A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Beardy]

That works, I'm studying the 'stro, bro.

Cool PhD student? Bit of an oxymoron that 

[Rod Marton]

It was always known as astro in my uni days.

Mind you, in a physics department the physics part could just be assumed.

[Rod Marton]

Rather appropriately, astrophysics occupied the top floor with the atmospheric physics department just below them.

[Kim]

Rather appropriately, astrophysics occupied the top floor with the atmospheric physics department just below them.

*contemplates an xkcd-style Academic Subjects (by Altitude) graph*

[Beardy]

Dr Beardy (Mrs) is face to face irl with students today, for the first time in well over a year. It’s only 2nd or third time she’s actually gone in over that same time period. It’s very odd not having her at home.

[Mr Larrington]

Astro sounds like a sports pitch.

Or a rather dull Chevrolet van.

[Paul]

Rather appropriately, astrophysics occupied the top floor with the atmospheric physics department just below them.

*contemplates an xkcd-style Academic Subjects (by Altitude) graph*

The Bistromathics dept doesn't need a lab - all its work is conducted in the field.

[Paul]

Is the tune association thread the only one on here that makes as much sense backwards as forwards?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Is the tune association thread the only one on here that makes as much sense backwards as forwards?

[hellymedic]

Rather appropriately, astrophysics occupied the top floor with the atmospheric physics department just below them.

*contemplates an xkcd-style Academic Subjects (by Altitude) graph*

I thought you were a Sheffield graduate and the architects had the greatest altitude...

[Pingu]

My university was too wanky to have a physics department.

[rogerzilla]

The presenter on South Today is covering "L'Eroyka Britannia".

[Kim]

Rather appropriately, astrophysics occupied the top floor with the atmospheric physics department just below them.

*contemplates an xkcd-style Academic Subjects (by Altitude) graph*

I thought you were a Sheffield graduate and the architects had the greatest altitude...

I never actually graduated from Sheffield, but I heartily endorse their eat-your-own-dogfood treatment of architects.  My undergrad degree was from UKC, which was boringly horizontal (unless you count the time the Computer Science department tried to disappear into a sinkhole).

[citoyen]

My undergrad degree was from UKC, which was boringly horizontal

I don't know when you were last there, but you'd barely recognise the campus as the same place you studied at. Still very horizontal though - the library remains the tallest building.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've been watching a video by Roger Barnes, about small dinghy sailing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqwhUHjeCeE

He had a recent capsize, will all his cruising kit on board.

The only storage bag that didn't leak was a Carradice. The Ortleib bags leaked. 

[ElyDave]

Rather appropriately, astrophysics occupied the top floor with the atmospheric physics department just below them.

*contemplates an xkcd-style Academic Subjects (by Altitude) graph*

I thought you were a Sheffield graduate and the architects had the greatest altitude...

The architects were very much below everyone else at Bath. With a horizontal arrangement, how far you were from bar/library/refectory were the key points.

[yorkie]

At the University of York, the Physics labs are beneath the Electronic Engineering labs. Which is how it should be! 

[Cudzoziemiec]

My phone was falling to bits and runs a version of Android so ancient that many semi-useful apps (train times, email, covid passports and stuff) don't work on it, so I bought a new one, which I have just taken possession of. As a consequence, I now need other new things: pockets and SIM card. Why do the cards get smaller as the phones get bigger? Is it a vain search for equilibrium?

[T42]

I think it's done so that the phone will stick up out of your pocket and be easier to pinch.  Or maybe pockets are irrelevant to the marketing thesis: it's never intended to leave your hand.  Any day now phones will detect when you put them down and start screaming "Pick me up! Pick me up! Pick me up!", deducting £1 from your account every time you leave them idle for more than 10 minutes.

[Kim]

The other problem is that ergonomics limit the phone's dimensions to the width of an ISO standard man-hand.  Thinness is a an engineering wankfest that real-world users don't care about (they're going to put it in a protective case anyway, and the 3.5mm headphone jack remains a strong selling point amongst those who haven't drunk the Apple kool-aid).  So they're currently undergoing height inflation at a rate last seen in Second Life avatars.

The end-game is presumably a phone that's 75mm wide, 1.2metres long and approximately 3 molecules thick.  I assume it will come with both Lightsabre and Subtle Knife apps.

[Wowbagger]

Yesterday I received an email entitled “Peter, can we talk about … love?”

It was from Prof. Alice Roberts.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Thinness is good, up to a certain point. That point being where it fits into the average pocket (trouser pocket, skirt pocket, jacket pocket, bag pocket, and similar – there will as ian points out always be a certain market for the Chatham pocket) and that was passed long ago. Beyond that, thinness makes it harder to handle and, surely, more liable to bending stresses for any given strength of materials?

[ian]

I was a bit grumpy about my latest iPhone XR thing back in the day as it was a lot bigger than the 6 it replaced. I can't say I notice it now. I like that it's thin and light and I can't say the missing headphone socket is much of an issue. I'm still unconvinced about the plus-sized versions though, I've no idea where people put them, they definitely won't be smuggling them into prisons unless they're planning to be filled with a lot more than ambition. I have small hands, just like a girl, though so I'm probably not ISO standard.

[citoyen]

Ergonomics wise, I hated my last iPhone, a 6S, because although its overall size was manageable (for my man hands), its rounded edges made it hard to hold, so I kept dropping it. The 12 has gone back to squared edges, which are much more hand-friendly. The 12 Mini is slightly smaller overall than the 6S but has a bigger screen. It suits me just fine.

I don't miss the headphone socket. Wired headphones are a massive pain in the arse, so I'm glad to have had the excuse to treat myself to a wireless set.

ETA: just measured the width of the 12 Mini - 63mm, which should be manageable even if you have girl hands.

[Jurek]

I think the last sensibly sized phone Apple made was the 5 or the 1st series SE - which is the same size as the 5.
It suits my hand and fits into my pocket.

ETA - the iPhone 13 is released tomorrow.