Posts by Yet Another Anonymous coward

Think you can solve the UK's electric vehicle charging point puzzle? The Ordnance Survey wants to hear about it

Re: "All of its premium data"

A US startup inventing a product that needs route mapping eg. Uber, Mapquest etc can get all the data for free. They then get bought by a Google/Microsoft/etc who can afford to just do their own UK mapping.

A British startup is caught between the expense and complex licensing terms of OS data or Postal Address File so never gets the chance to make it to market.

It's the same way that free local phone calls in the USA launched the bulletin board and then consumer internet there while the UK had expensive per/minute billing and restricted set of expensive BT approved slow modems.

Re: Don't rush in.

>Imagine all cars of a big city (London, New York) trying to reach some fairly distant charging center, and then coming back in the morning

The cars will be linked by mesh network and a common data standard allowing them to communicate and cooperate.

British cars will form an orderly queue which will be completely gridlocked by the two cars at the front sending "after you", "no after you", "no I insist", "no I couldn't possibly"

American cars will simply form a deathrace to get their first, ramming other vehicles out of the way until all cars built by US makers will resemble robot tanks built by a 14year olds in GameWorkshop

Re: "All of its premium data"

Yes but the problem with the Ordnance survey charging for their data was that the main customer was the UK government and so the overhead of billing themselves and arguing with themselves over licensing terms cost more than collecting the data

Then you had UK companies, especially startups, who couldn't afford to use the data to develop new ideas. So they were beaten in the market by US companies who just bought satellite imagery to make their own inferior maps.

It's more like Oxford University Press charging British users for using British spelling.

Re: "that's the difference..."

My apologies - it has Democrats and Republicans and a life expectancy of one of those countries that call themselves the "Democratic Republic of ..." - so naturally I was confused

Re: with a 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel …

More precisely it's in the n+1 parliament.

You don't have to anything now or even if you win again, in the one after that it's either the other lot or you have such a slum majority the bill will fail and you can blame the opposition

Climate change is the never a problem deadline. A 75year old promises to his 70year old voter base to do something about it in 30years time

Ordnance is what you use to enforce an Ordinance

Re: "All of its premium data"

>US: The taxpayer funded medicine research, they'll pay over the odds for it.

But is was Canadian taxpayers that discovered insulin and gave it away for free.

That's why you need to charge $1500/month - cos of foreigners

Re: "All of its premium data"

>US: The taxpayer paid for it, they get it free.

>UK: The taxpayer paid for it, they will pay again to get access.

That's the difference between a socialist democratic republic and a monarchy.

UK promises big data law shake-up... while also keeping the EU happy, of course. What could go wrong?

Re: Piss

Weren't the IT people supposed to retrain as Ballet dancers ?

I'm sure there was some sort of official pronouncement

Re: More "Red Tape"

This will be British* - Red, White and Blue tape

(* Manufactured in China)

Samsung: We will remotely brick smart TVs looted from our warehouse

Re: Seems pretty lenient

Yes but now they are being fscked by black politicians Gaurdian readers don't have to feel bad about them.

Re: Who is daft enough...

It's just that until you do connect it - it just displays a Samsung logo and a message telling you to connect it.

Oh the humanity: McDonald's out of milkshakes across Great Britain

Re: Border Bureaucracy?

>if the milkshake goo is manufactured in the UK, its supply chain (dairy, flavouring, colouring, sugar, squid guts, bags, boxes) is almost certainly crossborder.

Didn't we sign a trade deal with R'lyeh ?

Re: Government has responded by lifting caps on daily driving limits from nine hours to 11

You might be onto something with these road trains where a single driver can operate multiple trailers.

Of course we don't have the roads for it, so they might have to be road trains. I'll get some Geordies to look into the idea.

If it catches on we might be able to run these road trains under the sea to get exotic foods from foreigners - perhaps even France

They aren't broken - they are empty.

Not putting crud in them and not letting idiots use them has a fantastic effect on their reliability

Re: But where's the IT angle?

> moral as encouraging a kid in 1920 to train as a gaslighter.

I thought gaslighting was now a major internet activity ?

Re: Government has responded by lifting caps on daily driving limits from nine hours to 11

>It's decidedly NOT a scheme to release serving prisoners into the workforce in chain gangs.

Yet....

I don't remember getting the army to drive bin lorries as one of the benefits written on the side bus either

Re: "The Army being called in"

Seems unfair, you get back from Afghanistan and are expected to do deliveries in Middlesbrough - I suppose it cures the post bit of PTSD

Re: Milk Shakes or just Shakes?

> including “milk ingredients” and “modified milk ingredients”.

It comes out of a cow = it's milk, right ?

Re: Border Bureaucracy?

I assumed that was why Jellied Eels were only popular in the south. The prototype eel pipeline ran out at the north circular.

Re: "UK restaurants had run out of milkshakes"

McDonalds is American so it can't be anything to do with Brexit - duh !

Re: Government has responded by lifting caps on daily driving limits from nine hours to 11

We wanted freedom for Euro regulations - it's a benefit.

Once the trucks aren't required to have speed limiters, or brakes, or other European Bureaucrat nonsense deliveries will become even faster.

Liz Truss has been watching a documentary about Australian driver standards in the cinema and hopes to sign a trade deal soon.

Re: The other thing is

>The JIT model was invented by Toyota ...

Who are now cutting production in half because they don't have any semiconductors

A proper British solution is Morgan, they have a "when it's ready" production system. When you order a car they plant the tree for the wood for the bodywork - and when it's ready they fell the tree and start work

Re: Border Bureaucracy?

>As these "milkshakes" are actually a synthetic polymer-based liquid, they are loaded onto unrefrigerated trucks and shipped out

Obvious solution - a Europe wide network of pipelines.

Re: A number of sound decisions?

But what about the bent bananas ?

(Can't remember was it that we were banned from eating bent bananas or forced to eat them ?)

Lost in IKEA? So, it seems, is Windows

Re: Follow the yellow-brick road

Ironically since when Stanstead opened it was the easiest airport. Designed like a train station, there were rows of checkin the full length of the building, then quick security a row of gates the full length of the building.

There were no budget airlines, no shops and about 2 places to eat

Intel, Qualcomm win deal to design 7nm silicon for US defense agencies

Re: Who says the DoD "thinks Intel is on track"

That's why they are now working for the DoD - it's a perfect match.

Only a question of whether they name their new architecture F35 or Zumwalt

Re: Will we hear different news......

Intel will just sub out the actual manufacturing to TSMC in Arizona and double the price for made in Merica secure chips while pocketing a few $bn in subsidies

China's Mars rover assigned extended mission after exceeding life expectancy

IIRC all we have to do to defeat the Martians is stop wearing masks and sneeze on them

Linux 5.14 had plenty of commits, work has gone smoothly – and it should debut next week

It's all a conspiracy to make you not buy new versions

I want a whole org-chart of sea bird related ranks.

From Grand Puffin to assistant deputy guillimot

For runners-up in the politburo promotion race - yes

Judge dismisses objections to spaceport in Scotland from billionaire who also wants to build spaceport in Scotland

Re: Pray tell

But when Scotland gets independence and develops independent technology of such awesome secretiveness that you can't trust launching your payloads from the USA - then they will need their own launch site (in hollowed out volcano naturally)

For a polar orbit the latitude has no rotation advantage. It doesn't matter as much where you launch from, Away from the equator has less Earth velocity to get rid of but for LEO it doesn't really matter. Early equatorial launches really needed the extra boost to get to GSO or the moon.

What you do need is no friendly population, or unfreindly population with tracking stations, immediately north (or south) of you.

Where in Scotland would you find such a hive of scum and villainy ?

Re: Priorities

We can't waste time on these boffins with their promises of fire when we have all this tough mammoth meat to chew.

Re: Vertical orbit??

Surely Earth has a top surface an edge and a bottom surface (where we keep Australia)

>and feeding the workers

I'm sure the wilder regions of Scotland are now a prime destination for international gourmets - but my experience was more like the pub in American Werewolf in London

Mostly yes.

Main problem is weather and feeding the workers

Another UK government limb that can't get IR35 right: Court service pays taxman £12.5m

Re: If HMRC had to take the GOV offenders to court? how would that work? particularly the DoJ?

Her Majesty vs Her Majesty ?

Like that Monty Python sketch with Graham Chapman wrestling himself

A man spent a year in jail on a murder charge involving disputed AI evidence. Now the case has been dropped

Re: What I don’t get

Because they had no other evidence so they doctor the Sharp shooter results and go to a judge and say 'miracle AI that city paid $$$$ for says 99.87% guilty and its a big machine with flashing lights so must be correct'

Re: So basically, no matter what we're all guilty and all screwed!

> gets paid per conviction

In the UK the DNA testing is sub-contracted out and the firm's contract getting renewed did depend on their results "being helpful to the police"

UK's competition regulator fires red flare over Nvidia's $40bn Arm takeover deal

Re: Far to late

The USA stops foreign ownership of companies in areas such as telecoms and even ports - it doesn't seem to have prevented inward investment in America

Having trouble getting your mitts on that Raspberry Pi? You aren't alone

Re: Didn't the BBC Micro have supply problems too?

But in those days probably because they had 2 blokes in a shed assembling them between tea breaks,

T'internet says 1.5M BBC micros were made over a decade or so - they are knocking out that many Pis every 2 months !

Re: The Spectrum Next is also having the same problems

No we need investment in shed based fabs - make your own chips

Japan's aerospace agency hooks up with Boeing to make planes quieter when they land

But quietly

Re: Take a cue for the Shuttle?

> If they did the latter they'd probably just fall out of the sky.

But that would be ok cos they have a parachute

Another big year for tape as ... oops. 2020 sales dropped 8% thanks to 'global shutdowns'

Re: But Why...?

Depends on your business.

If you need to keep data for years or decades there is no alternative

If you business data is totally transitory and all you need is the ability to stay online if HW fails then cloud with region duplication might be the answer

Re: Tape

You will drag my wax cylinders out of my elegantly manicured fingers.....