* Posts by Al 18

18 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Jul 2009

AI vans are real – but they'll make us suck at driving, warn boffins

Al 18

Re: The future:

How many cars have only one occupant on the journey to work. With a bit of organisation car sharing works.

I was in a work based car pool, organised on a shared spread sheet. Imagine what could be done with AI. It was great not only do you save money, but the journey becomes a social occasion.

Al 18

Tech and automotive firms are pushing driverless car technology on society, rather than there being a big demand for it, in the opinion of the Transport Research Laboratory's boffins.

I disagree with this, I would love to call up a driverless car whenever I need one, and so would a lot of other people.

Ford announces plans for mass production of self-driving cars by 2021

Al 18

Re: Traffic - self-driving vice parked

The big saving will come with ride sharing.

Once the majority are hiring a ride rather than owning a car the scope for a master system organising shared travel can take off - a cross between mass transport and a universal taxi service.

I imagine a system of different sized vehicles for different uses. Mini bus sized pods perhaps powered by super capacitors for local hops, larger/smaller vehicles for group and individual longer journeys.

UK.gov pushes for SWIFT ACTION against nuisance calls, threatens £500k fines

Al 18

Re: Taking text/Email/cold callers to court

Now it is even worse they don't take complaints but refer you to the TPS!

CONSUMERISM IS PAST ITS SELL-BY DATE: Die now, pay later

Al 18

Re: never forget though

Is it only me who has noticed that compact florescence bulbs last longer than incandescent and that LEDs last longer still; That TV repair men went out of business because TVs don't break down much. That my 12 year old car is not a patchwork of rust and is still on its first exhaust.

The basic premise that the world is going to hell in a handcart is just not true.

Want to see the back of fossil fuels? Calm down, hippies. CAPITALISM has an answer

Al 18

Re: @ledswinger

You have missed the point. CHP does not need to be more efficient that a heating boiler, it only needs to be more efficient than the alternative electrical generating/distribution system plus a separate heating system.

e.g. in separate systems:

1 unit in x 40% = .4 units out (elec)

1 unit in x 92% = .92 units out (heat)

in combined system

2 units in x say 30% = .6 units out (elec)

plus 2 units x 70% x say 80% = 1.12 unit out (heat)

More heat and elec.

UK.gov's Open Source switch WON'T get rid of Microsoft, y'know

Al 18

It will make a big difference to M$

For the reasons given in the piece, it won't make the difference it could have ten years ago.

But it ends 25 years of the "standard" being controlled by a corporation whose main aim is herding their customers to the next upgrade.

It enables uses to move to migrate via a mixed environment without major chaos.

And last but not least document interchange across time and space becomes if not trivial at least much easier.

Hunt: I'll barcode sick Brits and rip up NHS's paper prescriptions

Al 18

Re: Will cause more problems than it solves

the current system is beautify simple.

The pharmacist keeps your old prescription in a brought forward system (a pile of paper in date order).

shortly before the repeat prescription is due he hands it a man with a van who takes it to your doctor.

At the surgery someone is handed a bunch of prescriptions and using their local record system orders a batch of new prescriptions, these are then printed on mass and given to a doctor to sign. Hands up all those who think the doctor reads them before signing.

A few days pass and the man with a van revisits the surgery to pick up the signed prescriptions. Back to the pharmacy and the pharmacist makes up the prescription entering the details in his local label printing/ stock control system. The paper prescription is then sent to the payment authority where it is no doubt entered into another system. the repeat prescription slip is then put back into the carry forward pile ready to go round again.

The really astute Reg readers might think that there is some room to stream line this system.

Universal Credit dole 'liable to be paralysed by IT cockups'

Al 18

Re: So just some thoughts

triggerfish you are looking at this the wrong way. Councils need loads of personal information (that the DWP already has) but the only extra info the DWP needs is the amount of council tax and or rent payable which councils can easily provide.

Big Blue bigwig: Tiny processor knobs can't shrink forever

Al 18

Re: "even long enough for someone to figure out how to shrink atoms down to a more convenient size"

That would be a muon that is ~200x the electrons mass!

NHS trust to digitise millions of patient records

Al 18

Scanning archives always makes me nervous

With compression you will get over 1,000,000 A4 docs on a TB drive. The cost of storage has been trivial compared to the cost of scan and index for 20 years.

The problem with digitising archives is the cost of scan and index which is unlikely to go away with technical progress.

Murdoch's PIE BOY jailed for six weeks

Al 18

Waste of public money

We should take a pragmatic approach to these things.

He should have been given an eye watering huge fine and as much community service as allowed, with the comment, "how's that for a laugh".

Pixmania users report scam-spam bombardment

Al 18

I'll second that

Just try to get anything other than an automated response when goods fail to be dispatched.

Rocks, hard places and Congo minerals

Al 18

Just a question

It would be nice to have been told why the DRC is the lowest cost producer.

After all primitive production methods in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a war zone is not much of a start.

Gov ICT contracts to go online in July

Al 18

good start

This will save lots of advertising costs.

A standard contract with necessary standard variations would save the industry a bucket load of cash.

Intel: Just 3,000 employees run Windows 7

Al 18

Sounds about right

Commercial organisations have to pay for support staff and also for the user to sit there moaning while waiting for a fix. Plus they get big discounts for buying in bulk.

We budget for a five year cycle, though on the if it ain't broke don't fix it principal some kit lasts much longer until a software upgrade overwhelms it.

What are you doing about refreshing the PC estate?

Al 18

Organise the budget first

Our breakthrough on desktop refresh came with the introduction of a ring fenced renewal fund for all Pcs and printers. Users effectively rent their estate from IT. That makes a planned rolling refresh possible; simplifies the practice of cascading older stock to light users; stops cash strapped departments holding on to old kit that takes disproportionate support.

McKinnon loses judicial review

Al 18
Go

The real crime is the slow pace of the justice system.

Ronnie Biggs missed a trick - no need to go to Brazil, just keep appealing.