Posts by John Smith 19

Death of ID card scheme left £6.5m of kit going begging

£41m for the "business case"

Which the general public has *never* been allowed to see.

I think the icon expresses my surprise adequately.

New NASA model: Doubled CO₂ means just 1.64°C warming

*another* little detail left out of at least *some* models

I'm pleased someone is continuing to include more of the elements that exist in the *real* world.

It's only taken 4 decades to include it.

However

While this one knocks the overall likely temperature rise down it's equally possible the next one could push it *up*.

Do climate modelers do regression testing to find out if their models are getting better or worse?

We have *maybe* 30 years of satellite data to construct a fully *global* map of some climate variables. This is the sort of grid you need to populate a global general circulation model. I'd bet when this data is combined with that of the fixed sites (provided the satellite readings correlate with the ground ones) and are fed into *all* the models some come out *significantly* better than others.

Others have pointed out that "Climate is not weather" and 30 years is not much but it would be a start.

toss up between thumbs up (for the improvement) and flame (for taking so damm long to get round to it).

Elon Musk's Dragon capsule reaches orbit successfully

By the way

The fact that both stages use the same propellants offers a *very* interesting possibility if there is a failure in some stages of the flight, provided the design is suitably equipped.

Prior to 2nd stage separation a series of tests is run on the 2nd stage. If any of them fails the system attempts to protect the payload.

1)Stage 1 throttles down to a minimum to conserve fuel

2)Propellant is routed from Stage 2 tanks into stage 1 to continue feeding the stage 1 engines

Eventually Stage 1 thrust (even at its lowest setting) exceeds thrust. At this point the stage 1 engines are shut down and the remaining propellants exhausted.

Provided everything works out the Falcon acts as the mother of all crumple zones. Close to the final crash Dragon could fire its thrusters as an escape engine or continue to ride it down *without* separation and without firing its main engine (both separation and main engine *have* to work in this maneuver and would be very difficult to test on the day)

Scary as hell to experience but the payload (cargo or passengers) lives to launch another day.

I also welcome this development. Congratulations to all at SpaceX. Let us hope OSC starts to move towards an actual launch as well.

NASA sells PC with restricted Space Shuttle data

@Graham Wilson

You might look at some of the less well used commercial OS's like OS400 (IBM i series) and DEC's VMS.

IIRC both had substantial provision for creating links to single versions of a file rather than creating multiple copies for special uses. VMS also did "rollback" to earlier versions (disk space permitting)

@Saganhill

"I dont understand why they dont use VM desktops and just boot to an IP with an image of a desktop they need. All the data is then stored on a server. No local hard drives to mess with."

Well it might help you to know that the Shuttle programme started building them around 1974 and flying them around 1981 and have carried on servicing them ever since.

What your talking about did not *exist* for most of the Shuttles history (not in the form you're talking about).

If you don't understand the context you'll probably not understand why *this* solution was chosen.

Smiley as we were all young once.

SpaceX's Dragon poised to go orbital

@Mark Graybill

"Practically all solid rockets use a low-order propellant."

Describing solid rocket propellant as "High explosive" was a bit excessive. I was thinking of the kind which drives ICBM's like Polaris and Trident and the Sprint ABM. The core of these double base propellants is a mixture of nitrocellulose (gun cotton) and nitroglycerin, both very much high explosives. The Trident motor added the explosive HMX into the mix.

I had forgotten that for civilian use they tend to use Ammonium Perchlorate with a rubber binder and a lot of Aluminum powder, like the Shuttle SRBs.

That said I'm not sure the difference in explosive potential makes *that* much difference in terms of the precautions that need to be taken.

AFAIK all solid rockets can also (under the wrong circumstances) undergo a "deflagration-to-detonation" transition. *Any* solid can go bang.

Solid propellants are great for weapon systems but I'm very wary of their use in either reusable or crew carrying vehicles.

AC@10:18

I'm sorry you dislike my style. I have written long posts and do try to break them up, part of which is the use of emphasis. My use of this on occasion may have been excessive (You definitely would not have liked my post on software for the DWP, some of whose software is incapable of lowercase text entry).

I think we'll have to disagree on this. I'm more concerned with your views of the facts I present or the opinions I hold.

What saddens me *most* is your inability to put your name on your criticism.

I can understand why people who criticise powerful and wealthy interests want anonymity.

But I'm neither.

My opinion of people always rises if they are prepared to identify themselves.

Spacex wants to meet its objectives in budget OSC wants $312m *more*

For a "Risk reduction" flight.

Translation

<cynical>

"sure we bid for the available money when Rocketplane Kistler failed but we didn't think we *could* design and build a new 2 stage launcher + capsule, mixing a totally new liquid 1st stage *and* new solid 2nd stage (*even* when we sub'd the design and build work out on the 1st stage to the former soviet union and got the 1st engines cheap off Aerojet cause RK couldn't come up with the cash *and* got the capsule design by mod'ing the European cargo carrier on the Shuttle) so can we have *another* bag more cash as we *promise* our vehicle will *never* be crew rated and in no way compete with NASA's current capsule plan no matter *how* dumb and expensive that is, pleasssssse"

</cynical>

I wish OSC *every* possible success. Competition is *always* good in technology but so far they've done *lots* of new building work on their launch pad (I think Spacex just found one that was about the right size first), refurbished a NASA test stand (thanks guys) and built a new assembly shed to go with it (given they are doing horizontal assembly I'd presume the building where they build Pegasus would be high enough but no one wants to move large chunks of solid rocket propellant (AKA high explosive) around the country too much.

@Daedalus

"the State Dept. must still see access to space for world+dog as a frightening prospect."

it does. Stoked by a 100 yr old (and now thankfully diseased) old senator and the insanity that is ITAR,

"Imagine if anyone with enough dosh could orbit something over your country from half a world away."

Have been able to for some time. That sort of thinking (basically that *only* the US can launch substantial payloads because they know how had been dead for at least 20 years. Everywhere but in the US houses of parliament)

"Potential disrupters such as Orbital Sciences have been neutralized by feeding them with official work to prevent them selling their technology on the open market."

It's called the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations and both OSC and SpaceX have to abide by it as they are US corporations (and it applies to staff of foreign rocket builders who have US citizenship). If you want to be ITAR proof do not hire staff with US citizenship or use US sourced space hardware. Fortunately the US has kick started many such efforts.

"Potential disrupters such as Orbital Sciences have been neutralized by feeding them with official work to prevent them selling their technology on the open market."

The US government is *the* biggest launch customer in the world and OSC got their start launching DARPA payloads. The fact their rocket cost *doubled* in design *might* have something to do with the fact one of their key suppliers (Hercules ) is *also* a suppliers of most of their core parts (the solid fuel rocket stages).

One could speculate that OSC gets a "special" price for these which slides a fair sized chunk of cash out from under the nose of any US Gov auditors. That of course would be an outrageous suggestion as we know all US government con-tractors are companies of the *highest* ethical standing.

"Still, the dam must break eventually. Will SpaceX be allowed to succeed?"

I suspect Mr Musk plans deeply.

"Will financing suddenly dry up?"

Not likely. They've done 5 launches (including set up a total production line) for less than $250m. BTW OSC are asking for *another* $312m for a "Risk reduction" and *hope* their first actual supply flight *might* make it to the ISS by the end of 2012.

"Will "accidents" happen?"

Indeed the death of one of the key principles of the world first (and only) designed-for-cost hybrid rocket in a single vehicle car accident was inconvenient for his potential customers. Apparently an early victim of trying to use a mobile phone while DUI. Most regrettable.

"So far two companies, OS and Sea Launch, have created launchers that threaten the status quo. "

Not really. OSC was heavily dependent on govt launch business from day 1 and has about the *highest* $ per lb cost of *any* US launcher (with the *possible* exception of SpaceX *none* of which are cheap). Sea launch was *much* more interesting.More Russian with streamlined (relatively) launch crew.

The issue on launch costs is all about the standing army of people who babysit it (and the *much* large group that don't even *touch* it directly)

"but the revolution is still a long way off"

Agreed.

@James Hughes 1

"I think this is the first time a capsule has used thrusters during descent for landing accuracy, but I could be wrong."

You're wrong. All lifting capsules use thruster burst to maneuver, although in *theory* a set of Control Moment Gyros could do the job you'd probably still need them for direction and velocity control during docking.

@Code Monkey

"Are we talking a genuine few hundred yards or a Ryanair few hundred yards, here?"

Well lifting capsule (that's ones with offset centres of gravity like Gemini and Apollo) could put down to within (IIRC) 0.6 of a nautical mile (1110m)

With better air models and sensors (and *much* faster on board processors) they should do *much* better. If they go with a parafoil parachute then within a runway width is possible (the plan for the X38 ).

Minister 'C*nt' promises £50m to get fabtastic fibre for all

1Gbs HD video to 40 rural market towns in England

Purveyors of amateur sheep pron rejoice!

It's all good. Nothing baaaad about that.

Gov decides not to have scientific advice on drugs any more

*No* fig leaf to hide behind.

"We took the advice of the advisory committee" ( and ignored it)

Will now be

"We did a survey and the top answer (to a bunch of ideas we pulled out our rectums) was...."

They have *no* factual basis from anyone with any reputation. It's now just *their* opinion.

And you know what opinions are like.....

They're ignorant and now they are *proud* to admit it. That's really quite honest.

@Scott Thomson

"Is our country being run by adults or 8 year old children?"

Is that a trick question?

They've just had a conservative back bench MP propose putting an age certificate on *every* website on the WWW *despite* said MP knowing there are roughly 250 million of them and the relevant Minster saying he does not believe ISP's are "Dumb pipes" and thinking age certification is a *great* idea.

If they are not 8 YO children they sure believe the world should *operate* at the level of an 8YO (or perhaps slightly younger)

Final mission of shuttle Discovery postponed until February

You guys know what I'm going to say.

*Very* last chance to test.

Oh, what's the use......

Judges reject Operation Ore appeal

Exemplary PR work from Jim Gamble cor CC companies

Wonder what he's going to be doing when he leaves (Ed Vaizey seemed to suggest he had already done so in the adjournment debate) CEOP?

Brave new Boris-bikers banjaxed by broken boxes

@Cardare Anbraxas

"Best thing London can do is write-off everything Serco has done for them, and contract a firm which prioritizes their clients, and not their bottom-lines"

And who would that be in government con-tractor land?

Gates: Nothing really new in Wikileaks Bradley Manning leak storm

Manning is the BOFH?

Because that is the *only* way someone that junior can not just get his mitts on so *much* stuff but also *dump* it out of the system without apparently *anyone* noticing a big data chunk has been copied and sent to removable storage.

Unless

He's just the the courier for someone (or possibly a group) of people who extracted the data and passed it to him

or lastly

More than 1/2 a decade after Gary McKinnon performed his pentagon outrage US military data security remains so lazy, slipshod and completely ineffective manner that a slightly more informed other rank can defeat it on a *massive* scale.

But of course that's absurd. No organization would set themselves up to be humiliated like that a *second* time.

Self-correcting memory arrives at last

I thought chip level ECC has been around for *decades*

Roughly from the time of 1micron chips.

IIRC it was the level of radioactive elements in the chip packaging versus the charge on the capacitor gate that meant charge retention could no longer be trusted.

it would seems the NAND gate technology was a *lot* more resistant so it hasn't been needed up till now.

Frenchies, Germans wave fat pipes at embarrassed Brits

Perhaps if ISP's delivered what they *promised* that would be a start.

You know

20mbs for more than 5 secs a day at 3am (and forget that if you start to stream YouTube or some other site)

And WTF is this "traffic shaping"?

ISP's. Every time you "Traffic shape" you weaken your case for being "Just a dumb pipe" and make the UK government think how much easier it would for *you* to be recording all those users traffic details, scanning those 250 million websites to put an age certificate on them and helping Big Film and Big Music chase people for copyright violation instead of them getting off their fat asses and doing it themselves.

Stop f*8king selling bandwidth you do *not* have.

Britains. You get the Internet you deserve. Do something about it or get used to it.

ISPs under pressure to control online porn

@Sarah Bee

I noted your name on some of the moderator comments for this forum and wrote accordingly.

In my defense its a 44 minute video of politicians talking about a subject I have some interest in (some of them having the ability to act on their opinions) and showing both their deep arrogance and ignorance of the subject at the same time. I was a tad vexed by the time it had finished.

But I''ll try and keep it harder and tighter next time.

I've seen the whole video. let me lay it down.

The rejection of the original version of this post has caused me to revise it. I'll hope it is allowed while preserving the full body of the original.

I apologise to the divine moderatrix herself for any offense caused. I naturally submit to her cruel but just authority.

The point of view expressed is my own.

<profanity filter off>

First I need to describe the mutual circle jerk that is an adjournment debate in the House of Commons.

Essentially a group of "Concerned" MP's sign a petition. Unlike the online ones for mere subjects of the Crown in the UK this can result in getting a debate (with an actual Minister in some cases).Depending on their real POV the minister will either count the minutes till this time wasting ritual (in their POV) is over or hang on every word of every speaker. Roughly 8 assorted mono maniacal [redacted] were in the Chamber and Ed Vaizey himself showed up. Make that 9.

it seems Clare has got some new friends at a "Safer Media Conference" sponsored by the MP for Enfield Southgate (Wikipedia said this is "David Burrow but the [redacted] doing the talking at this point was rather more [redacted]. Google Viz comic characters for details) who probably showed her some [redacted]. In best NoTW she was Shocked & Disgusted at such acts.

She should *also* have been [redacted], as should the [redacted] as possession of [redacted] is an *absolute* crime. You're holding it, you're guilty. Case closed.

After various assorted quotes and a shit storm of statistics which basically show parents are scared shitless of what little Lucy and Jonquil are viewing but know fuck all about how to use parental filters and can't *quite* manage the time/commitment/intelligence to *learn* (or bother to pay someone to do it for them) she explains her Cunning Plan.

She *is* aware there is an estimated 250 million web sites (of course she knows [redacted] about anything else *but* the WWW) and that c12% (30 million) websites are porn.

But

There are *only* 450 UK landline ISP's and the top 6 control 90% of the market and they turnover £3Bn (Vaizey seems to think this is *profit*, not turnover. Pretty sweet deal if he's right. Not so good otherwise)

And Age Verification works *fine* on Gambling sites using a combination of UK electoral roll and financial data. Imagine that. Gambling sites have access to both your house address details *and* your financial records to make sure you're not little Johnny. Thank you [redacted].

So

linking these 2 *together* we get *universal* age verification of *all* UK subjects and blocking on a site by site basis.

Simples.

Perry "You don't need to be Bill Gates to make this a much more effective system"

(But you do have to be a fucking clueless moron to think this will work IMHO)

Exactly *how* and *who* will classify these 250 *million* sites is not actually stated but how difficult could it be (Well at 1 *second* per porn website you can get it done in a bit over 347 days. But the others will take a bit longer)

In her mind (Which seems pretty [redacted]) the 3 problems are.

1)Restricting access to "inappropriate material" is a restriction on freedom of speech. But this is *too* nasty not to restrict (yes she does know about the IWF but they're just *not* THINKING OF THE CHILDREN enough). Yes it is *already* illegal to make, posses, view or distribute [redacted] in the UK (I'd *love* to know if the organizers of that little event got [redacted] on that point). But it's not enough.

2)Too costly and difficult to implement. But Ha Ha its *only* 6 UK companies, 450 at the most.

3)But what *is* porn? Well she says the Obscene Pubs Act is perfectly alright for TV and films.

And of course *every* web site on the planet would go along with the UK definition of porn because hey they like to be helpful.

Various other [redacted] chime in with stuff like "Long term damage to the mind, far worse than the short term harm of under age alcohol or cigarettes." Not that he's actually *seen* an underage alcoholic or what LSD can do to someone whose head is not screwed *very* firmly on.

Again the mixing of regular porn (hard or soft core) with [redacted] porn.

But then Vaizey comes in hard for the government side. I wish.

What Vaizey believes & likes.

The OPA deters people and "Keeps them in boundaries" even if you can't get a conviction on it.

Does not subscribe to the theory that ISP's are "Dumb pipes" but it's not like the Royal Mail opening *every* parcel (or letter) they carry.

That appears to be a logical contradiction. EU law states they *are* common carriers like telephones or post services and the Ministers opinion is worth exactly fuck all. In fact it is *exactly* like them opening every piece of post they carry (or BT listening to *every* phone conversation "Just in case" it might be a drug deal/ransom demand/organising a fight between rival gangs of soccer hooligans.

Someone else pointed out that sending porn through the mail *is* a crime.

Likes mobile phone operators putting in age controls by default and you have to verify your age before they remove them

Likes CEOP and thinks it's worked *so* well he wants to broaden its remit. Warm welcome to "Peter Davis" (who he?) taking over after Jim "Panic Button" Gamble.

Likes the fact that ISP's *can* "Traffic manage" so they know what's going through their systems (and can throttle it) and when he acted as an "honest broker" between them and the "Rights holders"

IE Big Music and Big Film companies they could soon use the new stuff in the Digital Economy (Lord Manderscum's [redacted] ) Act to stop these [redacted] (No he did not say that but you do get the impression that's exactly how this [redacted] thinks)

Applauded Tanya Byrons research which lead to the setting up of the 170 member "UK Council on Child Internet Safety" whatever that is.

Looked forward to "Brokering" a meeting between the major ISP's Ms Perry and any organizations she wanted to invite.

Perry likes all this but asks him to set a timetable for improvement as there is "Universal acceptance of a huge problem"

"Universal" that is amongst about 8 MP's.

No mention was made that this would also in principle leave a complete log of *every* web site visited as the ISP's cross checked your credit details Vs your electoral roll entry (universal registration. The right to vote *guarantees* the right to porn). Not that *anyone* would do that and say sell it onward. Right?

If I were to break into the backstage area at Crufts and smear premium quality dog food on the [redacted] of *every* contestant there I would not witness quite so much mutual [redacted] as this 44 minute session.

She seems to have learned just *enough* to be a major waste of public time and money.

She either can't or won't understand the answer to the question "How difficult can it be" is complicated in detail but briefly put "very fucking complicated indeed."

I image tech support at the Commons dream they could assign [redacted] to "sort out" her IT problems in a very final way.

It's hard to say if he's a [redacted] looking for promotion on the Next Big Moral Panic, a [redacted] who likes the idea of all that data which will *have* to be kept up to date or just a [redacted] who has *no* clue how much this will cost and how easily it will be by-passed.

I've spent enough time listening to these fuckwits. I don't suffer fools gladly and fools with ministerial responsibility make me want to hurl.

While I don't think they are demanding of quite the action the staff at Phorm deserve I think a trawl through their history tabs and a few postings might give a few chuckles.

The Wacqui Jacqui saga and the porn on expenses story still gives me a chuckle or two.

Flames because frankly [redacted].

</profanity filter off>

The NuLabor bottom feeder I had in mind wanting to certificate all YouTube content

Was the Minister at the time Andy Burnham.

This jobs seems to be like the old Home Secretary's. Nice people turn into monsters. Sadly it does not seem to turn rabid right wingers into liberals.

@Big_Ted

"What do thet expect the ISP's to do, look at every website in existence ?"

Yes. They really *are* that ignorant. Like that previous bottom feeder who thought *every* video on YouTube should have a rating, because, well how many can there be?

"Or are they calling for Deep packet inspection of everything going through their network ."

You can bet if they *knew* what it was they would. Mind you that might require filling their pristine skulls with some actual *facts*.

"This is the sort of stupid approach made by people who can barely understand how to turn a computer on let alone how the inter web works."

True. Facilitated by an MP who needs more than the average number of whacks from the clue stick.

"All we need is a simple price of software that parents can install and put blocks onor decide which websites are allowed........

Oh right there are plenty out there already ....."

So I hear. In fact it's my impression that most paid pron sites sign up with *all* of them as a matter of course. I think it's because they consider themselves in the "Adult" entertainment business, not the shocking-little-kiddies-with-blatant-sexual-imagery business.

Ah, another election, another group of clueless attention seeking media whores looking for a cause to champion who will wear their ignorance of one of the major forces shaping their children's future with *such* pride.

Those of you who wish to giver her a tap with the clue stick I recommend the dead tree approach.

Claire Perry MP

House of Commons

London SW1A 0AA

It's that simple. Short words, no swearing and keep it tight and focused.

Check out the YouTube feed on the "Debate" @ http://www.claireperry.org.uk/

This woman seems to spend a *lot* of time talking to herself.

Highlights so far "In 1996 I made a new years resolution to find out more about the Internet"

So not quite got round to keeping that one I'm guessing.

2 mins down, 43 to go.

Cryptographers crack system for verifying digital images

Another great win for security by obscurity

Or perhaps not.

US rejected Brown's McKinnon case plea

Brown could not even manage to grovel well.

the final nail in his reputation.

That wasn't so bad

Thanks for answering my question

So

either

1 in 8 projects is fully successful (c12.5% of total)

or

Their PM's are the best at spinning the result to be what was asked for.

Either way *that* does sound like a real problem.

But OMG what room for improvement.

My 50th of a major currency unit's thoughts on the matter.

Speaking personally I *never* found any rational basis for estimating development timescales.

Only people who could state such estimates with more convincing authority.

No one I worked with seemed to collect *any* information useful to developing such estimates or required information be collected to do so.

So what is the norm? Most projects FUBAR?, or on the whole get done in T&B?

Because without that base line *any* idea about what the state of play in PM in *any* sector is impossible to decide.

Plasma space-drive aces efficiency numbers: Set for ISS in 2014

In perspective. Some Thrust to weights

First rate LOX/kerosene engine 100:1

Good LOX/LH2 engine 60:1

Poor but re usable Peroxide/kerosene 40:1

Modern jet engine 10:1 (the wings make a *big* difference).

Nuclear thermal c1.1:1

Ion 0.001:1

Bottom line overall travel time is shorter and there will be no spine grinding multi g turns.

You will note even Nerva could not lift itself (that's optimistic that its thrust exceeded its weight, but not that of the vehicle carrying it.

@Mike Flugennock

"I know lots of people have suggested that here at one time or another, but I'm not sure the module connections and truss structure of the ISS were really designed for that kind of acceleration stress load."

Going with a nerva style nuclear thermal system probably not. Very dramatic in a film. Nonsense in real life. The joints will fail.

But VASIMIR thrust levels are *much* smaller than the hypergolic thrusters used for orbit correction at present (long and low Vs short but high thrust) so with a big enough long lived power source perhaps.

But ISS life support is *not* closed cycle (there are European test sections to work on this) and the modules do leak so you'd need to stock up a *lot* with the present level of life support tech.

@KevH

"What they should do is fix a big one onto the ISS, power it using the power plant from a Nuclear sub and send it on a tour of the solar system"

hard to believe but this *is* quite a big one.

"What they should do is fix a big one onto the ISS, power it using the power plant from a Nuclear sub and send it on a tour of the solar system."

While sub power plants are *relatively* compact the system that converts raw heat into electricity is *very* substantial. You're looking at IIRC a 60-120Mw steam turbine. This is not that small or light. The fact it's heavy is no big thing on a sub (you want it to sink easily, don't you?).

"This invention is likely to be assigned to the 'we could if we wanted to' bin of inventions like 'Hotol'."

Hotol might be dead but it's spawn is very much alive. Look up reaction engines ltd.

@Mike Flugennock

Jackass Flats was where the nuclear rockets like Kiwi and Nerva were tested. A book (Astronautics in the Sixties?) shows a firing vertically *into* the air of Nerva before being dragged back to the assembly building for dis assembly by remote tele-operators (or Waldo's if you're of a certain age) by a remote control locomotive.

I'm not sure they got as far as picking out a launch site for Orion. Although big, flat and isolated would probably be a *very* good idea.

Poor IT contributes to DWP errors

@chr0m4t1c

"No, that's not how the suppliers want things developed, because that type of thing costs them more to support and eats into profit margins."

that tends to depend on how well the con-tractor has managed to "negotiate" the con-tract.

"A good few of these systems could well be 30-40 years old and probably developed in house when the departments had their own IT staff and there are so many of them because the departments were all separate entities in those days, as they got amalgamated over the years there was likely to be little budget or compelling reason to merge the systems and you suddenly find yourself in the position they're in today."

No doubt. However it's a truism that support costs rise as systems get older. I find it *very* hard to believe that the point has not come for *some* of these systems to be shut down as their support costs (old hardware/migration costs of a re-write to go on new hardware/cost of processing change requests for software written in creaky 70 4GL) to the point that it *will* be cheaper to shut them down, merge their functions into a new generation of some of the remaining systems and link in the relevant data to the new system.

"Yes, there's huge scope for improvement, but that needs money, which no-one wants to spend. Pick any two random systems and you'll probably find they're running on kit that's anywhere between five and fifteen years old, so if you wanted to merge them you would almost certainly have to buy one new server to do it on."

I'd say it needs *leadership* by people with solid map of the systems data models and interrelationships. See my comments on your previous paragraph.

"Add to that the data centre space, design work for the merged system, training for staff to use the merged system, building and testing the new system, secure disposal of data on the old system and you could find that it would take 3-4 years to recover the cost of the system against the money you save."

And of course you would do *all* of these together. A classic big bang with *everything* depending on everything working out properly on time. What could possibly go wrong?

I find it *astonishing* that the UK government seems to operate c150 data centres. US states bigger than the UK run their *whole* operations for a given state services in one data centre.

Let's start with identifying *which* systems should be merged and *then* begin a phased process of merging the support teams and hardware, then beginning to migrate to 1 hardware platform and eventually a unified application.

That should be all fine, but as soon as you decide to do that you find yourself beset by the unwashed masses who think that all of that transformation work should be done for free and that hardware is made from fairy dust (no, it just runs on magic smoke). If anyone dares to charge for any work then they're evil money-grabbing b*stards.

Maybe it's because they have had the sharp end of a *very* sharp stick thrust up them too often to entirely trust those nice IT con-tractors?

At the risk of being boring I find it *very* hard to believe the support costs on some of that ancient software has not started to climb through the *roof*. What is the going rate for a skilled IBM S360 COBOL programmer these days?

I imaging that allowing lower case note entry SO IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE ALL THE NOTES ARE BEING WRITTEN BY SOMEONE SHOUTING alone would save a fortune in eye tests and spectacle upgrades.

Or perhaps you could just start on a decent data cleansing run to pick out the real stupid stuff. I know there should be no entries with invalid birth and/or death dates and of course if you do have a date of death it should be *after* the DOB should it not, but something tells me that won't be the case. I'll be there's a *lot* more rubbish to find.

*140* systems. 140 Systems

Can you say data synchronization issues? Some systems data right, some not. but which ones?

Can you say data cleanliness issues? they all say John Smith's birth date is 99/99/99.

Yes that can't be right (but if you stuff the underlying data base files rather than go through proper data entry certainly possible.

"Benefit processing systems are not designed in a way that allows simple changes to the screen display"

Because there's *no* way the rules will change or further questions will be needed at a later date (or dare I even *suggest* it they might not need to ask some of them anymore).

On a 140 *different* systems.

In *how* many different data centres?

But let's be honest if you were an IT con-tractor ( I don't mean you hard working harassed IR35 types. I mean the HP/IBM/Crap Gemini people who win these) that's *exactly* how you want it developed.

Systems that are *almost* (but not *quite*) impossible to modify, provided there is a big enough budget with just *less* than the number of bugs needed to fail acceptance. Or rather that were *found* before handover. So you can start charging for the fixes when the *rest* of the bugs get found out.

But *damm* what a scope for improvement. £!bn to run. £1.9Bn in nett over payments.

there's *got* to be room for improvement here.

Epic fails

Predates Rumsfeld by a *long* way

Think more "The Right Stuff" as in the book by Tom Wolfe.

This sort of thinking comes from aeronautics research. A classic example was the flight that nearly wrecked one of the X15's when it carried a dummy ramjet.

The planes wings generated shock waves (known) the model generated shock waves too (known). However when the 2 shock waves *interfered* the heating rate went up c10x. This was not known and not *expected* either This lopped off the bottom X15 fin in mid flight and made the landing a virtual crash.

It really can be the things you don't know that can kill you.

That said my gut feel is that *many* of those failures were *completely* predictable given fairly simple back of the envelope calculations in terms of file sizes, numbers of records, length of retentions, time to transmit, time to retrieve etc.

An interesting case would be the Eupol idea of checking *every* entrant against their facial database. NIST estimated a searching a 1.6m face database in 1 sec on a $25k server, with a 0.3% error rate (or 4800 matches).

But

The database is actually about 4x that size. Now how *many* entry desks are on the border with the EU?

Wikileaks exposes Clinton's cyberspy wish-list

"Diplomacy"

Diplomacy is

"This is our position on this issue. We wish you to get the representatives of these powers to see our POV, find out who disagrees with our POV and do your best convert those sitting on the fence into people who agree without POV"

Intelligence is

"'Copy or steal any information that will enable us to identify their comms links so we can a)monitor all of them and b)insert our own fakes for disinformation as and when necessary.

Learn the F£$king difference.

NASA dusts off X15-successor rocket hyperplanes

@Mike Fluggenock

Philip Bono proposed quite a number of variants over the years of his core design. Since my copy of Frontiers of Space went AWOL IIRC Ithacus was in there along with Hyperion (sled mounted, resembled the 1960's revival of the Sanger Silverbird) and Pegasus (which I think was more of the civilian concept).

Note that working for Douglas he had access to both the airliner issues (the operating cost equations) and the rocket side for the work on the Saturn 2nd stage (SIVb)

In airliner terms *bigger* is *always* better.

BTW The reason for these *monster* vehicle was 2 fold. Bigger is better but also mass estimation uncertainty.

With a bigger design you can in theory cope with more weight growth. Actually if you admit you don't want to go orbital (just very long range, very fast) you can relax the issues quite a lot. But now you have to bit a *very* fast moving (downward) and not too maneuverable (by aircraft terms) into an aircraft traffic pattern.

People *presume* he wanted a plug nozzle engine but actually that was *not* mandatory. The effects that plug nozzles rely on for altitude compensation *could* work with a bunch of normal engines just expanding around the periphery of a (very) big centre body.

Although that has never been tried in flight either. The closest seems to have been the 25Klb design made by rocketdyne under the leadership of Dr Hwang (That's the Hwang in Huzel & Hwang) but that got badly damaged in testing (Check AIAA for c1974 for the details).

Pictures of him show a dapper fellow with a fondness for white suits and a marked resemblance to Walt Disney.

So how much would it be worth for you to turn 18 Hrs into say 2 hrs?

@Jonski

Ithacus was one of several concepts discussed in the book. Bono had been working the idea for at least a decade and a lot of his thinking was reported int eh 1967/68 editions of Spaceflight (back when it was the only publication of the BIS).

His aim was to supersede the expected Super Sonic Transport (Concorde and its expected US competitor). In point of fact the vehicle would have been a lifting (semi-ballistic) flight with *much* lower acceleration/deceleration profiles (IE suitable for reasonably fit individuals who can survive a modern roller coaster without blacking out).

ICBM's pull stupid accelerations to keep the propellant mass small (because they normally fit into smallish containers) and because their engines have *no* throttling ability at all. Once you relax those conditions things get a lot more reasonable.

It would still be 45 mins to cross half the world. he also worked out the the energy consumption (often a complaint) is equal to the round trip fuel from roughly London to Sydney. A fact that is rarely appreciated. Fuel costs are virtually *nothing* The ET costed c$12m but the actual propellant about $1m (and you get big economies of scale)

Stuxnet code leak to cause CYBER-APOCALYPSE NOW!

AMFM !

God, it's good to hear the voice of reason again.

Was this an actual Sky news piece or was it a piece lifted from their US Operations

FUD News.

Welcome to the State of Fear.

Sarah Palin calls for US to stand by North Korea

Is it true the Democrats are *praying* Palin gets the nomination to run for prez?

Anticipating a Republican defeat that will leave them battered for a generation.

MP wants age verification for net smut

The words Frankie Boyle, Saddam Husseins hanging and cracking one off come to mind

I've always suspected that *whatever* someone is watching

Someone

Somewhere

Is spanking their monkey to it*

*Or gusset typing for the ladies of the audience.

@Wonk The Sane

You mean there are children who might *want* to look at p()rn?

Looks like she's got that whole "I'm just a worried wife and mother" demographic

completely sown up.

I find people conquer their fears (and their ignorance) through knowledge.

Perhaps some Reg readers would like to write to her and help her improve her knowledge of this subject.

It could not be much lower as it stands.

Unarmed Royal Navy T45 destroyer breaks down mid-Atlantic

AC @ 16:33

"generally a bunch of gobshites."

Ah French culture continues to benefit from its long association with the Emerald Isle.

How I used Space Shuttle tech to insulate the living room

Interesting article

Rubbish history of materials. The shuttle tiles are a building up process from discrete fibres, aerogels are made in a lump, which could in principle be done in a mould to eliminate machining. Mass was *the* key reason to Lockheed winning the TPS choice for the Shuttle. However they also make *excellent* if very rigid sponges (hence my regular comments on trying out water repellent coatings on them), as I suspect do aerogels.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts_sys.html#sts-hrsi for how they are made.

And that x8 cost factor. Owwww.

It might help to set the the stage regarding housing for non UK readers.

Many houses in the UK pre-date cavity wall designs (often by decades if not centuries). Most people will be looking at some kind of dry lining approach to upgrade the insulation.

Wood was *not* a popular building material. that which had not been turned into ships was burnt at the start of the Industrial Revolution before Coal use got started. Those White wood walled houses in American films simply don't exist in the UK. So concerns about wood rotting in place in *old* houses doesn't happen on any major scale. Modern wood framed houses (cropping up regularly in the series Grand Designs) tend to have the insulation built *in* from the start, along with a "Breathable membrane" to keep water out and over time expel trapped water vapor.

@Jon Double Nice

"so could it be used as some kind of high end Ryvita or something?"

I think that bio degradable puffed packaging PC and network hardware comes in does the job nicely.

What those puffed cheese snacks would taste like if you washed off the cheesey tasting coating IE nothing.

My lost Cobol years: Integrating legacy management

The cost of old systems sneaks up on managers

You have in house developers. They do a bit here, a bit there.

You now have a workable system that's meeting the business needs (these systems were built for *business* needs, not because Unisys/IBM/ICL/Fujitsu or MS had some new shiny bit of kit to sell) and you think you'd like to port it to the new language/platform that's going to take over the world.

And you multiple all those developer hours by the rate of developers in *new* environment.

To get back to where you are *now*.

Suddenly it does not sound *that* much of an improvement.

I've heard of some clever mainframe re-architecting tools (EDS came up with the dodge of putting it on a mainframe and have the developers email chunks of old IIRC COBOL in for re-work, then it emailed them the new version. No GUI, but a neat hack I thought).

And as for that old S360 Assembler code.......

NHS enables Facebook to track surfers on health info website

WTF

And why?

Seriously?