Posts by boater rich

Britain'll look like rural Albania without fracking – House of Lords report

Re: US gas 1/3 price of UK gas.

Make that over 4 Million onshore US wells...

over 35000 new wells drilled each year in 2012 and 2013... (baker hughes well count) By comparrison the UK has just over 2000 wells drilled in the UK onshore since 1902

We (as in Europe) don't have enough rigs to even contemplate a shale gas revolution yet. The huge land banks, rig numbers and experienced personnel are huge obstacles to progress. Added to which is an immensely challenging planning regime which causes huge delays, which is a problem given decline curves for shale gas wells are precipitous and require constant infill drilling.

The scale of the challenge is truly gigantic.

Anonymous coward as I work in the industry.

Our Vulture strokes Dell's ROBUST 15 INCHER: Inspiron 15 Core i7

£700 - I think not

A quick glance at the Dell website and the price is £799, is it worth the extra £100 quid or was this a "special review" price?

Tape backup could be binned soon

Not so stupid

Lots of application for tape backup require the robustness of tape, particularly in the offshore seismic data recording industry. Admittedly the OP isn't referring to replacing tapes in such an environment, but a high degree of physical robustness is required in many environments outside the office or data centre.

BT quotes pensioner £150,000 to get broadband

Universal Service

Given the continuous drive to reduce costs and deliver nearly all basic services online in both the public and the private sector, the issue of broadband connectivity is becoming acute. If broadband access is key to be able to participate in 21st Century britain and is becoming an essential service, then an obligation to provide universal service is required in the same way that other essential services are - water, electricity, etc.

Also so many posters seem to assume that living in a rural area is one of choice. This might be very true in the cotswolds and other desirable rural areas closeish to major urban areas. However large parts of rural Britain are not so lucky, are inhabited by people born there, who don't have the education, skills, money etc to move, or indeed want to move. They are therefore trapped and are becoming increasingly disenfranchised by the move to an online society propogated in Urban areas and then denied to them.