* Posts by JetSetJim

2156 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jul 2009

With the right training, algorithms can predict Li-ion battery lifetime – with 95% accuracy

JetSetJim

yeah, but I wonder if that is for an individual prediction for an individual battery, or if you can run this on N batteries to gain a statistical confidence of the result by simply discarding prediction outliers (if you have confidence that the regression model used will be accurate for <NEW_TECH> when it was derived from experiments on <OLD_TECH>).

I suspect the main point they're trying to make is that they can do a hundred (*) cycles of a hundred (*) batteries of a particular manufacture and then predict the lifespan of them based on the aggregated observed deterioration of those batteries - rather than running many thousands of cycles to observe the actual lifespan, thus saving time and effort (and energy). Perhaps when an interesting design that does come along where the predictions meet the design characteristics required, the full suite of tests to destruction are still performed (I would hope) before volume manufacture is commissioned.

I still reckon someone already does this with actual maths rather than jumping on the ML bandwagon to get page-views - the video basically says they're running a regression model, which in my book is more stats than ML.

(*) Numbers may vary to gain what a statistician would call a decent amount of confidence in the result

JetSetJim

> how can just statistics of existing types be enough...[for a] new battery model

Because it's ML, innit? How dare you doubt the power of a black box that effectively does a curve fit to a data set (that's hopefully chosen to be representative of a solution space) and then makes predictions (still in the modelled solution space, but possibly not).

I suspect that all that's going on under the hood is a fit to a standard curve type (knee, log, exponential, ...), and then make a prediction based on the curve fit type and parameterisation given the start points of the curve (first hundred cycles). Probably ok for anything that doesn't vary from the norm in terms of battery manufacture, but I'd still want it run lots of times before making multi-million dollar manufacturing decisions on the new technology, and still run the tests to (near) destruction of the battery.

Pre-checked cookie boxes don't count as valid consent, says adviser to top EU court

JetSetJim

Re: Let's report every case of this to the ICO

Pfft - 50 is nothing - try the Dilbert website, 5 categories, each with well over a hundred cookies (albeit with some duplication), each with individual toggles to disable (enabled by default, natch).

Sometimes I wonder if it's Scott Adams parodying the issue, but then he's a Trump supporter so probably not

Chap joins elite support team, solves what no one else can. Is he invited back? Is he f**k

JetSetJim

Re: Good idea

Lottery numbers are 14m:1, so it doesn't work that way. Had to be precisely 1m:1 to work.

Just checked, seems like the 14m to 1 is outdated and now it's 45m:1!! Shit, the idiot tax got harsher at some point

Could OpenAI's 'too dangerous to release' language model be used to mimic you online? Yes, says this chap: I built a bot to prove it

JetSetJim

I want it to reply to all my boss's emails

Qualcomm wins Apple patent case, loses Apple patent case, wins Apple patent case, loses Apple patent case...

JetSetJim

Re: What a strange game...

I think they mis-spoke, and should have noted "the only winning move is to be one of the lawyers in this fight", although one wonders if the firms get a cut of the judgement in these cases, or just have the joy of billing an hourly rate (assuming they're not employees of either Apple or QC).

I think we should get Darl McBride involved, I'm sure he'd help smooth things over...

Croydon school rolling in toilet roll after Brexit gift deemed unfit for the Queen's Anus Horribilis

JetSetJim
Paris Hilton

The corgi's are no more. She does have a couple of dogs left, but they're not pure corgi - they're a mix of dachshund and corgi, which might make for a better fanny-loofah, tbh

Do Martians dream of electric Nimbys? Selling 5G needs steak, not just sizzle

JetSetJim

> who wants to nick an antique phone

No-one. I suspect it's more that they get beaten up for being perceived to be poor, and thus worthless, or for being too uncool for words, and so deserving of a punishment beating

Small Brit firms beg for 'light touch' as only half are ready for digital tax reforms due next month

JetSetJim
Windows

Re: Making Transactions Diabolical

>Now, the big question here is why the hell didn't they create a web page where ypu could simply log in with your GG Id, enter the small amount of data required in a form and submit it, with helpful success and error rporting afterwards?

Err - that's what they currently have (at least for me). I log into my company account, select the "VAT service", click on "submit VAT return", enter the 7 numbers (several of which are always 0.00), click submit, job done.

(Hope that wasn't a "woosh, joke trajectory gone super-caput" on my part!)

JetSetJim

Re: Sombody in there understands something about Free Software...

There a free one here - not tried it, not recommending it, no idea if it turns into a lock-in to a paid solution in the longer term, YMMV, etc.., but it took a 2 minute google. I believe others are out there, too

JetSetJim

Re: Making Tax Farcical

The CSV bridging s/w is already out there - all it does is do OAUTH to set up the session with HMRC, then submit JSON with the 7 values.

I've got no idea why HMRC couldn't have written their own simple tool - this strikes me as eminently feasible given the current simplicity of the interface and given that HMRC currently maintain the "simple PAYE tools" tool which does a much more complicated job of managing employee payroll for small companies.

The whole premise of "making it simpler for small businesses" is failing at the first hurdle - thankfully I'm under the threshold so don't need to worry just yet

Dear Britain's mast-fearing Nimbys: Do you want your phone to work or not?

JetSetJim

Re: TANSTAAFL

> With the added benefit if suitably equipment of providing roosts for raptures.

A bit niche, isn't it, having a roost available for when the rapture comes? By that time, some raptors might have nested there, or we might be in a hurry to get in before the gates close

JetSetJim

Re: Daft solution to a daft problem

It has oft been a problem in previous times with folks in Kent getting hammered for roaming into France (pre-EU rules on roaming), and folks in Calais having the reverse problem. Propagation of radio over water is very good already - no need to increase the height even more

See The Independent in 2013, for example.

JetSetJim

> if the accident is "really nasty", it probably isn't worth making the call...

It's always worth it, at least folks will know where to go to clean up the mess you've made, scrape it into a cardboard box, and deliver it to your next of kin

JetSetJim
Boffin

Re: Roaming?

As long as the interface is trusted between the two networks (and of sufficient quality), an inter-network handover should be possible with existing signalling, I reckon (without bothering to dig out the specs). It would be a special case of inter-MSC handover.

For packet calls it's easier - you just drop the call and reestablish on the new network.

The main problem will be in the time it takes to acquire a signal on the other network. It's already a ball-ache hunting for different frequencies on the same operator, and this just scales the problem up (although it's mitigated a bit by lots of newer phones having more than one radio in them, so you don't have to go into compressed mode to do this).

JetSetJim

Why would an operator want to give coverage up there? They point the antennas down, towards the ground, where all the users are. It makes no sense to radiate upwards, it's just wasted energy

Buffer overflow flaw in British Airways in-flight entertainment systems will affect other airlines, but why try it in the air?

JetSetJim

Except there was potential* for his lock picking activities to cause all other locks to fail.

IANAPenTester, can't comment as to the probability of this outcome, although I would hazard a guess that there is zero chance of a crash in the IFE impacting flight control systems as they should be completely separate

Sure, we've got a problem but we don't really want to spend any money on the tech guy you're sending to fix it

JetSetJim
Pint

Similar experience, but more costly

I was once sent to Vancouver for a meeting as a junior engineer. Wasn't told why, or given objectives, or even what the meeting was about. Was given a business class ticket on BA, got to Canada, went to the (nice) hotel in time for bed, got up, nice breakfast, taxi to the meeting with my stuff. Sat through it nodding vaguely, then got the taxi back to the airport to get on the same plane with the same crew.

I enjoyed it, but it was rather pointless.

Latest 4G, 5G phone-location slurp attack is a doozy, but won't Torpedo Average Joe or Jane

JetSetJim

Re: Interesting

more likely the number that wasn't in service was just a spoofed header and that was from an ambulance chaser hoping for a hit with "we're calling about the accident you had which you were innocent of"

Northern UK smart meter rollout is too slow, snarls MPs' committee

JetSetJim

Re: The answer is in the data

I would question why personal info would be needed to address the claim that the installation of a smart meter would reduce energy consumption. I don't doubt that someone might be able to find some value in knowing the change in energy consumption habits when correlated against personal information (if there are any), but you don't need it to actually quantify the change

JetSetJim
Boffin

The answer is in the data

As a cursory dekstop analysis might indicate, installing these smart meters seems to be a pointless waste of time and money. In practice, can one request a data set for the smart meters currently installed for:

Column 1 (& 1a): energy usage in the property in the year prior to installation of a smart meter (separated between gas and electricity)

Column 2 (& 2a): energy usage in the property in the year subsequent to the installation of the smart meter (again, separated by gas & electricity)

No need to add any personalised information like property address.

Coarsely, dividing one column by the other can give a rough estimation as to the energy savings of these devices (notwithstanding the possible uncorrelated effects of measures that may influence energy usage in a household, e.g. installing insulation, although it could be argued that some of these may be triggered by the awareness of energy usage).

The rollout figures are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistical-release-and-data-smart-meters-great-britain-quarter-2-2018

They would indicate that up to Q4 2017 there were over 9 million of the blighters, so we should be able to do this sort of thing (even with the added complexity when properties change supplier - could probably discard those and still get a reasonable picture of events)

Go, go, Gadgets Boy! 'Influencer' testing 5G for Vodafone finds it to be slower than 4G

JetSetJim
Boffin

The phone was connected to a wfi router, presumably one connected to some magic 5G dongle compatible with the deployed 5G radios in VF's network. It's not clear whether this was open-access for VF punters, or reserved for GamerBoy in this instance.

The phone looks reasonably modern, so I would hope that 802.11ac was used, or, at the very least 802.11n, in which case the connection limit would be 1.3Gbps for ac, or 450Mbps for n (and I'd hope that the router wasn't busy at the time of the test), so the over-the-air wifi wouldn't be the bottleneck.

Saying that, initial LTE speeds were not what they currently are - carrier aggregation, MIMO and other features have injected speed boosts into the network. Also, how much bandwidth was being used for the 5G radio, too, as this isn't documented in the article - not sure spectrum is yet deployed to it's fullest extent, so it's entirely possible that different fruit are being compared in all these comments as 4G carriers are typically 20MHz per carrier nowadays, and multiple carriers are used to achieve their headline speeds.

Poorly thought out PR stunt on VF's part, though, not expecting the obvious comparisons to different fruit

Amazon triples profit to $11.2bn, pays ZERO DOLLARS in corp tax – instead we pay it $129m

JetSetJim

What do you do? Set up a transnational tax rate collected by a separate body (e.g something like the WTO) and then disbursed among countries by some (hopefully fair) arbitrary rules (e.g by percent of revenue in that country).

Obvs it will never happen...

One click and you're out: UK makes it an offence to view terrorist propaganda even once

JetSetJim
Joke

Re: Likely to be useful

Win some, lose some

JetSetJim

Re: "Likely to be useful"

So they are, it happened last June, apparently. A sound idea as I vaguely recall being a bit nervy the first time I merged into a motorway 30 years ago.

JetSetJim

Re: "Likely to be useful"

> As far as I am aware, the motorway and how one behaves on it is actually not part of the driving test in the UK.

Indeed, cos you're not allowed to drive on a motorway as a learner. Suspect a good idea would be to implement a 2-tier license and make currently-newly-passed learners go on a second course to learn to drive on a motorway (there are organisations doing this, the PassPlus or equivalent, but it's entirely volountary).

Fun fact: GPS uses 10 bits to store the week. That means it runs out... oh heck – April 6, 2019

JetSetJim
Coat

Yeah, but they're gettign the snazzy new ESN with funky smartphone like new handsets.

Oh, wait

Huawei pens open letter to UK Parliament: Spying? Nope, we've done nothing wrong

JetSetJim

So, all it says is "Chinese law will not punish you if you don't do what we ask", unwritten, it seems therefore feasible that Chinese equipment makers *will* be asked...

JetSetJim

Re: Don't confuse politics with engineering

That just means the yanks knew how to access Huawei kit behind the scenes while they were using Cisco code

European Commission orders mass recall of creepy, leaky child-tracking smartwatch

JetSetJim
FAIL

"the guy" who wrote the spec presumably worked for the same company as "the guy" who made it (and presumably can equally blame "the guy" who wrote the list of features for the device that the specs would have been written from). "these guys" did not implement standard application and server security protocols and should be slapped around with laws to get it fixed

JetSetJim

Re: But adults have the same crap

> Find My Phone app that anyone can tap into (if they know who to ask)

err - if you know The Right Person (TM) you can trace any phone (assuming that person is happy to break the law) - there's a call trace function in the network used for legal intercept and also for network optimisation - if you know the right person in the Network Operations Centre, you can give them an IMSI or IMEI and it can be traced to a resonably high degree of accuracy. If you know The Right Person (TM), you could place a legal Intercept tap on the calls, but that person would probably pretty swiftly get sacked and arrested as these things are rigorously documented in logs. Regarding the Find My Phone feature, presumably you need to know The Right Person (TM) in Apple, or conceivable some naughty hacker who can get into the Apple account.

IMSI catchers? Well, they are about, and nefarious deeds can be done with them I'm sure, but they'll cost $1-2k to make at a minimum, and are localised in effect. Not sure they can access any data on the phone, as they operate lower down the protocol stack only, and the higher layers are all encrypted. The only way to get higher layer access is to also impersonate the core network (conceivable, as there are open-source implementations - it may be simply a case of setting the MNC/MCC correctly, but I suspect the phone might reject it due to different APN settings which would need provisioning - suspect you'd need cooperation from the network, which is why law enforcement can use them easily, and perhaps not so easy for tech-hacker-types)

Windows Defender update: So secure, it wouldn't let Secure-Boot Windows PCs, er, boot

JetSetJim

Seems like a good feature that other ISPs should consider implementing...

You got a smart speaker but you're worried about privacy. First off, why'd you buy one? Secondly, check out Project Alias

JetSetJim

Re: I'd quite like one for doing cooking related tasks

you can make a multi-timer with the "ok google" commands, so an old (waterproof) android phone, a throwaway google account, and you have your device

JetSetJim
Pint

I like that I can "ok google navigate to X" in the car and get directions pretty reliably, rather than trying to type and not crash while driving. Admittedly feeling a bit of a plonker if someone else is in the car (although my kids enjoy it)

But Alexa et al are not my cup of tea

Techie finds himself telling caller there is no safe depth of water for operating computers

JetSetJim

Re: Design deficiencies

and no-one wants to work in a basement with no windows, so it's a location that offers no conflict. Try competing with office space with windows for your server room...

Bringing the Houzz down: Home design website tells users to reset passwords after copping to breach

JetSetJim

Re: 2019 v 2018

I got the email today, fortunately no personal info in the account, and I registered it with "hows@mydomain.com" as the email (rather oddly, it wouldn't let you use "houzz" in the email), so it shouldn't be of any use to anyone (not even entirely sure why I registered it!)

iPhone price cuts are coming, teases Apple CEO. *Bring-bring* Hello, Apple UK? It's El Reg. You free to chat?

JetSetJim
Pint

Will be nicking the Muppets Ode to Joy ringtone, cheers

Apple: You can't sue us for slowing down your iPhones because you, er, invited us into, uh, your home... we can explain

JetSetJim

Re: As a non Apple owner, all I can ask is

YMMV - for quite a few it is good enough.

Some of the things seem to be implemented very nicely, but you have to commit yourself to stay in the Apple ecosystem to reap the benefits, and this is not what everyone wants.

JetSetJim

Re: Yah, Yah, Yah.

> There wouldn't be Android if Apple hadn't invented the smartphone.

Apple had timing on their side with the release of smartphones and probably wouldn't exist without their pre-cursors like Palm, Nokia, Motorola and probably others. In the GSM days, when GPRS was created to allow phones to do data, a whole lot of phones were created with "apps" on them to do non-phone things. Hell, you could even write your own if you could get to grips with writing them and pushing your app to the SIM card (still possible now, and it's a horrid way of doing things). Also, apps were on the phone. Form-factors were evolving, andApple weren't the first with touch screens either (see the IBM Simon from 1992). Also, multi-touch screens were purchased by Apple, not invented by it. I would agree, however, that Apple put all of these things they didn't invent into a very attractive package

> Apple are one of the few companied who do ALL the research and Development. Hardware and Software

That would be the company that didn't show up or contribute to any of the 3GPP meetings to help out with the specs, and then attempted to bully all the companies that did into accepting FRAND payments much lower than normal?

> Buy cheap and nasty get a cheap and nasty experience. Your data and photo's splashed everywhere

Err - if anything Android is more guilty of the data splashing than Apple with all the app data slurping that goes on

> Forever sending sms all day (instead of working), use a lot of battery while the phone talks to the network.

SMS uses a trivial amount of power as the data in the SMS is transmitted over a signalling packet - no need to establish data bearers over the radio. It would be all the background apps that suck the life out of your battery - any non-SMS app with notifications from a server requires a data bearer.

> turn off fetch on emails

A remarkably good way of not accomplishing anything in the day if you need to receive emails to do work

> Choice of a slower phone and longer battery life?

you *can* choose a phone for longer battery life, and that's your choice. Why don't you still use a non-smartphone then? My old Nokia had a battery that lasted weeks. I, however, choose to have some functionality on my phone - I use the GPS on each commute, I communicate with people in different ways during the day, ...

What people object to is Apple crippling the phone (behind the scenes) to preserve the illusion of a battery that lasts X days (whatever that X is), which is effectively removing functionality from the phone. Personally I think there's still some iffy bits in the Apple battery management system as my wifes 6+ (with a new battery that's less than 3 months old) still craps out the second the phone gets a bit cold - also seen this on friends iPhone X and 7/8 versions.

Facebook didn't care if your kids ran up gigantic credit card bills – lawsuit

JetSetJim

Re: Is there a scammier corporation

> Whatsapp is a great solution for multi OS mobile communication for groups of people

but when it starts to require the install of the FB app, or permission to view FB contacts, it shall be binned in favour of a different one. Am not giving FB unfettered access to my phone

Clone your own Prince Phil, says eBay seller hawking debris left over from royal car crash

JetSetJim

Re: Caught by surprise

He was pulling out at a T junction, and the Kia was barelling down the A road. I suspect it whacked into the rear half of the Land Rover, which would be the lighter end of the vehicle. That probably spun it 180 degrees, maybe the rear wheels sliding to a stop in a soft grass verge on the other side of the road, perhaps digging in and starting the roll at this point in the collision.

IANACrash Investigator, and not entirely sure it explains the photo used here, but which seems to be the best overview of the crash site around.

Man drives 6,000 miles to prove Uncle Sam's cellphone coverage maps are wrong – and, boy, did he manage it

JetSetJim
Coat

Re: Speed.

Well, we know how much information is in an atom, multiply up by "atoms per car", and that's the total Mbits. The rest is an exercise for the student.

JetSetJim

Re: A good pro-bono opportunity for Google

Google don't need to do that, they could just publish the data they already collect - your Android phone periodically/sporadically connects to "mobilenetworkscoring-pa.googleapis.com". I wonder for what purpose?

JetSetJim

> My biggest thought with the idea of using a drone is that it would not be sampling where the phones are used, but 100yards in the air. Not exactly where I often am lol

Yup - networks are designed to give coverage on the ground, not in the air - even if some signal can bleed upwards, it will not be representative quality.

Huawei’s elusive Mr Ren: We’re just a 'sesame seed' in a superpower spat

JetSetJim

Re: Luddites = Non Sequitur

Well, I'm sure there are plenty of companies in the world are happy if trade secrets fall into their lap - Huawei may have been a bit more blatant about it (certainly in the past), but equally they have been very canny with their relationships with other companies and their customers in establishing their market position.

In terms of your chain that China isn't very innovative, I think several thousand years of history might disagree. But in the modern day era, specifically, I've been to the Huawei campuses in Shanghai and Shenzhen and they're huge. They have thousands of engineers to throw at problems, and a lot of them are very well educated. The ones I dealt with had to cope with not being allowed to bring materials to meetings (company policy to prevent secrets from leading!) But could still keep in their heads detailed review items for a 600+ page technical requirements document. The added bonus for China is that their labour force is/was so cheap, even for highly qualified staff, so it's not difficult to compete against a Western business which usually has a much higher cost base due to higher employment costs - even if starting from behind the curve.

Most munificent Apple killed itself with kindness. Oh. Really?

JetSetJim

Re: New Stuff

> Things I would be interested in? Longer battery life, more rugged device, better security, small enough to fit in shirt pocket, removeable storage, removeable battery, USB connectivity, ..... to name just a few.

Not all of these are compatible, longer battery life plus smaller form factor? That means less functionality.

I agree with the sentiment, though.

RIP 2019-2019: The first plant to grow on the Moon? Yeah, it's dead already, Chinese admit

JetSetJim
Coat

Re: Didn't Fred Hoyle and Asimov write about this?

Send Matt Damon up then, perhaps he can do something with that

Q. How exactly do you test car seats? A. With this sweaty 'robutt' that twerks for days and days

JetSetJim

yes, although I don't think those sweated into the seats

What's the fate of our Solar System? Boffins peer into giant crystal ball – ah, no, wait, that's our Sun in 10bn years

JetSetJim
Paris Hilton

Re: Boom!

I'm curious as to what form the crystalline lattice of carbon forms once the oxygen has sunk out - is it diamond or Buckyballs? Or a new form?

Asking for a friend -->

If I could turn back time, I'd tell you to keep that old Radarange at home

JetSetJim

Re: Pesky microwaves

Have heard of similar things in early mobile phone systems - one story in particular claimed that under certain conditions phones would connect to towers in different cities/towns/rural areas (not sure which propagation environment it was, suspect rural) and play havoc due to the timing offsets required to hit the framing of the phone signals over those distances (100's of km)