Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 3]

[SpeckledJim]

The Don of Croy said:

It was a surprise when Dominoes pizza arrived in town - suddenly there's a fleet of mopeds delivering overpriced unhealthy pro-salt tepid food to your door.

So why don't Chippy's deliver? The chinese take-away has also been encouraging non-roadworthy MOT failures to hack around the suburban roadscape for years, too.

It's not the pricing, is it? What does a haddock and med chips cost now - £8 plus per head? Compared to the pizza a meal for 3 or 4 peeps must be similar cost/margin?

Maybe it's the aroma?

I think the simple answer is that the level of communications necessary to have a community understand that such an unusual facility is available to them is beyond most chippies.

Though with facebook and twitter, it has never been easier than now to manage such a feat.

I'd love a chippy that delivered. And for that matter, a drive-thru chippy too.

[Moonhawk]

littlebasher said:

How come, despite being at a more northerly latitude than the USA, during solar storms they get the Aurora appearing much further south than we get here?

Short answer is - they don't.

Long answer - it may be more visible in southern areas of the US due to the lower population density and therefore lower levels of light pollution. There are relatively fewer places in the UK where you can get completely away from the sky glow caused by artificial lights.

[P-Jay]

The Don of Croy said:

It was a surprise when Dominoes pizza arrived in town - suddenly there's a fleet of mopeds delivering overpriced unhealthy pro-salt tepid food to your door.

So why don't Chippy's deliver? The chinese take-away has also been encouraging non-roadworthy MOT failures to hack around the suburban roadscape for years, too.

It's not the pricing, is it? What does a haddock and med chips cost now - £8 plus per head? Compared to the pizza a meal for 3 or 4 peeps must be similar cost/margin?

Maybe it's the aroma?

I've often thought the same thing, there are a few available near me via Just-Eat, but they're the low-end places that do fish, chips, burgers, kebabs, pizza, chicken etc etc - the one stop shop for pissheads and stonners and not really up to the standard of the Friday Fish Supper treat I'm after.

Maybe, it's the same reason why my local Chinese place doesn't entertain the idea of delivery, anything online or card payments - they're strictly a cash business, and, although I'm loathed to think it, I suspect the bundles of tenners they turn up at the local casino on a Tuesday evening with haven't touched the books between MSG buying punter and backjack croupier.

[littlebasher]

Moonhawk said:

Short answer is - they don't.

Long answer - it may be more visible in southern areas of the US due to the lower population density and therefore lower levels of light pollution. There are relatively fewer places in the UK where you can get completely away from the sky glow caused by artificial lights.

My question kind of came about by comparing against the data from here

http://services.swpc.noaa.gov/images/aurora-foreca...

They definitely appear to extend further south over the northern tier US states than they should here. I was wondering whether the Earths magnetic field varied between here and there.

[Moonhawk]

littlebasher said:

My question kind of came about by comparing against the data from here

http://services.swpc.noaa.gov/images/aurora-foreca...

They definitely appear to extend further south over the northern tier US states than they should here. I was wondering whether the Earths magnetic field varied between here and there.

Ah - I see where you are coming from......actually you are probably right. Earths magnetic pole is offset relative to its axial pole (in the direction of Canada/North America). The Aurora will be centered on the magnetic pole.

[jfdi]

Why in newspaper articles do you often see "known locally as ....."
Do these people have another name they use when then go out of town?

[Dr Jekyll]

jfdi said:

Why in newspaper articles do you often see "known locally as ....."
Do these people have another name they use when then go out of town?

I always thought it meant 'known to his acquaintances as' as opposed to the name that goes on official forms. 'known locally' is a strange way of putting it though.

I know someone who often deals with paperwork involving recently deceased people and these often give someone's name followed by 'also known as...'. The AKA is sometimes predictable but often bears no resemblance to the official name. EG 'Gillian Smith also known as Gillian Smyth, Jill Smith, or Hermione Murgatroyd'.

[P-Jay]

jfdi said:

Why in newspaper articles do you often see "known locally as ....."
Do these people have another name they use when then go out of town?

It can mean they used a shortened/nick name - Jonathan Jones, known locally as John. Sometimes though some people will use a name that's completely different to the one they were born with, or indeed is how they're known on their passport etc - I found out recently that it's completely legal to use any name you like, you don't even need to change your name via 'deed poll' which in reality is just a certificate to tell organisations "I'd rather be called..." anyway.

It can also be because the information is unsubstantiated, although they tend to use the term - "named locally as..." for example when someone is killed and it's public knowledge that poor old Mrs. Tibbs was beaten to death on her front door - the press will often say "A 36 year old Women named locally as Mrs. Tibbs has been killed" up to the point the body is formally identified and the police release the details in case it turns out the locals had it wrong and it was her neighbour - because ITN don't want to get in trouble when Mrs. Tibbs gets back from Benidorm to find out ITB says she's dead.

[mattdaniels]

The Don of Croy said:

So why don't Chippy's deliver?

My village chippy doesn't deliver, I have to walk to the end of the drive to collect.



http://www.howeandcofishandchips.co.uk/index.php

[TREMAiNE]

Another for all you genius'

Say for example I have 300mb of data allowance on my smartphone.

If I watch a YouTube video that uses 100mb of data, I now have 200mb left (I can do maths, me!).

But, if I keep the app open and hit the replay button and the video plays again having already fully streamed will I lose another 100mb of data or not?

If not, could I theoretically play the same video over and over again infinitely without the risk of running out of data and being charged a fortune?

If so, please explain why and if not please explain why!

Thanks!

[Asterix]

mattdaniels said:

The Don of Croy said:

So why don't Chippy's deliver?

My village chippy doesn't deliver, I have to walk to the end of the drive to collect.



http://www.howeandcofishandchips.co.uk/index.php

Used to have the Chippy van come round to my old village, Mursley. Used to park up behind my house and ring a bloody loud bell.

Was like watching chubby zombies stagger over to it

[RobinOakapple]

mattdaniels said:

My village chippy doesn't deliver, I have to walk to the end of the drive to collect.

I'd imagined you were a bit younger, and a bit more masculine.

[Funkycoldribena]

The Don of Croy said:

So why don't Chippy's deliver?

Why dont they do fish fingers?

[anonymous-user]

Funkycoldribena said:

The Don of Croy said:

So why don't Chippy's deliver?

Why dont they do fish fingers?

That's a mighty fine question. A van going round the estates selling fish finger sandwiches (council estates) or Cod Goujons with Rustic Bread (the Bovis, blue-suited, 3yo-320d-on-the-drive estates) would rake it in.

[droopsnoot]

TREMAiNE said:

Another for all you genius'

Say for example I have 300mb of data allowance on my smartphone.

If I watch a YouTube video that uses 100mb of data, I now have 200mb left (I can do maths, me!).

But, if I keep the app open and hit the replay button and the video plays again having already fully streamed will I lose another 100mb of data or not?

If not, could I theoretically play the same video over and over again infinitely without the risk of running out of data and being charged a fortune?

If so, please explain why and if not please explain why!

Thanks!

I think the answer is that it depends on how well your browser and settings buffer stuff. Streaming often works differently to other web content, in that it's intended to "drop" sections if the connection degrades to a point where there would be a lot of pauses - the idea is to keep things moving with the odd bit missing out, rather than wait for the data as you would with a file download.

So when your browser is told to display an image that it's displayed before, it compares the local cached version with the details of the version on the server, and doesn't download the entire image a second time, using the cached version instead. This is more for speed than bandwidth, though, looking back to older connection methods.

That said, I'm sure the caching is turned off by my mobile broadband dongle - if I load a page on here (for example the 'supercars spotted' latest page) it takes an age to display the photos, even if I've only displayed it an hour before.

Also note - I haven't looked at this in any detail for a few years, so the note about streaming might be out of date.

[ambuletz]

I hate the way ready meals & pot noodle have a lingering taste in your mouth or when you burp. Why is that?

[iambeowulf]

ambuletz said:

I hate the way ready meals & pot noodle have a lingering taste in your mouth or when you burp. Why is that?

Mono sodiumglutomate or MSG.

Cheap and effective at given it taste and longevity on the shelf. That and salt.

[Funkycoldribena]

ambuletz said:

I hate the way ready meals & pot noodle have a lingering taste in your mouth or when you burp. Why is that?

Frazzles sir?

[NoNeed]

Does Nicola Sturgeon wear a wig?

[Willy Nilly]

NoNeed said:

Does Nicola Sturgeon wear a wig?

Is she even human?