You might be right that the UK (once more) drags it's feet to get in line with their neighbours but really, the continent runs on 230V.
The fable that the continent has also remained on 220 V is only to pacify British feelings of guild, from 1990 onward the EU countries increased their mains voltage in small steps and were done in the year 2000, a little quicker than the original plan that called for 2004.
Just as much a fable is the story the UK would have incurred great or unacceptable cost for this change, technically and with good coordination it can be done in mere hours, it was and is simply a lack of will.
At the time this harmonisation was planned, mid to late eighties, the typical power supply for domestic apparatus was fairly crude and thus the change would have had economic benefits.
The introduction of better and switchable power supplies has largely done away with many of the original reasons for harmonisation and consequently we've seen a slight increase in the permissible range.
It is still possible to buy and sell the old incandescents from existing stock, it is not allowed to manufacture or import them.
Environmentally there are no objections to the Mercury containing fluorescents as here in Europe we tend to recycle, landfills are strictly limited as a last resort.
But since a (very) few years anyone with half a brain buys LED, not cheap but long life and extremely efficient.
Uh no, since the year 2000 all of the EU, that includes the UK, runs on 230V.
The UK has not changed it's 13 Amp plugs but the domestic circuits can be up to 40 Amp, on the continent they are typically 16Amp, meaning you can pull up to 3600 Watts.
There are manufacturers selling 2000-2200 W. vacuum cleaners.
There's a vice-mayor that heard stories of some city workers having trouble with the compatibility of certain file formats and he wants an investigation into it.
This says nothing about the Linux OS or something else OSS being ditched, it doesn't even mean he's getting his investigation!
The difference between you and the Munich people are they have a couple of professionals selecting both hardware and software to be compatible from the onset.
Like I run Kubuntu 14.04 on a Thinkpad and hardly ever experience breakage, Firefox and Thunderbird are since years examples of stability.
My provider suns their mail, pop and imap, on Linux and again perfect stability.
Additionally, Munich does not run 'the latest and greatest' but a well proven Kernel and set of applications.
An other little piece of info, the newspaper article refers to observations by a vice-mayor of the city and the complaints he heard were not about Linux the OS but about compatibility issues with the Office packages, a problem that would go away if MS had a proper implementation of the odf standard.
Such forces would be comparable to those that caused lunar dust to stick to astronauts' space suits.
Ohh stop it! Now after so many years we should just admit the dust was sticking because they were too hasty starting to use the new set in the area 51 studio's and the black paint hadn't yet fully dried.
So what would be the difference with some schmuck logging in on your normal WIFI?
This system has Comcast's authentication, vs. your regular WIFI has the usual WPA or whatever protocol, you lose or share either, you could be in for abuse.
If you are stupid enough to use WEP authentication that's the channel going to be abused, not the Comcast one:)
See the US legal system, especially in criminal law is not at all fair.
Or how do you explain that a nation with 5% of the world's population holds 25% of the world's prisoners, are you guys 500% more criminal?
Another example, your legal system makes the plea bargain possible, you get a sentence without proper judicial oversight, it stinks to high heaven.
Or the fact you can actually rent a cop...Legalised corruption.
Or the violence and rape in your prison system, in a civilised country the prison management would have to stand trial, in the US it's just accepted; once in the pound you'll be Bubba's bride.
Or the number of prisoners in solitary confinement, totally against all scientific wisdom and international treaties.
Get over it, Snowden might have violated parts of your written law but he sure as hell also did the US population and humanity as a whole a service.
And not all landlords are asses re. the value of their property.
Given enough incentive, renters willing to pay for an environmental friendly home can also be an interesting market.
I also know of non-profits being set up to build PV and wind generation on other's property, the landlord would be a fool not to rent out his roof space.
What will be needed is a split in ownership of the infrastructure (the lines) vs. the generation, something that works quite nice in the developed parts of Europe.
If you run a lab and a CIO or CFO comes in the scope is an essential part of your work's legitimacy, even if it's just hooked up to the headphone output of your media player.
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The fable that the continent has also remained on 220 V is only to pacify British feelings of guild, from 1990 onward the EU countries increased their mains voltage in small steps and were done in the year 2000, a little quicker than the original plan that called for 2004.
Just as much a fable is the story the UK would have incurred great or unacceptable cost for this change, technically and with good coordination it can be done in mere hours, it was and is simply a lack of will.
At the time this harmonisation was planned, mid to late eighties, the typical power supply for domestic apparatus was fairly crude and thus the change would have had economic benefits.
The introduction of better and switchable power supplies has largely done away with many of the original reasons for harmonisation and consequently we've seen a slight increase in the permissible range.
Environmentally there are no objections to the Mercury containing fluorescents as here in Europe we tend to recycle, landfills are strictly limited as a last resort.
But since a (very) few years anyone with half a brain buys LED, not cheap but long life and extremely efficient.
The UK has not changed it's 13 Amp plugs but the domestic circuits can be up to 40 Amp, on the continent they are typically 16Amp, meaning you can pull up to 3600 Watts.
There are manufacturers selling 2000-2200 W. vacuum cleaners.
There's a vice-mayor that heard stories of some city workers having trouble with the compatibility of certain file formats and he wants an investigation into it.
This says nothing about the Linux OS or something else OSS being ditched, it doesn't even mean he's getting his investigation!
You must be developing or at least love Unity :)
Like I run Kubuntu 14.04 on a Thinkpad and hardly ever experience breakage, Firefox and Thunderbird are since years examples of stability.
My provider suns their mail, pop and imap, on Linux and again perfect stability.
Additionally, Munich does not run 'the latest and greatest' but a well proven Kernel and set of applications.
An other little piece of info, the newspaper article refers to observations by a vice-mayor of the city and the complaints he heard were not about Linux the OS but about compatibility issues with the Office packages, a problem that would go away if MS had a proper implementation of the odf standard.
Such forces would be comparable to those that caused lunar dust to stick to astronauts' space suits.
Ohh stop it! Now after so many years we should just admit the dust was sticking because they were too hasty starting to use the new set in the area 51 studio's and the black paint hadn't yet fully dried.
And can be funny too :)
Sure, but due to the shitty compression of mpeg2 you can only get an SD channel within the conventional channel width.
First of all, DVB-T is low quality
It is what's known as SD, Standard Definition.
Some countries have and others are moving to DVB-T2 which is HD.
The Netherlands usually the 3 public and one regional that are free and I'd be surprised if it weren't similar in most countries.
Absolutely but logic doesn't always makes you look good and re-elected.
The "Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release" is one solution to the problem, others publishing serious software should do similar.
Incompatibilities aren't recognisable by their number.
Of course all in the name of greater democracy.
As long as the functionality is there I couldn't care less if they changed to an AA, AB, AC etc. scheme.
This system has Comcast's authentication, vs. your regular WIFI has the usual WPA or whatever protocol, you lose or share either, you could be in for abuse.
If you are stupid enough to use WEP authentication that's the channel going to be abused, not the Comcast one :)
It is not a public and open WIFI hotspot.
Those that don't give access won't get it themself, simple.
See the US legal system, especially in criminal law is not at all fair.
Or how do you explain that a nation with 5% of the world's population holds 25% of the world's prisoners, are you guys 500% more criminal?
Another example, your legal system makes the plea bargain possible, you get a sentence without proper judicial oversight, it stinks to high heaven.
Or the fact you can actually rent a cop...Legalised corruption.
Or the violence and rape in your prison system, in a civilised country the prison management would have to stand trial, in the US it's just accepted; once in the pound you'll be Bubba's bride.
Or the number of prisoners in solitary confinement, totally against all scientific wisdom and international treaties.
Get over it, Snowden might have violated parts of your written law but he sure as hell also did the US population and humanity as a whole a service.
Some things require Old Tech.
And not all landlords are asses re. the value of their property.
Given enough incentive, renters willing to pay for an environmental friendly home can also be an interesting market.
I also know of non-profits being set up to build PV and wind generation on other's property, the landlord would be a fool not to rent out his roof space.
What will be needed is a split in ownership of the infrastructure (the lines) vs. the generation, something that works quite nice in the developed parts of Europe.
The problem is such conversions end up with about 25 - 35% efficiency.
Using the Tesla's batteries while stationary is a damn good alternative.
Any True Blue Republican that doesn't agree with you is a traitor and Palin will have his junk!
If you run a lab and a CIO or CFO comes in the scope is an essential part of your work's legitimacy, even if it's just hooked up to the headphone output of your media player.