sez.so

Interesting! I got 1, 2 and 3 right, but got 4 wr...

2012-01-27T18:31:15.270+10:00

Interesting!

I got 1, 2 and 3 right, but got 4 wrong! Drori's diagrams that he showed from popular textbooks of the orbits of the planets depicted ellipses!

Check the internet - here for example - http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/neptune.html -- and so many depictions show these elliptical orbits. Sigh.

And I'm quite sure that that is why I thought of ellipses for the orbits when I drew my diagram.

Turns out Drori's question did not need the names or order of the planets, so to check that part of my answer I looked on the inter webs. There, more to my shame I realised I had Mars in the wrong place. At least I seem to have the rest of them right, so maybe I can give myself 1/2 a mark for Question 4.

Time we had less beautiful pictures and more accurate pictures in our textbooks.

----

Update: I didn't actually get 4 wrong. The planets do have an elliptical orbit as described by Kepplers Laws. But the ellipses are not as depicted in the diagrams popularly shown, which is Drori's point. They are not circular but then again they are much closer to being circular than they are the grossly elliptical forms shown in the popular diagrams. I'm not sure where Drori gets his "NASA" diagram from, which shows them as appearing to be circular, or almost circular.

2012-01-27T13:46:44.612+10:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

Exactly. The sad thing is that he will likely win ...

2011-10-30T22:12:08.137+10:00

Exactly.
The sad thing is that he will likely win an election because he appeals to bogans. It's times like this where I wished there was no compulsory voting - so that lying sacks of crap like Abbot can't leverage the ignorant.

Hi Dan, and thanks for the comments. Point taken ...

2011-09-24T15:01:04.218+10:00

Hi Dan, and thanks for the comments. Point taken about the keyboards focus. For me the mouse was a pain point, and needed fixing, whilst my keyboard was not holding me back.

I use a standard Mac bluetooth mini keyboard both for my normal work and for gaming. The fewer number of keys, is traded off against the small size and being cable-free. If you're a heavy user of function keys then this solution is not for you. For me its just great.

The aluminium plate that the Apple keyboard is built out of, combined with its small size actually make it a really good gaming keyboard, at least as far as I can tell. It gets a pounding in RTS play and holds up really well where plastic framed keyboards do not survive.

I always thought keyboards are where it is at for ...

2011-09-22T22:01:58.604+10:00

I always thought keyboards are where it is at for RTS - though I did play Age of Empires online for a few years and I wore through two mice. You can also get specialised "z-boards" for games which basically have ergonomic key setups.

The Warcraft players shown here are quite keyboard focused: http://vodo.net/beyondthegame (free documentary - check out the other stuff like Pioneer One while your there :) )

I've always wanted a Logitech G15 set because it's not only a good keyboard and mouse but you can customise the display and there is lots of support under Linux (g15tools).

The Mamba reminds me of Razer Tron themed mouse and (beautiful) keyboard.

The first thing that occurred to me with all of th...

2011-04-05T09:15:37.463+10:00

The first thing that occurred to me with all of the news coverage was "crap, there go future nuclear power opportunities for Australia (and many other places)."

The problem with events like this is the juxtaposition of the Japanese Government's press releases alongside the media hype. The Government there is renowned for its dishonesty in events like this - mostly because of the culture of "saving face" even in the face of obvious failure. This overly optimistic message contrasts against the coverage from the mainstream media, who seemed entirely desperate to see blossoming mushroom clouds across the Tokyo skyline. This differing viewpoint, which was exacerbated by the vocal desire of external powers to "step in" (in an almost punitive way), leaves the average man in the street with no option but to dismiss nuclear power out of the hand as being too deadly to handle.

Of course, as you rightly point out, there was no corresponding coverage of burning oil refineries/storage, even though the people around those areas were not evacuated (in fact I have a friend who could see one of them from his classroom window at work, and was supposed to continue teaching throughout). Ongoing health issues from these catastrophic failures of infrastructure will likely be far more pronounced than those around the reactor zones, but hey, it's not nuclear, so nobody cares.

Is nuclear a necessity? Maybe not, but the options for renewable power are generally less than compelling for large scale distribution in their current form. There are research programmes for cleaner, smaller, safer reactors... maybe time to put more energy budget into those.

Hi Andrew thanks for the thoughtful comment. I wa...

2011-03-29T20:29:06.893+10:00

Hi Andrew thanks for the thoughtful comment. I was expecting to get flamed to pieces for my support of nuclear power. Many of my greenier friends have trouble reconciling the idea. But for me its the only way to get green - nothing else can do it by itself.

The trouble is baseload. Unless we stop needing aluminium, or stop heavy industry, we need baseload. Just look at the manufacturing process for aluminium with its potlines at 1000 degrees celsius - 24/7 - what happens when the wind stops, and its night time?

Even hospitals and large data centers or other things that absolutely have to have continuous levels of power mean that we cannot rely on wind, solar and other renewables alone.

Maybe in a hundred years time with massive commitment to research and to renewables, with molten salt large scale solar and sodium storage batteries the size of warehouses and so on - we might go close.

But the only way to get there within the next decade or so is with nuclear in the picture.

Actually, I'd rather live downwind of a wind f...

2011-03-29T14:34:40.432+10:00

Actually, I'd rather live downwind of a wind farm, or a solar installation, or a solar thermal tower. The half lives of nuclear energy, and humanity's penchant for screwing up, natural disaster or not, mean that nuclear power gives me the screaming heebie jeebies. I for one am ecstatic that Germany has gotten a wake up call from all of this, and decided to replace their nuclear power with renewable energy.

There's another clean alternative to coal, and it's renewable energy.

Sarah, sounds like a real adrenalin rush, would lo...

2010-12-13T22:10:21.000+10:00

Sarah, sounds like a real adrenalin rush, would love to try it.

Craziness on bikes in foreign counties reminds me of various things I've witnessed in Asia. I once saw outside of Chengdu a smallish (between 125 and 250cc) motorcycle with rider carrying a washing machine strapped to the back going along a freeway. In Taiwan I've seen scooter riders managing to ride while holding an umbrella or while smoking or both at the same time (somehow it's possible). I've seen whole families with 4 people balanced on small bikes.

The speeding through traffic while flashing lights reminds me of various taxi rides (however in taxi cars) from airports in Beijing and Seoul at night time. From Incheon airport to Seoul there is a long freeway and speed cameras mounted above the road, but the taxis have GPS devices with where the speed cameras are and some continue to speed but mount the side of the road (outside the line markings) to go around the speed cameras, also while flashing their lights to warn the other cars to get out of the way (that was a more common practice in China).

Glad you are still alive to write about it.

Congratulations Sarah - please pass on my apprecia...

2010-12-06T21:27:59.000+10:00

Congratulations Sarah - please pass on my appreciation, and my thanks, to the whole LCA2011 team for getting this done.

Making sure linux.conf.au is fun and welcoming, inclusive and comfortable for the whole free and open source community is really important. Our diversity has been growing in recent years, here's to this helping that trend accelerate!

cheers
Donna

Lily Pond is a great product but very sophisticate...

2010-08-12T10:38:19.000+10:00

Lily Pond is a great product but very sophisticated and beyond the needs of the vast majority of people. I use a
slow down music product called Song Surgeon and it has only very basic tab/music notation section, but for my needs of trying to figure out a tune it works just fine.

Vision Motor Cars is ready to begin manufacturing ...

2010-07-25T14:46:26.000+10:00

Vision Motor Cars is ready to begin manufacturing its FMVSS certified plugin light-duty pickup truck. With a 1,000 pound payload, 100 mile range, and recharging ability using solar or wall-socket power, it is well received in tests. Its $25,000 MSRP is sure to kick off the light delivery world with a small and touch small pickup truck. Check out visionmotorcars.com

Hi Mark, Thanks for your comments. I think it wo...

2010-05-30T16:49:05.000+10:00

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your comments. I think it would show good long term thinking by local and national Governments if they did pile up some of these incentives to put EV's on a level playing field with gas guzzlers. We've all heard about the population growth that we're up for in Australia in coming years - many of those people will be buying and driving vehicles.

We already know the benefits from improved air quality and no noise pollution in cities - I feel EV's with their generally smaller footprint would also save on parking area; and wear & tear on infrastructure compared to giant revving 4WD's and utes.

At a national level every EV is less dollars flowing overseas for oil debt.

It makes especially good sense for couriers, local delivery drivers and other short haul commercial transport - all those idling delivery vans converted to quiet clean EV's would make our cities and other areas much nicer to be in, while also saving the planet and helping the national debt.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but the governments in Australia have to see the equations the same way the Norwegians have and start encouraging EV's before we find ourselves in Beijing instead of Brisbane.

All the Below EVs Should be Available in Australia...

2010-05-30T13:49:15.000+10:00

All the Below EVs Should be Available in Australia some are but the more the better

Mitsubishi-i-MiEV-= Soon

NissanLeaf- = Soon

REVA EV = Gov won't allow

BLADE EV = Available

Th!nk city car= ??

As the driver of a Th!nk City or REVA EV in Oslo you get: We should get the same insentives here in Australia??
•free parking in city and other parks
•free charging at public charge points
•reduced and free taxes, registration and charges
•free travel on the ferries
•toll roads, bridges and so on are free
•use of bus, taxi and transit lanes

Hi Sarah Smith Great little review I want one to...

2010-05-30T13:00:44.000+10:00

Hi Sarah Smith
Great little review I want one to this is what we wan't for Australia but Rud won't even let us have a REVA ??

I am not complaining about Apple's paywall. I...

2010-05-19T11:00:01.000+10:00

I am not complaining about Apple's paywall. I am merely saying putting things behind it is a major motivation of Apple's. In particular, it is the motivation behind Apple's current attack on flash. True they don't admit is their motivation, they quote all sorts of technical reasons which you are repeat here. They are all red hearings. In fact, they are just plain wrong. Flash works so well it used on a depressingly large percentage of web pages out there and it appears to be growing. I don't like it - in fact I block it. But to say it is a failure flys in the face of the evidence.

As for whether the iPad will fly - it has nothing to do with the Apple hardware argument you put forward. No one disagrees they make good hardware. But regardless of how wonderfully it is engineered, there has to be a market for it. In fact it has to be so useful it is actually worth carrying another device around, or it has to displace an existing device.

At the top end it is competing with netbooks, and the bottom end it is smart phones. It has no hope of displacing a smart phones. People who carry netbooks also carry smart phones, and it seems to me the odds of them carrying yet another devices is low.

It might be possible to displace a netbook. As you observed, the only thing the iPad has over a smart phone is the large screen. That advantage has to apply to something people want to do on a daily basis. And it has to be something that doesn't really require typing, so the loss of the netbooks keyboard is a worthwhile tradeoff.

The only thing I can see that comes close is exactly what Jobs is perusing - reading newspapers, magazines and books. So in order for the iPad to be here in 5 years time and not be consigned to the same dustbin as all other tablets before that has to fly. It has to become the "eReader" of choice.

So far it hasn't. When it comes to eBooks, it isn't even clear it should be. Kindle is much cheaper, it is easy to read in ambient light, and has much longer batter life. Most of these advantages come from it using eInk. So why didn't Apple make an eInk device? My guess is because eInk doesn't do colour. Colour doesn't matter for novels, but for newspapers it is nice and for magazines it is a must. So it looks to me like Jobs has bet the iPad on it becoming a generalised eReader whose increased cost is justified by people regularly reading newspapers and magazines on it.

So far no one does. Frankly, I it looks like a long shot to me. But it is early days and Jobs is a clever man, so maybe he can make it work.

P.S: If your boxes Windows/Linux boxes are dying after 2-3 years and you don't want them to, try spending as much on the boxes as you do on the Apple equivalents. You get what you pay for. Hell, if you buy them from someone like Dell, they will even give you a 5 year on site warranty.

Will the iPad be successful. I've had the arg...

2010-05-19T05:32:57.000+10:00

Will the iPad be successful.

I've had the argument regarding Apple hardware many times. I pay a premium to buy Mac kit, compared to the price of a box that would run Windows or Linux. What I get is a hardware environment controlled by Apple, components are known spec, and their proprietary operating software can thus be tuned to run on it, as the components are tuned to work together - bus bandwidths are matched for memory and IO, cooling, power consumption - all planned out in a way beige box commodity systems can never be. Apparently this is all evil because Apple are controlling their platform.

If instead I get a beige box, it turns out to have a jMicron SATA controller that the version of Linux I have won't talk to and I have to frig about for hours to get it installed. I don't have time for that any more. I'm not a student. Give me the thing that just works, and keeps on working. The Mac gear I have is still good after 5 years - and I am not talking about savings on the hardware, I'm talking about the savings in my hassle to move to a new box because the old one dies. Linux boxes and Windows ones too all die after 2-3 years, and the Mac kit is still going after 4-5 years.

I think the iPad will be successful as a piece of hardware because of this strategy of Apples.

Will it be successful as a plank in their market strategy for content consumption? I have no doubt that it will - mostly because of the sucess of iTunes so far. The Amazon kindle has blazed the trail, now Apple will come along and do it better. Same as Apple did with the cell-phone, they stood on the shoulders of others and avoided the mistakes by limiting what they were trying to acheive.

People buy stuff on the internet. That is a paywall? Huh? I don't get it.

Hi Russel, Thanks for the great commentsx. This ...

2010-05-19T05:26:57.000+10:00

Hi Russel,

Thanks for the great commentsx.

This Apple "paywall" thing. I don't get it. What exactly are you complaining about? What is a tax? Apple has a business selling music and other stuff through their iTunes store. If its too expensive then don't buy it. Where is the problem?

The DRM that Apple uses is far more about satisfying these content providers that their content will not be given away to third parties as it is about stopping their customers from doing anything. If Sony Music or Disney was running those stores do you think you'd get that content at some freer set of conditions? What Apple has done is use their clout, garnered from running one of the most successful online music and content sales businsses to force the content providers to lighten up.

You can call it a paywall or whatever you like but every content provider producing commercial copyrighted content is requiring mechanisms to protect their content.

So Apple makes 30% out of it. What is that compared to what a record store, or some place like Amazon makes? And like I say no-one is making you use their services. If the prices really are too expensive then then competitors will offer cheaper services.

Its trivial to circumvent the DRM on Apples content - you can burn songs to a CD and then re-rip them in seconds - but the point is you have circumvented it. I don't see what wonderful freedoms flash buys you here. Its popular, and if its popular for serving content obtained outside of the "paywall" I don't see why that is anything special. I could just as easily obtain ripped stuff via torrent.

Flash Lite has been around for literally years, pl...

2010-05-18T12:03:52.000+10:00

Flash Lite has been around for literally years, plays video, and is available on the most common mobile phone platform on the planet - Symbian. I own one of those devices and it has no noticeable effect on battery life. Well to put it another way - maybe it does effect battery life, but if so that effect is swamped by the power required to keep the phone connected to the internet so you can use the web at all.

Apple's stand against flash has nothing to do with flash's technological weaknesses, and everything to do with its one strength - portability. It is impossible to build a paywalled Apple garden that requires users to hand over 30% of every cent they spend on content (music, apps, games and now with the iPad newspaper/magazines) when you have a platform like flash on your device that allows those slimy content providers to not only by-pass your paywall, but in fact the entire Apple eco-system.

If the iPad is successful, it will be the first such success since Apple brought the mouse to the masses. Music players and smart phones were all main stream before Apple entered those markets. No so tablets - many have tried the tablet thing, it has never become mainstream. And that was before they had smartphone competition. If Apple manages to pull this off, it will because they also have invented a use for the things - reading magazines and newspapers. Right now that looks to be floundering because Jobs is insisting it all goes through his paywall and he gets to own the customers, and their credit card and contact details. Naturally the newpapers and magazine providers hate this. They also hate the 30% Apple tax. But all that can be changed with a flick of a pen on a contract, so who knows maybe he will pull it off yet.

But personally, if I were them, given the choice of being owned by Apple or using flash, I would be embracing flash.

Nicely put.

2010-04-16T13:00:19.000+10:00

Nicely put.

Well, there you go - reports have been received in...

2010-04-08T12:00:35.000+10:00

Well, there you go - reports have been received in other countries. Thanks for finding this and spending your keyboard time on contributing to this discussion. My husband also seems to think I ought to be pampering him instead of spending time at the keyboard. :-)

When I did my original research for this article I didn't see any reports of incidents from other countries. It looks as tho' this one came out the same day I published my article (timezones notwithstanding).

However the original report you linked I notice there has been some developments.

* the investigation by Norwegian authorities has found that the incident was due to improperly installed insecure all-weather floor mats
* the driver has been indicted for making bogus emergency calls
* he has also been involved in another collision - this time in a rental car

http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/police-investigate-runaway-prius/
http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/runaway-prius-driver-in-new-accident/
http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/police-indict-toyota-prius-driver/

Now I'm not making any apologies for Toyota. But this looks to be riding on the same hype that came from the USA.

I'm going to say there are no fly-by-wire accelerator caused incidents of unintended acceleration to date. That's my claim, supported by my research to date.

They have so far all been driver error, obstructions in the footwell or other mundane causes.

Causes that could occur in any make or model of car, no matter whether the accelerator was connected by electronics, or mechanical linkage.

Toyotas are very popular and I can see why the US auto industry is gunning for them. But so far all I see from the anti-Toyota-Prius lobby is FUD and hype.

I'll have to re-read this in the morning and r...

2010-04-08T10:46:30.000+10:00

I'll have to re-read this in the morning and respond appropriately when my husband isn't giving me the evil eye for spending too much time at the keyboard. For now, I'll just point you in this direction.

http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/toyota-prius-could-be-banned/

Hi Erin, Great to see a[nother] smart woman apply...

2010-04-08T10:00:48.000+10:00

Hi Erin,

Great to see a[nother] smart woman applying critical analysis to the 'net.

You're very right about the differences in police practices. In England, Australia and New Zealand a similar commonwealth style model of Policing is used. In the United States Police chiefs are elected, and many - often small - local jurisdictions overlap at any one location. In the commonwealth model Police chiefs are promoted from within the rank and file, ideally on merit rather than popularity; and a few Law Enforcement groups span the whole country.

In California there are a dozen different jurisdictions as you drive south from San Fran down the 101, as well as CHP, State Troopers and a number of governmental agencies such as the FBI. On top of that there is a new administration every time theres an election. How you keep policy straight or maintain a scalable infrastructure I don't know.

There's very much a feeling that unlawful actions need to pretty much occur under the nose of a Law Enforcment officer for anything to be done about it because 5 minutes later the culprit is in a different jurisdiction. Or at least that is what I picked up when I was there.

In Australia there are State Police responsible for each of Queensland, New South Wales and the other states; and an overarching Federal Police whose ambit includes some federal law and policing of the national capital Canberra; and that is it for Policing - apart from a few miscellaneous issuers of parking tickets, fishing fines and customs/border enforcement. If you have a traffic matter - a US moving violation - you know there is only one possible Police uniform that could be issuing it anywhere in Queensland. Moreover standing orders and policies largely persist over changes in government.

Of course we're far from perfect and have had our scandals, but the general quality of investigation and law enforcement is pretty good here.

One thing I am very interested to know is whether any incidents of so called unintended acceleration with Prius, or even any other vehicle have been reported outside the US - and to the best of my knowledge the answer is no: there are no such reports.

Sarah, you can call me Mrs. Page. :) or Erin if ...

2010-04-07T23:09:44.000+10:00

Sarah, you can call me Mrs. Page. :) or Erin if you prefer. "A lot" encompasses the unsupported claims of other commentators as well as well as your unsupported claims. A great deal of what we read on the internet consists of unsupported claims. I'll add one more claim to the mix...it appears that police practices differ significantly from one geographic area to the next.

Regards,

Erin

Hi - and thanks for your comment. Skepticism is a...

2010-04-07T10:53:52.000+10:00

Hi - and thanks for your comment. Skepticism is always a good thing, so thank you for your attention and applying it with respect to my writing. :-)

A name would be handy - I feel awkward addressing you as "Toyota Recall Page". Perhaps "Dear Mr/Ms Page" will have to do. :-)

Two is "a lot of unsupported claims" ...?

I would be interested to hear if in your view any of my claims apart from the ones relating to Police procedures are unsupported.

I am loath to mention my chequered past, especially in blog posts. When others do that it seems too often to be an appeal to authority when arguments should stand on their own.

In this case however my claims are directly based on my personal experience of facts. This text box is limited to 3000 words, and I'm disinclined to paste my resume here, but if you can provide me your email address and an undertaking of confidentiality I am happy to forward it to you.

Some of that direct personal knowledge is now decades out of date. However I know for a fact that groups like the Accident Investigation Squad in Queensland and like bodies in other states and countries do in fact now, as then, take very seriously the role of inspectors who painstakingly investigate vehicles after collisions.

Here is the policy in Queensland:

http://www.police.qld.gov.au/rti/published/policies/traffic-manual/05/Ch_05_PT4.htm

In part it says:

An inspection of a vehicle is warranted when:
(i) the vehicle is involved in a fatal or serious road crash;
(ii) the vehicle is involved in any incident where mechanical failure or tyre failure is alleged;
(iii) an examination is required to support or negate any defence that may be raised in relation to a charge of dangerous operation of a vehicle, due care and attention or similar offences;

Note that because this relates to court proceedings, if a Police officer failed to get an inspection done, and it later became relevant in court, then the Prosecuting Sergeant using certain anglo-saxon vocabulary would be advising that officer of new career opportunities they might want to consider outside the Police. To be explicit at least in the antipodes, it is the courts that ensure Police are well-prepared by having had inspections done in any case where it might be relevant. Note here that courts includes the coroners court, as well as criminal courts.

Note also in the above policy the mention of the capability of such inspectors to give expert testimony. Although the first port of call for investigations is the experienced mechanical investigators they can I believe also call on other experts to examine evidence that falls outside their area of expertise if warranted.

I am confident that law reports exist where the evidence of such inspections was taken into account in judgements. If you are motivated to say that I'm wrong about this I can go searching: http://www.austlii.edu.au/databases.html

I hope that helps alleviate your doubts.