Posts by RPF

Security needs to learn from the aviation biz to avoid crashing

Re: "The same needs to happen in security"

Professional pilots will ALWAYS report problems with aircraft.

Alibaba spins out a biz to productize home-grown data tools

"Productized"?

Obviously this is not a native English-speaker writing this (probably American), but what's wrong with the correct form: "produced"?

Cars in driver-assist mode hit a third of cyclists, all oncoming cars in tests

Re: So technology works as intended...

Air France 447 was not a prime example. The (idiot) pilots put the plane outside the operating envelope and into a deep stall all by themselves. They were not 'relentlessly trained' either; Air France afterwards re-instated basic-flying and gliding lessons to their students after this crash.

Putin threatens supply chains with counter-sanction order

Re: You want to play hardball?

Maersheimer also said that Putin would NEVER invade Ukraine......

Will Chinese giants defy US sanctions on Russia? We asked a ZTE whistleblower

Re: ElReg doing politics ?

He was General counsel at Chinese telco kit-maker ZTE's US operations, i.e. in the US

China thrilled it captured already-leaked NSA cyber-weapon

Re: Great

Russia cannot have it both ways. The Geneva Convention would only apply if they declared war, surely.

It takes more clicks to reject their cookies than accept them, so France fines Facebook and Google over €200m

CookieAutoDelete is my friend.

Apple's Pegasus lawsuit a 'declaration of war' against offensive software developers, says Kaspersky director

2 wrongs don't make a right.

In the '80s, spaceflight sim Elite was nothing short of magic. The annotated source code shows how it was done

Re: Definitely never ever sat up...

Using EOR with a small loading routine was brilliant; you could not modify the only readable bit of code otherwise it all turned to gobbledigook. Remember these guys were undergraduates when they wrote this!

Brilliant programming and more of the same was in Johnathan Griffith's book "http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/22619/Creative%20Assembler%20-%20How%20To%20Write%20Arcade%20Games%20for%20the%20BBC%20Microcomputer%20/"

Apple arms high-end MacBook Pro notebooks with M1 Pro, M1 Max processors

ACORN also built the first RISC-chip home computer, which Apple also claimed they did first (and lost the subsequent court case).

Report details how Airbus pilots saved the day when all three flight computers failed on landing

Re: Computer Control ?

No, ironically it's a safety interlock that is designed to prevent thrust-reverse deploying in flight.

Re: Automation Issue

You almost never hear of the millions of times pilots save the day.

Re: Automation Issue

The "meat-bags" who "cause" avoidable accidents are usually blamed because blaming all the other organisational (bosses who bully crews into working to the max for the least pay/rest) or systemic (broken equipment, faulty 737-MAXs...) is much, much harder to do, especially as the airlines and regulators are utterly married to their bottom lines over everything else.

Pilots are the LAST LINE OF DEFENCE in a an extremely complex and hazardous transportation system that only pays for advancements in safety when a huge pile of bodies forces them to.

Re: "Seems the pilots did a good job,"

AC clearly a failed pilot applicant.....

Mullet over: Aussie boys' school tells kids 'business in the front, party in the back' hairstyle is 'not acceptable'

Re: Traditions?

Absolutely, I did of course meant the white Aussies. Thanks for the interesting link, though.

Now all this guy needs to prove is that the Aborigines had mullets in ancient times :-)

Traditions?

To paraphrase: "Australia isn't old enough to have traditions; they merely have habits.

Tesla broke US labor law with anti-union efforts – watchdog

Exactly. "Every company gets the union it deserves" they say and here's one that fits.

Citibank accidentally wired $500m back to lenders in user-interface super-gaffe – and judge says it can't be undone

Re: Interesting legal argument there....

I think it's slightly more nuanced than that. He's saying that because it was such a huge amount, it would be reasonable to expect the bank to have thoroughly checked it. Let's face it, even with about 6 zeroes knocked off this sum, I would check it carefully!

Better buckle up: Volkswagen puts Microsoft in driver's seat to deliver 'automated' platform

Re: Its getting harder

I've just imported a 1996 W124 Mercedes Benz in to the UK in order to get a rust-free CANBUS-free superbly-built 'proper' car and it's absolutely wonderful. So comfortable, simple, intuitive and solid-feeling that shows modern car design and technology has gone in completely the wrong direction for consumers.

Obviously it's the right direction for the manufacturers, as only main dealers can service/fix them, they will go wrong a lot and they're not built to last. But for Joe Bloggs modern cars are expensive junk.

PC makers warn of battle for air freight capacity, will have to fight for cargo space with... the COVID-19 vaccine

Re: Excuses, excuses

Passenger planes also need regulatory approval to carry freight in the cabin.

Did this airliner land in the North Sea? No. So what happened? El Reg probes flight tracker site oddity

Re: Obviously not GPS jamming

INS/IRS do drift, which is why modern aircraft don't rely on them entirely. The INS/IRS positions are compared regularly with DME/GPS fixing (and radar fixes on older military aircraft) to compute an accurate position. using Kalmann filtering techniques.

Something like a 146/V-bomber would have been much more prone to errors, since the computation was minimal/non-existent.

Brave takes brave stand against Google's plan to turn websites into ad-blocker-thwarting Web Bundles

Well done Brave.

Re: the circle completes

"Gramar".......perfect.

Be very afraid! British Army might scrap battle tanks for keyboard warriors – report

Someone clearly has never heard of Chobham armour.

Re: Putin? Border?

"The Russian military tends to end up in Western Europe only as a result of these invasions" is complete crap.

Finland in 1939.

Poland in 1939.

Latvia, Estonian and Lithuania in 1940.

Afghanistan in 1989.

Chechnya 2004

Georgia in 2008.

All started by Russian without any European invasion.

So long, Top Gun... AI software waxes US F-16 pilot's tail 5-0 during virtual dogfight drills

Re: A "'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice" Moment/Event Horizon:-)

Impressive.

What's a "small disadvantaged business" though?

Re: Youtube comments

Yes, what tits they are.

Re: Watching

This is true and was mentioned in the commentary

But also IRL the enemy wreckage that's closing head-on at 1000+knots doesn't just miraculously disappear....

Re: Do it for real or scram

Having done it for real, I think the result would actually be even worse: the g-forces, the noise, the adrenaline all conspire against the pilot, which is why you train hard to condition yourself against these effects as much as possible; but they\re still a factor against top performance.

I thought the AI planes were bloody good and Heron terrifyingly good at head-on gunnery (which is usually a complete no-no for obvious reasons).

Apple hits back at Epic, says Fortnite crew wants a 'free ride' on fees: Let the app store death match commence

Re: A good time to be a lawyer...

Given that iOS devices are hugely outnumbered by Android ones, there is no way there is a monopoly here.

Chromium devs want the browser to talk to devices, computers directly via TCP, UDP. Obviously, nothing can go wrong

Re: Fingerprinting

There is an API-blocking extension for Chrome that might help with this.

Oh what a feeling: New Toyotas will upload data to AWS to help create custom insurance premiums based on driver behaviour

Screw that, I'll stick to my trusty low-tech British car (e.g. Lotus) to have nothing like that fitted!

Although the engine is from a Toyota, now I think about it.....Yikes!

Aviation regulator outlines fixes that will get the 737 MAX flying again

Re: It's a Boeing

So much better than the old version of this rhyme.

Exploding centre fuel-tanks, runaway rudders, runaway stabilisers, then crap FMCs, no stall protection and all the other crap they build would keep happening, but the know-nots would still trot out: "If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going".

Glad to not hear that rubbish any more.

From 'Queen of the Skies' to Queen of the Scrapheap: British Airways chops 747 fleet as folk stay at home

Re: Bloody awful

Those are called lift spoilers. Perfectly normal.

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

The wife is in bed with the mistress? Time to join in!

Dayam that's an image to savour :-)

GCHQ's cyber arm report on Huawei said to be burning hole through UK.gov desks

Re: WTF ....... Is the service demented and infiltrated?

Stuff like WMD in Iraq, you mean?

Beijing's tightening grip on Hong Kong could put region's future as an up-and-coming tech hub in jeopardy

Re: "won't change Hong Kong or threaten its residents"

Thing is, it even threatens non-residents, if they ever visit China (or Hong Kong, which is clearly the same thing now)

Re: Welcome....

The shills are really out in force today.

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

The last person hanged for treason in the UK was Lord Haw Haw in 1946.

Re: "we need clarity on what the laws will involve before we can decide anything"

Good explanation here of the original bill:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-extradition-explainer-idUSKCN1TD0NB

"Hong Kong’s leader would start and finally approve an extradition following a request from a foreign jurisdiction but only after court hearings, including any possible appeals. However, the bill removes Legislative Council oversight of extradition arrangements." and there was the problem: all HKG Chief Executives are appointed by Beijing.

What they have now is far, far worse and I do think Hong Kong is in for a seriously rough time.

India bans 59 apps it says have privacy, national security problems. In a massive coincidence, they’re all Chinese

Re: !!! :O TikTok

Am sharing that far and wide!

Watch an oblivious Tesla Model 3 smash into an overturned truck on a highway 'while under Autopilot'

Re: Flip

You clearly haven't seen Chinese driving before :-)

Royal Navy nuclear submarine captain rapped for letting crew throw shoreside BBQ party

We definitely also had nuclear depth charges.

UK data watchdog slaps a £500,000 fine on Cathay Pacific for 2018 9.4m customer data leak

Re: No!

They do, but the directors are pretty much IT-illiterate. I'm sure that's something most guys here have heard of before!

One was found to have been accessing the mainframe via Starbucks wi-fi (no VPN, obvs) once...... ...and they never, ever spend on IT if they can help it.

Whirlybird-driving infosec boss fined after ranty Blackpool Airport air traffic control antics

Re: Contrary view

There was almost certainly no hand-over to wait for. Blackpool ATZ is surrounded by uncontrolled airspace.

Yay! The ozone layer hole the smallest it's ever been seen. That's not necessarily good...

Re: Yet the weather is still getting worse, not better

Milk has a carcinogen in it, casein.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166373/

Also the calcium "benefits" of milk are bogus: the body stops producing calcium when milk is consumed and then later in life, if you stop drinking it, your bones become brittle. Hip-fracture rates in old people in the West are actually higher than same age group in China.

Perhaps giving milk to kids wasn't such a great idea after all?

US govt watchdog barks at FAA over 737 Max inspectors' lack of qualifications

Re: Boeing needs to split

Much of the best bits in more modern Boeings were designed by McD-D engineers.

Brit MPs: Our policies are crap and the political process is in tatters, but it's Twitter's fault, OK?

Re: I think the operative word is 'short'

Citation needed on those short positions.

Auditors bemoan time it takes for privatised RAF pilot training to produce combat-ready aviators

Re: Not just flying

Sounds about right. Military service should not be civilianised.

Non-winged non-master race

Are the "Non-winged non-master race" bitter much, then? They used to be called "blunts", because that's the end of the wedge they inhabited on contemporary recruitment posters; they loved that so much!

Prior to out-sourcing, guys had their fast-jet wings within 2.5 years of joining, with around 200 more hours of jet time than now, all in the company of RAF pilots. The examples set made indelible and indispensable impressions on the yoof students. Front-line could be as little as 9 months after that.

7 years is utterly crackers. Even the youngest joiners would be 26 by the time they get to the squadrons, missing out on years of talent/fearless of extreme youth.