Posts by Rich of Observationz

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  • Hard News: On receipt of a not-so-nastygram,

    According to my passport it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

    So UK *and* GB are arguably reasonable abbreviations, although UK is probably more pedanticaly correct.

    The "GB" plate has always been used on the back of British cars when driven overseas. GB is the ISO code (hence GBP is the code for the pound). Yachts used to use "K" for "..Kingdom.." but now use "GBR".

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Hard News: On receipt of a not-so-nastygram,

    You could have a number of different porn domains:

    .x
    .xx
    .xxx
    .xxx_but_ugly_chicks
    .xxx_gay_blokes
    .xxx_but_arguably_arty
    .xxxx_frankly_puke_inducing

    etc..

    Seriously I don't quite understand how Germany (90 mln people) manages with a single level .de but we need multi level domains for 4 million?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Hard News: Awful in more than one way,

    It does strike me that if the students had had guns, then the following might have happened:
    - gunshots ring out across campus
    - various students start stalking around the place with guns drawn
    - said students spot each other and assuming the other student is the perp, open fire
    - an all-against-all shootout develops
    - several thousand wingnuts die in the crossfire

    I'm convinced - all american wingnuts should have guns and as many rounds as they can carry! We need more natural selection..

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Hard News: Art and the Big Guy,

    I think the rate is significant. The reason why the UK art market isn't shifting overseas is that for an initial rate of 4% (falling to 0.25% on high value items) it isn't worth it.

    Likely to be the same here I suspect.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Southerly: Public Address Science…,

    Simon: too true. I briefly worked on the Eurofighter in my first job after college in 1984 (I probably wouldn't work on military projects now).

    I read this stupid article in the SMH about how Australia wasn't buying suitably sophisticated jetfighters to deal with Future Imaginary Enemies. Don't they realise that the countries in the region who are at all likely to acquire suck things have armies that are (potentially) bigger than their population?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Southerly: Public Address Science…,

    I'm impressed by your knowledge - and take your point that the scale of computer production is what keeps the silicon / spinning magnetic surface technologies in the forefront.

    On turbofans - aren't a lot of supersonic military aircraft like the F-16, Typhoon, F-22 and F-35 turbofan powered? I thought this indicated that turbofans were state of the art for all supersonic propulsion (given that no SSTs have been brought to production since 1976).

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Southerly: Public Address Science…,

    Call me a cynic, but I'm never convinced when a new technology comes along that will solve all our problems. A lot of the time refinement of a basic technology will beat a step change. For instance, your computer (probably) doesn't use holographic memory, massive parallelism or an optical processor. I think a practical SST would still be best built with a turbofan engine - the applications for Pulse Detonation Engine will mostly be cheap, short life systems such as missiles.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Hard News: A depressing day in court,

    Hamboy: you are a sucker for punishment aren't you! Spurs and the NZ cricket team. Don't tell me you also follow the Warriors?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Hard News: A depressing day in court,

    Hopefully the private equity people will leverage the Canwest business to the extent that they go bust. I'll miss Campbell Live, but apart from that any of their other output will be no great loss.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Civility Code,

    If you want a real example of how bad things get look at the Guardian's Comment Is Free section. Probably 60% of the comment on *any topic* will be endless relitigation of the merits or otherwise of neo-conservatism and the Iraq war.

    In the days of NNTP and Usenet, newsreaders like "xrn" had a kill function where you could blackhole those whose comments you personally found annoying, etc. Maybe this could be added to Blogger, etc.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

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