Posts by werdsmith 7139 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Feb 2011
My petrol engine car drops 10MPG when it's around zero C outside.
That's a 20% drop in range.
Who'd have thunk it?
And yes, old internal combustion engines on a dyno do show a loss of power when they get old.
Not that any normal public road driving should ever need to use the full BHP potential of any engine.
Facebook are also holding ransoms on information now.
If you have a limited company, for any reason such as being a contractor facebook will slurp it off companies house and put up a holding page for you complete with map and directions to its location. They will also put the business on the crowdsourced verify list bringing to the attention of loads of faecebook users.
If you want them to take it down you will have to "verify yourself" by sending them copies of official documents.
So they will hold an unauthorised page whilst demanding more slurp data as a ransom.
Heinous organisation, and we have all those bottom-feeders who sustain it to thank.
"FaceBook is practical, free and easy. There is literally no other platform that can get you known faster, and getting Likes is easy-peasy."
It's also stigmatised and associated with the gutter end of media, and its users are associated with Jeremy Kyle guests, chav scum and Audi drivers.
I don't think I'd want to be smeared with that kind of image.
Nah.
Not indispensable at all, there is always a better way of doing anything that Faecebook can do.
The problem is that people are lazy.
My hope is that it will be gone into obscurity like myspace and hangouts within 4-5 years as most of the smart people have already dumped it, and the thickos that are still sustaining it will eventually follow.
If you ask people to fill in a form with details to which you are not entitled, mperhaps as a sequel to some impertinent message, and you then fail to read what they have written; and then you use that data unquestioningly for a mail merge; you are a bloody fool.
And lazy.
Your comment displays a lack of knowledge of this process and a lazy approach to considering it. People simply do not sit and read 10s or 100s of thousands of form data entry for this kind of activity, that would be ridiculous. There is software that is supposed to screen out this stuff but it's not perfect.
I have worked with systems that do this auto mailing and you’ll all be disappointed to know that the receiver of the letter probably caused the problem himself.
So many people do this, when they are annoyed at a web form will fill in some words like these to try and express their annoyance without realising that nobody will ever see it. In some cases the form is still associated with a profile and so the mailing finds it way out with the words on it through automated systems.
We had software to catch most of them and it was interesting to see what some people put into web forms.
Can anyone actually remember the difference between 3G and 4G? I mean maybe its a little bit faster. Dont know, cant say I've particularly noticed. My phone says I'm using 4G at the moment. I cant say I've noticed any "killer" differences between the two.
It's different when you tether a less portable device and use it accordingly.
Not only are people letting themselves down by using the Faecebook, but they are shitting on their friends too. And they don't even care as long as they can scare themselves with some hoax crime story that has been circulating since 2005 and many time debunked.
> > it's called socialism
> No, its classic capitalism.
This is polarisation. So fucking stupid, there is no need for everyhing to come only from one end of a spectrum or another. Idiotic. Following a preferred political party like supporting a football team.
Desperate. No wonder we are in so much shit.
I did actually look at the specs for the device and the hardware if fully accessible and optimised could be useful
To you. Please understand you are speaking for yourself, not the world. The thing IS useful to me, very useful.
You are not right or wrong, just have different requirements than other people. Imagine that.
Raspberry Pi with their access to Broadcom and Videocore 4 information have not achieved full acceleration on the desktop. That's with many more people, more millions and Eric Anholt.
They might have shelved videocore 4 in favour of 5 though, the potential of there being a game-changer in the pipeline.
Nobody with any sense expected to the Gemini to have perfect Linux at launch, but do expect that a community effort will develop the linux offering over time and provide a lot of fun along the way. And with Jolla behind it, who knows how good this could be. They did sell a few thousand despite IndieGogo's reputation and they are still selling them.
It's really interesting to see that some people don't get it, and I understand that it won't be for everyone. But it seems some of the folk that don't get it don't understand that there are people out there with different opinions.
Isn't Psion a registered trademark or something? Some kind of protection to keep the real memories alive?
Both David Potter, and the original Psion 5 designer Martin Riddiford are involved with Planet.
Planet are developing a port of the original Psion Calendar, unfortunately this will be for Android.
For my requirements, the only advantage of the original 5 over this new incarnation is the sunlight usability of the screen. It's quite capable of fulfilling PDA requirements, but with full connectivity - 4G, WiFi, BT.
I noticed you used the word "sorry" a couple of times. Rightfully so.
"Begging the question, can you make/receive calls/SMS and use mobile data if you're running Linux?"
I think using the Sailfish linux via libhybris to use the Android telephone functions you can, but not Debian yet, although WiFi does work.
It can't be far away though because there are Raspberry Pis doing phone functionality in their debian derivative OS.
Pyra is not the same sort of target, it's a hackers device which has the looks of a slightly chunkier DS XL, whereas the Gemini is sleek pocketable thing with a Psion keyboard.
I think the problem with linux on these things is the SoC blobs that are not open and so making an accelerated GUI is not cheap, and one for a mobile device even less so. Even 15 million selling Raspberry Pi still haven't got the Videocore IV accelerating their desktop properly yet after 6 years.
If Planet lose customers because the customer didn't understand that crowdfunding a 4 person startup would get them a beta device, then those are customers that Planet really don't need.
Software updates will appear and incrementally improve the device and it will be a great journey.
There is a Sailfish now available for it, but there is a promise of Sailfish 3 in Q3, and I would be very happy to pay for that if it means that I can get rid of Android completely from the thing.
Second production run is under way this week, so another 1000 or so backers will be getting Gemini.
Keyboard problem is identified in some sub-standard rubber spring-mats and some new ones have been sent out to some people, a doddle to fit.
And the feedback from the first batch is going into the QC on the new batch, so expect a few of those teething troubles to reduce.
Surprised nobody has mentioned the X25/X27 chipset issue. Midway through the campaign the SoC spec was upgraded slightly from Mediatek Helios X25 to X27 with a little bit of extra clock speed and some power management features. But the Chinese SMT contractor used up its old stock of X25s on the first batch so the early backers got a downgraded SoC. This was not even noticed until the devices got into backer hands.
Don't bother doing it that way - get the 3 hour afternoon fast ferry to cherbourg and drive to St Malo which is about another hour or 2 depending on traffic.
But if you did that in the evening, you'd need to find somewhere to sleep at the destination and that will be another 8 hours or so.
Might as well use the boat as the hotel and sleep through the journey.
It's perfect for USA -> Europe. You go to bed on the plane like you would in a hotel room, but you wake up at destination, the idea behind London->Scotland sleeper trains of the past.
All that would be needed would be to streamline the airport processes at each end, the flight in the middle would vanish from your life and air travel would be less onerous.
I really don't need a high ceiling and a window if I'm asleep.
> no corporate tax -> higher tax elsewhere
Give some thought as to who actually pays corporation tax, and tax on corporations in general.
Clue 1: It's not the corportion
Clue2: It's not the shareholders.
Clue3: Where do corporations get their money from?
Clue4: Where's your wallet?
Getting all businesses within a territory to pay equal tax so the non-domiciled ones don't have an advantage is still a good idea though, in my opinion.
Additionally these sorts of protests attempt to bring the dodgy shenanignans to the attention of the general public, in the hope that people will change there spending habits
I saw this lunchtime there were still plenty of people prepared to queue up for expensive mediocrity in Starbucks.
And anyone who ever buys from Amazon because of a very competitive price is party to tax avoidance. Because it is partly because of the the tax avoidance that they can afford to be so competitive and ultimately anti-competitive.
Everybody on the team from server admins right through to data input should know that if they screw up then there will be no negative consequence on their career if they own up and alert the rest of the team immediately it happens.
Because fear can cause cover-up and attempt to hide the problem, and then the problem can compound out of control the further in time you get from the error.
Cost of material parts of a first stage compared to the cost of fuel, staff. hire of launch facility, lost second thrust stage etc, when the first stage and engines will have to go through a thorough process of reconditioning and testing and have used an amount of fuel to recover themselves anyway. Hmm, SpaceX have already implied that not a great deal of money is saved, but it's at least a step in the right direction.
I did the Bay of Biscay joyride on G-BOAE as a competition price in 1991, and it was an experience. With a reduced fuel load and no luggage or cargo in the hold the thing was lighter than a normal scheduled flight and the pilots were having a bit of fun. The take off and climb out is stuck in my memory forever as an experience, the acceleration had me feeling we were going vertical. Amazing. Later we got to cheer and clap when the display went through Mach 1 and then Mach 2 at 60,000 feet. Still got the souvenir champagne glass and Concorde model, bag tags, certificate in folder and other bits and bobs.
People travelling on Virgin Spaceship 2 will enjoy something that surpasses that, and if I had the spare money I would certainly be in the (long) queue.
Telephone call out out of the blue from Oracle :
Voice says "Hi we are conducting a survey to see how our customers are using our products, to help improve our services, have you got time for a quick chat?"
I hear "Hi, what Oracle products are you using? I want to compare your answer to our client licence database so we can try and send you another big invoice."
I am so pleased that our last Oracle products will be gone in 3 months. Never again.
I have one, unknown brand that I got for £13, directly from one of the giant Chinese sellers. Took 11 weeks to arrive and it's confounded me how good it is, is loaded with all the tricks, has a camera (OK only 720p), folds up like a Mavic and virtually flies itself.
How can any of these companies compete with that?
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