* Posts by werdsmith

7096 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Feb 2011

Orion snaps 'selfie' with the Moon as it prepares for distant retrograde orbit

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: What's wrong with this statement?

This appears to be lifted directly from a NASA progress blog at https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2022/11/24/artemis-i-flight-day-nine-orion-one-day-away-from-distant-retrograde-insertion/ and NASA are USA.

I assume it is the change to the orbital velocity, it’s barely more than walking pace so a tiny correction. I can’t get my head round why that requires 17 second burn, must be very low impulse boosters.

werdsmith Silver badge

Composite material innit

ESA names first Parastronaut: paralympian and aspiring surgeon John McFall

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Bipeds

The design of two legs is optimised for uneven terrain under gravity. Not really required so much in orbit.

Study suggests AI cruise control could kill traffic jams by cutting out the 'intuition' factor

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Re: add some intelligence

One of the problems with adaptive cruise is following a car where the driver is constantly modulating their speed because they are not paying attentions to gradients or whatever reason.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Stick with the lane the trucks are in works for me

This is not true, if mythbusters say that then they are wrong,

Get on a motorcycle behind a truck, particularly an underpowered motorcycle and you can throttle back considerably and you don’t need to be as close as 20 feet from the Mansfield bars.

You can also feel the effect as less wind drag on your body.

And different trucks have different effects, the absolute best draft effect I found was car transporter trailers with few or no cars loaded.

SQL Server license prices rise ten percent as version 2022 debuts

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Word soup

Go to wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/postgresql_clients and fill yer boots.

SSMS is very good, though it needs sub folders for organising dozens of DBs or Agent jobs. Being slowly replaced by ADS, Azure Data Studio. SSMS is not the only good thing about SQL server, there are many. But Microsoft trying to assume a place beyond its real status now. As a not azure shop we will be soon a not SQL server shop because it’s forcing a choice.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Word soup

Exactly the same here @AMBxx. Developing the role of Postgres in preference to SQL Server wherever possible. A few years back we eased Oracle out, now the same process is being applied to SQL Server.

For the same reason, software licences are only worth the money if they offer value to the business. Pushing up prices squeezes that value margin.

University orders investigation into Oracle finance disaster

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An investigation into the choice of Oracle. Entitled “why the fuck???”

Chinese Loongson chips coming in 2023, on par with 2020 x86 kit

werdsmith Silver badge

It also matters how much power the devices consume and consequently how much heat they produce in achieving this performance. This information is not in the article but if these processors are efficiently relative to similar performing x86 then I’m sure a song and dance would have been made of it.

Aviation regulators push for more automation so flights can be run by a single pilot

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: two or zero are the only options

Aircraft that can't land at Madeira - which is up to road from Funchal at Santa Cruz and named after a footballer CR7, can go to Porto Santo, The Canaries or Marrakesh. They need to have sufficient contingency if the runaway is closed.

Auta landing systems are for visibility minima, not wind conditions. Pilots going to Madeira need special training so I would say that this route would not be one that is up for automation.

werdsmith Silver badge

There are many lone worker solutions available found by a simple search engine.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: two or zero are the only options

And even the most advanced automated landing system, the "Cat III" system installed at major airports, that can bring a plane right onto the runway in zero visibility, will not work at all if the crosswind exceeds a certain limit.

This applies to human pilots too. If conditions are too bad to land at your destination airport, then divert to another airport that has an into wind runway and better conditions.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Bank of mum and dad

A PPL on fixed wing is about $10k. Easily doable with a bit of savings.

I did the self improver route to CPL/IR as it was known, many years ago. At the time there were people supporting training by driving taxis, remortgaging. I did it by instructing, glider towing and eventually taking a share in a plane. As I understand it the door is now closed on the self improver route. I didn’t continue to ATPL.

Jaguar Land Rover courts coders caught in big tech layoffs

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Re: Need more than coders

I really don’t get how software is supposed to fix physical shortages.

Locked out of Horizon Europe, UK commits half a billion to post-Brexit research

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Re: The brexit gift

That was very weak @codejunky. Only to be expected considering what you are attempting to defend,

There are none so blind…

Like I said, you are extremely funny in your indignant response and desperate denial.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: At last a tangible Brexit benefit

Technically or not, it provided more money to science than the new effort.

And as a pooled resource, it allowed the undertaking of much bigger and more expensive project, and our research organisations could take part. No more.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: The brexit gift

Any EU nation was free to do its own thing with vaccinations, being part of that EU procurement plan was not compulsory. Just like the Euro currency is not compulsory. Or your traffic using the left side of the road. Anyway, they all got their vaccinations, the whole thing evened out in the end.

People who attempt to defend Brexit using the covid vaccinations are showing their absolute barrel-scraping desperation. Continue with the in denial comedy please, it’s quite amusing. And in no way is it dignified.

Orion reaches the Moon, buzzes surface, gets ready to orbit

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Some people have that piece of humanity that causes us to explore, discover and push the envelope to ever further frontiers, the piece that has brought us so far.

Some people don’t.

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison

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Re: The rich investors deserved it.

Same reason that HP failed to properly examine the Autonomy business before blaming everyone else.

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Re: Because she had already suffered by being stigmatized.

Does that apply to Mike Lynch?

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Re: Those eyes

This trait is not confined to nurses.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: For UK residents

In the UK the entire sentence is served, but some of it can be (and usually is) on license. A 15 year sentence is not the same as 15 years locked up in prison. A sentence can include a minimum time to be spent inside, but the length of the sentence includes time in custody and time on licence. On licence means a person can be returned to prison for any offence. Hence a life sentence. When a person is sentenced to life, they remain on license until they die, but not necessarily behind bars.

US Supreme Court asked if cops can plant spy cams around homes

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Re: Solution....

Jam it both sides of 510 nm using a power white light.

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Re: Still 5,280

Statute miles or nautical ones….

World's richest man posts memes as $44b Twitter acquisition veers off course

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Re: Waah

Register has already done it.

Artemis I isn't just a test run – there's science to be done

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Re: such as spacecraft orientation [...] through simple voice commands

You can also see the speed that the needle is moving.

Tesla reports two more fatal Autopilot accidents to the NHTSA

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Re: Wrong question

Last big accident I witnessed a bloke drove straight in to the back of a stationary car without slowing down.

Old car without forward emergency braking. I'll be glad when these vehicles are off the road.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Wrong question

I was driving through a town centre at a reasonable speed, well below the limit. A pedestrian stepped into the road without looking, and I went for the brake which I was ready covering. But by the time I got on the brake the car was already braking and stopping.

Though I believe I would have stopped in time, the car actually stopped about 3 metres before where the impact would have been.

In the event, the pedestrian hopped back out of the road, but I was very impressed by the car response and I always will have my own driving augmented by these aids - which will continue to improve. I will always use them because I am only human and not arrogant enough to believe I am an exceptional driver who will never make a mistake. Anything that adds to safety is to be welcomed.

And remember it's not all about you. Any time a poor driver or impaired driver could ram your car if there are no safety systems to prevent it.

Croatian EV maker Rimac claims 412km/h speed record

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Astramax Van ! Wow there’s a 1990s memory, can’t be many of those left in 2022.

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Regardless of how fast it can go, it's still going to get tailgated by a diesel Audi A3. No car escapes that experience.

Arm shells Qualcomm's Snapdragon launch party with latest salvo in license war

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Re: Still hanging on?

I don't really understand this weird obsession with nationality and ownership.

Is Guinness an Irish drink or not? Does it make any difference that the bewery is owned by Diageo with a HQ in Park Royal London? I would suggest that nobody would call Guinness an English beverage. Neither would they suggest that the two dozen or so Scotch whisky brands it wons are not Scottish.

So why does ARM, that has their main HQ in Fulbourn Road, Cambridge on the way to Cherry Hinton Tesco, have their nationality discussed and disputed? Because emotionally immature weirdos?

What's that, Lassie? Boston Dynamics is suing its robot dog tech rival?

werdsmith Silver badge

It's like using the same wind tunnel and CFD software to create the most aerodynamic shape. It will be similar.

NASA's Artemis mission finally launches after faulty Ethernet switch delayed countdown

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Thank you @blackcat. I have just pulled that one onto my Kindle.

werdsmith Silver badge

That is an absolutely incredible thing to witness, thousands of tonnes of chemicals being reacted to high velocity hot gas to lift itself in Newtonian fashion. A goosebump moment. I wish I was in Cocoa Beach for this.

AI analysis of dinosaur tracks suggests 'predator' may have been a herbivore

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Emu footprints.

Twitter is suffering from mad bro disease. Open thinking can build it back better

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Re: Judas

But a bloke down the pub said he read it on facebook....

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If the BBC funding changes then it must be compelled to retain its public service function and continue to make some of the TV for niche audiences that just wouldn’t get an outlet under an audience size funding plan.

Commercial repair shops caught snooping on customer data by canny Canadian research crew

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Re: Snooping

This has led to a few paedophiles getting locked up including, famously, Gary Glitter.

If you are going to check for a virus you have to scan the disk. If the scan turns up a suspect file, what does a technician do?

Twitter engineer calls out Elon Musk for technical BS in unusual career move

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Re: An old Dilbert

If you could switch your vehicle between forward and reverse 50 times per second ......

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: An old Dilbert

Bend radius of fibre optic cable. I've seen people attempt to fold them.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: An old Dilbert

How long does it take an electron to do one lap of a ring main?

Go ahead, be rude. You don't know it now, but it will cost you $350,000

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: You get what you order

There are some very unreasonable customers too, ones which the company is happy for them to go elsewhere.

Look! Up in the sky! Proof of concept for satellites beaming energy to Earth!

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Re: You also get the problem ....

If said satellite is is low Earth orbit, it's likely a lot easier to hit a (relatively) small region on the ground.

It would be if it wasn’t zipping past at 17,000 mph.

Tesla recalls 40k cars over patch that broke power steering

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Power steering

My first cars were designed without power assisted steering and I didn’t know any différent. They had lower geared racks and more leverage from larger diameter steering wheels. So, it was never difficult to steer, and large muscles were never required. We learned to inch the car forward to help and to this day with modern cars I still don’t turn the steering while stationary because I’m aware of the large forces it exerts on the mechanicals.

We also had to manually manage fuel air mixture with a choke, open windows with a rotary handle and separately lock each door.

Swiss drone-busting eagle squadron grounded permanently

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Re: El Reg goes full Yankee

Maybe not in Switzerland, but close. Haute-Savoie next to Lake Geneva is the home of Les Aigles du Leman and they do indeed have Haliaeetus leucocephalus Bald Eagles in their care.

Sizewell C nuclear plant up for review as UK faces financial black hole

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Re: Its ok

Indeed. It is not an objective vision as seen through the CodeJunky eyes.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Daft

Actually, if they hadn’t offered bell ends like Kinnock, Millband and Corbyn they would have seen the inside of number 10 for quite a few years.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Daft

And the introduction (and retaining) of comprehensive schools has been demonstrated to be better overall for most kids.

I’m a unitary authority here, there are only comprehensive. Across in the wider county there are grammars. Even the worst performing grammar out performs the best comp.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Daft

Yes, brave honesty. Need to have some serious gall to admit voting for Brexit.

No matter, we are just waiting for the Brexit generation to pass on so the damage can be repaired.