Re: Just what a grunt in a muddy trench, in the rain needs ...
"You appear to be in a conflict situation, maybe you could rephrase that and make it more inclusive.
72 posts • joined 13 Mar 2008
The British Empire tended to be a commercial operation, state backed but not directly about territorial acquisition. Brutal but also left the local hierarchy in place, enforcing a more modern pax romana to stop local conflicts. The Belgians, Spanish and Portuguese tended to wipe out the elites and try to run their empire directly, top down.
What would have been a BBC documentary on CH5 shows HMS Northumberland tracking a Russian sub intent on destroying the UK's vital sub sea cables, all described in breathless tones. Of course they were simply playing the on going cat and mouse game to test each others responses. Crashing into the sonar array was unexpected but unnecessary as it would appear the ship was already falling apart.
I was with my wife who was on a ventilator in intensive care when the power went out. I was impressed with the nurse running to her with a manual mask as the lights came back on. The ward sister explained a few minutes later, having come off the phone, that it had been the site management testing the backup generator and that they are meant to let them know in advance. 30 minutes later it happened again as they switched back, again without warning ICU.
I had a frustrating interview in Cambridge for a Bluetooth company who had failed to get into the Wifi market for some years. To start they wanted me to present a detailed market analysis lasting 30mins including cost and price information whilst currently employed by a significantly more successful competitor of theirs. I presented what type of information I would have presented but no useful detail, did not go down well. They then went on to tell me all about their new focus on IOT, the latest fad and asked me to comment on their road map. It got even worse when I was then asked to talk to their board director privately, who had asked them to show me the company roadmap, as he had no faith the team's plans!
Diversity is a interesting issue, how do you define it? A diverse range of skills can be very useful as are diverse personalities, within limits. Most other criteria are arbitrary, should you have the 'correct' number of employees who are from Devon? Anyone growing up in Devon is not going to have the same opportunities that growing up in London provides so they will need a little extra help to make the cultural shift and should not be held back by prejudice against their yokel dialect. It is a facetious argument but where do you stop the in diversity debate.
I was going to Wi-Fi alliance meetings when documents were shared using PCMCIA cards as file sharing over the temporary Wi-Fi network was a nightmare. I have always argued that wireless is about mobility not connectivity as a wire/fibre will always out perform any wireless technology for speed and latency. It was not always a welcome message with my own management but I was proved right over and over again when cable replacement 'opportunities' failed to deliver.
Launching one of the first digital mixing consoles at IBC (International Broadcasters Convention) in Brighton one year the digital processing card stopped working. Designer of said prototype card had decided to visit relatives in Scotland as he was not required at the show. Called back the 500 miles he dutifully drove down over night. The cards were 6U high and made using a new automated solder wrap system using fine wire that was wrapped and soldered directly onto the sockets of lots and lots of DIL ICs. Valiant young engineer gets out the oscilloscope, clips on probe ground wire and shorts out the 5V supply wire creating a wonderful plum of smoke all around the card. Shock turned to applause and the sales team are left to fake it with an audio console that was processing no audio.
Arrived in Miami and had agent walking around arrivals air side approaching people and looking at his belt. As he walked towards me the device he had started beeping in that well known Gaussian distribution. He asked if I had had a medical procedure recently and I told him about the bone scan I had had three weeks ago and he seemed happy and wander off. Pointing out my wife and three kids helped.
I used to travel to the West Coast quite a bit and would always make sure that I had to stay over the weekend else I would end up loosing two of my weekends in the UK. One memorable trip I arranged meetings in Portland on Friday and Seattle on Monday. Arranged car hire (only A or B class cars allowed) and at collection informed that they had three brand new Mustangs available that happened to be in class B as they were unpopular due to high fuel consumption, what colour would I like?. Lovely trip including drive up Mount St Helens at 4 am in mid summer still no UK time.
Clearly this terminology can cause offense so should be stopped. The idea that there was a slave trade causes anguish for many so any reference to it should be stopped. History clearly is full of this type of possible offense so should not be taught and any records of such activities destroyed.
Today is should really be Centigrade 1414.
I experienced the opposite time keeping problem as a team leader. The company owner would always be around late in the evening and would chat to those still working to solve the latest issues. These team members always got the best pay rises and bonuses. This group of engineers would turn up before midday if I was lucking and created the problems they stayed late to fix. No amount of pleading on behalf of the guys who arrived early, produced good reliable work and left at a reasonable time managed to get them recognized.
I was studying electrical engineering at Brunel when he join the university. He gave a interesting lecture about the perception of aids for the old and disabled. He compared our acceptance of help for the very young or simple tasks like drilling a hole in a wall but rejection of simple aids at the end of our lives. It provide very useful when I needed to persuade my father that he should start using a walking stick and grab rails. A great loss.
Rather late but recent support for your argument in a video demonstrating the great British ideal of keeping calm and carrying. Guy hit by bus, thrown 45 feet then immediately getting up and walking into the pub.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-hit-bus-cctv-video-reading-walk-pub-purple-turtle-simon-smith-footage-a7810616.html
Airline CEOs used to understand the importance of their IT; a quote from Harry Lucas's 1999 book 'Information Technology and the Productivity Paradox - Assessing the value of Investing in IT'
Robert Crandall, American (Airlines) recently retired CEO, said that “if forced to break up American, I might just sell the airline and keep the reservations system". It was SABRE developed by AA and IBM - https://www.sabre.com/files/Sabre-History.pdf
BA should keep the IT in house and sub contract the planes to Air India.
Wi-Fi was not invented by CSIRO, they developed and hold a patent on a radio technique to reduce multipath problems and have sued many Wi-Fi equipment manufactures. So in fact they created a solution that got over the problem of holding it up side down in the northern hemisphere.
You make a very valid argument about the value of human life but my point is that those persecuted in Germany were German citizens so simply identify all those within the EU as equal and citizens of the EU does not protect them from persecution. That''s why we have the non EU ECHR to protect all members of society in the UK not just EU citizens. Your argument also makes all those without an EU passport second class which leads to immigration policy that is base on a two tier system.
I have tried to find a clear explanation of why free movement is so important to the EU, without success. The EU information online refers to post war ideals of allowing populations to live peacefully together within each other countries and to allow economies to grow by importing labour when needed and allowing it to flow back when a down turn hits. German Jews were German citizens and if a country wants workers why not let its elected government decide how it wants to support its economy.
It is interesting how companies fail to arrive at their goal because of where they started from. Every design decision has baggage attached making anything that does not fit, importance of power consumption for example, difficult to deliver. A new boss helps but the inertia of all those involved is always a problem.
I worked for Murthy in Cambridge early in my career, an excellent boss and able to Lead and Manage. I remember our weekly review of the PERT charts with a mixture of dread and nostalgia.
It's not his first come back attempt. Backing band could do with a bit more practice though.
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCUQtwIwAGoVChMIieKXv5D3yAIVhL4UCh3wIwty&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5Jmc6TZ5Guw&usg=AFQjCNEnQhtXkZXwgmwY4nrX9_QsG87f0w&bvm=bv.106379543,bs.1,d.ZWU
Sounds like a genuine act, not the normal publicity seeking crap
Totally agree with you on the wireless bit having spent over ten years going to Wi-Fi Alliance meetings discussing how to make wi-fi more useful. Would always tell Mobile, STB and TV manufacturers that there were now guarantees with wireless, tended to get surprised looks as our competitors were always promising things they could never deliver.
May I also be the first to recommend a Raspberry Pi and Kodi aka XMBC, ethernet and CEC remote control interface, so no new remotes needed.
Had the full tour, including tunnels and pier, on a Brunel University engineering trip in 1984(ish). A memorable day and had a great guide, could have been the very same Bachelor. When asked about the extensive acoustic treatment of the backup generators we were told it was in consideration of the neighbours after 10 years of pile driving.
A soundfield microphone records four (XYZW) channels and can be replayed in 3D with 8 or more speakers, in effect a phased array without the heavy signal processing. It's a great technology and sounds fantastic but never had any real money put behind it. If Atmos and DTS can justify this many speakers maybe ambisonics will get a come back along with all those other 70's acts, not yet guests of HMP.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct01/articles/surroundsound3.asp
The best setup I ever heard was an ambisonic array, 8 Kef 107 head units arranged in pairs; front, back, up and down and one very large sub woofer. The recordings were made on a Soundfield microphone in B format on 4 track reel to reel without any post processing. Ambisonics recreates sound pressures measured by a four capsule microphone time aligned to a single point to produce X, Y and Z direction and pressure W. Sadly not a very commercial proposition.
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