Re: Methanol as a store of energy for a fuel cell
Warm? No way... it should be cask temperature... around 11-13C, so cool, not warm....
1548 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Sep 2010
I use Alexa, smart lighting is great, because I can turn off/dim the lights without getting up. Alexa is great for reminders/news/weather/radio etc....
Sure I could use a non-voice controlled tech for the same task, and I have some old wifi speakers I still use, but it is much faster to say "Alexa play etc" than it is to get my phone out, open spotify, select the speaker, choose the song etc....
Conveniance is the key, also apart from the Alexa speakers, all my tech is interchangeable zwave/zigbee, so if any company goes tits up, I can swap it out, my only complaint is that smartthings only works properly online when it has the power to do it all offline....
Boeing has damaged its credibility over the last few years with regards to quality and safety.
While I am sure it is completely separate to their aircraft manufacture, it does make you wonder if the company itself has a cultural problems that are putting profit and speed ahead of safety.
787 battery fires,
737 Max crashes,
and now parachute failure.
EV's are a great idea but they are also not as convenient or efficient as people think...
It would cost me in my larger (and way more comfortable) than a Nissan Leaf gas guzzler about 11-12p/Mile, and please consider that over half that cost to me is tax you will eventually need to pay when more cars are EV's
I would like an EV, but I worked out it would take me around 300k miles to recoup the costs of switching cars not including running costs and that is only if I switch to a cheap EV like the leaf (assuming costs remained the same), and considering I have only done 30k miles in 6 years that is 60 years of driving!
Sure I will probably go EV when I change my car, but until they reach price parity in terms of luxury versions I will not change ,not because I don't worry about the environment, but because I can't afford to change.
I don't thing even once has a politician I've voted for actually been elected.
I'm pretty sure all the Referendums I've taken part of I've also been on the loosing side..
My MP just regurgitates the Party line for any question I ask of him, even when presented with facts he blindly ignores every word said to him.
I have zero faith in my government, limited faith in our police, some faith in the health service (since they are the only service that seems to be doing anything right.
Birth Certificate isn't ID
Utility bills can be used for proof of address, not ID.
Driving licenses are probably the best form of ID as you can share your information with car rental companies, what if you could use the same system to prove your ID to someone?
I personally think the driving license system is where we should start for implementing a countrywide ID, the systems are already in place, all you need is to remove the requirement that your license lets you drive! (fairly easy to do, since it shows the categories you can drive on the back) maybe add a blue license for non-drivers.
"The only useful scenario of having those speeds is to download a very large video game."
No the usefulness is having a family all using the internet, in my case I have 5 people in my house. I have about 40-50Mbs, and it is too damned slow with all of us using it, one person downloading a game or an update will slow everyone down!
Long term, I don't think they will keep the burst disk idea, it reduces re-usability. but short term it makes sense to get crew dragon flying, it isn't like they are using the Super Dracos for landing, only abort.
Obviously the non return valves/plumbing need re-engineering to avoid this issue in future when they do need re-usability.
I can see many valid uses of facial recognition,
probably the best use is with CCTV footage to track a suspects movements away from a crime, or to help identify a criminal against a database of convicted criminals, basically doing what human eyeballs do now...
But that is why we need legislation restricting its usage, especially use by the police and government, they are much less trustworthy than any private corporation.
I think if you are innocent then you should not have bio-metrics stored in any police database, this includes all situations such as Arrested but released without charge, charged but charges dropped before trial, charged but found not guilty at trial.
And even if found guilty, I think you should be removed from the databases a set time after the sentence has been served.
I even think that it is not generally in the public interest for convicted criminals details to be released to the public, I believe everyone has the right to anonymity. (the daily mail would be upset)
The whole criminal justice system is flawed, it harms the innocent, prevents rehabilitation of criminals, and doesn't address the root causes of crime.
"for age verification to come into force as soon as possible to ensure children are protected from pornographic material they should not see."
Do they realise this will not stop kids from seeing porn?
If they want to see it, they will see it..
They'll use a proxy, or a VPN, borrow an older mates age verification, fake their age (plenty of ways to produce a fake ID)
The smart kids bypass it easily, and they show the dumb ones how to do it...
What was really needed was regulations to make it hard to accidentally stumble upon porn, and that is search engine regulation.
I've ranted at my council when they changed the street lights, and they added baffles, not that they helped much, apparently safety at night is more important than me seeing the stars!
I suggested turning off the lights so people can learn that they can see at night without lights.... I think council workers have rarely seen a real dark night....
"an algorithm could ensure that the exposure is timed to avoid visual interference "
And that completely wrecks the whole field of amateur space photography, we can't afford that level of control over our systems, often its hours outside in the freezing cold at night with just a camera, a cheap telescope and a camera remote.....
Challenge accepted!
TV - John Logie Baird
Jet Engine - Sir Frank Whittle
Cat's Eyes - Percy Shaw
High Strength Carbon Fibre - Royal Aircraft Establishment
Cash machines - James Goodfellow
3D Gaming (Elite) - David Braben
Thermos flask - Sir James Dewar
Lawnmower - Edwin Beard Budding
Light Bulb - Joseph Swan
Pneumatic Tyre - John Boyd Dunlop
World Wide Web - Tim Berners-Lee
Hypodermic Syringe - Alexander Wood
Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell
Electric Motor - Michael Faraday
Photography - William Henry Fox Talbot
Electronic Programmable Computer - Tommy Flowers
(well maybe we've not abandoned all of these, but they were invented in Britain and are now used all over the world, many we no longer make here)
I usually check what plane i'm taking, because different planes mean different layouts etc...
Sure many people will still fly 737 Max, and I bet after the updates and re-training the software will be safe...
But I am more worried about the rest of the aircraft, not the software now, where else did they cut corners to catch up with Airbus for this class of aircraft?
That's a bit of bad taste..
The Boeing developers would have developed to an exacting spec and would have provided exactly what was asked for.... Don't go blaming them.. I don't know who signed off on this update, but i doubt it was the developers fault.
Even the Tesla developers are not going to be responsible, it will be the management/marketing that push the tech out before it is ready... IF it has been marketed better, as a driving assistant rather than an autopilot then it would have been perfect, because if every time a driver took control it was checked for the reason behind that driver intervention, then the system could be updated to respond to it.
"On the contrary, if you're drifting out of a lane to the point where a gadget has to tell you about it then you very clearly are not paying full attention."
Completely agree with you there, I know round my way there is no way lane keeping tech could be used, the lanes are not wide enough for the car to keep to one side of the marked lanes, there are passing places where needed... and some roads that you need to drive on the other side if you want to avoid loosing wheels in the pot holes....
Yes, but we know Apple/Amazon/Google are listening, and we know they don't care if we're screwing the neighbours wife or murdering someone. they just care that we're using their tech and buying things!
Sure Alexa may record because it thinks it heard 'Alexa', the recording may get transcribed by some poor sod getting paid way too little for the things they have to try and forget all in the name of improving speech recognition... BUT the benefit is that we improve speech recognition.. so unless you can think of a better way to improve computer speech recognition, this is the way it is going to be...
We will all bow down to the AI overlords when they realise humans are petty and mean
The fact this exploit worked on all 3 major (well 2 major one minor) phone operating systems is quite worrying.
Surely they all have differing underlying architecture, and all are supposed to prevent unauthorised app installations (iOS especially) So how can one app allow unauthorised software to run on all 3?
This is very very unsettling! I would certainly like to know exactly how a buffer overflow can cause this! I I am familiar with what a buffer overflow is, but I was under the (obviously mistaken) impression Android/iOS ran Apps in some kind of sandbox to prevent this kind of attack.
I seem to remember reading about one porn film that used the vomit comet to film zero g sex scenes....
I would not be surprised if some of the ISS crew has engaged in coitus in free-fall, at some point there will need to be a full study done if we're to leave this planet for any length of time.
Lets just take the UK only as an example, its about 1700 deaths a year, with 30 million cars on the road, so actually the problem is actually quite a small problem in the UK.
Compare the UK to other countries and you see the UK is very safe, others are not safe..
The solutions (in the UK at least) are going to be related to road planning, driver education and public transport improvements
I can think of a use case,
I have a fireplace but its slightly too high for a TV above to be comfortable to watch, I would love a TV that sat above the mantle and opened downwards in front of the fireplace (when the fire is not in use)
I've considered projectors but that brings its own set of issues.
"the UK cancelled a planned new nuclear plant because new off shore wind power is about half the cost per KW/h"
This makes absolutely no sense, nuclear power should be the cheapest available, its certainly the cleanest... IIRC the problem was the international partners pulling out, not the cost...
We should ban all new gas and coal fired power stations, only solar, nuclear, offshore wind, tidal (I.E. Green) power should be allowed, lets keep the gas and coal for domestic use.