errolwi

Recent Actions

• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  Lancasters were also used post-war by the French - they were given/sold late-war production examples not needed for Tiger Force in the Far East. One is now preserved in NZ (after service in French Polynesia)....
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  In the 90s, I moved (with employment) from Lotus 1-2-3 (I remember getting single-level undo, wonders!), to Word/Plan Perfect (Revel Codes for the win!), to Excel 4.0. A couple of days of training with VB for Excel (and a background...
• Commented on Where's Charlie?
  While I'm planning on going to Perth at some point (relatives down in Esperance), the timing tragically clashes with looking at aircraft much closer to home! http://www.classicfighters.co.nz/...
• Commented on Status update
  Same issue with Wordpress, but Livejournal worked ok....
• Commented on World building 301: some projections
  Regarding subtle Irish assistance to the Allies, I was amazed when I found out about the Donegal Corridor not long ago....
• Commented on World building 201: Heuristics
  Interesting discussion of aviation-related terms in various Englishs: http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43512...
• Commented on Cutting their own throats
  If I may link to some related discussion on the future and Amazon: Alan Beatts (of Borderlands Books) in conversation with Alisa Krasnostein and Jonathan Strahan. http://liveandsassy.podbean.com/2011/11/12/episode-2-live-and-sassy-with-alan-beatts/...
• Commented on Pink Stuff Patrol
  Or at a frequency that is in line with what the reader (who has to opt-in) wants i.e. like an RSS feed. I doubt that one in 500 tweets that I see could be classed as spam....
• Commented on Design changes
  Another vote for non-threading. I normally visit a couple of times a day, and am several/many timezones away from most commenters. I use LJ's 'email me future comments' feature, as it auto-quotes the reply-to'd comment, making it much easier to...
• Commented on iOS 5: initial notes
  Useful twitter overview. http://www.momthisishowtwitterworks.com/...
• Commented on iOS 5: initial notes
  Twitter is usable via text messages, although the practical bandwidth is somewhat lower than using data and a ~4" screen smartphone. This was handy when I was at an airshow with no data available. With Twitter set to only send...
• Commented on Post-oil ...
  Um, NZ butter has been going to Europe for over a century. There are minimal subsidies to NZ farmers, and significant subsidies to EU farmers. There is less energy used in producing it in NZ and shipping it over than...
• Commented on Sartorial semiotics
  Here the NZ, the 'imbalance' in WW2 unit types is mainly put down to having interesting gear. So I'm not aware of any 'line' German units, but we have Waffen SS, FJs (paras), Mountain Infantry, Military Police. The allied units...
• Commented on Why I'm not on Google Plus
  Kinda ditto. My surname has been in England since at least 1598, but no-one would call it 'English'. It is, however, a common Turkish forename (as well as an Italian wine co-op). This caused me hassle at the Turkish-Cypriot border....
• Commented on Brief absence
  The America's Cup yachting event had 'Underwatergate' back when the Kiwis decided that they didn't have to build a '12 metre' boat out of aluminium....
• Commented on Obsolete existential threats #1: The Bomb
  The standard game had no rules for nuclear warfare but there was an optional rule for players who really wanted to simulate the use of Nukes. 1. Douse the map in petrol 2. Get a match..... Almost. How I remember...
• Commented on Obsolete existential threats #1: The Bomb
  A couple of people have claimed in this discussion that the US was short of nukes in late 1945. Two minutes on the internet will show that this claim is utter rubbish....
• Commented on Radioactive turd, meet punchbowl
  An 'I told you so' post from an Aussie aviation journalist. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2011/05/24/some-plain-talking-about-nuclear-lies/...
• Commented on Squids in Space!
  OK, so what is the other USS Enterprise currently in the US Navy? Unfortunately, the existence of Wikipedia makes this sort of thing much less of a challenge than it would have been a few years ago....
• Commented on Squids in Space!
  Or, arguably, HM Bark Endeavour....
• Commented on Brief update
  Yes, Christchurch 2011 doesn't even count as 'major' in terms of energy involved, for instance....
• Commented on In happier news ...
  There is a good (podcast) talk on New Horizons at the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures site. pity the associated slides aren't available....
• Commented on Question ...
  The first US CVN has 8 reactors (design nicked from the then-current subs). Later ones get similar power output from 2 reactors. I'm sure Wikipedia has reasonable estimates of outputs....
• Commented on Typo Hunt: The Fuller Memorandum
  I had an English-born teacher in primary school (so late '70s) who tried to stop us Kiwis doing this....
• Commented on Typo Hunt: The Fuller Memorandum
  There are certainly Australian variations in vocab (e.g. vessels for beer), can't say that I've noticed any variation in grammar (occasional different expressions)....
• Commented on Typo Hunt: The Fuller Memorandum
  Ha, I'd noted the missing close quote while reading the epub - I didn't think that it was a ebook conversion issue....
• Commented on Obsolete before it ships
  Sure, just pointing out that ebooks make noting it (assuming 'it' is something not pbook specific) as you go somewhat easier. And authors that have 'typo hunt' posts on their blogs means that you have an easy way to pass...
• Commented on Obsolete before it ships
  From memory, when I came across one in TFM (while reading on my iPhone), I pasted it into an email, and noted down chapter and unique text string (using Calibre's reader) when next at my laptop....
• Commented on PSA: Gorgon Stare
  Just came across this study on the cost of piracy - they estimate only USD7-12B per year. http://oceansbeyondpiracy.org/obp/cost-of-piracy-home...
• Commented on PSA: Gorgon Stare
  The most politically practical of the methods listed is convoys. These are some mixture of more expensive than current mitigation methods, and unworkable due to lack of numbers of escorts. There is no sign of procuring adequate of the latter...