[04:40] <zmoylan-pi> we're in there somewhere... http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-14.05,52.12,3000
[08:23] <brobostigon> morning boys and girls.
[08:52] <knightwise> hey brobostigon
[08:52] <knightwise> how are you
[08:53] <brobostigon> hi knightwise, not bad and you?
[08:53] <knightwise> doing ok
[08:53] <knightwise> about to go for some Xmass shopping with the misses
[08:53] <knightwise> so I packed somme light reading material on my phone :p
[08:55] <brobostigon> :)
[08:55]  * brobostigon has a misses now as well, he is engaged.
[08:57] <knightwise> Congratzzzz ! since when ?
[08:59] <brobostigon> last weekend.
[08:59] <brobostigon> thank you, :)
[08:59] <knightwise> wicked ! set a date yet ?
[09:00] <brobostigon> no, not yet, :)
[09:06] <knightwise> i'm off :) downloaded some books on the tablet so i have something to read in the meantime :)
[09:08] <brobostigon> :)
[15:11] <diddleda_> ms edge javascript engine (chakra) is going to be opensourced: https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2015/12/05/open-source-chakra-core/
[15:22] <bittin> iktf: https://twitter.com/stephaniehobson/status/672299045155504128
[16:31] <DJones> Hmmh, something wrong here, under an hour to upgrade a Win 8.1 machine to Win 10 including downloading 2.6Gb of upgrade, without any issues, completely working system and without making a mess of dual boot.  I guess uEFI does have some benefits
[17:18] <foobarry> views on chromebooks in schools anyone?
[17:18] <foobarry> i.e. schools buying them instead of other things like macs
[17:24] <penguin42> I guess it depends what the schools are doing; I guess the macs probably give more flexibility, as would a PC laptop; but there again the chromebooks will be cheap and probably easier to admin
[17:25] <foobarry> apparently the macs aren't being used much
[17:25] <foobarry> need to find out more
[17:27] <penguin42> what age range?
[17:34] <foobarry> primary/infant
[17:34] <foobarry> junior school
[17:44] <penguin42> I think at that age a chromebook should be fine, and you want something cheap and destructible so when they puke on it, it's not a big issue
[18:53] <penguin42> heck, elastic-trickery prices seem to have dropped like a stone in the last year
[19:11] <zmoylan-pi> in ireland wind power seems to be reaching new heights every few months
[19:38] <penguin42> zmoylan-pi: UK we've got about 8.5GW peak, but that is peak; we do have the occasional week when it produces ~.1GW
[19:38] <penguin42> http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/  is the current UK grid status
[19:44] <directhex> fortunately, wind power is highly predictable, and some types of fossil fuel generators can go from idle to full production in about 30 minutes
[19:44] <directhex> so renewable as a baseline is actually feasible - but no renewable is suitable for making up shortfall
[19:45] <directhex> nuclear is a better baseline, since it's got a constant output rate all the time
[19:45] <directhex> and pumped storage hydroelectric as a way to store excess power produced during the day for use at night *could* do instead of fossil fuiels... if it weren't comedy expensive
[19:46] <penguin42> directhex: I'm not convinced pumped is enough; the problem with wind/solar isn't overnight - it's a week of low wind
[19:46] <directhex> also that
[19:46] <directhex> but using gas as a baseline is dumb
[19:46] <directhex> gas is a fabulous compensator, but using it as a baseline is a massive waste
[19:47] <penguin42> yep
[19:47] <penguin42> directhex: If you can persuade people to build nukes then you're right
[19:47] <directhex> yeah, not happening
[19:48] <directhex> nobody wants to build modern safe reactors, because 1960s reactors aren't up to 2010's standards. so we... keep running old 1960s reactors into the ground. good job everyone
[19:48] <directhex> the pricing issue with nukes isn't even construction or maintenance, it's insurance. which costs basically £infinity
[19:49] <penguin42> you can kind of see why
[19:50] <directhex> we could build safe reactors tomorrow, but fear of free love era relics means it won't happen
[19:50] <penguin42> define 'safe'?  Has anyone actually built a large scale inherently safe one yet?
[19:51] <directhex> plenty of modern designs are modular parallel small-scale ones
[19:52] <penguin42> oh, hadn't realised those existed
[19:52] <directhex> i thiknk toshiba had a 100% sealed design one
[19:53] <directhex> just drop it in the ground & connect a (big) cable to the top
[19:53] <penguin42> hmm, why aren't tehy getting in on the UK competition?
[19:53] <penguin42> that seems to be mostly French/Chinese?
[19:55] <directhex> france is one of the most nuclear nations on earh, if anyone has the experience needed to actually deploy things successfully, it's them
[19:56] <penguin42> yeh, that's true, and I think we are due to get one they're probably debugging on their own soil
[19:56] <directhex> like... 90% of their national demand is nuclear, 10% is hydro? something like that
[19:56] <penguin42> ah well there's a link at the top of that page for the french grid
[19:57] <penguin42> http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/france/
[19:57] <bashrc> I don't think nuclear has much of a future. Electricity from renewables overtook nuclear and coal within the last few years. Nuclear is expensive, particularly when you include the externalities
[19:57] <penguin42> currently cooking at 92.36% nuke
[19:57] <directhex> nobody's had to deal with a catastrophic wind spillage yet :o
[19:58] <penguin42> although lots of people have been killed by catastrophic hydro power failures
[19:58] <directhex> nuclear is *way* more dependable than renewable. no "is it sunny? is it windy?" issues, so less need to top up with fossil fuels than with a heavy renewable base
[19:58] <directhex> nuclear probably has no future, but not because it isn't good
[19:59] <directhex> it's political
[19:59] <penguin42> directhex: Given the design life of nukes I do wonder when they start having financial difficulties due to the expected arrival of fusion
[19:59] <penguin42> directhex: I mean if you design for a 50 year life, we *should* have working fusion by then
[19:59] <bashrc> that's what they said 50 years ago
[20:00] <directhex> ever gone swimming in nuclear runoff? nice & warm! manatees love it!
[20:00] <penguin42> bashrc: Yeh, although ITER is actually getting somewhere
[20:02] <ali1234> if you mined all the lithium in Earth, how many amp-hours of batteries could you make?
[20:03] <penguin42> bashrc: They've actually got buildings going up and the superconducting cables made
[20:04] <directhex> "As of January 2010, the USGS estimated world total lithium reserves at 9.9×109 kg (economically extractable now) and identified lithium resources at 2.55 × 1010 kg (potentially economic). Most of the identified resources are in Bolivia and Chile (9 × 109 kg and 7.5 × 109 kg, respectively). World lithium production is currently on the order of 2 × 107 kg per year."
[20:04] <ali1234> yes i am also reading that page
[20:04] <directhex> so it's 100g per kWh
[20:04] <ali1234> yeah. so about 1*10^11 kWhs
[20:06] <ali1234> enough to run the whole planet for five hours
[20:07] <ali1234> that's kind of scary
[20:07]  * penguin42 hates to think of the connector you'd use for that
[20:07] <directhex> CCS.
[20:08] <zmoylan-pi> the apple variant would of course cost double :-)
[21:23] <moreati> A sanity check: can anyone get this page to show a comparison? Is there a button I'm not seeing? http://www.asus.com/uk/Notebooks/Zenbook-Series-Products/
[21:29] <moreati> nm, I've found alternate means. Still puzzle though
[22:18] <Azelphur> Hi folks, I'm trying to figure out how to make my PC pretend to be a bluetooth headset, such that I could make phone calls via my phone, utilising my PCs mic and speakers. Does anyone know how to do this?
[22:55] <penguin42> hmm sounds like it should be possible, I think, never done it