Posts by Anonymous John

Legacy tech is the gift that keeps billing for UK's tax collector

"HMRC has one of the largest and most complex IT estates in Europe with more than 600 systems".

I spent most of 1966 in an office in Bootle that had the then Inland Revenue's entire IT estate. One computer that used punched cards.

BBC weather glitch shows 13k mph winds in London, 404℃ in Nottingham

Just a storm in a teacup.

See title.

Europe's Ariane 6 rocket rated 'ready to rumble' after passing hot fire test

JWST was an international project and European scientists got a chunk of observing time in exchange for the launch.

Capacity that made it competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9.

Competitive? Not when you consider the cost and flight rate.

FAA stays grounded in reality as SpaceX preps for takeoff

Re: A little slanted?

"Now I'm NO Musk fanboy"

Neither am I, especially since he bought TwitteX. But he has given the world cheap reusable launch vehicles.

Probably optimistic, but it does suggest they know what went wrong and how to fix it. And FAA approval should be easier this time. Nothing went wrong over land.

Of course Russia's ex-space boss doubts US set foot on the Moon

Concorde was a myth too, as there are no supersonic airlines in use.

Crooks don't need ChatGPT to social-engineer victims, as they're more than happy to demonstrate

That works if you know what his/her voice sounds like. But not if you are making loads of phone calls posing as children or grandchildren in urgent need of money.

Brit newspaper giant fills space with AI-assisted articles

"Reach CEO Jim Mullen said the machine-written articles are checked and approved by human editors before they're published online."

Doesn't necessarily mean they're accurate.

Scottish space upstart's rocket crashes into the drink

RUD

Rapid unplanned disassembly.

Russia's ISS Multipurpose Laboratory Module launches after years sitting on a shelf, immediately runs into issues

As Russia has said it's withdrawing from the ISS in 2025 why add a module now?

Brexit travel permits designed to avoid 7,000-lorry jams come January depend on software that won't be finished till April

Re: More queues?

"Surrey to introduce new permit scheme to avoid queues at Kent border"

https://newsthump.com/2020/09/24/surrey-to-introduce-new-permit-scheme-to-avoid-queues-at-kent-border/

Kent Access Permits. Kermits for short. Or UKIPs. Universal Kent Ingress Permits.

Bye, Russia: NASA wheels out astronauts, describes plan for first all-American manned launch into orbit since 2011

"For nearly a decade, the US space agency has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets taking off in Kazakhstan.".

It has from the start of the ISS programme. Crews need a means of return permanently available. Even if a Shuttle could have stayed in orbit for six months, it wouldn't have been a sensible option.

SpaceX beats an engine failure to loft another 60 Starlink satellites

This was the second Starlink launch to use a different launch profile. https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/17/timeline-for-falcon-9-launch-of-starlink-satellites-2/ . I'm sure I read somewhere that this makes booster recovery harder.

Flat Earther and wannabe astronaut killed in homemade rocket

Of course it's not flat. I can see hills or mountains in the first photo.

Amazon drops battery-powered Echo speaker so you can play Despacito on the go

Re: portability

Garden? Bathroom? Toilet? "Alexa. Order twenty toilet rolls."

Big Falcon explosion as SpaceX successfully demos Crew Dragon abort systems

Re: ISS crews

I wasn't suggesting that the Shuttle wasn't essential to build the ISS, but NASA only took advantage of servicing missions to swap single crewmembers, and this was rare. Crews need lifeboats, and Shuttles were totally unsuited for the purpose. Even if they were, keeping a Shuttle and its crew in orbit for six months wouldn't make any sense.

ISS crews

"Since the US shoved its Shuttles into museums, only Russia's Roscosmos has the ability to take 'nauts to the ISS."

That was always the case as the Shuttle couldn't stay in orbit for six months to serve as a lifeboat. All it ever did was take up an occasional single crewmember and bring another back during an assembly mission.

Starliner: Boeing, Boeing... it's back! Borked capsule makes a successful return to Earth

The CSM docked with the LM 16 tmes, Skylab 3 times, and a Soyuz once

11 hour timing error

The launch countdown was due to start 7:16pm EST Thursday and the launch was 6:36am EST Friday. Approx 11 hours, and I can't believe that was just a coincidence.

You read it here first.

This isn't Boeing very well... Faulty timer knackers Starliner cargo capsule on its way to International Space Station

Elon Musk was on hand to offer advice.

"Those pedo guys screwed up again!"

Elon Musk finally admits Tesla is building its own custom AI chips

Musk plans to send a Tesla past Mars with the first Falcon Heavy flight.

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't allow this launch"

"Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."

"Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop Dave? Stop, Dave"

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you."

Disk drive fired 'Frisbees of death' across data centre after storage admin crossed his wires

Re: Lathes

Harvey Wankstain thought so.

Kebab and pizza shop owner jailed for hiding £179k from the taxman

True. There was an item in the local newspaper many years ago about a disc jockey who had had his record collection stolen. Not the best story to take to the paper when he hadn't declared that source of income to HMRC.

US reactor breaks fusion record – then runs out of cash and shuts down

Re: Can I introduce you...

With the military potential,Lockheed won't need to worry about finance. And something that would fit in a large truck, can be built on a production line.

My money is on the succeeding, and before Hinkley C is up and running (if it ever is).

Elon Musk: I'm gonna turn Mars into a $10bn death-dealing interplanetary gas station

Could be useful if they find intelligent Martians.

Re: 42?

The Falcon 9 has nine engines and the Falcon Heavy has 27. One engine on one F9 did shut down early and the other compensated. The Apollo 13 Saturn V had a similar problem

Watch SpaceX's rocket dramatically detonate, destroying a $200m Facebook satellite

Re: I have mixed feelings about this...

Facebook were only leasing capacity on the comsat to provide free Internet access to parts of Africa. Facebook isn't the loser here.

Hilton hotels' email so much like phishing it fooled its own techies

A genuine email from Southern Rail last year.

"Anonymous John, important information about your Account.

"Dear Anonymous John,

We're improving the way you buy train tickets from our website and you're invited to give it a try. Check out the new features we are rolling out and buy your ticket from the beta version which is now available."

<Snip>

How do I access it?

In order to continue logging in using your usual email address, all you need to do is reset your password using the button below."

It came within a whisker of being binned.

Thieves can wirelessly unlock up to 100 million Volkswagens, each at the press of a button

But what are the thieves going to do with 100 million stolen cars?

EE roaming outage hits Brits basking abroad

Brexit means Brexit,

Including roaming.

PS. Shouldn't BT and EE rebrand as Beet?

Harrison Ford's leg, in the Star Wars film, with the Millennium Falcon door

Feel the force Solo.

IT consultant gets 4 years' porridge for tax fraud

Re: I'm not condoning his actions....

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread.

'Leave EU means...' WHAT?! Britons ask Google after results declared

Re: Seriously...

He's not alone. Farage has withdrawn his claim that we would have an extra £350m a week to spend on the NHS, so he didn't expect to win. Boris didn't either as he wants to wait until 2020 to start the process of leaving. Cameron didn't expect to lose as there would have been no referendum but for him.

And the Kippers were getting their excuses in early with the fantasy that the spooks would tamper with all ballot papers filled in by pencil.

It has all the signs of a mass protest vote that went wrong.

Google-backed solar electricity facility sets itself on fire

"Misaligned mirrors"

Weren't they where the Google car said they were?

Watch it again: SpaceX's boomerang rocket lands on robo-sea-barge

Re: Wait, what?

A conjuring trick. A bright flash of light so you don't see that the first stage emerged though a trap door in the deck of the barge.

Re: Much better view here

Definitely. I'm old enough to have seem manned space-flight go from science fiction to reality. But rockets landing on Earth on a pillar of fire remained science fiction. Until now.

And for the first time since Apollo, there are serious plans to leave Earth orbit.

SpaceX is go for US military GPS sat launch, smashes ULA monopoly

Science SpaceX is go for US military GPS sat launch, smashes ULA monopoly

And on course to create a SpaceX monopoly, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

NASA prepares to unpack pump-up space podule

Now that's just silly. They'll be using a car foot pump.

Watch: SpaceX finally lands Falcon rocket on robo-barge in one piece

Re: It's an impressive *technical* achievement

A 30% discount according to SpaceX. A $20million saving. They hope to reuse this one as early as June.

SpaceX aborts Falcon 9 launch again

An unspecified problem with loading the propellants.

The super-chilled mixture SpaceX now uses has to be loaded much later in the countdown than is usual.

Assange will 'accept arrest' on Friday if found guilty

If the Americans want him, why haven't they tried to extradite him from the UK?

Police Scotland will have direct access to disabled parking badge database

Someone I once knew was often challenged about his lack of a visible disability. His response was to unbutton his shirt to reveal the big FO corset and ask of he would like to have to wear it 24/7..

Come on kids, let's go play in the abandoned nuclear power station

Fàilte gu na Dúnrath etc

Why no bilingual sign? Does the SNP know?

Crafty booby-trapped invoice malware empties Japanese bank accounts

Japanese-language emails that include ZIP files seemingly coming from Russian .ru domains.

Seemingly? Since when was an .ru address some sort of guarantee of authenticity of an attachment?

Getting metal hunks into orbit used to cost a bomb. Then SpaceX's Falcon 9 landed

Re: Real numbers would be interesting

This F9 was more powerful than the ones before Longer first stage, and uses LOX at much colder temps than anyone has used before. Unlike the earlier ones, it can launch to geosynchronous orbit, and still have enough fuel to land. I don't know offhand about the Crew Dragon.

SpaceX starts nine-day countdown to first flight of the new Falcon

It will be floodlit. And engine burns on the way down will be more visible.

Hacked Japanese space probe sends back first pictures of Venus

"We also found that the orbiter is flying in the same direction as that of Venus's rotation."

Found? Interplanetary navigation isn't a matter of luck. They must have known its trajectory far more precisely than thousands of miles.

Re: Gotten...

A good old English word used in the USA but not in the UK. Apart from "ill-gotten" that is. And "forgotten".