Posts by Denarius

50 tech jobs to go at AirServices Australia

Re: Something's not right.

Indeed TRecko. This has the stench of the PHB class despising the technical staff who know stuff and do real work and, as per the last 20 years of all OZ gummints, privatisation, aka sale of public asset to lowest bidder who will also be (out of sight) the highest donor) followed by eye watering wallet emptying user charges. It helps if buyers are not Oz citizens because then they cant be questioned by pesky cross-bench in the house of Cards on Pointy Hill.

Further to this story, one could trawl thru the recently closed enquiry which basically suggested recreational aviation _entirely_ manage itself. That is, pay usual fees and charges, get _nothing_ back but be responsible for the type of aviations activities. ie all gliding activities under GFA whether the user is affiliated or not. In short, private unfunded cops for each type of aviation. Needless to say, with the imposition of ADSB equipment, it would be easy for the new owners of Oz skies to "fine" anyone who enters the rapidly expanding controlled airspace. For safety reasons of course. The bonuses and profits flowing out of country have nothing to do with it.

The malevolent spirit of Raygun and Ayn Rand coupled with the greed of the PHB class is making aviation unaffordable and at this rate, unachievable. The only fix is to ensure all pollies, PHB class and "advisors" travel in C152 or equivalent in all weathers for next 3 parliamentary terms. Once enough terror has been applied perhaps fools dreaming of compulsory taxation with no responsibility to provide due services for those taxes may be less likely to sell off public safety at behest of donors to essentially dangerous organisations that have long passed their use by date.

Blood donors' privacy anaemic after Red Cross data breach

developers, again

rumour has it a data file was left on a publicly accessible web server by supplier to RC. Ah, the security and cost savings of of contracting out services and outsourcery. <sarcasm> But then I am sure that BranFlakes PanOpticon data snooping will reveal culprits. </sarcasm>

IBM Australia didn't stress-test #censusfail router and blocked password resets

Privacy and security

so password reset was done overseas ? Whisky Tango Foxtrot cubed. So all those "privacy statements " I have endured while trying to deal with assorted Oz gov sites this week are as good as the paper they are not written on ?

IBM throws ISP under a bus for Australia's #Censusfail

Re: ABS fault ?

cant tell you that the IT component of annual budget was deliberately reduced by Treasury/Finance. There is always more money for executives which may level the total cash. Not to mention the well known slashing of all government departments over decades. The fat went in Hawkes reign. Muscle cutting in Keating and blood and bone with Jackboot, Julia, Crudd and the the feral monk.

ABS fault ?

So a government body that has been gutted by successive PHB led collections of incompetents is somehow responsible for having funding stripped from it to force outsourcery ? I think not. How are government organisations starved of resources and internal technical skills because of market religious fanaticism to cope against some of the best sales droids on the planet ?

( $Deity forbid one suggests donors might have influenced policy) More likely wilful recruitment of mindless drone clones of Ayn Rand ilk by "policy groups" in PM&C, Treasury IMNSHO.

Disclosure: Long time ago I worked for ABS. Of the multitude of government bodies I have worked for over decades they would be the best managed.

IBM: Yes, it's true. We leaned on researchers to censor exploit info

resource exhaustion ?

In Webshere ? IMHO and bitter experience it's feature not a bug. How would one distinguish between attack and normal operation?

ExoMars arrives at the Red Planet on Sunday

Lets hope it works

better than some European Mars probes. Pity about the RTG though. Another triumph for the bureaucrats.

Brandis' boffin-busting de-anonymisation crime legislation has landed

@Damage, Brandflakes legislation

Perhaps one more an example of the bureaucratic mindset that thinks bits of paper with marks on them are magic. Are the peasants, citizens and crims not blindly obeying latest clever edicts ? Then put another piece of marked tree carcass in front of the officially assembled glove puppets (mostly), have them bless it with a majority vote and voilà, no more problem. Understanding, thought and discussion with the (shock, horror) technically competent is hard work and for some reason, those people just don't immediately agree with lawyers who know nothing of what they are dealing with and what they do.

In short, one more clueless PHB showing their contempt for those who actually know something.

SAP Australia's MD and COO both resign to 'pursue opportunities outside the company'

winds of change in PHB culture?

Interesting. Used to be that at a whiff of SAP brochures, pens were whipped out and deals done, whether or not the product met any requirements better than current installed software, let alone improved anything. Perhaps a TLA vendor offered to install and configure SAP, despite said TLA not being considered "reliable" by multiple burned organisations. Or am I just cynical ?

The wait is over: MoD releases latest issue of Ship Paint Monthly

Re: Dezincification

so that explains Borraloola waters destruction of brass taps. Another place south of Katherine had nice tasting water that eroded Al pots overnight. Fresh holes in base in the morning after the night before non-washup. So these odd publications can be useful. But I digress.

I once had to do a small tender for refurbishment and painting of Naval buoys. Paint specs document was about an inch thick IIRCC. All work was done beautifully, fully inspected and up to spec, right up until the buoys were delivered to Stores and dropped off truck onto hard ground, breaking paint, all 6+ layers.

Emacs and Vim both release first new updates in years

you cannot trust an editor

which spawns a fake religion. Newsgroups for you young'uns, alt.religion.emacs. Still use ed on occasion when sed is not up to it.

Why would anyone not use simple, elegant Vi. Runs on all OS and simulacra like DOS, Win95 and does not give author RSI. To me vim is a household cleaner, Emacs a mispelt Apple thingy. Asbestos coat on, flame away.

NASA wants to sell International Space Station to private enterprise

dont think this will end well

more outsourcing with massive overheads. Never ended well with the "cost saving" government having to pick up ruins and cleanup mess at twice the cost of keeping ownership. Literally. This explains why China has announced plans for their own government owned and controlled space station.

My headset is reading my mind and talking behind my back

sunnies after dark ?

becoming regrettably necessary now every ponce in a Toorak Tractor/Chelsea Combine has 5KW xenon plasma night light arc welder for head lights setting fire to trees 500 yards away. Not being night blind like most other drivers being blinded by fools with dimmed lights is bad enough, but some of the drunks driving these aftermarket equipped dangers are so visually incompetent they don't dip their lights either, then get annoyed and try ramming speed if headlights flashed at them. Safer to wear yellow filters.

Microsoft has open-sourced PowerShell for Linux, Macs. Repeat, Microsoft has open-sourced PowerShell

Re: "On Linux we’re just another shell"

Xenix ? recycled last server a decade ago. Compared to the competing offerings at time it was under-rated.

Re: "On Linux we’re just another shell"

not used ksh93 network abilities have you ? Limited but there.

Thank $DEITY I leave this borging behind as I approach decommissioning. In older times I used Putty plink to run unix jobs from MS servers in the very few cases where that was required by business process. Felt weird using MSdog to fire off unix commands remotely, but it worked so customer was happy.

Perlan 2: The glider that will slip the surly bonds of Earth – and touch the edge of space

Re: 90,000 feet

puzzled there. Your hourly status radio call does not give height, speed, location and track ? Poor airmanship.

Re: 90,000 feet

I take it Skippy, that these pilots exhibiting dangerous airmanship have been duly reported to whatever version of FAA lurks in your part of planet. Having had to avoid power pilots in rotary and fixed wing blundering over a gliding club airfield without _any_ radio call on gliding or CTAF frequencies I suggest power pilots should not throw stones. Also note that the old units of measurement are still official world standards, not some archaic whim in aviation. European gliders often are metric. Elsewhere your milage will vary. Flown in aircraft with both calibrations and it is not too hard. Altimeter gets me the most. Airspeed and vario straightforward. But I digress.

I have been on public airfields where a few commercial pilots have right royally borked airmain ship rules putting glider pilots at risk. Never seen the opposite. To be fair, the local regional airline is fastidious about briefing their pilots on recreational pilot activity at local airfields. Appropriate radio calls are made and responded to by glider and power. In years we have not had an incident.

As for getting on with other aircraft, back in the day when I were a lad, doing circuits in a Blanik at a country airfield with an F28 doing circuits for pilot training. Back then we did not have radios, but the PIC landed, walked over to us, explained what his plane would be doing and we kept right out of his way. A 5 mile plus final approach meant we could see him on approach meaning we could stay well clear and did so. No doubt the Blanik showed up on radar. Simple applied manners.

Same applied at a big country airfield with a long thunderstorm front approaching a few years ago. Commercial light twins, GA, a few ultralights and many gliders all headed for the ground. The commercial guys had schedules to keep and security issues I wont go into. Everyone practised good airmanship. All landed in good order, quickly with no issues. It can be done and often is, so I suggest your local pilots should lift their game. Gravity does not differentiate between modes of aviation.

As for technical issues at 90,000, I am informed by types who use Fortran that the airflow over the wings at that height is not far off supersonic. The project is close to Coffin Corner in upper part of flight. Google term. The model after is what I want to see. Harder to get from 90,000 to 100,000 than 10,000 to 90,000 apparently.

Personally I have not got over 17,000ft but still trying. And yes, it is cold up there. No drinks, the bottle was solid quickly. Best part was being able to look down on cloud bands and fly over decent Cus at a safe height. Pottering along in winter sun at a slow speed in gentle wave makes for a pleasant afternoon, until one has to pick up speed for a safe descent to home airfield. Gliders have drafts.

India tweaks tech colleges to 'become real power in software'

all stereotypes aside for once

Want a unique market and product ? For Android, make a decent GUI that does not have WTF surprises, a lack of order and structure that makes some tasks harder than they need to be, application interference giving rise to expressions of why the hell does that stop this happening and they may have a winner.

And for the next big show, a better replacement for java

(a) is secure

(b) really is portable without requiring a supercomputer to run

(c) is fast

If they can pull the above off, I will be impressed

Ban ISPs from 'speeding up' the internet: Ex-Obama tech guru

Wheres Steve ?

I was expecting a Steve Bong quote. You mean this was serious ? Yeesh, the Horsemen must be riding soon

Missile bods MBDA win Brit military laser cannon contract

and of course

the obligatory War Crimes fallout. If a 10mw laser can damage a pilots eyes, image what multikilowatt ones will do to all sighted organics for miles around.

IBM scraps loyal staffer gifts in favour of... a congratulatory social page

Re: Hahaa - Writing it is downsourced too.

@faj,

exit payments ? nope. exit payments were cut long ago and recently to nothing much.

Re: How to motivate your loyal employees! to Leave!

Boomers, refuse to retire ? Which one of Long Earths are you on ? Boomers are compulsory pushed fout door first unless they are 1%ers. Too expensive

Next month's Firefox 48 is looking Rusty – and that's a very good thing

Re: Hmmm.

is the compiler known as phosporic acid, aka Rust Converter ? Duck...

NSW vocational education gets re-org to revive its comatose budget

slash, burn, bullsh*t

all managed from Sydney. So instead of something useful like regional courses on welding, earthworks, plumbing and basic PC use, we will get power dressing for financial fraudsters, slippery sales syllogisms or worse, delivered in 4 star conference rooms in George Street for a mere $3500 per 5 day course. Sydney is NSW you know.

IBM caps '20 years' of deep MS love with Surface deal

Aha, so thats the intent

IBM are dumping their hardware businesses so they can be bought out by Microsoft when the share prices finally crashes on the companys' shell. See Bob Cringelys blog for details.

IoT puts assembly language back on the charts

Re: In fact, all IOT should be coded in Java. At least there would no security issues.

@Pascal, perhaps the implied sarcasm tag was not clear enough. My apologies. I was thinking of small RFI tags IOT. Vendors of bigger stuff have already demonstrated that (a) they have no interest in _any_ security, (b) probably have no clue as to implement it and (c) Poor quality coders seems attracted to java. Something about the language instigates poor quality practices, even if not implicit in the language itself.

Must be losing my sarcasm ninja.

Cobol, jokes ?

Not half as much as that disease of PHB dreams and affluenza, the abomination and love of all hardware vendors, java. In fact, all IOT should be coded in Java. At least there would no security issues.

OTGH, assembler teaches programmers to be precise, plan ahead, design. You know, all those skills oldtimers did as a matter of routine before the invention of RAD tools. And resource considerations got consigned to dustbin of history by OO code ideals.

Horns of dilemma here. Finally modern coders get to do it right and we lose privacy or crap code continues with the only winners being hardware floggers

I am still outraged that my newest PC has 80 times the RAM, double the cores, 100 times the network speed, 100 times the disk of the payroll server for an entire department only 20 years ago and is slower than the XT I used 30 years ago, the 386/486 20 years ago and the 7 year old current linux box. Just got the latest Win10 patches. Bigger than some older hard disks not so long ago.

Google aims to train two million Indian Android devs by 2018

best news ever

for Cyanogen, QNX, ghosts of Palms Past...

Kotkin on who made Trump and Brexit: Look in the mirror, it's you

seems to be close to reality

matches my experience. Any disagreement with one of the clerisy instantly incurs a rant of insults and slurs. But then, I found the left always like that, especially in my career in politically sensitive areas. Academics and first year Uni students usually the worst. This last Oz Federal election was the first time I have heard people from both traditional sides agreeing that "none of the above" was appealing. Not that they voted that way enough to change anything. Oddly also first time I have not heard greenies or lefties abusing those who did not want their how to vote cards.

One wonders if that social modeller/statistician whose models suggest the USA will suffer severe internal violence was right. In Oz it might mean another set of brawls around political conferences, a spew of news leaks from the "others" while the UKs queues may have more pushing and shoving ;-J

Consumer advocates call on Telstra to set customers free after outages

now election is over

it's safe to ask the usual hobby horse question. As Telstra has just announced another 320 jobs to go, is there any statistical connection between sending jobs offshore and its increasing failure rate ?

Suggestion to what few human shareholders remain (companies are legal fictions, not people for the Ayn Rand fanatics out there); how about linking Board and CEO performance to failures rate ? Reasoning: If a TITSUP personally affects manglement in pocket, what effect would this have on encouraging better planning and a solid resiliency, not to mention DR practice ?

New DNA 'hard drive' could keep files intact for millions of years

Re: What could go wrong?

@Jeffy, ah yes, the old abiogenesis is well known, well understood and demonstrated. NOT. Aside from Sol3 there is still only wishful thinking about life elsewhere. And no, Drake Equations and the appalling self-contradictory nonsense in New Scientist sometime in 2015 about earthlike planets and life elsewhere simply demonstrates another post western cultural myth is thriving in an age of superstition and wishful thinking.

Bank tech boss: Where we're going, we don't need mainframes

broken on the wheel of time, again

wheels on bus go round and round, round and "oh, fell off"

And in 5 years time, despite IBM selling off mainframe hardware to some-one (hello Fujitsu), mainframe sales will start growing. Heard it all before, 20+ years ago when unix boxes were all the rage. Then it was Windows everywhere. Now who knows. Linux/BSD derivatives, whatever. In 5 years, Linux on ARM feeding COBOL/CICS on mainframes ? probably. After that I suspect smoke signals, carrier pigeons and runners.

Grab a pick: Space mining's the next generation gold rush

Re: grab a pick? not if you want to get rich

exactly. what is economic reason for space industry ? Fueling research probes? Not enough launched.

Any minerals? Scientific American had an article a decade ago on this. Unless fusion power begins to work economically only thing possibly worth mining would be He3 on Moon.

Far more cost effective is to mine even trace amounts of valuable minerals on Earth due to costs of reliably getting out of and back into gravity well. IMHO, until a working SkyHook is running the cost of getting into orbit makes anything other than small scale robot exploration not worth it. As for humans in deep space, no hope yet. Except during solar minimums the radiation is too severe for long flights.

In short, Musk and his competitors are focussing on the only money making space industry, launching satellites. That this will make doing real science research cheaper is a nice side benefit only. And no, I am disappointed by this too. When I saw Armstrong stepping off Lunar Lander pad I expected to see humans on Mars within my lifetime. Now I doubt my grandchildren will see that. Then again, maybe Niven had it right with "I'm in a Hole". Balls of dust suck. Poking around the relics of minor bodies cores like Psyche may have some payoff, even if it is studying metallic cores directly.

Silicon Valley granddad and HP boss-killer Tom Perkins dies aged 84

sounds like

common aristocratic attitudes to me. The ancient thug tribal chiefs "gods favour me me" to Divine Right to "unstoppable flow (or whatever phrase de joure) of history", "might makes right" to "inalienable destiny" concepts. Nothing new and all toxic. Usual demonstration of a culture losing the concept of common good and citizen. At least Perkins was honest about it.

AWS blames 'latent bug' for prolonging Sydney EC2 outage

Re: that spinning flywheel...

No doubt the breakers were well tested. In Nevada. humid ? Sydney ? Never </sarcasm> Given the weather bureau were predicting accurately the size of that front and its probable arrival times and effects, why weren't diesel gens up and running with the tanks topped up ? Lots of stories about shiny generators without fuel when bean counters save money.

No-one in their right minds trusts the crap that is Oz power distribution, not to mention the compulsive planting of trees where they can do maximum damage in 30 years.

Australian pre-election leaders' debates take to Facebook, not telly

Re: Facebook <> Media

Media of our time ? Oh, a brown paper bag full of $100 notes?

Re: Facebook <> Media

not quite. Still only 2 of us. As for facebitch and the rest of unsocial media, it will have to come crashing down when enough clots fondling fondle slabs instead of looking where they are going get creamed by light truck drivers also staring at a screen, not where they are going. Almost enough to make a Carrington Event have an upside.

One hopes that when the imbeciles millennials get to 30 they may suddenly drop the addiction and get a life with organic people, not avatars.

As for the feeble rentboy/girl fronts for the 1%ers running an even more feeble "political" campaign, they need something to say before anyone will listen. Slogans and vain hopes are not policy.

Norway might insist on zero-emission vehicles by 2025

Re: Hydrogen

@SA. Source ? If a petrol car explodes Questions Get Asked, Loudly. See Merkins Nova experience. Despite the best efforts of local urban truck (SUVs to marketting afflicted) owners ramming assorted cars around Oz, vehicle fires are very few. As one would expect as tank design, layout in vehicle and manufacture for safe crush behavior are now understood.

All of which is different to a _very_ cold compressed gas that is highly dispersable and explosive. Hydrogen cars, so far, use high pressure insulated tanks as hydrogen is stored as a liquid to get the energy density up to something useful. These tanks are why so many hydride projects were tried. Not many announcements of success, if any.

Success in affordable safe equivalent energy storage to diesel or petrol and rapid refilling would change economics of fuel significantly. Until then, this announcement has all the signs of another greenie self-delusion which will have at best, no real effect on CO2 emissions. Big increase in smug emissions though. (apologies to South Park)

Computerised stock management? Nah, let’s use walkie-talkies

sounds familiar

Here in the Crapital of the greater Antipodes, the local "official" industrial area is inhabited by firms who supply the odds and ends that allow borked household stuff to work again, occasionally. The number of times I would go to a firm appointed as official representative/service agent/irritant de joure for a set of consumable items, like new pads for evaporative coolers say. And be thunderstruck by said agent sternly reproving me for "not planning ahead and ordering the consumable months ago because there is always a big demand at this time of year. And no, none in stock, you have to order them first." Typical of Oz crapital, the customer is always a damned nuisance.

The smaller towns outside ACT have stores that seem to order in seasonal stuff before demand picks up. Without SAP even.

I digress. Getting shoes and shirts that fit is difficult for me also. Can't believe the standard world is narrow chested round shouldered weeds with skinny short feet. Most difficult it is to buy motorcycle boots suitable for adult male humans. As for standard sizes, classic statement about standards applies. So many to choose from.

Would YOU start a fire? TRAPPED in a new-build server farm

Re: I trust that

sounded similar to my last data center experience in a brand new DC. One hall not fitted out was used as a storeage area with very unreliable exit card reader. Easy to get in to storage hall to grab new hardware for server farm under construction, damned scary getting out occasionally. Nothing like solid concrete all around to give a feeling of claustrophobia. Fortunately guards were aware of issue and checked often to ensure no profanities uttered.

F-35s failed 'scramble test' because of buggy software

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

indeed Mark. I also note that updated versions of the F15 are being offered.. If Cold War era fighters are being offered as cheaper alternatives, what does that say about insiders hope of making the F35 workable .

A-10 life extension being pushed for, F15, F16 and F18 developments being developed by manufacturers all indicate a widespread scepticism about the new albatross. How about an updated YF12 dropping kinetic weapons at Mach 3 as was suggested once ?

Re: Stability Event

Indeed. What happened to QNX or the realtime VXWorks thats good enough for Mars Rovers. Unbelievable that mere OS can crash easily n this day and age. What was the point of ADA again ? They couldn't be using Java, surely ?

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

The F22 has a Chinese made equivalent with moniker of F20. Its engines are not as powerful or reliable, but the Russians may be able to help there for a suitable big fee if the next engine development models aren't up to scratch.

What is significant is how the merkin strategy and the rest of the advanced aviation world diverge. Could be a rerun of Korean atrial combat initial stuffup. Merkins think long range weapons, advanced radar and small numbers of bomb trucks will win day. Every one else is building lots of very highly manoeuvrable aircraft with not much effort in stealth. Chinese do have a stealth fighter under development and flying. It does not break Area Rule so it may perform quite well.

It is _very_ significant that Chinese and Russians have been doing a lot of aircraft search radar development to "spot" stealth planes. No doubt Russian cold war era Woodpecker OTH radar will be renovated and updated.making even F22 vulnerable. Is this why merkins are working on a B3 ?

Time for Oz to dump merkin make work toys, buy some Sukhois fitted with Israeli weapons, decent radar control and abandon the expensive dangerous and futile "US alliance". More than overdue for Oz to pull trousers up and stand straight, not bent over as has been defence posture since 1/1/1901

Re: Bureaucratic obfuscation?

all that can be said is

Win95, come back, all is forgiven... My coats the one with blue rectangles

Are state-sponsored attackers poisoning the statistical well?

possible economic warfare

Might be feasible to encourage special interest groups prone to confirmation bias to lobby harder for something that benefits a clandestine hostile actor. Say, a newly industrialised country encouraging the shutdown of CO2 emitting industries in developed world so the work comes to hidden influencer ? A variation on Vince Packhards book. Not suggesting this happens. After all, all pressure groups are too clever to know when they are being used as useful idiots, aren't they?

Have to agree with above commentards about evidence not convincing governments so no point using data skewing to change policies.

Airport drone 'plastic bag'

no suprise about a bag

flying over a small country town one summer searching for decent lift when I saw an odd "bird" in distance circling. Flew over and found a plastic shopping bag inside a decent thermal at 5000 feet AFAIRC. Gained height well. Eventually one of these being caught up near an airport would be near a plane or hit it.

Now if only the panic merchants could be controlled.

Windows 10 Mobile races to summer with useful facelift

Another Win10 yeah right?

Given that the current Win10 nags at me to upgrade from Win8.1, then fails after it has blown my data allowance. I wonder if M$ have really lost the plot or been taken over by human hating aliens. Cause is some obscure software service error. PC is new so it can take Win10.. PCBSD installed OK, mostly. Linux Mint Makes one wonder if Solaris 11 and Virtual box instance of WinXP is looking good for home use.

Censorship FTW! China bans Paris Hilton, minor Kardashians et al

Re: yah know...

With you there. For years I wondered why Deep Space Nine characters were so often referenced in some magazines, except the spelling was wrong. Now I know, I prefer the Cardassians. That tailor was admirably sceptical, cynical and sarcastic. Also remarkably honest.. Could alien races have Aspies too ?

problem ?

Noise reduction algorithm perhaps ? Odd, isn't it, when something like censorship seems to have an upside. Meanwhile I use the off switch on the few occasions anything other than a decent news service is on. Most of the other are from BBC, largely Mosley and Tony Robinson. So much for the creative aspect of the private sector.