr Paul Twomey, chief executive of Icann, told BBC News that the proposals would result in the biggest change to the way the internet worked in decades. "The impact of this will be different in different parts of the world. But it will allow groups, communities and business to express their identities online. "Like the United States in the 19th Century, we are in the process of opening up new real estate, new land, and people will go out and claim parts of that land and use it for various reasons they have. "It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the internet." This is included in TFA, where it is implied that he was referring to domain names.

    The comments he actually made about DNS and TLDs were much tamer, mainly relating to internationalization and the use of unicode URLs.

    I listened to this while driving, so I may have misunderstood slightly, but there was definitely no sense of "OMG TLD free-for-all" in the interview as broadcast.

  20. Re:It is perfectly understandable on Stephen Hawking Turned Down Knighthood · · Score: 2, Funny

    The people who tend to accept them are the ones whose careers are on the slide anyway.

    So true.

  21. Re:Why can't it be simple. on Safeguarding Data From Big Brother Sven? · · Score: 1

    The problem is that we don't have a tin-foil hat approved method that is easy.

    Checking the public key fingerprint over the telephone works quite well if you know the other party, even slightly.

    Not totally foolproof I know, but now we're into tin-foil underwear territory, not just the standard headgear level of paranoia.

  22. Re:Shameless karma whore on Trees' Leaves Grow At a Cool 70° All Over the World · · Score: 1
    err.... Liberia, not Libya, apparently.(Just looked it up - that'll teach me not to believe everything sea-captains in pubs tell me).

    So an extra 3 million people rather than 6 million....

  23. Re:Shameless karma whore on Trees' Leaves Grow At a Cool 70° All Over the World · · Score: 3, Funny
    In the immortal words of the sea-captain in Blackadder:

    "Opinion is divided on the subject - I say it is; everyone else says it isn't."

    (OK, not everyone, Burma and Libya are still holding out as well)

  24. Re:For those that use this... on Bell, SuperMicro Sued Over GPL · · Score: 1

    Is there a point to having cake if you can't eat it?

    It doesn't matter either way; the cake is a lie.

  25. Re:Wrong. on Oldest Computer Music Unveiled · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It would never have been "Deutschland Uber Alles" by 1951, "Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza" maybe ...

    P.S. My masters in London haven't allowed me to have a monarchy since 1246 (or 1415 if you count Owain Glyndwr). Can't say I've missed it much. Love the EU though, first time in 900 years the Welsh haven't been treated as second-class citizens....