* Posts by MachDiamond

8717 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Aug 2012

Apple Vision Pro is creating a new generation of glassholes

MachDiamond Silver badge

The idiot is strong in this one

" "I pulled to the right most lane, turned on Autopilot, and put the headset on for the video," Lentini told us via email. "I wasn't pulled over, hence didn't receive any ticket." "

Why does this brain surgeon think that he would have to be pulled over to be ticketed. It's commonplace, but if you get spotted doing something illegal, you aren't off the hook if you turn into a mall and park up. Even if you make it home and get inside before being tackled, there's no "get out of jail free" card for that.

America's broadband bill subsidy runs out of money and halts enrollments

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Affordable Connectivity: A Vital Lifeline for Millions

" if internet companies offered affordable internet services at affordable prices for low-income people on welfare. "

They don't have to. They can keep the prices high since the government will sponsor those that don't have enough money to pay for it.

"It is about time the US government prioritizing the needs of US citizens and committing to ensuring every low-income and impoverished US citizen has affordable access to the internet, as the internet is more of a vital necessity than a luxury."

What about all of the Obama phones? Poor people are given free phones and service. It's not unlimited everything, but WTH, if you want something, it must be paid for. How much internet should people be given for free?

Return to Office mandates boost company profits? Nope

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Just reduced my office time

"Prototype has issues you think shouldn't happen."

So if you need to talk with somebody or they need to talk with you, email, DM, etc rather than constant interruptions. At that point, what was the reason again for having everybody in one office? Before the explosion of communication methods, people did need to be in one location and the company needed to be in an office district with other companies in the same line of work and not too far away from the financial district and the ports. These days a person could be based in luna and it would make very little difference.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Top mangers

"Numerous company top managers argue that working from home reduces the need for top managers.”

Managers are still needed, but if they can't manage people they can't see, that would reveal either that manager isn't necessary or isn't good enough.

Guy Kawasaki wrote that Steve Jobs had a technique of MBWA (Management By Walking Around) and that was after his return and Apple's big growth spurt, but Steve was sort of a dick. Things happened, but plenty of people left and some of those that hung around would have preferred he stayed in his office, in another building. The big boss wandering around looking over people's shoulders and asking them questions doesn't work as a way to encourage productivity.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: No WFH - WTF

"Today's smart phones are terrible devices for phone calls."

My long lost POTS lines were better, but I still use the mobe for voice calls. Text is a time waster for me and I don't live my life looking at the phone and banging off the walls.

Anybody not on my contact list calling from a number I don't recognize is going to enjoy my dulcet tones delivered by my Voice Mail message. If they don't leave a message, they are giving up their chance to get me to renew my auto warranty coverage. I'll also look up the number later and if it's noted as a spammer, it will be blocked and assigned a silent ring tone. A good way for a politician to get me to vote for the other person is to send me a text. I used to have text turned off on the carrier level, but they won't do that anymore. Every once in a while it's handy if somebody needs to send me a lockbox code or some other bit of info that I'd never remember unless I could write it down.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Measures

"Can it be possible to isolate the change in outputs specifically due to location of employees?"

I don't think the employers that want people back and firmly shackled to a desk in a downtown high rise will want to look at that. I know some people enjoy busy dense cities, but I am firmly in the other camp. There's no way I could afford to own my own home in most of those places, much less have it paid off. I also don't like an endless parade of people wanting to sell me something going door to door which doesn't happen nearly as often in a small town where the houses can be spaced quite a distance from each other. Not that I answer the door when I'm not expecting somebody.

Being happy where I am and not traveling to a place I don't like is likely to be a factor in my output. Not having to take deep breaths and bring my mood back down to ground level means I can get to being productive much quicker and not start ramping up the "commute home dread" sometime mid-afternoon. Buzzing around town is perfectly fine. I know many of the shop owners/employees, traffic isn't an issue and there's the pleasant chance of running into somebody I know and having a chat, getting a dinner invite, that sort of thing.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Just reduced my office time

"I still work down here, but as a contractor, making more per hour, *every* hour, and thoroughly enjoying it."

I'm in the same boat. My home workspace is better equipped and set up to my preferences much better than when I worked at the rocket company (not SpaceX, wankers). I make more per hour and get more done every hour I work from home on electronics things (I do field service stuff too (photos, plans, aerial images). I get my music or not and people aren't walking up demanding I help them do their jobs. I can be virtually present if needed, but I prefer not to install Teams, Zoom or Skype on my computers so it would require getting yet another one just for that sort of time wastery. I can also do whatever work I want without an employer claiming rights to that work because I did it using company resources.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"There is something to be said for "If you can do it at home, why can't someone in India do it?"

If there is somebody in India that can do the work, they could. A downside I've run into is the business culture in other countries can be very different, the holidays are different and even when somebody in India speaks "English", it's different English than the UK, US or AUS. This always makes for odd documentation. An Indian working for a British company could be required to adhere to the same holidays, but that won't mean that resources they might need locally aren't available as the businesses are shut for something. When I had a manufacturing company and one component we used was sourced in S. Korea, I imported a listing of common Korean holidays for my calendar so I'd know if I shouldn't expect a response to a fax or email for a day or so. If I needed to ring up to discuss something time sensitive, I'd know when I should do that rather than invest all of that money to make the call for naught.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"There isn't a problem to get a break point as early as 12 months today."

That will vary depending on tenant improvements and who is paying for them. Some landlords will give a tenant a certain budget to shape a space fit for their needs in exchange for lease terms that pays that cost back plus interest.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Property leases tend to be long ie. 10~20 years, expensive, with upwards only price increases, difficult (and expensive) to get out of. So executives are having to live with having to service a large opex cost. "

This could go right along with the sunk cost fallacy. An empty office is cheaper to have than one full of people and furniture. It's also easier to sub-lease the space if it's empty. Some contracts don't allow tenants to sub-lease, but will allow a tenant to break a lease if they can find somebody else to rent the space.

Cory Doctorow has a plan to wipe away the enshittification of tech

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Wait he's saying tech LOST?

"Sure instead of a few hundred companies there are a lot fewer due to buyouts like Facebook buying Instagram and Whatsapp or companies like Blackberry folding because they couldn't see beyond their current market to where the future would lead."

In some places the number of competitors is down to one with a huge barrier to enter that market. In the US, Live Nation/Ticket Master owns nearly all live music. Since they do, a face value $40 concert ticket can easily cost $80 and if you can't go/change your mind, they've got the laws passed to prevent you from selling that ticket. These days I only go to shows to see my friends when I can get in for free or when acts play small venues that sell their own tickets. I've even driven a couple of hundred miles to do that. It's also great to see bands in smaller venues where you aren't 7 leagues back. A friend just saw G3 (Eric Johnson, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani) mid-week in a smallish club and his mind is still blown. It can pay to live in out of the way places.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Bog Zech?????

"That job should have been automated into oblivion decades ago."

Say that in earshot of the union bosses and you might go missing. They very forcefully don't want that sort of discussion taking place.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Bog Zech?????

"The labour of a cleaner is unskilled compared, say, to the labour of a computer programmer. It is a fact. And none of your lefty ideology is going to change it."

There is no contradiction in saying somebody is a skilled cleaner. I see it as mostly a supply and demand issue. A really smart person can be an excellent cleaner as well as somebody that dropped out of school at age 10 and there's a greater supply of people at the latter end of the scale. The gag about buying bespoke rocks on the way into the arena for the stoning is a play on this theme.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Deliberation

"It sounds like in your utopian world everything is government-owned and government-run."

I got tired of typing. I could go on for paragraphs on all of the ways a government run search engine would suck. The utopian world in a pure form wouldn't have any need for a government as everybody would be honest and all would work for the common good. I didn't even fall for that when I was in college, but it still seems to be a popular theme on university campuses.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Does old Cory know what he's talking about?

"As it is, Android is utter shite, but Apple is worse. And there really isn't a third choice."

Graphene OS. A de-googled phone gets Google out of your hair. It's a matter of what issue is getting up your nose the most. I also think that too many people want their mobe to be as good as or better than a laptop and get mad when it isn't. (A tablet being a giant mobile (phablet)).

There are alternative choices, but they don't have massive marketing budgets and they often take some skill and fortitude on the user's part to make them go.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Does old Cory know what he's talking about?

"And Apple are doing very well and still in their walled garden."

A walled garden with really expensive tickets to get in.

Is Apple/Tim Cook resting on their laurels at this point? Are they getting more converts to iOS? I never liked how locked down their mobile products are so while I use Apple laptops and desktops for most of my computing/online needs, I use a de-googled android phone and android tablets. The tablets are for the drone, camera control and showing images I've done to other people. I don't use them for online things. I also have Win7 pc's and a linux machine (the cheese grater has all three via VMware.) Different cars for different trips.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Does old Cory know what he's talking about?

"He's very good at making these wide, sweeping statements, as if they're somehow some kind of philosophical or ecomic laws. But what's he got to back them up?"

Cory has been an analyst of the tech industry for many years. He's also a very good philosopher and good at seeing things that many people don't. Not only is he good himself, he works with many others who are just as good at sorting out the real reasons vs. the marketing fluff why things are done a certain way and how the tech world shifts and changes.

If you look up talks he's done, his web posts and other information, it's easy enough to get listings of his references on a subject and the raw data to do your own analysis. You might be at a disadvantage in not having the same access to experts when you need them that he does when you are trying to make sense of why a company or politician/government did something.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Eternal Growth

"The root problem is the idea of eternal growth. Shareholders expect the same or better dividend than last year, even if last years was a freak"

Hmmmm. The stocks our family trust has are dividend stocks, not growth stocks. They tend to be different sorts of companies. A company undergoing lots of growth is less likely to pay a dividend since they can use the money to fund more growth. A more mature company or one in a mature industry can often pay a dividend since there isn't the drive to grow as much as remain relevant and optimize operations for the best profits. Our tactic is to find boring companies that don't have to be slaves to fashion which can lead to giant upticks and spectacular crashes. We like companies that make things like washers (metal stampings, not for clothes). If they specialize in quality for a market like aerospace, more the better. No matter how bad Boeing screws up, that washer company isn't going to be much impacted even if Boeing is one of their customers. I've visited that particular company to check them out and it's nuts to see barrels and barrels of stampings with an inventory tag that reads 1,798,880ea or so on the top of each one. It's not a product that going to be made obsolete by some "disruptor" and the company pays a regular and reasonable dividend on the stock. Tortoise v. Hare.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: It's everywhere

"The pipework that dumps the poop into the sea dates back 100 years or more."

Robbie Coltrane did a program where he was on a steam powered ship whose original tasking was to load up with waste water from the sewers and take it out to sea to be dumped. A big tanker full of jobies. I'm only surmising that schedules were based on which way the tide was going when they opened the valves.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: It's everywhere

"20 quid in 1975 is about 200 in today's terms. Not sure I'd call that a cheap day return!"

Whether anything can be called cheap or not depends on what it's being compared to. A toaster at the big box store for £7.77 might be called cheap (inexpensive), but if it fails after toasting one loaf of bread and you didn't keep the receipt, it's suddenly very expensive. If it cost £200 in petrol, parking and tolls, a train for the same amount could be called cheap. It could also be called cheap if it was faster to take the train. I can visit my mother by car or train (the car is more expensive on the weekends when the train is discounted) and it takes 3 hours each way. The most it's ever taken on the train is 4 (once) and 6-1/2 by car (a few times). When I take the train, I'll bring a coffee/tea, a bun and my tablet to watch a movie or listen to a book. Every so often they'll be somebody interesting to talk to. The overall experience is better on the train so even when it's more expensive, to me, it's better value for money.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: It's everywhere

"All privatization has done is allow financial types to extract value from that built up by people over the years. "

It's always going to mean a big price increase for the riders. A lot of public transportation doesn't need to break even from the fares. A city tram service means less parking needs to be built and maintained for people to do business in the city center. The city gets funds from taxes collected in combination with less costs for infrastructure. I'm more than happy to park on the outskirts and take public transportation if it's convenient, on-time and comfortable rather than sit in bumper to bumper traffic with my eyes swiveling around to find some parking. Those car parks would also be easier to maintain over scores of many smaller ones. Private transportation companies are looking to make lots of money to well compensate their executives and board members. When it doesn't pan out, they close shop which can lead to serious problems until somebody (government) rushes in to get something in place before the city comes to a standstill.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: It's everywhere

"**The platform caff on my local station has been closed for over a year because the commercial rent they "have to charge" put the last one out of business and they haven't found a tenant to take it on. They'd rather leave it closed than drop the rent, presumably cos they can use it as a write-down on the books."

It's not just the rents, but the regs. It can be like a shop in a mall where if you don't open by a certain time or shut too early, you get fined. I remember one food stall where there was some issue in the kitchen so somebody ran out and bought a box of biscuits so they could show they were open and doing business to avoid a fine. There can also be loads of inspection requirements and having to submit lists of the products you will sell and receive permission for each one in case something might cause offense. It's endless and better to have a cafe that's within a short walk of the station so people can buy their morning coffee and buns and shop owner can close up until the people return in the evening if there isn't much business during the day.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: It's everywhere

"AI for many companies is just another way to push this further, a way to ditch underpaid staff completely, deliver even shittier levels of service and extract ever more money."

This is where this sort of thing is weird. Why spend loads of time and money to be able to dispose of the lowest paid staff? I can see it if it then means a reduction in the next layer up and again another layer higher. Lower headcounts on the front lines where the work is done should lead to lower headcounts of the people that supervise them.

I can think of some situations where the lowest people on the totem pole are a bottleneck. Automating them out of existence might mean better utilization of other assets. The down side is that if the machine break down, there might not be a way to quickly throw a bunch of people at the problem as least temporarily.

Missed expectations, zero guidance: Tesla's 'great year' was anything but

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Heavy hauling is a very demanding industry with little tolerance for failure on the reliability and service side of things."

I found it interesting that most trucks in the US "cube out" more often than they hit the limit on max weight. Pepsi/Frito lay hauling packets of crisps from the factory to distribution warehouses is a good application for the Semi. For that it's more about volume than mass. The runs are also well known and regular so there's no questions about running out of battery and charging can be installed dock-side on both ends. As a general purpose vehicle for sale to owner/operators, it's not that attractive.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: FSD on old Hardware

" 300 000 lines worth of code replaced with an unverifiable AI black box? I do not see it happen.."

That made me think of some of the early chat boxes becoming very rude and obnoxious. What will an AI autonomous driving system devolve into after dealing with stressed rush hour drivers? "Kill them all, every one of them, and their newts" wouldn't' be a good result.

Ford pulls the plug on EV strategy as losses pile up

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Re: Platform

"Japanese manufacturers in general have been holding out for solid state batteries."

Good luck with that.

Saving weight is a good goal. I wonder how much lighter an EV could be if all of the driver assistance carp was pulled out. All of the motors and solenoids that cater to people that are too lazy to manual open the "gas" flap. It will take a big jump in battery technology to see a rise in energy density. How close to C4/TNT in terms of energy density to you want to sit on top of?

Yes! The ability to make something and the ability to make money doing it don't always mesh and the last mover has the advantage of not having dug a financial hole in the mean time by having to sell under build cost to sell at all.

Even without a load of breakthroughs, there are plenty of good use cases for EV to be useful for a large number of people. How many of the naysayers are driving coast to coast in the US every other week as they seem to be saying? When called out they often have to back down to saying they'd "like to have the option". Why? If I needed to get half way across the US for a family emergency, I take off in my car immediately. I'd go home, find the first flight I could catch, shower and pack a bag long before I'd embark on a few days of driving. I once ran the numbers to get from Los Angeles to Chicago via the car, the train (with a room) or a business/first class plane ticket for two people traveling together. All in, they were about the same price. I don't fit in economy plane seats so those were out. Anybody over 5'4" is crammed in these days and I'm 6' with shoulders several inches wider than those seats. If I had to make the trip in the shortest amount of time, I'd (cringe) fly. My preferred mode would be train unless I wanted to dawdle along the way and stop a lot in which case I'd drive. I might also consider flying one way and taking the train in the other to shave a day or two off. It's not a bad trip in an EV now. There are plenty of high power chargers along the way so with a fast charging car, it's about the same time to charge while making a quick visit to the loo. I chose the city pair since they are well served by all three modes of travel. That can't be said for many trips in the US using Amtrak.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"The second is that at least since I retired I make most of my journeys within a fraction of EV range from home but half of my mileage on those few long trips."

You see that the details will vary from person to person. The vast majority of my field service work is well within the range of a basic EV. The bulk of my long trips already have charging along the way. The few really long journeys I am planning over the next couple of years also have enough charging to do them with, admittedly, little margin but two years ago they weren't all that possible at all without many stops to charge very slowly. Really really really long trips I'd rather take a train than drive.

Long trips in an ICEV are easy to make now, but that's after 100ish years of the personal automobile. To expect the same level of "jump in and go" for an EV in the next week is silly. Change costs money and rapid change costs lots of money ( loads of it due to fraud). The US is thinking that the government throwing loads of taxpayer money at it is a good tactic. They also think that "to be fair" money should be allocated to low-income and historically disadvantaged neighborhoods to install chargers. I predict zero charging and a 100% chance the copper will be stripped from end to end in the first few days in those places. People that have to scrape together bus fare aren't buying EV's.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Around me, the speed of an EV refueling at home is infinite. Area is all terrace housing with no off road parking, so you _can't_ charge while you sleep."

**Attention, Rude response follows***

Sucks to be you. In many parts of the world where cities were designed around horse drawn carts, the modern automobile isn't a great option at all. If you live someplace with no charging options, mixing that with an EV is a bad choice. It's slowly being overcome, but it's the fruit at the top of the tree. Those that do have off-street parking are the best candidates for an EV right now and over time it will be less of an issue for others.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Spent Batteries

The battery packs in EV's don't just fail one morning as can happen with lead acid car batteries. They tend to lose capacity over time but, a 60kWh pack that's lost a third of its capacity is still a 40kWh battery and can run a home for a few days or a week with some conservation.

The reason quotes for a new pack are so expensive right now is there is no market for third parties to manufacture replacements. The Tesla Model S early models are out of warranty, but there's demand for those batteries sans the car as they are very high quality and modular. If you look at the Toyota Prius, there are lots of replacement and refurbishment options that are not outrageously expensive. The Li packs that are drop in replacements for NiMh OEM batteries even give a bunch more pure electric range for a reasonable price. There's no reason not to expect major aftermarket parts makers to be selling replacement and refurbished EV packs when it's economic to do so.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Hertz aren't dumping their EV fleet. Hertz EVs are mostly Teslas"

I haven't seen any postings on where they deployed these Teslas. An airport location might be the worst place for them. Somebody on a business trip or holiday that isn't already familiar with a Tesla may not want to try and figure one out on the fly. A neighborhood location might attract people curious to try one out for a weekend or while their car is being repaired and could get along ok with one full charge if they can't figure out how to charge it on their first go and need some help.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Once upon a time....

"For the one driver who gets to it first. Not for the rest of the drivers who may have been hoping, or even depending on getting it. "

The point of not fitting high power charging is so many more can plug in for a given amount of power to share around. There are fleet management schemes available so people could pay a premium to be sure of a charge or only buy in at the lowest level if they aren't desperate. If the system is in full use most every day, that would be a strong signal that it's in high demand. If nothing is put in, nobody will ever know.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Purchase cost is one thing

"And of course a degraded battery is still perfectly serviceable, and valuable as a second life battery."

A good second life for EV batteries may be as a buffer so fast charging can be installed in places where there is limited electrical service. A highway rest stop is an obvious location and many of those in the US are located on very desolate stretches of highway where there's plenty of adjacent land to install solar panels or a wind turbine and recharge the onsite batteries. That could be far less expensive than routing MW class power lines to those locations.

MachDiamond Silver badge

"Refueling speed - poor."

The use of AC posting needs to be throttled back.

The refueling speed of an EV plugged in at one's home is nearly instantaneous. It's like a sleeper train, you sleep while it's happening so the time involved is very small compared to the process.

Public fast chargers are only necessary on motorways for long trips. The US is well covered along many of the interstate highways and getting better all of the time. Why are people expecting a charging station every 100m? Petrol stations weren't put in everywhere at once. Early in the dawn of personal motor cars for the masses, there were still plenty of trips that couldn't be made. You took a train (or even a stagecoach) as there were no places to refuel. With EV's there already is a vast amount of infrastructure in place even if some of it means waiting long than people are used to or it requires taking a specific route. I've been planning a route to travel to see the total solar eclipse in a few months while spending nights at a campground rather than wasting money on motels. Many campgrounds with full hookups offer EV charging during the day. Yes, it's not super speedy, but it will bridge DCFC gaps. I expect in another decade a much greater number of even two lane highways will have suitable charging options of adoption of EV's continue. Plenty of lower power options only require the fitting of an outlet and some way to meter the use.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Once upon a time....

"The MG4 is actually a quite a nice EV... in summer its range is around 200 miles, in the winter it's not that great (120-150 miles)."

Why is 150 miles of range not that great? IF you can charge at home, it could be more than adequate given how far most people drive on a daily basis and especially how far people drive in the middle of winter. The variance is also much less than you state. Moggy at Electric Classic Cars in Wales did some tests on three different EV's. His YouTube channel is a lot of fun. If you lose 20% range in the winter due to a cold battery, that's still 180 miles of range or ~3 hours of driving. Most people make long trips in the warmer months. There's no EV that's going to be a "one size fits all".

A car that runs on petrol or diesel needs to have a fairly long range or you'd be stopping to fill up too often which would mean there would need to be many more petrol stations and it would be inconvenient. Charging up at home by spending 30 seconds plugging in the lead each night or every few nights isn't an onerous task. It's also much easier to fit charging points in a car park over some sort of refueling scheme. A very limited level 2 charging point (3kWish) at a train station where you catch a train to get to work would be sufficient to replenish a battery over the course of a working day. Even somebody buying a Ford Lightning and towing short distances with it could bide fine if they can plug in every night or every couple of nights.

Rocket Lab is a David among Goliaths in the space race

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Which rocket?

"There were thousands of comments on the internet about loads of concrete dust but I did not see any official document saying there was anything but sand. Concrete did get a mention: SpaceX were asked not to tidy up chunks of concrete to avoid disturbing nesting birds."

Pulverized concrete is sand, but not the sort of stuff you find at the beach. The fine particulates being pumped into the air as also a huge health hazard. SpaceX is required to pick up off of the debris from the nature reserves, but it must be done by hand, not vehicles and machinery. Pieces that have to be broken down must be surrounded by drop cloths to prevent debris from being left behind. All of this requires permission too. The only exception is for the retrieval of things like explosives, toxic materials and batteries. Those much still be removed by hand.

"The quote I was irritated by referred to the largest rocket ever created exploding in a national reserve. The full stack Starships exploded far from Boca Chica,"

The first full stack rained down in Mexican territorial waters. The second stack fed the fish in the gulf of Mexico and a to be determined point off of the coast of Florida. SpaceX did such a hack job that they had no telemetry. If an amateur astronomer could get footage of the upper half of the second stage falling, an antenna located in the same area would have been able to receive telemetry and they would have known it went boom much sooner.

Every other test of just the upper "Starship" has blown up with the exception of SN15 and that was taken apart never flown again. If a full stack detonates at the launch site, it will be very bad for numerous endangered species.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Which rocket?

"Sometimes people like to describe the workings of a rocket motor as controlled explosion."

The workings of a rocket motor is not any sort of explosion. If it goes beyond vigorous burning, there's a fatal problem.

This is other than Orion that was supposed to be sent into space via a series of nuclear bombs dropped from the bottom and detonated.

Hundreds of workers to space out from NASA's JPL amid budget black hole

MachDiamond Silver badge

"JPL is getting budget cuts, but we are still dumping billions into SLS. It sounds about right!"

JPL is getting budget cuts because NASA is required to dump money into SLS without a proper allocation. FTFY.

Common Sense Sceptic has done a series on the moon lander contract that was awarded to SpaceX. There were supposed to be two finalists, but through some suspect dealings, SpaceX was the sole awardee and NASA didn't have the funds to properly fund that due to an insufficient appropriation from Congress. It's worth a view as it makes it plain how NASA gets whipsawed with changes in the political wind.

I'm not a fan of the SLS, but it's here and the Artemis missions (return to the moon) are built around it and I don't want to wait any longer for that even though I'm too old to go now and don't have enough money to do a DD Harriman. I think I can remember my dad waking me up to watch Neil and Buzz take the first steps on the moon and I've met most of the men who have left their footprints and dreamed of doing it myself when I was younger. You take what you can get.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Adapt or die

"100 year old house would be perfectly fine today (even for the fact it has been up for 100 years alone...)."

I've noticed that homes a few hundred years old that are still in use tend to be the best examples of their time. Those are the ones worth renovating and bringing up to more current standards since the electrics might have been fitted so long ago that the materials are just plain dangerous at this point. The same goes for plumbing. What it's rare to see are cheaply made tenements a few hundred years old. They were crap to start with and wouldn't age well if they survived. Some of the issues with today's builds is with modern understanding, they aren't overbuilt as much as was done in the past. Given this winter's heating bills, I'd love to have an old house with walls 2' + thick and a comfy snug with a wood burner.

You could have heard a pin drop: Virgin Galactic reports itself to the FAA

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" I'd like to introduce you to this product called Loctite."

Loctite is a brand name, not a product.

DEF CON is canceled! No, really this time – but the show will go on

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Re: Nerd Conferences

If the hotels, bars and restaurants aren't doing well, that's their own lookout. A casino hoping to draws people out of a conference and onto the gaming floor might not have thought enough about it. People going to Vegas to gamble are the people going to gamble. Give those people the meal vouchers and reduced pricing on rooms. Somebody going to attend CES will be pressed for time just to get through everything at the show. Maybe a disinterested spouse will venture off to other things, but if one is going to Defcon, even on a company expense account, it's Defcon they want to be there for. I'll be making a trip to a convention in Las Vegas later this year (long drive so I'm working out in preparation). I won't be gambling as I've allocated just enough time to do show things before I need to head back home. Even with some of the best prices for hospitality (mostly), it's still expensive.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Voting Machines don't get Hacked

"At least not the ones that I've worked with and used. The older card readers did total ballots but they also collected them and one thing the poll workers had to do at the close of polls was to balance the totals with the card count."

From a statistical sample of how many, you make the sweeping statement that all voting machines are honest?

Just as important as the machines giving honest outputs is they are SEEN doing so. A paper ballot filled out and deposited at a supervised polling site is much harder to hack. It's also very difficult to do in large numbers for a low cash price. It's also easier for people without any technical skills to envision the process since they'll have tangible examples to use as a model. Hollywood has made plenty of people think that it's easy to hack systems in minutes and take over something to inject false data. That goes back even before Matthew Broderick's character in War Games was fiddling his school grades via modem.

If paper ballots were counted in a "tell me three times" manner by different people and tabulators, it could allay a lot of FUD, rumor and innuendo. It would also help if the CCTV didn't show a few people pulling boxes out from under tables and doing some after-hours work at the counting sites.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: "That's because we studied math at school."

"Where I live, we have a state-run lottery whose proceeds (supposedly) go to funding education. "

Those lotteries were sold as a way to continue having many of the non-core classes that schools were having to delete. The problem was that once lottery money was flowing into the schools, government started reducing their allocations which put those classes and activities back on the block next to the axeman.

Aircraft rivet hole issues cause delays to Boeing 737 Max deliveries

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Re: >but the problem may also exist in 737s already being used by airlines

"their QA system didn't catch them in the fuselages already delivered."

I didn't see any mention of how far off the wrong holes were. Is it something QA could catch without needing precision templates to overlay over all screw/rivet points? I expect there are plenty of things that are only inspected to the level of noticing that there is a fastener there and it's doesn't look like it wasn't properly installed. Somebody working on the assembly line that could also be seeing it from a POV that makes it obvious the hole(s) is out of place is going to be the best person to spot the issue. Those people should get bounties. When I worked as a doorman at a bar, we got a pay out for catching fake ID's. That kept all of us very focused on checking since we could do rather well on a popular night. The bar figured out that it was cheaper to pay the bounty than pay the fine for underage people being caught inside and having their license suspended for a period of time. For Boeing, it doesn't have to be cash, it could be points towards a flight voucher or paid days off. Look how much all of this negative press is costing them.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Reap what you sow

"They spun off what is now called Spirit AeroSystems out of the larger Boeing company to keep the bean counters and shareholders happy. "

The downside is it creates little fiefdoms with boundaries that can't be crossed without formal negotiations. It can also lead to differences in workflows, QC norms and work standards. On the bookshelf behind me I have a set of McDonnell Douglas engineering standards manuals. Those applied across the whole of the company. One of my specialties when I was in aerospace was developing that sort of thing and I borrowed heavily from those MD publications. It keeps everybody doing things the same way and especially keeps the documentation consistent.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Reap what you sow

"Aircraft are built around the wings, not the fuselage."

Wings are a massively important component, but those get outsourced in many cases too. At what point does Boeing convert from an aircraft manufacturer to a design and sales office?

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Reap what you sow

"Do Boeing actually make aircraft now or are they just assembling kits these days?"

I also find it odd that there would be a case for outsourcing a core component of a product. If it can't be made in-house at a lower cost, why not? I can see the reasoning behind not making the engines or avionics as customers will want choices but every 737 starts as a basic airframe.

Office gossips beware – chitchat could choke your career chances

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Re: II always remind my staff

"From knowing who's getting the chop before even they do"

That's not IT, it's the furniture movers. People see them coming and shit. (Paraphrased from the movie, Head Office).

Come work at HQ... or find a new job, Roblox CEO tells staff

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Re: The struggle is real

"I have both experienced and heard from others that creative collaboration is markedly improved in person. Of course, the counterpoint to that notion is that individual productivity is often much higher at home since home is usually more comfortable and more conducive to focus. In short, I suspect that hybrid work arrangements will become more common."

Many jobs that can be done remotely do no have a creativity aspect to them or management doesn't welcome any creativity they haven's supplied themselves. For a group that is meant to be creative, perhaps it's better for all involved that their office is located someplace people can afford and want to live with good schools, goods shops and a local that serves the best perspective and soda for miles. Unless you'd prefer a nice thick pint of sanity.

The FCC wants to criminalize AI robocall spam

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Re: Glad this nonsense

"I got robocalled yesterday, and I'm in Spain. They just call from outside the EU."

That's ok. If the execs at your local telco could be subject to jail time if they don't put systems in place to shut those calls down, there would be systems in place to shut foreign robocalls from making it to your phone.

MachDiamond Silver badge

Re: Amend the US Federal Do Not Call Act

"6) When foreign call centers are found responsible for violating the Act, they should be cut off from telecommunications-contact with the US, by whatever means (diplomatic or otherwise) are necessary."

The phone companies know when they're relaying spam calls and since they make good money on it, they don't care. If they could also be fined and execs subject to jail time, the latter being the most important, they might take steps to shut down the calls. That adds another line of defense if it's not possible to go after somebody in another country.