Recent content by mgb_phys

Blasts tanks is a little optimistic - it might (just about on a good day with a following wind...) burst a liquid fueled ICBM's fuel tanks This is from a device that takes an entire 747 with enough nasty chemicals on board that you would do rather more damage to the target by simply landing on it.

Unless there is a Gospel I'm missing (actually there are quite a few but that's another story) there isn't an awfull lot of correlation between what Jesus said and christian beliefs.

Laser tend to be line of sight - so if they are used their only viable purpose is close quarter anti-missile defenses.

Then you must acquit - if Jesus had hired Johnnie Cochran he would have got off.

I think they are on the dead sea post-it notes. Along with the bit about killing Jews and that everybody should follow Peter for 1600 years but then god wants them to all start their own churches.

Is that like the chewbacca defense? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca_defense)

As does Cambridge

If the speed of sound was unlimited yes, otherwise things get a bit different when you want to go supersonic. Aerodynamic drag is proportional to the density of air * speed squared So going faster at the same altitude (ie same air density) uses more energy.

If history is any guide a small proportion of people will move there and then spend large amounts of time, money and effort keeping those other aliens out

I used the phrase "IEC power cord" in BestBuy in an attempt to buy a computer power lead. I think in the end I managed to make the sales assistant understand - "bendy wire thing goes into magic hole in wall where invisible stuff comes out and makes glowing box work"

They have a point, it's what happened when we let blacks or catholics or Jews marry, it's a slippery slope. Suppose we allowed people to marry Belgians - would you want your children growing up Belgian!

CATIA = biggest player. Somewhat expensive ie. unlikely to be using it unless it says Boeing or Airbus on your ID badge, ProEngineer/Solidworks = majority of the market. People argue endlessly about which is best which implies they are identical. Autocad Inventor = probably cheapest (still a...

To be honest their coffee isn't fantastic - I think it's more a case of not being starbucks! They call them small,medium, large, x-large for instance - not some madeup words, and they understand that tea should be made with boiling water, a technology that starbucks haven't discovered yet...

When you do if () ... this line ... another line Which line does the if() statement apply to in c/c++? In python, it's the indentation that controls the blocks, in c/c++ the indentation means nothing.

It's worse in the US and Canada - the various sales taxes aren't included in the price. So even if you buy something for $1 there are a bunch of federal, state and city tax % added to it so the price always ends up as some odd number. And since you never know which taxes apply to which items...