Posts by John Robson

Bank of England says JLR's cyberattack contributed to UK's unexpectedly slower GDP growth

Re: Bank of Eejits

"The Bank of England just blamed GDP slowdown on a cyberattack at Jaguar Land Rover"

No they didn't, they cited it as a factor.

Re: So now we know that cyberattacks cost ...

More importantly it's cost today for possible and invisible benefits - so you can't say "look, here's the saving that spend was responsible for"

Foxconn hires humanoid robots to make servers at Nvidia's Texas factory

Re: Why humanoid?

Just imagine what could be done if we actually had a world that was made accessible by default, rather than having a short portable ramp stored out back as an afterthought...

How do you solve a problem like Discovery?

A vehicle which has carried a crew....

There have to be other vehicles which fit the bill...

Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, heck even dragon.

Be cheaper to get SpaceX to make a new Dragon for use and bring one of the currently active ones to Houston.

Apple's ultra-thin iPhone flops as foldable iPad hits a crease

Re: Or...

The "bring back" wasn't a literal bring back that spec, but that form factor.

Slap an A17 and an OLED on there, and you've got all the phone most people want... Doesn't even have to be all that much cheaper if it's a form factor in demand (and I suggest a screen small enough for people to use one handed is such a form factor), which should bolster profit margins somewhat.

We're all going to be paying AI's Godzilla-sized power bills

Re: expect some EV modules...

"battery which have declined to 70% of rated capacity after a few years use and"

Don't know where you're getting your figures, but that's simply not the case for any decent battery and BMS.

Re: Cheer up.

"As a result, it looks like the pendulum is finally swinging the other way, and Germany is now considering nuclear power again."

Oh good - I mean it's not like Germany has a long history with earthquakes and tsunamis... certainly don't recall it being prone to being dropped a full metre and shunted two and half metres east...

Re: latest revised quote is for a Tesla powerwall

It's going to really blow people's minds to think that the variable rate is regularly over 20p, and last week nearly hit 30p on three days.

Yes - that's a variable rate, and it dips as well as climbs, that's why I mentioned the flat rate instead.

Re: latest revised quote is for a Tesla powerwall

Yes it will be.

~15p is the going rate for a flat export tariff nowadays.

Re: latest revised quote is for a Tesla powerwall

"below feed-in tariffs"

There are relatively few people still on the early FiT, which were high. Even a decade ago they were down at an effective 5p/kWh - and that's not worth it, you're better off ditching the export component and actually selling the energy on the market (not something the local network operator has any control over).

Re: Feeling smug

Home Assistant is industry standard... it will just talk to your devices using the API provided by the supplier.

I'm not in any way suggesting modifications to the power electronics, or their controls. Just using the same remote access as the app.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/siemens/

I use a ModBUS over TCP control for one of my applications - from your text it sounds like that might be appropriate

Re: It's not really that bad

"AI is disruptive technology, which means that the way we view IP has to change as the world changes."

My new business (robbing banks) is disruptive, which means banks should just leave their vault doors open for me now.

Re: It's not really that bad

Two things:

- It's not AI.

You're talking about LLMs, and maybe some image diffusion, that's not Intelligence.

They are also prone to wildly confident hallucinations, and whilst they can produce useful output for a number of different tasks, there is an absolute requirement for the output to be checked and tested by a competent individual.

- It's operating on theft.

Many people object to theft, and current LLMs have been "trained" on vast amounts of stolen IP.

Re: Feeling smug

What system - you should be able to rig up control pretty easily.

Home Assistant is your friend (other automation solutions exist)

Re: Feeling smug

They're allowed, and they're installed, in the UK.

You just have to have a break/make switch, rather than a make/break switch (i.e. the switch must guarantee that it cannot hook both sides up together)

Re: latest revised quote is for a Tesla powerwall

"but you hope to be a net non-contributor to public system costs?"

You seem to be missing the point.

When we export energy we get paid for it, and we get paid less than you're paying for the energy we're supplying.

We still pay the standing charge, we still pay for any energy imported, but we also get paid when we export. That happens in two main periods:

- The middle of the day, when it's bright sunshine and the battery is full (or there isn't one) and we're not self consuming*

- The peak period, when our batteries are exporting because it's economically favourable.

The key variable here is self consumption. It's beneficial for the grid for us to arbitrage and export, so it's made economically beneficial. Else we'd focus on self consumption, using the battery to cover overnight rather than charging at off peak rates, and putting any excess generation during the day into hot water, EV batteries, etc...

Whilst the overall bill for some households might be negative, that's not because they're not paying their share of the public infra costs, it's because they're exporting more than they import, and doing so at times when it's good for the grid, resulting in sales which exceed what they are paying in standing charges.

With my small array it's pretty rare than I get negative price days, but my bill is ~£600 a year, and that covers my car fuel, which would have been about £2k, as well as my household usage, which would have been about £1800 (pretty high usage household with multiple people WFH).

There is a #vimesboots element to anything we do that costs money, but here there is actually a net benefit to all from the personal investment, not just to the individual (though obviously the economic benefit is most focussed on the individual).

Re: Feeling smug

" but the kit is a lot more complicated"

It really doesn't have to be... it can be a literal switch, which you walk over to and turn.

Many battery systems now come with an automated switch anyway.

Re: Cheer up.

"they are allowed to match supply to demand to keep prices stable"

Basic physics I'm afraid. Demand and supply have to match.

Some of that demand may come from energy storage, and some of the supply will later come from energy storage, but demand and supply *must* match, else you lose control of frequency and/or voltage.

Brit boffins teach fusion plasma some manners with 3D magnetic field

Re: We have to stop using Heat Engines to produce energy

Or we start using that heat locally... district heating schemes are woefully lacking in the uk :(

SpaceX is behind schedule, so NASA will open Artemis III contract to competition

Re: Blue Origin?

When you say they haven't tested a fairing option... they have, they don't just have a disposable fairing.

At the moment the only version that has flown is the pez dispenser - but there is nothing stopping them from changing up the shape of the opening - and I don't expect a door to be significantly more structurally challenging than a wider slot.

'Fax virus' panicked a manager and sparked job-killing Reply-All incident

Re: Solicitors

"I cannot imagine digital faxes being any more secure than signed encrypted email."

It's not about what *is* secure, it's about what's been *documented* to be secure enough.

Something new and really secure won't pass muster until someone forces it through as a material improvement.

Bose kills SoundTouch: Smart speakers go dumb in Feb

"Ignorance can, and should be, cured through education. Investigate your world, people. It's for your own good."

That's all well and good, but the world nowadays is significantly more complex, with various areas of specialisation encroaching into the daily life of those who are not specialists in any/all of those fields.

"Now that might be reversing with decarbonisation policies making gas more expensive"

Nope - almost all of the decarbonisation costs are on electricity rather than gas for some perverse reason.

I've had them with both as well - though not at the moment.

If it's a limitation of the hose then that's a bit daft, I've got plenty of flex hoses which can deal with mains pressure hot water - and they'd need to in an unvented tank based system as well.

Solar thermal panels exist...

But the pulse is no detriment to a reasonably local hot water tank.

" And, and, it had a HOT FILL. Why on earth, in these days of solar heated water have they removed the hot fill connection from a lot of the washing machines?"

Here I was thinking that it was because the machines use so little water that all a hot fill would do nowadays is take cold water from the inlet pipe - but no...

If I assume that 1kWh of the little over that the machine uses for wash cycle is heating water then that's 1000*3600/4200 ~ 900 litredegrees of heating (i.e 900 is the product of the litres and the temperature change). Taking ~40 degree difference from groundwater temp that's a little over 20l of water being heated... definitely enough to benefit from a hot feed.

That's more than I was expecting, but correlates reasonably with the 35-50l per wash that is regularly quoted (and that surprised me), particularly if you do things like nudge up that 1kWh assumption to 1.3-1.4, which is more likely.

Re: I have like $3k invested in these.

There is no reason not have smart things which have local controls.

It's now number one on my list of things to check before I buy anything... I don't care about the cloud version, I care about what I can integrate with and control when my ISP goes offline - because that will happen multiple times in the life of a product, and not being able to control things because of something like that is irritating at best, downright dangerous at worst.

Renewables blow past nuclear when it comes to cheap datacenter juice

Re: Really!

"Wind and solar do not just work alone."

"you need a backup"

No. You don't need a backup; storage exists, and for the day/night cycle it's not actually all that difficult. And that storage will also deal with variation in supply and demand during the day. Additionally wind and solar are generally inversely correlated, so even just having those two sources makes a significant dent in that variability you're scared of.

Of course there are more sources which we should be tapping as well, tidal, geothermal, yes and even nuclear - but those aren't "backups", they are part of a mix of sources, which will not include coal, oil, gas (or dubious wood pellet operations).

I'd like to see micro reactors at all the motorway service stations, as well as some serious efforts to tap geothermal resources where we have existing thermal power plants (before they are decommissioned and sold off). But none of that precludes the wide and rapid uptake of the most easily scaled, and cost effective, resource harvesting we have - and at the moment those are wind and solar.

Between my drive and garage I have enough battery storage to last me well over a week without any other electricity input (now I can't access it all in the way I'd like since neither car has v2g, but that's a different problem entirely). If I knew that there was going to be an extended outage I could also alter my usage slightly. I know the concept of putting on a jumper is an anathema to the climate deniers out there, but it is actually a better option than cranking the thermostat up.

This week NESO reports cite the recent increase in wind capacity and storage as meaning we are less likely to have supply issues this winter than in any of the last 5. Analysis of 2024 suggests that wind power on the UK grid lowered wholesale prices by about a quarter (not a report where I've dug into the statistics).

Those aren't descriptions of a technology that "doesn't work"

Re: Really!

Your argument is what exactly?

That you don't trust that the sun will rise tomorrow?

Gas generators are currently used because there isn't sufficient capacity. Don't worry, I'm sure the difference between an allotment and a farm will occur to you at some point.

Re: Really!

"My point is you cant have enough installed."

And you're wrong - just flat out wrong.

"only use it in situations that it works for"

That would be all situations.

Re: Really!

This thread is now breaking the comment section...

Something new you've missed? No it's something you're deliberately ignoring.

If you plant one square metre of wheat, you won't be able to supply bread to the village all year.

It's possible however that that planting was the first bit, and you'll plant more next year, and more the year after, and so on and so forth, until you have hundreds of acres of wheat, which will supply bread for more than just your village.

We are pretty early in the development and deployment of reliable solar and wind generation. And you don't see how 1 square metre can support a village. You're right, it can't. But 1 square metre isn't what anyone is claiming will feed the village - it's just that that's the only bit yet planted.

Your entire facade is based upon a straw man. At no point have I ever claimed that what we have installed today is sufficient.

It's not, it's the start of a change in the way we operate - a change for the better.

Re: Really!

Nurse - codejunky has forgotten their meds again.

Shall we play a game of memories? What has this conversation been about?

Re: Really!

"You seem to shy away from the fact that your glorious technological progress require[s] gas power plants"

Not true.... but at the moment we haven't built out the new power systems, so of course there is still reliance on the old tech.

That's what happens when you start replacing stuff, the new tech can't do everything, because you can't build it all in one afternoon - it is taking, and will take, many years.

Re: Really!

Your lack of trust in the science doesn't make other people's trust in the science religion.

"I notice that when you get closer to the reality you get uncomfortable and start up these childish deflections and attacks, but if at some point you fancy answering the questions you will be able to come to the answer yourself if only you are willing to shake the belief and look at the reality"

Nope - that's you... You remind me of Nathan Oakley, just repeatedly and loudly asserting that you can't measure an elevation angle from a curved surface, and doubling down on that when surveying and navigation text books show otherwise.

Re: Really!

" Again I do not share your religious beliefs."

You don't even know what my religious beliefs are.

What I know is that you don't agree with the hard science - and the consequences of our actions.

Most of your questions don't make much sense, that's why I ignore them. I've already given you the data, you just can't quite bring yourself to admit that the sun will rise in the morning.

Re: Really!

Your use of "easy" language is mostly the result of you being wrong - it's very easy to use simple language if you don't understand the complexities of a system.

You are the *only* person in this thread who is waging a religious war against reliable, cheap, clean electricity production.

Re: Really!

"Your life depends on them." And my future, as well as that of my kids, relies on us stopping their use as rapidly as possible.

"You again say renewables which includes reliable sources." Yes, because they all are.

"I just dont share the same belief." Science is clearly beyond you.

What's the point in any conversation with someone who can so easily dismiss the concept of MMCC. There is clearly nothing that will displace the rant of some anonymous loudmouth on 4chan.

As for your puerile question - I expect about 2MWh/year, and have exceeded that every year they have been installed.

Re: Really!

"So its a toy that you dont care if it provides much power or not? "

Of course I care - and it reliably provides power. What it doesn't do is conform to your twisted expectation.

"How much of that was reliable sources?"

All of it.

What isn't reliable is a gas supply, that can easily be turned off.

"how much of that reliable electricity was generated at the wrong time and wrong place so went to waste?"

None of it... you seem to think that electricity can leak like oil and pollute the environment somehow.

Electricity can't "build up" in a cable, it's used at the same time as it's generated (give or take the speed of light) - it can be used to charge a batter, or pump water, or heat things and any of those are reversible processes which can then generate electricity from the previously stored energy.

""What is it about solar and wind that scare you so much?"

That is a very childish question, who is scared? "

You are - clearly.

I have at no point suggested that we stop generating electricity, in fact we need to be generating much more of it. But there are ways to generate electricity that don't also involve destroying the climate upon which we rely.

There are ways of generating electricity which don't rely on stable geopolitics with dictators and oppressive states.

Cheap, reliable, energy is what renewables provide, not your precious fossil fuels.

Re: Really!

Yes, the bit I quoted exactly proved my point... Your "ideal" is clearly a 'stable' generator (whatever that means).

I rather suspect you'd still be happy if it was burning kittens and baby seals.

I absolutely can rely on the sun rising in the morning, it's not let me down yet, and I rather suspect it will carry on rising every day long after we're all dead.

"where energy needs to be on demand"

Ah, so you're going back to the straw man of demand being an immovable target.

It's simply not the case any more.

"arguing for regression"

Nope - that's you. right here, right now.

Steam trains are lovely things, but they aren't the way we move people around any more.

A third of all the electricity ... you're dismissing that much of the world's electricity as not suitable for use.

What do you think happened to all that generated electricity... do you think it just leaked out of the cable somewhere? It's not like oil, you can't just dump it at sea and hope no-one notices the destruction.

What is it about solar and wind that scare you so much? Is it that you can't tax sunshine, or hoard it, is it that you can't deny it to people? Is it that your pay check relies on burning crap?

Because there is something here that means you're deeply scared of progress, and I can't quite figure it out.

Re: Really!

You said it should be stable: "if your solar generator was as stable as a stable generator of energy"

You keep using "unreliable" as if it's an actual descriptor, it isn't.

Generation is absolutely reliable, but it isn't dispatchable. That's not a downside, it's just a different mode of operation.

I know you'd rather we went back to bashing rocks together, but the world has moved on, and is accelerating. Renewable generation is now the largest source of electricity globally, contributing more than a third of all electricity.

Vodafone keels over, cutting off millions of mobile and broadband customers

Re: If nothing else, this event is a reminder…

My three backup connection mostly worked.

Primary work VPN had issues (backup was ok).

Of course it won't be long before those aren't independent any more :(

Techies tossed appliance that had no power cord, but turned out to power their company

Re: Come on, peoples!

And always document the why

Re: Come on, peoples!

Plenty of nics with a watchdog which will close a relay to bypass the card if it isn't regularly poked from software.

That would make the device a massive, and expensive network coupler, presumably coupling two cables from a patch panel which would be better off just directly connected...

50 years in deep space, and Voyager still can't escape budget gravity

Re: Time to hand mission control over to China

Fairly few places which can receive the data, it's a pretty weak signal.

This is your brain on bots: AI interaction may hurt students more than it helps

So how many kids does a typical kid know?

At least their entire class, probably more like their entire year. And of course the "romantic relationship" rumour would probably extend to the whole school pretty fast.

So 19% is probably the count of schools at which this has (been rumoured to) happen(ned)

Re: Peak enshittification

More importantly - you often don't need to calculate intermediate steps... leave them in terms of fractions, square roots, trig functions.

But knowing what your final accuracy needs to be, and judging an appropriate accuracy throughout is a skill in and of itself. I much preferred to leave the calculator out of it for as long as possible... There are a few "convenient" values (involving root 2 and root 3) for trig functions which show up a reasonable amount of the time.

How your mouse could eavesdrop on you and rat you out

Unless it's reading keystrokes...

Hacked Ford screens put anti-RTO slogan above CEO’s face

Re: When you work for the man, you work for the man

And why is in person better than a quick call, after a message to check you aren't interrupting anything important.

The time wasted to "quick" interruptions can be many times longer than the interruption as you get back into the problem that you were deep into trying to solve.

Lowercase leaving you cold? Introducing Retrocide

Re: Priorities

They look quite nice.

I'm old enough to still use courier, and I've used it for long enough that I don't need to "read" it any more...