Posts by Roger Greenwood

Quixotic Californian crusade to officially recognize the hellabyte and hellagram is going hella nowhere

Re: B, H

But the alternatives proposed are also well known, R = Resistance and Q = charge. Lets face it most of the Roman and Greek alphabet is already taken multiple times so go with the funny as it will be easier to remember.

Consultants bag £375m for their role in developing the UK's faltering COVID-19 Test and Trace system

Re: In context

Our local council has announced that they are now only doing testing if you are a key worker, so that should help bring the numbers down........

Chuck Yeager, sound barrier pioneer pilot, dies at 97

Re: ?

There is a film being made (involving the family) of some of his earlier exploits including being shot down in WWII, evading capture etc. I am sure you could find the crowdfunder and chip a few quid in, if you felt so inclined.

Billionaire's Pagani Pa-gone-i after teen son takes hypercar out for a drive, trashes it

It would be cheaper (and possibly quicker) to trade in and upgrade the kid....

Alleged Ponzi mastermind on the run from FBI hid in lake with sea-scooter, collared after he surfaced half-hour later

Re: Liabilities exceeded assets?

They exceeded his liquid assets anyway...

Samsung to introduce automatic call blocking on Android 11-capable flagships

Re: I just wind them up

Absolutely - string them on for as long as possible - while they are wasting time with you they are not bothering your Aunt Matilda etc. It's a public service and can be quite fun. I have said this before but my favourites are "Code in please..." and "Please hold the line while I trace the call".

'Facebook simply would not exist today if not for Bletchley Park,' says social network – but don't hold that against it

NRC is still closed

telling another part of the story and it's relevance today, also on the same site:-

http://www.nationalradiocentre.com

What a Hancock-up: Excel spreadsheet blunder blamed after England under-reports 16,000 COVID-19 cases

"hundreds of asylum seekers start drowning"

I took it that the original commenter was suggesting that it would be likely that dinghy supplies would dry up once she was in charge, thus preventing many perilous crossing attempts.

I have already seen it suggested that she is put in charge of organising rubber dinghy supplies in Calais......

Ancient telly borked broadband for entire Welsh village

"Unfortunately the government decided at some point that it would be a sensible idea to put the BBC in charge of enforcing cases of radio frequency interference."

I didn't know that! Last I knew (wireless telegraphy act from decades ago) they had virtually unlimited rights of entry but would usually call the cops before they broke the door down, mainly to protect themselves from irate owners. They didn't need a warrant in those days.

Future airliners will run on hydrogen, vows Airbus as it teases world-plus-dog with concept designs

Re: Storing hydrogen at altitude

As hyrogen is generally stored at quite high pressure (several hundred bar) the one bar between ground level and the stratosphere is pretty much a non event. Thermal expansion of materials however.....

Upside down, you turn me, you're giving bork instinctively: Firefox flips as a train connection is missed

Re: The UK government was forced to step in

I have heard that another reason for the delayed introduction of new rolling stock is lack of training schedule/space/places for drivers, and that was before March. Who knew that converting from one train cab to another was the equivalent of switching between Airbus and Boeing? (p.s. I have never driven a train larger than 00 gauge).

Floating COVID incubation tank becomes data-leaking ransomware rustbucket: Carnival admits crims made off with personal data booty

Cunard

That explains why Cunard has been unable to answer phones etc for the last few days. At least all the ships are parked up at the moment - imagine if several thousand people were trying to board one right now.

UK govt reboots A Level exam results after computer-driven fiasco: Now teacher-predicted grades will be used after all

I think they are going to solve that one by offering places to 120% of applicants to study maths.....

The future of signage is here, and it wants an update

Re: Just tap the OK button

Given the tag line, I though you would use an axe.

Geneticists throw hands in the air, change gene naming rules to finally stop Microsoft Excel eating their data

Interesting quote

"Biologists in particular are reluctant to invest time in learning programming skills."

Of all people Biologists should know that populations that are the least adaptable are doomed....

Virgin Galactic pals up with Rolls-Royce to work on Mach 3 Concorde-style private jet that can carry up to 19 people

Re: Afterburners

"the acceleration for take off" makes sense as it has a much faster take off speed than conventional aircraft. Runway can get used up awfully fast.....

p.s. why is it not called a Vulcan2?

It's been five years since Windows 10 hit: So... how's that working out for you all?

Counting the cost

For a small business or individual, the cost of an operating system is negligible to start with, but the constant upgrades and subsequent loss of time as things fall over is really annoying. No wonder many have updates turned off. Dread to think what it's like for a large business.

We have one machine running Win 10 that must be kept in version sync with the only program it runs, anything else and it fails.

Printers are also susceptible - yes this is 2020 and we can't have reliable printing. Great as long as you don't mess with them, but upgrade at your peril is my mantra.

Smoke on the Tyne: Blaze at BT exchange causes major outages across North East England

Re: Huh?

Mains transformers often have an associated RMU (Ring main unit) so maybe the reporting got a bit mixed up? If the transformer failed and was oil filled it would be quite spectacular.

Things can't go on like this. You need to get fit for the sake of your health. I'm going to write you a prescription for... an e-bike

That's certainly what it feels like, even with a map.

Fasten your seat belts: Brave Reg hack spends a week eating airline food grounded by coronavirus crash

Extra flavourings

I seem to recall hearing that airline food has to be spiced up a lot to compensate for the reduced taste/smell sensation of being in a reduced pressure atmosphere. Not surprising then that consumption at sea level is a rather different experience. I wonder if they have a pressure chamber to test that on the ground? Excellent story though and glad at least some of the food is not wasted.

After IBM axed its face-recog tech, the rest of the dominoes fell like a house of cards: Amazon and now Microsoft. Checkmate

Re: What about in the UK?

They should just all up their game. With everyone wearing face masks for the foreseable (years) we need that system where you zoom up on their eyes and do a retinal scan. I'm sure I've seen that in a film so it must be true :-)

Office supplies biz owned by UK council shrugs off ransomware demand for 102 Bitcoin

Re: Email plus HTML/scripting is a disaster wating to happen

Exactly. It also means the odd spam email which gets through cannot track you. I am really surprised more folks don't do this.

REvil ransomware gang publishes 'Elexon staff's passports' after UK electrical middleman shrugs off attack

Re: Why is passport data in a company server

One possible reason is that UK companies need to be able to prove their employees have a right to live and work in the UK (new rule a few years ago). An easy way to do that is a copy of the passport etc for all applicants - ticks a lot of boxes. Keeping those details secure is another story....

Not the Wright stuff: Bitcoin 'inventor' loses bid to sue YouTuber who called him a liar

Re: Judges names

Are you aware of this outfit?:-

https://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I00007zrWjyPn1lQ

(Cartoonist:- Tony Husband)

Latest NHS IT revolution is failing to learn lessons from the last £10bn car crash

Re: ANybody can do IT

"..asks the staff what they want.." has it's dangers though. If I ask 3 people their opinion I expect at least 5 answers, all conflicting.

Reminds me of an NHS project I heard about some years ago to do data entry directly for new births instead of numerous bits of paper. They used a midwife as a consultant and tester etc. Proper job. Then it went live. When a baby was whisked away by pediatrics they didn't get a weight so had to resort to paper - no option to proceed without a weight. Same if twins arrived - no option for 2nd baby. The reason was they had used a community midwife who just didn't see these things every day and nobody asked her the right questions. Ask carefully...

Re: ANybody can do IT

Giles was good wasn't he? Today we have Matt, but all you folks under about 40 should go look him up.

Latest Microsoft 365 'wave of innovation' really just involves adding or renaming a bunch of update channels

Re: Its as fucking annoying as then...

Training? No we don't do that anymore, just chuck it at the wall and see what sticks :-)

Serial killer spotted on the night train from Newcastle

M35:P1091-Plat

That's just twerk, as we say oop t'north

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

Re: I'm so angry I can't think

I think all the above can be summed up in one word:- MegaSoft

Data centre reveals it modeled interiors on The Hunt for Red October sets

That DC picture shows the boring bit

where the power comes in (TX) and DRUPS, not the interesting stuff. Yes I only get to visit the boring stuff (until it goes wrong, then it gets interesting).

Nervous, Adobe? It took 16 years, but open-source vector graphics editor Inkscape now works properly on macOS

"starting at £19"

£19.97 per month (annual plan) is not a trivial amount for hobbyists/amateurs. On the upside if you pay the whole year in advance you get a £1.22 discount. Inkscape does look attractive all of a sudden.

The ultimate 4-wheel-drive: How ESA's keeping XMM-Newton alive after 20 years and beyond

Worth a read of their website

Like this little gem:-

"The pointing accuracy of the 10-metre long XMM-Newton is 0.25 arcsec over a 10-second interval. This is the equivalent of seeing a melon from a distance of 300 kilometres, using a handheld telescope and seeing it without the slightest wobble!"

ATLAS flubbed: Comet heading our way takes one look at Earth, self-destructs into house-sized chunks

You had cups?

Florida man might just stick it to HP for injecting sneaky DRM update into his printers that rejected non-HP ink

Re: HP printers

Thanks for the tip WolfFan **

(** Orders another 2 Brother printers...)

Cloudflare goes retro with COBOL delivery service. Older coders: Who's laughing now? Turns out we're still vital

Re: Michael Jackson

Wow that's a blast from the past Ken. I went back to school 25 years ago and had to do a bit of JSP. That's also when I learnt the far more valuable JFDI...

Bad news: So much of your personal data has been hacked that lesson manuals on how to use it are the latest hot property

Re: So, basically businesses should acquire fraud guides

Pad that out a bit and you could sell it :-)

NASA mulls restoring Saturn V to service as SLS delays and costs mount

Absolutely

Quick spray with WD-40, swap the electrolytics (re-cap) and good to go.

Google reveals the wheels almost literally fell off one of its cloudy server racks

Re: A few pounds saved often leads to a few hundreds pounds spent later

".. wheels rated to 300kg, what did you expect to happen"

I would expect 4 wheels to withstand 1200kg, unless they were not up to the job......

Appareils électroniques: Right to repair gets European Commission backing

Re: My wishlist

Whilst I agree with your sentiments, you will need to be specific and have some allowance for innovation:-

“The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.”

― Andrew S. Tanenbaum

UK.gov lays out COVID-19 guidance as the tech supply chain considers its own

Come on

First named Corona Virus, then Covid 19, surely this should be renamed to match what they were really trying to make:- Carousel

Mirantis gros fromage quits to start new 'private LTE' biz on open-access spectrum

Citizen band

I do hope they use 19 as the calling channel, just for old times sake.

RIP Katherine Johnson: The extraordinary NASA mathematician astronauts trusted over computers

ICYMI (from twitter):-

You know she was a proper mathemetician when she lived to 101 and died in her prime.

RIP and thank you.

Flat Earther and wannabe astronaut killed in homemade rocket

Re: Seems a bit cheap

Condolences to friends and family, I feel sure with an imagination like that he will be missed (as we still miss Lester). He got much higher than Vulture2/LOHAN, sadly he ended up rather flatter upon the earth, the good earth.

Decent, legal, honest and searchable: C'mon, Ofcom. Let us check up on the ad-slingers ourselves

Re: Toothless regulators

I think that's what he said:- "..politely pushing them shut".

Excellent article, thank you.

And they said IoT was trash: Sheffield 'smart' bins to start screaming when they haven't been emptied for a fortnight

Re: Sensors will be fun

Of course, that's exactly what they'll do. If all else fails they can send in the drone.

Sensors will be fun

I wonder how they are going to measure the fullness of a bin. Weight? Ultrasonic level? Light beam? Either way I expect tinkering and hacking if not outright theft of devices assuming these are to be retrofitted to existing bin fleets - how much will homeowners be charged in future when their bin grows legs and walks away? (used to be £25 each around here).

It is also going to make "bin day" a bit of a lottery - not all bins are near the road and need to be dragged thorugh gardens and ginnels. Perhaps this is only for businesses and city centres?

I hope I see a follow up article just over the horizon.

Startup Mycroft AI declares it will fight 'patent troll' tooth and nail after its Linux voice-assistant attracts lawsuit

Re: Prior art

I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that

Yahoo! hack! payout! nearly! approved! and! the! question! is! how! to! spend! 60! cents!?

In order to qualify

Don't you have to be a resident of the US as well? I thought I read that somewhere else.

Colombia accused of rigging .co contract for dot-org provider Afilias – is this document a smoking gun?

Yes minister quote:-

James Hacker:

"No, but it's never been officially denied. First rule in politics: never believe anything until it's officially denied."