[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 18 points 1 month ago

Here in NZ they do a factory reset on your calculator at the start of every exam.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 14 points 4 months ago

Essentially no processors follow a standard. There are some that have become a de facto standard and had both backwards compatibility and clones produced like x86. But it is certainly not an open standard, and many lawsuits have been filed to limit the ability of other companies to produce compatible replacement chips.

RISC-V is an attempt to make an open instruction set that any manufacturer can make a compatible chip for, and any software developer can code for.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 15 points 4 months ago

Kinda yes, kinda no. There have certainly been times, particularly after 9/11 and various crises, when demand dropped significantly.

There's also airliners that just haven't sold well. A340NG, A380, 747-8, 767-400, the MD-11, until recently the Cseries/A220. The A330neo has also not sold particularly well and you could probably get a slot within a year easily.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 16 points 5 months ago

Blackadder: Would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until everyone's dead except for Field Marshall Haig, Lady Haig and their tortoise, Alan?

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 15 points 5 months ago

It's pretty common to own a domain but not actually host the email server; doing on-premises email is a security PITA and most providers simply blacklist large swathes of residential and leasable (e.g. VPS) IPs.

Unfortunately, if you get someone else to host your email, they often charge by the account, not by the domain. Setting up a new mailbox is therefore irritatingly expensive.

A catch-all email works well, though, and is free from most of the hosting providers. Downside is you get spam...

Jane@JaneDoe certainly seems more common than mail@JaneDoe.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 16 points 8 months ago

Secondhand stuff can be really cheap if you know where to look, but the drawbacks are usually power and noise.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 18 points 9 months ago

There's been various desktop-grade plans regarding use of nuclear rockets, both in the atmosphere and not. Never underestimate what engineers can come up with.

I think what they were trying to argue is that the mercury emitted would be no worse than the mercury already emitted as a byproduct of power plants.

Most rocket operators/manufacturers run on razor thin margins or at a loss, sustained by state subsidies or wishful venture capitalists.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 14 points 10 months ago

Yeah, but there's a substantial number of people arguing that patents are over-issued, over-broad, and protection probably lasts too long - especially for software patents.

See the Apple/Samsung "scroll bounce" litigation.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 15 points 10 months ago

I think I saw a video on this from Battleship New Jersey.

The main time that displacements and ship sizes were actually standardised and restricted was due to the various naval treaties from about 1900 to WW2.

Before and after that (and to some degree during), sizes of each class of ship gradually crept up and up as technology advanced and everyone wanted a frigate/destroyer/cruiser/battleship that was slightly better and thus slightly bigger than what their potential opponents had. Scope creep.

Prior to WW2, this simply meant that the biggest ships kept getting bigger and bigger, and then other classes were 1/2/3 sizes smaller.

Post-WW2, while each class kept getting bigger and more expensive, the advent of air as a serious threat meant that the largest ship class just disappeared - the US hung on to battleships for a while for specific applications, but never built new ones. Too expensive, too many eggs in one basket, and not enough actual need. No-one expects to have another big naval slugfest; radar, aircraft, and missiles have obsoleted large naval guns and armour.

Each successive 'large gunboat' class has disappeared somewhat later, as it reaches the point where politicians and admirals decide we can't risk losing this many people and this much cash in one hit.

Aircraft carriers have stuck around because they're very useful and they're not intended to go within range of enemy heavy weapons, but a battleship with 16" guns and armour to suit is very overkill and expensive for anything but fighting another battleship. Shore bombardment is about the only role they could have left, and much smaller ships do that just fine.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 18 points 11 months ago

It usually goes into the state slush fund like tax revenue, AKA the crown.

In this case, it's claimed that it was 'donated to charity'.

In this case, it was being spent on upkeep/repairs/renovations on properties that are rented out, with the rent going to the 'privy purse' - the king's personal funds, not the state's funds. Spending the money to improve the properties directly increases the rent that can be charged, and offsets upkeep costs that would otherwise come out of the rent.

Money laundering.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 18 points 1 year ago

Incidentally, there's a reasonably wide range of connectors that don't fit traditional identities. Some, like most USB connectors, have a situation where there's a male prong in the middle of a 'female' connector.

Others, like Anderson Powerpole, are fully self-mating.

[-] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 14 points 1 year ago

Chicken Run for the first one, I believe.

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SomeoneSomewhere

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