Posts by Alan Brown 15099 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Feb 2008
"A first fix chippie wacking up a set of roof trusses for a standard build house on site..."
... is an oh so typically english waste of fucking time and money.
If it's a standard build then it can take a standard truss, made by the hundred in a factory, at ground level and under cover, then trucked out to the site and lifted on in an hour or so, meaning the entire roof can be finished in a day or less.
The UK is full of the kinds of attitudes and practices which helped the shipyards compete so well against japanese builders and gave us the likes of British Leyland - whose management seem to have spontaneously migrated into the real estate industry (substandard builds of substandard designs, only this time there are no floods of better designs coming in to show them up for being as bad as they are, the odd Huff House notwithstanding)
"But it's traditional" doesn't fly. So was dying young from a preventable bacterial infection.
"You mean, what's to stop them from doing what the US are doing right now, under your nose, with your money?"
ICANN might well be operating under the auspices of a US govt contract but the US govt has made it clear that they are not happy with the way things are being done.
The antics of ICANN are the kind of thing that only a lawyer could devise and uncoincidentally the previous chair was one - he also engaged in the same kind of tactics when the chair of the Internet Society of New Zealand. ICANN was dodgy before then but under his watch it went into full-blown maliciousness. In the opinion of many, the _ONLY_ thing that ICANN staff and most of the board care about is the lining of their own pockets and the furtherance of their own control of power.
> Even the NSA has admitted that the number of 'stopped attacks' is less than 100, not 'many hundreds'
In other news, both the NSA and GCHQ have predicted 50 of the last 3 terrorist attacks.
The fact that 47 didn't happen (and 46 of those probably only existed in someone's mind) is what they're taking credit for.
No, the NSA _say_ they have.
On the other hand if the USA didn't go around dropping bombs on foreign civilians, there wouldn't be a steady supply of pissed-off revenge-seekers queuing up to try and get it.
Ditto for the Federal govt's stomping all over individual and state constitutional rights since 1941, in an effort to stay on a war footing and therefore keep power federated instead of devolving back to the individual states as was supposed to happen at the end of ww2 (until the cold war fired up). US domestic terrorists do tend to have several loose screws upstairs but what's come out over the years has made even their deluded fantasies look tame at times.
What's been happening since 1990 is a combination of batshit crazy economic policy pushed by a sociopathic cocaine smuggler with a power fetish (search for "The ten reprehensible crimes of Ronald Reagan" sometime) and the US military-industrial complex thrashing around more and more frantically to keep itself in power, most recently by embedding itself into the economy so firmly that like a cancerous growth, removing them is going to damage the surrounding parts - but leaving them there will eventually kill the host.
There are several recent history lessons in what happens if you allow your military budget to become a tail wagging the dog and the most obvious one is the Soviet Union. Those F35s might yet turn out to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Last time an aircraft turned out to be so overpriced and utterly useless at any task they dumped the F111B and came up with the F14/15/16 instead but the lesson learned from that was how to ensure your programs can't be cancelled, rather than "don't build flying pigs"
"Not much use inventing and building widgets if your factory gets burned down in a riot because you neglected society."
At the moment your widget factory is going out of business because society was screwed over to the point where noone could afford them. After it closes and unemployment booms, it'll be squatted in and set fire to.
"But I actually get less now than I did 8 years ago because of bigger changes to the pension scheme contributions."
Less still when you factor in how much the cost of just about everything has risen in that 8 years.
At some point you need to say "much as I love the job, I just can't afford to work here anymore"
"Any kid with a botnet vained from a virus-making kit."
It reminds me of a replay of the IRC wars back in the late 1990s.
Once the script kiddies established they could make the IRC server owners do what they want, they proceeded to DDoS those who had the temerity to stand up to them. Several companies went under as a result.
Of course back then, the "law" didn't want to know about it until some of the kiddies went too far and took it into real life. One of them ended up with a very long stay indoors after attempting to murder the FBI agent investigating his antics.
Relevance? Many of those script kiddies then are the hardened cyber criminals now.
"I also hear that hydrazine motors moved to the museum better be underneath a glass box, "
Not just motors. Anything that was along for the ride, even if it spent several weeks afterwards sitting 8 feet down in the mud of a gyuanian swamp. (As the part that's sitting under glass at $orkplace did)
"NASA learnt this the hard way with Apollo 1."
What NASA learned is that 100% oxygen at 17psi (atmosphere is about 14 and partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen is about 3-4) is a spectacularly bad idea.
At that kind of concentration velcro will burn explosively (which is what happened once a spark happend)
Recharging a battery can release significant quantities of both hydrogen and oxygen already but basic safety precautions deal with that. Traction batteries are larger but the principle is the same.
"Maybe the fact that the costs are not yet known suggests"
That they're fully aware of how much it could end up costing but want to keep that hidden away so it will pass.
Civil disobedience in the form of https everywhere and programs which randomly crawl the Internet can easily push those costs even higher.
"Which explains why a bunch of geographically unrelated kids are being collared."
The kids are highly unlikely to be the brains behind the outfit.
The payday attackers are highly likyle to have come from behind multiple layers of obfuscation. Virtually no website uses any protection against Onion or open proxy outlets despite there being several dedicated DNSBLs for this purpose.
"It's not if the site can be hacked - any site can be."
Three times in one year is a good indicator that noone competent is at the helm.
There should be _criminal_ investigations of Talktalk's failure to comply with the DPA and C-level execs should be in the dock.
This is reckless operation and as such penetrates the corporate veil preventing individual personal liabilities.
"Has anyone had any success in leaving TalkTalk for claiming a breach of Section 18 of their terms and conditions"
Not that section but I simply told them that after several months of failing to provide what they had contracted to (80Mb/s FTTC), they were in breach of contract as the service was unfit for the purpose for which it was sold and if they wanted to try and impose penalties I would take them to small claims for the 13 failed contractor visits at 1/2 day each time and £50/hour during those 1/2 days based on my lost wages and holiday time.
Unsurprisngly, that shut them up, other than a bleat that their T&C had an explicit "we have no financial liability" clause - once I brought up the "unfair terms in consumer contracts" laws they went silent.
My new ISP had replacement DSL in service on day 1 of the contract and when Openreach failed to show up (as usual) they were on the case the same day, resulting in someone arriving within 4 hours of the failed visit (none of the TT "you have to wait 8 days" bullshit) and sorting it out.
"When did that become a feature of English law?"
A few years ago, but the 1 October change is the turning point. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34402483
There have been a number of class actions in the last couple of years and there is currently one going forward against Volkswagon. Leigh Day seem to be driving that one and I suspect they'll be the movers and shakers when TT's head is on the block.
"And the Supply of Goods or Services Act says that the service must be carried out with reasonable care and skill and the service must be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose."
There are also the laws about unfair terms in consumer contracts.
One of the reasons TT don't want these termination cases anywhere near the court is that the publicity in having certain clauses deemed illegal would turn the exodus trickle into a tsunami.
"As to automatically renewing contracts, I don't think they do that."
They do. Even when told explicitly not to. They also slam people by trying to upsell in complaint calls and then mark it as accepted even when told in no uncertain terms "NO"
In my case I was able to provide the recording to Ofcom and Surrey Trading Standards of my telling the TT sales droid I did not want my contract renewed. There's a reason I record all calls with business and this kind of shenanigan is it - the practice is not just restricted to TalkTalk.
As for the guy in the original article: He will find that "full and final settlement offer" becomes a _lot_ sweeter the moment he files in small claims against them for the full amount, plus distress. Personally I'd push for 5 times the amount if they want a non-dislosure agreement (and they will).
"Still in my perfect car."
Extremely perfect, with an engine that doesn't suffer even modest pumping losses.
The absolute maximum efficiency of an automotive engine (otto or diesel) is around 35%(*), so divide the available energy from your fuel by 3 to get extractable energy (the rest is expended driving the pistons and valvegear)
(*) This only occurs at Wide open throttle/full load conditions.
Under most circumstances a car engine is in the 2-15% range and mostly at the bottom end of that. This is why decoupling the engine from the drivetrain can give such an improvement in efficiency despite the extra losses and rolling mass inherent in any hybrid system.
It's also why "certain petrolhead media programs" *ahem*5thgear*ahem*topgear*ahem* can produce reports "proving" that XYZ small engine car is more efficient than a hybrid - it is under the kind of testing that a driving program uses (mostly openroad operation) because they don't replicate real world conditions (ie, stop/start driving, short trips, urban runabouts) where hybrids and decoupled drivetrains excel and where the vast majority of vehicles spend the vast majority of their operating lives.
(If Toyota's 10kW free-piston generators are practical then we could see a step-change in automotive efficiency, as you'd only need to activate as many pistons as required instead of having them all tied to a crankshaft, and only operate them for as long as necessary to keep the battery topped off)
"Well, we'll see if the board is still happy after the customers leave in droves."
They do anyway, the problem is that up to now they've been easy to replace.
Class-action litigation has just become doable in the UK and there have been a few actions already.
The _real_ pain for the board and TT will be fending off thousands of individual actions when people discover their details have been stolen and used. There's a right of private action in the DPA as well as the (laughable) fines imposed by the ICO - and a recent court of appeal decision upheld the right to claim for distress in addition to any monetary losses.
TT may try to disclaim any extra costs (such as having to change banking details etc), but they're on the hook for them and they must be cacking themselves.
"Wouldn't that make City Fibre a TalkTalk wholesale reseller?"
Yup. And there are a lot of smaller ISPs who are in the same boat. Mine is one of them.
My DSL box has been hit so hard with external attacks over the last few weeks that it's been periodically rebooting when it runs out of ram to keep the logs in.
A lot of people buy diesel for the low end torque, not the economy.
My shitty little 1.5 french diesel didn't go fast but it could get up to those speeds without having to make the engine scream and it made for the kind of relaxed driving that I'd associated with 4-litre petrol lumps.
Those will be the same people buying electric assist in large numbers when it's commonplace.
"You might not like it, but other manufacturers appear to have managed to meet the emissions goals just fine. "
On this side of the pond there have been reports that the X5 exceeds NOX limits by a substantial margin under normal conditions.
There's speculation that various manufacturers have implemented cheats in such a way that simply plugging into the ODB2 port is enough to put them into "compliant mode"
CAFEE ran extensive monitoring on their trips. It'd be interesting to repeat them without plugging into anything except the exhaust pipe.
Lean burn petrol engines were effectively outlawed in the EU and USA a long time ago with legislation mandating stoichiometric fuel ratios at all times (because that's what 3-way cats need to work).
To reinforce that point about milage: in the 1970s, an Australian Chysler Valiant (think 4-door "general lee" style Dodge charger for the USA crowd) with a 4 litre Hemi engine could easily achieve high 20s/low 30mpg. Moving to "Electronic Lean Burn" (ratios as extreme as 40:1) allowed them to push that up to low 40s but NOX emissions skyrocketed.
The thing to bear in mind about NOX emissions is that they _only_ matter in dense or thermal inversion environments. Current emission regulations are often sledgehammers to crack walnuts when dynamic operation based on atmospheric concentrations of the offending compounds are actually practical now.
"No need to go all postal in the process."
The _only_ times I've seen Linus go off at individuals is when said individuals had done more than enough to deserve it.
He doesn't do it for a 1st (or even a 2nd or 3rd) offence. You have to be a serial submitter of poor code to get the public scorning and it's done because certain individuals are such precious little flowers that public humiliation is the only way the message sinks in.
This isn't a company. He can't fire people. They can't even be banned from submitting. They can only be named and shamed if they're continually wasting Linus' (and others') time.
"Downvoted for "incentivised"! ;-)
Though I'm not sure the charge applies to the open source development."
The vast majority of shitty driver code is submitted by people who are _paid_ to write driver code for devices produced by their employers.
Usually the "non-professionals" have to pick it apart and rewrite it into something that actually works.
"A big factor however is what is beneath the surface, if that isn't done properly the road will be crap in no time"
IIRC around 2005 there was a major new A road which suffered this and had to be rebuilt from scratch before it had even officially opened. The Beeb had coverage at the time.
UK roads are generally crap because they're built like crap on crap basework. It's not uncommon to see on excavations that the roadbed on a busy road only goes down 4-5 inches and is shittily drained.
Compare and contrast with a roman road (4-6 feet above the surroundings and far lower loading than modern roads) or german roads (4-8 foot deep foundations, with the autobahns originally intended to be able to take panzer columns at full speed, but even the goat-track mountain roads have deep basework.)
There are sound technical reasons for limiting urban traffic to 20mph (pedestrian survival stats(*)), so this may be an opportunity to make a step-change for urban road safety reasons.
Bear in mind that speed limits were originally 20mph, that arbitrarily reimposed at 30mph after the few years of chaos when there were no limits at all.
(*) 98% survivability at 20mph impact, 90% @30, 50%@35 and 10% at 40mph
If humans aren't in control then driving progress is likely to be smoother anyway. The biggest problem with traffic in general is the fact that different drivers run at different speeds and this causes bunching/frustration for those behind the slow ones.
A ham's "huge antenna" is nowhere near large enough to generate substantial voltage from a CME.
The affected telegraph lines were tens of miles long. The average ham setup would be lucky to achieve 500 yards (nor does it need to be that large unless you're doing specialist work with very low launch angles)
The EU grid is relatively resilient and has short runs.
The USA grid is highly susceptable to CME hits because of the length of many of the feeder runs.
It's possible to wire your grid to be CME resistant, but it adds cost because it needs extra conductors and bigger transformers wound "the right way". That's only been regarded as important since the late 1990s and most powercos haven't made changes yet.
With current configuration a bit CME hit would burn out transformers. The larger (highly critical) ones cost upwards of a million dollars a shot, take a couple of years to make and Siemens et al only make a half dozen per year - there are hundreds at risk in the continental USA, fewer elsewhere. (Grids outside the USA are generally more robustly configured).
"Morse code anyone."
To decode morse, first you need a carrier.
I was working in a large (now defunct) SW comms Tx station in 1989 when a CME hit.
It was mostly transmitting CW weather forecasts on half a dozen bands (7kW each) and 4/8 ISB voice traffic on a half dozen transmitters from 2.5-30MHz (5-15kW PEP depending on the Tx) - all put into various large quads up to a mile across.
The first I knew something was wrong was when a call came from the Rx part of the station 100 miles away just after midday. They'd lost _ALL_ our transmissions simultaneously and assume we'd had a power hit. It was only when I told them that everything was still working fine that they realised they couldn't hear anything from anywhere other than their local MW AM stations and the 100kW SW broadcast transmitter 15 miles away. Most of the LW band had been wiped out too.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
