Posts by Richard 45

Donald, YOU'RE FIRED: Rogue Twitter worker quits, deletes President Trump's account

Re: Chirp

Well, he is. I understand that that upsets you.

Marmite's not the only national treasure hit by Brexit. Will someone think of the PCs?

Also happened in Ireland

Funny that you "forgot" to mention that Unilever attempted to pull the same price hike on Tesco in Ireland, which as far as I can recall hasn't had a referendum to leave the EU. Ergo, Marmitegate had nothing to do with Brexit and everything to do with Unilever trying to pull a fast one. Facts, eh?

BT will HATE us for this one weird 5G trick

Lampposts etc

This article assumes the use of hollow, lampposts inside which the fibre and microcell can be installed. For the majority of cases in town and city centres, streetlights tend to be wall-mounted. Shrewsbury town centre is a good case in point. In suburban areas, it's common for streetlights to be mounted on the electricity company's wooden poles.

Streetlights? What are they?

Ah yes, something they only have in cities. Out here in the shires, the vast majority have been turned off because of budget cuts. Then again, it would be nice if we had 2G GSM around here, let alone 3G, 4G, or 5G.

Re: A small point

Not so. Streetlights are mainly run off a feeder post – this is where the electricity company's cabling terminates, allowing the council to run its own cabling from that point (often parallel to) to its streetlights.

Corbyn lied, Virgin Trains lied, Harambe died

Re: The 'two wrongs make a right' argument.

What, like the private operator Southern Trains?

Revealed: How a weather forecast in 1967 stopped nuclear war

Re: Why so coy?

Menwith Hill is communications interception for the NSA - it's not an BMEWS location. That's RAF Fylingdales on the North York Moors.

Virgin Media goes TITSUP* in South London due to painful piles

Timico also went offline c. 09:20 this morning when their upstream supplier's 10Gbps link got severed.

A UK-wide fibre broadband investment plan? Don't ask awkward questions

Friend of mine in Leighton (near Welshpool) has decided to bite the bullet and get FTTP. He ordered it as soon as BT's website allowed.

Richard (from Welshpool, and NPYBB)

Flying Scotsman attacked by drone

Re: As a former train driver....

Never mind pigeons, how about seven cattle. Back in the late 80s, 37427 ran into said cattle on the track somewhere around Dovey Junction IIRC when the Euston>Aber Cambrian Coast Express was still running. The scene of the slaughter was quite horrific, apparently. The damage to the loco? A minor dent on the nose end just above the buffer beam. Oh, and some wag painted on a tear under one of the headcode box marker lights.

Firemen free chap's todger from four-ring chokehold

London's Burning

In the TV movie of this series from 1986, this is what happened to the man in the bath.

"Blue Watch are called to rescue a 'trapped' man, but to their amusement it turns out he has trapped his private parts in a curtain ring. Josie resolves the situation by suggesting he use ice to reduce his 'swelling'."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_London%27s_Burning_episodes#The_TV_Movie_.281986.29

In redneck heaven, internet outages are the American Way

Re: Not just the USA

"Dickheads are dickheads the world over. If road signs have shotgun damage then they're unlikely to be the only thing in the area that got targetted."

Road signs around on the Powys/Shropshire border around Bishop's Castle have shotgun damage. https://goo.gl/maps/OBnRZ

Budget UHD TVs arrive – but were the 4Kasts worth listening to?

Re: Wot not FreeSat tuner?

Are you sure? My 4K TV is a 2014 Samsung model. It has Freesat built-in. I'd expect their 2015 range to have it as well.

Three-mile-high pyramid found on alien dwarf world, baffles boffins

Pyramid

It's simple, isn't it? AManfromMars has moved house.

BT: Let us scrap ordinary phone lines. You've all got great internet, right?

Re: One big problem

"Similarly, power outages were common in the 1970's, but are extraordinarily rare today."

Really? I live in a UK town. We get a power cut at least once a year.

4K refresh sees Blu-ray climb to 100GB, again

Re: Total waste of time

Friend of mine is thinking of going 4K. He lives in a village - complete with its own primary school and church - a little outside of my town. He's been told by Superfast Wales that his village is unlikely to ever get fibre, so he's stuck with the ADSL from the town, which maxes out at 3.5Mb/s on a good day. And he won't be alone. There are plenty of people who would love to stream Netflix at 4K, but have absolutely no hope of doing so until every household in the country - yes, including those who live far out in the sticks - get FTTP at a realistic price.

UK rail comms are safer than mobes – for now – say infosec bods

Apropos ERTMS, it fell over this morning here on the Cambrian in a significant way. Everything ground to a halt for a while, with long delays continuing through the day. You don't need hackers to wreck it; it's perfectly capable of doing that by itself. I mean, it's only been in operation four years, and it still doesn't feckin' work.

Bonus points for the Deltic cab shot. Icon, cos that's how they clag after idling for a while.

UK rail signals could be hacked to cause crashes, claims prof

"UK tests of the European Rail Traffic Management System have already begun ahead of the expected rollout."

Yes, since nearly 5 years, and it still doesn't work properly. It was commissioned on October 2010 between Harlech and Pwllheli, and in March 2011 for the rest of the Cambrian (between Sutton Bridge Junction, Shrewsbury, and Harlech/Aberystwyth). Failures of axle counters were common, as were GSM-R failure (the whole system is reliant on a constant data connection back to ERTMS control in Machynlleth over GSM-R). Even now, GSM-R issues still exist when trying to send a loco down to Aberystwyth, so they try to avoid it if they can. When GSM-R goes down (which it does, famously due to a power outage at Swindon of all places), the entire Cambrian grinds to a complete halt, and nothing can move until GSM-R comes back up again.

AFAIK the ERTMS kit inside the train is still FPGA. I do have some tasty photos of the ERTMS equipment racks inside one of the locos, but I can't make them public, I'm afraid.

I've been following the roll-out and testing of the project here:

http://www.mylordz.com/index.php?/category/4

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4531371-the-21st-century-cambrian-railway

The fitting of the equipment into the passenger trains can be seen here: http://www.mylordz.com/index.php?/category/45

(Shameless plugs, I know, but it gives a comprehensive background to what's been taking place around here.)

GCHQ and Cable and Wireless teamed as Masters of the Internet™

Re: I feel sorry for the spooks....

I would've hoped that the spooks had better English than that.

Say goodbye to landfill Android: Top 10 cheap 'n' cheerful smartphones

Re: 75 bucks? WTF?

I think you meant "accept".

UK gov rushes through emergency law on data retention

Looks like it's about time to grow onions at Glastonbury.

Brits: Wanna know how late your train is? Now you can slurp straight from the source for free

The new one's sinking as well. Allegedly...

Re: Ruh Roh

Scam? Er, no it's not. It's widely used by most of the people I know.

STRIPPED DOWN and EXPOSED: Business kit from the good old days

Compared to many offices in rural Wales (and probably rural UK in general), this stuff is futuristic C22nd kit.

Amazon faces its third strike in Germany

Re: Close down the distribution site and move the jobs elsewhere.

Oh dear, another clueless Yank. You do realise that you and your country are a laughing stock this side of the Atlantic?

"I'd like to see a union....any union, buy out a company and successfully run it."

Simples, Tower Colliery. British Coal closed it. The pit members of the local branch of the NUM union pooled their redundancy money and bought it outright, and - shock horror - operated it *at profit* for many years until geological problems forced its closure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Colliery

We'd like an apology, please.

Steve Jobs to supervise iPhone 6 FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

Re: 'Poll' position

Will we shortly be told that Jobs' birth was heralded by a double rainbow and a shooting star in the sky? And that he scored 11 holes-in-one during his first and only round of golf?

Ten ten-inch tablets

Re: expandable memory

An app called Directory Bind is your friend.

Windows Media Center EPG has SWITCHED OFF, wail Euro users

Re: 'Poll' position

I think DJO was referring to non-live programmes. Dramas are a good example. Though I have excellent hearing, the tendency of actors these days to mumble their lines means I frequently have to use subtitles. In the case of drama programmes, Red Bee would have access to a script to write the subtitle captions from, but even with these programmes, the spelling errors, incorrect grammatical syntax, and Grocers' apostrophes are legion. And seeing "poll" instead of "pole" is commonplace, along with many other similar-sounding words. It's basic illiteracy and ignorance. Not only is this not a handicap these days to getting a job, it seems to be a basic requirement.

BT to rent cheaper FTTP lines to ISPs - if they stump up £1k a go

Re: Adsl - stops you running a web business at home.

"Adsl - stops you running a web business at home"

No it doesn't. I've been running a Qube3 server under the stairs since 2006 on ADSL, back when it was plain vanilla 256kps downstream. Now I'm on ADSL2+ it's a bit better for upstream. Having 8 static IPs helps.

Sex offender wins case against Facebook vigilantism

Facefcuk

I think we're starting to drift away from the point of the article, that of this moronic site and the vigilantism it seems to foster. A good example is with the April Jones alleged abduction and murder case. As most UK readers will probably be aware, April was abducted near her house, and is still missing, and a few days later, a local man, Mark Bridger, was charged with her abduction and murder.

This is where Facehinder comes in - like a shot, at least one page was set up calling for Mark Bridger to be hung. He's not even entered a plea yet. The trial is due to start sometime next year. From what I've been told, discussion of the case, and what to do to Mark Bridger, is endemic on Facepleb. And doubtless that case isn't the only one where this goes on. That site is further evidence of regressive evolution.

Scoop! The inside story of the news website that saved the BBC

BBC ISP

Back in the Freeserve-0845 days in the late 1990s, the world and its dog was getting on that particular bandwagon, and this included the BBC. I remember getting their ISP CD to setup a DUN for them. It was highly likely that it was a white-label product that they simply applied their brand to, but it also came with an email address on one of their domains. Does anyone else remember this?

OFT writes volley of stern letters to naughty web retailers

Blue Unplugged

This sorry excuse for a company must surely be on the OFT's "hit list". A few years ago I bought a Parrot CK3100 car kit from them. It arrived with several items missing from inside the sealed box - obviously someone at Parrot had forgotten to pack them. Blue Unplugged didn't want to know. They said I had to contact Parrot about it as it was nothing to do with them. I quoted the Sales of Goods Act to them, which clearly states that it is up to the retailer to sort these problems out, either by refund or replace. Again, Blue Unplugged didn't want to know. Even after threatening them with court action, they didn't want to know, and instead sent me a particularly abusive email.

Trading Standards proved to be about as useful as a chocolate teapot. "Nothing to do with us, try going to court."

FAIL all round.

Samsung slaps swift patch over phone-wiping Galaxy S III vuln

Re: Not a (just) Touchwiz problem

The exploit for running the IMEI code *#06#

Ditto for HTC Desire HD. Reading the XDA Dev Forum thread, it's widespread. Samsung GS2 as well.

Apple scrambled to hire iOS 6 maps engineers DAYS before launch

Re: maybe

"My guess is Google maps app will be on ios 6 within a week."

Seriously? If Google know what's good for them, they'll permanently shelve their iOS 6 maps app and just sit back with a box of popcorn and enjoy the fun of Apple suffer the shitstorm.

'Biocoal' fuels steam train comeback

Total non-starter

There are many problems with this idea. Firstly, and something nobody else has mentioned, is the fact that for reciprocating steam engines, the available horsepower increases linearly with speed, thus full horsepower is only generated at top speed, and at low speed, little power is produced. Contrast that with a diesel or electric, where full power is available pretty much over the entire speed range. This was one of the reasons why the Yanks moved to diesel so early on.

The other problem is of thermal efficiency; no matter how well you lag the boiler and take other measures, it'll still be horrendously inefficient compared to diesel or electric. And as others have mentioned, the lack of steam-based lineside infrastructure such as water columns and the like, as well as huge maintenance bills for the locos themselves. Hammer blow isn't much of a problem these days. When Tornado was tested on the Great Central Railway, it was found to have much *less* adverse effect on the track than the Mk1s it was towing!

This is a complete non-starter and has the fingers of non-engineers all over it.

So, what IS the worst film ever made?

Well, you did ask

Anything that Channel 5 broadcast. Other than that, in increasing order of crappiness:

Remake of The Italian Job (Mr Napster jumps in front of the camera, blows a raspberry straight down the camera, then hops off again). Utter drivel.

Remake of War of the Worlds.

51st State (completely taken up by Samuel L. Jackson wondering how the hell he got himself into such a god-awful film)

Human Traffic (billed as "the last great British film of the 90s" - it wasn't)

The the absolute star, possibly *the* worst film I've ever suffered is a Canadian Sci-fi film, so you can probably guess how bad it is. Earth Storm http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491764/

They didn't even bother to simulate zero G for the space shuttle, nor invent artificial gravity. The inside of the shuttle looked like someone's shed, probably because it actually was someone's shed. Sci-fi without any shred of science. Acting straight of the Ikea Academy of Undramatic Art. Plot holes bigger than the Grand Canyon.

Lawyers of Mordor retreat from The Hobbit

Thomas the Tank

The current rights owners for the Railway Series (Gullane (Thomas) Limited) are similarly just as grasping. Any pres railway with enough cash to licence Thomas to run kiddies' trains also have to jump through all sorts of hoops based on presentation and the like. So much so that several railways have devised their own child-friendly railway characters in very much a similar vein to the Railway Series, but not touching on Rev Awdry's creation. Rev W Awdry must be spinning in his grave at the way his books and characters have been lawyered-out in this way.

Re: Sherlock Holmes pub?

Yes, certainly as of a couple of years ago at least. They were doing a roaring trade from Japanese and American tourists. Good beer as well, for London anyway.

Everything Everywhere grabs UK 4G wheel, rivals thrown off bus

Some 2G would be nice out here in the sticks

Speedy 3D printer creates 285µm Formula-1 speedster

Another nicely-styled Italian car. I bet its electrics don't work, though.

The true, tragic cost of British wind power

Re: @Jimbo 6

Everyone here seems to be forgetting Maentwrog pumped storage PS. That's only a matter of a few miles north of Trawsfynydd PS, and is also run by the NDA. It's still in use producing leccy as well. It's Maentwrog that's connected to Trawsfynydd.

BBC labels child 'recovering alcoholic' in tech slip-up

These gaffes are endemic on BBC News. Typically the caption gets stuck and is used for more than one photo/video loop. Of course, the highly-paid-autocue-readers (which some refer to as "newscasters") never apologise for these gaffes, but look suitably embarrassed if a particularly bad one occurs.

See https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/uk.tech.broadcast/E-fvu8CSWGA

Facebook now has 1,000 times the referrals of Google+

Let me see...

On The Register's sites, Share, and look, no G+ option. Whoops!

Man uses CAT scanner to copy Stradivarius

Yes but...

It's not just the particular types and shapes of wood that are important, it's the grain density, the grain direction the pieces of wood have been assembled in, and the glues and varnish. The latter two are hugely important to the overall sound.

Bishop to bless road salt supplies for added winter safety

He did it last November as well:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-11805752

Bloke gets wedding tackle trapped in ring

Yes it was, though it was a curtain ring the posh idiot got stuck in, in the bath as well.

Compact Disc death foretold for 2012

Quite simply, the market is becoming polarised between lossy downloads and high-resolution multi-channel audio. This would be an example of that trend continuing. I think I'll continue with my DVD-Audio and Blu-Ray audio discs, ta, and so will a pal who's getting into the SACD/DVD-A/BR-A side of things.

Georgia Parole Board blocks Amnesty email campaign

It's a disgrace that capital punishment still exists, and that the majority of the UK population want to see it restored. However, one point of interest with this case is that 7 out of the 12 jurors were black.

Virgin Media to beef up mobile-data backhaul

3G?

"We're still stuck with the 3G network for the second stage of the process: getting internet content from mast to phone aerial."

Ha ha, that's hilarious. Where is this mythical 3G?