Posts by Steve Charlton

US Navy to test fire electric hypercannon

Or how about...

I think they should produce a Railway Gun* instead! Imagine it. An engine, 10 coaches and a guards van all screaming through the air. It would be a sight to see.

* - from Usenet, long ago.

iRobot inks deal for laser-radar droidvision sensors

Exterminate!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Arthur C Clarke lists three wishes on 90th birthday

"Not for him nightmares of global destruction"

Almost right. Read "Childhoods End" and "Quarantine".

"Earth's flaming debris still filled half the sky..."

Happy Birthday Arthur

Add Earthlight to the list of fav stories.

German air passenger quaffs litre of vodka

Alcho-Pops

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Moon makes us extra special, scientists say

But if it was a Dyson Sphere...

... you wouldn't be able to see the stars.

Shocked Shatner shunted from Star Trek XI

If we're going to get into best space-faring TV series...

then its got to be:-

Firefly/Serenity

ST:TOS

B5

ST:TNG

UFO

Space 1999

Fireball XL5

How to counter premature optimisation

The rules for software engineering cover this.

Rule 1: Keep it simple.

Rule 2: Make it work, THEN make it better.

Rule 3: Better is the enemy of good enough.

Rule 4: Don't change 2 variables in an experiment at the same time.

So, get it to work, then you can optimize it, but only if you need to.

I work in embedded systems, so adding more memory or a faster processor isn't usually an option.