Posts by Flocke Kroes

Re: Block 4 is not completely dead yet

There are five block 4s left that could fly again. One new one launching TESS and landing on the 16^th, three of the other four have missions planned (first is CRS-12 on the 2^nd). Boosters for TESS and CRS-12 are expected to land. I do not know about the others.

There are two and a bit block 5s. First block 5 launch is no earlier than the 24^th. There are no Falcon heavy centre cores, but one is scheduled to launch no earlier than 13^th of June.

SpaceX probably run out of block 4s some time in June.

We have plenty of time to think of an insane payload for BFR's demo mission. My first thought was a fully fuelled Exploration Upper Stage (crew vehicle for SLS) but SpaceX are not set up to load liquid hydrogen and EUS probably won't be ready.

Re: Um, shouldn't that be filed under 'collusion' as well ?

Read up on Robert Mercer and decide if you and he are allies.

Re: Irony

There was an interview with one of Trumps accountants. He said that Frederick Trump's tax records were meticulous. Frederick could prove to the cent exactly how much tax he owed. Donald's were a mess. It would take a determined effort to prove anything one way or the other. Donald did not show any interest during the meeting, but Ivana had many questions.

Re: Well, I have been saying this for the last 5 days

Firstly the idea that the data was to big to fit in the office has been roundly thrashed multiple times be people with more experience with large databases than me. As an example, years ago I read that Google kept a fixed size record of 128KB per user because that is the maximum Intel DMA hardware could move in a single command and it kept things simple. 50million times 128KB is 6.4TB so two cost effective spinning disks, or one slightly overpriced one. That is OK for a backup, but for a live system you would want flash. You can get ten times that on a single PCIe card if you can justify the cost. Space is not an issue unless you have a ten minute high def compromising video on most of the 50 million.

Even if that is the case, the database is not the only evidence of interest. There could have been evidence that they collected the data legally for a specific purpose. There could have been correspondence showing what the data was used for, perhaps beyond what the three people who read the privacy policy expected. There could be records of sales data without restrictions on use.

Do you really believe the Cambridge Analytica executives were terrified of the ICO drinking their tea.

Re: costs less to fly the same weight on BFR than Falcon 9

Actually Musk's claim was that it will cost less to launch a BFR than a Falcon 1. The first time I heard that I thought "What the Falcon?", stepped the video back and listened to it again. Not lower launch cost per kilo to orbit, simply lower total launch cost. I did a quick web search for Falcon 1, chose the most expensive launch and added a bit for inflation. Musk is aiming for a BFR launch cost under $10M. Over the next few days I saw other comments showing people were just as shocked as I was. It was not a mistake. Elon did not forget to say "per kilo".

If things go according to plan, you can put your falcon 9 payload in a BFR, add a Tesla Semi full of batteries for ballast, save $50M on launch costs and you get the Tesla Semi (with cargo) back on Earth. BFR will not be short of missions.

Re: my mistake

"It was not winter. Shepherds were out in the fields with sheep. People were travelling. Where does it say it was winter?"

My mistake, I thought Jesus being born on the same day has Santa meant it had to be Winter. I forgot that allowing for continental drift Bethlehem used to be in New Zealand.

Re: Biometrics and false positives

Try asking Jean Charles de Menezes what could possibly go wrong.

Re: Unix copyrights ...

... got off to a strange start because to begin with Unix was distributed as source code with no copyright notice. People fixed and improved it and some of those changes got back into what AT&T distributed. If there ever was such a thing as Unix copyrights, when AT&T was split up for abuse of monopoly the copyrights went to one of the fragments: Unix Systems Laboratories. USL promptly sued the Regents of the University of California because Berkeley Software Distribution distributed their own implementation of the Unix APIs. (USL wanted to abuse a monopoly in operating systems and lacked the brains to sue the correct organisation.)

USL proposed a settlement that had USL paying court costs, legal fees for both sides, giving up and going home with only a non-disclosure agreement to cover their embarrassment. They sold the Unix copyrights to Novell (who did not transfer them to SCO) and AFAIK the copyrights now belong to Attachmate. That did not stop the court appointed trustee for the bankrupt shell of SCO selling the Unix copyrights to some twit who probably believes he owns the Golden Gate bridge too. The intermediate court rulings from USL vs RotUC were later released as part of another case. The judge had ruled that header files were not copyrightable because they embody the API, not the implementation.

Oracle had the foresight to include some patents in their original complaint which gave the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit jurisdiction - even though all the patents were thrown out of the case early on for being irrelevant, invalid or both. Although copyright law is not really their thing, the USCAFC are good at ramming patent law down the throats of anyone doing anything innovative and as we have just seen, did not let established copyright law or findings of fact from two jury verdicts stand in the way.

Re: mistake which should not happen

A conversation like this takes place a dozen times per day:

PFY: I have done the minimum necessary to get that github repository working. This is the first time I have set up github. I should spend some more time reading the documentation to ensure it is configured as you want.

PHB: Waste of time. Move on to the next item on your to-do list.

Re: Lost all faith...

Please replace the batteries on your telepathy ray - it is giving you a false impression about me.

I have good lights, but if a car approaches with undipped headlights I still have to wait by the side of the road for five minutes until I get my dark adaptation back. The only time I have come close to running someone down was a cyclist with puny lights and no reflector. That is why I make an extra effort to be visible and have reflectors on the wheels so I can be seen from the sides.

By the way, how can the muppets see the road at all? If I tried to cycle at night without lights I would end up in a ditch/river/stinging nettles/thorny hedge.

Re: Why? And what's all the fuss about?

To the best of my knowledge, the Liberal Democrats did not send out a fake Labour manifesto promising to solve the housing crisis by nationalising property and billeting homeless foreigners on anyone who can't afford the legal fees to prevent it. They did not distribute a fake conservative election promise to disband the Serious Fraud Office so business could proceed without hindrance. They did not even publish an article in the local newspaper saying that the reason for all the potholes was that 97% of council tax goes to Europe [but someone actually did and I met people who believed it].

CA/Aggregate IQ claimed to have received a clean bill of health from the electoral commission. The real conversation when something like UKEC: "Have you done anything naughty?" Aggregate IQ: "We do not have to answer your questions, we are Canadian."

CA made an effort not to be noticed. They made an effort to present their activities as either legal or beyond UK jurisdiction. Their most obvious cock-up involves possibly illegal use of Facebook data. I have a small preference for laws more specific to what CA have actually done. I have a much larger preference for teaching critical thinking in schools. Both have unpleasant consequences for current politicians, so I will just have to make do with the laws we have being enforced to the full (tiny) extent of the ICO's powers.

Re: The other concept of an album

A few tracks you wanted and some others you had to pay for as well.

Re: Perhaps I should read something else?

Getting a grip on the fake news thing means both sides use it equally and ban education because neither side wants anyone capable of critical thinking.

Re: All well and good..

Your idea with the paint has been done already. (While I was looking for where I found that picture, I came across some more enthusiastic efforts at creative parking.)

Re: Shame.

Godwin's law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1"

There is a popular extension that mentioning Hitler causes instant loss of a debate, which is sometimes abused. Godwin has expressed the need for an exemption when the debate is actually about real Nazis.

Re: unwarranted triumphalism

Pornography decreases rape.

Re: Primate mange*

The magic graph you are looking for is here, showing sunspots and temperature against time. Over long periods there is a clear correlation between sunspot activity and temperature. (Showing correlation is much easier than proving causation - which I will leave to someone else). The fun bit is towards the right. After hundred of years of increased sunspot activity correlating with increased temperature, we get the final fifty years of increasing temperature despite decreasing sunspot activity. What could be the cause?

* Title changed in accordance with US word used restrictions.

Re: Did he pay the appropriate fare for the journey?

NFC devices are easily available and not that hard to program. If the manufacturers of Opal cards have not made an outstanding effort to secure their device then it may be possible to create an imitation that pretends to hold money you never paid. Being encased in plastic with a pretty picture provides (some) evidence that the chip is genuine and has not been modified.

I can see why these terms of use are important but I would have tried hard to explain this to Mr Meow-Meow and get an out-of-court settlement rather than hope I can explain it to a judge (risky), journalists (probably not) and commentards (perhaps a few here but rest of the world: no chance).

Re: Simples

Software to automatically generate nuisance litigation based on bogus software source code copyright violations was developed and deployed extensively by The SCO Group against DaimlerChrysler, Autozone, IBM, Novell, all Linux hosting companies and all Linux users. Although thoroughly debunked in days, the litigation went on for years funded by investors who presumably later switched to Theranos and license fees that The SCO Group withheld from Novell.

Although The SCO Group's epic folly should stand alone as the most ridiculous copyright claim of all time, Oracle stepped up to supply stiff competition by demanding billions for rangecheck.

We are lucky that Judge Alsup taught himself to program so he could understand what was going on. I have confidence that with automated software generating thousands of false positives per hour, most cases will not be dealt with as promptly and efficiently as The SCO Group and Oracle.

Re: Eyes widdershins, hands turnwise

You can, but it takes a little practice. Same with drawing a circle with one hand and a triangle with the other or rubbing your tummy with a circular motion while patting your head. Learning any of these important skills makes learning the next easier. When you are good at a few of them you will be able to do different (simple) tasks with each hand. I use it for cooking and convincing guests who see me cook that I am a bit strange - or at least slightly stranger than they already knew.

Re: Or as they say in London...

Re-think it a bit. Instead of a huge train carrying hundreds of people stopping every three minutes, have many tiny trains each carrying a few people who are all going to the same place. No need to accelerate and stop at every station on the journey. Dwell time is less important because the only people dwelling are those entering and leaving the system.

There are plenty of reasons for this project to be impractical but parts of it make more sense than some of us commentards realise.

Re: Never edit the fstab table on a production system...

Unless you have physical access and know how to use your boot loader. The magic phrase you need to add to the kernel command line is: init=/bin/bash

You can then fix /etc/fstab, change root's password and then realise none of your changes happened because your forgot to: mount -o remount,rw /

Re: Spring is coming, the Pascal is starting to blow

To be 200% safer than your 35 years without an accident, 1260 self driving cars must drive fully autonomous for a month with no accidents.

AI: People have different definitions. Eliza could pass a Turing test 50 years ago - but I think that says more about humans than AS. amanfromMars is more accurate and entertaining than some commentards.

What would you do about it?

A) Delete it and move on.

B) Make a big fuss to give trolls an incentive to do it every week.

Re: Brexit fixes the UK spaceport problem

52° North makes access to geostationary orbits difficult, but as we are leaving Europe, the UK can be moved somewhere more equatorial. The government will expect clever people to work out how to actually move the UK with no budget perhaps based on sending the UK over the internet without encryption.