Posts by MrT

Re: Numbers

Yeah, we teach "estimate before you calculate", which has been flipped more recently to "... before your computer calculates" for things like spreadsheet work.

Still, no matter what the experience of the person calculating, sometimes it all goes out of the window. I've mentioned in these hallowed forums before that I used to work with a very experienced senior engineer who used to have his old Sinclair Executive calculator as a sort of trophy on his desk. It reminded him off the times he dropped howling mistakes using it when it was the newest thing, before coming to his senses (or had them pointed out) and realising the answers went against years of experience. Although he and I barely overlapped in employment, the rest of the office used it as an example of the need to double-check everything the new design PC (single) printed out, before committing it to ink on the drawing board.

That was in building services engineering design - nothing like as critical or immediate as on the ground in medical experiments...

Re: I am reminded of General Melchett...

Melchett: Now, I've compiled a list of those with security clearance, have you got it Darling?

Darling: Yes sir.

Melchett: Read it please.

Darling: It's top security sir, I think that's all the Captain needs to know.

Melchett: Nonsense! Let's hear the list in full!

Darling: Very well sir. "List of personnel cleared for mission Gainsborough, as dictated by General C. H. Melchett: You and me, Darling, obviously. Field Marshal Haig, Field Marshal Haig's wife, all Field Marshal Haig's wife's friends, their families, their families' servants, their families' servants' tennis partners, and some chap I bumped into the mess the other day called Bernard."

Melchett: So, it's maximum security, is that clear?

Blackadder: Quite so sir, only myself and the rest of the English-speaking world is to know.

IoT security strategy in a nutshell!

Re: Yes we do, but it'll never happen

“key technical specifications sufficient to write free drivers for their hardware.”

This used to kill things like Cyanogen being implemented - the OS is open, but the kernel-mode drivers are not. One example - the original HTC Desire was never able to run anything above Cyanogen 7 (IIRC) because the full set of hardware drivers were not available for anything higher. YMMV with different manufacturers, and things have improved across the intervening years, but it's still an issue.

Re: Pushing the envelope too hard

From the way Samsung is behaving, I'd say it's likely that there are emails/meetings etc. where the engineers raised concerns but were actively denied or rebutted, not just ignored. It's also likely that there are similar records that show the pressure placed on the battery manufacturers to work even further down below the price agreed as part of the contract bidding process.

In all of in these, the Samsung side lost the eye on quality, trusting their suppliers' QA systems to the point where they failed to check the batteries sufficiently well to identify the manufacturing errors early enough.

It reminds me of the Rolls Royce Trent engine problems of a few years ago, which boiled down to sub-contracted parts suppliers producing sub-standard items. The suppliers had assured RR that they had tested the parts at multiple points in the manufacturing process, (IIRC they'd said the items were tested three times before shipping to Royce's), and yet when RR finally realised there was a problem and did their own detailed checks, far too many failed.

The problem seems to come from too much trust in bits of paper and verbal assurances that are based more than a little on hope. How much of those came from the subs, and how much from higher up in Sammy's own structure? Well, given the way they are refusing to follow the usual name'n'shame route points to the answer there.

Sounds like a job...

...for Colin Furze

I had in mind something like the dancing water jets from places like EPCOT, with the final leap into the Range Rover filler neck...

David Ike...

... I'd forgotten about that. Hang on whilst I just nip over there and redefine turquoise as the Holy Colour and add a few 'facts' about lizards... ;-)

"Apple sent us a statement:"

What? I thought that was the story here... All that stuff about money is just padding :-D

Re: RIP

Brilliant documentary - just watching it now on Netflix...

Re: FUD, FUD

Schnitzengruben, you say? Sorry, 15's my limit... (~1:30)

Where's the vitamin E at?

Re: Well done SpaceX

I thought at first that was part of the fairing shape around the legs, but then looked again at different angles and reckoned it was the camera lens combined with looking down a very long cylinder that's visually foreshortened. Then I look more, change my mind again and decide it's a combination of these two...

On the two different side view angles at the end, the first looks curved because of the landing burn scorch marks and the unmarked shapes uncovered by the landing legs, but the later silhouetted view shows it straight.

Re: This is a triumph...

Yeah, very well done!

The article says you've a "souped-up" ][e - is it just a stock late-model? I read the FAQ on the linked site but couldn't see if you've added any further upgrades.

I used to write for the Sinclair QL - roughly similar in basic spec (MC68008 CPU though). I often found that it wasn't so much the BASIC code (even when compiled to machine code or Q-code) but the data arrays when running that forced at least a small RAM upgrade above the standard 128kB - most users went with 256, 512 or 768kB expansion cards with varying additional features any way, so it wasn't too limiting to expect extra RAM to be available.

Late-breaking news: Defence team to be headed up by Lionel Hutz

"Try the smaller sites."

Absolutely - Plenty of times I've ended up paying more than the delivery charge less than the Amazon listing, and many of the retailers I've used offer discounts to go direct and avoid going through their own Amazon storefront.

Re: They wanted to hash the passwords really

Collect one sticker from each hack and by the time you have six you can get a seventh hack for free...

Re: can be saved by two factor authentication

Sadly, others who have your number could already unknowingly have given it to Google by all sorts of ways, who then link it back to you via metadata...

Cost cutting/profit gouging seems equally likely. Keep shaving a few pennies off here and there, then marginal gains start to add up, until the impact on the item shifts from the margins to something more central whilst folk were not looking, distracted by the money.

Re: 12345?

"Smoke 'em if you've got 'em

..."

Re: And so?

The flight scheduling software still works as planned... ;-)

Re: Hoodies playing chicken...?

Citations? It was from when the web was a baby, well over 20 years ago in the early 90's so web footprints will be tiny at best. Yorkshire Evening Post covered it though, including the story about the elderly couple. The crossing was on Chapeltown Road at the end of Harehills Avenue, coincidentally not far from the park where Sutcliffe left one of his victims. It had been an interesting place for years before, and I used to regularly drive down that route in the 80's on the way to LCB and the Poly.

I used to live over in Oakwood, had a few friends in West Yorkshire Police, and worked for one branch of the city council. Hyde Park was also a hotspot for that kind of thing, including one incident where my wife's boss, who was relieved in '97/'98 of his car, wallet and cash from an ATM as he stopped to go to the bank - forced at knifepoint to drive his own car well outside the city before he was dumped out as the thieves made off.

It's been an interesting life.

Re: so the best candidates for a flight to Mars

ESA is one step ahead of you there - they've just successfully tested a suitable landing procedure...

Re: Terrible

I bought Nine earlier this year when Google knacked up the Exchange Services doohickey in Android 6, binning the phone contacts and stopping that well-know third-party email app 'Gmail' from collecting Outlook365 mail. The handset goes on WiFi at work or at home, everywhere else is on 4G (no coffeshops). It is the best mobile email client I've used - the developer seems responsive, the new calendar widget works well, and there's just the Gmail access which Google blocked a while back which stops me merging everything into it.

It might not be the best choice out there, but I don't often pay for apps like that - it impressed me enough to shell out the $9.99 back when that still meant about £6.50 ;-)