Posts by Andy3

Techie fixed a ‘brown monitor’ by closing a door for a doctor

Over years dealing with TV and video systems (and other items of tech), it never ceased to amaze me just how unworldly many of our supposedly intelligent and skilled people are. People with more degrees than a thermometer would be utterly ignorant of things like those pesky laws of physics and everyday stuff that would be obvious to almost anyone else.

Mega council officers had no idea what they were buying ahead of Oracle fiasco

Unbelievable. These are the people who run our towns and cities. They are well paid and get pensions that you and I could barely dream of, yet here they are with no idea of what they've bought and installed and are clueless as to how to get meaningful results or reports out of it.

Apple Intelligence summary botches a headline, causing jitters in BBC newsroom

And just the other day I read that AI will be used across the NHS to write-up patients' notes. The wrong word, a comma missing or in the wrong place, and who knows what could happen?

NHS major 'cyber incident' forces hospitals to use pen and paper

Productivity soars.

Switzerland to end 2024 with an analog FM broadcast-killing bang

Re: The fundamental issue with DAB

Indeed. A couple of years ago I won (!) a nice Sony DAB portable. I used to listen to BBC radio for an hour or so before I got up, and at the end of the first week the radio went off. I thought it was faulty, but it turned out it had ground its way through the 4xAA cells in just 6 hours of listening. And this was at a volume level carefully adjusted so it wouldn't wake the family. I replaced the batteries (genuine Duracell) and tried again and got the same result. Batteries weren't cheap even then, so I put the radio away and went back to my analogue FM radio which runs for several months on the same type of battery.

It's the same story with the bathroom radio, a cheap AM/FM radio from Amazon. I can't remember the last time I put new batteries in!

Does it really save power? A typical DAB 'kitchen radio' will consume about 3 times the power that a standard analogue radio uses, so some of the 'savings' are actually being paid for by the user via his energy bill. And what about portables? OK, I know teens no longer walk about with a transistor radio clamped to the side of their head, but they do still exist and are in use by outdoor workers, builders etc. The batteries in these DAB portables don't last very long so they are replaced far more often than those in the old analogue types, leading to more waste and more expense for the user.

When it comes to sound quality, I find the big broadcasters like the BBC are generally OK as they use a fairly high bitrate, but most of the locals are squeezing their output into very low bitrate transmissions and the sound is harsh and unpleasant. After the smoothness of good ol' fashioned analogue FM, it's quite a shock. This is our national default sound broadcasting system and it shouldn't be allowed to abused like this. We deserve better!

Command senior chief busted for secretly setting up Wi-Fi on US Navy combat ship

Just how thick can you be? Wifi may be low power, but sensitive surveillance systems could probably track it over some distance. And it's not super-secure either. I wonder if there's more to this than just being stupid - was she acting for 'the enemy'?

Musk tells advertisers to 'go f**k' themselves as $44B X gamble spirals into chaos

I think we could all see something like this happening sooner or later. He's clearly a five-star narcissist and and his mood swings and childish outbursts point to deeper-seated troubles. We can only sit and watch.

'Corrupt' cop jailed for tipping off pal to EncroChat dragnet

Good, should have been longer. Anyone who uses their trusted position in law enforcement to tip off the bad guys in pretty low.

Good, should have been longer. Using your trusted position in law enforcement to tip off the bad guys is pretty low, don't you think?

Voyager 2 found! Deep Space Network hears it chattering in space

I used to fix 405 line TV's for a living! Entered the trade in 1969 when TV had just gone all 625 line and there were still lots of people watching 405 models. IIRC, 405 continued in parallel to 625 until the mid-80's.

And still no cambelt change!

Great news, but I'm a bit confused. They lost contact with Voyager when the antenna was moved 2 degrees off beam, but they can still send a signal to re-align the antenna? Two degrees is quite a big error over such a distance. So they haven't lost contact? Or was it just a very weak signal due to the 2 degree misalignment and they managed to bash a signal into it by using high power? And another question - if Canberra can contact it, why can't the slightly bigger Jodrell Bank? Or maybe the angles are wrong at the moment? Sorry about all the question marks but I have a vast stock of them that I really must get through.

Missing Titan sub likely destroyed in implosion, no survivors

So what was all this talk of SOS being banged out every half hour? Where's that come from?

Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim

Easy when you're the kind of driver that listens to music via headphones while working. I thought that was illegal?

The driver should take some blame for what happened. How is he meant to hear/respond to any doorbell queries or 'live' comments from the householder if he is wearing headphones (and I suppose would be listening to music at the time)?

Healthcare org with over 100 clinics uses OpenAI's GPT-4 to write medical records

How long before patients are being prescribed drugs for conditions they have never reported, never suffered from? 'What's this stuff for Doc?' the patient might ask, 'I dunno, but the AI said you need it for your complaint, so there it is'. Err, but Doc I never said anything about a new condition, I only came to see you to have these stitches removed'. 'Oh well, you'd better take them or I'll be in trouble. Just chuck them away if you don't want them, but don't tell anyone or I'll be for the high-jump...'. Tell you what, I'll remove them from your next prescription....oh wait it's warning me not to tamper with its recommendations. Hell fire, it's reported me to the GMC!

Don't worry, that system's not actually active – oh, wait …

'The button was on one of those membrane keypads, with little tactile feedback to indicate the positions of buttons. You were supposed to look at the keypad to see where to press'. Well that's a recipe for confusion and disaster straight away. I'd never design a safety system around something so crap. Membrane keypads are notorious for unreliability and having a single button for 'arm' and 'disarm' is asking for trouble.

Why ChatGPT should be considered a malevolent AI – and be destroyed

I was going to post a horrified response, but there is always the possibility that Mr Hanff is playing a game of his own. Why? I don't know - maybe to cast doubt on Chat GPT. We are entering an age in which we will not trust anything we read, anywhere.

Signal says it'll shut down in UK if Online Safety Bill approved

Re: Care

Wow. My credit score must be awful, as I too paid my mortgage off about 30 years ago and have never fallen behind on any HP or similar arrangements in my entire life (I'm 69). I pay my way, so I never come to the notice of 'the system'.

Techies try to bypass damaged UPS, send 380V into air traffic system

Sounds like a mix of laziness, lack of maintenance and ancient, incompatible systems. Also a lack of over-volt protection and basic fusing. A shambles.

Man wins court case against employer that fired him for not liking boozy, forced 'fun' culture

I know how he feels. I worked in a busy and very male workshop for 20 years, and I dreaded the time of year when the 'Works Night Out' came along. Even though I spent most of that time as a well-respected service manager and got on with everyone, refusing to go would have me marked down as a 'miserable git', so I reluctantly donned the gladrags and went along with it every year. They all started out OK with just a handful of us doing the rounds of the local pubs, but as the night wore on the Boss (who certainly liked a drink) would engineer things so that we went for the obligatory curry at around closing time. I was never keen on the curry as it seemed a bit much on top of the booze, but once again there was no way out without having to face the derision of the crew. Trouble is it didn't end there, as Bossman by now had the bit between his teeth and happened to be in the local 'Round Table' which seemingly allowed him to knock up any local publican to get sneaky booze out of hours. So another session started. By this time I was flagging and wishing I could be home in bed. Awful nights, no-one should be forced into them. There were some fun times which we still talk about whenever we see each other, but generally I hated the whole thing.

Massive energy storage system goes online in UK

196 MWh is tiny.

Your software doesn't work when my PC is in 'O' mode

As I worked for years in domestic electronics, I twigged this one right away, but you've got to hand it to the punters - they are ingenious when it comes to making massive assumptions and mistakes, and vehement in their defence of their stupidity.

Ceefax replica goes TITSUP* as folk pine for simpler times

Oh man. I started as an apprentice TV engineer in 1969 and the excitement of colour was still in the air. Then in 74 came Ceefax! A very slow start, but it caught on eventually. I loved it, although it could be a bit slow to find the pages as they were transmitted serially in the vertical blanking interval. I recall some older TV's with a slow field flyback showed the 'dots & dashes' diagonally near the top of the screen. When I later bought a BBC Model B micro, I was delighted to see those 'mode 7' graphics. Happy times, simpler times.

Phone jammers made my model plane smash into parked lorry, fumes hobbyist

There is so much frequency-sharing now that this type of thing is becoming more likely. AFAIK, there are currently two model control frequency bands in use - 49 MHz and 2.4 GHz. The latter is crammed with signals from routers, wireless CCTV installations, bluetooth devices and baby monitors, plus microwave ovens which despite rigorous safety regs can radiate quite a potent signal over a distance. Some devices are designed to 'listen' on a frequency before using it but others use brute force, such as phone jammers. I'm a radio amateur and we have a band of frequencies at 2.3 GHz, but it is becoming very difficult to operate there with so much 'junk' nearby.

Microsoft's problem child, Windows 11, is here. Will you run it? Can you run it? Do you even WANT to run it?

But do we have any choice? Or will I get up one morning and find my PC running like a dead slug, unusable until it has finished mucking about? It's bad enough with some of the W10 updates!

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair: British home computer trailblazer dies aged 81

It had to happen sooner or later, but I still feel very upset at his death. I had several items of Sinclair stuff in my youth and so did my schoolmates. Between us I recall a Z12 power amp, two Micromatics, A project 60 pre-amp, a project 60 stereo tuner and several Z30s. Plus a few Cambridge calculators. All of them worked a treat, although I did manage to blow the backside out of one of my Z30's by shorting the speaker. We even had a disco amp made from two z50's and a PZ8 PSU. Despite some pretty aggressive use, it never let us down. Farewell Sir Clive, you'll have a bit more time in the lab now.

UK VoIP telco receives 'colossal ransom demand', reveals REvil cybercrooks suspected of 'organised' DDoS attacks on UK VoIP companies

Re: Calling OfCom and Openreach...

Igotout - Never had that in the 40 years I've had a phone!

Magna Carta mayhem: Protesters lay siege to Edinburgh Castle, citing obscure Latin text that has never applied in Scotland

Ferking idiot teens. Nothing new there.

Windows 11: What we like and don't like about Microsoft's operating system so far

What's wrong with Ctl-Alt-Del? That's always been my way into Task Manager.

What does my neighbour's Tesla have in common with a stairlift?

You could put a stop to this bloke's silliness by contacting the local council and telling them he is obstructing the pavement with the big fat cable. It's dangerous and it prevents the disabled from getting by. Do it, it'll make your day. But not his.

New lawsuit: Why do Android phones mysteriously exchange 260MB a month with Google via cellular data when they're not even in use?

I only have a mobile because my wife insists (it's one of her cast-offs), but it spends 99.9% of it's time turned off, and I mean OFF. No power. Trouble is when I do want to use it (about twice a year) I have to wait about 10 minutes for it to remember what it is....

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

More paranoid speculation. The headline consists almost entirely of 'could be's' & 'probablies' and sounds like it was written by a college student who thinks it's cool to pick holes in everything a Tory gov't tries to do.

BT's Wi-Fi Disc ads banned because there's no evidence the things work

I don't know whether these BT devices work or not, but other boosters seem to work very effectively. Our house has several 'slow spots', two of which just happen to be on our favourite lounging areas. I took a look on my WiFi plotter app and it seems the wi-fi signals from some of our neighbours are considerably stronger than that provided by our TT-supplied router. So either our router is 'weak as p!ss' or our neighbours are running mega-watt systems....

Boris celebrates taking back control of Brexit Britain's immigration – with unlimited immigration program

Oh FGS, how do you get 'unlimited immigration' from this? It's a programme LIMITED to top-flight engineers and scientists. Burger-flippers and the serial unemployable will be turned away. What's 'unlimited' about that? I sometimes wonder what Register is up to.

Why is the printer spouting nonsense... and who on earth tried to wire this plug?

Re: Not on the wall socket

I had a mains lead (from China that had ALL THREE wires connected wrong. I don't normally check mains leads, but this one looked particularly cheap & nasty, so I just did a quick ohmeter test and bingo. AND the error was in the IEC end, all moulded-up and inaccessible.

Den Automation raised millions to 'reinvent' the light switch. Now it's lights out for startup

Re: What?

Quite. I would never make my home's systems dependent on some outside software server, it's asking for trouble.

Halfords invents radio signals that don't travel at the speed of light

oops, double post.

All you have to do to embarrass the salesman is to put a DAB radio and an FM radio side by side receiving the same station. Then ask him why the DAB is lagging about 2 seconds behind the FM. Superfast eh, Hmmm? There's also LESS information in a DAB broadcast (as the situation currently stands) as a lot of the sound is thrown away before transmission in order to keep the bandwidth low. ALL the information picked up by the microphone is present in an FM signal (up to 15 kHz). AND they've managed to confuse the transmission frequency with the deviation. Halfords should stick to go-faster stripes and smelly Christmas trees.

Bose customers beg for firmware ceasefire after headphones fall victim to another crap update

BOSE long ago stopped being a manufacturer of good-quality audio gear and has become little more than an over-hyped fashion brand. Their speakers and headphones are designed to appeal to the artificially-boosted bass & treble 'boom & tizz' brigade, a sound which bears little resemblance to reality. AND they have the gall to charge the Earth for it.

Beware the trainee with time on his hands and an Acorn manual on his desk

Oh the BBC-B. What a treat it was! I started off on a ZX81 (being a fan of all things Sinclair) and learnt BASIC on it. Despite its slow speed, I even wrote some simple games, including a somewhat tardy version of Space Invaders which was stripped down to just one invader and a gun that had to be fired in advance of what you might expect... Anyway, BEEB fever got hold of me and WOW what a machine! It went like the clappers and once I'd bought the floppy drive (hey, 100k on one disc!) I was in Micro Heaven. Sunday Mornings watching 'Making the Most of The Micro', what memories. Still got it and I fire it up every now and then to prove it still works. Bee-Beeep!

Dear hackers: If you try to pwn a website for phishing, make sure it's not the personal domain of a senior Akamai security researcher

That story was going well until er... nothing happened.

Windows XP? Pfff! Parts of the Royal Navy are running Win ME

It all sounded super-secure until we got to the 'internet access via the satellite terminal'.

Haunted disk-drive? This story will give you the chills...

Not wanting to brag, but as a video engineer I would have been on this in a flash. It's a commom problem when a customer transports a tape in their car on a Winter's night and gets back to base and the tape is taken indoors, where moisture quickly forms on the cold surface. This can be disastrous for both the tape and the spinning head drum as the tape sticks to the drum and snatches at the tape. Usually this strips off some of the tape's oxide coating and in extreme cases will also crack the fragile ferrite heads.

Amazon Alexa outage: Voice-activated devices are down in UK and beyond

Not affected in the slightest, don't own one.

ZX Spectrum Vega+ blows a FUSE: It runs open-source emulator

Oh dear, what an embarrassment. This kind of cheapjack, half-finished product may just about pass muster as a £30 stocking-filler at Christmas, but as a serious retro gaming machine it fails miserably. What a shame that it drags the much-loved Sinclair name (to those of us of a certain age) through the mud.

Hipster horror! Slack has gone TITSUP: Total inability to support user procrastination

At the risk of sounding uncool, what the hell is SLACK?