Ha!

Ed is too painful to use under any circs IMHO, but I have been using vi (or in fact "pcz" + vi variants) since ~1984, so I was only 8 years late to the party.

I prefer non-interactive editing in the absence of vi, eg sed/awk/egrep...

Rgds

Damon

Yes, they do materialise, just not in your/GGP's attention span it seems, nor all at once, nor at your convenience. Read an electronics catalogue rather than /. if all you want to know about is things ready *now*.

I have the benefit of a nice big LiPO4 pack at home, enough to run my server for a couple of days, which would absolutely not even have been a twinkle in my eye when I started in electronics and computing for example. Oh and a couple of months' worth of lead-acid behind it, essentially a century-old technology with a little bit of gel and MPPT cleverness folded in much more recently.

Retail tech is full of tiny incremental improvements, which sometimes started as R&D tech breakthroughs many many years before.

Rgds

Damon

The solution is to have (almost) anyone use (almost) any socket and use a little thing called technology to bill the right person. Then sockets can be installed on public streets and in communal parking areas as well as in private driveways.

We do it with mobile phones, and we already do it with *some* plug-in EV points.

The tech isn't that hard.

Actually getting a suitably universal plug and socket seems *as* hard.

Rgds

Damon

PS. I have no driveway and would need a solution like this.

Because YouTube is not a monopoly and it's not unreasonable or unfair of it to try to recover costs (or, gasp, make a profit) somehow.

Nothing stops you nor anyone else hosting elsewhere or on your own physical server etc etc. I have several (media) servers around the world but for the latest media I put up YouTube was convenient and fast and free. Bandwidth is not free, even for Google.

Rgds

Damon

Hmm, I prefer Java over C and assembler because although I can write highly stable and secure code in C/asm, the effort to sustain the required level of paranoia and navel-gazing is for most code better directed elsewhere to visible benefits. I write code that actually has respected security crazies and bank auditors telling me to lighten up a bit, yes really!, but I'm still perfectly capable of making a mistake.

However, I'm inclined to think that whoever wilfully lets code out the door without appropriate bounds checking and incredible scrutiny of all input should face some kind of punishment.

(I dislike C++ because it combines the traps of C/asm with some novel ones of its own, but fools programmers into thinking that they are in a safe programming environment... Yes, I did a lot of C++ design and coding in mission-critical applications too!)

Rgds

Damon

There's a Downing Street in NYC, last time I looked, but it was a sewing materials and/or repair shop IIRC.

I'm downing my expectations of Americans understanding British idiom.

Rgds

Damon

Compared to identical prints on other printers that I've seen I'd rate it "medium".

After some delay getting it (I think Maplin was overwhelmed by interest) and some teething issues (Maplin just shoved the assembled unit into a cardboard box without proper packing so it arrived quite bent out of shape in places) and allowing for one continuing defect that I've worked around, I'd say it's a good little workhorse for the money especially considering that it's still pretty bleeding edge tech.

Rgds

Damon

You can't throw nice 2D printers around either and expect them not to suffer.

The process is not as painful as you think.

Myself and one other on the OpenTRV (opentrv.org.uk) project work to get OpenSCAD files and fromt hat we produce STL and many of us (maybe just short of 10) print from that same STL on lots of different printers with different setups without significant difficulty.

Yes, my 3D printer is a bit 'beta'y and slow, but it does work, and is now reliable and easy to use.

Rgds

Damon

I have the Velleman K8200 and for the OpenTRV project (opentrv.org.uk) that I'm working on we've been able to print the enclosures and well as designing the hardware (and making and stuffing PCBs) and the software in the same distributed fashion, and easily outsource to third parties for larger runs (hello Thames Valley Rep Rap User Group TVRRUG; thank you again).

It's been fun and helped us to control more aspects of the product while still in prototype phase.

Rgds

Damon

In binary... Possibly electric sheep too, while they dream.

Rgds

Damon

My brother (with PhD from top university) was an EPO patent examiner, and I don't think he could have afforded his travel arrangements (a fair way apart from his family) on minimum wage!

Rgds

Damon

Thank you: interesting.

Rgds

Damon

You'd be very likely to cause some, eg on motorways.

Rgds

Damon

To be clear; I'm entirely prepared to believe that the first 1000 hours of anyone's driving are their worst.

But I suggest that the first 1000 hours of an 18 year old's driving are likely much worse (from a safety/accident point of view) than the the first 1000 hours of a 40 year old's driving, on average.

For example, I know which I'd be more likely to trust with other complex and risky activities that don't require particular muscle strength or speed, but where responsibility and general life experience help, eg including running a business or a government office!

Rgds

Damon

Hi

I think that's complete nonsense (straw man arguments) and a counsel of despair, and/or maybe an excuse never to do bother anything right yourself until everyone around you is perfect. And I don't imagine that you are completely selfish like that in all your other actions.

And, guess what, altruism and good behaviour in general doesn't have to be absolutely simultaneous to work.

Rgds

Damon