Entries tagged with questions

Entry tags:

What sort of ethics do you subscribe to?

Does the right thing to do depend only on the consequences, or are some acts inherently right or wrong no matter what likely consequences follow?

From Wikipedia:

Deontological ethics or deontology (Greek: δέον (deon) meaning 'obligation' or 'duty') is an approach to ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions.

Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action.

Virtue theory is a branch of moral philosophy that emphasizes character, rather than rules or consequences, as the key element of ethical thinking.

Which of these best describes your position?

[Poll #1225625]

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Powers of two

I can't remember what made me think of this, but there's a bit in Snow Crash about powers of two, and I wondered if things had changed, and that people deal in higher level stuff than this these days. And it's just striking and a bit weird anyway that some people have had occasion to memorize this stuff, I wondered if you had...

[Poll #1217360]

Update: The "powers of two" are just 1+1 = 2, 2+2 = 4, 4+4 = 8, 8+8 = 16 and so on.

Update: it seems like it isn't clear from the above, so for the avoidance of doubt, no-one should feel that they should know this off by heart!

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Anyone used the Nokia 6120c?

I need to get a new mobile phone so I can pass my old one on to

lilithmagna. Now my contract has expired, I'd like to move to a really cheap contract since I'm not a heavy phone user, which may mean moving away from Orange. But of course there are lots of options at the cheap end, and I might consider paying a little extra in order to get Internetty goodness.

T-Mobile's cheapest contract (Flext 20 18+ Months) has a number of free-with-contract phones with HSDPA (3G broadband for laptops); right now I'm looking at getting a Nokia 6120c. With itemized billing that contract is £16.50/month; internet costs £1 each day that you use it and has a 1GB/month cap.

Is that the right deal? What else should I be considering? Thanks!

Update: The technical specs for the 6120c indicate that it does not have the Bluetooth DUN Profile or the Bluetooth PAN profile - am I right in thinking that means I can't use this phone to get my laptop online? If so, how shite is that on a scale from 10 to loads?

Entry tags:

Wikipedia

What do you think of Wikipedia?

If you were in charge of a project to create something like Wikipedia, but better, what would you create?

Entry tags:

funny,
questions

How to be a superhero

Assume you have the wealth of Bruce Wayne, and in addition are supremely fit, deadly in the use of a variety of weapons and martial arts, and cunning in the extreme. What do you need in addition to be a superhero?

How about some combination of a personal jetpack, armour suit and powered exoskeleton?

(ISTR asking this before, but personal jetpacks have improved since then :-)

Entry tags:

geek,
questions

Yet more computer woes

The processor is glued to the fan with epoxy glue.

After finding that the problem with my computer was the power supply, I realised that I had enough bits left over from replacing parts one by one to build most of a new computer. Now, Lisa and Lil need a faster computer, so I thought I'd use those bits to upgrade theirs. I opened the case of their computer, and quickly realised that this case wouldn't fit my motherboard. However, the inside was amazingly filthy, so I took it on the roof terrace to give it a clean-up. In particluar, the processor fan was caked with dirt all the way through, which couldn't be doing it any good. In order to clean it thoroughly, I took it out.

And the processor came with.

I've cleaned it now, but I'm stuck with a problem. The processor appears to be glued to the fan with epoxy glue. This means I can't (1) put the processor in, (2) close the ZIF socket, and (3) attach the fan. But the ZIF socket will have to be closed when the fan goes on, and it doesn't want me to put the processor in in that state, it's not ZIF any more.

Do I have any options besides jamming hard and praying?

Entry tags:

geek,
questions

it beeps! it beeps!

babysimon came around with useful advice and very important moral support, and between us we got the computer to beep. It lives! It still isn't 100% working as such, but the hurdles are now the sort of thing I understand and can deal with.

The primary culprit turned out to be the power supply. There may be secondary culprits - we identified and threw out one dodgy chunk of memory, at least - but I think the power supply is the big one; I've swapped between the power supply in the case and the one borrowed from work a couple of times, and it seems pretty definitely to make the difference between beep and no-beep.

The tricky thing is that it's not a standard size of power supply. The one I have from work doesn't fit into the space available for it, and is sort of standing on its end at a funny angle; I can't fit the lid on. This one is slightly shorter, and the hole for the IEC connector is on the same side as the hole that the bundle of cables for the motherboard and drives comes out of; there's a power cable inside the case that leads from a socket on the outside to the power supply, so it makes sense for them both to face the same way ie into the case.

Is this sort of power supply unique to my case ("Antec Overture Quiet Media Case")? Or is it a standard sort of power supply I can get from another supplier? I'd like to get a better make than this since it failed in just over a year, but it might be that only this one exact sort will do.

Update: I mailed Antec asking what sort of replacements would do, and they've said that the PSU has a three year warranty! So I shall sort out getting it replaced under that. Rah!

Entry tags:

questions

DVD player?

Our PlayStation has stopped playing DVDs. Did we lend you our DVD player? Can we borrow it back until we can get the PS2 sorted? Ta!

Entry tags:

questions

Hairdressers in central London?

Can anyone recommend some good hairdressers that opens late in central London? I want to get my hair dyed tonight, and the place I wanted to go (jigami) is fully booked.

Entry tags:

geek,
questions

Google down?

I can't reach any Google service. Is anyone else having problems?

Update: back now I think...

Entry tags:

questions

Grammar queen

English usage question arising out of a discussion on a wiki. I have my own opinion, but I don't want to bias the poll, so here it is...

[Poll #681358]

Entry tags:

questions

Brick Lane

What's your favourite place to eat in Brick Lane?

Entry tags:

questions

Rah BiCon

I had lots and lots of fun at BiCon - many thanks to the organisers! Some interesting stories to tell. If I try and list everyone who made my BiCon better here it will be a long list, so I'll just include here the people I spent a substantial amount of time with and whose LJ handles I remember. That's a shout out to

narnee,

thekumquat,

skibbley,

daneel_olivaw,

kerrykat,

cujosmurf,

neilhudson,

bondagewoodelf,

kinkykarleen,

conflux,

faerierhona,

just_becky,

maneatingtigger,

softfruit,

memevector,

thehalibutkid,

olethros,

hieroglyphe,

alexilian, my fab flatmates

xxxlibris,

webcowgirl,

adjectivemarcus, and of course my wonderful partners

lilithmagna,

spikeylady, and

ergotia!

If I try to name all of you who I spoke to briefly and would like to have spoken to for longer this really will get too long. And I shouldn't have started, because of the inevitable people I've left off, but I'll just go back and change it and hope no-one notices...

Now, should I tell the story of

having a drunken arsehole try to feel me up while I was in drag, and bodily throwing them out of the flat with my bare hands, or
being reported to the desk for harrassment for telling a long-standing bi inactivist not to be so rude ... last year!

Entry tags:

questions

Purple Pride

If I wanted for some reason to buy a purple T-shirt in central London on my way home tonight, where would I be best advised to go?

Entry tags:

questions

Make Poverty History?

I tend to assume that any campaign sufficiently high-profile to get celebrities on Breakfast News talking about it will be a waste of time. However, at a medium-length glance I can't see what's wrong with Make Poverty History - they're not making the mistake of asking for donations to give to the needy people of Africa, instead focussing on creating political pressure to a number of as far as I can tell wholly laudable goals. Am I missing something important? Or should I be making plans to visit Edinburgh around July 2nd?

Entry tags:

geek,
questions

Should I get a Treo 650?

(More geek stuff, sorry)

My Treo 600 has finally given up the ghost. Yesterday, on the way to deliver money to LARC, I slipped on a bit of wet cardboard and went arse-over-tit in the drizzling rain. When I got to LARC I found that my phone was refusing to connect to the phone network claiming insufficient power, and a full recharge and hard reset is failing to persuade it otherwise. I'm borrowing an old Nokia handset (ex-

kitty_goth's and destined ultimately for

ergotia's use) while I work out what to do about it.

The obvious object of desire is the next model up, the Treo 650, which seems to have just now become available through Orange. If I was superstitious, I'd think it was Meant, but I'm so not. And there's something telling me that I should think hard about getting a 650.

I used to have a Treo 180, but the flip-over screen snapped off. Apparently that happened to everyone who had a Treo 180. Then I got a 600. Since then I've learned the "taking the SIM out" trick to help it get online, had conversations while it was plugged in to the power so it didn't buzz so loudly, shouted into the microphone as it becomes unable to pick up my voice, and other annoyances. I believe that of those I know who also have 600s (

wechsler,

julietk,

purplerabbits,

some_fox,

adjectivemarcus, [Bad username or unknown identity: one_other_-_shit_-_who_is_it?]) all of them have had problems of one sort or another.

About Revenge of the Sith, I've been saying "If you go to the same restaurant twice and they serve you shit both times, would you go a third time?". So I should probably be applying the same principle here.

On the other hand, Palm claim that they know about the reliability problems with the 600 and have gone to a different manufacturer for the 650 to address them, and I do feel a sort of loyalty to PalmOS. And the reviews look good. I want a smartphone, but I won't touch Wince of course, so the only competition is a Symbian-based phone - which would mean ditching all my apps and working out how to port across all my addresses and suchlike. So I'm torn.

Update: Of course, I could just get a free Bluetooth phone, and buy a Bluetooth Palm - would that be nearly as good?

What are all you other 600 owners thinking of doing?