Posts by willi0000000

Re: using adjusted UTC would be the best and makes the most sense

Clavius? . . . so that's where they hid customer service.

Re: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My hovercraft is full of eels.

the favorite thought going through any competent scientists head must be:

"that's odd"

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re:life origin

it seems that chemistry has an affection for carbon compounds (source: my son the PhD Organic Chemist) . . . given energy (solar, lightning, etc) and raw materials (say, all the worlds oceans and what's dissolved in them) and deep time you're going to get some pretty complicated and complex molecules.

enough of them bumping into each other (remember the sample size and the number of collisions/second) and life is almost a certainty.

and once you have that first eater/excreter/grower/reproducer it's off to the races!

Re: “You cannot control the transmutation process,” Carter said

it's like exploration . . . you don't know what you'll find, and of what you find, not all will be suitable for exploitation but someone will find a way of turning some of the things you find into money.

Re: Almost like there's an election...

not quite . . . see r. m. nixon pardon.

Re: DIMM Slots

carpenter's best friend four-inch putty.

Re: The big red button

why do the cps tables compare so many things to the efficiency of the United States Post Office?

[ i've worked there . . . efficiency isn't really their thing ]

so . . . you think they should just take their lumps.

NASA's problems start with the fact that administrators are often not spaceflight or aeronautics supporters.*

the problem is made almost infinitely worse because every Senator, Representative and President endlessly tries to micromanage** NASA as to what space missions to undertake and which state gets to supply parts.

and none of the micromanager wannabes care about aeronautics or NASA's education programs.

* Charles Bolton, the previous (unless that's changed again) administrator is an ex-astronaut was a modern exception.

** usually via funding threats.

Re: "the (suicidal?) bravery (stupidity?) of our colleague"

of course not . . . i'm an old (so not reliable in the memory department) but i remember seeing an item stating that no forest fire here on the left side of the pond has ever been put out by firefighters . . . it's always eventually extinguished by rain.

it figures as no fire truck can carry the amount of water that a 100,000 ton cloud can.

Re: Diretional antenna

i thought it was RUDE.

[ Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Event ]

Re: Turf wars

"...and then the plumbing that joins them."

would that be some system of tubes?

@danR2

i found that the NIST site (as usual) to be helpful.

try: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2018/11/nist-atomic-clocks-now-keep-time-well-enough-improve-models-earth

Re: I'm curious..

they all form up behind the leader so they can be there at the end of the "chase" (usually the chasee wrecks or runs on foot).

then they can all chant"STOP RESISTING!!!!!" while beating the perp . . . unless he's white, of course.

Re: Taking the cheapest contractor is not the only option

But C.M.O.T. Dibler offered such good terms!!!!!

[ thank you, Sir Pterry ]

@Kaltera

there are limits on every right in The Bill of Rights . . . there are limits on 'free speech' (unless it's money) and there have been restrictions on fully automatic weapons, sawed-off shotguns and others for a long time now.

i have no idea why the supreme court decided that everybody is a member of a "well regulated militia" . . . but i suspect the reason is money again.

Re: no one has mentioned

who cares about thee boot . . . look in the suit!

[ has anyone seen Bezos lately? ]

Re: Time and a half or a holiday over christmas

Money can't buy happiness but it can rent it!

Re: Zwicky thought of it first

"spherical bastards" . . . i might find a use for that.

one smirk down . . . thousands to go . . . persevere!

@Doctor Syntax

you might want to check to see if someone has wired something backwards . . . that type of half-bright (or less) behavior of CFLs can be caused by switching the neutral instead of the phase wire . . . it's not a problem (unless you consider possible electrocution a problem) . . . the glow is caused by leakage between the ballast and ground (probably capacitive coupling with an electronic ballast and inductive with a really old CFL lamp ballast)

i've found that most people who work on lamps (<pedant> actually fixtures </pedant>) almost never connect the phase and neutral consistently . . . they don't care which wire goes where on the plug end and can't be bothered to keep the wiring properly phased (to match the plug) at the socket.

this is a problem here on the left side of the pond as lots of plugs aren't polarized (and often don't have a ground), nobody pays attention to which side of the all-brown cord goes where (the striated side is phase and the smooth side is neutral) and they haven't a clue why one screw on the socket is brass-colored (coloured) and the other silvery.

[ i swear, it's like all of them are trying to be Witchfinder Private Newton Pulsifer - h/t Mr. Gaiman & Sir Pterry ]

Re: "by the size of his Micro Channel Adapter"

my father taught me at a young age (about 60 years ago, now) that all tools and most things you work on require occasional blood sacrifices . . . i thought i found the one job, draftsman, that broke his rule and was thinking of telling him when i cut a finger to the bone while trimming mylar sheets to size.

it was years later that i discovered that they make computer cases from old razor blades.