* Posts by Intractable Potsherd

4159 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Boeing aircraft sales slump to historic lows after 737 Max annus horribilis

Intractable Potsherd

Not impossible, just difficult. The attitude of "it can't be done" because of the knock-ons is part of the problem that led to two 737 Max falling out of the sky.

Microsoft wields ML to catch child predators, city drops 7-year facial-recognition experiment after no arrests...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Cats

@JohnFen: "the screenshots, clips, and previews I've seen completely creep me out."

I'm the same (thought I'm definitely not the target audience for the show or the film), and I think the problem is that the CGI drops the actors straight into the Uncanny Valley.

Is it a make-up mirror? Is it a tiny frisbee? No, it's the bonkers Cyrcle Phone, with its TWO headphone jacks

Intractable Potsherd
Pint

That one made me laugh out loud! Best of a good crop of puns today ----> Cheers!

What was Boeing through their heads? Emails show staff wouldn't put their families on a 737 Max over safety fears

Intractable Potsherd

Re: To Robert Forsyth

"Evolving a design is usually better than starting from scratch (Agile verses Waterfall).

All those old parts have proven infield use and safety."

So, according to your argument I can just put a Mitsubishi Evo VIII engine (old part with proven infield use and safety) into my twenty-year-old diesel Ford Transit (old parts with proven infield use and safety). Clearly, there are many other issues that need to be taken into account, all of which need a lot of consideration (fitting the engine and mating it to the gearbox (then fitting a stronger gearbox!), fuel supply, brakes, suspension etc).

The point I'm making is that some things are not best served by evolving a design - the original design just isn't up to it.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Inconsistent with Boeing values

It's not just you - I read it in exactly the same way.

Google and IBM square off in Schrodinger’s catfight over quantum supremacy

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "isopope???"

There have been quite a few echo posts this week - is there a problem with the submissions, El Reg?

'No BS' web host Gandi lives up to half of its motto... Some customer data wiped out in storage server meltdown

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I am a bit concerned

You'd be more credible if you weren't posting anonymously. A good rule of thumb is that AC+ad hominem = troll, and you are ticking all three boxes.

The soap opera continues. HP again tells Xerox: Show us more money!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Classic Bill Hewlett anecdote

That's a great story. We need more people like Bill and Barney, and fewer MBAs and beancounters. If we can somehow manage that in the UK, we might survive Brexit. If not, we'll we're screwed. The question is, where are these people in a nearly totally deskilled workforce?

'Buyer's remorse' drove HP's legal crusade to go after Lynch, High Court told

Intractable Potsherd

Could be worse - the Scottish law of negligence is "delict". I always want to put "Turkish" in front of it when I'm teaching!

GSMA report: Sorry, handset makers, 5G is not going to save the smartphone market

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Most people...

Fuck off, tosspot.

Eggheads have crunched the numbers and the results are in: It's not just your dignity you lose with e-scooters, life and limb are in peril, too

Intractable Potsherd

Vaguely relevant story.

I was in Prague towards the end of last year, and, after a night at the theatre, was waiting for a tram at Staromestska. A person on a rental e-scooter was doing far too high a speed on the pavement (too dangerous for him to be on the road, obviously), showing off with his swerving around obstacles (i.e. people), when suddenly the scooter stopped dead. Physics took over, and said numpty continued on his journey, sans wheels, arms and legs flailing. Probability indicated that either he was going to intercept a) another person, b) a car, c) a tram and/or d) a piece of street furniture, or, worse yet, cause another person to intercept a), b), c), and/or d). Fortunately, chance forewent all of the above, leaving everyone physically unscathed, but I doubt he has forgotten the derisive cheers from the bystanders at the tram stop!

5G signals won't make men infertile, sighs UK ad watchdog as it bans bonkers scary poster

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Talk about the Fox Gaurding the Henhouse.

If you are going to give reference numbers, at least supply the references! Poor science matched with poor referencing is really irritating.

Microsoft engineer caught up in sudden spate of entirely coincidental grilling of Iranian-Americans at US borders

Intractable Potsherd

Re: no way to win

Let's give AC the benefit of the doubt and accept that he meant September 11th, 2001, and the incident which evidence points more towards Saudi Arabia than Iran. Yep, AC is still not coming out well...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: And the consequenques fo failing to act?

Don't forget that this is the country that interned 120k Japanese between 1942 and 1946, 60+ percent of which were Us citizens, despite there being no incidents of sabotage. The USA isn't a country familiar with the term "proportionate response" (or "evidence-based policy" either).

Yippee-ki-yay, mother fucker!!

GCHQ: A cyber-what-now? Rumours of our probe into London Stock Exchange 'cyberattack' have been greatly exaggerated

Intractable Potsherd

I think/hope there is a "Joke" icon hiding behind the Fawkes mask...

Stack Overflow makes peace with ousted moderator, wants to start New Year with 2020 vision on codes of conduct

Intractable Potsherd

Re: pro-what?

Or, maybe, have some awareness of how you appear to others, and that some assumptions are natural. For example, I'm in my late-mid-50s with three-year-old children. I do not expect everyone to check what relationship I am to the children (though it is nice but somewhat awkward when people do), and expect to be referred to as "grandad" when out and about with people I don't know. Reality states that the assumption of a balding, grey-haired, arthritic bloke is *significantly* more likely to be a grandparent to pre-schoolers than a parent. Similarly, someone dressed as a man, with the bone structure of a man, is *significantly* more likely to go by "he" than "they". If a person with a beard is wearing a dress, I'd still tend to call that person "he" unless specifically asked not to (I fall into the category of people who think that assumptions about sex can be made based on secondary sexual characteristics, and gender requires action on the part of the person who would like to be referred to as something else).

No doubt I'll be down voted, but that's how it is.

We live so fast I can't even finish this sent...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Now you know what 2020 is going to look like

Re: "proper" crisps - my local branch of Aldi (cheap supermarket in the UK and other bits of Europe) were selling Guinness-flavoured crisps before Christmas. They were so good, I bought many packets (since Aldi tend to stop selling anything you want to buy fairly quickly), but now they have all gone. Now I feel 51-85-139...

2 more degrees and it's lights out: Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix's toasty mobile bit barn

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I'll never really understand...

"... he seems happy enough. Some people are stuck in low-paid dead-end jobs."

Some of us prefer to be left alone to get on and do the job we are paid for, not endlessly chasing the next "career goal". Let's put it this way - which path is most likely to lead to burnout and dissatisfaction? I've done both, and, whilst I miss the travel in some ways (e.g. to have a good excuse to escape the children occasionally, if nothing else!*), I really don't miss the endless reviews and bloody interviews that come with chasing the next level of distance between what I'm good at and what the post requires. Good luck to those who want to do that, but it isn't for me, or your friend.

* A simplified life of work, food, read, sleep, even in a hotel room I didn't choose, sounds very attractive at the moment :-)

Sir John Redwood backs IR35 campaign, notes review would have to start 'immediately' before new off-payroll working rules kick in

Intractable Potsherd

You still sound like you have a chip on your shoulder about permanent workers. You will see from my posting record that I am against IR35 as a disproportionate and unfair scheme, and that I am have been both a contractor and a permie at various times. I can see both sides of the argument. Most permanent workers don't have a clue about contractors ways of working, but have been told that contractors cheat the system by successive governments. By their nature, contractors are in a poor position to counter the arguments, so don't blame permanent workers for "moaning about it being unfair".

Intractable Potsherd

That's what Tories always do. All those fucking idiots that voted for them in deprived areas will come to regret it very quickly (and deny they ever voted for the blue rosette bastards).

Intractable Potsherd

That is a truly awful thing to say. Different skills and risk-aversion do not make one better or worse than someone else. You sound like more of a problem than a solution, since your attitude probably spills over into your working life.

A sprinkling of Star Wars and a dash of Jedi equals a slightly underbaked Rise Of Skywalker

Intractable Potsherd

Re: 1977

@Martin, re: "fan" episodes - this is a constant issue in our house. I love what I call "bridging sections" - the slightly wordy, context-developing sections* (whether film, TV series, or books), but Mrs IP thinks they are "boring" and fidgets or talks all the way through them (TV or film, obviously!) This is odd, because she doesn't really like action adventures - I caught her watching "The Dutchess" last night.

*If they are well done and actually advance the story.

You leak our secrets? We'll leak your book sales, speech fees – into our coffers: Uncle Sam wins royalties fight against Edward Snowden

Intractable Potsherd

Re: An Alternative Option for Publishing?

Bungle by name, bungle by nature.

GlaxoSmithKline ditches IR35 contractors: Go PAYE or go home

Intractable Potsherd

Only screwing over anyone that owns less than half of Derbyshire, just like every other Tory government.

100 mysterious blinking lights in the night sky could be evidence of alien life... or something weird, say boffins

Intractable Potsherd

Unfortunately, just across the bridge from you North-east Fife), the local muppets put a totally untried MP of orange hue in place*. Fortunately**, most of the rest of the country saw sense - here comes IndyRef 2!

*And an ex-copper at that, FFS.

**Not so fortunate for Stephen Gethins - a very good constituency MP, though.

Revealed: NHS England bosses meet with tech and pharmaceutical giants to discuss price list of millions of Brits' medical data

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Election day reporting restrictions?

Don't let the door hit you on the way...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: NHS ...... ENGLAND?????

@anti-Scottish AC: I'm currently visiting friends in London. Several of them are seriously considering moving to Scotland now as a result of there being so many "thick racists" in England (and when I say "seriously", it is nitty-gritty about where to move and how the process works etc), and others say that if Scotland got independence they'd move the to stay in the EU (I know, there's no guarantee of that happening, but the belief is that the Scots won't jump before having agreements in place - so, not the "Brexit model"). Whilst some of the talk is still just that, immigration from the EU and rUK could significantly increase Scotland tax base - or we could reach 10 million people, we'd be more than self-sufficient, especially without the huge amount of e.g. military spending (Scotland would almost certainly go for defensive, not offensive, capacity.)

In short, you want us to go, we want to go - why are the Tories refusing another referendum, especially since it would dramatically increase their proportion of power (hah - you hadn't thought of that, had you? Scottish independence means more Tory rule in England!)

Careful with that Axe, Eugene: Excessive use of body spray causes school bus evacuation

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Lynx is okay, the problem is teenagers...

Oy - that's tradition! Back in the 70s, when I was at school, it was a scene so common no-one mentioned it. When I saw it done as part of a scene in "Gregory's Girl" my then girlfriend couldn't understand why I was a breathless wreck on the floor! Obviously a) girls didn't do it, or b) she went to a school with a different demographic to mine :-)

Elon Musk gets thumbs up from jury for use of 'pedo guy' in cave diver defamation lawsuit

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Sigh

"@Danny ... seems to have forgotten Unsworth [sic] 'stick it where it hurts' comment, which preceded the pedo guy comment. So why do you give Unsworth a free pass for smearing someone trying to help...?"

Whilst you have made some good points previously, Malcolm, this is utter bollocks and I'm surprised you made it." Stick it where it hurts" is not a smear, as it says nothing about the character of the person on the receiving end of the comment. "Pedo Guy", on the other hand, is very much ad hominem. If anyone other than one of the American demi-gods (which is what these billionaires are - "The American Dream" writ large) twatted the same thing, *and then followed it up with more*, then it seems likely that the result in the same court, with the same jury, would have been very different.

FTC kicks feet through ash pile that once was Cambridge Analytica with belated verdict

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?"

No one thinks that *everyone* was influenced by this activity. Some people have quote well-structured long-standing arguments about Brexit (I cite code junky and Phil O'Sophical as examples here), or had a long-standing desire for political change in the USA (e.g. Bombastic Bob). These people knew long in advance what they would be voting for. However, given the tiny differences in the outcomes in both the Brexit referendum and the last Presidential election, the issue is how many swing voters were affected by the targeting of illegal adverts? We'll never know, but, as a Brexit supporter above wrote, the whole result is now hugely in question, and it strengthens the call for a re-run of the referendum. The USA gets a rerun of the last election next year, of course.

Pentagon's $10bn JEDI decision 'risky for the country and democracy,' says AWS CEO Jassy

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Respect Babylon 5

"Errr, Patrick Stewart was in Star Trek, not B5."

It's a long running joke on the topic of JEDI hereabouts - there hasn't been a Star Wars picture used yet, IIRC. Initially it played on the Star Wars/Star Trek conflation by those barbarians that don't care to know the difference, and now brings in B5. *We* all know the difference, and who starred in what (hence the comment about Sir Patrick - who doesn't have a grave to spin in yet!), but sometimes pretend not to.

There - have I killed that joke sufficiently? I can draw some diagrams if you want :-)

Doogee Wowser: The S40's a terrible smartphone, but a passable projectile

Intractable Potsherd

Hah! See my comment a bit further up about the Armor X5 - very good for the price!

Intractable Potsherd

@baud - I recently bought an Ulefone Armor X5 to replace my two Note 4s that mysteriously developed the same time at the same amount of time of use*. I didn't really care what I got as long as it worked, and I am really impressed - great battery life (5000mAH) means I get up to four days between charges compared to less than one day with comparable use on either of the Notes, dual SIM or single plus SD card, waterproof etc. all for £101. There is a bit of lag on the number pad when I want to open it, but other than that it is smooth and fast**.

* Random reboots getting worse until it they don't successfully boot at all - it looks like code corruption, and I'll try to put a custom ROM on when I get chance.

** No connection with company, just a pleasantly pleased customer.

Escobar Fold 1 snort all it's cracked up to be: Readers finger similarity to slated Chinese mobe

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Customer service?

I think the top picture on the website tells you all you need to know...

Intractable Potsherd

Spot on, Jake. When I read the previous article I immediately had a mental image of bank notes in a washing machine. I remember hearing some time ago that realising 25 per cent of dirty goods/money is a really good level of return, so this fits. I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted by the sheer brass neck of the scheme, though!

Boffins believe it was volcanoes, not just life, that made Earth what it is today – oxygen rich

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Really?

"... we've solved the energy storage problem for renewables and can stop climate change."

No, really we can't, any more than our ancestors 10-12k years ago could. Climates change, there is nothing we can (or should) do about it other than have plans to adapt to it.

UK parcel firm Yodel plugs tracking app's random yaps about where on map to snap up strangers' tat

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Currently awaiting delivery...

I have obviously had a charmed existence in terms of delivery drivers. Over the last 15-20 years, living in sub-urban, urban, and semi-rural areas, I have had next next to no delivery failures (only one in the last year due to the driver having an RTA before he got to the village, I found out later). I did have what I thought was a delivery failure when I built my last PC - the package containing the mobo, memory, and HDD didn't arrive, so I had to get in touch with the seller for replacements. The parts duly arrived, and I'd been using my new setup for some weeks when I went into the lean-to greenhouse for something. There, tucked very neatly out of sight was the original package.* To be fair to the delivery driver, they really had gone above and beyond the call of duty - to get to the lean-to, they must have climbed over the 6ft back gate (which was locked), dragged the lean-to's door open, moved some garden tools, and then reversed the process. Presumably, that was why they didn't leave a card - they needed a lie down and a strong cup of tea! I still don't know why they didn't leave it with the neighbours who were virtually never out, though!

All our current regular drivers of all companies are great - personable, friendly, and willing to make a bit of effort to make sure parcels get where they should be.

*Which I notified the seller of, and returned the items unopened.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: A moral obligation

" I bought a new set of speakers in 2001 - The speakers are still serving me well today!"

To be fair, barring accident, removal companies or children, speakers less than twenty years old *should* be still serving you well. They are the almost the definition of" durable"!

Why can't passport biometrics see through my cunning disguise?

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Habitual glasses wearer

Re: jammy bastard. Given what Muscleguy has said he does for a living, I suspect he's grown it himself!

Intractable Potsherd

But you ARE at least 15 years older than your EOS, shirley :-)

We've found it... the last shred of human decency in an IT director – all for a poxy Unix engineer

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Beer...

A buck nailed to the desk! Wouldn't that get a bit smelly?

And what about the antlers?

Astroboffins peeved as SpaceX's Starlink sats block meteor spotting – and could make us miss a killer asteroid

Intractable Potsherd

Re: We typically don't see the pollution we create for what it is

Ah, the Precautionary Principle - "Ugg, don't use that burning stick - who knows what will happen!"

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Cars.

"Interesting" in the sense of the Chinese proverb, presumably!

ESA toasts 10% budget boost by stretching ISS support out to 2030

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Doomed I tells yer

"The ESA, just like the EU, is doomed to ultimate catastrophic failure." @beast666

Do you have any evidence to back up your assertion, or is it kneejerk "Europe baaaaaaad!" commentary? Or perhaps you think all space agencies around the world are necessarily "doomed"? (If so, I suspect India and China would like a word, not to mention the USA)

UK political parties fall over themselves to win tech contractor vote by pledging to review IR35

Intractable Potsherd

Re: There are an estimated 4.6 million contractors in the UK.

Would you like some salt and vinegar for that chip on your shoulder? IR35 is a totally disproportionate and probably unfair system. The benefits are trivial, but the costs are huge. I'm not, and never have been, a contractor, but any objective view shows this to be asinine action by HMRC.

Yeah but, no, but... 'Overpaid' Boeing snaps back at NASA's watchdog

Intractable Potsherd

"I do commend what the Indians *have* achieved."

Indeed so, but why are they being so bloody secretive about it?

Mysterious IT snafu at British Airways causes bunch of inbound flight delays and cancellations

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "Where's Mr Speed today?"

"... uncanny ability to arrive in a country when it was peaceful and to leave it just as revolution or war broke out, which he did on a large number of occasions."

I have friends who, at least for a while, were the same with anywhere they went on holiday. I came to the conclusion that the company the male friend worked for should have called "Universal Exports".

Questions hang over Gatwick Airport after low level drone near-miss report

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Point defense?

How do you get the sharks into the trebuchet?

Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Alternate Internet

Fie! Bottom posting is the work of the anti-Spaghetti Monster!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Yawn

Says the anonymous coward. What point do you think you are making here?