Posts by adam 40

Airline puts international passengers on the scales pre-flight

Re: Good.

All the passengers on our charter flight in British Guyana were weighed.

There was an enormous Dutch photographer coming, and he would have been bumped if one of our party hadn't turned up.

This is basic aeronautics.

Cunningly camouflaged cable routed around WAN-sized hole in project budget

Downvoted because I was at Bede

That sounds just about legal, but back in the day the Post Office had a monopoly on such things, and it was actually illegal to run a wire between two premises.

That is

acorny joke.

IR35 costs UK Research and Innovation £36M – the same it spent funding tech projects

Green Card Day

who remembers that?

Is there anything tape can’t fix? This techie used it to defeat the Sun

DP?

Sounds like a fun time in the orifice, err, office!

I've seen things you wouldn't believe, like an atom about to photosynthesize

It's a step, but even if we know how a neuron works it doesn't necessarily mean we can make an intelligent brain up to human standards. After all there are plenty of animal brains out there of similar size that don't have human intelligence. Even amongst the population of all humans, there are some that are non-functional, sub-par etc.

OpenAI's ChatGPT may face a copyright quagmire after 'memorizing' these books

If a human memorises a book...

... is that also a copyright offence? A thought crime?

If not, why take it out on poor old AI's?

Saturn's rings are shrinking and boffins will use the Webb 'scope to find out why

In other news

the rings around Uranus are widening alarmingly!

Balloon-borne telescope returns first photos in search for dark matter

Oh, the humanity!

Why not use hydrogen, instead of wasting helium?

Just what the universe needs right now: A black hole with wind

Gnab

Gib

The truth about those claims of Qualcomm chips secretly snooping on you

Stick a firewall on it

I use a no-root firewall, and it's amazing what that picks up from apps on the phone.

(It works by pretending you're working over a VPN).

And I am sure, even that is evaded by a lot of the O/S.

If I could be bothered, I'd stick my phone on a home basestation and wireshark log it all. But for now, I treat it as if it were fully hacked and open to all and sundry. So no banking, nothing that needs to be secure, is on the phone.

NASA wants a telescope on the far side of the Moon

What do you mean "far side of the moon?"

As we all know, the moon is flat.

Adam 40

President

Flat Moon Society.

Service desk tech saved consultancy Capita from VPN meltdown, got a smack for it

PBX Timeout

When I was working at Scientific Generics I was contracting doing E1 line comms stuff, anyway I needed to look at the PBX that also had 2 E1 lines that came into the building.

While looking at the setup I noticed a timeout to do with dialing an outside number. After working there for some years I had been quite irritated, when dialing an outside line if you looked down at the phone number for a split second, it would time you out and you'd have to start again.

So - I changed the timeout from 1000ms to 3000ms.

It worked great when I got back to my desk! No more getting cut off mid-dial!

My mistake was announcing the change to the company by email. I didn't get the bollocking, but the Facilities Management guy did!

I never found out who was annoyed. But it was never changed back even a few years later.

If you have a fan, and want this company to stay in business, bring it to IT now

Non adjustable thermostats

Our entire office has temperature sensors for the A/C and heating, but not adjustable, by us anyway. Only by facilities manglement.

So there's a can of freeze-it spray to turn up the office temperature when it's too cold, and a tupperware container for hot water to place under it, for when it's too hot...

Wind, solar power outstrip fossil fuel generation for EU

Watt is the price of Energy anyway?

The trouble is that the pricing of energy from various sources is self-defining. Energy determines the dollar cost, and the dollar level determines the cost of energy.

Any newcomer on the scene (e.g. solar, wind) finds itself priced according to the cost of the energy around it, rather than the true cost.

In the UK we have fucked ourselves up by allowing the world markets to drive the pricing of oil and gas in our markets. We might alternatively have slapped tariffs on exports, and had a lower-priced internal market, with an "average" of our internally-priced production, and external imports.

On the continent, various EU countries have fixed the prices of various energy sources. All somehow without triggering EU "state aid" rules, as I look on incredulously, especially as we in the UK haven't used a similar strategy. Why not?

Wind power seems to be cheaper than break even now, even for offshore. However, definitive numbers are hard to come by. Scottish Power, for one, was extremely keen on offshore wind even before the price hikes. (If anyone has the price of a 1MW turbine and associated infrastructure, I'd like to see it). So we are likely to see more and more renewables, with fast-spooling-up gas power stations to fill in the gaps. Every joule generated from renewables is 2 joules saved from hydrocarbon burning, so it has to be the way to go.

Techies ask PM to 'prepare UK chip strategy as a matter of urgency'

The only question is...

Haddock, or Cod?

Re: It depends on what they are trying to achieve

I agree with elsergiovolador

So - it's now a conspiracy!

Plugging end-of-life EV batteries into the grid could ease renewables transition

Re: demand-side management is also vital in shifting and flattening peak demand

Your body seems to contradict your title.

What we need is better pricing to the consumer, so (for example) when there is excess wind or solar generation the price comes right down.

I.e. instead of being an average for 3 months at a time, it tracks the wholesale spot price.

Then, combined with intelligent plugs, you can automate the demand side. For example, you set your tumble dryer to only run when leccy < 10p/unit.

This puts the consumer firmly in control of their own bills, is fair, and will help a lot to balance demand.

Lucy asteroid probe forced to limp on without full solar array

It's full of... Drugs!

The 3.18-million-year-old Lucy was named after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which the researchers listened to as they celebrated their remarkable find

Microsoft axes 10,000, already breaking bad news to staff

By "raising the bar"

... do they mean more Friday 13th SNAFUS, as there will be even less staff to do the testing?

Time to buy a phone as shops use discounts to clear out inventories

Re: Let's do the maths

I'm on Virgin £6.18/m

RWG do a £10 one-off payment if you're a low user. No further monthly fee. (£5 for the SIM + £5 to activate the deal)

Re: Never bought a new phone

I bought a RedMi that I assumed was secondhand because at £80... it turned out to be new, and also had 2 chargers (because the original one was continental plug).

For the poster near the top - OK it's big, but dual SIM plus SD card... I need it big now anyway as my peepers are giving out after too much SMD soldering. That, and the porn.

Unix is dead. Long live Unix!

Re: About 15 years ago...

It's not quite the _whole_ world.

At the bottom end you still have RTOS's and bare metal for smaller/hard real time applications on CPU's that can't take the bloat of modern (or any) linux.

There are also a few schisms (e.g. with or without the dreaded systemd?), and therefore forks, although the programming API's remain fairly unchanged.

But yes, I agree it will continue eating Micro$haft's lunch, especially with the pressure of exploits, ransomware, viruses, and the company itself borking everyone's machines.

Microsoft Defender ASR snafu.

Ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha,aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha, aha ha ha, haaaa ha ha, ha ha ha....

Microsoft and community release scripts to help mitigate Defender mess

Re: Microsoft are C%&$S!

Don't just steal the line, use the OS!!!

Ha ha haaaaa!

Heata offers free hot water by mounting servers on people's water tanks

Re: A Vaillant effort...

You lot really are plumbing the depths... As we say in Manchester, stop, cock!

Microsoft Defender ASR rules strip icons, app shortcuts from Taskbar, Start Menu

Re: My Linux VM

There is no hope - I got 2x thumbs down for even mentioning it.

Relevant! Fuck yeah, because I can still do work. But - you could also run a VM with windoze in it, and that might be unaffected. If you were a masochist.

My Linux VM

... seems unaffected.

Micro$haft windoze because company policy, but I just start me VM, and beaver away.

Native Americans urge Apache Software Foundation to ditch name

Micro$haft

... so I suppose that means Bill Gates can sue himself!

Damn! where is that Paris icon when you need her looking through glasses trying to see it!!!

This can’t be a real bomb threat: You've called a modem, not a phone

Re: Work bomb scare

Did you re-hearse that?

The years fly by on first exoplanet confirmed by James Webb Space Telescope

So now we know where the Irish come from...

..... ex O'planet !

Cleaner ignored 'do not use tap' sign, destroyed phone systems ... and the entire building

End of my Tether

On the register, if you write something about something that someone isn't supposed to do, you won't even be able to click "Submit" before someone has posted the quote about " 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.” - T Pratchett (Thief of Time)"

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

As Terry Pratchett pointed out...

If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

Because the last one (the third repetition in these comments) got 5 upvotes.....

Re: Don't forget mischief

... but after a while, natural selection weeds them out of the gene pool.

Re: Not only two signs...

Funnily enough, I had to tape over a switched socket switch at home, the one for the freezer.

I don't know who in my idiot family thought it was a good idea to switch that one off....

Neuralink's AI brain chip could be in humans within six months claims Elon Musk

Re: Self-trepanning?

This is stone-age technology, all you need is a sharp flint and some 'shrooms to dull the pain.

We mastered it in the UK thousands of years ago. And - it's still legal!

Britain has likely missed the boat for having a semiconductor industry

Re: Semis

Does Brexit help China or Taiwan sell semiconductors to the EU?

No. It's an irrelevance.

Re: The British Chip Industry ...

It also housed wafers and servers.

Massive energy storage system goes online in UK

Re: Frequency trimming?

If they were synced to the mobile phone network, you could have 50Hz +/- 50ppb.

In this day and age it really is a mystery why we can't do our mains frequency to this sort of accuracy, then anything could maintain good enough sync with a TCXO, and one initial sniff of mains.

Re: Tiny...

... it would be, as the lake is quite cold.

While you can swim in it. I think there are signs up saying you shouldn't?

Re: Dumb question time...

Where the spot price of electricity varies by over, say, 20% during the day, you can start to make money to pay off the capital investment.

Time Lords decree an end to leap seconds before risky attempt to reverse time

Re: Let it slide

You are suggesting we work 80% of the week where we currently work 5/7ths = 71%.

DOWNVOTE!!!

Re: TAI = UTC + 37 seconds, am I missing something?

True but I wonder if those fossil records of climate change have a resolution down to decades.

We probably therefore draw the graphs with a relatively benign-looking curve.

In reality, there were probably big tipping points along the way and a few degrees change per decade may have been possible.

Orion reaches the Moon, buzzes surface, gets ready to orbit

Re: Deep space?

Nein.

Re: "Dark" side of the moon

Ahhhhahhahhhaahhhhhhahhhhahhhhaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! Ah ah ah ahhhhhh, ah ah ah ahhhhhh, ah ah ah ahhhhhhhah hah hahhhh....

Locked out of Horizon Europe, UK commits half a billion to post-Brexit research

Let them keep their crap research

The Tokamak is a dead end anyway. We are better of out of that money pit ITERation.

Go ahead, be rude. You don't know it now, but it will cost you $350,000

British Airways

Work-related business trip...

"I was sitting in seat 32K, in a Boeing 777.

While I was having dinner the chap in the seat in front of me reclined

his seat. This knocked the glass of red wine straight off the tray table

onto my lap and a textbook that I had bought only a few days previously.

My jeans and the book were fairly extensively stained and I am trying to

clean them, but I don't know if the wine will come out.

There seems to be a design problem with the seats in economy in the 777,

in that firstly the seats have no damping mechanism (unlike most other

aircraft) so when the seat is reclined it happens very fast. There is no

time to react.

Secondly the seat back interferes with whatever is on the tray table and

can cause things to fall off, what if this were hot tea or coffee? There

is a safety issue here.

I will let you know if I cannot remove the stains,

yours sincerely, Adam 40."

----------------

The stains did not come out, so I asked for £50 in compo.

BA refused.

For the next 5 business trips, if there was a BA option, I said no. I also copied BA Customer Services saying, you know that £50 you didn't want to pay. Well, here's another £1500 business class ticket I made sure you didn't get.

-----------

Cut forward a few years, and a new job. Now I have a distinctive surname... My new company made me go on a business trip, with BA, there was no other option, and it was now cattle class.

When checking in, I got upgraded. BOTH WAYS.

Sometimes, it pays to be a pain in the arse....

Re: "Shouting" at the wrong person

Probably though, the CEO also never noticed....

Re: And so began my boycott of all things Sony...

Sony fucked me over with the enabling of a bundled game so the PSP I had bought for my son.

I had enabled it so he could play it on Xmas day, only to be told he couldn't then have it on his own account.

Needless to say, they got no more business on that console, or any other.