Posts by llaryllama

More Voyager instruments shut down to eke out power supplies

Decay

Power output is reduced by almost 1% per year as the Plutonium decays. The poor old Voyagers are already running on fumes at this point.

Taiwan reportedly claims China-linked ship damaged one of its submarine cables

Re: Only a matter of time

For a nation like China that is very much at home in the Grey Zone and doesn't really care about international image there are almost no downsides to this behaviour. See how much damage they can 'accidentally' do to test Taiwan's monitoring systems and reactions, gradually increase the frequency and seriousness of their actions until there is some pushback, let off for a while then repeat. At best they cause some real damage and glean valuable data, at worst they cause an expensive annoyance to their perceived enemies.

Chinese cyber-spies reportedly targeted sanctions intel in US Treasury raid

Re: What goes around comes around

Ah yes of course, state sponsored hacking/terrorism/spying/violence should never be called out because X was doing it first.

A New Year's gift from Microsoft: Surprise, your scanners don't work

<smug mode> Since switching my main desktop to Ubuntu a few years back I've had almost zero issues with printing and scanning. I had almost ground my teeth to the gums in frustration over connecting printers with Windows, but the Linux desktop has made surprising leaps and bounds in this area. It's very satisfying turning up at a job site and being able to instantly add almost any network printer without any driver downloads and have it just work. </smug>

China again claims Volt Typhoon cyber-attack crew was invented by the US to discredit it

Great point, I've just added an underscore and a 1 to all of my passwords. Time for a pint, see ya!

China outspending US, Taiwan, and South Korea combined on chipmaking kit

Re: .. maybe the reason

Does pavlecom get a commision every time they rave about some Chinese made product or service?

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

The problem I have with EVs in 2024 is that too many people see them as a drop-in fix for all of our environmental issues. Make no changes to your lifestyle whatsoever - just buy a heavy EV, drive it with a lead foot then hang out on forums bashing ICE vehicles as scourge of the planet.

I own an ICE car that does fewer than 2500km/year and a motorcycle that does less again. Most of the time I'm on foot or bicycle.

I've done the math before and I guarantee that my emissions are much lower than most of the people crowing on EV forums about how environmentally friendly they are.

What the world needs is not this frantic sudden demonization of ICE and emergency push to get everyone into electric cars, but sensible changes to urban areas so that walking/cycling is seen as the safer/more pleasant option.

As it is right now I often get bullied on my way to work by impatient Tesla drivers who I can't help imagine are rushing to get online and tell someone how great they are for saving the planet.

Three Chinese balloons float near Taiwanese airbase

Re: China will be encouraged ...

The situation is a little different as Hong Kong was never an independent sovereign state, like it or not it was always known that the lease would end.

Taiwan is also quite different from Ukraine as our military is self sufficient with capabilities to make our own advanced missiles, submarines, jet fighters etc. There is also the mind boggling complexity of landing troops on an unsinkable aircraft carrier surrounded by sea mines and anti-air defenses.

Re: Might be the right time to leave

China has been making threats and kicking off periodically since 1949. In Taiwan we pretty much ignore themnand get on with our lives. They will never start a hot war they won't definitely win unless the domestic situation deteriorates to a point that some external enemy/distraction is needed.

Japan complains Fukushima water release created terrifying Chinese Spam monster

Fairly blatant politicizing considering that China quietly dumps many times more tritium and other crap into the ocean on a regular basis. Unfortunately they have a much more effective e-propaganda machine than Japan.

Chinese media teases imminent exposé of seismic US spying scheme

Re: Whatever China

It's kind of different though if the people can vote him out if the majority are not happy with him, and can debate/joke about him on internet forums without being thrown in jail.

After decades contributing to science, John Goodenough powers down

Re: Good Grief

Pot meet kettle.

I had a look through some of your posts and half of them are crapping on Americans and/or telling people they must be American because X.

For someone who proclaims that el reg should not mention America or Americans in an article about a well loved scientist who passed away you sure love mentioning America and Americans every chance you can get.

Or maybe it's ok to report in an article that an American has done something bad, just not that they have done something cool?

I'm confused.

I am a non Han Chinese Taiwanese citizen who made a lot of effort and sacrifices to earn my citizenship.

I am proud to represent my country whenever given the chance and I am also proud whenever I see scientific or sporting achievements by fellow Taiwanese.

This spirit of national comraderie and friendly competition with other nations is perfectly healthy and also encourages scientific achievements that benefit everybody.

Ironically for all its many faults America is a country that has gone to great lengths separating the idea of race from nationality. So you will see Americans of all colours being proud of American scientific achievements no matter where those scientists or their parents were born.

Not something you will see in e.g. China where nationality and race are very much connected and the percentage of black or white Chinese citizens is in the zeroes. A rather unhealthy and ugly attitude that seems closer to what you are peddling here.

You're just embarrassing yourself, pal.

5 seconds of searching el reg for {country} boffins

https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/22/japanese_solar_powered_cyborg_cockroach/

https://www.theregister.com/2009/03/27/space_curry/

https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/27/china_defence_research_starlink_countermeasures/

Can noise-cancelling buds beat headphones? We spent 20 hours flying to find out

The best compromise I have found for compact travel/jobsite earphones that won't fall out when sleeping/working/exercising are the Sony WI-1000XM2 for around US$200 (they also have a cheaper/smaller WI-C600N). For some reason this style of neckband earbud is very unpopular so these can be hard to find but I think they are brilliant. Battery life is longer than true wireless style and most importantly you can run around, sleep or whatever and the earbuds will just dangle off the cord if they pop out.

Elizabeth Holmes is not going to prison – for the moment

Re: The best legal system money can buy

Not sure what you're getting at, people who pass fraudulent checks shouldn't be prosecuted or people should be thrown in jail during a complex trial because they're "probably" guilty?

The US would sooner see TSMC fabs burn than let China have them

Re: Does it matter?

China could destroy Taiwan for sure, but take it? Taiwan is called the unsinkable aircraft carrier for a reason - any pre-invasion build up on the Chinese side would be seen months in advance and physically landing troops is severely hampered by geography and weather through most of the year. Look how Ukraine manage to hold up against a shared land border using some old Soviet hand me down weapons - Taiwan has hundreds of modern fighter jets, advanced fast attack vessels and sophisticated home grown missile systems. How many sunken ships full of young men can the CCP regime handle before its population starts getting testy?

Re: source?

Scarborough shoal; Senkaku islands; basically the entire coastline of Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia; Nepal (already started physically encroaching); India (also physically breached); Bhutan (illegal construction by China across the border); Indonesia (infringement of Indonesia's EEZ); Laos (China now claiming large parts of Laotian territory on historical precedent going back to the Yuan dynasty); Socotra Rock (South Korea); Mongolia; Myanmar; Tibet (already completely annexed, of course).

Taiwan's claims over certain islands are an interesting quirk of ROC history and its current relationship with the PRC. China has explicitly stated that Taiwan changing its constitution in any way will be considered an act of war so Taiwan is stuck with a slightly mad official charter claiming the whole of China as ROC territory. Obviously almost no Taiwanese actually believe in this as reality but we are stuck with it for now.

Re: I am a Rock; I am an Islaaaaannnnnnd

Interesting that China has major domestic problems, really major, with a rapidly falling birth rate and high %age of people also believing the CCP propaganda machine so it's no surprise that Xi is sabre rattling to divert attention away from internal strife. Worked for the USSR.

As Big Tech lays off staff, TSMC swoops in to hire 6,000

Re: Cost of leaving

TSMC is mostly based in Hsinchu, north Taiwan.

Lots of people commute from Taipei where a city apartment would cost you anything from around GBP400/month to GBP2k+ if you insisted on some kind of luxury serviced apartment).

Just outside Taipei or further south in Taichung or Kaohsiung you can get a large house in the mountains for around GBP500/month or basic apartment for half that. High speed rail takes about 30 minutes from Taichung into Hsinchu and costs around GBP15. Electric and gas are very cheap.

NT$2m/year would allow you to budget $100k/month for a very swanky lifestyle living in a nice apartment and eating out every day with cheap trips to SE Asia, Japan etc. if that's your thing. It's not even close to London cost of living.

Re: Cost of leaving

As someone who lived in both the UK and Taiwan you can definitely live better on NT$2m in Taiwan than double or triple this salary in the UK after tax. Taiwan's healthcare is also way better than the NHS and there is almost zero crime.

China makes it even harder for data to leave its shores

Re: @Sceptic Tank - No, not Yahoo!!!

Chinese people helped move the Chinese people from poverty, not the CCP and not their shitty policies.

By the way, I'm not sure if you've ever actually been to China but it's about the furthest from a communist/socialist society you can get. Rabid capitalism with Chinese characteristics would be a more appropriate designation.

Twitter starts auction to flip the bird, furniture, pizza ovens, gadgets galore

Auctions generally charge the buyer a fee of at least 10% on the hammer price, and often take a commission from the seller also. Seller commissions are usually lower or free to encourage more items on auction, and it's easy for buyers to get excited in the rush of bidding and forget about the extra 10% premium they will need to pay when the dust clears.

I have mixed feelings about Elon in general and there is probably a more ethical way to go about his firings but I've been wondering for some time how and why Twitter ended up with something like 7,000 employees and all these swanky offices in the first place.

Let's not forget it's a site that lets you post 140 character text only messages. OK, so they have close to half a billion users but still it feels like the ex management team have been riding the VC money train for a little too long.

Taiwan bans state-owned devices from running Chinese platform TikTok

Re: Taiwan

Better an American Stooge than a... git.

Instagram star gets 11 years for $300m email scam plot

Re: I wonder how long Elizabeth Holmes will get

Which part of the argument is flawed? The part about 11 years being pretty light for defrauding SMEs, businesses and individuals out of millions and laundering money for very unsavory entities?

BTW looks like Holmes got a 1/4 year longer sentence than your poor maligned Instagram friend there, so..

Re: I wonder how long Elizabeth Holmes will get

Nice try but 11 years is actually surprisingly light for someone who has aggressively scammed hundreds of millions, knew exactly what he was doing and then flaunted his ill gotten gains. Bringing up a non relevant and bizarre race argument is - dare I say it - kind of racist.

Intel plans to cut products — we guess where they’ll happen

Re: Don't get us wrong. Intel's NUC mini PCs are cool, little feats of engineering

I use Asus mini PCs in a light industrial environment, this particular model comes with a 7 core AMD processor and a five year warranty. They have an excellent mounting system so you can slap them on the back of a touchscreen monitor.

In Rust We Trust: Microsoft Azure CTO shuns C and C++

Declaring that C is dead and we should all be using X is a little silly. I guess now I understand what old COBOL programmers felt like when the computing world moved on.

Honestly Rust is a good language and I can't wait to see what a younger generation of programmers will do with it, but I don't see myself writing any serious Rust applications.

Like many programmers in their 40s and 50s I have 30 years of experience with C and I can definitely write much higher quality code in C/C++ than I could in a completely unfamiliar language, even if the language happens to be fundamentally better/safer.

Taiwan chip magnate pledges cash for defense against China: 'I'm telling everyone to oppose the CCP'

Re: Another Rich Corn Flake?

I'd like to see how your "blockade" works in an actual hot war when your boats are being attacked by Taiwan's very advanced domestically made land to sea missiles.

In Taiwan nobody cared about the whole recent Chinese show of force and we just let you get on with it like a parent ignoring their 3 year old's tantrum. You were being laughed at by most of Taiwan the whole time.

Tibet, South Korea, India, Soviet Union.. it's almost like the history books you read are missing some parts hey?

The PRC stated that it doesn't steal intellectual property, wasn't going to militarize its artificial islands, doesn't interfere in foreign politics etc. etc. Well that's me reassured.

Re: NEWSFLASH CHINA HAS NUKES... THE US WILL NEVER GO TO WAR WITH CHINA

What relevance does this comment have to do with the article?

Nobody mentioned the US, we are talking about Taiwanese defending Taiwan.

Off topic tangent notwithstanding

1) Taiwan is nothing like Vietnam

2) Taiwan also has cruise missiles (devastatingly good ones, in fact), what's your point?

3) Taiwan's trade with China is rapidly becoming irrelevant as our current administration has been expanding trade with SE Asia, North America and the EU. We are not just exporting chips either, Taiwan has a massive export trade in general electronics and industrial machinery. A very large percentage of high end quality tools sold around the world are currently made in Taiwan.

Re: Another Rich Corn Flake?

I have recently been to a similar civil defense course here in Taiwan, the focus is mostly on first aid (which very few Taiwanese are trained for), urban survival techniques and generally dealing with emergency situations. There is some very basic handgun training - bear in mind almost all adult males have done compulsory military service so already have some experience with rifles.

If we did end up in a hot war it can only help to have an extra few million people able to use a gun and administer first aid. In peace times this kind of training is still very useful for car accidents, earthquakes, floods etc.

Re: Another Rich Corn Flake?

We get universal healthcare in Taiwan for an average of around $40/month per household and hospitals are pretty much US standard so yeh, it's a pretty efficient place.

Newport Wafer Fab sale to Chinese company held up again by UK.gov's probe

Re: Do not sell to the enemy

Once again, nobody mentioned the US. Go take it somewhere else.

Apple tells suppliers to use 'Taiwan, China' or 'Chinese Taipei' to appease Beijing

Re: Can anyone answer the question, logically...

Many people in Taiwan including me are fighting to change the constitution, but the PRC has explicitly stated that any change in Taiwan's constitution is an act of war.

If a group of very large men with guns followed you around and insisted that you need to wear a sign saying "I am a dickhead" but otherwise let you go about your life normally I think most people would put up with some minor humiliation if the other choice was fighting the big men with guns.

There is a very big difference in perception for the majority of westerners who know little to nothing about the Chinese civil war and this is part of the cognitive warfare China is waging against Taiwan.

Republic of China (Taiwan) is clearly disconnected from the PRC even if you know nothing of the geopolitics or history. "Taiwan, China" is a lot more murky as most people would read this as "Taiwan, the province/City/region of (PR) China".

Re: CHINA IS NOT GOING TO GO AWAY...

1) from the same article: "Broad Sustainable Building spent four and a half months fabricating the building’s 2,736 modules before construction began. The first 20 floors were completed last year, and the remaining 37 were built from 31 January to 17 February this year, Xiao said. "

2) calling the Hainan/Guangxi landing vessels aircraft carriers is perhaps something of a stretch. For those interested in making up your own minds look up the PLA type 075 assault vessel.

4) I don't know what a scotsman argument is but it doesn't change the fact that China is still massively behind Japan, Taiwan and Korea in the top end of high-tech industries.

5) I'm Taiwanese living in Taiwan and I can tell you categorically that no Chinese expressway has even broken ground anywhere on Taiwan.

Saying that the Beijing-Taipei expressway is partially completed is like saying the US-UK expressway is partially completed because both countries have roads.

Re: CHINA IS NOT GOING TO GO AWAY...

Sigh. I'm not sure what Chinese kool-aid you've been drinking but..

1) China has not built any skyscrapers in 60 days

2) China's aircraft carriers are all Russian hand-me-downs except the Fujian which is a copy of the Russian hand-me-downs

3) The US does have hypersonic weapons along with several other countries, it's something of a nonsense buzzword in military terms

4) China does not have any truly capable 7nm fabs yet, making one simple chip with 7nm features does not make you a true 7nm fab

5) China is not building a road to Taiwan. Chinese state media have pushed out articles stating that China is going to build a tunnel to Taiwan but Chinese state media says a lot of things that are untrue. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Nancy Pelosi ties Chinese cyber-attacks to need for Taiwan visit

As a Taiwanese who would absolutely love to normalize our status the sad fact is that it's complicated and we have to be somewhat pragmatic.

I can travel (at least I could pre-covid) with my green Taiwan e-passport visa-free to most of the world including Europe and the UK. We vote directly for our representatives and presidents. We have our own currency, military, political system, banking network, postal service, phone prefix etc.

Yes, it's pretty annoying when you book a hotel or flight and have to click "Taiwan, Province of China" in the dropdown box but if the only option to scrap that is going to war I guess we can deal with it. Apart from that we are already a 100% independent democratic nation and a pretty damn fine one if I may say so.

Re: China's just testing the waters

^H^H united - just a reminder that Taiwan has never for one second been a part of or controlled by the PRC.

Chipmakers warned: US CHIPS Act funds are not for 'stock buybacks'

Re: Capitalism

Youngone made a very polite and reasonable request, I see no ad hominem argument but I do see a strawman reply...

Re: Capitalism

I run a small manufacturing company so I have first hand experience that says yes, having access to domestic supplies of critical components is a massive competitive advantage against similar businesses in other countries. It doesn't matter if your product is for export or domestic consumption so this is a moot point.

This leads into your other point about offshoring - which by the way is the first time I've heard described as a "populist term". There are not too many countries around the world that have a large well educated populace, excellent transport links, reliable electrical/gas/water supply and domestic supply of essential high-tech components. The US happens to be one of these countries so establishing high-end chip fabs there does make sense. Salaries, labor laws, EPA regulations etc. in Taiwan are not massively different from the US and the EPA laws are actually stricter than most US states but Taiwan still manages to be a chip manufacturing powerhouse.

Africa is a nonsense comparison because the infrastructure just doesn't exist to set up a large high tech manufacturing base. If at some point the infrastructure is built I'm sure that offshoring to Africa will start to happen.

As far as the Chinese Market goes this is a grossly misunderstood and over-hyped beast. Western companies are very slowly understanding that there may be a lot of potential Chinese customers but it's very difficult to actually make any money in the mainland China market and even very large businesses are likely to get screwed at some point. I personally know of several American businesses who are pulling out or already pulled out of China and are moving back to the US.

China seems to have figured out how to make 7nm chips despite US sanctions

Re: Chess. (says it all)

And they just beat us all with that hand of five kings.

Re: Another shoe of the US Clyddsdale falls.

I was with you up until the "Taiwan, China" crap.

China 'must seize TSMC' if the US were to impose sanctions

Re: As in the days of the pharoahs

Anyone who has visited Taiwan for longer than 2 weeks will realize these comments are just silly.

Re: As in the days of the pharoahs

I know quite a few people who work for TSMC and they get paid very well. You might be confused with another company.

The big difference is that you can go to one of the very poor areas in the US, film it, upload to a US based platform like YouTube and not have to worry about any legal consequences for doing so.

In fact, many people do this and it can be a powerful force for change.

It is absolutely forbidden to film any "unpleasant" parts of China and people have been disappeared or thrown in prison for doing so. This way the discussion never happens and neither does the change. Everyone just smiles and says how great the CCP surely is.

China started getting out of poverty after being allowed to join the WTO. The country became wealthy due to a) hard work of the Chinese people and b) access to foreign markets, all of this despite the CCP trying to jam a spanner into every attempt for reform.

The PRC was founded in 1949 but study historical GDP data and you will find China was economically stagnant until accession to the WTO in 2001. So what exactly were the miracle CCP doing for 52 years?

If you are told from birth that you live in the greatest country in the world and it's all thanks to the great Spaghetti Monster you would probably love the great Spaghetti Monster.

I think you are somewhat unfair to the general Chinese populace by suggesting that they are able to revolt against their government if they would just get up and do it. The CCP has had 100 years along with plenty of lessons from the USSR to develop and fine tune their internal propaganda and control machine.

The Chinese love to mock Taiwanese with the phrase "you are a frog in a well", meaning that they are the enlightened ones who see the world around them while we are stuck in a well unable to see the truth around us (presumably due to Western media/propaganda/whatever). A large majority of Chinese firmly believe this with absolute conviction which shows you how deep the brainwashing runs.

Re: China / Tiawan is a bit more complicated

Taiwan was an ignored and unloved province of imperial China from the late 1600s to late 1800s. There is a much, much longer history of prior settlement by indigenous peoples and the ROC is a few decades older than the PRC.

Chinese and Taiwanese share some common language - like the US and Britain - but are culturally very different - also like the US and Britain.