smackay

10 ms·

61.
by smackay 5y ago
Craig Murray, friend of Julian Assange, was just released from a Scottish prison for the crime of jigsaw identification of some of the accusers in the trial of former First Minister, Alex Salmond despite the fact that many journalists from
62.
by smackay 5y ago
The author's posts on Django are always worth reading. They're way more detailed than the run-of-the-mill rehash of the Django documentation that most blogs contain and there's always a nugget of "I never knew that"
63.
by smackay 5y ago
Black beans are another example. There are various brands available here. The expensive ones had more/all beans that were black in colour while the cheaper, particularly store brands, were all dark brown. Presumably there are different
64.
by smackay 5y ago
I have a Scottish Werewolf in Scotland story and a ghost story associated with a lighthouse... When I lived up in Caithness myself and couple of others would go out ringing (banding) storm-petrels at night next to Noss Lighthouse, near Wick
65.
by smackay 5y ago
Wouldn't you have to rescind the concept that corporations can act as individuals as well? I'm not sure whether this is a legal, moral or philosophical position but in the spirit of no taxation without representation then it seems
66.
by smackay 5y ago
This is an idea that has been extensively explored since 1996, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_sensor_nodes It's a pity that the theme is now surveillance as the utility of sensor networks is rather
67.
by smackay 5y ago
Spotless Starlings here in Lisbon are already mimicking the location beeps from rentable Scooters.
68.
by smackay 5y ago
Easy enough to find, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership but very interesting. The essential detail being "The company is owned by a trust on behalf of all its employees" which gives you some
69.
by smackay 5y ago
The GDS, even today, has an intrinsic beauty to it. It's really a marvel of engineering, though not the prettiest. A big problem is that now a lot of designers, particularly among the contractors, who are several generations removed fr
70.
ISP announces 86% slowdown “in line with others”(doctorow.medium.com)
215 points by smackay 5y ago|209 comments
71.
by smackay 5y ago
This is perhaps the existential crisis that engineering in all its forms has to deal with. Much of the Western ethos and certainly engineering culture in general is about making life better. Instead, our only task now is making it more prof
72.
The pandemic showed remote proctoring to be worse than useless(doctorow.medium.com)
4 points by smackay 5y ago|0 comments
73.
by smackay 5y ago
The Economist definitely have a specific world-view and to be fair they would probably be the first to tell you that. I now read their articles with a certain amount of scepticism, particularly if it's topical but not necessarily curre
74.
by smackay 6y ago
Doesn't the existence of blogs and Q&A sites like Stackoverflow indicate that current approaches to documentation are failing to deliver. I think there's more to the rise of cut & paste development than simply a lack of sk
75.
by smackay 6y ago
The effect of the Cold War extended over much of Europe. I grew up in a small town in the north of Scotland which had an airport that could support Vulcan bombers. There was the widespread feeling we were on the list of places that would ge
76.
by smackay 6y ago
Unfortunately humans like to eat predatory fish - salmon, tuna, etc. So although farming would be a way forward most farming needs large-scale industrial fishing to support it. The pet food industry also has the same problem. Moving farming
77.
by smackay 6y ago
There is a gruesome death trap in Montana, https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.22/latest-thousands-of-snow-ge...
78.
by smackay 6y ago
There's a lot of scepticism with regards to vaccines, which, in the current situation, the European Commission and national governments are keen not to encourage. There are also a couple of unfortunate incidents in recent memory which
79.
by smackay 6y ago
Here on the ground in Portugal I'd say the government's response is apparently competent but it's just not effective. Although the country is simply following what others are doing, the population is taking this very seriousl
80.
by smackay 6y ago
It's a long flight across the North Sea for migrating birds and the platforms have provided a rest stop and no doubt saved many birds from a watery grave - the gas flares have probably killed many more but that's another matter. M
81.
by smackay 6y ago
The article seems to focus on how to get "acceptable" candidates running for president and how, once there, they can be kept under control. However I think the real questions should be: how on earth did a candidate like Trump ever
82.
by smackay 6y ago
Really? That would be news to Ambassador George Mitchell, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_J._Mitchell
83.
by smackay 6y ago
The Americans would never tolerate a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Too much time, effort and blood went into getting the Good Friday Agreement. The border with Northern Ireland still exists, only it got m
84.
by smackay 6y ago
All of Craig's reasoning over the Skripal case were pretty well documented in his blogs. I'd definitely be interested in what parts required mental gymnastics.
85.
by smackay 6y ago
How, in the new normal, do we ensure that reasoned posts like this and the recent one from the San Mateo Health Officer, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25341289 gain the prominence they deserve so we can avoid hyperbo
86.
by smackay 6y ago
Take a walk along the beach. A small proportion by volume but a large proportion by number, of the pieces of plastic you will find, will be the stems of Q-tips. If you're going to use them, get the paper kind and leave the ones with pl
87.
by smackay 6y ago
The island is also rat-free, which is utterly mind boggling given the terrain. https://www.gov.gs/environment/eradication-projects/eradicat...
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UK to 'reset' sat nav plans after scrapping work on £5bn Galileo rival(telegraph.co.uk)
3 points by smackay 6y ago|0 comments
89.
by smackay 6y ago
There is considerable scope for universities or any other organisation to ensure that assaults or even unwanted consensual activities are not taking place on their property. This raises the interesting question - now prevention is more prac
90.
by smackay 6y ago
Look at what the hookpod people have achieved, https://www.hookpod.com/ It seems an utterly impractical problem but they have a solution that works, apparently really well. With a will, some incentives and some clever think

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