* Posts by jake

26591 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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What do you mean your eardrums need a break? Samsung-owned JBL touts solar-powered wireless headphones you don't need to charge

jake Silver badge

Re: Why not recharge cars via solar?

Cost/benefit says no.

There aren't enough usable square $UNITOFMEASUREs to do more than trickle-charge the system, giving you a couple miles of extra travel per day at best. In other words, your round-trip before range anxiety starts to set in is increased negligibly for a relatively high cost.

By way of reference, good consumer grade solar cells typically put out about 15 Watts per square foot, or 160 Watts per square meter. Keep in mind this is under ideal conditions. A Tesla Model S takes about 13,000 Watts to cruise at 55MPH, 20,000 Watts at 65MPH and 32,000 Watts at 80MPH. More if fully loaded.

At current technology levels, solar is good for one thing when it comes to automobiles: Keeping the battery from going flat during long periods of non operation. But you'll have to park it in full sun when you leave it in long-term parking ... don't pick that shady spot, and forget the garage.

jake Silver badge

Re: samsung audio brands

"a standard desktop PC"

Who makes that?

jake Silver badge

Re: "68 hours of playtime from just 1.5 hours of sunlight"

Now you've done it. It's sure to fail by Solstice. You should never speak of equipment longevity. Ever.

jake Silver badge

Re: "68 hours of playtime from just 1.5 hours of sunlight"

"a bit too marketing speak for my liking."

ITYM "marketing bullshit".

jake Silver badge

Re: samsung audio brands

The brand that came to mind was McIntosh ... but somehow I rather suspect that even they have a Samsung chip (or several) inside each and every box they sell.

Hate speech row: Fine or jail anyone who calls people boffins, geeks or eggheads, psychology nerd demands

jake Silver badge

Re: As my dear old mum used to say...

"words can never hurt me"

Try yelling "THEATER!" in a crowded firehouse.

jake Silver badge

Re: Wot?

Class action lawsuit for defamation of a huge group of people?

That's a joke, a joke I say ... everybody know that only lawyers make money in a class action case.

jake Silver badge

Speaking as a guy ...

... who had the job description "Boffin at Large" on his business cards when he worked for one of the largest companies in the world, I'm fairly certain that I'm not alone in calling her basic premise nothing more than twaddle.

But she'll make a quarter million quid or more selling a book to idiots, and she knows it. In other words, she's making a quick buck off the supposed downtrodden that she is supposedly championing. We have a word for that.

jake Silver badge

Re: Need to sell books

Exactly.

jake Silver badge

Re: I think she's trolling

She's not trolling. She's trying to sell books. It's advertising, nothing more.

Remember Unrollme, the biz that helped you automatically ditch unwanted emails? Yeah, it was selling your data

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Snob! Look, it's a snob!

That doesn't warrant a "unclear on the concept", nor a ::whoosh:: ... in fact, I'm not quite certain what it warrants.

But have a beer. You need one.

jake Silver badge

Re: In this day and age

I typoed, should have been 50 years ago ... I was specifically thinking about 1968, when IBM transferred it's Information Marketing Division to SBC ... Later, in the mid-late 1980s, a certain high-tech market payed for the placement of advertising into the MOTDs of a couple Silly Con Valley BBSes ... they were detecting connection speeds of 1200 or 2400 (or less) and offering cheap 9600 baud modems to those folks "still in the slow lane". The outcry was loud and instant, and they stopped the practice within a day or so and apologized for the "experiment".

It's all been downhill from there.

jake Silver badge

Re: In this day and age

For values of "this day and age" that started some 60 years ago, presumably?

London's Met Police splash the cash on e-learning 'cyber' training for 4k staffers

jake Silver badge

Re: If the Naked Truth be Told .. Is it an Uphill Task of Sisyphusian Dimension? ... Revised Version

"where are cyber criminals based and highly prized as much valued most valuable residents?"

Lagos? St. Petersburg?

jake Silver badge

Re: Well, seeing as ...

Ah. yes, "it happens in the cloud", meaning the speaker has absolutely zero idea how computers and networking actually work. Just eyeball any introduction level textbook on networking theory from the 1980s. Almost all of them have many drawings with a cloud-shaped squiggle to indicate where the "too difficult for management to understand" bits hang out and work their magic. Many advanced level texts from the era also have the cloud squiggle.

The name "cloud computing" was already a fairly common meme by the time Y2K rolled around. Most of us with some experience in the field tried to stop it, because we could see where it was heading ... marketing-driven beancounters running the centralized computer service bureau again, just like in the mainframe days.

And here we are. Everybody has a super-computer on their phone (with matching local storage!), and yet the sheeple GreatUnwashed have been brainwashed into thinking that somehow "the cloud" is better/safer/faster than local. The mind absolutely boggles.

jake Silver badge

Re: Well, seeing as ...

"so it's used by those in infosec for personal gain"

But as a clued-in IT pro you are not using it as an IT technical term. Which was kind of my point.

jake Silver badge

Re: Well, seeing as ...

My job title at Bigger Blue was "Boffin at Large"; it was even on my business cards (only because they wouldn't let me use my preferred "Chief Cook & Bottle Washer"). My actual position? Floating Senior Member of the Technical Staff. I wandered from department to department, putting out fires.

jake Silver badge

Well, seeing as ...

... the term "cyber" as a technical term is only used by gullible idiots with zero clues, I'd say The Met is pretty much on course.

Wham, bam, thank you scram button: Now we have to go all MacGyver on the server room

jake Silver badge

Re: Dont have your machine room at the top of a building

"even if the original spec is NO WATER PIPES IN THIS AREA WHATSOEVER"

... That's when The Boss decides she needs an Executive Powder Room, and the only place the lowest bidder can figure out to run the fresh, grey and black water pipes is through the ceiling of the data center. Naturally, they all leaked at various times in the ensuing decade. Fortunately, my warranty was made null and void by this bone-headed mistake.

jake Silver badge

Re: Not his fault really

"Lesson three: Someone will ALWAYS go "what does this button do?" whilst pressing it, especially if it is under a protective cover of some sort that can't be broken by simply walking into it (see #1) very clearly labelled what it does, how much pressing it will cost and that there's a camera monitoring it."

FTFY

jake Silver badge

Re: And this is why...

"Why use a pick?"

Because it's faster. Your way, you might have to try three keys. My way, I only need to use one pick. And that one pick works for most other makes of office lock, too.

jake Silver badge

Re: Scram button, revisited.

I usually have a kill switch and fire suppression within arms reach, too. Prudent. The switch itself isn't protected by a molly-guard, but the arming switch for the fire suppression is.

Yes, just like the aircraft emergency power button, but often to the point of destroying the motor just as you cross the finish line. It can activate another level of nitrous (dry or wet), increase the redline (if you normally run a rev limiter), tell the wastegate to increase the boost, adjust the timing, or more usually some combination. It is normally only used in the semi finals or the finals because of the chances of doing internal damage to the engine.

jake Silver badge

Re: Helping out...

My own land-line is the one number that I can never remember ... probably because I almost never dial myself.

jake Silver badge

Scram button, revisited.

As a side note to my fellow IT techs ... If you ever come across a drag racing advocate in your travels, don't assume that the "scram" button, often on the steering wheel, means "power down all systems". In fact, it means quite the opposite, and usually adds between 10 and 15% more power to the motor for a last-second improvement in ET and MPH. It's basically a press to pass button, and can activate one or more of several different methods of pushing a motor past it's normal limits for a second or two.

It's short for "scramble", which some racers call it.

The "All systems off" switch is located at the rear of the car where track personnel can access it in an emergency, and is usually well marked.

jake Silver badge

Etymology of "the scram button", according to the U.S. NRC.

My daughter just sent me this link:

https://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2011/05/17/putting-the-axe-to-the-scram-myth/

And now you know.

jake Silver badge

Coathangers are handy.

Here's an old post of mine from 2009, originally titled "That's just the switch, they do that!" ...

The scene: Old house in Mountain View, converted to Vet clinic.

The time: Late 1999.

The job: Convert the Vet's database from non-Y2K compliant PSI/Idexx on HP/UX to Cornerstone on Win98 (I know, I know, but that was what the Vet wanted).

Considering that Cornerstone included the database conversion in the cost of the 8 hour staff training session, my job was basically setting up the Windows boxes, installing software, and pulling wire. Easy. In fact, I did the complete network setup back in my lab, so all I had to do was make space for the computers, printers, label makers etc., plug it all in, and turn it on.

Unfortunately, the house was built in the post-war building boom, and originally had 2 prong plugs for mains power. Some had been converted to three prong, but not all. I had to convert the six locations where the Vet wanted the computers installed. Three new breakers, pull some wire ... Again, pretty easy.

Day of install, the Saturday afternoon before the Sunday the Cornerstone rep was to hold the staff training session. The Vet wanted me to plug a scanner into her personal machine. The floppies that came with the scanner didn't come with Win98 compatible drivers, so I used the new-fangled V.92 modem to dial into my ISP ... But the connection speed reported as 2400 baud instead of the expected 56K (or so). I broke the connection, redialed, same result. And again. Now, I had already used the modem from my lab, just to verify it worked, so I knew it wasn't my hardware ... I picked up the phone. Line noise. 60hz line noise, to be precise.

I turned to the Vet and asked how long the phones had been buzzing ... she brightly answered that "That's just the switch, they do that!" ... WTF? After further questioning, it turned out that instead of having six phone lines coming in, she had a small switch with six extensions. It was installed when she took over the practice about a decade earlier. (You can probably see where this is going ...).

She lead me to a storage and washing machine room in the back, and pointed at the wall. Hanging there was a dusty, cobweb covered, slightly sad looking $TELCO supplied switch. It had a three-prong cord ... plugged into a two prong socket. The $TELCO tech who did the install had cut the ground pin off the power cord to fit the availabe mains power. I asked her to go get me a cordless 'phone and grabbed a wire coathanger. With phone to ear, I grounded the case of the switch to the cold water pipe with the coathanger ... No more AC hum.

I explained the situation to her, and she went ballistic. After she calmed down a little, I asked if she wanted me to call $TELCO for her. (I could have put a new cord on it myself, and put in another 3-prong socket, but if you touch $TELCO gear, they will refuse to fix it if anything goes wrong in the future.) On further questioning, she allowed as to how in the last decade she had had techs out half a dozen times or so to service her telephones, including what sounded like a firmware upgrade to the switch itself.

Long and short of it, we had a $TELCO tech out 45 minutes after I hung up the phone.

jake Silver badge

Re: And this is why...

Came here to say much the same thing.

Sadly, it would seem that in the countries many of ElReg's commentards live in, the simple act of carrying a set of picks is considered a crime, even if you have no intent of doing anything criminal with them.

Why is the printer spouting nonsense... and who on earth tried to wire this plug?

jake Silver badge

Re: SMTP mains adaptors?

"I didnt realise they made mail servers that small."

There is no reason you couldn't put a full-fledged mailserver on something like a PocketBeagle, which fits in an Altoids Smalls tin.

jake Silver badge

Re: Much harder with an alternator

On the other hand, the wiring on those cars is so easy that ripping it all out and re-wiring from scratch isn't really all that difficult. My 1963 Ford Consul Capri GT is now 12V-ve, from 6V+ve. Only took a couple days to build a new wiring harness. Probably didn't hurt that while I was at it, I swapped in a Mazda 13B engine & 5-speed from an RX4 ... That bit took a trifle longer.

It's a billion-ton, 14-million-mile long mysterious alien formation – and Earth is heading right into it

jake Silver badge

Re: I'm perplexed

Consensus is that 3200 Phaethon is probably of cometary origin. Some astronomers refer to it as a "rock comet". Regardless of any handle us puny humans hang on it, it is an unusual object that probably belongs in it's own category.

jake Silver badge

Re: Where's the USAian contingent?

"Sulfer" is from the Latin "sulfur". You Brits use the perverted French "sulpher". Sez so right here in my OED.

jake Silver badge

Re: I'm perplexed

In a nutshell, a comet is made of various ices and small bits of sand and dust. They always follow the same path around the Sun (unless perturbed by getting too close to one of the planets). As it enters the inner Solar System, it heats up and starts outgassing and also releasing some of the sand and dust. Over time, the orbit of the comet collects many of these particles. When the Earth happens to intersect the orbit, we see the meteor shower. Note that the Earth's orbit does not intersect the vast majority of comet orbits because space is big. Really big ...

Here's a handy Web page that goes into it in a lot more detail: https://geology.com/articles/meteor-shower.shtml

jake Silver badge

Well, seeing as the British officially adopted the French "short scale" in 1974, the correct answer is "The French one, as also used by the Americans".

HTH, HAND

Attention! Very important science: Tapping a can of fizzy beer does... absolutely nothing

jake Silver badge

Re: Shaken

From my "Beer Tasting Notes":

#138, June 17, 1994: Here in the States, The Broon tastes like vomit before you drink it, not after.

jake Silver badge

Re: So many flaws

And of course the zeroth: Real beer drinkers don't agitate their beer unnecessarily.

jake Silver badge

Who in their right minds ...

... would buy 1,000 cans of beer? Or bottles, for that matter. Shirley it's far more cost effective to get kegs.

And then I realized the answer: People who think Carlsberg is beer.

We've heard of spam filters but this is ridiculous: Pig-monkey chimeras developed in a Chinese laboratory

jake Silver badge

::mmmmm:: crackling ...

As pressure builds over .org sell-off, internet governance bodies fall back into familiar pattern: Silence

jake Silver badge

Re: “our Yosemite,”

Last time I checked, Long Valley was a supervolcano ...

And now for this evening's space weather report. We've got a hotspot of satellite-wrecking 'killer electrons' in the outer Van Allen belt...

jake Silver badge

Re: Reward for each Killer Electron caught and jailed. -------->

No, the Space Farce is to stop the illegal aliens from landing on the wrong side of the wall.

jake Silver badge

Re: Don't worry kids

Goes right along with "Anything you walk away from is a landing".

Space Force is go, go, go! Because we have a child as President of the United States

jake Silver badge

Re: It Is With Such Baubles That Men Are Led.

You can't have my cats, they help control the deer population. I've got a bear you can have, though. Come Spring, I'll even throw in her cubs for free. You'll have to supply the handling, packaging and shipping.

jake Silver badge

Re: What codswallow!

That's "codswallop", or "cod's wallop" (if you're a later-day English speaker).

[edit] My OED suggests "hogswallop" (hog's wallop) is a regional alternative, but I've never heard that one in the wild.

jake Silver badge

Re: Wow.

Objection. Organ in question not in evidence.

Oracle leaves its heart in San Francisco – or it would do if, you know, Oracle had a heart

jake Silver badge

Re: "poor street conditions"

Those numbers are from a flawed study in 2014. The numbers today are well over 50% from outside SF ... and the folks who are from SF aren't the folks causing the problems (for the most part, there are bad apples in every barrel).

Look up Cockaigne, I believe even Wiki has an article on it.

jake Silver badge

Re: At what point will San Francisco realize ...

In a free society, there will always be a few who choose to live the life of a Hobo, Tramp or Bum (three completely different groups of people, BTW). In my opinion, as long as they aren't doing anything illegal they should be allowed to carry on doing what they are doing. It's none of my business to tell you how to live your life, period. All things being equal, this very small percentage of people is spread out over the entire population, and there is no major overload on the resources that they need in any one community.

San Francisco throwing huge amounts of money to "help" all these people who choose the lifestyle is doing more harm than good, in the sense that it concentrates these people in one place, placing the burden on a very small percentage of the space our society has available. Worse, it drags in all the people who think that life owes them a handout, and otherwise deserve to be taken care of, to the detriment of the vast majority who choose not to live that lifestyle. If SF's money could be spread out to programs across the country, so there was no competition for space among these folks, we wouldn't have the issues we have today.

Or, if SF pulled back all resources and only helped their own home-grown homeless, or perhaps only the homeless from the Bay Area, SF would no longer have the problem because the rest of the people would dissipate all by themselves.

With that said, there are certain members of society who do NOT choose the lifestyle. For example, the folks who have recently been made homeless by the wildfires here in California. These folks need all the help they can get. I have eight families living in RVs here at the ranch. They have water, power, propane, Internet, we dug a septic system for them, and found a couple of washers and dryers to turn an old barn into a laundry. They will be here as long as they need to be, rent free and utilities paid, no questions asked, until they can go home again. Four from the Tubbs fire of a couple years ago have gone home, one other is about to. They have been replaced by four more families. It's the least I can do.

jake Silver badge

Re: Smell of urine...

The public toilets exist. And a bunch of portapotties, too. Unfortunately, a number of the "street people" refuse to use them. It would appear that a percentage of these folks are a suit or two shy of a full deck ... but in ultra politically correct San Francisco, it's not expedient to one's career to point out the painfully obvious.

There are laws on the books against public urination and defecation, but if a cop tries to ticket an offender, they are shouted down by loudmouthed howlers screaming about "human rights" ... These people are so warped that they think that homeless people have a god given right to crap on the sidewalk, but the taxpayers who actually pay for those sidewalks don't have a right to use them without stepping in, or at the very least gagging on the smell of human shit.

Similar for hard-core drug use. I've seen a junkie shooting up right in front of a cop. When queried, the cop told me that they have a hands-off policy for such things. It would be funny if it weren't true.

It's been getting worse with each passing year for decades now. But the high-tech millennials and hipsters fight each other to move to this human-sty of a City. And then they vote to keep the people who allow the mess to stay in power. And they vote to increase the amount of money the City is paying to react to the problem, thus attracting more homeless. What the fuck is THAT all about, anyway? Are they really as brain dead as they appear? Seems they actually LIKE the status quo.

The mind absolutely boggles.

jake Silver badge

Re: OpenWorld?

"Time wounds all heels." — Marshall Reid & others, 1930s

jake Silver badge

Re: "poor street conditions"

No. As much as I dislike the companies mentioned, they have absolutely nothing to do with San Francisco's homeless population. Consider that SF has apparently had zero issues coming up with a quarter billion dollars per year to throw at the problem these last several years without corporate support.

Keep in mind that almost all of the homeless in SF flocked to SF from other counties and states to get a free handout. Very few are actually homegrown. SF has created an aura of being The Big Rock Candy Mountain[0], and the bums are responding to the tall tales. You can't blame Corporate America on this one, SF has brought it on itself.

[0] "Cockaigne" to you Euro types.

OK. We're off. Water ice found just below the surface of Mars. Good enough for us. Let's go. Impulse power, Mr Sulu

jake Silver badge

Re: Would a shovel...

No need for nukes, steam would suffice.

jake Silver badge

Re: Minty

Re: quicklime ... mint actually prefers a pH of between 7 and 8 (most garden plants prefer 6 to 6.5), but I have successfully grown mint in soils with a pH as high as 9.5. So strangely enough, augmenting your soil with quicklime might actually help it.

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