* Posts by Alan Brown

15029 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Feb 2008

Brexit Britain changes its mind, says non, nein, no to Europe's unified patent court – potentially sealing its fate

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: pharmaceuticals

"The patent system isn't great, but, to murder a Churchill quote, like democracy, it's worst system we have apart from all the others that have been tried."

AS ENVISAGED AND ORIGINALLY CREATED that might have been the case.

Over the last 40 years, progressive twisting of IP law has turned it and copyright into weaponisable items that _inhibit_ innovation and development - and more latterly are being used to quell open discussions too.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: pharmaceuticals

"The idea of patents is to reward inventors for their effort (and sharing the research results with others) by granting a monopoly so that they can use a shortage to drive up the price. "

Actually that's NOT the case and a company using a patent in this manner can (and frequently did) have it stripped, or forced to license in fair/equitable manners - which is what all the hallaballoo around 3G/4G/5G patent licensing is about when so many patents and crosspatent licensing is involved - some trolls keep on trying to submarine stuff into standards (RAMBUS) and then lay claim to it outside the FRAND frameworks.

Patents/Copyrights are SUPPOSED to ensure that an inventor/author gets a fair reward for the work done and protection for a SHORT period in exchange for putting that work into public domain. The fact that they've been weaponised as a way of keeping things OUT of public domain for extended periods shows how badly warped the system has become.

300-odd years ago, King James abolished the entire Royal Exclusive Patent system because of exactly the same kinds of abuses being seen now. It was only reinstated some years later when the abusers were nailed down (sometimes literally)

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: For a contrasting view...

"Corporations have no moral compass, they exist merely to find the greatest profits"

Which is directly contrary to Adam Smith's original statements and is an attitude that came along with the rise of neoliberalism and corporatism over the last 45 years.

Don't confuse "capitalism" with "corporatism" or "mercantilism" - the latter two are what capitalism unchecked will grow into, however they already existed BEFORE capitalism - see things like the East India Company and the way the British Empire operated up until the end of the 19th century.

"we" tossed out mercantilism/corporatism in the 1905-1935 period around the world because it had proved to be so damaging (GIlded ages, etc etc). The forces behind those things have been trying their utmost to return to those days because a privileged few make out like bandits whilst nobody else matters.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: For a contrasting view...

"the discovery of Helicobacter pylori and a course of antibiotics would rid you of ulcers rather than having to use Zantac every day, the dirty tricks used against the original researchers in an attempt to discredit them was deplorable by the makers of Zantac."

Particularly when you consider that it would have cost Zantac only a couple of percent of sales anyway.

(Disclosure: I suffer from one of the myriad long-term gut issues that _isn't_ H.pylori and have to use variations on proton pump inhibitors daily - there are a bunch of them, mostly generic and Zantac is only one such brand on the market)

It's telling to note that this kind of "eliminate the competition/cure" mentality comes out of the USA or from older "empire" UK companies which have mostly ceased to be relevant as that mindset has prevented them from adapting to change.

If it's Goodenough for me, it's Goodenough for you: Canuck utility biz goes all in on solid-state glass battery boffinry

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: There are, I...

"Personally I like the sound of ICE's,"

So do I, for short periods of fun. After several hours it's annoying.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Phrasing...

Most of the spadework and idea IS Braga's.

She came to Goodenough with it, not the other way around - JBG saw potential and made sure she got the R&D backing to actually make it practical. He's put a lot of work into it too.

If it had been Braga by herself then this would have been dismissed out of hand or taken another 20- years to be taken more seriously. There are a bunch of LiIon battery ideas (including Olivine-based chemistry that would dispell any ingredient shortages for the forseeable future(*)) that still haven't made it out of the lab after more than 20 years research.

Goodenough is taking the heat on this, but his history is that he's _never_ oversold what he's got. if he thinks it's viable then it most likely is and he's been chasing safer (nonflammable) / more durable LiIon battery tech for decades

(*) Olivine is one of the primary minerals of the mantle - it's effectively available in infinite quantites anywhere you care to grind up igneous rocks.

Alan Brown Silver badge

"That has to be a bear to nanage charging (and monitoring discharge levels) "

Surprisingly, "No" - LiFePo batteries are well understood and easily managed and you always use a balance charger/BMS monitoring individual cells.

What hasn't been mentioned is that they're essentially non-flammable - they won't burn if pierced/shorted out and they take a LOT of persuasion to burn at all - this plus the greater endurance is why they've been gaining in popularity despite the slightly lower energy density.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: He made one mistake

"If you look at the Tesla battery progression, it seems like "hot swappable" batteries may become a thing."

Nope. They were designed with the intention that it WOULD be a thing, but that was proven impractical and the idea has been discontinued

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

"Overnight charging from the household supply brings me up to a full charge."

Wait until all your neighbours have one too - then look for the fire to find your local distribution transformer as they all try to charge at once (or your section of the street blinks dark)

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

"of lose weight on an extra transformer that only has a job during recharging"

High charge currents are DC, not AC and this is all done with with extremely fast, extremely high current semiconductors.

Mass isn't a problem - no transformer in sight - The currently insanely expensive prices of some of these devices is a very serious limiting factor.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

"So one solution might be to have a large power reservoir buffer at the point of charging,"

Unsurprisingly, Tesla is sticking battery banks behind their busier superchargers.....

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

Fast charging at these voltages and currents comes with a shitload of safety and other concerns extending across more than battery safety and the charge cable - such as "how do you avoid melting the local distribution substation?" and "How do you deal with a load that spiky?" and "fire risk from heating"

- Things like needing _pristine_ connectors to avoid self-heating and runaway thermal effects - when was the last time you saw a _really_ clean automotive electrical plug? Look at all the crud that builds up around the filler as it is.

(Hint: bulk electricity rates have _huge_ penalties for short term peaks or odd power factors)

Besides it dumps a shitload of waste heat in the process as faster charging rates happen at reduced efficiency.

None of the above are insurmountable, but in the medium-to-long term as EVs age this is going to become a more serious issue

For most charging you don't NEED 5-10 minutes. This is the kind of thing you'd normally only do on a road trip when you don't want to stop for more than an hour for a rest or if you're a taxi driver needing to fill up and be out again because time is money (and then you're facing hour limits in the seat anyway)

Normally you'd want to pull into a services, plug into a "slower" charger in a carpark full of chargers (no such thing as EV-only parking) and go indoors for a pee, a pie and a chance to read El Reg, then come out to a charged up vehicle and no stupid penalties for being 10 minutes over or other jobsworthianness.

Petrol stations have forecourts and well-isolated pumps because the fuel is dangerous when spilled. When was the last time you saw a bucket of electrons spilling across your carpet from the end of an uncapped extension lead?

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

" However, we're well equipped to distribute liquids as we've been doing that for ages."

If you want to do that in ANY quantity, then you need nuclear heating as the source of sufficient energy - and molten salt nuclear loops as a necessity because water-moderated systems simply aren't hot enough.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

"in our Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada warehouse?"

This is the location of Warehouse 14 ?

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

I _can_ assure the reader that the unwary and impatient do smell just like pork when Darwin calls in this manner.....

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Still a problem though

"Major power supply upgrades may not be needed, if local energy storage is available."

Sorry to burst your bubble, but....

You might not have to overbuild the GRID to such an extent, but the charge/discharge losses through battery cycles mean that this stuff really is intended for peak trimming or emergency backup _only_ otherwise you're doubling the cost of power for no good reason other than to increase overall generation requirements.

And that brings us to overall generation requirements. Taking the amount of carbon-sourced power generation in the UK in any given year 2000-2010 and calling it "N" TWh.

Renewables can slightly outproduce N, but only by a small amount. Beyond that the law of diminishing returns kicks in extremely hard (and you really don't want wind turbines nearby, blades have been recorded travelling over a mile when they break) and by the time you hit 1.5 x N you can effectively invest an infinite amount for no increase in capacity.

That's fine, but electricity only accounts for about 1/3 of carbon emissions and getting rid of the other 2/3 is where it gets hairy:

An electric domestic (as in privately owned) vehicle fleet will require about N TWh per year by itself.

An electric commercial vehicle fleet will require 1-2 N TWh

Eliminating gas/oil from domestic heating will require about N TWh to replace it, even with better insulation and if planning laws are changed to allow superefficient stuff on "listed buildings"

Commercial premises heating will be about the same N TWh

Replacing carbon in industrial processes apart from steel and cementmaking will be 1-2N

Replacing carbon in steel and cementmaking (especially kilns!) will be 2-4N

All that means

A lot more generating capacity will be needed

Greater grid capacity to hanlde those average flows

All those vehicles charging overnight is likely to turn "night rate" on its head

And there's the "slight" problem of UK mains distribution being predicated on residences drawing 1kW at most for sustained periods.

Add a few 7kW car chargers - every house in my area has 1-2 cars as the public transport is lousy and UNsuited to anyone except bankers heading into London - and you'll have more than few exploding footpaths and subterranean tunnels as stressed feeders blow out, along with most of the street-level submain distribution transformers. The idea of streetside chargers in most urban areas falls apart when you realise you essentially require a COMPLETE OVERBUILD of the existing mains distribution system in any given area to handle them - something that I simply can't see happening in only 15 years when you factor in the costs.

Batteries can help allieviate local short term issues but they don't deal with the elephant in the room - current approaches are on par with handling local flooding by building better drains to dump it in the river - ensuring more flooding for the folks downstream - deeper, faster flowing and faster rising. We can't make this "someone else's problem" and it increasingly looks like we'll be at rolling blackouts by the time politicians admit a serious energy planning disaster took place in the late 2010s/early 2020s

Surprise! Plans for a Brexit version of the EU's Galileo have been delayed

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: We could do it!

"Yes we could do it, but it will be vastly expensive, run hugely over budget and rely on other countries (as usual) for the actual orbit launch."

The UK's ONLY orbital launch was ontime and under budget. The USA promised free rides with NASA and then started charging as soon as the UK launching capability was dismantled.

As ever, Whitehall wonks decided there was no possible market for space launches "and anyway the americans are giving us space for free".

I'd include TSR2 as another example but that one (like Suez) was more clearly a case of the UK doing something without USA permission and being slapped down rather hard.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: We could do it!

"Over the years I have concluded that the British problem is not that things cost too much; it is that things are done on the cheap and the problems of rectification are what then costs all the money."

Exactly THIS. I spend half my job fighting that mentality.

The UK mantra has always been "Great ideas, mediocre implementation, lousy execution, all fucked up by managers and accountants with no experience whatsoever in the fields they're controlling"

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: If only there were a cheap-to-deploy land based positioning system...

"You put the beacons on the top of the hills"

O really?

How does it work with things like refraction around peninsulas, bending effects along long coastlines and reflections off nearby islands?

Hint, Loran only ever told you APPROXIMATELY where you were and could be up to 20 miles out in some cases. eLoran is an improvement but it's still not accurate enough to navigate shoals or littoral(brownwater) areas with

Alan Brown Silver badge

Prestige

As with "Antarctic research", virtually ALL space activity is about government dick waving - particularly anything to do with manned flight.

The science is and always has been secondary to proving that they're "here" and they have a "territory claim"

Why do you suppose rockets are shaped like something you might get from LoveHoney?

Delicious irony: Credit rating builder Loqbox lets customer details and card numbers slip after 'sophisticated attack'

Alan Brown Silver badge

> It's always "sophisticated" until the investigation shows it was a complete push over.

Hopefully someone will disclose how thin the tissue of lies actually was.

Alan Brown Silver badge

"IMHO, they have done the right thing:"

I'm pretty sure they were handed a warning attached to a deadman switch.

IE: "If you don't disclose this, it will go public on XYZ date via a third party in another country you can't stop, along with the fact that you were given the warnings - and and by the way there's a copy in registered surface mail making its way to US financial regulators at the moment, so you'd better act before they do"

Scottish biz raided, fined £500k for making 193 million automated calls

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Go after the Phone Companies

"the carriers who sell service to these jerks are hit with massive fines"

What's needed is what happened in the USA - so called "pink contracts" to leak out showing that the Telcos KNOW what's going on and allow it anyway.

Once the AT&T pink contracts got out into public sight is when the crackdown on rogue ISPs and Telcos really got into gear in the early 2000s

https://www.cnet.com/news/at-t-admits-spam-offense-after-contract-exposed/

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Safety

In the USA version of the anti-junk call legislation it is.

UK protection against these calls and right of redress are amongst the worst in the world.

The TCPA explicitly criminalised calling lines tied to emergency services, medical establishments(hospitals) or military authorities _OR_ interfering with any public safety service

It also criminalised spoofing.

The reason it WORKED was because it enshrines the right of private action in small claims courts along with statutory _per-call_ damages that are tripled for wilful violations - along with holding both the spammer AND the hiring company jointly and severally liable.

So if you got a call from "Jim Bob's double glazing" you'd file a claim against them with a demand to disclose who they hired, otherwise the oiffence moves to wilful territory - meaning that Jim Bob, facing a few dozen of these would give up the telemarketer to save going bankrupt.

At the time it was characterised by the FTC as giving junk fax and nuisance telemarketers the death of 1 million papercuts - and whilst it's only been slightly undermined by judges refusing to hear cases(*), every time that gets bounced to a higher court a ruling comes down HARD against the judge concerned and awards court costs to the plaintiff (meaning Jim Bob now finds he's got a $200k bill instead of a $500 one), the effect in the first few years was dramatic - spamming and junkfaxing stopped being an exploding cottage industry and the only players left were the criminal enterprises like fax.com (who were eventually taken down by the FTC and FBI)

(*) on the basis it would hurt the business - which is the intent of the law and the higher court judges have made that excruciatingly clear in their rulings - along with the sentiment that they did not want to see anything like this kicked up to them again or heads would roll.

Alan Brown Silver badge

"Companies House are notorious for non enforcement"

In which case perhaps media attention need to be directed to the question of why they're not enforcing against _criminal_ illegal activity and thereby making it harder for other parts of the same HM Government to do THEIR job.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Spoofing of phone numbers should be limited

>> I ask if they are still using a withheld number and, when they confirm this, I go ballistic at them for doing so. They then say I'm not the only person to complain about this and that they "are looking at a solution".

"Have you tried adding 1470 before my phone number?"

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Blank caller ID from the NHS etc

"Never give a company a choice on what number they can call you at. "

I give them my 070 number, perfectly willing to chat all day on that one.... *evilgrin*

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Spoofing of phone numbers should be limited

" the only people I really want to hear from) all have a blank CLI! "

Only because they're deliberately suppressing it. My landline and mobile both divert to a message telling them that blocked CLI is not accepted, please try again with 1470 in front of the number or dial "this" 070 number at £1.50/minute

The NHS has spent the last 5+ years specifically telling hospitals and doctor surgeries that they MUST NOT block outbound CLI for this reason. Mind you they've also banned fax machines and those are still in widespread use across pharmacies and surgeries....

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Spoofing of phone numbers should be limited

"So for example, a callcentre can still (legitimately) mask their number, but the real DDI will be in the call trace just one step upstream, with your local communications provider."

Under the old SS7 model the CLI and the origin number were different items and whilst CLI could be altered, the originating number was used for bill routing and supposedly unalterable. On my ISDN PRIs I could see both numbers and if a privacy flag had been set. (which gives a hint: When calling any outfit with a ISDN PRI there's _no guarantee_ your callerID suppression is being honoured...(*))

One of the reasons telcos started to get stroppy about spoofing is that origin number data is being forged and they're unable to bill for terminating calls - the supposed "consumer protection stance" is mostly about them finding themselves being bilked out of millions of dollars/pounds.

(*) At the time I used to handle requests for call data (suspected fraud) by my ISP customers as "I can't tell you who's been using your account, as that would breach privacy laws - and in any case I don't know, however if you ask me for a breakdown of calls you've made on your login, I can provide that to you as the account owner along with the originating number you were using that day....." - to nobody's great surprise 9 times out of 10 the other originating number would prove to be that of a "friend" of the customer's teenage son.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Spoofing of phone numbers should be limited

"Spoofing of phone numbers should be limited"

Legally it already is. It's an offence to set CLID to something you're not legally entitled to use.

Meaning, you can "spoof" your main incoming number as the source for your outbound calls, but spoofing a wide range of Manchester numbers (including ones in active service - belonging to a dentist and a hairdresser on a couple of the ones I received/followed up on) is definite naughty step material.

The dentist surgery were relieved when I explained what had happened - they'd been getting a tirade of abusive calls all morning - and were hopefully one of the ICO complainants.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Won't stop it.

"These outfits typically have multiple companies on the go and migrate as soon as they're found out so they can avoid the fines."

Hence the ICO's ability to freeze the winding up of the company.

There's also a process known as "piercing the corporate veil" - which is legally deployed for EXACTLY these kinds of scenarios.

Remember folks: Company DIRECTORS are not protected from criminal or other charges due to the way they operate a company. "Limited liability" refers to shareholder exposure in the event of bankruptcy.

That said: The ICO is _still_ hobbled by laws which the current government has set to make things clear they don't want _ACTUALLY_ want the ICO going after their friends in business - this is one of the myriad reasons the neoliberal set wanted Brexit so much - taking back control was about the GOVERNMENT taking back control from Brussels so it could unwind the laws that protect and empower the ordinary citizen.

How's this for a remote support fix? Solar storm early-warning satellite repaired with million-mile software update

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: RE. Re. Physics

"A flare hitting us at even 1/10 of light speed would be very bad."

On the other hand the Xray burst hitting us from a flare can do a fair amount of damage too - as I found out on 6 March 1989 when all layers of the ionosphere disappeared for a few hours

Dialling across the shortwave band (3-30MHz) and hearing nothing apart from the 20-odd transmitters tossing out a few kW apiece behind you is a _very_ spooky feeling - for 20 minutes we were convinced that WW3 had started and the ballistic incoming bad day devices would arrive in the southern part of the world shortly

It spooked the military too - last heady days of the Cold War remember - and is a LOT of the reason these birds as well as permanently monitored solar observatories now exist.

The CME hit earth a couple of days later and started raising various issues across the planet, but nothing compared with the spookiness of "WTF just happened" that warm and sunny cloudless autumn morning.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Yay!

" without having to turn the phone satellite off and run out and reboot it"

Well you CAN (just do it one computer at a time), but that doesn't mean you SHOULD

Satellites can be thought of as flying HA clusters.

Starship bloopers: Watch Elon Musk's Mars ferry prototype explode on the pad during liquid nitrogen test

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: They forgot the ping pong balls.

"place inside dumpster"

In my day it was letterboxes. US mail or australasian varieties

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: It's complex work

"Imagine how many BANG!s from the early space age weren't filmed."

One that was similar (although not a bang) was the structural failure of an Atlas rocket on the pad (same balloon tank principle as here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imkdz63agHY

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Wasn't planned

"they botched the landing."

I don't know, that sound of several million buckling washboards was probably worth the effort put into making it "hop"

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Unsurprise.

"12 years, 2 months and 25 days, to be exact."

Some of us have had to recreate accounts, but have been lurking since the 90s.

Maersk prepares to lay off the Maidenhead staffers who rescued it from NotPetya super-pwnage

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: "they were entering into one-and-a-half month's of pre-redundancy consultation"

"Kind of curious if any of Maersk's risk-management types have done any 'what if?' analysis "

You should be more curious to see if they've even had this cross their radar. I bet they haven't.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: "they were entering into one-and-a-half month's of pre-redundancy consultation"

"And at that point the whole team should just up and WALK. "

At this point I'm surprised that some outfit hasn't done "tiger team" on actively recruiting them en masse.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: They still haven't learnt

"IT is seen as just a cost, and is not seen as a business enabler"

And THAT, is where logistics and transport companies fall over on their faces.

Anyone can run an airline or a fleet of container ships. You NEED computer systems - well designed and run by people who know what they're doing - to keep all the balls in the air as margins are so narrow you can't afford downtime or ships idling in port because of late customs paperwork

It sounds like the old Maersk owners knew that (seat on IBM board) and the lesson hasn't sunk into the newer generation, which isn't that surprising really (the three generation rule of business empires seems to apply - #1 starts it, #2 expands it, #3 destroys it)

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Training your replacement

"He calmly said that he'd do it again."

And he probably got a sparkling reference too - these kinds of managers do, as it's frequently the ONLY way to get rid of them.

Watch for coded keywords in the text or overly gleaming references. They're a trap.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Every cloud.....silver lining, etc.....

"*That* made sure that the "best" were the ones who fled at speed to our competitors, and many of the survivors were the ones who had no hopes for success interviewing elsewhere. "

Yup, seen that all too many times.

When merging companies one needs to be utterly ruthless about culling management, but one has to cull the no hopers and keep the good ones or you have "serious problems" on a British Leyland scale.

Alan Brown Silver badge

"Endless "checks", if it's not written down, it doesn't get done, or it gets done exactly the way it's written down but not common sense dictates."

Not so much different to the way councils and other public services work in the UK then.....

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Consultation is shot to pieces then

"I was made redundant and my old job is now being done for a quarter of the price and a quarter of the quality by somebody in Mumbai."

Which should mean you can conslut at 20 times your old rate when they screw it up.

Yes, I know how I spelled it

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Disappointing

"Unless a company is a tech company, they consider it an outsourceable service."

Until they discover it's not. By which point it's usually too late to recover the tailspin.

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Disappointing

"She's not in IT though"

And I'll bet dollars to donuts that she - and the rest of the Maersk employees - are being kept in the dark about this.

I wonder if Maersk IT has acquired a PHB who's submarining these changes with an ulterior motive?

Alan Brown Silver badge

"Johnson's own record of mendacity"

Sorry, that comparison is simply unfair to mendicants.

Breaker one-nine, this trucker's rubber ducked, facing a year in the slammer for Acer laptop thefts

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Government find it easy to put a tax on gambling, but much harder to tax drug sales.

The problem with the illegal drug sales isn't the lack of tax, it's the massive profit margins involved and what people will do to maintain those margins (including keeping things illegal any way they can - if legalised, they're out of business)

Sophos was gearing up for a private life – then someone remembered the bike scheme

Alan Brown Silver badge

"They have been very good compared to most of the other AV on offer."

HAVE being the operative word.

We noticed some weirdness from Sophos in the last 18-24 months and this article makes me go "ahhhhhhh, NOW I get it"

I heard somebody say: Burn baby, burn – server inferno!

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Boss Fail

"After the second occasion - fortunately with no equipment casualties - I got the lock changed."

Too bad you couldn't "manufacture" some casualties - because manglement with attitudes like that frequently treat a changed lock as a challenge, whereas a threat to be directly invoiced for the damage if it happens again is a good dissuader.

"We've had to change out all this kit due to overheating damage having seriously shortened its life and making it liable to fail at any moment"