I just saw someone else post something about the Peel 50. http://microcarmuseum.com/video/p50.html The car for the future that originates from the past. I LOVE it!!!!
So.. Broadband.. really, does it NEED to be in every home such that governments have to encourage it with tax breaks, grants, implement it directly? Do we who have it mainly use it to download mp3s, mpegs, softwarz, play online games?
Isn't it just a luxury for most of us? An overhyped luxury? A damaging luxury (the more we shop at online mega merchants likes of amaz*n, doesn't that make it harder for the local store in our home town to stay in business - result - empty storespace.. unemployed folks.. disenfranchised folk... desperate crims loitering around to steal that ipod off you so they can sell it to a fence...
On the one hand, I feel that if you are being compensated more than adequately (or maybe just above market rate) in terms of you actual money and totality of other perks.. and you've tried negotiation to maintain these services,.. and the additional costs to be incurred by you if you were to pay for them yourself are bearable,.. then maybe you should just accept the changes. On the otherhand, if your employer never does anything for charity, maybe you should be asking why they expect you to? My feelings is that the only company you should ever bust your own bollocks for is one that YOU own, or that a loved family member owns. Your bollock busting efforts are in the end for the benefit of shareholders (who as shareholders contribute.. what?) Does the employer offer a bonus scheme?
Aaaah! Can't find it. Maybe this is one of those cases where I thought of the idea first! So in greater detail, methanol boils at a lower temp than water at same pressure, so will be still able to develop enough pressure to turn a turbine at the temp of "waste" steam. Infact, doesn't need to be methanol.. could be any nice liquid that vaporises, is stable and (hopefully) non toxic etc etc...
I hear conventional powestations are only about 30% efficient. However this has a lot to do with them being designed to use steam at 600 psi (or maybe its 600 atmospheres - not sure)
So a lot of the steam gets vented to the atmosphere because it doesn't have "enough" energy for the steam turbines (!). I also heard that some bright spark has recently realised that if they use the steam (that is about to be vented because its no good for the turbines) to heat methanol or something, they get to improve efficiency by another 30%. And for some reason the methanol cycle is closed loop (but they don't think of doing that with the steam). Other benefits include cooler flue gasses, most of the toxic stuff condenses in the chimney stack instead of floating off in those pretty clouds.
It seems that ingenious Brits were ready to send pidgeons over the front line on balloons as well. I can't quite remember what for - they were either carrier pidgeons for use by secret agents or they carried tiny bombs on them to cause havoc amongst the enemy forces (and I guess they wanted to be sure those ones weren't carrier/racing pidgeons..
I wish I could find a website for you.. maybe another Brit/.er can find it!
Instead of depending on wind to drive turbine blades for generating green electricty, put the turbines in the oceans in the path of those strong currents. That way the NIMBY folks don't complain about the beautiful countryside being blighted, and when the generation isn't dependant on the weather. Water currents will impart more force on the blades then air (so more power can be derived) and there are plenty of big currents in the oceans and just offshore. Negative points.. fish, whales,seals and boats... execpt if thery are deep enough the boats will probably pass over then and if the blades turn slowly then the fish and seals can swim around them..
I think this is where I type the/$$$$ signs!
Bummer its now open source!
Dammit! I hate it when someone else gets a patent and the credit (and the money) for an idea I thought of as well!! From now on, I'm going to pubish ALL my great ideas, so atleast they can't get patent on it!! (does that make them open source?)
I'll start with microwave radiation tuned to the same range of resonant frequencies as present between various key atoms in molecules of explosives.. When the microwave radiation makes the bonds resonate, they break starting the explosive reaction! Kaboom. Buried mines? Kaboom! IED? Kaboom! Bullets in magasine? Kaboom! etc
What I mean by that, is live the one life you have like you realise you've got a limited lease! The problem with most people is that they waste a lot of time (doing unfullfilling things) and live AS IF they ARE immortal. Suddenly they discover they are old, they've wasted the opportunities that they had, they are suddenly too aware that they've not got long left and then they start crying "oh give me another ten years/day etc.. I promise to make good use of these extra years.."
You don't find this kind of attitude in much evidence in extreme sportsmen/sportswomen.. why? Because they are doing stuff they LOVE and they are all too aware that each day could be their last and so they DON'T casually put things off (forever).
Can it really be a coincidence that those areas with the tightest gun control laws (Washington D.C. and New York) have the highest violent crime rates?
Good point.. but what effect is there on the rates of accidental shootings and crimes of passion involving a gun - (domestic arguments, kids playing with mommy's/daddy's things, cleaning incidents, dropping incidents, things just getting overblown during an argument?) That's what I would be worried about if guns became as available in London.
You should have a helmet mounted video camera permanently streaming video over a wireless network to a tivo (or home made tivo) which you can submit as evidence when you make your police complaint! Actually, make that TWO video cameras (one pointed forward and one pointed behind you!)
Okay.. I have to ask.. if everyone starts carrying guns, doesn't that eventually mean that muggers will just turn into shooters, who will then calmly sort through your pockets after shooting first?
I remember looking at a friends pocket pc back in the late 90's and thinking.. "Wow" this is really cool, I can't seem to crash it, its seems reasonably speedy, its got real programs AND it fits on this tiny little thing!.. When can I buy this to run on my home computer?
I sort of have a regret that MS didn't produce versions of Win95 Win98 without legacy support. Would have made it smaller/faster/more stable - Like Pocket PC?
instead we have lots of paper pushers that are just spinning their wheels moving papers and numbers around to acheve... something... not sure what, but it wouldn't be there without the computer.
Well there would probably be a lot more people with jobs... More labour intensive - gotta employ people to do it!
I think it comes down to "limited resouces demand that we ration our efforts".. sure if we had nothing better to work on it might be a fine idea to direct a significant chunk of our taxes at sending a few bodies to the Moon or Mars or anywhere else, but I think at the moment, we really need to consider the questions of our energy supply, pollution, food and water. And work directly towards solutions to these problems instead of heading up into space and along the way inventing a new "teflon".
Add to the mix the outstanding OEM suspension, and it is completely safe to take the corner above the recommended speed. Hmm.. speed limits adjusted according to the manufacturer's opinion about their car.. Sounds a bit silly to me. Its not like each car is driven in isolation to each other car.
In my Z3, I can (safely) take corners at speeds far in excess of the posted "recommended" limits. Indeed, I frequently don't actually need to slow down for the corners In anycase, I think the more significant factor in risk is the driver. For instance the driver who thinks they can take a corner twice as fast as anyone else just because he drives a Z3...
Just yesterday someone at work overheard me discussing ditching IE and Outlook Express and using Opera instead because of its pop up blocking etc as he had found his computer infected by some browser hijacker. A third person overheard us and volunteered the following story..
Apparently blackmailers have started sending emails with scripts and innocent looking urls to company mailboxes in the hope that someone will click/open a link, and then download a bit of malware/hijacking software which works in the background (secretly downloading kiddie porn etc, and of course maybe propogating itself on to a few more victims)
Then after a few weeks, the victim is contacted and told where to look on their PC to find this stuff and offered an opportunity to reveal passwords/company secrets/pay money or the blackmailer will turn them in to the cops.
When they look at the browser history, because its been secretly going for a few weeks it doesn't just look like a frame up. Even if they don't plant kiddie porn its still bad as many business do operate a "no porn on pain of instant dismissal" policy.
When someone finally spoke out about it at one company they found nine other victims in the same company who had been keeping quiet about it and hoping to handle it on the blackmailer's terms.
But Oh!..then the taxpayer will have to pay development costs, and government unaccountability will result in budget over runs etc!! Hello? Isn't that what happens with most of our current defence contracts already?
That got me thinking.. I could set up an arms company, put in a bid to win some maybe minor defence contract (special low price), go on holiday all year.. When Defence Procurement guy phones up and asks where we are with the development of Project X9999, I tell him..
Oh, very difficult.. behind schedule, need an extension.. and more of your money..
He writes me a check and makes a diary note to call me again same time next year!
Sounds fantastic!
Founder and CEO of Royal Cheese Weapons
"Can you smell my cheese?"
The moral issue about arms manufacture is not that arms are made, but that the salesmen do not necessarily care about the humane credentials of the buyer, or where and how their companies products will eventually be used.
I think the idealistic solution would be to NATIONALISE the arms companies so they only make and sell weapons to our own and allied governments (who share our ethical standards. When they fulfill their production runs they can sit idle, continue to do development work, tender for civilian/civil work...anything but make arms for dubious end customers.
But Oh!..then the taxpayer will have to pay development costs, and government unaccountability will result in budget over runs etc!! Hello? Isn't that what happens with most of our current defence contracts already?
And what about the arms industries outside our borders (e.g. those pesky Frenchies, Russians and Chinese?) Hmm.. their salesmen will just have less competition for the Saudi Riyals and Indonesian (Ringit?) an Sudanese Whatevers (just as examples). Yes, but we won't have contributed to disproportinal violence against the little guy in those countries, or made the arms that were distributed to the private militias etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I just saw someone else post something about the Peel 50. http://microcarmuseum.com/video/p50.html The car for the future that originates from the past. I LOVE it!!!!
Aweswome! I love the way the driver got out and patted his car. An electric one could be good too!
So.. Broadband.. really, does it NEED to be in every home such that governments have to encourage it with tax breaks, grants, implement it directly? Do we who have it mainly use it to download mp3s, mpegs, softwarz, play online games? Isn't it just a luxury for most of us? An overhyped luxury? A damaging luxury (the more we shop at online mega merchants likes of amaz*n, doesn't that make it harder for the local store in our home town to stay in business - result - empty storespace.. unemployed folks.. disenfranchised folk... desperate crims loitering around to steal that ipod off you so they can sell it to a fence...
On the one hand, I feel that if you are being compensated more than adequately (or maybe just above market rate) in terms of you actual money and totality of other perks.. and you've tried negotiation to maintain these services,.. and the additional costs to be incurred by you if you were to pay for them yourself are bearable,.. then maybe you should just accept the changes.
On the otherhand, if your employer never does anything for charity, maybe you should be asking why they expect you to? My feelings is that the only company you should ever bust your own bollocks for is one that YOU own, or that a loved family member owns. Your bollock busting efforts are in the end for the benefit of shareholders (who as shareholders contribute.. what?) Does the employer offer a bonus scheme?
Aaaah! Can't find it. Maybe this is one of those cases where I thought of the idea first! So in greater detail, methanol boils at a lower temp than water at same pressure, so will be still able to develop enough pressure to turn a turbine at the temp of "waste" steam. Infact, doesn't need to be methanol.. could be any nice liquid that vaporises, is stable and (hopefully) non toxic etc etc...
I hear conventional powestations are only about 30% efficient. However this has a lot to do with them being designed to use steam at 600 psi (or maybe its 600 atmospheres - not sure) So a lot of the steam gets vented to the atmosphere because it doesn't have "enough" energy for the steam turbines (!). I also heard that some bright spark has recently realised that if they use the steam (that is about to be vented because its no good for the turbines) to heat methanol or something, they get to improve efficiency by another 30%. And for some reason the methanol cycle is closed loop (but they don't think of doing that with the steam). Other benefits include cooler flue gasses, most of the toxic stuff condenses in the chimney stack instead of floating off in those pretty clouds.
Don't know the url to the story.. will look for..
It seems that ingenious Brits were ready to send pidgeons over the front line on balloons as well. I can't quite remember what for - they were either carrier pidgeons for use by secret agents or they carried tiny bombs on them to cause havoc amongst the enemy forces (and I guess they wanted to be sure those ones weren't carrier/racing pidgeons.. /.er can find it!
I wish I could find a website for you.. maybe another Brit
After wiping my ass with toilet paper.. I tun the paper over and use it again! Genius!I have halved my toilet paper bill!
Instead of depending on wind to drive turbine blades for generating green electricty, put the turbines in the oceans in the path of those strong currents. That way the NIMBY folks don't complain about the beautiful countryside being blighted, and when the generation isn't dependant on the weather. Water currents will impart more force on the blades then air (so more power can be derived) and there are plenty of big currents in the oceans and just offshore. Negative points.. fish, whales,seals and boats... execpt if thery are deep enough the boats will probably pass over then and if the blades turn slowly then the fish and seals can swim around them.. I think this is where I type the /$$$$ signs!
Bummer its now open source!
Dammit! I hate it when someone else gets a patent and the credit (and the money) for an idea I thought of as well!! From now on, I'm going to pubish ALL my great ideas, so atleast they can't get patent on it!! (does that make them open source?)
I'll start with microwave radiation tuned to the same range of resonant frequencies as present between various key atoms in molecules of explosives.. When the microwave radiation makes the bonds resonate, they break starting the explosive reaction! Kaboom. Buried mines? Kaboom! IED? Kaboom! Bullets in magasine? Kaboom! etc
What I mean by that, is live the one life you have like you realise you've got a limited lease! The problem with most people is that they waste a lot of time (doing unfullfilling things) and live AS IF they ARE immortal. Suddenly they discover they are old, they've wasted the opportunities that they had, they are suddenly too aware that they've not got long left and then they start crying "oh give me another ten years/day etc.. I promise to make good use of these extra years.."
You don't find this kind of attitude in much evidence in extreme sportsmen/sportswomen.. why? Because they are doing stuff they LOVE and they are all too aware that each day could be their last and so they DON'T casually put things off (forever).
Can it really be a coincidence that those areas with the tightest gun control laws (Washington D.C. and New York) have the highest violent crime rates? Good point.. but what effect is there on the rates of accidental shootings and crimes of passion involving a gun - (domestic arguments, kids playing with mommy's/daddy's things, cleaning incidents, dropping incidents, things just getting overblown during an argument?) That's what I would be worried about if guns became as available in London.
You should have a helmet mounted video camera permanently streaming video over a wireless network to a tivo (or home made tivo) which you can submit as evidence when you make your police complaint! Actually, make that TWO video cameras (one pointed forward and one pointed behind you!)
Hmm. Iraq - awash with weapons. South Africa - awash with weapons. Afghanistan - awash with weapons. Feel like going there?
Okay.. I have to ask.. if everyone starts carrying guns, doesn't that eventually mean that muggers will just turn into shooters, who will then calmly sort through your pockets after shooting first?
Umm.. good thing the mugger wasn't high... normal rules of behaviour can be VERY suspended.
Amateurs... B-52s are simple to make; and cheap!
1/3 shot Kahlua
1/3 shot Amaretto
1/3 shot Bailey's irish cream
Layer the Kahlua, Amaretto, and Irish Cream into a shot glass in that order. After drinking, notice the Vapor Trails.
Don't forget, you have to set fire to it before you drink it! (That's why its called a B52 - its go to down in flames! Yum and very warming!
I remember looking at a friends pocket pc back in the late 90's and thinking.. "Wow" this is really cool, I can't seem to crash it, its seems reasonably speedy, its got real programs AND it fits on this tiny little thing!.. When can I buy this to run on my home computer? I sort of have a regret that MS didn't produce versions of Win95 Win98 without legacy support. Would have made it smaller/faster/more stable - Like Pocket PC?
instead we have lots of paper pushers that are just spinning their wheels moving papers and numbers around to acheve... something... not sure what, but it wouldn't be there without the computer. Well there would probably be a lot more people with jobs... More labour intensive - gotta employ people to do it!
I think it comes down to "limited resouces demand that we ration our efforts".. sure if we had nothing better to work on it might be a fine idea to direct a significant chunk of our taxes at sending a few bodies to the Moon or Mars or anywhere else, but I think at the moment, we really need to consider the questions of our energy supply, pollution, food and water. And work directly towards solutions to these problems instead of heading up into space and along the way inventing a new "teflon".
the posted "recommended" limits
I thought they were legal limits!
Add to the mix the outstanding OEM suspension, and it is completely safe to take the corner above the recommended speed.
Hmm.. speed limits adjusted according to the manufacturer's opinion about their car.. Sounds a bit silly to me. Its not like each car is driven in isolation to each other car.
In my Z3, I can (safely) take corners at speeds far in excess of the posted "recommended" limits. Indeed, I frequently don't actually need to slow down for the corners
In anycase, I think the more significant factor in risk is the driver. For instance the driver who thinks they can take a corner twice as fast as anyone else just because he drives a Z3...
Just yesterday someone at work overheard me discussing ditching IE and Outlook Express and using Opera instead because of its pop up blocking etc as he had found his computer infected by some browser hijacker. A third person overheard us and volunteered the following story..
Apparently blackmailers have started sending emails with scripts and innocent looking urls to company mailboxes in the hope that someone will click/open a link, and then download a bit of malware/hijacking software which works in the background (secretly downloading kiddie porn etc, and of course maybe propogating itself on to a few more victims)
Then after a few weeks, the victim is contacted and told where to look on their PC to find this stuff and offered an opportunity to reveal passwords/company secrets/pay money or the blackmailer will turn them in to the cops.
When they look at the browser history, because its been secretly going for a few weeks it doesn't just look like a frame up. Even if they don't plant kiddie porn its still bad as many business do operate a "no porn on pain of instant dismissal" policy.
When someone finally spoke out about it at one company they found nine other victims in the same company who had been keeping quiet about it and hoping to handle it on the blackmailer's terms.
But Oh!..then the taxpayer will have to pay development costs, and government unaccountability will result in budget over runs etc!! Hello? Isn't that what happens with most of our current defence contracts already? That got me thinking.. I could set up an arms company, put in a bid to win some maybe minor defence contract (special low price), go on holiday all year.. When Defence Procurement guy phones up and asks where we are with the development of Project X9999, I tell him.. Oh, very difficult.. behind schedule, need an extension.. and more of your money.. He writes me a check and makes a diary note to call me again same time next year! Sounds fantastic! Founder and CEO of Royal Cheese Weapons "Can you smell my cheese?"
The moral issue about arms manufacture is not that arms are made, but that the salesmen do not necessarily care about the humane credentials of the buyer, or where and how their companies products will eventually be used.
I think the idealistic solution would be to NATIONALISE the arms companies so they only make and sell weapons to our own and allied governments (who share our ethical standards. When they fulfill their production runs they can sit idle, continue to do development work, tender for civilian/civil work...anything but make arms for dubious end customers.
But Oh!..then the taxpayer will have to pay development costs, and government unaccountability will result in budget over runs etc!! Hello? Isn't that what happens with most of our current defence contracts already?
And what about the arms industries outside our borders (e.g. those pesky Frenchies, Russians and Chinese?)
Hmm.. their salesmen will just have less competition for the Saudi Riyals and Indonesian (Ringit?) an Sudanese Whatevers (just as examples). Yes, but we won't have contributed to disproportinal violence against the little guy in those countries, or made the arms that were distributed to the private militias etc.
And, with all this publicity, I'd say every telescope in the world is trained in on it right now.
So this publicity is a deliberate ploy to stop us watching the OTHER part of the sky!!! OMG! We haven't even got 600 years.. ist coming.. Aaaghh!