Posts by Yet Another Anonymous coward

ITER delays first plasma for world's biggest fusion power rig by a decade

Re: constraining mini-suns

While it's not really comparable to ITER on scale it does have advantage that it can run continuously, unlike a tokamak, which is quite handy for a potential power plant

Re: UK

UK was in ITER as part of Euroatom, the Eu is arguing that the UK can only remain by re-joining Euratom rather than becoming a regular member like all the other none-European countries.

This seems a little disingenuous, since one of the reasons for building it in France was that it was suitably politically neutral that, like CERN, you could have members that were effectively at war with each other.

At one point the UK was a vital member since JET (in Oxford) was the only source of Tritium available to anyone outside a couple of weapons labs. Since JET shut down, I'm not sure where they are planning to get the Tritium from

Don't worry - the energy is only stored temporarily in the magnet, you can always get it back later. Rather more quickly in the event of a quench !

Re: Meanwhile at Wendelstein...

It also shows why you really need German supervillians.

A French Dr Evil would end up building "Une Grande Machine Apocalyptique" while the Germans build something to bring limitless pollution-free power to the world and call it the "Wendelstein Sieben Ex"

Re: constraining mini-suns

The best solution looks like simply making a magnet so fiendishly complicated that the plasma gets confused trying to escape.

Anyone who has tried to service a fancy German car will appreciate the Wendelstein_7-X

Re: World's largest tokamak?

>Zeppelins ended up being filled with hydrogen as the US wouldn't supply the preferred helium.

That's kind of the problem with ITER. Each member country decides which bit they want to build - rather than just paying into a pot like the infrastructure parts of CERN.

There are some cool technologies that everyone wants to develop, so you have more potential makers for these bits than you actually need.

There are other bits that only a country with an advanced weapons program knows how to do, but they don't necessarily want to build those and show what they know.

There are some boring parts that nobody wants to build

To further complicate matters, there are some parts that have to be built on site. If you are eg. a Korean company, whats the politics/economics of building a factory in France and staffing it with Korean workers (and their families?) for 5years to make superconducting coils and then tearing all that down on delivery? Do your workers get French labour protection, do spouses get work permits?

If you could solve the radioactive waste issue then coal fired plants might be possible. But removing radio-nuclides from the flue gases is extremely expensive and not 100% safe

Re: World's largest tokamak?

Tokamaks are a dead end when it comes to power generation, this was a Tokamak because it's the only thing we knew how to build on this scale when the project was agreed.

In many ways ITER is the maximally suboptimal setup. It's a massive multi-government operation, but with every government contributing the part that they want to build, not just putting in money.

It's an experiment, but built on power station scale, and to power station regulations.

The best analogy is if in 1930, the world had come together to make intercontinental air travel possible and decided to build a mile long Zeppelin - because that was the safest technology.

Japan's digital minister declares victory against floppy disks

Re: The next....

>Vellum or generally parchment, goose quills and oak gore ink - the proper way to record matters of importance. :)

My complaints to Ebay are written on clay tablets - we'll see what that Babylonian seller says about sending me fake copper

Re: The next....

>early Latin is practically impossible to understand

Surely there's an Emacs mode for it ?

Re: Discs into gold (or beer)

That's silly why don't you just connect all your industrial machine tools directly to the internets ?

Re: The next....

But by then we will also have privatised parliament so reading the old laws without a license will be illegal

EV world in serious trouble if China cuts off rare earth materials

Re: Another attempt at monoploy.

Yes China loses out on the USA, Japan and Europe markets but gets to sell its Tesla clones to Rwanda, Mozambique and Venezuela

Re: Another attempt at monoploy.

China bans export if rare Earths, rest of world bans import of Chinese cars.

Result:

Rest of world starts up RE refining in other 3rd world countries

China has to find another planet to export cars to

UN telecom watchdog wags finger at Russia for satellite interference

Re: asked Russia to play nice with Europe and not interfere with satellites

A major T-Shirt program, Campaign Lies Information Technology Originating Russian Interference Systems

Re: "it wouldn't grant requests ... to pursue the matter with a formal investigation just yet"

Jamming at airports is less of a problem. The receiver (ie the aeroplane) needs to be in view of the jammer, so the jammer would need to be near the friendly airport.

This is different to a battlefield system blasting massive amount of power upward and affecting aircraft 100s of km away because they are 10km high. You could plant a high power jammer in a truck at the end of Heathrow, but you are likely to draw attention to yourself

Aviation GPS precision approach also require an augmentation system broadcasting a much more powerful correction signal. This is meant to give more accuracy but also prevent a valid but spoofed signal sending a plane off course.

Re: "it wouldn't grant requests ... to pursue the matter with a formal investigation just yet"

A formal investigation could ultimately lead to a letter being sent - do we really want to cross this red line ?

Brace for new complications in big tech takedowns after Supreme Court upended regulatory rules

Re: Separation of Powers

Do you want dissenting opinions on political lines deciding the rules for nuclear waste disposal?

We have elected police chiefs no reason why we shouldn't have elected civil engineers or air traffic controllers

Re: It's actually good.

>At best elected representatives in the US are no more likely than those in the UK to have the necessary expertise.

No problem, the companies funding their campaign will have all the expertise necessary.

Re: It's actually good.

Surely an East Texas jury is the correct place to decide if Thalidomide is good for you or if a Boeing door plug really needs all those bolts.

Google Translate now fluent in 110 additional languages from Abkhaz to Zulu

Re: I wanted to gitve it a go with afrikaans

That's going to be an issue for Northern Independence as well.

No way are we having those Sheffield dee-dahs setting the standard for t'language, on the otherhand nobody can understand anyone from Dales.

We need Modern Standard Yorkshire or there will be civil war

Boeing to reacquire spun-off supplier Spirit AeroSpace to shore up safety

Re: RE: concentrated on engineering airplanes instead of finance games

But that is why General Electric now dominates US industry

Re: "reacquire spun-off supplier Spirit AeroSpace"

>A cynical man might think one of the reasons for the original spin-off was to shelter the parent company from potential liability

That's a bit cynical, there was also union busting, pension fund savings and a bit of financial engineering in the free-money era

Beijing says state owns China's rare earth metals

Re: Owned at the hardware level

You lease the protons and neutrons, the electrons are thrown in free because we can never seem to accurately keep track of them

Give them a chance

China is a newly developed economy. They still naively believe that the govt should be involved in resources vital to their national interests.

Once they become a more fully developed modern economy they will realise that these elements must be owned by hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds of other countries.

Re: Vietnam beware

Lucky for us that our long term friends and allies, Vietnam and Cambodia, have such reliable supplies

An arc welder in the datacenter: What could possibly go wrong?

Re: Welding in a chemical plant

You'd think the Earth would be easier to find when you're standing on it.

Re: Welding in a chemical plant

Don't wear wellies if you're handling cryogenics

And don't have lab coats with pockets

Re: Welding in a chemical plant

Note to self: do not employ Wiley Coyote as a maintenance worker

Police allege 'evil twin' of in-flight Wi-Fi used to steal passenger's credentials

On the contrary, he was just allowing other people to download cars.

Re: Connecting to "free" WiFi...

>Surely before connecting to "free" WiFi you ensure you are using a VPN?

You should connect to the VPN before enabling WiFi

Chinese space company accidentally launches rocket in test gone wrong

Re: That seems a bit close to an urban area

China obviously doesn't have the technology to develop a Florida

American interest in electric vehicles short circuits for first time in four years

Re: Everyone is right so far.

>saying things the left doesn't want people to be allowed to say.”

Specifically the people presenting their opinion that 6million was insufficient ?

Re: Right on the mark about Musk being responsible

The choice of EVs is definitely an issue.

Tesla - unreliable + Elon factor

A dozen identical Korean minivan-SUVs that are too big for driving around town

A handful of euro hatchbacks that have an EV version because the Eu/Ca insist on it. But tiny batteries and zero range.

Nissan leaf - the Austin Princess of EVs

Re: Structural problem

>Nobody can live on the profit margin on only 15% of the vehicle

No they live on 10-12% kickback from the finance company and charging $200/hr for dealer servicing to maintain your warranty ($800 to change the cabin air filter and check fluids ? Why thank you BMW)

Trouble with EVs is that you don't do much servicing

NASA tests the ups and downs of air taxi comfort with VR

Re: But, why?

I think their point is - why the VR+simulation rig when you can just fly the same test profile with a person in a helicopter ?

It's unlikely that air taxis are going to be designed to pull more G or manoeuvre more aggressively than a helicopter

Microsoft founder Paul Allen's tech museum closes, sells off collection

> "Never collect anything of which you don't stand a good chance of getting a full set"

Damn I'm going to have to give away my collection of £20 notes

If it affected government policy .... Congress holds several copies of Magna Carta

It's a pity they didn't read it. Damn democrats restricting my rights to place fish weirs in the Thames.

Presumably the letter remained the property of the writer. It wasn't created by the government so isn't a government document

And that's 3 recalls for Tesla Cybertruck in as many months

Re: Styling

You've heard of "where there's muck there's brass"?

Well now "where there's Tesla stainless steel, there's stains"

Re: The real news is...

Only 11,688? Surely America isn't running out of rich idiots.

Gentleman we cannot let a rich idiot gap develop

Re: JOB OPENING: USI - Validation and Testing - Overcurrent division

Is this the same as the Calvin's dad method for deciding safe bridge loads ?

My Subaru got recalled for a faulty driver side airbag - then recalled a couple of years later to replace the replacement.

Then a separate replacement for the passenger side airbag - this wasn't urgent since the mitigation was: don't use passenger seat.

For the record: You just ordered me to cause a very expensive outage

So Normans giving out the Anglo-Saxon

British Airways blames T5 luggage chaos on fault 'outside of our control'

Re: The vague "Vodafone Platform"

Problem here is that Vodafone had out-sourced it back to BA

Re: The baggage doesn't bother me any more...

Yet another airline miracle.

Like all the flights to Miami where everyone has to board first in a wheelchair but sprint off at the destination

NASA ought to pay up after space debris punched a hole in my roof, homeowner says

Re: Sounds fair

We would like to point out that while strenuous efforts have been made to reduce incidences of cannibalism in the scouts, it's still a problem for the brownies

Andrew Tanenbaum honored for pioneering MINIX, the OS hiding in a lot of computers

Microkernels are the future

Of course, for performance reasons, we have had to move the file-system, graphics and the web browser into the kernel.

Except for that of course we are totally committed to microkernels