Posts by Alex D 24 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jul 2007
you don't need a massively expensive and advanced (assuming the eurofighter can be called that, sic) fighter to take out a slow, weaponless commercial plane... heck, a guy on the ground with a stinger can do that! (kenya a few years ago anyone)?
Save the cash, buy chinooks, reapers, and body armour. Save lives. Win wars.
Is it such a bad idea for the police to have a database of DNA? IF (big if) kept securly... wouldnt it be a good idea ifthe govt had a record all all the citizens and people who enter the country.. surely it would be effectual in helping to identify those who commit crime... just as how cctv of one walking past helps identify you are there, it doesnt mean an automatic conviction but helps the police locate people...
Get everyone's DNA on a decent database... keep it offline so it can't be spilled/copied on to the net and get some good encryption on it. simple.
Flame away...
look up how street car works. It for people to rent the car from an hour or longer, and go less than 30miles (or they have to start paying excess charges). In London, this is generally under 30mph.
Also, can people PLEASE remember that a power station is FAR more efficient than a combustion engine, even including transmissions losses.
- Remember that UK energy has a fair bit of renewable sources - about 20% from Nuclear, a few percent from Wind and others.
So- running an electric car IS far greener than a petrol one.
Yes, it would be nice to have the Tranche 3s for any (slim) possible conflict with Russia.
But we have a LIMITED BUDGET. This is an EIther/OR situation.
We need a few high-end planes that can handle special missions- first stike against Iran etc
But then we need just standard half-decent plains that do the job against piss-poor old Russian equipment, or those with No planes at all. As must as readers love to slag off the septics, we are not gonna have a war with them any time soon, But off the shelf F35s and apachaes cheaply and soon as a basic, cheap, but very conpetent plane for our ACTUAL needs at the moment.
Then buy more helicopters/armour for the troops dieing on the ground as we speak.
Lewis, ignore the knee-jerk anti americans, and those that want to debate the minute of the EuroFIghter Vs F22. The point of these articles is about the opportunity cost of buying Eurofighter and keep spreading the word what a daylight robbery this is!
Is that people assume that when drugs are illegal people don't take them, and that when they are made legal, that the numbers taking them wil sky rocket.
saying that drugs are bad for you and you shouldnt take them has got nothing what-so-ever to do with if they should be legal/illegal. As the number of Canabis smokers in the UK and the Netherlands shows... about 2x as many smokers in the UK (illegal) Vs Netherlands (legal).
For the crime issue.., selling drugs is generally pretty easy, and thought of as victimless by those engaged. Committing burglary takes a lot more effort and (im)moral conviction than selling an 1/8th to your mate. Yes some criminal enterprises will move on to other areas, but they often need skills that are not easily transferable from dealing... they arn't all going to start writing the next conflicker...
Anyone else see the news that there are codes for iphone 2,1 and Ipod 3,0 in the in the latest software relesae? given that the current ipone is 1,2 this leads to the idea that there will be atleast 2 whole revisions of the iphone... most likely a 'nano' as the accessories are already being made for it and will be intended for China and probably a more 'pro' edition as described.
Appealing to larger segments of the (still all top part of the) market is pretty simple business sense.
With S60- The general impression I get is that people always loved Nokias as the interface was rock-solid and super fast (in comparisson to all the other older OSs). Dont discount the want for simple but works over flashy and never gonna use.
Whats more important- vital information that saves civilian/military lives and access to preferential kit that saves more lives, or embarrassing the UK/US government over something that is common nature in Pakistan/Afganistan (somehow dont think that the Taliban subscribe to the UN decleration of human rights).
Nothing more than political play- Davis knows that the govt will never release the docs, but kicks up a fuss to get the wishy washy bleeding hearts to crow for him.
So I would have to shake that thing continuously for an hour to be able to charge my phone? And pay 90quid for the privalige? I think I would rather just have a solar charger that can store power and jus be plugged in. Ones from the likes of Devotec start at 25 pounds, and involves no shaking, has an internal battery, etc etc.
This is a clear public good. creating an opportunity which other wise wouldnt be available to any of hte manufacturers. Agreed that the gov should take a nice stake in the factory/group, which it can have the right to sell at a later date as a taxpayer investment. Basically the gov is acting as a PE/VC firm, but with the added benefit of funding a 'national strategic industry.'
Let them outsource it all to China, as long as the US companies hold the IP, receive the goods and take the profits.
I paid £400 for my xbox when i came out, to get a 20gb hdd. FIlled it up pretty quickly with downloads and Microsoft want HHHHOOOOWWW much for a 1120gb hdd? As mentioned, considering that they are pusihng a strategy of downloading their games and saving them all those retail/logistics fees, they should be giving the bloody things away!
Absolute bollocks.
Has anyone tried to refresh their inbox page? takes about 30seconds to do... faster my ass.
Even worse, Microsoft seem to have fogotten what we actually use hotmail for. I dont want my page taken up with nothin but tabs and folder options, I want to see the email I am reading/writing. Why have they put the folder options to take up half the screen when I am writing an email??
Flame them, Flame them good!
Running a solar company, I would suggest using flexible A-si panels. They can get 10% plus efficiency, and are much better in diffuse (cloudy) weather. Current costing is about $10 a watt, but:
they are super light weight- think a few grams per watt.
b) super flexible, and super thin, (2mm maybe?) so can be moulded to the top of the car and not look like a 70s roofrack with the drag issues. IMO, could probably get 50-80W worth of panels on the roof/bonnet of a prius... which would be a fair bit of extra energy to run the air-con and similar. Possibly even trickle-charge the main battery?
I went to supposedly one of the top few schools in the country (you would never know by the pupils though). a few memorable points:
- We were just at the age where it was cool to bring in a mamoth laptop that could run word, but that was about it (no wifi those days). I remember an English lesson where someone had recorded their voice then lowered the tone and put a lot of echo on it. The then played the music file in class, which went a little something like this:
"Tomxxxxs this is God. Stop talking Shit!"
-another fond memory of a decidedly weak substitute history teacher, and ripping up bits of carpet and throwing them when she had her back turned. 40mins later, the place looked like a warzone.
-being absolute kleptomaniacs... what is it about kids in a science room... stealing the magnesium and then setting it alight was always fun.
For pointing out how retarded the arguments against Susan were.
Terrorist- someone who INTentionally goes out to KILL as many civilians as possible
Government (British/US/Israeli)- People who spend countless time/money/effort trying NOT TO KILL civilians. Yes Collateral damage happens, but the Agenda of Government is to try to minimise casualties as much as humanly possible- n.b. this is a bit harder if you (like Saddam) keep your Missiles underneath Schools/Hospitals etc.
The science icon to try and explain the difference.
- There's a whole lot of work being done on Lith-ion, lith-poly and the more exotic batteries which is making them much more efficient- maybe not quite Moors Law, but not too far off (I run a company selling lith-battery products). So the main argument against the electric vehicles will dwindle away as tech improves.
- Im still waiting for the Hover Car too, although somehow el reg's infamous villain, Moller, is unlikely to deliver one soon.
-No way Ken will support cars, even electric ones, with some kind of connection to Israel- unless they were Palestinian made, and then there would be massive subsidies for them... he's fair like that lol.
Storing energy tends to be massively inefficent.. pumping water back up a hill wastes a whole lot of energy, but there is also the problem of having the water to pump up the hill, having the hill etc etc.
A possibly better way is AIr compression... works in much the same way- compressthe air, and then use it to run turbines when needed... the nice thing is that you scale up or down the facility, and build it practically anywhere.
There are already two pilot projects underway- one in the US, one in Germany... (This was in the economist 2-3 weeks ago).
Alex
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