Posts by John Brown (no body) 25376 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2010
Well, not quite "news". Although the article doesn't appear to be dated (maybe because I have scripts blocked), but from that article, "led by the US engineering firm URS, which is contracted to manage the LLWR to 2018,", so I suspect it's from at least a few years before that. I can't find anything more current, so can't tell if things have improved or nor yet.
"but it does at this point feel rather like something we should have started doing 25 years ago."
IIRC, it's been talked about for at least that long, but no one seems to have bothered so far. I suspect it's more about sweating assets, known tech and the incumbents only changing when being forced to do so. Likewise, as part of all of that, industry doesn't like to invest until it become urgent and they can say they need government grants to get started. The tech for small nuclear reactors has been around since the first nuclear powered submarines were launched.
"1. Process part-used fuel and extract the unused fuel from the fission products to make new fuel (i.e. concentrate it). This is a good thing and a bit of a no-brainer ... but some of those byproducts are toxic, dangerous to handle, and require careful (and costly) storage and disposal."
Isn't that what the now defunct THORPE at Sellafield was for? IIRC, much of the world was sending stuff there to be re-processed.
"far higher safety outcomes than any other type of plant."
IIRC, the "natural" radioactive emissions from coal plants into the environment was significantly higher than what was defined as "safe" for nuclear plants. Coal = safe, Nuclear = OMG DANGEROUS is part of why nuclear is vastly more expensive. As others have pointed out, newer technology can be a lot safer and a lot cheaper and I'd much prefer a nice, decent, reliable and constant base load. Wind and solar are not that. Cloudy calm days across almost the entire UK are not unheard off. And despite the promise of wave and tidal going back to the 1960's which the UK should be well ahead in, we really don't seem to be getting any further than a few very small scale prototypes, often, ironically, for environmental objections (remember the huge campaign against wind turbines lead by the RSPB "because kills birds" that seems to have gone away now?)
"I suppose for that price, the thing will rest inside a glass box for the rest of its life,"
Well, yes, of course. At that age, there'll be DANGEROUS LEAD in the solder. Elf'n'Safety dontcha know. There's probably a hint of CARCINOGENIC chemicals too! (Note the SCARY CAPITALS)
Coat, rather than Joke icon, since to some, it might not be a joke, especially if the buyer is in California.
Yeah, but the energy used to create it will, eventually, be from green renewable, so it's easily transported and stored using existing infrastructure. Setting up charging stations everywhere could well be less efficient, especially in more rural areas.
"It's easy to improve the working conditions of HGV drivers, the British government just doesn't want to."
It's not all their fault. The truck stop owners have to shoulder some of the blame. But then truckers don't want to pay too much either. I've no idea of the economics of running a truck stop. Land prices? Taxes? General running costs? Owners assuming they are owed a couple of international holidays per year so won't invest in facilities?
"I would have included a diesel generator to at least partially re-charge while you sleep."
For the sort of trips you mentioned, which are also a thing in other parts of the world too, ie could be days between charging points, yes, some form of charging while parked up is going to be a must. Or, as per the article, hybrid rather than full electric. I wonder how much charge an over-day sleep break and driving at night would help? I'm thinking solar panels across the trailer roof too, where possible. Maybe in places like Oz with long, straight outback roads. I've no idea if that's a bad idea from either the drivers point of view or night-time animal hazards in the dark.
They don't make it explicitly clear, but the inference from the clues in the text seems to indicate that this only applies to long stops, eg overnight or proper 2-day breaks and even more specifically to doing so in, eg a lay-by. It's certainly about time truckers were treated better and this sounds like a good start. Clearly the employers are doing nothing, so it's well past time for legislation to force them. Another good start would be more and upgraded truck-stops with decent shower blocks and bogs.
As for this new truck, I know some trucks are already a little like a mine-flat/studio apartment, but most of the ones I've seen seem to be poor attempts to jam scaled down "furniture" into available spaces. When you look at some of the incredible engineering that goes into caravans and camper vans, it makes you wonder why the truck builders aren't hiring those designers.
"(also why automatic translation of idiomatic language is likely to fail) because they rely on understanding."
Hence the often strange, sometimes funny, often just plain wrong auto-subtitles on YouTube videos. Not to mention the occasion outrage over some TV shows subtitles which in some instances have completely charged the whole meaning of the show and plot from the original language version.
Also why in diplomatic negotiations, both sides use their own translators and can spend months or years over fine details, and they still get it wrong.
"Because nobody can accurately calculate humor."
Party because context is everything. Take a hilarious[1] line from a comedy show and drop it into a "straight" conversation, and odds are it won't be funny in the least. At a comedy show, you are expecting stuff to be funny and the line is mixed in with stuff that is also funny.
[1] for whatever your own measure of hilarious is.
The headline and the constant references in the article to GPUs implies it was the chips on the way to the factory making graphics cards that were stolen, except for the quote by the NVidia guy who correctly refers to "graphics cards". I expect more from El Reg authors and editors.
"This will most likely be a caching server, I.e. first time someone watches a program it will take a copy then the next person who watches the same will be fed off the local server."
From looking into it, it seems that Netflix populate the caches off-peak and part of the requirement is a minimum speed rating for the cache server to talk to Netflix to guarantee Netflix data can get through. The type and size of caching server will depend on the ISP and their Netflix traffic levels. So I'd guess that Netflix must, at the very least, be tracking what is going through each ISPs caches and keeping them "topped up" with likely shows based on viewing habits. Of course, Netflix have precise details of what each customer watches and when and almost certainly know which ISP their customer is using so that may be moot anyway.
So, this Netflix Open Connect content delivery that saves ISPs so much bandwidth. How does it work? Why would Netflix offer to supply and install it for "free"? What do they get out of it? Is it purely to off the Netflix customers a better service to aid in selling more subs? Or is it a closed "black box" over which the ISP has no control while ot slurps up data the ISP may not want to give away?
Is there a catch? If not, is the potential for a catch there once the ISP is grabbed by the balls?
Cynical? Moi? Naaaaaa....yeah.
"There probably is something genuinely "meta" about an increasing number of people cocooned in virtual worlds while the actual world burns or drowns just beyond their peripheral vision. But not in a good way."
Now, if we can convince these people to use their imaginations, while attaching their static bikes to generators to produce electricity, maybe fit the meat-sacks with feeding and evacuation tubes...
Which pill will you take?
"Unfortunately my lappy's keyboard has so few keys, that not only does it lack Scroll Lock, it doesn't even have Page Up & Page Down or even Insert. Home, End and Pause are also missing."
Which make/model? Every one I've ever had, used and had in for repair has all those keys, often as secondary functions on other key accessed with the Fn "shift" key if there's no dedicated keys. Or is it more of a Chromebook or tablet-like rather then a general purpose laptop?
It's a marketing figure, as used by all ISPs and mobile phone companies. ie it's the potential number of people who *could* access it because they are within range of the service. Whether they can afford it or want it or have gone with a different service, is another another matter. Or, far that matter, whether it would even be worth using with that many customers all signed up.
I would think a lot depends on exactly how they are using the water. If they evaporatice cooling on the roof, then just how much of the original drawn off water can be returned? Likewise, if they have any de-humidifying air-con, that could put a small amount of water back into the system from the ambient air. But I'm struggling to think of how they could put 100% back, let alone 120%.
"Why do you think the TVs are so cheap these days?"
They're not. They are just generating bigger profits and a regular income stream. Everyone is jumping ship from the "sell and item" bandwaon onto the "x As A Service, regular income stream" bandwagon, whether that be subscriptions, rentals or data hoovering.
Eventually, the data hoovering bubble will burst as all these advertisers eventually realise they really don't actually need all this fine grained data on a "per individual" basis.
"the Omnipotent Google Oracle tells me that abend is actually short for 'abnormal end'!"
I remember in my early days as a hardware field engineer being asked for the "abend" messages on a Novel server. It took a little while as I'd never heard the term before, the "word" made no sense in my brain, and it was a few years later that I figured out it was Abnormal End too :-)
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