Posts by SkippyBing

UK's Ajax fighting vehicle arrives – years late and still sending crew to hospital

Re: just today

It's built in Spain.

Fairly sure that by declaring Ajax has achieved Initial Operating Capability the Army have alas accepted it.

US Navy scuttles Constellation frigate program for being too slow for tomorrow's threats

Re: I changed it ...

'changing the locks on cabin doors (not even watertight doors), the design of chairs used in the combat information centre and even the specification of mattresses'

A lot of those changes will be to match what the rest of the fleet has as someone will have told them they need to minimise the number of lines of inventory to save money, without looking at the bigger picture.

Norway's £10B UK frigate deal could delay Royal Navy ships

Re: diverted to the new customer

It depends what they're paying for. E.g. does the headline Norwegian price include a support package for x years where the RN one doesn't? Given the RN have already partly paid is it all in the same year currency, otherwise inflation plays a part in the headline figure.

Re: No scheduling problem.

Exactly, the current build rate is basically determined by how much money the Treasury will allow the MOD to spend in any one year. Which does also tend to make the total cost higher but hey, what's a few billion between friends.

Wikimedia Foundation loses first court battle to swerve Online Safety Act regulation

Re: This is bad.

'recently shown by the arrest of over 500 peaceful protesters whose only crime was to hold up hand-written signs protesting the genocide in Gaza.'

No, the crime was holding up a sign supporting a proscribed terrorist group. If they'd just held up signs protesting about Gaza there wouldn't have been a problem. But for some reason they wanted to be edgy.

Britain's billion-pound F-35s not quite ready for, well, anything

Re: A Crazy Idea

You'll find the problem there is that the only democracy in the Middle East actually sells more military equipment to the UK than vice versa.

Re: 5 years to get an existing missile operational?

A real cycnic would suggest Lockheed-Martin have a vested interest in not integrating foregin weapons systems on the F-35 when the US has its own equivalents to sell...

UK to buy nuclear-capable F-35As that can't be refueled from RAF tankers

Re: All part of Trumpf's trade deal with the UK

We are already buying F-35Bs, this is just swapping the model. Like asking BMW to change your order from a 330 to a 325. So no more money is going to the USA. In fact initially less becuase the F-35A is cheaper than the B. Servicing of engines etc. will be as for the rest of the fleet.

Re: Snag

Fun fact, the Israeli Air Force* also use the Flying Boom method so are incompatible with the RAF's tankers. Which suggests Palestine Action should a) do more research and b) f*** off.

*And Iran too, or at least until their tankers got damaged recently.

Re: Snag

It is almost always easier and quicker to build a capability in from the start though, rather than add it in after the aircraft has been delivered. Especially as you'd have to lose one of the hard worked fleet for x months while it's being converted.

Re: Snag

Although from what I've read elsewhere it could well be cheaper and quicker to acquire boom equipped tankers rather than converting the existing ones.

Re: US has it's finger on the Kill Switch.

No one has committed to buying 120+ F-35, there's an aspiration for 'up to' 138, but they're ordered in batches so it's entirely plausible the UK doesn't get more than 72, or even the 48 already ordered.

And the Italian Navy, and soon the Japanese, with Spain and South Korea toying with the idea.

To answer your question as with all things Government and MOD is in year spending. Adding catapults and arrestor gear to the carrier would make them cost more than the Treasury were willing to pay in any one year during the decade they were being built. So instead the slighter greater costs of VSTOL have been spread over the purchase of 'up to' 130 F-35s over a longer period.

Trump teases 25% semiconductor tariffs that will go ‘substantially higher’

Always worth remembering Trump is one of the few people to have bankrupted a casino. Mind you it was one he owned.

UK government insiders say AI datacenters may be a pricey white elephant

This is the country that needs the Deputy Prime Minister to overturn refused planning permission for a data centre between the M25 and a sewage farm, on the grounds it would spoil the view. So I can see Angela being very busy if this goes ahead.

UK watchdog hints Voda-Three merger will likely pass

Re: How about approval only if...

Because nationalised infrastructure in this country has a history of working so well...

Brit broadband subscribers caught between crappy connections and price hikes

Re: Happy me

Same here, just without the one day outage. Actually have two potential FTTH providers where I live which made cancelling the more expensive copper only BT service a delight!

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Touch Typing for the Win

Many years ago I worked in tech support in France so long ago I think el Reg had only just started. I found it much easier to set the keyboard as QWERTY so I could still touch type rather than learn how to do it on an AZERTY one. With the bonus it drove anyone who tried using my machine mad.

This also helped many years later when a colleague tried to get revenge for some minor misdeed by moving by keys around. Took about a week before I noticed.

Time running out for crew of missing Titanic tourist submarine

I have to assume they wanted to minimise/eliminate through hull openings. So the Bluetooth controller allowed them to communicate through hull to all the stuff bolted on the outside without having to seal a gland. They probably thought it was a genius move that the world's navies are idiots for not using...

Re: So the sub has not been certified

I am idly wondering which legal jurisdiction any contract/waiver fell under? If they signed at sea would it be the state of registration of the ship, international waters in which case no jurisdiction, or have they explicitly stated on the paperwork it's considered to have been signed in a favourably lenient location?

You don't want to open it at depth, you want to open it at the surface so you can breathe if you come up miles from the support vessel after an extended stay on the sea bed.

It’s official: Vodafone and Three to tie the knot in the UK

Re: Coverage - Mast sharing

We can all make up fictional places with their own communications network. Like Australia.

Re: Coverage - Mast sharing

I remember when we used to have only one comms network in the UK. So efficient you could often get a new phone in under six weeks if it wasn't too much trouble for them...

NASA to tear the wings off plane in the name of sustainability

Hurel-Dubois HD.31

This is of course just ripping off the French designed and built Hurel-Dubois HD.31 family of aircraft. I'm fairly sure if they asked nicely there are some surviving examples NASA could get airworthy to allow Boeing to concentrate on unf**king the rest of their business.

About ducking time: Apple fixes up autocorrect in iOS 17

So that explains why it's so bad. I thought it was me not being familiar with Apple devices when I typed messages on my other half's iPhone that made it such a painful experience.

You know Android auto-correct is pretty good and lets you use all kinds of swear words right?

First-known interstellar Solar System visitor 'Oumuamua a comet in disguise – research

That's just what we want you to think Earthlings

Nothing to see here...

NASA wants a telescope on the far side of the Moon

Re: Department of Energy?

But why? How does that relate to energy? It sounds like they're concerned with power production and infrastructure, or are they literally involved with energy at the fundamental level?

Department of Energy?

I get why NASA are involved in this but could someone explain to this right pondian why the US Department of Energy have an interest?

Huge lithium discovery could end world shortages ... Oh, wait, it's in Iran

Re: Doesn't really matter if it is in Iran

Exactly, it's like oil, there'll always be someone willing to buy it from you which will reduce demand on the other sources. You just may have to drop your price a bit.

Re: Lithium is where you find it

To be fair Greta is now campaigning against a wind farm so it appears some of them at least are consistent in not wanting anything anywhere. Although it will make it harder for her to commute in a carbon fibre yacht...

UK space faces cash freeze unless watchdogs step up

Re: Civil Service

They are also the only organisation I know that takes four weeks to mark multiple-choice exam papers, with a computer. Whereas at the time the German equivalent would tell you that day if you'd passed.

Or the time they told me they couldn't issue my licence because I hadn't crossed their palms with silver. Which was odd as I had a month old receipt saying I had...

NASA finds crashing spacecraft into asteroids is a viable defence strategy

Re: From orbit?

As with all things space the answer is in fact Project Orion. I will not be taking questions at this time.

Who needs sailors? US Navy's latest robo-ship can run itself for 30 days

Having been on a few warships I'd be impressed if they go 3 days without some sort of electrical or mechanical break down that needs human intervention, never-mind 30. Also although minimal crewing sounds like a great idea if you're on fire or flooding you want as many trained people as you can to throw at the problem to make it go away. See HMS Nottingham vs Australia in 2002.

NASA: Yup, thousand-pound meteorite exploded over Texas

Re: How long?

I see you one CBS article and raise you The Jerusalem Post https://www.jpost.com/science/article-732223

Corgi-sized meteor as heavy as 4 baby elephants hit Texas - NASA

NASA, DARPA to go nuclear in hopes of putting boots on Mars

Re: Project Orion

From the book on Project Orion by Dyson's son the estimate was 1 additional death, somewhere on Earth, per launch. For the time at least the 'bomb' designs were relatively clean in terms of fall out as I understand it, but a lot of the project is still classified as small lightweight nuclear propulsion systems may have other non-peaceful uses...

Project Orion

Come on you cowards do it properly and make Freeman Dyson proud!

Lockheed Martin demos 50kW anti-aircraft frickin' laser beam

No, but I think that would probably stop the small drone threat as well. Missiles and artillery shells not so much.

Uncle Sam greenlights first commercial nuclear small modular reactor design

Re: Timing is everything

And on a windless cloudy winter day in the UK those renewable projects still won't be supplying power.

Laser-wielding boffins bend lightning to their will

As long as they aren't pointing into aircraft cockpits it shouldn't be a problem. The concern around airports is blinding/dazzling pilots more than anything else.

Let me X-plane: Boeing R&D unit sheds rudder, ailerons, flaps for DARPA project

Re: Stop me if you heard it before..

Good explanation of how it works here: https://breakingdefense.com/2021/09/blowin-in-the-wind-a-new-x-plane-program-to-revolutionize-aircraft-maneuverability/

Quite different to the reaction control system on the Harrier which pushes the aircraft around rather than messing with the airflow.

Native Americans urge Apache Software Foundation to ditch name

Re: Bit ridiculous

Exactly, it's not as if they were using the name Apache as an insult.

FAA sets 2024 deadline for preventing 5G crash landings

Reputation rebuilding?

I idly wonder if this hard line stance on the part of the FAA is at least partly driven by a desire to rebuild their reputation after it became apparent how little oversight they gave to the 737 Max programme?

Elon Musk's cost-cutting campaign at Twitter extended to not paying rent, claims landlord

Re: Inevutable

Honestly it makes some of my 14 year old step son's money making ideas look like genius.

UK cuts China from Sizewell nuclear project, takes joint stake

Re: Rough timing

Re weapons it would appear due to the boom and bust nature of defence procurement it seems a lot of the sub-sub-contractors no longer exist so getting some niche parts for more advanced stuff like Javelin is basically impossible. So it's basically a case of starting from scratch.

Re: Also

'But are fossil fuels quadrupling in price?'

For natural gas no, it appears to be worse.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1174560/average-monthly-gas-prices-uk/

Re: Priorities

The App was not £37 Billion. That was the total put aside for two years, including all those test kits that were being freely handed out. Is £37 Billion a lot of money? Yes. Was it all wisely spent? Probably not, it was a global pandemic*. Was it all spent on an App? Definitely not.

*If you're one of those types who likes to compare it to a war you should see how much was wasted in WW2 buying aircraft that weren't fit for their intended role and just went to be target tugs or similar.

Re: Also

I don't think the answer to a quadrupling in the cost of fossil fuels is greater reliance on fossil fuels...

Rough timing

Just glad they got Rough back in service in time to take advantage of all the cheap gas during the August heat wave. Oh...

FAA wants pilots to be less dependent on computer autopilots

It's only mentioned in the article, no reason you should be.