Re: Monitors need monitoring
"Monitors need monitoring"! But who monitors the monitors of the monitors?!? Or is it monitors all the way down?
1048 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Dec 2018
.... but I could relate the following stories.
The doctor (surgeon) who trashed a PCMCIA card (and messed up the slot on the laptop) because he wanted to take it out and look at it. Except instead of using the eject button/switch/slidey thing, he used a set of forceps!!!! The PCMCIA card looked very foxed, and the slot in the lappy only slightly foxed.
The clinician who demanded a quad speed CDROM drive when they came out because the twin speed drive he already had wasn't fast enough. Only for the tech who visited to fit the new drive discovering that the original twin speed drive wasn't even connected to the PSU in that PC!!!!
The rollout of a large number of PCs as data gathering terminals .... which had been stacked in the office for two years because they had to be bought when the budget was available, and not when the rollout was actually going to happen. Meaning that they could have been bought for half the price if they had waited, and the machines would have been in warranty when unboxed so the usual 3-5% DOA machines could have been replaced.
That depends.
It is possible to create a circular reference that on each 'lap' asymptotes towards a required result.
For example, ways to calculate PI that use loops.
You could create a circular reference in Excel that gets closer and closer to the 'answer' on each lap, and Excel is set up to stop if it sees the values are only changing by a small amount.
I'm not saying that it's a good thing. I'm just pointing out that it isn't necessarily an error.
So he admits to using code that he developed whilst working at a former employer for a later employer, and then posting that to GitHub. He's a braver person than I am.
If I were ever to reuse code (or even keep a copy) I would not be admitting that fact to anyone,ever.
"In a similar era, I actually got away with hot-plugging an internally mounted Exabyte 8mm tape drive in a RS/6000 model 930 without blowing the fuse in the SCSI terminator!"
You had a SCSI terminator! Luxury! We had to make terminators out of the components that we had to hand or had salvaged from the local landfill. Just the thought of having a proper SCSI terminator was enough to bring tears to our eyes! Fuses? What were they? We used to take turns with two of the wires on our tongues, and if the voltage went too high you had to react quickly ... or be talking like Jar Jar Binks for the rest of the day.
Now if only there were a way to reduce the length/width of the vehicles that people are using ....... [cough]motorbike/moped[cough]!
Unfortunately, here in the UK they have spent the last 40 years doing their best(/worst) to legislate 2 wheeled vehicles off the road.
.... of accuracy that will be going for. Cos the accuracy will be determined by the accuracy of the clock fitted to the LEO satellite, as well as the accuracy of the satellite location.
This is pretty much GPS in reverse. Instead of one receiver receiving radio signals from multiple transmitters it is multiple receivers receiving transmissions from one transmitter. In both cases the quality of the clock in the satellite element will be a key component to the accuracy of the resulting calculated position.
You will still have the 'normal' GPS issue that Lat & Long will be far more accurate than altitude.
On the subject of Mercury (and other orbiting bodies).
Rotational slowdown and tidal locking occurs because the tides cause orbiting bodies to stretch a little towards each other, and where they are spinning this lump is offset from the direct line between the bodies. And the slightly higher gravitational attraction to this lump is what slows down the rotation of the bodies concerned.
This has a larger effect the farther from in-line the lump is, and the larger the lump is. So faster rotating bodies are slowed down quicker than slower rotating bodies. And bodies with an atmosphere and/or oceans are slowed faster than 'solid' bodies that distort less.
So what is probably true for the likes of Mercury (slow rotation and solid body) is that the rotation speed will asymptote towards zero but may not actually reach zero during the lifespan of our solar system.
On the subject of our Moon.
The near side has vast flat plains (Mares) but the other side is all craters. It was thought that this was because the Earth protected the near side from impacts, but is now believed to be that when the Moon formed the Earth was hot enough that the near side of the Moon took longer to cool and solidify. So impacts were swallowed by molten Moon lava for longer than on the far side.
Either way, it is generally agreed that the Moon started off with little to no spin when it was formed. So it has been tidally locked from the start.
..... if you want to go looking for it.
Phone = Fairphone 4 - Good mid-range phone with removable battery, fully user serviceable and zero glue
Lappy = Framework - Good small laptop, again removable battery, fully user serviceable and zero glue
Can recommend both cos I have both!