Posts by malcontent

Macintosh Classic II and triceratops skull on auction: One's a dinosaur, the other has three horns on its face

I've got two of these in the loft (one signed, one unsigned). where did I put the discs? what I don'y have is that tool for dismantling them to figure out which one is signed!

Amazon turns Victorian industrialist with $2bn building project to house workers near new headquarters

New Lanark

Perhaps David Dale's New Lanark project (with later input from Robert Owen) from 1786 is the first UK example of a company town.

RIP: First space-walk badass Alexei Leonov, who made it to 85 despite best efforts of Soviet machine

Buran

there is a Buran at Baikonur which you can peer into. The flight deck looks decidedly agricultural, a sort of democratisation of the genre.

Should Voskhod not be better described as two-person spacecraft? I think there were plans to include one of the female space corps in a mission.

How an augmented reality tourist guide tried to break my balls

apps

<rant>I've seen many apps which appear to have been 'designed' (or 'coded') by teenagers. Perhaps I am too harsh, by people who have no idea of of what used to be called human-computer-interfaces (showing my age, sorry), or who even read Apple's guidelines issued back in the balmy days of the Mac. So much has been lost. Another factor comes from games, where lots of interesting features are hidden, waiting for you to achieve the next level. It's not really Grand Theft Auto.</rant>

US spook-sat buzzed the International Space Station

Isn't there another Space Station which the US might be interested in observing? Rehearsal?

Stick glue on a drone. Fly it into a flower. World hunger solved, bee-lieve

Isaac was there first

didn't Asimov come up with this? I recall robotic humming birds which darted around a garden ingesting the bugs and then excreting them for compost. His idea was that by having the robots (AI/drone or whatever) do these tasks which were 'helpful' to the human 'masters' resistance would be gradually worn away and greater acceptance would follow. It'll never catch on.

Experimental hypersonic SUPERMISSILE destroyed 4 SECONDS after US launched it

how big is the Earth?

The circumference of the Earth is about 25,000 miles; this gadget is supposed to reach about 3,600mph. How does it reach anywhere on the globe within 60 minutes? Did I put a decimal point in the wrong place?

Big Media drags 142,000 through UK's courts in a year

radio license fee

wasn't the license fee on radio abolished some years ago? or has the evil Cameron-Clegg gummint re-introduced. as an alternative, adopt an elderly person. My Dad lives with us, so we don't have to pay a license. IMHO makes the license even more value!!!

LOHAN eyes hardcore partner's impressive girth

drag?

"propelling our spaceplane without tearing the bleedin' wings off." but we're already at some altitude where the air density is low, so why worry? drag should be really low (like the chances of this working). good luck

NASA eyes Atlas V for 'naut-lifting duties

saturn V revisited

The Delta IV Payload Planners Guide (which I commend to you) offers a potential development outline which would exceed Saturn V capabilities. maybe not as necessary now as in the Apollo days, since some of the wrinkles of in orbit construction seem to have been worked out. the document might also provide some information (as opposed to unbridled and unwarranted speculation - though who wants facts?) on which to base opinion.

Facebook follows papal line on censorship

V&A too?

I've heard a similar 'urban myth' about the statues in the V&A in London, with the same story that the penises are in a storeroom somewhere, maybe even in the adjacent Geological Museum, accessible of course through underground tunnels so they never needed to see the light of day.