Walsingham

Gentlemen, we have radiation-proof powered armour.

Think about a plank of wood. Works for me.

That sounds like the entertainment industry of today... As a teenager I once came up with the brilliant idea of writing a program that could write programs. The idea was that in one kilobyte on an eight bit system, there was a finite amount of programs possible. Of course it fell flat on its belly when it came to figure out a way of evaluate the result for beneficial effects and identify the new patentable algorithms from the random system disk formatting algorithm and the 99.99999% unusable white noise Yes, the folly of youth Patent the bastard anyway. You never know. In the US system it might stick.

I thought the point was to come up with new widgets No. That's TRIZ. EDIT: Krezack would like TRIZ.

I share your alarm at management bull, so can see why you might have switched off. Yes, some companies use the term sloppily, just the way some firms say 'logistics' instead of 'moving stuff about'. But that doesn't mean some companies don't use it. Principles and standards of getting what customers want, methods of testing and demonstrating the usefulness of new stuff, methods of testing for and demonstrating complex emergent properties (when it is going to break). All that is systems engineering. And there's a lot more. More importantly , it doesn't mean that the world doesn't use it! For me the heart of it is complexity. Understanding that ALL things are complex, because even something simple like a spanner is nested within other systems, cultural, legal, environmental. they interact with the spanner, and make its behaviour hard to predict. Those ol' unintended consequences. The purpose of systems theory and systems engineering is to assert that we know damn well that smoke affects insects. We know insects are everywhere. We know the smoke has been a constant. If we asked A or B we would discover that they do not suffer from insects, and this is unexpected. Really good engineers have always been systems engineers. But the whole point of the profession of engineering is to codify and formalise what would otherwise be art.

I've been putting a lot of effort into my singing lately. I wonder if I've busted a fuse?

Up and grinding through objectives, but have developed a stammer when talking on the telephone. It's really very very strange. Suspended all calls, and am now doing some background reading.

Surely a firm whose shares appreciate at 10% is demonstrating unusual growth? I woudl have thought that unless they are about to change tack you should hang on to go higher. Novice at shares, so ready to be wrong.

Story

Made me laugh: the Oxford College of London.

Hoagy shiznitt. Sorry to break this to you, old man. First example I checked: General Dynamics Tip of the hat to Krez and Calax for jumping in.

They should totally have prepped that. I have tremendous respect for the poor sods. Locked up in a lunchbox for so long, and they can't even say they went anywhere. In some ways a bigger sacrifice than those who actually go into space. And essential for future missions, so I understand. They had to study how they'd react to one another, manage their diet, and get them to perform tests etc.

I've been posting for a while on the dangers of machines assuming military powers in political life. It sounds as if we're addressing the dangers of machines assuming economic power. In both cases what is undoubtedly a tactical win translates into big negative consequences. Yet with the advantages so obvious what nation or culture will turn aside from them? Mor eimportantly could any nation or culture turn their rise to their advantage? If so, how? On topic: A neat article on why Italy may not be in trouble. It must be wrong, because it makes sense to me. Probably too simplistic.

I was thinking on most similar lines today. Albeit less articulate ones. The thing is that with modern manufacturing a single factory could probably turn out enough cars (let's say) to equip everyone on the planet in a matter of a couple of years, if al the valves were turned up high. Hell, wasn't it General Motors who first showed what manufacturing could do during WW2? The question then becomes, I guess, one of demand and the economics of shipping, and protectionism. I will refer members to the illustrious pages of the weekly comic 2000AD. In it you have a vast mega city whose residents are almost entirely on 'welfare', and all industry and service jobs are run by robots. I'm talking as far back as the early eighties. ~~ So... how will this impasse be resolved?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8...k-on-Earth.html What kind of evil mother ****er has the press conference indoors? Let the buggers at least go outside!

What about a little bit of gunpowder? I thought GD might try this recipe. From The Old Foodie.

Ever since I read the Harry Harrison story about the special agent who employs a herd of pigs I've wanted a pig as a pet. If I ever retire to the country I'm totally owning pigs.

Sometimes I really wonder where you obtain the alien logic you use to reach some of your conclusions. Systems theory. But don't let that worry you. It's only used to run every major technology and manufacturing firm in the world. FFS I thought you were studying for an MBA?

Got to say, Greylord's reviews sound honest, and sensible. ...And have put me right off.

Personally I can't understand why this bothered so many players. I mean "friend activities" are optional. You could say no, hung up right away or refuse to answer Absolutely. Once I worked that out, I relaxed and found the friends awesome.

*shrug* I was being nice.

"Hint: Move along the corridor"

A pig in your living room is more startling than a cobra in the forest. Doesn't make it more serious a threat. You obviously never had a pig on your living room. You've obviously never seen my living room.

To develop my earlier point, all we have to do is to enact a Greek collapse where the individual subsystem failures happen in time steps outside the decision loops of our 'friendly' financial organs. They see it coming and act accordingly. In other words, we still have th avalanche, but it happens slowly enough that we dodge the individual boulders.