Re: True Cost/Efficiency
> no-one much wants the vast tracts of near-lifeless desert that exist
You do realize what dust and sandblasting does to solar cells? Not to mention getting the power from those deserts to somewhere useful.
Posts by Phil O'Sophical
7402 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Oct 2011
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Scientists find safer way to store hydrogen
Friday 17th August 2012 12:44 GMT 
Re: @AC 08:35
> Yes, we could hire something for extra-commuting activities
In fact even that is unlikely to work once everyone starts to do it, since there would be huge demand at Bank Holiday weekends and Christmas, and low demand for most of the year. No rental company could afford to keep huge fleets idle just in case. And then who would buy them when the rental companies sell off the used cars?
Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Universal Remote Control review
Raspberry Pi now comes in Firefox OS flavour
Assange's fate to be revealed at high noon
Thursday 16th August 2012 08:30 GMT
Re: Whatever law is cited...
Presumably (IANAL) there's no need to storm any embassies. The UK can simply expel the ambassador and diplomatic staff, and close the embassy. At that point it's just an ordinary London building. The expelled diplomats wil have immunity and will be able to get to Heathrow. Assange won't.
The question is whether the Ecuadorians want to create all that trouble over an Australian egomaniac who is in breach of his bail conditions. Assange should probably have tried the Argentinian embassy (if there is one), they seem happy to stir up trouble with less concern for the consequences.
BBC gives itself a gold in 700Gbit-a-second Olympic vid sprint
El Reg probes pregnant Playmobil lass
Microsoft: It was never 'Metro,' it was always 'Modern UI'
Saturday 11th August 2012 13:54 GMT
Calling it "Modern" looks like the hand of the Microsoft PR department. It's quite clever, for two reasons:
1) By calling it Modern, it implies that people who don't like it are boring old farts. If they don't like the new UI, it must be their fault.
2) They can offer a sop to them in the form of the "Classic" (i.e. W7) UI, therefore making it look like they are doing the old fuddy-duddies a favour, instead of admitting that they screwed up and are back-pedalling.
Microsoft: It's not Metro, it's Windows 8
Friday 10th August 2012 18:30 GMT
Re: Making a version number part of the name...
> And the front trunnions which broke
Ah yes, that too. Mostly if you forgot to grease the bottom joint on the kingpin, though. I bought my late Grandad's Marina (I was a student, it was my first car) and it had the same suspension. I remember finding the bolt hole on the suspension arm had worn oval, but managed to replace it before it failed so catastrophically.
Not a Cloud in my holiday sky
Glaswegian scientists snap entangled particles
Chinese man's six-ton balls save lives
Murdoch pitches battery for renewables
Thrillpower! Tharg releases 2000AD iDevice app
Mobile phone health rules need update, warns US watchdog
Wednesday 8th August 2012 08:00 GMT
No way could a handheld phone ever be considered "high power" RF, even at maximum output. In most cases the power output is minimal since it self-adjusts to the lowest level required in order to reduce interference and maximize battery life. If your colleague's attempt in measuring "RF" (what exactly was he measuring anyway, peak, average, across what bandwidth, etc.?) went "off the scale" then he probably needs to (re)read the manual for his meter. If 2W sends it off the scale it won't be much good for "high power RF" measurements.
Doctor Who to unwrap new sidekick in Christmas TV special
Bill Gates, Harry Evans and the smearing of a computer legend
Curiosity needs OS upgrade before getting down to science
Tesco helps high flyers avoid actual shops
Radio hams unite to fight off new powerline comms standard
Monday 6th August 2012 16:23 GMT
Also remember that most of the spectrum used by radio hams is shared in one way or another. Even if the hams are officially the "primary user" there are still designated "secondary users" who will suffer from this interference. In other cases it is the hams who are the secondary users. It isn't just a minority of geeky types who'll be affected.
Case in point is the Olympics, where part of the ham radio VHF spectrum is being used by the secondary user (with Ofcom/RSGB agreement) for the duration of the games. Any PLT that upset radio hams in that range would also screw up communications for the games.
Euro NCAP to mandate auto-braking in new-car test
God-botherers burst onto IPTV Freeview: The End is Nigh
Curiosity success 'paves way for Man on Mars by 2030s'
Pasadena to party hardy as Martian landing looms
Airline leaves customer on hold for 15 hours
Friday 3rd August 2012 11:39 GMT
Re: Difference between consumer and business.
_missed_ the target?
That's how call centres *meet* their targets. If the rules say "no-one must be on hold for more than 5 minutes", they just configure the systems to send busy tone/message to anyone who calls in when the queues are going over 4m30s. Hey presto, target met.
BT used to do that for directory enquiries (back in the 192 days). They reckoned that the way it was set up, they would only miss about 5% of the callers. One of the local areas decided to check, and put a counter on the numbers of calls that weren't queued. Turned out that 90% of calls were getting the "f-off" tone...
Using Facebook causes less eco damage than farting, figures show
Blame crap mobe apps for swap-by-bonk hacks, say NFC bods
Thursday 2nd August 2012 17:28 GMT 
WTF?!!!!
> The Nokia smartphone is configured to automatically pair with Bluetooth devices when its
> NFC tag-tapping functionality is switched on. In cases where Bluetooth is disabled, the
> phone will actually turn Bluetooth on and pair with devices without asking for permission,
If I had an N9 it would go back to the dealer RIGHT NOW for that.
Oi, missile boffins! Stop ogling web filth at work - Pentagon
Booth babes banned by Chinese gaming expo
Olympic athletes compete in RAYGUN SHOOTING for the first time
LOHAN breathes fire in REHAB
ROBOTS battle bunker-buster bank blast blaggers
Solar, wind, landfill to make cheapest power by 2030
Tuesday 31st July 2012 08:34 GMT
Vertical turbines?
I know all the for/against arguments about wind in general, but I do wonder why we don't see more use made of vertical turbines, i.e. ones which rotate about a vertical axis, where turbines in general are viable.
They would be less unsightly, no big windmill-style blades. The generators would be at ground level where maintenance is easier, so there's no need for a big heavy supporting mast, nor of rotary transformers or other gadgetry to allow the turbine head to swivel. They'll work no matter what direction the wind blows from.
Perhaps not useful offshore, but onshore they would seem to have promise. It's a genuine question, can anyone tell me what the downsides are?
O2 dropped the ball in Olympic cycle race Twitter fiasco
Twitter titsup: Our failover was actually just FAIL ALL OVER
Natwest freezes debit cards, online banking in fresh cock-up
Friday 27th July 2012 11:51 GMT
Not always bad
While NatWorst were happily double-debiting everyone this week, it seems that there was a Lloyds TSB cash machine in Ipswich that was handing out twice as much money as it was asked for. There was quite a queue before they turnd it off.
No info about whether it was an IT issue, or just someone who'd loaded the £10 dispenser with £20 notes...
Story gone
Google Talk goes dumb in massive global outage
Thursday 26th July 2012 15:45 GMT 
WTF?
> Offices should send folks home. Employees aren't going to be doing much else than staring at screens
Employees like that should be sent home permanently, with a P45* If they haven't got something else to do when their chat program goes away they're just wasting office space.
* For US readers, that's a piece of paper, not a weapon...
Microsoft Azure goes titsup across Western Europe
Old-timer Odyssey to babysit Curiosity's Mars landing
USB charges up to 100 watts
Techie accused of snooping wife's email cleared of wrongdoing
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