pmccool

10 ms·

61.
by pmccool 16y ago
I've heard of people filling physical carts with (non-perishable) goods and abandoning them in the store to protest against a supermarket chain. This makes me wonder whether a similar online tactic might be effective.
62.
by pmccool 16y ago
There has been Internet censorship in Australia for some time. What is at issue here is mandatory filtering. The current regime is summarized here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australi...
63.
by pmccool 16y ago
I doubt it. Australia has an implied freedom of political communication (per the Lange and Coleman v Power cases). This law is on shaky legal ground already. Blocking entire sites will make it more likely that the law will be struck down. I
64.
by pmccool 16y ago
Hopefully, adding "Australia is rapidly becoming an international laughingstock" to the list of reasons to drop this stupid law will convince Conroy. I doubt it, though; "it won't work", "most people oppose it" and "it's on shaky legal grou
65.
by pmccool 16y ago
Yeah, modern derailleurs have fixed that problem - it's a fairly old article. A couple of our bikes have gearing that low, and no issues with chain slap. They use MTB derailleurs.
66.
by pmccool 16y ago
It's the gear ratio times the nominal diameter of the wheel. Your gear ratio is 1.5:1. Assuming it's a road bike, the nominal diameter is 27 inches. You would have a 40.5 inch bottom gear. This is a rough, easy-to-calculate way of comparing
67.
by pmccool 16y ago
I was making the point that a lot of the advantages mentioned apply to netbooks. Some of the ones that don't (e.g. standing-up use) would be a case of swings and roundabouts. I agree that standing-up use, particularly data entry, is one of
68.
by pmccool 16y ago
The article describes a situation where an ultra-portable device with long battery life is a winner. It's not clear whether the iPad is any better than a netbook would have been. I would imagine it would win on standing-up use and lose out
69.
by pmccool 16y ago
Or a bicycle. I gather there are any number of e-bikes around if pedalling is an issue. This is what I never understood about the Segway: what does it do that a bicycle of some description cannot?
70.
by pmccool 16y ago
As I started reading the article, I wondered how he would get such a car serviced. When I got to the bit about a faulty timing chain destroying the engine, I couldn't help but wonder if lack of routine maintenance was to blame (I understand
71.
by pmccool 16y ago
A couple of weeks ago. Locked my phone in my house along with my keys. I'm glad they're still around; when they're useful, they're very useful.
72.
by pmccool 16y ago
Consider the two recent creepy proposals together. They point to everything being censored and everything being monitored. Consider Wikileaks. Consider how these laws work together against whistleblowers. How convenient for a government to
73.
by pmccool 16y ago
My mistake. Thank you for the correction. I certainly agree that popular opposition to creepy laws isn't an area where Australia has covered itself in glory over the years. That's not a specifically Australian failing, though.
74.
by pmccool 16y ago
I'd answer "No". 1. A lot of these creepy proposals never get past the proposal stage. Take the Australia Card. 2. Australia's legal institutions have proved reasonably effective in dealing with such creepy laws. E.g. laws banning the Commu
75.
by pmccool 16y ago
If this law ever comes into existence, I predict its number-one use will be pursuing illegal downloaders or something. I bet it won't be explicitly limited to terrorism or whatever its ostensible purpose is. Hope I'm wrong, on both points.
76.
by pmccool 16y ago
To be fair, this creepiness is coming from the Attorney-General's department, so Conroy doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it.
77.
by pmccool 16y ago
From the article: "Recently legal scholars have started looking harder at such fields, hoping to find mechanisms that can support innovation without the cost and complexity of conventional intellectual property law, and wondering how broadl
78.
by pmccool 16y ago
They're useful in many non-car situations too - tidying up cabling is another favourite.
79.
by pmccool 16y ago
One important issue the article doesn't address: do these scores have any meaningful correlation with success in the sciences? The ability to do research and the ability to do well in exams are two quite different things. On the face of it,
80.
by pmccool 16y ago
Agree. I find there is much more value in small-group tutorials than in lectures. Finding those on the Internet is much harder. In particular, my experience is that lectures are more about information transfer and less about problem solving
81.
by pmccool 16y ago
Margaret Wertheim's book "Pythagoras's Trousers" discusses this issue. The contention there is that it's not just about this sterotype, it's also about a deeply entrenched anti-female culture. The gender bias problem can't be fixed simply b
82.
by pmccool 16y ago
Sounds cool. It'd be nice if it could run off an existing dynamo. I wonder if it uses the standard voltage for these things (6V/3W)?
83.
by pmccool 16y ago
I found the very subjective attitude to selecting talent interesting. I imagine this is because soccer is a sport that doesn't really lend itself to collecting metrics. Nor is it a sport where physical attributes are decisive. The case of t
84.
by pmccool 16y ago
Dunno about this situation, but there's a discussion in http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCA/... starting at about paragraph 110. They are coy about the details, I suppose to make circumvention harder or something.
85.
by pmccool 16y ago
Does the first amendment apply to corporations? No doubt it would apply to government organizations, but I can't see that nattering to BP's shareholders.
86.
by pmccool 16y ago
The ability to print, e.g. drawings. Nothing too elaborate, screendumps would be fine.
87.
by pmccool 16y ago
Definitely, especially if going touchscreen(which is the way to go - imagine how often a stylus would go missing). The resolution needn't be massive, so I would hope this wouldn't be costly.
88.
by pmccool 16y ago
Difference is, as the parent post said, they don't have to give you a degree. There are all sorts of strings attached to that. You pay for the possibility of a degree; they are not obliged to hand them out. As an aside, I'm not sure this wo
89.
by pmccool 16y ago
I think the marketing department did just fine. Browsers do indeed have a shelf life. The blame rests with those who created the situation, not those who pointed it out.
90.
by pmccool 16y ago
Also, unlike open source, there's no way for people to experiment en masse on leaking deepwater oil wells. Solutions can't be attempted in parallel.

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