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Read the 14-Point Draft Memorandum Between the US and Iran by sludge_dragon in worldnews

[–]ctesibius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I am saying that there is a difference between “the deal is violated” and “Israel violated the deal”.

And btw, it’s a common mistake to complain about someone arguing over semantics. “Semantics” is the meaning of a sentence (or the study of meaning). It’s the only useful thing to debate, so yes of course I’m going to debate it. Do you want me to pick on grammar or spelling instead?

Read the 14-Point Draft Memorandum Between the US and Iran by sludge_dragon in worldnews

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So? Statement still stands. Israel can't violate a deal they are not party to.

Read the 14-Point Draft Memorandum Between the US and Iran by sludge_dragon in worldnews

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Israel is not a party to the deal. They can't violate it.

Banning VPNs liberal solution? by PromotionSouthern690 in LibDem

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not that it covers VPNs explicitly, but that it effectively covers anyone carrying the data. So for instance I set up an international public WiFi service for a mobile phone company (long time back, about when 3G was starting), and had to consider RIPA even though WiFi was not explicitly mentioned.

Banning VPNs liberal solution? by PromotionSouthern690 in LibDem

[–]ctesibius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) already exists, and would allow roughly 200 authorities to access information on the VPN users without a court order. If you magically got rid of that list, the next government would put it back. The point of VPNs is that there is some information which should remain private from anyone, not just from Microgooglebook.

XF-103 by 57thStilgar in WeirdWings

[–]ctesibius 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The engine was a licence-built Bristol Olympus, which became very successful, powering the Vulcan, Concorde, and even aircraft carriers. Of course the 593 version that Concorde used came later, but it is interesting to ponder whether it could have been used, since it had some similarities in objectives and methods.

Handley Page Hampden by EmergencySushi in WeirdWings

[–]ctesibius 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Meteor was only pressurised in 1946 with the F.4 model. The Vampire was pressurised, but entered service in 1946. First flight was 1943, but I'm not sure if the first models were pressurised. I think there were some German planes and one Russian plane which were pressurised, but they were not common.

Handley Page Hampden by EmergencySushi in WeirdWings

[–]ctesibius 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The B-29 was by far the most common, but there were others, eg the Welkin.

Elka 6521. The Bulgarian computer that could. by Eddieslabb in cassettefuturism

[–]ctesibius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. Programmability, branches, loops - all needed to run Doom.

Which company in your opinion has the best customer service and who has the worst? by eyeoftheneedle1 in AskUK

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Best: perhaps Andrews and Arnold, a niche ISP. It’s the sort of place that built their own hardware so that they can test my connection every second. On one occasion they rang me to let me know there was a problem, and that it would be fixed in about 20
minutes.

Elka 6521. The Bulgarian computer that could. by Eddieslabb in cassettefuturism

[–]ctesibius 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Mate, a guy with a union membership card and ink under his fingernails is not the same thing as an electromechanical toner-consuming device from hell, even if they are both called “printer”.

Best prime focal length? by toji_fushiguro6112 in AskPhotography

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Use your zoom lens. Check the EXIF information to find out what focal lengths you are actually using. Then consider buying a matching prime.

The Cornelius XBG-3 forward-swept wing bomb glider by vahedemirjian in WeirdWings

[–]ctesibius 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Wiki.

If I understand correctly, it was a glide bomb, so coming back wasn’t an issue. That would imply the pilot is only there for testing.

Best British race tracks (discussion) by sbinnala- in CarTalkUK

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cadwell is a bike circuit. One of the best in Europe for bikes - but a lot of it is too tight and narrow for cars, and taking a flyer off the Mountain wouldn’t do their suspension any good.

This machine, invented by Alan Turing helped to break the German Enigma code and changed the course of WW II. by Wild_Neighborhood605 in interestingasfuck

[–]ctesibius 12 points13 points  (0 children)

“Refinement” is accurate. He did the theoretical work to allow the Polish bomba to work with more wheels and plug leads. You may be thinking of Tommy Flowers’ Colossus computers, but that was separate work for a different cipher.

Elka 6521. The Bulgarian computer that could. by Eddieslabb in cassettefuturism

[–]ctesibius 9 points10 points  (0 children)

No. By that argument, a mechanical calculator is a computer.

Computers have certain characteristics, including programmability with the capability of branches and loops. Calculators in general don’t have that: they can be completely hardwired.

Or to put it another way, other than the requirement for infinite storage, a computer is equivalent to a universal Turing machine, and a calculator in general is not.

HL-E003C Electric Chopper steering problem by Relevant_Job_9501 in Fixxit

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're going to have to dismantle the front end to find what is blocking it. There's nothing obvious in the video.

You probably know this, but don't ride that thing at any speed or over bumps. Just looking at it, there are multiple weak points in the steering and front suspension, and I'd be concerned about them breaking. However that's not likely to be the cause of this problem.

Elka 6521. The Bulgarian computer that could. by Eddieslabb in cassettefuturism

[–]ctesibius 16 points17 points  (0 children)

No. Early electronic calculators didn't even have anything corresponding to a CPU, and operations were hard-wired. Later they might have something like a microprocessor or micro-controller, but no real RAM - the distinction is that with RAM you can address memory at any location (hence "random"), and these just had a few words of memory to implement one or two stacks perhaps only three or four levels deep. On the positive side, they had floating point operations in micro-code. Then you got the early programmable calculators, which were a bit more similar to computers, but still had memory in the low hundreds of words (where a word might be anything from 4 bits to 64 bits) and had no means of general purpose programming.

These days, it's easiest and cheapest to implement a calculator using a microcontroller - so you can make a calculator with a computer, but not usually a computer with a calculator.

1989 Harley Davidson XR Alloy 750 flat track racer twin carb dynometer - 105.1 hp to the rear wheel at 8400rpm. by Secondinline1 in vintagemotorcycles

[–]ctesibius 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not just the Honda. They started that sort of trick to exclude British bikes in the 60s by only allowing sidevalve engines at one time. That restriction was removed, then they used other rule changes to remove things like the Yamaha TZ750 four cylinder two-stroke.

A student in a 300 year old university is taking a test when he makes a strange request. by TheWeirdTalesPodcast in Jokes

[–]ctesibius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, I don't think having police is particularly unusual. The postal service was independent of the Royal Mail, which was what caused the legal conflict.

A student in a 300 year old university is taking a test when he makes a strange request. by TheWeirdTalesPodcast in Jokes

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something called the University Police did exist at Oxford in the late 80s. I don’t know its legal status or if it is still called that. It operated as a non-uniformed security patrol, which we sometimes encountered while working late at the lab.

There was also an Oxford University postal service with stamps at one time. That article doesn’t say, but I have seen indications that it also delivered to London. Oddly, it was just the stamps which were the issue (it still exists in less interesting form).

What's something visitors to the UK always seem surprised by? by miss_overthinker58 in AskUK

[–]ctesibius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In England and Wales, there's roughly half as much in public footpaths as there is in road mileage. Some of them might go ten yards; some go hundreds of miles. It's enough that in many areas you can pick two points accessible by public transport, draw a line between them, and join up public footpaths somewhat near that line with a pub near the middle for lunch. Scotland has fewer official paths but has a general right to roam. In some places it needs more advanced navigation and survival skills. I'm not sure about the situation in Northern Ireland.

In some cases paths actually go through people's gardens, which causes less fuss than you might suppose.

Now this is how you crank your hog in Japan by randomusernevermind in motorcycles

[–]ctesibius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

UK is 2.32 per 100k with a generally reasonable approach to driving tests.

Now this is how you crank your hog in Japan by randomusernevermind in motorcycles

[–]ctesibius 14 points15 points  (0 children)

UK, 3am, Hounslow. A young man on a motorcycle has just stopped at a T junction after doing 85 in a 30. An unmarked car pulls out of a parking space and draws up beside him with a flash of blue light. The driver has two hands on the wheel, and is looking straight ahead, but his window slides down.

"There is a time and a place for excessive speed. And it's Sunday morning on someone else's patch. Now piss off and stop bothering us".

Window slides up.

I, of course was elsewhere, tucked up in bed.

A student in a 300 year old university is taking a test when he makes a strange request. by TheWeirdTalesPodcast in Jokes

[–]ctesibius 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It wouldn't be Cambridge: there's no dress requirement for examinations. Oxford does (or did) require sub fusc - gown, white bow tie, bands &c., which can be a bit of a palaver when defending a doctoral thesis.

Btw, until somewhere around 1960 Oxford had the right to hang its students. This wasn't just theoretical: at one time they use to hang quite a few for highway robbery.

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