cstross

33 ms·

271.
by cstross 7y ago
ISTR the acceptable risk statement for the Apollo program was that there be no more than a 20% chance of losing a crew. NASA lost the Apollo 1 crew in the pad fire, nearly lost the Apollo 13 crew, and lost a bunch more astronauts to plane
272.
by cstross 7y ago
I use Citymapper extensively on trips to cities it covers. It's at its best in London (where, IIRC, the dev team is based): there, it's a life-saver. It's also effective in other first-rank anglophone world cities, such as Ne
273.
by cstross 7y ago
I wasn't commenting on Heinlein, I was commenting on John W. Campbell, who was basically the go-to editor for hard SF (and had an Agenda, capital-A intentional). The Expanse is popular because -- surprise! -- even a niche market can be
274.
by cstross 7y ago
Alas, that's not what "hard" SF means these days (or even since the 1960s). Consider the "known space" stories and novels by Larry Niven, who is pretty firmly pigeon-holed as a hard SF author: they're full of
275.
by cstross 7y ago
The current Apple equivalent is probably an iMac Pro, or possibly a tricked-out 27" 5K iMac with all the extras. The Mac Pro is arguably an SGI/Sun workstation equivalent.
276.
by cstross 7y ago
It's not specific to Pakistan: the same problem tends to be seen in many if not all cultures with a strong dowry tradition. If substantial wealth is transferred with a bride, there's a powerful incentive to marry within the family
277.
by cstross 7y ago
... Or the doctor in question could just have moved to Dewsbury, in West Yorkshire. (n the mid-1980s I made an early career mistake and qualified as a pharmacist. I did my pre-registration work at the -- now closed -- district hospital in D
278.
by cstross 7y ago
Not feasible for a single idiot to accomplish, but you're forgetting we live in an age of State-Level Actors who distribute very sophisticated malware to attack enemy nation's infrastructure by borking SCADA controllers in e.g. ur
279.
by cstross 7y ago
I'm sure I could make better use of your home by demolishing it and erecting a homeless hostel. Isn't that more important than your prior claim to live there? (This is a m-e-t-a-p-h-o-r, not a literal proposal, but what Starlink i
280.
by cstross 7y ago
How much do you think all the sunk infrastructure costs of existing telescopes cost, and how many years did it take to build them? The bigger telescopes today have primary reflectors that are vastly bigger than the James Webb Space Telesc
281.
by cstross 7y ago
I'd have gone for "can't use perl, that's obsolete (uses awk instead)" which is kind of ironic if you remember the days of a2p. As it is, a combination of sh/awk will do the job, but is likely slower and less f
282.
by cstross 7y ago
There might be mitigation strategies. First step: colonize Valles Marineris. (It's as much as 7km below mean surface level, so the atmosphere is going to be considerably thicker at the bottom than at surface level: for reference, that&
283.
by cstross 7y ago
I have one. It is, indeed, like the Second Coming of the Psion 5 ... only it got released a bit too early: the Gemini feels a bit public beta to me. I am eagerly awaiting the successor, the Cosmo Communicator (which is locked for shipping v
284.
by cstross 7y ago
You're a young insurgent then! Some of the big five have roots going back to 18 94, and earlier. (Time runs at a different pace in publishing, if that makes sense.)
285.
by cstross 7y ago
The yellowing is due to acid leaching in the wood pulp paper; it can be reversed or halted for a price, but it's accelerated in conditions of higher humidity. US hardcovers are supposed to be saddle-stitched and bound, and printed
286.
by cstross 7y ago
Also: AIUI there's no VAT due on new build properties on green field sites (of which there are very few),but redeveloping brown-field sites attracts VAT charged at 20%. Which is frank insanity in terms of public policy on a small, crow
287.
by cstross 7y ago
I note that "No Starch" is a young insurgent publisher and not part of the Big Five. The Big Five are all about supply chain management contracts. That's all. Everything that can be outsourced is outsourced. But this leaves
288.
by cstross 7y ago
> “There used to be a lot more books that could sell 40,000–50,000 copies. Now more sell fewer than 10,000 copies.” Well, duh . Speaking as a working novelist (who has been earning a living that way for the past 19 years, thank you very
289.
by cstross 7y ago
Necessary footnote: the age of the average dwelling in the UK is 75 years. (I live in a ~200 year old apartment. It's not particularly unusual in being of that age.)
290.
by cstross 7y ago
Nope. (Manufacturer is German, and extremely uptight about GDPR. A redeeming mark in their favour.)
291.
by cstross 7y ago
I recently bought a spiffy top-of-the-range washer/drier to replaced my 15-year-old one. I did my research; knew it was wifi-enabled, but could be used without the app or an internet connection. So that's what I did at first. Then
292.
by cstross 7y ago
We really, really need a second run at Biosphere 2, only this time integrating what the failures of the first run taught us. (Only 25 years ago, with no serious follow-up!) The next step would then be something like a Bigelow B330 module
293.
by cstross 7y ago
The path taken in the 1950s for spaceflight was dictated by its funding source -- missile development. Missiles were optimized for high performance and were single use devices. Even when dedicated non-military rockets began to appear, e.g.
294.
by cstross 7y ago
A sunshade is also a strategic weapon, from the POV of those nations whose insolation may be blocked (or even increased, using reflectors) at the whim of the foreign policy of the national power that controls the sunshade. Not saying it&#x2
295.
by cstross 7y ago
I'd just like to note that the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds has a probably-unique surviving suit of elephant armour, which is displayed on a stuffed elephant in pride of place: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43&
296.
by cstross 7y ago
Except the netbook form-factor has seen an unexpected revival in the past two years, with machines from GPD and One Netbook (and other Chinese manufacturers) showing up (although they're metal unibody machines, some of them ultrabook s
297.
by cstross 7y ago
I don't know where you get the idea there's no compulsory NI in the UK ...! The NHS is paid for out of income tax; unless you're wealthy going in, you're going to be paying yourself and your employees sooner or later.
298.
by cstross 7y ago
I've been through a startup in the UK, 1997-2000. I was 33-36; my boss was 30-33; the CEO turned 40. At time of IPO the average age was going down, but was still close to 30. It wouldn't have been practical without the NHS; free h
299.
by cstross 7y ago
I've just gone through the decline and death of an elderly relative. She was able to use a Mac and browse the web a decade ago. Then she began to forget how to do things she'd been proficient at a few years earlier. In the past fo
300.
by cstross 7y ago
Short-term and small scale, Apple really needs to add UWB tracking, at least a beacon you can locate, to the next generation of AirPods. (Signed: someone whose spouse "can't find my airpods, I was sure they were in this bag …&qu

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