Atomic Razor

Farting in Morse Code

I am trying to figure out what protocols Apple wrote their sync software for Windows in.

I have concluded that farting at the device in morse code would be faster.

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Rose Tints My World Keeps Me Safe...

The Frontier | Samizdata.net

Actually a pretty interesting thread, although, as always, the rose tinted specs are on many people.

It would be very nice to think that commercial space launch activities are so elastic that an order of magnitude decrease in launch costs will result in a corresponding increase in orders.  The reality is that this isn't the case for a lot of reasons most of which present themselves to the mind after a short period of consideration.

The key question to ask yourself (if you're still wondering) is what are these additional companies going to be asking to do in space that isn't already covered and making money?

Space Cynics asks this question rather a lot and like James Randi's work on the paranormal, they're still waiting for an answer.

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Sports Economics

Michigan Stadium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Money quote: "Since 1975 — Bo Schembechler's seventh season as coach — the stadium has held over 100,000 fans for every home game. (The game against Indiana University on 25 October 1975 was the last sub-100,000 attendance home game for Michigan.) Michigan's game versus Ball State University on 4 November 2006 was the 200th consecutive crowd of over 100,000 fans."

This is mind-boggling. More than 100,000 spectators for every game. And this is a college football team. I know that college sports in the US are effectively a branch of professional sports (and that Americans are very keen on college sports - evidently), but even so, it is still college  football team and one might have thought that the nature of professional football would make it more attractive (fewer teams, more experienced players, who don't move on after four years).  What's particular interesting is the fact that the stadium's capacity is being expanded. In the UK, the age of the 100,000 seater stadium is long over. The new Wembley has a capacity of 90,000, the Olympic Stadium 80,000 and the Theatre of Dreams 76,212. It is claimed that Old Trafford could sell itself out many times over, but Manchester United are just one team and there are many college football teams that regularly have crowds in excess of 76,212. The Michigan Stadium is a bowl - there are no tiers - so the spectators in the furthest row are a long way from the action. I don't know if the Michigan Stadium is (effectively) terracing; apparently at the new Wembley all seats have more leg room than the in the old Royal Box. What I do know is that Americans are very different to Europeans. Vast numbers of them are prepared to turn out in often extreme weather conditions to sit in uncomfortable conditions to squint at sports action going on hundreds of metres away. That is a good reason to be afraid.  

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The Sleep of Reason

No matter how tired one feels after a (very) good lunch at somewhere like, say, The Havelock Tavern, it is never a sensible thing to decide to take a nap when you get home, really, it isn't. Perhaps some people can train themselves to benefit from 20 minute and 2 hour power naps. But as a one-off they are best avoided.

Actually, I don't feel too bad now.

OH NO IT DOESN'T

iPhone's "Location" feature helps explain open cell platforms - Boing Boing

Sometimes I really enjoy Boing Boing.  Other times it really just pisses me off.  This would be one of the later times where they post Apple fan wankery nonsense dressed as fact.

GSM Phones have been doing relatively open Cell Location LBS for ages.  Even as far back as my 7110 you could have the Cell Tower ID shown on the home screen of the device should you wish.  Providing you have a look up table of the cell towers pretty much most operators will let you know roughly where you are. 

It's the core of the Google Maps application for Windows Mobile (and other OSs) where you can find your location to within a set margin of error which the mapping application tells you.  I've used it to navigate around London as recently as... er... Yesterday.

This is nothing new.  The problem is it isn't, and nor can it be all that accurate, at least outside of cities and for purposes other than roughly telling you where the nearest X would be.  You really do need GPS for that.  That's not a problem either because most of the phone Operating Systems have a pretty standard GPS API.

Of course, most of the phone operating systems let you load your own applications unlike... er... well, Apple.

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The Panic of '08

We all know that the world changed on 9 August 2007 when BNP Paribas announced that it was unable to value three of its funds heavily exposed to Collaterlised Debt Obligations and other exotic financial instruments affected by the US subprime mortgage crisis. But was 21 January 2008, Black Monday as it now known, the day that will go back in history as the beginning of the Great Depression of the 2000s-2010s?

The Razor has long been predicating a recession

• high energy costs invariably trigger recession
• inflation is also creeping up because of rises in food and raw material prices and increased labour costs in the overheated Chinese and Indian economies
• too many financial institutions were too exposed to exotic and difficult to value high risk instruments
• the property markets (commercial and domestic) in many countries has been bid up to unsustainable limits
• stock market P/E ratios are still at historically unsustainable levels
• in the case of the UK, we now have an economic entirely predicated on skimming a cut off a cut of the financial transactions going through the City of London

All the factors are pointing to a major global slowdown and in the case of the UK, it could be a very, very severe one (the Stock Market - and property market - will probably need to go sideways for the next 10-15 years to get back to sustainable levels).

The question is how severe the recession will be. We can hope that the Bank of England will cut and cut savagely - a 0.5% cut would be good, but surprising in February - as well as injecting massive liquidity into the money markets (without which rate cuts can't be passed). For those of us seeking to balance quality of life issues, we might take comfort in the fact that in a recession many people are changing jobs. We could be in for a year or two like the  British economy of the mid-1970s described by Alvin Toffler in The Eco-Spasm Report with parts of overheating while others are recession. Whatever happens, it's going to be an interesting few months. We've just got (I know, I know) think positive (humh...) and realise that we can still make choices. For instance, Israel was described as the Silicon Valley of water on CNBC this morning. Yes...

In the Mood

"It would be better if I was dead"

The Sun's headline screamed at me from the newspaper stand outside Benson service station. "[I]f I were dead", Britney, "were dead". It's the subjunctive mood. If you can't handle a basic feature of English grammar properly then no wonder you are depressed.

Spare part heart' beats in lab

BBC NEWS | Health | 'Spare part heart' beats in lab

Apart from the obvious Science Fiction links (Niven et al) this is pretty good news, along with a lot of other good news around cellular regeneration for fixing problems.  With the news on Alzheimer's yesterday, 2008 could be a year in which we make significant strides towards improving matters for us as we get older.

SENS might not be with us yet, but perhaps we're starting to see a route map.

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For one...

Samizdata quote of the day | Samizdata.net

The Razor finds itself on the same side of an argument as the Samizdata crowd.   Even Paul Marks, for whom we have little time, calls it right in the comments.  We do need nuclear and we need Fast Breeders to deal with the waste.

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Torchwood Boss Moves To More Traditional Law Enforcement

Torchwood Boss Moves To More Traditional Law Enforcement

Further proof, if any were needed, that we approach the End of Days.

*sigh*

I've always thought the Simpson's piss take "Law and Order: Lift Inspection Unit" wasn't actually a joke.

Settle with the writers, please!

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