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Comment Remember the film "Dambusters" (1955)? (Score 4, Interesting) 17

The 'trench run' against the Death Star is a direct tribute to the Moehne Dam attack in this movie. Guy Gibson attacked first and then flew alongside each attacker to draw flak from the attacking Lancaster - just as Han Solo did for Luke.
Operation Chastise occurred in mid-May 1943. EIght of the nineteen Lancasters were lost in the raid and 53 aircrew were killed. They deserve all the tributes they receive.

Comment No phones and no pouches at my school in Australia (Score 3, Interesting) 148

I am a high school maths/physics teacher at a state high school in Australia. The school has had a 'no phones' policy for the ten years I have taught there. Student phones are turned off (or at least on silent0 when on school property. If a teacher sees a student using a phone, it is confiscated under the school behaviour policy. The consequences increase for each phone confiscation. Ultimately. the parent has to come and collect the phone. Occasionally, a student refuses to hand over the phone and that is also dealt with under the behaviour policy.
We did consider the pouches a couple of years ago - but the staff voted against using them. The current system works well enough - we don't have a phone problem.

Comment Re:Epoxy (Score 1) 32

Wood and epoxy are an incredibly strong combination,
first used by German scientists.

But epoxy is very, very nasty stuff. Stay well away
from the fumes.

Indeed.
And the Germans then learned you could make high strength, light weight monocoque wooden constructions when these started dropping bombs on them - the DH98 Mosquito!

Interestingly, Kurt Tank, who designed the FW190, produced the TA-154 Moskito - a German version of the wooden Mosquito. The performance was not as good as expected and then the RAF bombed the glue factory ...

Comment Re:It is Australia (Score 1) 59

:-) Love it!

But fortunately, we are still alive and most of us have mobile and data connections. Optus is only the 2nd largest carrier in Oz - so the rest of us are OK.

Mind you, our Internet does suck - thanks to a past Liberal government completely stuffing up the proposed Fibre to the Premises roll out. They promised 'their' version would be better, cheaper and faster.

Of course, it is none of those things...

Submission + - The entire Optus mobile network is down across Australia (abc.net.au)

RobHart writes: During the night, the entire Optus mobile network went down and remains down. This is the second largest mobile network in Australia and it is the first time a network has gone down nationwide.

It is affecting the trains in Melbourne and any business across Australia that uses the Optus service for phones or data.

Comment Australia completed the first successful Scramjet (Score 5, Informative) 59

There are actually FIVE countries that have successfully tested scramjets in flight - the list should include Australia. What is more, the Australian project (HySHot run from the University of Queensland) was the FIRST successful scramjet flight (in July 2002).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyShot

Comment Re: Many thanks for the feedback (Score 1) 63

The advice given was nearly unanimous: an iOS device. So you'll try an Android since there's "an app you need that only runs on Android." So why did you ask us then? At least include all relevant information next time.

Simple reason for not including that info - I wanted to hear opinions on all possibilities, not just limited to Android. Good functionality will trump one particular App. My friend doesn't have access to that App now so continuing not to have it is not the real issue - useable, portable email and web access is much more important.

Comment Many thanks for the feedback (Score 1) 63

Many thanks for all the feedback. I will talk to the Blind Association here in Australia and then take my friend to try out a few tablets. For software reasons, I am hoping that Android will do enough on a large tablet (there's an app that doesn't run on IOS that I know he would like to have access to), but we'll go and look at iPads as well!

If there are any more comments, please do post them - I'll check back several times over the next few days.

Again, my thanks!

Robert Hart

Submission + - What tablet and software for a partially sighted person?

RobHart writes: My friend has had both retinas detach, twice. He is legally blind but partially sighted. He has a number of devices that help him read (either by magnifying the text or as text to speech) — but none are really portable. What do Slash Dotters recommend (if anything) in terms of a tablet and software that will make it possible for him to do email and read at least some web sites?

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