thombat

40 ms·

451.
by thombat 7y ago
The final paragraph from that example is steaming gibberish that nobody could mistake for English: "Calling has not, and undoubtedly never will be aggravating in the way we encounter mortification but delineate the reprimand that shoul
452.
by thombat 7y ago
That 746 photo certainly looks identical to the standard NZ unit, right down to the removable cover in the centre-top (which in big fancy offices was host to an extra switch for some kind of PABX function [possibly just a safer cradle-rest-
453.
by thombat 7y ago
Two NSA issues are getting conflated: (1) Keeping the key size within brute-forcing range. Agreed, they did that and surely wittingly. By the mid-90s nobody doubted they had the computational strength for it; the 1998 demonstration was that
454.
by thombat 7y ago
That's the "replace a freighter" model - I was commenting on the parent's "replace a road truck", which seems like a poorer return: since any Zeppelin is going to be inconveniently large may as well go for brok
455.
by thombat 7y ago
Related trivia: New Zealand rotary dialers had the numbers in ascending order, that is zero was in the rest position and nine nearest to the turning stop. The pulse encoder was therefore "ten minus digit", i.e. one pulse when dial
456.
by thombat 7y ago
Setting aside the feasibility of solar sail propulsion, power will be an enemy: just getting a typical cubesat level of 5W is much harder at Neptune, since Neptune gets just 1/900th the solar flux. By way of comparison: the "Juno&
457.
by thombat 7y ago
Interesting! I guess that's cheaper/lighter than compressing the helium back to storage tanks. I remember reading that one of the "new Zeppelin" firms planned to rotate the propulsion thrusters to create a downwards thru
458.
by thombat 7y ago
A standard 6m shipping container has a maximum gross weight of 30,480kg. The current Zepplin NT craft have a payload of 1,900kg and are 75m long. So it seems that quite a substantial airship might be required, e.g. a modern version of the 2
459.
by thombat 7y ago
One of the new Zeppelin firms is right beside the Friedrichshafen airport, and part (all?) of their business is scenic flights. There's certainly a frisson watching a zeppelin rise into the winter sunshine with the Swiss Alps behind it
460.
by thombat 7y ago
Presumably the generated water will be released immediately rather than being condensed to a holding tank, since weight is the enemy of all aircraft (c.f. airliners, which jettison condensate and "grey water" from sinks but hold t
461.
by thombat 7y ago
The problem with piezoelectric flooring is that the power generated is "stolen" from the person crossing it. Take too much power, e.g. by having a perceptible deformation of the surface, and the person will have the feeling of wal
462.
by thombat 7y ago
A few years back I cashed in the residue of a UK ISA (remaining balance just £1.50 but local tax laws forced it to be closed). No longer being in Blighty it transpired this would be a serious posterial pain involving sending of certified pa
463.
by thombat 7y ago
From https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_legacy_of... "It took the academic community two decades to figure out that the NSA "tweaks" actually improved the security of DES.
464.
by thombat 7y ago
Large planes fly themselves on planned routes which avoid incursions by other planes by design: the function of air traffic control is to assign the routes such that incursions don't occur. In the event that the onboard collision avoid