* Posts by alisonken1

186 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Sep 2010

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Army and Navy have both asked for right to repair, now Senators want to give it to them

alisonken1

Re: Sense

Unless you're on a gas turbine ship, you are still using steam. Nuke carriers and subs all use steam.

In the case of catapults, though, there is the upstart EMALS coming in to replace the steam catapults ...

Nuclear reactors smaller than a semi truck to be tested in Idaho

alisonken1

Re: the average US home only consumes around 30 kWh of electricity per day

A lot of homes that use forced air are gas heating with a/c.

Newer homes seem to be migrating to heat pumps (a/c with reversible condenser/evap units).

alisonken1
Coat

Re: Mixed units?

My house is 100a/240v (although I think it might actually be 208 - will have to check) split-phase 120v.

However, newer houses (and people who upgrade for their BEV) typically upgrade to 200a/240v.

Big push to move from gas homes to electric homes - even moreso than back in the 50's.

Northrop Grumman shows SpaceX doesn't have a monopoly on explosions

alisonken1

Re: Engine rich exhaust

Pretty much every missile made since Vietnam are SRM's.

The problem is this particular one is segmented so it can be shipped around before final assembly, and the nozzle is not fixed - it's a new class of thrust vectoring nozzle for SRM's.

The other problem is these SRM's make missile boosters look like firecrackers.

Aren't there quite a lot of solid rocket motors in missiles?

No. Missiles only have 1 solid rocket motor in their booster. Just like this one - it's 1 rocket motor, just scaled up from a missile.

Microsoft's next Windows 11 update is more 'enablement' than upgrade

alisonken1

Re: Unexpected?

Excellent use of caps!

Except I can't think of a "D" ending that would work.

The year of the European Union Linux desktop may finally arrive

alisonken1
Linux

" ... they also have a laptop with Windows on that managers use to waste their time with...usually has Teams, Outlook and all that guff on it."

Or, like me, they have a windows VM for those work-related things that only work on Windows.

Atlas V glitch delays second Project Kuiper launch

alisonken1
Coat

Re: or Soyuz (pay extra or…)

And who do you think the Russians got their ideas from? Hint: It's someone we all know and some love.

Japan set to join the re-usable rocket club after Honda sticks a landing

alisonken1
Trollface

Re: As useless as Starship!

I upvoted on the assumption that this was a snarky comparison to all of the hate directed at SH/SS.

LibreOffice adds voice to 'ditch Windows for Linux' campaign

alisonken1
Linux

Re: As I've said before

" ... People are complaining about the lack of an NVMe M.2 interface ... "

Then they don't know how to google: (Note: RPi 5 items)

Single NVMe hat

Dual NVMe hat

At any rate, I have an RPi4 running Plex Media Server for my DVD Movies/TV series rips. For father's day, just got an RPi5 with dual NVMe hat so I can now put both of my NVMe 2T drives onto one device.

The RPi 4 had power issues when trying to connect 2 separate USB plugs with NVMe drives, so ended up having 1 connected to the RPi4 and the other one in my desktop with an NFS mount to the RPi4.

Ubuntu 25.10 and Fedora 43 to drop X11 in GNOME editions

alisonken1
Big Brother

Same as Microsoft switched the .DOC / .XLS / .PPT format from Office 95 to Office 97, forcing everyone to upgrade to the bloated new version. That worked so after a decade and everyone forgot, MS did it again and switched to XML as well as the Ribbon on Office 2007.

I seem to recall that MS switched to XML-based because of the ODF having an open format that became "the standard" - and of course MS had to "improve" it, especially when agencies started requiring their documentation be saved in an "open" format. They even stuffed the standards committee to be able to claim "their open-style documents" were classified as a standard, which then can be used by said organizations.

Of course, the MS open document standard included a tag that could then wrap their binary-formatted document and still be classified as "open".

Interesting times. Unfortunately.

Trump lifts US supersonic flight ban, says he's 'Making Aviation Great Again'

alisonken1

"'My understanding is he has to drop his pants to count to 21."

Assumes facts not in evidence. At least for >20.

Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever

alisonken1
Mushroom

Re: Linux was built securely.

"What rot.

Here we are, not even 1 year on from the moment when someone very nearly succeeded in achieving global backdoor access through openSSH on all Linuxes by attacking the build system for liblzma, and already there's statements like this being spouted again. No one has actually fixed the general class of problem that enabled that attack.

Linux is only "as intended" if one accepts some wafer-thin trusts."

Here we are and not even 2 months from the last windows PWN and there's another zero day?????

And you "trust" Microsoft????

Unending ransomware attacks are a symptom, not the sickness

alisonken1
Coat

Re: Make the management legally liable

"Maybe it's time that the IT world, including IT departments, started taking responsibility for shoddy upkeep of shoddy software on shoddy operating systems."

Maybe it's time for the holder of the purse strings listen to the IT department when they tell them what the problems are and how to fix them.

Oh, and not telling the IT department that [next shiny bling] WILL be used and no questions allowed (because of [reasons not related to IT]).

Qatar’s $400M jet for Trump is a gold-plated security nightmare

alisonken1
Alert

Re: Hmm

"

It WOULD be nice for the US to have a President worth being respected on the world stage again."

FTFY

Go ahead and ignore Patch Tuesday – it might improve your security

alisonken1

Re: Tell that to compliance (and ultimately the law)

If the government (either side of the pond) were serious they wouldn't be using MS products anyway.

Nationwide power outages knock Spain, Portugal offline

alisonken1
Facepalm

Re: This will happen again

"Why should they be allowed to invest in financial markets rather than invest that money into upkeep and upgrades?"

Because upkeep and upgrades spend money rather than add to investors stock price maybe?

Official abuse of state security has always been bad, now it's horrifying

alisonken1

Re: re: Chris Krebs

Civilian federal workers get a different ID card than the CAC that the Military get.

alisonken1
Coat

Re: re: Chris Krebs

BTW - when a court dismisses a claim, it's because there's not enough or no evidence of a crime. Lack of evidence is a pretty strong indication.

But, now that Trump is president again, you claim "new" evidence will be found? Wow.

alisonken1

Re: Meh

"He has definitely done some things to be unhappy about as well as some good things."

I'd be interested to see what those "good things" are. As someone on the left side of the pond, I have yet to see anything "good" that he's done.

Unless you consider taking more golf trips than any other president, or using his personal villa (on the government dime) for those golf trips as "good".

California sues President Tariff

alisonken1
Black Helicopters

The president can pardon federal crimes, EXCEPT he cannot pardon himself.

Let's see how long that exemption lasts.

Forget Signal. National Security Adviser Waltz now accused of using Gmail for work

alisonken1

Re: Come on now...

Only by you.

Especially when you can't see your own-goals in your statements.

Boeing's Starliner may fly again, pending fixes to literally everything

alisonken1

Re: Lagging Behind

Or in this case - non-insulated.

The problem was thrusters overheating.

Microsoft tastes the unexpected consequences of tariffs on time

alisonken1
FAIL

Re: Lenovo video

That would be the correct response.

However, MS is requiring all tickets to have a video attached. Stupid on many tickets.

Judge orders Feds rehire workers falsely fired for lousy performance

alisonken1
Devil

Re: Point of order.

"I'm the president! Anything I say or do is official!"

alisonken1
Headmaster

"... falls to the Executive Branch, ..."

Don't you mean Judicial branch? Executive branch is Trump's side.

Apple has locked me in the same monopolistic cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

alisonken1
Linux

Re: About that office suite

Forced to MS at work (typical). But home is a Linux box. There are a couple of things I need to run that's MS only (AD for one), then the Windows VM works just fine only having one or two things in the VM that I need.

And the wife? She says only MS stuff works for her, but she has no problem taking over my Linux box when she needs something done or when she's facebooking.

Is NASA's science budget heading for a black hole?

alisonken1
Headmaster

Flow Check

Last sentence:

"The agency Isaacman will eventually is likely to look quite different from the one his predecessor left behind"

should probably be:

"The agency Isaacman will eventually lead is likely to look quite different from the one his predecessor left behind"

Scotland now home to Europe's biggest battery as windy storage site fires up

alisonken1
Coat

Mine are all C-90's. How do I do the comparison????

(typical left-pondian lately)

uBlock Origin dead for many as Google purges Manifest v2 extensions

alisonken1
FAIL

Re: Please excuse my ignorance - a question

There's plenty of distro's out there that do not use SystemD. Devuan (Debian derivative) and Slackware come to mind.

A simple Google Search will show several sites to check, as well as Wikipedia having a page for listing them.

And your link to the kernel source is showing that it's looking for any standard init to start - not just SystemD init. The main problem is that "applications" are beginning to require SystemD to operate, so you have to find apps that don't hook into SystemD or find alternatives.

alisonken1
IT Angle

You only need keyboard/monitor/mouse when first setting up.

After that, ssh works just fine for keeping it up. Optionally Remote Desktop will work as well.

Trump eyes up to 100% tariffs on foreign semiconductors, TSMC in crosshairs

alisonken1
Facepalm

History comprehension fail

Actually, most countries (including Great Britain and the USSR, to name 2) repaid the US within 10-20 years of WWII.

Might want to go back and recheck your facts.

CISA: Wow, that election had a lot of foreign trolling. Trump's Homeland Sec pick: And that's none of your concern

alisonken1
Coat

Re: 'The 2024 election cycle was the "most challenging threat environment" '

No, the people voted in a democratic manner and results speak for themselves. The democratic party lost because it no longer represents the majority. It's that simple.

Actually, look at the voting numbers. The problem is record number of people NOT voting is what happened.

SpaceX resets ‘Days Since Starship Exploded’ counter to zero

alisonken1

Re: Looking to the Future -- The Limits of "Move Fast and Break Things"

I don't see how Starship is extending the limits of technology.

You don't think returning something the size of a house from orbital velocity is not extending the limits of technology?

Scale, certainly

Actually, scale does mean you're working at the limits - especially when considering the "... something the size of a house from orbital velocities ..." occurs.

SpaceX launches 2 lunar landers on path to the Moon

alisonken1
Holmes

Re: Navigational error?

I thought the Moon was a waste of time and they were just going straight to Mars. Isn't that what the Dear Leader said not long ago?

This is a customer launch - not a SpaceX launch. Also, cargo, not crew.

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

alisonken1

Re: "It seems to work or fail randomly for different users in different situations."

"Linux has been so long in development and they still can't be arsed to make it consumer friendly. Geek arrogance at its very worst."

Interesting. And when did MS take Windows out of development and make it a long-term only-needs-security-updates consumer-friendly system?

So far, the only consumer-friendly part is that they got the computer hardware guys to pre-install Windows. If consumers had to install Windows on their computer, forget it.

At least with Linux, I can have a fully-functioning system in less than an hour (complete with updates) that doesn't require searching for extra drivers.

alisonken1

Re: OMG why are you using windows 11?

I'm running an HP MFD - but it's a ~10-year old laser printer from HP (M127).

Also, I'm not running Windows at home (except a work VM for the rare WFH project).

Printer and scanner have never been a problem for me.

Of course, it would probably help if I printed more than 20 pages a year :)

But the joys of Laserjet is that I don't have to worry about clogging the printhead with so few print jobs.

Public developer spats put bcachefs at risk in Linux

alisonken1

It's a case of overhype (somewhat).

Yes, Linus rants are infamous when they go out. No, the rants really do take some time to build up.

He never just blew up for no reason and not on the first try. With that said, if you were a long-time kernel developer and tried to post something that was not correct, then yes - you did get an eyeful of email/postings.

If you were just starting, then he would encourage you and give directions. As long as you were receptive to advice and mentoring, you never received a rant.

Photoshop FOSS alternative GNU Image Manipulation Program 3.0 nearly here

alisonken1
Coat

Re: Ah, GIMP

> > The difference between "do you want to save first" and "if you continue, you'll lose changes" is just a couple clicks.

> And now we see why the GIMP UI is crap. There ya go. Exhibit A. Thank you for making my point.

And now we see the molehills that people are willing to die on rather than real progress.

Musk's Starlink rockets to 4 million subscribers

alisonken1

Re: Global billboard?

Nah. That was Harrison in Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon" - although I don't think Coca-Cola was the logo that was going to be used.

Not sure about the Russian side of things.

Bring the joy of train delays home with your very own departure board

alisonken1

Re: Time to finish a beer?

Then you have to include

1 drink walking time

3 drink walking time

stumbling time

and hope the patron's can read it

SpaceX faces $663K FAA fine for Musk's alleged launch impatience

alisonken1

Re: Payback

The customer buys the launch, not the seats.

Whether they use all the seats available to them doesn't matter as far as price per launch goes.

Unless it's a rideshare - then the launch customer can adjust their customer price, but not the launch price.

SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission completes first commercial spacewalk

alisonken1
Coat

Pressure differential in an EVA suit is ~5psi. 1 atmosphere is ~14.7psi.

Space suits are not pressurized to 1atm because of the inflation tension at the joints - too high a pressure differential and you can't move anymore (ref. first Soviet astronaut EVA issues).

Win 11 refreshes delayed, say PC makers – and here's why

alisonken1
Facepalm

Re: Lovely Jubbly

I'm running a 10? 15? year old Dell Optiplex 7020 at home with Fedora Linux.

The only thing I did to it was add an SSD and extra ram (32G total).

It even runs Windows 11 in a VM that's faster than the new Dell 5000 machines we have at work (purchased within the last 6 months).

the wife even kicks me off and takes over my computer so she can do her Facebook, email, and online banking. Using Firefox on Linux.

Boeing's Calamity Capsule returns to Earth without a crew

alisonken1

"Successful" as in "did not damage the ISS on leaving and hit the spot we aimed for on landing."

So, not _real_ heavy duty lifting, but some lifting, yes.

Starliner's not-so-grand finale is a thump in the desert next week

alisonken1

Re: Pneumatic connectors

I've also heard that the suit cooling design is different.

Boeing: Water cooled (similar to previous Apollo suits)

Dragon: Air cooled

Take with a grain of salt since I haven't seen the specs, but that's what I'm hearing on another tech site.

alisonken1

Re: It's more than hoses

They weren't standardized - it was a convenience at the time. The only time US and Russia docked were their capsules for a "Friendship Mission" - not a joint space station mission.

At that time, you could not dock a US capsule with the Russian capsule and vice-versa without an adapter ring.

It was only after the ISS had already been built with 2 dock types (Russian and US) and had been used for a while before the standard docking ring was designed.

alisonken1

Neither Boeing or SpaceX suits carry their own life support - these are just emergency decompression suits used during launch/recovery cycles in case there's a capsule issue.

Don't confuse in-craft safety (similar to snorkels) with extra-vehicular suits (similar to diving gear).

alisonken1

Re: Pneumatic connectors

It's not just the oxygen - it's the electronics too. Each suit is paired to the craft.

It's similar to the situation at the beginning of the auto industry - some cars used 6v systems, some 8v, then came 12v. After a while everyone realized the 12v system was the best overall at the time and standardized on 12v systems (24v for heavy duty trucks). Part of the problem was the power source (batteries), then the standard 12v lead-acid battery became standard.

Until multiple vendors start actually designing ships/capsules with standardized parts (not just the suits), then we can start talking standardized interfaces for electronics. However, until multiple vendors start designing systems and seeing the different interactions that can occur, you don't want to prematurely optimize. We're seeing the same thing with BEV's and charging. And payment processing.

EV sales hit speed bump as drivers unplug from the electric dream

alisonken1

How much energy does it take to generate hydrogen?

How much energy does it take to generate gasoline?

How much energy does it take to generate diesel/kerosene?

We don't have the most efficient portable power technology yet available, but it's a matter of what we currently have that gives the best overall results and economies of scale.

NASA will fly Boeing Starliner crew home with SpaceX, Calamity Capsule deemed too risky

alisonken1

Re: MuskX

... Billionaires only do things for money ...

In the case of Bezos, he started BO as a tax write-off.

There's a quote that not too long ago he was pissed that BO was starting to make money and he complained that they were messing up his taxes.

(or it could be my old-greybeard mind thinking of something else)

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