Posts by werdsmith 8371 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Feb 2011
Electrification improved productivity at every single step. Eliminating the common line shaft alone was a massive productivity improvement - a 30% increase in output is widely attributed to have occurred almost overnight.
Electric didn’t replace the common line in the first instance, industry didn’t just throw away all of its equipment overnight. Instead the line was powered by electricity and the flappy belts remained. It took longer to replace the equipment with new stuff that contained the motors. I’ve seen a sawmill still using common line in the 1970s.
Mac M laptops got me off Windows, as laptops were the last holdout. Then I find Mac Minis offer decent bang for buck and there is no longer a place for linux. There is np resistance to using a Macbook M. It starts up like a tablet, sips battery and does its stuff without fuss.
Despite the desperate evangilism on The Register comments from the Jeff Albertson types, linux is still pretty dogshit. The only thing that keeps me in the linux world is Rasberry Pi. When I want a server I start a FreeBSD VM.
"I've been using linux for 20 years and don't have any problem with it...."
....yes mate, because you've got 20 years experience.
My first real job involving programming was writing the assembly op codes and operands out on a sheet of paper with a pen. Then filling in the hex representations on the right hand columns, which I found on a lookup table. I dealt with time by calculating the cycles required at the clock frequency. The assembly compiler doesn’t do much more than the latter that if you are working with straight instructions and not directives.
Then I punched these in via a hex keypad. So assembler can be unambiguous.
Flying parabolas in an ordinary aircraft massively beats either system on price.
But not on view. Or time spent in Zero G.
These billionaires with money to burn can have all the vomit comet flights they want. But a conventional landing gear is still a simpler exercise than throttling and gimballing multi rocket motors.
Air launch is OK to lob a rocket straight up so it can fall straight down again. The Virgin Galactic things with their conventional approach and landing gear using runways and no fuel required for landing. Everyday Astronaut overlooked the return of the vehicle for reuse. The Bezos way is a lot more complex.
No that was the IBM PC at circa £1700, the BBC micro B (£399) was much more budget friendly.
I illustrated in my comment that the Model B 32k was more than a months take home wages for the average salary in 1982. There were budget friendly micros on the market but the Beeb was not one of them. It was equivalently priced to a Max Studio or a well spec'd MacBook pro.
The IBM PC just didn't exist in my world then, it was a business computer rarely seen outside corporate offices.
I was going for the coincidence of the absolute figure, just for the laugh. Nothing serious.
I appreciate the BBC was a rich persons machine. In fact web sources suggest an average annual salary back then was £5000 making the Beeb a more than a months take home wages. So it was Sinclair for me and 3 years of credit agreement for the parents of spoilt kid Kevin.
No, you can’t.
A small box, low power consumption, GPIO, unparalleled maker support and community, long term guarantees. Buyers warranty.
I mean, I could go to the local shop for a sandwich this lunchtime, or for the same price I could get a second hand bicycle pump.
The matter being addressed is that Raspberry Pi in 2012 brought a $35 to market for a cheap way to experiment etc. In 2026 they still sell a $35 computer and some even cheaper ones.
I can go and buy a second hand bore box, or take one off the shelf here, but that is totally irrelevant.
It is totally correct. Those whinger people are suggesting that Pi is forgetting its original price/value proposition. When in fact they have increased value and effectively reduced price by maintaining a 2012 level. And they are actually making huge efforts to do that as the cost of keeping the 1GB Pi at $35 is probably subsidy by the more expensive ones.
Of course it’s measured. How else would I know?
I can use it for 3 hours across 2 sessions plus more than an hour for the third. First thing I tested.
There is no power save mode available , it just runs.
Compared to my work Dell laptop which is 4 hours or so despite power management.
Both are good enough as I don’t have any portable purpose where I need to use it for more than a couple of hours.
Of course Pi isn’t designed for portable applications, but it really isn’t relevant. If you are spending time away from power sources then you aren’t looking at an enthusiast device anyway.
And amazingly, 14 years later they still sell a Pi that you can experiment and code on for $35. It’s far more capable and powerful than the one 14 years ago. 4 x the cores, 4 x the RAM added WiFi added Bluetooth and years of optimisation hardware and software.
Not only that, they also sell one which is more powerful than the original for $15.
And there’s a micro controller board you can experiment on and code for. $5.
Yeah, they’re getting a bit pricey these days. For the hard of thinkIng.
I have a hazy memory of the Apollo 17 being shown on TV, and my dad encouraging me to watch it, saying it is history and I should be interested. As I was very young I looked at it and couldn't really distinguish between a scientific and historic event and any other TV entertainment. So I gave it a try and then faded back to whatever else I was doing. It just wasn't as much fun as The Clangers to a toddler.
I am so grateful that thanks to him I did catch the end of the Apollo era. Now with Artemis II I am beyond excited and I've already shifted my sleep pattern so I can follow the whole thing. This I've been waiting decades for and will be devouring every detail.
Being a junior he was there to learn. He learned something. The article says nothing about it being repeated behaviour.
Now you can keep your junior that learned a hard lesson, or he can take the benefit of that experience to help a rival.
Enough of the John Wayne macho BS.
