Posts by TheBigCat

Fed-up air safety bods ban A350 pilots from enjoying cockpit coffees

Crazy!

For a 100 million dollar plane full of people they should have a better control panel. It should be spill proof for sure. Also what if a bird hits a window in a rainstorm and water comes in during landing. Will the plane crash?

Seldom used 'i' mangled by baffling autocorrect bug in Apple's iOS 11

Trademarking the "i"

I assume Apple is in the process of trademarking the letter "i" and haven't work out the user licensing yet.

HPE HQ to leave Palo Alto birthplace as it 'consolidates' offices

Santa Clara

I was wondering why the mayor of San Jose was celebrating a move to Santa Clara. But HP is also moving people to San Jose. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/02/hpe-to-shift-offices-hundreds-of-jobs-to-santa-clara-san-jose-milpitas/

World goes SIM-free, leaving Sony and HTC trailing behind

What is SIM-free?

I spent a while trying to figure out what SIM free is. At first I thought it was a phone that does not use SIM cards, and I was wondering what countries that would work in since the USA and Europe use SIM cards. But it seems to mean it is just a regular phone with no SIM card inside.

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

Re: Don't blame users for the UI

In Windows 7 I use the Quick Launch toolbar to pin folders.

Lost in the obits: Intel's Andy Grove's great warning to Silicon Valley

Re: The problem is the natural outgrowth of legislation, at least in the US.

It is just looking at a statistic that is harder for the government to cheat on. Actual employment is near a 30 year low in the USA.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/06/news/economy/employment-rate/

Chinese fire up world's 'most powerful' drone brain

Re: X-47B

Since the X-47B is new, does carrier landings, aerial refueling, and fighting other aircraft I would assume it has more processing power. It probably has extra CPU capacity so that it can deal with always updating software.

Re: Eh....

I assume you can program it, give it updates and transfer data more easily.

X-47B

I would suspect that the X-47B or several other drones have more advanced computers.

Bill

UH OH: Windows 10 will share your Wi-Fi key with your friends' friends

If security matters there should be another layer of authentication before connecting to the network.

Firefox 36 swats bugs, adds HTTP2 and gets certifiably serious

Re: Color management

Thanks, I have cycled through the possibilities with the gfx settings and it didn't work.

Color management

I have a wide color space monitor and haven't gotten color space management to work correctly since version 28. Does any one else have that problem?

Bill

Google's mystery barge flounces out of San Fran, heads to Stockton

Drone Army

They might be building a drone army.

Senator probes NASA airfield deal for Google's jets

Re: Google HQ.

Oakland is within 20 miles of San Francisco but I don't think they would want to be called San Francisco. Mountain View is about 35 miles from San Francisco. They must like their airport as it is very close to their head quarters.

From what I read, Larry Ellison flies from the San Jose airport but they have curfews, and perhaps the Google people get to fly any time of day out of Moffet Field, I don't know.

I assume what is unfair is that they get to use the airport while others don't.

Submarine seized by pirates turns up in Vegas pawnshop

Parked on a trailer in a lot, not in the water

Without other information I assume that it had been parked on a trailer and not in the water when stolen. The owner, as the owner of many boats, might have had it parked in a lot for boats. I'd assume the owner would use it a little then forget about it.

Bill

US Navy aims to make jetfuel from seawater uranium

From seawater is correct

I would say that I make cookies from flour, etc., not from natural gas that my local utility uses to generate electricity.

Bill

Electropulse weapon fear spreads to UK politicos

It is a real threat

Usually an atomic bomb doesn't produce strong EMP outside the blast area, but at the right height in the atmosphere it can produce a huge amount. A country such as NK or Iran may find they can do more damage with EMP than hitting a city. Also it might be easier for them to find the right elevation and be in the general area than to hit a city.

While protecting everything against strong EMP would be too expensive, there would be economical solutions to consider. Long wires would be the biggest sinks of EMP, so perhaps power plants could be protected such that surges don't take out their generators. Just attention to things here and there would help. Antennas for fire and police could be hardened as the military does.