Recent content by Esotera

Companies don't have any incentive to switch to clean energy as fossil fuels are really cheap and aren't going to run out for a few decades at least. It's unfair to expect companies to go green & get run out of business by 'dirty' competitors, so there either needs to be regulation from...

I graduated with a 2:1 degree this summer, and did really well in my final year, averaging a first & getting the second highest mark in the year for my research project. It almost makes me wish that I hadn't spent the entirety of my first and second years getting drunk & cramming during revision...

A band. I really miss playing mediocre music, fucking around at practices, and going to loads of parties. It was really awesome and it annoys me that I'm no longer as good at guitar as I used to be.

Probably the following three characters, as well as the AltGr key: `¬¦ Brackets and semi-colons are really useful for programming though, and I always get massively upset when using a new keyboard because the manufacturer will inevitably move it around to a stupid place. I also don't...

Jamie was around 16 when Robert took the throne & Cersei was a teenager, so I would have estimated somewhere between 10-20 years? That sort of timescale would fit other characters as well - there's no way Robert Baratheon could let himself go that much in only a couple of years.

I have been learning programming for the last 5 years or so, and am continuing with that even though it's part of my job now. This is the number one thing that I would recommend for anyone to learn by themselves, as it's an amazing feeling solving your own problems, you gain a lot of knowledge...

All the books, all the movies, and recently the Warner Bros studio tour. But I wouldn't say I'm a massive fan or anything like that - most of my friends have read the books & watched the movies (at least some of them) and I only went on the tour as family was going. I guess the main thing the...

Is that actually true though? Those examples are mostly of famous people who were considered attractive by the media of their day. The media today have a very definition of beauty so I don't see why this would be any different back then.

I've got a lot of respect for someone who voluntarily gives their money to a good cause, but I'm sort of hesitant to encourage philanthropy as the state can attempt to use it as a substitute for services that it previously provided. The UK PM is particularly bad at this - he was elected on a...

I dare anyone to listen to this for any longer than 2 minutes (from the brilliant Archer):

Do you find certain modern technologies that are pretty much viewed as the norm these days pretty useless compared to how things were done in days of yore? Do you have a bunch of free time to waste on a gaming website forum? Then this thread needs you! Basically, what do you not use that...

Yeah, I've got a mini solar panel at home and it gets intensely hot whenever the sun is out. I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with getting a ton of solar power & then using it to run a bunch of extra stuff that improves quality of life. At least it's better than burning fossil fuels in the...

Yeah, I give it a week before someone subverts the designs and makes them sexual. But this is pretty cool, I don't see 3D printing as doing massive harm for the immediate future, so it's worth getting the goodwill of hobbyists (like Nokia did with printing phone cases). Hell, it's worth doing...

I'm totally fed up with the amazing weather the UK has been having for the last couple of weeks. This is probably the best summer in several years, and I'm consigned to spend most of it in an office with no air-con, where all but one of the windows have been painted shut. I'm most fed up with...

Most of the ships in The Culture universe, because they're so different to any other sort of ship in other sci-fi universes. They're absolutely massive, are far more intelligent than humans, and they don't remotely resemble a traditional ship e.g. the Sleeper Service is several kilometres long...