* Posts by ridley

473 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Aug 2008

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BOFH: Switch off the building? Great idea, Boss

ridley

Re: Parts of it date back to when fire was invented

A long long time ago we were working on my mum's MK1 escort estate using the oxy acetylene which my parents were dubios about having under the house in the garage.

Lo the car set on fire and we used the powder fire extinguisher to put it out. Took about a milli second burst to put it out but it went for ages, everything was covered, car, garage, drive, flower beds.

So we spent the next hour or so before they came home frantically cleaning up and learning the art of turning over the garden and dusting flowers.

All seemed good and it looked like we go away with it, except.

Mum did keep complained that if she got to 60mph the car filled up with a white mist....

ridley

Re: Messing with oxygen-fluorine compounds

Thanks for that.

That made me laugh out loud several times.

SpaceX Starship blows up on landing, Elon Musk says it's the data that matters and that landed just fine

ridley

Re: "didn’t even have the engine configuration planned for the production model"

I though it had 6 vacuum and the atmospheric for a total of 9?

ridley

Re: Ignition

Look at some of the non SpaceX feeds, they give a much better impression of its cross range capability.

Pretty impressive for a flying tower block.

ridley

Re: SN8 flight was to test multiple concepts in one go

You can see the legs folded up inside the "Skirt" as the starship skydived.

They didn't deploy though.

Honey, I shrunk the battery: Something's gotta give as iPhone 12's logic board swells to accommodate 5G chippery

ridley

Re: The Iphone 13 will come quicker than the 5G

What?

Install 5G antennas and help spread the virus, are you mad!

Good news: Boffins have finally built room-temperature superconductors. Bad news: You'll need a laser, a diamond anvil, and a lot of pressure

ridley

At least it's not Fysics, yet...

BT cutting contractors' rates by a fifth and halving notice period because 'coronavirus'

ridley

Re: This years excuse

No, the demand is low across the industry. The demand may or may not be low in BT but given the demand is low across the industry BT can lower the rates without the contractors jumping ship.

If demand for a particular position is low BT can cut that position via the notice period.

He was a skater boy. We said, 'see you later, boy' – and the VAX machine mysteriously began to work as intended

ridley

Re: Static

In 1995 I was running a small computer company when someone offered me some 1mb memory sticks at what I though was a very good price, so I bought iirc 300 of them at a few pounds each.

That night the love earthquake happened and dram just disappeared. Over the next few weeks dram became scarcer and scarcer and I just held, didn't even bother building pcs. Suppliers kept offering me more and more...

Eventually o sold for iirc £100 a stick and went on a very nice holiday.

Unexpected victory in bagging area: Apple must pay shop workers for time they spend waiting to get frisked

ridley

Re: Happens to all airport staff as well

No the employer is employing you knowing that you are required to go through security in order to attend work, they should pay for that time as a cost of doing business. Not the employees pay it as a cost of being employed.

Dido 'Queen of Carnage' Harding to lead UK's Institute for Health Protection because Test and Trace went so well

ridley

And a mobius strip for a wall

Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced techie is indistinguishable from magic

ridley

Re: even before PFY

Certainly Athlone didn't, took no more than a second to release the magic smoke.

ridley
Mushroom

Not quite optical

During the war our early warning, such as it was, monitored the German Luftwaffe in France gathering for a raid so they would scramble to meet them.

Several times they would scramble and they raid would strangely disappear before they could intercept.

After a while they noticed that this happened in the early morning but not at any other times.

Eventually it was realised it wasn't a raid at all, but the Sun rising and so radio astronomy was born.

If only the Germans had known they could have caught us with our pants down by launching at the right time.

Voyager 1 cracks yet another barrier: Now 150 Astronomical Units from Sol

ridley

Re: They don't build them like they used to

Ay and they had to compensate for the torque of the tape drive starting when taking some shots of the plants.

The first ZX Spectrum prototype laid bare... (What? It was acceptable in the '80s)

ridley

Re: 16K

I worked on HMS broadsword and her seawolf missiles (we were adding thermal guidance), I was somewhat surprised bag the core memory and paper tape programme loading, including a strip taped to the side of a filing cabinet that needed to be loaded to avoid firing the missiles at the superstructure...

Raytheon techie who took home radar secrets gets 18 months in the clink in surprise time fraud probe twist

ridley

Re: "he had downloaded documents to an external drive against company policy"

At a school I worked in the kids had full access to USB drives, teachers read only.

Go figure.

UK smacks Huawei with banhammer: Buying firm's 5G gear illegal from year's end, mobile networks ordered to rip out all next-gen kit by 2027

ridley

Because that is a squirrelly statement that gives the impression that it us the data flowing through them that has appeared in the states hands rather than say the routers ip address or the like.

Isn't 5g data encrypted? If do how can a router be a security risk?

ridley

Re: TL;DR:

As opposed to the yanks, with poodle Britain in tow, invading countries hither and thither.

Remind me again how many countries has China invaded in the last 100 years..

ridley

Re: This will end in tears.

Countering with an implied EU restriction that doesn't actually exist.

Yep, sounds about right for a brexiteer.

ridley

Re: This will end in tears.

What exactly was it about the EU that would have prevented the UK from offering HK citizens asylum/citizenship?

That's right SFA.

Winter is coming, and with it the UK's COVID-19 contact-tracing app – though health minister says it's not a priority

ridley

Well that aged well

Centralised app now abandoned in favour of Apple/Google decentralised app.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes: UK man gets 3 years for torching 4G phone mast over 5G fears

ridley

Re: He used the wrong excuse

I am quite surprised at the length of sentence. I used to go out with someone who nicked £150,000 from a charity and got way less time.

The Great British anti-5G fruitcake Bakeoff: Group hugs, no guns, and David Icke

ridley

"YouTube has clear policies prohibiting any content that disputes the existence and transmission of COVID-19 as described by the WHO and the NHS."

Has anyone found this policy?

I have found a policy that advises that if you want to monetise you content that you should not do x-y and recommends that if you want to monetise it that you should not dispute the existence and transmission of COVID-19 as described by the WHO and the NHS.

But that isn't a ban, just means you won't make money.

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

ridley

Re: I don't think Apple and Google are creating an app

Dont be silly they can't reject an EU proposal and go their own way hat would require sovereignty.

ridley

Re: Hanlon's razor

Presumably the gov had several proposals that they could have chosen the best from or were they just given Dom's mates one?

From Brit telly presenter Eamonn Holmes to burning 5G towers in the Netherlands: Stupid week turns into stupid fortnight for radio standard

ridley

Re: Anti 5Ger

No you are not right.

5G is at a much higher, but still safe, frequency that does not penetrate or go around corners too well so would not have been very good for terrestrial TV

So how do the coronavirus smartphone tracking apps actually work and should you download one to help?

ridley

It's in the waves

Don'f fall for it people, don't you know the disease is in the waves? Just turn it off!

/s

ridley

Re: British soln

I used multiple Rabbit phones at my home business, allowed the same handsets to access multiple lines without spending loads.

Worked great for years.

Happy memories

ridley

Re: Good for data-less phone plans

Whilst I agree with your sentiment I would not suggest you accompany the BOFH whilst composting a roll of carpet with your phone turned on, data package or not.

OK brainiacs, we've got an IT cold case for you: Fatal disk errors on an Amiga 4000 with 600MB external SCSI unless the clock app is... just so

ridley

Re: Whoa, that was a nasty gremlin

Wow, now Agnus or should I say Jolyon I remember you well, we met a few times at shows and I believe a developer conference.

Now that takes me back.

ridley

My part in CBM's downfall.

Having an Amiga A4000/030 and lusting after the power of those '040's I decided to get the daughter board and source the CPU's from elsewhere as the daughter board with CPU IIRC was about £700, a lot in those days.

So I ordered the daughter board off CPC? Farnell? for £29 but was told that they were on back order.

Six months! Later I received my daughter board..complete with cpu and cooler all for £29. Now some people would have alerted Farnell to the mistake and others would have placed an order for all the daughter boards in stock. IIRC there were 20-30 in stock...

Education tech supplier RM smacked by UK schools closure

ridley

Re: Garbage

Great except Google Chrome books and Chrome bases will do pretty much everything you want bar video editing for a fraction of the cost and with great educational software and community.

RM have had their day the future is not with them.

We regret to inform you there are severe delays on the token ring due to IT nerds blasting each other to bloody chunks

ridley

Nothing better than sneaking up on someone and firing up the chainsaw

BOFH: Gosh, IPv5? Why didn't I think of that? Say, how do you like the new windows in here? Take a look. Closer...

ridley

As connoisseur of all things BOFH that is one of the best.

ps someone owes me a new keyboard.

Just the place you'd want to spot a BSOD: While waiting in line for a roller coaster that lifts you up 124ft

ridley

Re: confidence inspiring

Most coasters do not have an active braking system anymore, for just this sort of reason.

They usually rely on a metal plate under the carriages passing through magnets attached on the side of the track. When they do this large amount of eddy currents/electricity is generated, the energy to do this is taken from the motion of the carriages.

No moving parts, no computers just physics.

Breaker one-nine, this trucker's rubber ducked, facing a year in the slammer for Acer laptop thefts

ridley

Tracing

I am a bit surprised, given the nature of Chromebooks, that they have not been able to trace some of the Chromebooks and then back up the chain.

Auf wiedersehen, pet: UK Deutsche Bank contractors plan to leave rather than take 25% pay cut for IR35 – report

ridley

Re: Alternatively

Most Dr's are on short term contracts that are renewed you cannot really have a lockin clause if you don't want to lock them in yourself.

What do we want? A proper review of IR35! When do we want it? Last year! Bunch of IT contractors protest outside UK Parliament

ridley

pay cuts

You cannot take a pay cut if you are not an employee.

Come on el reg.

Contractors welcome Lords inquiry into IR35 before tax reforms hit private sector but fear it's 'too little, too late'

ridley

Re: When is a duck not a duck?

In many cases being s dole trader us a dick move. If someone stiffs you then you can lose everything and I mean everything.

There is a reason why people choose limited liability.

Also selling a sole trader company can be difficult.

ridley

Re: When is a duck not a duck?

If HMRC make the rules a cast in stone checklist then it would be easy to find a loophole, they have to make it vague so that they can argue that there are no loopholes....

Remember that 2024 Moon thing? How about Mars in 2033? Authorization bill moots 2028 for more lunar footprints

ridley

Re: Um... cost and sustainability (of the mission, long term)

What o don't get about SLS is using shuttle engines, sure you have some lying around but when you run out surely it is going to be a huge waste of money to remake fantastically advanced resubale engines in order to three them away.

ridley

You are Buzz Aldrin and I claim my $5

ridley

Re: Are we there yet?

For this to work the spun structure needs to be very large or at least a long way from the hub.

If not then you are going to have real problems with different parts of your body experiencing different amounts of "g". I cannot remember the figure for the minimum radios needed but it is much bigger than you think.

ridley

Re: Are we there yet?

Nah, your space ship doesn't have to be light weight just go nuclear.

Project Orion you know it makes sense.

How a Kaggle Grandmaster cheated in $25,000 AI contest with hidden code – and was fired from dream SV job

ridley

"Harnessing the power of data"

Not entirely convinced that the sponsor for this article will want to be associated with it.

Boeing aircraft sales slump to historic lows after 737 Max annus horribilis

ridley

I am impressed that they delivered nearly 3 a day last year, that's going some.

All commercial?

Blackout Bug: Boeing 737 cockpit screens go blank if pilots land on specific runways

ridley

Re: Lifestyle change

I can thoroughly recommend reading "Chickenhawk" an account of a Huey driver in Vietnam.

I particularly liked the passage when he was on a rescue mission and was far too overloaded to take off in the tiny clearing he had landed in (he would need to be moving to get clear air).

So he just made the clearing bigger using the rotors...

ridley

Re: Lifestyle change

When I worked in Pakistan I would frequently fly into Multan airport and on more than one occasion the flight was guided in by a helicopter gunship flying alongside.

Very disconcerting.

NASA's monster rocket inches towards testing while India plots return to the Moon

ridley

Re: We're still catching up to the NASA of the 1960s in many ways

Film or the TV series?

The Register disappears up its own fundament with a Y2K prank to make a BOFH's grinchy heart swell with pride

ridley

For it has been said for every Rick there is a Morty

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