* Posts by WonkoTheSane

1257 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jul 2008

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Voyager 1 starts making sense again after months of babble

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: V'Ger

In the movie, we learn that V'Ger started out as Voyager 6.

Fun fact - The Voyager program originally planned for 6 spacecraft launches.

Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in

WonkoTheSane

Re: Starlink

Speaking of expensive bills, Starlink in the UK runs around £450 for the dish & £75/month for the connection.

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: Easy here

I too had an "exchange-only" phone line, a few years ago.

Where I am (Wales), FTTC was implemented by simply cutting the cables at the end of the exchange car park and installing the cabinets there.

Watchdog calls for more plugs, less monopoly in EV charging network

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

We already use the almost global CCS2 connector.

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: Meh... Either way

Then you haven't been looking.

The cable is only energised when charging a car, so there's no electrocution risk for thieves.

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: It is still not as simple as pulling up in a forecourt and filling up a tank

NACS IS the early Tesla connector

WonkoTheSane

Re: It is still not as simple as pulling up in a forecourt and filling up a tank

I direct your attention to Chinese company Li Auto's "MEGA" luxury e-MPV, which has been tested charging at over 500kW, adding 70kWh to its battery in 10mins!

https://youtu.be/Sf9P-jdla6U

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: It is still not as simple as pulling up in a forecourt and filling up a tank

Chademo cars are indeed still sold in the UK, but no longer will they be made here.

Nissan are about to shut the Sunderland factory, to convert it to build the Leaf's CCS-equipped replacements.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/reports-nissan-leaf-production-end-sunderland-week

KDE Plasma 6.0 brings the same old charm and confusion

WonkoTheSane
Facepalm

Re: I'll try anything once...

It WAS officially released, on Wednesday Feb 28th 2024.

That's why the article was posted!

A small Alaska town wants a big bronze Riker

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: Make it so!

Bottles of the 2386 Chateau Picard are readily available from interweb wineries.

ChatGPT starts spouting nonsense in 'unexpected responses' shocker

WonkoTheSane

I blame the trainers

They shouldn't have used the Minions or Professor Stanley Unwin to train their models.

Legal campaigners challenge UK.gov decision to redact NHS-Palantir contract

WonkoTheSane
Big Brother

The reason is simple to understand

Palantir have an "alliance" with Infosys, which numbers the Prime Minister's wife among their largest shareholders.

TL;DR - It's all about the grift. Again.

NHS in Wales bets big on Microsoft with deal worth nearly half a billion

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: Savings

The government has been "lobbied" to not do this by software megacorps.

By lobbied, I of course mean bribed.

'Crash test dummy' smashed VIP demo by offering a helping hand

WonkoTheSane

Re: Ouch

"By the way, would that helmet have been for the F35 ?"

Might be a little older, a similar helmet was developed for the AH64 Apache helicopter.

Please install that patch – but don't you dare actually run it

WonkoTheSane
Pint

Re: You were warned to shut things down!

Sounds like Tim really earned his Saturday pint. Hope he didn't have to pay for it himself!

Dell said to be preparing broad Return To Office order this Monday

WonkoTheSane
Meh

Other reasons are available

We've just had a "Back to the office" diktat issued, but not for the reasons given in the article.

Ours is likely temporary, and is due to Corporate's reliance on Ivanti's VPN software that we were all reading about here on el reg a week or so back.

A Space Shuttle goes vertical for one last time

WonkoTheSane
Thumb Up

Re: Exciting!

I visited Endeavour in October 2016, when they began fundraising for this move, and again in October 2023, only 2 days after the solid rocket booster shells* arrived on site.

* New Old Stock, but sadly unfuelled.

I will no doubt visit Endeavour again in another few years.

Ivanti releases patches for VPN zero-days, discloses two more high-severity vulns

WonkoTheSane
Holmes

Re: Cue yet another name change?

Behaviour learned from Hermes / Evri / Whatever next

The literal Rolls-Royce of EVs is recalled over fire risk

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

It used to be said that if the loudest sound you could hear in a Rolls-Royce was the ticking of the clock, it was time to visit a Horologist.

GPS interference now a major flight safety concern for airline industry

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: WTF did people do before GPS?

Before GPS, pilots were taught to follow the line of roads, rivers & railway lines.

Meta accused of enrolling undecided EU users in ad-sponsored platform

WonkoTheSane
Trollface

Ho Hum

I guess my days of not having a Facepalm account are certainly coming to a middle...

IT consultant fined for daring to expose shoddy security

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: The problem is law is old and tech is new

You're thinking of Rik Mayall's "The New Statesman".

UK officials caught napping ahead of 2G and 3G doomsday

WonkoTheSane
Facepalm

"Smart" cars will also be affected

Cars that have an app to remote control functions like the heating, use a modem to provide comms to the manufacturer's cloud server.

Many of these modems are 3G or even 2G and are NOT forward-compatible!

Anyone think the car makers will offer an upgraded modem for an older car? I didn't think so.

England's village green hydrogen dream in tatters

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: Which Led Zep Album?

Hydrogen has not yet been added to the gas supply, only increased consumer prices.

BOFH: Just because we've had record revenues doesn't mean you get a Xmas bonus

WonkoTheSane
Holmes

Re: More Beria than BOFH.

"Nah, none of those reprobates would actually get their hands dirty."

That would rather depend on how long the scour valve is left open per cycle.

Post-Brexit tariffs on EU-UK electric vehicle imports staved off for three years

WonkoTheSane

It's ba-ack... UK watchdog publishes age verification proposals

WonkoTheSane
Trollface

The answer is obvious

We need to declare Mumsnet a terrorist organisation.

UK government rings the death knell for SIM farms

WonkoTheSane
Big Brother

"Ultra Vires"?

Isn't that the Conservative Party motto these days?

Long-term space missions may make liftoff harder for male astronauts

WonkoTheSane
Alien

Tinfoil underpants time?

Now we know why the aliens gave mankind those little blue pills.

BOFH: Monitor mount moans end in Beancounter beatdown

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Nobody warns the new guy. They don't want to be the only one stitched up by the BOFH & PFY.

CompSci academic thought tech support was useless – until he needed it

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

I think maybe you missed the part about the complainer using their own, hand-knitted, LISP-based email client?

BOFH: Adventures in overenthusiastic automation

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Re: Lager Attrition - ouch!

More likely that no one programmed the vacs to cross the road safely

BOFH: We've made a big mesh, Boss. That's what you wanted, right?

WonkoTheSane

Re: An appropriate message?

Sometimes they do, and record a message saying "Watch the show!"

WonkoTheSane
Trollface

Re: Ahhhh the

Where there's a will, there's relatives.

Beta driver turned heads in the hospital

WonkoTheSane

Those monitors are spreading across our company too.

My office uses them for CAD duties, others have asked for them so they can see ALL the columns on an Excel sheet.

Car industry pleads for delay to post-Brexit tariffs on EVs

WonkoTheSane

Re: I'll be sticking with petrol (or diesel) for my next car.

I know of the Volvo study you got that 80,000 mile figure from, and it's been completely debunked.

An EV can repay its "manufacturing carbon debt" within around 16,000 miles.

WonkoTheSane

Re: I'll be sticking with petrol (or diesel) for my next car.

Hydrogen is a non-starter for cars. That's why Shell have been closing their hydrogen filling stations around the world.

WonkoTheSane

Re: I'll be sticking with petrol (or diesel) for my next car.

There are early Teslas out there with over 300,000 miles on the clock, and still counting. On the original battery & motors.

WonkoTheSane
Thumb Up

"Instead, we have muppets in government *still* saying that the future might be hydrogen, due to having large envelopes full of cash campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry "

FTFY

How is this problem mine, techie asked, while cleaning underground computer

WonkoTheSane

Re: "......the mine had closed."

Might have to bury it in half a tonne of kitty litter, too.

WonkoTheSane

Re: Cleaning Printers that are full of dust

Too soon.

(It will ALWAYS be too soon!)

Chap blew up critical equipment on his first day – but it wasn't his volt

WonkoTheSane
Mushroom

My old electrical engineering instructor used to say "It's volts what jolts, but mills* what kills"

* MilliAmps.

Toyota servers ran out of storage, crashed production at 14 plants in Japan

WonkoTheSane
IT Angle

Re: Lost in Translation?

You're saying this may be the actions of BOFH-san?

Coming soon to El Reg's "Who me?" thread (maybe).

BOFH: What a beautiful tinfoil hat, Boss!

WonkoTheSane

Re: I knew my keyboard was doomed

The guy JMS found to replace him in the new "Babylon 5: The Road Home" animation is a good successor.

WonkoTheSane

FYI - Asus now make routers with a button to turn off all the LEDs on the built-in manglement website

WonkoTheSane

Re: Blockers

The Zaphod model is only sold in twin packs. Two heads, you see.

Southern Water to drink up tech deals worth up to £358M

WonkoTheSane

Re: "asset management period set out by regulator Ofwat"

OFWAT is just a parking spot for future water company executives.

India lands Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on Moon, is the first to lunar south pole

WonkoTheSane
Headmaster

Chandrayaan 3 did NOT land "at the South Pole"

The landing site is at a latitude of roughly 69 degrees South.

If it had landed on Earth, it would be comparable to the coast of Antarctica.

It is, however, the furthest South any lunar landing has been successful.

X-rated auction sells last vestiges of pre-Musk Twitter

WonkoTheSane
Trollface

Musk's ENTIRE business plan

The X makes it sound cool!

We need to be first on the Moon, uh, again, says NASA

WonkoTheSane
Alien

I've seen this before

It's almost like NASA has been watching "For All Mankind" on Apple TV

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