Re: Partnership?
"Yes, but we're tired of bending over for the deep & special insertion by our partners."
Ahhh so now you will get bent over by strangers instead. Good plan...
Posts by lglethal
3895 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2007
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Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, off you go: Snout of UK space forcibly removed from EU satellite trough
NASA fungus problem puts theory of 'Martian mushrooms' on toast
Horn star Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies aged 45
Tuesday 20th March 2018 14:55 GMT 
Re: Poisoning
By the way, I unfortunately dont see poisoning the ivory or the like having an effect. The money available to facilitate crime, in this case removing the effects of the poison from the ivory, is always higher than that involved in attempting to police it or prevent it.
I think a simpler solution would be possible - simply anyone caught poaching or dealing in ivory gets castrated (sharpness of knife can be variable). That should reduce the numbers willing to do the poaching in the first place, and those further down the line will no longer be in need of the aphrodisiac after the operation. Should act as a deterrent...
Breaking up is hard to do: Airbus, new bae Google and clinging on to Microsoft's 'solutions'
Boffins find sign of water existing deep into Earth's mantle by looking at diamonds
Google to 'forget me' man: Have you forgotten what you said earlier?
Fermi famously asked: 'Where is everybody?' Probably dead, says renewed Drake equation
Thursday 15th March 2018 10:40 GMT
Just a thought
Whilst I think the idea of expanding bubbles of radio transmissions makes perfect sense, the strength of a signal decreases with the ratio of the distance ² (inverse square law). From this I would assume there comes a point when the signal strength falls below the possible detection thresholds (i.e strength is at or below the background radiation noise). So whilst the bubble of another civilisation might be passing us right now, we wouldnt be able to detect it.
I'd be interested to know, if someone has more time (and frankly is extremely bored), how far away our signals will be visible. My guess would be around 1000ly, but I'm pulling that number out of my a$$.
Still we're probably not missing anything - If earth is anything to go by we're probably not missing anything but Survivor Sirius edition...
Blackout at Samsung NAND factory destroys chunk of global supply
Thursday 15th March 2018 10:27 GMT
Re: The maths don't add up...
I would hope that the loss of 11% of a months production, so ~1% of your yearly production would not entirely be offset by increased prices due to the restricted supply. It probably helps a bit, but hopefully not enough.
In which case, who ever made the decision to remove or undersize the generators gets a good kicking for costing the company a tonne of money. I sincerely hope that it wasnt an Engineer who screwed up and caused the failure, and it really did come down to a management decision, because we all know the engineer wont get anywhere near the protection for their mistake as the manager will...
Transport for NSW scrambles to patch servers missing fixes released in 2007
Thursday 15th March 2018 08:47 GMT 
I call bullsh%t...
"The problems at TfNSW seem to have come about in part due to Meltdown patches throwing other plans out of kilter. "
"Around a third of servers at Transport for New South Wales, the public transport department in Australia’s largest most populous state, need security patches, some dating back to 2007."
If you have unpatched servers going back to 2007, the problem is most certainly NOT caused by whatever the latest OS/Chip/general security blunder is.
Russian boffins blow up teeny asteroids with tiny laser... to work out how to nuke the real thing
Wednesday 14th March 2018 14:33 GMT
Re: I'm curious...
"I assume the difference would be similar to that of being hit at close range by a bullet or a shotgun blast."
Not quite. It would be more akin to the difference between someone shooting you at close range with either a high powered rifle or a shotgun, whilst a thin-ish shield material stands between you.
The high powered rifle blast will go through without any problems, and do significant damage to you. Basically your dead.
The shotgun blast may still go through in places, but at least a lot of the shots will be absorbed or deflected away from you, and those pieces that do hit you, will be slowed down significantly. Whether they have been slowed down enough for you to walk away from the incident is another question entirely. You're probably still dead, but you have a better chance of survival then with the rifle.
But Kids dont try this experiment at home...
NASA on SpaceX's 2015 big boom: Bargain bin steel liberated your pressure vessel
Tuesday 13th March 2018 17:59 GMT 
Pink Slips all round...
Dear god, not using aerospace grade materials in a frigging rocket??? All those who provided the signatures to sign off on that should be receiving their pink slip immediately. The quality person who signed should be the first one out the door!
There are reasons you use aerospace grade material. It might cost the earth, but you can guarantee that the material properties wont be the reason for failure (failures due to design (undersizing, messing up your stress analysis, etc) are another matter entirely). We dont use it in aerospace because we like giving money to the metal manufacturers. Sheesh!
Trying to save a few dollars by skimming on the materials - it ALWAYS bites you on the a$$...
Former Google X bloke's startup unveils 'self flying' electric air taxi
Tuesday 13th March 2018 14:44 GMT
Re: I'm not an aviation engineer...
"but doesn't having the props in front of the wing disturb the airflow and reduce efficiency?"
Yes it would have an effect on the airflow and efficiency during flight. But, I would imagine, the effect of having the props in front of thew wing with a clear sight of ground gives you greater efficiency during the take-off and landing phase (which are somewhat more critical).
So your probably not able to fly as fast, and you use more fuel in cruise, but your more efficient and lose less fuel in take-off and landing (then repositioning the fans to behind the wing or on top of the wing).
Where I'm not certain about is the transition between when the fans are still going and yet your starting to pick up forward speed I can see some very weird lift effects happening due to the disturbed airflow from the fans. still if its already flying they've obviously done the maths.
(PS. I am an aerospace engineer, but not affiliated with this, and so this is just my gut feelings...)
CEO of smartmobe outfit Phantom Secure cuffed after cocaine sting, boast of murder-by-GPS
Tuesday 13th March 2018 13:01 GMT
Ok, I've reread this article twice, I cant find anywhere in it comments saying that the police are trying to get encryption banned because of this incident. Do you have a different version of the article to me, perhaps?
The article talks about the police busting a drug dealer and getting access to the phone and using that to find other dealers. It also talks about various busts where they have found stacks of these phones, and it talks about using undercover operatives to talk to the head of this company and him admitting that the phones where for nefarious purposes.
So I think you've got on your hobby horse here without cause... Maybe try reading the article again, before going for another ride...
Man who gave interviews about his crimes asks court to delete Google results
Tuesday 13th March 2018 12:30 GMT
"The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia."
Personally, though i think you're exaggerating Ivan. The "Right to be forgotten" laws specifically exclude basically all of the examples you gave. So publications are free from editorial as are archives and record offices. It's the reason why, as it states in the article, he's not going after the publishers that first ran the stories.
Google is in a way an easy target, it's already got a lot of bad press, and it tends to be a bit stupid on these things (trying to pass themselves off under the journalism exemption is just stupid and likely to annoy the judge). Simply put the public interest defence would certainly seem to be the best course here. He commited crimes whilst acting as director of a financial services firm and now he is working again in the financial services industry, that makes it public interest. If he was working as a janitor, or sewerage plant work then he would have a much stronger case of it no longer being in the public interest.
Also the fact that he gave interviews about his crimes should basically put an end to this whole discussion. He obviously had no interest in letting his crimes be forgotten, so neither should anyone else.
Elon Musk invents bus stop, waits for applause, internet LOLs
Monday 12th March 2018 19:02 GMT
Re: I suspect you're not thinking like a futureologist!
Factories that produce products in their thousands like a coke factory have conveyor belts that shuttle around the products at very high speed and can branch things off easily and without stopping or slowing down. So what we need is something like that. Lets get in touch with Conveyor Belt manufacturers and get them started on man size versions...
Will the stock market drop Dropbox like it's hot? Numbers say no
Jupiter has the craziest storms seen yet, say boffins
For all we know, aliens could be as careless with space junk as us
Thursday 8th March 2018 12:53 GMT
just a little rant...
"Socas-Navarro calculates that at the current rate of exponential growth..."
sigh... No product continues on an exponential growth curve continuously. It might grow exponentially at the start, but it will eventually slow down as saturation is reached. To assume something will continue on an exponential growth curve, especially something like satellite launches, is utter bollocks...
It's the sort of thinking that comes from the same people who predicted that smart phone growth would continue to grow at 200% per year forever and failed to take into account the realities of product saturation and the reduction in improvements per lifecycle over time... in other words, bullsh%t artists and muppets...
SAP corruption probe: Indication of misconduct in South African public sector deals
Thursday 8th March 2018 15:33 GMT
As a reluctant SAP user, I'd love to put the boot in to them, but it looks as if the firm has actually done the right thing upon discovering the corruption. Sacking the senior management, and bringing in auditors, new compliance rules, etc. to actually fix the business as a whole.
It's rather refreshing. Not another "What us? No. Never. Oh ok. It was a rogue sales agent. Nothing to do with management. yadda yadda yadda."
Now if only they could do something to fix their stupid bloody program I'd be smiling!
Defra to MPs: There's no way Brexit IT can be as crap as rural payments
Uber-Lyft study author jams into reverse gear over abysmal pay claims
Thursday 8th March 2018 07:16 GMT
The new numbers are still bad, but they will be completely lost now because he came out with such a low number to begin with.
When you do a calculation and come out with an exceptionally low (or high number), the first thing you normally do is double check all your calculations. If your still getting the same number, you check all your assumptions. And if your still getting the same number you get someone else to read over it and check you havent done something daft. Only then do you consider that maybe the number is correct.
This papers authors credibility has taken a massive hit now, and the story will be more about how he screwed up then about the results which still show 50% of drivers earning less than the minimum wage. Which should be the story... Always check your calculations, your assumptions and your data, otherwise your failure will become the story rather then the results you find...
British military spends more on computers than weapons and ammo
Wednesday 7th March 2018 12:16 GMT
Just one thing to keep in mind. Unless you're doing a full on replacement of a weapon system, you dont need to be buying replacements constantly. Repairs and upgrades probably, but those expenses would be under a different cost category. So the fact that purchasing weapons and bullets isnt rated that highly doesnt suprise me. Bullets are pretty cheap, and you dont need significant numbers of new rifles each year. About the only significant expenditure in this line I can think of would be the aforementioned Brimstones. There's not that many other consumables I can think of for the UK MOD. Well maybe those Watchkeeper drones that keep crashing, but I dont think they were meant to be consumables...
Half the world warned 'Chinese space station will fall on you'
Wednesday 7th March 2018 08:27 GMT
Just an idea
Since people are actually relatively concerned that some larger parts of this space station could hit the Earths surface and do a bit of damage, why doesnt China, once the space stations a bit lower (i.e. in at a height that is guaranteed to de-orbit within a year) hit it with one of those same missiles with which they created a great bloody space mess a few years back (by shooting one of their failed satellites and leaving a great debris cloud strewn across an entire orbit).
Done right, you would hope thedestroyed space station would then have no large parts to reach the surface and cause damage and whilst this would create another great bloody space mess (TM), it would be at such a low altitude all pieces would de-orbit within a year.
They have the tech and I'm sure they wouldnt mind an excuse to test it again... And everyone underneath the predicted path can stop building bunkers. Win-win!
Shock poll finds £999 X too expensive for happy iPhone owners
Apple's new 'spaceship' HQ brings the pane for unobservant workers
Emirates dinged for slipshod online data privacy practices
It's ALIIIIIVE: Boffins detect slow-moving zombie star
Another day, another meeting, another £191bn down the pan
Friday 2nd March 2018 21:00 GMT
Re: 17 Johns
In my college at uni we had 7 different Daves. It was all a bit confusing until we came up with appropriate nicknames - DC, little Dave, Davo, Racist Dave, etc. Unfortunately, I doubt that would work in the workplace.
Thankfully as an Aussie, I can get away with just calling everyone "mate". Saves me having to learn anyone's name!
TVEyes blindsided: Fox News defeats search engine in copyright spat
Thursday 1st March 2018 08:08 GMT
EFF WTF?
"The EFF, of course, described it as a "terrible" decision..."
I'm normally a fan of the EFF, but defending TVEyes in this case is taking the p%ss.
If TVEyes just had the transcripts or just linked to the videos on the fox website (like a search engine)and there was a decision like this then by all means call it terrible. Perhaps if they were showing 30 second clips and including a link to the full video you could also argue for them, but showing the entire clip up to 10 minutes and not linking to the original source, really isnt a defendible action. It's flat out copyright infringement, there is not really a need for the EFF to get involved here...
Intellisense was off and developer learned you can't code in Canadian
SpaceX's internet satellites to beam down 'Hello world' from orbit
Friday 23rd February 2018 17:49 GMT
Re: Bah!
@arrzarr
I'm interested how you think they plan to slow it down. They've said no parachutes involved and it doesnt come with a heat shield so they cant use aggressive levels of aerobraking.Just using standard atmosphere to slow it down but without making it burn up, wont slow it down that much from Mach 8 (my very rough guess - its a friday and im off to the pub so im not going to actually work it out - would be Mach 3), certainly i dont think it would be down to "leisurely motorway speeds."
On that topic though, I'm also interested in what sort of net you would like to deploy to catch the equivalent of a car travelling at motorway speeds? If you have something, please contact Top Gear - I guarantee they would be interested (and maybe the police for car chases, but Top Gear would certainly be more entertaining! ;) )
Friday 23rd February 2018 07:34 GMT
Re: Bah!
I must say I would not want to be on board a ship thats trying to catch with a net a big old piece of heavy space equipment travelling at mach 8! What the hell do you make a net out of that can catch something travelling at mach 8!
icon --> for what happens when you get the catch wrong! :P
Batteries are so heavy, said user. If I take it out, will this thing work?
Amateur astronomer strikes it lucky with first glimpse of a Supernova
Europe's Unified Patent Court fate in the balance amid German probing (yes, Brexit is in the mix)
Thursday 22nd February 2018 13:30 GMT
Not implementing the ILO decision?
I was just wondering if anyone knows whats the come back against Battesteli and the EPO for not implementing the IPO's decision?
As far as I was aware when it came to labour disputes, the ILO is the be all and end all. So its not like the EPO are waiting to appeal the decision. So what is the punishment from the ILO? There has to be some stick involved otherwise firms/organisations finding themselves on the losing side of a case would just ignore the result.
Careful with the 'virtual hugs' says new FreeBSD Code of Conduct
A print button? Mmkay. Let's explore WHY you need me to add that
Japan's Robo-Bartenders point to a golden future
Facebook's big solution to combating election ad fraud: Snail mail
Tuesday 20th February 2018 13:49 GMT
Simpler solution
Here's my simpler solution (Facebook feel free to send me a cheque if you decide to implement this)
1) Any ad related to politics must be paid for by direct money transfer from a bank located in the country the politics is for (i.e. if you want to make an ad to do with american politics, your bank must be located in America.
2) Bank details for political ads are handed over to said country's federal law enforcement (e.g. FBI).
3) Law enforcement ask the bank if the owner of the Account is a citizen of said country, and if there are any suspicious or international deposits entering said account.
4) If yes, law enforcement to follow up and ads blocked. If no. hey presto ads go up.
Is that really so difficult? Law enforcement get to do their jobs (i.e. enforcing the law), Facebook et al are seen to do their part. And we dont end up with extra legal situations where companies are policing and enforcing the law.
Capita data centres hit by buttload of outages
Tuesday 20th February 2018 13:36 GMT
Re: Capita is "too complex"?
Funny I read that "too complex" comment completely the other way - in that he recognised that the company had not been following the KISS principle (I doubt I need to enunciate that, but here it is anyway - Keep It Simple Stupid).
If Crapita finally has a CEO coming out and saying "hey, we have made things way more complex then they need to be and we need to fix that." then I'd say that they might actually have found a CEO who finally understands the problems of the business...
Still I completely agree with Tiggity that all CEO bonuses should be delayed by 5-10 years to ensure some long term thinking.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
