Posts by graeme leggett 2468 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Oct 2007
"reduce congestion and increase efficiency, by allowing cars to slipstream each other."
I'd have thought most of a taxi's journey was urban at speeds where the slipstream effect was minimal.
And even allowing for a robotaxi have lightning fast reflexes, is the slipstream useful while still maintaining a safe braking distance. (2 second rule for fleshy drivers at speed).
"3) Doctor Who needs to revert back into a 20 Minute Cliffhanger format. I don't think the Writers are just that good at writing a script from start to finish in only a 45 Minute arc. Its One of the major things I hate about Nu-Who!"
It reflects the way that TV is made this way/the viewers expectations of a faster pace today. Things are just much quicker paced.
Trying to fit 3 cliffhangers in a four 25-minute episode format could constrict the show in the old days, leading to padding (corridor running) sometimes, or Sylvester McCoy hanging not very perilously off a low cliff.
There is also the expectation of need for some sort of "everything's going to be alright" resolution at the end of the episode for the benefit of the younger viewers. Moffat has said that however scary it might get during the episode that element needs to be sorted before the end and the little ones are packed off to bed.
"Top Gear probably exposes mostly what's wrong with the BBC financial and production model - Using licence fee money to generate programmes for worldwide sale means that production values are compromised to those "low, common denominator" markets like the U.S"
Except Top Gear was made on BBC2 budgets, proved to be popular and worldwide sales of the programme plus licensing the format made tons of cash. It was not made with the intention of selling abroad.
Birt gave producer choice, which meant for some productions that they could buy in services etc cheaper outside the Beeb. But it also meant
1) that specialist internal services (previously effectively free at the point of programme making) had to be costed properly against a production budget
2) self-same specialists within Beeb then lost the cross-subsidy effect
BS were already developing tie-ups with Pratt & Whitney and SNECMA (largest continental producer) on - in the words of Flight International in 1965 - "collaboration on turbofan engines for airbus transports".
BS and SNECMA were working on Concorde's engines and civil and military turbojets (in the case of the latter for an Anglo-French swing-wing project).
Now are you sure that RR weren't feeling a bit tense about their future? And if they had saved the cash they used on buying BS would they have weathered the RB.211 problem?
Starting with the decision to take up three designs from manufacturers. And then another one.
Vickers Valiant (the most conventional) as the sure solution that would enter service soonest.
Handley Page Victor (unusual crescent wing) but more advanced than Valiant
Avro Vulcan (the most radical) but offering more performance promise
And then to make absolutely sure, the straight winged Short Sperrin - something closest to a WWII bomber with jet engines. Not handsome but useful as a test bed for jet engines (eg DH Gyron which was about 50% more powerful than an Olympus at one point). Shorts had proposed a design that was rejected as too radical so perhaps the Sperrin was a consolation prize.
Valiant - which dropped bombs for real (though during the Suez crisis) - suffered from spar fatigue when switched to low level attack, and withdrawn from service. That the B2 version (look for pictures of it at Farnborough 1953) designed for low level attack had been cancelled is a bit ironic.
Victor, a futuristic look with a bigger bomb bay and a near Mach 1 performance (also capable of loops and the odd barrel roll), also suffered when switched to low level. They were nearly used against Indonesia because of the bother over Malaya. They became tankers - the ones used to get the Vulcans to the Falklands.
"MS inability to keep up with the Facebook API might put of some folks outside of business."
This sounded strange to me so I checked. And on my phone (about 2 weeks old) with the Facebook app installed it integrates quite adequately with Win Pho 8.1.
I think the Facebook API issue was for phone to facebook without having the app installed.
"The .sucks registry...defends itself as saying it is empowering consumers to start conversations about brands"
"prices start at US$199 for a block that prevents anyone from buying the .sucks domain of your dreams. If you want to buy one to use, fork over $249."
yes, at those prices they are making it easy for the ordinary man/woman in the street to complain about how they have been made penniless by big corporations.
It looks like they've figured out a way to gouge the brand owners in one direction and the consumer on the way back.
On the plus side, I wonder what the vacuum cleaner manufacturers can do with Dyson.sucks vax.sucks etc...?
Interesting to see a lot of clauses along the line of protecting children from things they ought not see, and providing a safe environment.
eg "give us a place where we can filter all inappropriate Websites. "
"be free from inappropriate comments"
"be safe and kind to everyone. We will be able to go online and not be afraid of unwanted people taking advantage of us. "
Now possibly the being safe online sessions that children get these days in school may have led to those.
Also found "allow surveillance of public activity, but respect personal information. "
How much effect is there from the (re)-armament drive following the break with the Ten Year Rule* in 1932?
Eg the RAF expansion plans from 1934 onwards - creating 100 more squadrons putting 3000 more aircraft on the books (plus replacing existing ones).
*The assumption when it was first initiated in 1919 that another major war was not likely for ten years and therefore defence spending could be held at low levels. But then rolled over from year to year despite whatever was happening in technology and world politics.
"The French state does initiate and successfully finishes technologically ambitious projects, like Concorde"
An Anglo French project - a culmination of separate endeavours by Bristol Aircraft and Sud Aviation (among others) through their subsequent merger (with state encouragement) into BAC and Aerospatiale, joined together as a treaty between UK and France.
"Italy to be Allies with Germany to begin with, but then it suited them to be Allies with the UK etc near the end because that suited them better"
Basically because in mid-1943 with the Allies sampling the delights of Sicilian beaches, the Italians had realised the war had not gone according to plan and they had lost. Hence the sudden request for an armistice. That the Germans did not intend giving up their sunbeds on the Italian coast was a bit of a bother for the Italian nation as they still had to fight to push an invader out of their country - their former house guest.
(rough précis - other histories are available)
The problem with state-scale economics is that there's never something you can exactly (or close enough) compare with to see what would/might have happened if you didn't do the thing you did.
Like a dinghy nearing the shore on a blustery day. You can try and use your sail to get you back to safer water, or grab the oars and pull away heartily. But you can't put yourself back in the same position and try the other method to say which is better.
"but in pre-internet days you'd just have been laughed out of the pub or branded the village idiot"
I thought then you just bought the tabloid/redtop newspaper that fitted with your world view. Hence polarization of British press into areas with any newsprint that tries to fit middle ground getting rubbish sales (Independent, Today)
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