Posts by Pen-y-gors

Commonwealth Games brochure declares that England is now in Africa

Re: That's Brexit for you

Well, give it a few years and England will be economically indistinguishable from the Gambia. It's an understandable error.

Danish Navy expert finds no trace of exhaust gas in private submarine

...allegedly

Which? leads decrepit email service behind barn, single shot rings out over valley

Re: Transfer?

Good point. I was thinking more of a deal with a GDPR-compliant mail provider, who will host the addresses on their existing set-up. Ideally several months ago they e-mail clients about the transfer, with clear guidance on downloading and saving old e-mail (but I bet most of them are running Outlook Express on XP anyway), and then the active customers start with a clean slate on the new supplier, but keeping their lovely old address. Inactive ones are dropped before GDPR deadline.

Transfer?

Shirley they could have negotiated to transfer the service to a new provider, so that users can retain their @which.net addresses ? Might have cost a few quid but good publicity (as opposed to the publicity they'll get for this)

Indian comms satellite gives boffins back home the silent treatment

Re: Wrong Priorities

And one of the best tools for educating people, and improving economic possibilities is the mobile phone, so trying to improve national comms capability makes a lot of sense for India. In parts of Africa the humble feature phone allows people to check prices at nearby markets, and to transfer money without a bank account. And as for education...where do I start?

Not good news

...for the hundreds of call-centre staff on board.

One solution to wreck privacy-hating websites: Flood them with bogus info using browser tools

Spam-fighting?

Several comments have likened this to the war against spam, but it seems to me that potentially we are winning the e-mail spam war. It used to be dire. I have used hundreds of throw-away email addresses and many made it on to 'useful' lists of e-mails for spammers.

These days (everything forwards to gmail) I get about one or two spam messages a week in my inbox, and about 30-40 a day in my spam box. False positives (good stuff in spam) about one a month. That's a pretty good hit rate.

So if we can get the same results with killing tracking I'll be happy.

Happy 100th birthday to the Royal Air Force

Somewhere I think, buried in a box, I have some old publicity brochures that my father was given in the 1960s(?) about the P1127 - the Harrier prototype. They may be of interest to a museum somewhere if I can find them.

And another grandfather...

Joined the RFC in WWI, learned to fly (I have some lovely photos, including one of an unidentified aircraft nose down in the mud with him next to it) - he was at Brooklands (think Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines) and I have a photo of him in some racing car by one of the stands.

He must have been a good pilot as he seems to have never seen active duty, but stayed on at the Flying School as an instructor. At least one of his pupils became quite famous.

<rambling anecdote mode>

Many years ago I was watching something on telly about George VI and his stammer. "It's funny", pipes up Mam, "When Papa knew him in the war he never stammered" - quick double take - "Yes, they used to go for long walks in the country together. Got on really well" Whut?

Next part of story - discovered from an odd source that the Duke of York (later Geo VI) was the first member of the Royal Family to learn to fly, in 1918. So, I wonder who taught him? One day I may contact the Royal Archives.

<off>

Tadcu served until 1919, then went off to do other things - including a failed attempt to re-open a Welsh lead mine - before returning to the RAF in 1939. He was based at St Athan throughout the war and had the amazingly dangerous job of flying damaged aircraft back to St Athan for repairs, and then back to base once they've been (hopefully) fixed. After the war he notionally stayed in the RAF for a few years but was transferred to the Allied Control Commission, and was based in Solingen in Germany, supervising the destruction of weapons and the conversion of industry back to civil work.

Fascinating career, but he sadly died in 1963 when I was but a lad. I wish I'd known him better.

In pride of place on my wall are his commissioning certificates as an officer in the RFC and the RAF (twice), plus my own father's RAF commission.

I'd include a link to some of the photos, but that would give away my secret identity!

It would totally help, EU told, if data we held on migrants was accurate

The English, the English, the English are best...

at screwing up border and immigration controls

"Details of 600,000 foreign visitors to UK go up in smoke thanks to shonky border database"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/29/uk_border_database_missing_details_of_600000_foreign_visitors/

And with the inevitable border meltdown that's coming if UK leaves the EU, it can only get better!

Uber self-driving car death riddle: Was LIDAR blind spot to blame?

Re: "...a [Lidar] blind spot low to the ground all around the car."

Near the ground? I'd suggest that a pedestrian pushing a bike is more 'about level with the roof of the car'. Kitten running into the road is low down.

Yes, Emergency Service Network will be late and cost more - UK perm sec

But, but, but...

I naively assume that one of the main points of a comms system for emergency services is that it can be used anywhere. I'm guessing that the old crackly radios managed that. Tetra presumably has fairly good geographical coverage as well.

So, errrmmm, 4G? There are large areas around here without it. What does the ambulance do? Drive on until they find a phone box?

Re: we're all going to die!

...but medical science is making great strides...

Re: Dog bites man; details at 6

The depressing thing is that other industries manage it. I've been involved with a new community building project that opened six months ago. Half a million quid, 9 month build phase, on time, on budget.

But I admit to estimation failings. My habit has been to start with something fairly realistic/optimistic, based on things going smoothly. Then start to add in contingencies ("user confusion" as it's often known) and you end up with a figure that's so high the customer won't bite. But it would guarantee on time and on budget!

Re: Bodes well for NI border

@YAAC

A good idea, but take it a bit further and it may solve the whole argument over bi-lingual signs in the North. Start off by making the ones in Unionist areas English + Welsh. They'd be happy with that as it emphasises their llinks with their compatriots across the water, rather than the ones down Souith.

Then, once they're used to them, start swapping them for Irish + English and see if anyone notices.

Re: Bodes well for NI border

@Robert Carnegie

Definitely a classic

Twll tîn, pob Sais

Fed up with Facebook data slurping? Firefox has a cunning plan

Cat-skinning methods...

The comments about 'just avoid FB' don't help when people actually need to use it - for various reasons.

Then we get into mitigation strategies.

We've had lots of different plug-ins suggested.

Personally, I have several different 'fake' accounts, I use a selection of add-ons to e.g. delete cookies (not just from FB), but, interestingly, I've run FB in a Firefox container to keep it isolated fro some months now. Containers quite handy - using several to keep different twitter a/cs open at the same time (more flexible than Tweetdeck sometimes)

Yo Google, I'mma let you finish, but China, I mean, Huawei's P20 is the best

Porsche?

If I want a nice loaf of bread, I go to a good baker

If I want a nice pint of beer I go to a good brewer

If I want a nice car I may well go to Porsche (I already have a 944)

If I want I nice phone I will go to a good phone maker, I will not go to a baker, a brewer or a car manufacturer

Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, off you go: Snout of UK space forcibly removed from EU satellite trough

Partnership?

continue as we develop our deep and special partnership with the EU

FFS! We already have a very deep and special partnership - it's called being a full f**king member!

What a mesh: BT Whole Home Wi-Fi users moan over update

Re: BT equipment sucks

I don't entirely agree.

Over the years I've had modems/routers/switches from various suppliers attached to my BT lines, both BT-supplied ones and others, and it's horses for courses

Recently went on to a BT Hub 6 and it's strong and stable - I'm typing this via a WiFi connection that's solid through a foot-thick stone wall - I've been able to pension off my old repeater box.

If you want/need to do clever stuff then get a third party router. If you just want to quickly connect up a dozen assorted devices via WiFi or Gigabit Ethernet, then a Hub 6 is probably fine.

Let the down votes begin!

India: Yeah, we would like to 3D-print igloos on the Moon

Re: Where do I..

Ah, the Moon, clear skies and enough clean fresh air to last a (very short) lifetime.

Re: RE: ArrZarr

'Moon is a Harsh Mistress' again, if I remember rightly. Didn't they find a suitably angled range of hills to run it up? No vacuum, so good idea. Just needs a lot of resources that need to be sourced locally.

Re: What to use as a binder?

Excellent questions.

The basic requirements seem to be:

1) uses locally sourced materials

2) strong

3) can be made airtight

4) extendible

It has been suggested elsewhere that a good approach is to build structures (however you want) and then cover them with a good layer of loose regolith for protection, so expanded foam doesn't sound like a goer. A network of connected 3D printed igloos, covered in regolith, could be quite cosy, as well as cheap and practical. Be nice to have a few windows though.

Rubbish disposal?

Throwing rubbish away, unless it is on a trajectory to the sun, is always a bad idea.

Once people burned rubbish, or buried it in the garden (I still find the odd old bottle). They dumped it in the sea ('the sea is big enough to swallow everything'), they dumped it in rivers, they dumped it in holes in the ground. Round the corner from me they dumped it down an old mine shaft, which they later capped. Then the old car wedged in the shaft rusted, the pile collapsed and a nice new hole appeared where the kids play.

In every case it comes back and bites someone in the bum.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Rubbish can't be forgotten about.

Priorities?

I see where you are coming from, and tend to agree. But the basic technology developed for 3D printing igloos from regolith could perhaps be adapted for printing cheap igloos/huts out of Indian soil? That might help relieve the problem in rural areas, but not in city slums.

And in a (generally) warm and dry climate (okay, yes, monsoon...) a 'shanty' may actually be borderline acceptable as somewhere to live. If it came to priorities, a decent shanty with clean water, sanitation and some electricity may be preferable to a nice shiny igloo with none of them.

Leaning tower of NASA receives last big arm

Crew?

It is, however, unlikely that a crew will ever sit atop Musk's mighty missile.

Is this specifically referring to the Falcon Heavy? 'Cos I'm pretty sure that Musk will have human-rated launches running in the not too distant future. Isn't that what Dragon capsules are for? And what the BFR will be for?

Just followed the link and watched the SpaceX launch video again. <expletive deleted> amazing! Those two boosters coming down in sync...wow and wow again.

Prof Stephen Hawking's ashes will be interred alongside Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin

'Physics ace'

Is 'physics ace' the best title El Reg can come up with? When even the dodgiest 'scientist' earns boffin status. How about 'ggogleplex-boffin Mekon brain' or something?

And it's odd - I read the quotation from him and heard it as being spoken in his voice.

A good life.

@sandtitz

A public holiday? Nice idea but I can't see our beloved government agreeing - what? letting workers have a day off - with pay??? Think what that will do to the dividends! And anyway, they won't let the Scots have St Andrews Day, the Welsh St David's Day or the English St George's day. Pity though.

At least name a Cambridge College after him. Or a spin-out company? Hawking Analytica?

El Reg deep dive: Everything you need to know about UK.gov's pr0n block

Re: Cybergumble

I was once showing my retired landlady and her husband how to access useful financial info on the web - share prices etc. Can't remember exactly which site it was, something like Moneyexpert.co.uk or whatever. Accidentally went to Moneyexpert.com which was something very different. Red faces all round

F-35B Block 4 software upgrades will cost Britain £345m

Re: They're bringing 617 back ?

Don't know what they've been doing lately, but they were flying those big beautiful Vulcans for many years.

Re: Charging us for Beta grade software then

Aircraft cost $121 million each, one software upgrade costs UK £30 million per aircraft. That is cheeky! Have they been learning from printer manufacturers?

Relevance?

Not sure about the F35B, but 'conventional' aircraft have a great future. Witness the Typhoon, which our 'friends' in Saudi Arabia might, possibly, maybe want to buy a few more of, and which our wonderful, nominally Christian, government will be more than happy to flog them. (Unlike the Saudi government who just flog their citizens) Aircraft are excellent for when you want to drop big bombs on children and undefended schools and hospitals, so there will be a great future for aircraft: how many slum kids can afford a rail-gun?

#NotInMyName #GodIReallyHateThisGovernment

Five things you need to know about Microsoft's looming Windows 10 Spring Creators Update

Aaaargh!

In a moment of madness I responded to the poll. Does that mean that my El Reg user profile is now worth more and is already in transit to Cambridge Analytica?

Fog off! No more misty eyes for self-driving cars, declare MIT boffins

Re: What about the Winter sun

Very true, and I suspect technology will be better at coping with low sun (filters, lidar etc) than a poor blinded human.

You must be yolking: English pub to launch eggstravagent Yorkshire pudding

Re: Direct action time

What was that about "No publicity is bad publicity"?

So very wrong in this case. Why would you want to be famous on FB for something like this? It could destroy your business. It's nearly as bad as putting kitten pie on the menu. (Not to be confused with Katt Pie, which is okay https://www.bakingmad.com/recipe/katt-pies and definitely not to be confused with Kit Kat pie)

Direct action time

the elite food concoctions rating team at Vulture Central said it was a "monstrosity", and a third suggested we called the pub to "find out what they'd been drinking".

Meths and metal polish can do that to a chap.

But to be serious for once. This sounds like something so appalling that the good citizens of Nottingham have every right to get out the pitchforks, scythes and blazing brands and march on the pub en masse. Can you see Ye Olde Trippe toe Jerusalemee doing something like that?

Re: Calories?

I couldn't stand the sickly sweetness of Cream Eggs even before I was diagnosed!

Brit police forces spend peanuts on cybercrime training

£1.3 million on cybercrime training

And about £1.30 on actually doing anything about cybercrime.

BOOM! Cambridge Analytica explodes following extraordinary TV expose

Re: FB vs CA

@Mycho

Left vs Right was created to arrange seating in 18th century France. It was never intended to be a decent representation of an individual's political views.

Very true, as we see when we notice the remarkable similarity between extreme Left and extreme Right - it's more of a circle. Could we start describing politicians and people as being 'at the five o'clock'?

Although perhaps you need 3 dimensions to allow for Greens, SNP, PC etc as they tend to be socially on the left but with policies that place them a world apart from Comrade Jeremy.

Re: FB vs CA

FB, like Google, is a left-wing partisan company now loathed by the right for using its internet supremacy to suppress conservative / libertarian viewpoints

Nurse! Someone's let him at the computer again...

Re: Information Commisioner statement on Facebook

what IT people think of Facebook

Nah, we know what we're talking about (on the whole) so we count as 'experts' and must therefore be ignored.

Re: Team from Facebook are in their offices tonight?

I'm sure it's nothing to do with Facebook allegedly being there or not, but major press coverage that a search warrant is going to be applied for does give the searchee plenty of time to start covering their tracks (if there are any tracks to be covered, obvs) The trick to seizing potential evidence of an alleged offence is to do it before the alleged offender has time to shred/burn the allegedly incriminating stuff.

There will possibly be thick clouds of smoke rising above CA as the server room suffers an unexplained fire...(allegedly)

UK tech whale Micro Focus: Share price halves as CEO quits, sales slide

Legacy stuff?

I must admit my only memory of any commercial interaction with Microfocus was when they bought out a COBOL compiler for Windows. That must have been bake in the late 18th century...

Brexit in spaaaace! At T-1 year and counting: UK politicos ponder impact

Re: "Project Fear"

@45RPM

Can the promoters of Brexit, the likes of Johnson, Mogg, Farage et al be tried for treason?

IANAL but it's an interesting question, and a good lawyer could probably take this one all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Treason Act 1351 (as amended, but still in force) states that one of the ways to commit high treason (low treason has been abolished) is to "offer aid and comfort to the King's enemies". I'd say that doing things that help and encourage the Queen's enemies (by economically and politically weakening the nation, and the treaties that strengthen it) - things which are welcomed by Russia, a clear enemy - can count as aiding and comforting.

The death penalty no longer applies, but re-purposing Dartmoor, complete with quarry and rocks, as a retirement home for leading Quitlings holds a certain charm.

Hyenas?

“like hyenas, picking at the UK workshare, like a feeding frenzy

Not a nice image. More like a large open buffet with free drinks, where 27 guests can wander up and down, making their selections, until all that is left are a few crumbs and a curled up ham sandwich to be eaten by the waiter.

I couldn't give a Greek clock about your IoT fertility tracker

Re: Glamping?

The Gaidhlig[1] word for database is "stor data"..

The boring Welsh word in 'databas', a better one is 'cronfa data' (data reservoir, data hoard)

Glamping?

An added problem with these new-fangled 'words' (hey, why don't we invent a word to describe them, something with a nice classical ring - neo-logisms?) where was I? Oh yes, An added problem is the pain caused to translators around the globe. I was on a Welsh course a couple of years back and one of the tasks was to devise a suitable translation for 'glamping' that caught the flavour of the original. Our best effort was 'pabell posh' (Lit. posh tent). Anyone know what it is in German?

NHS Digital heads accused of being 'suppliers', not 'custodians' of UK patient data

Re: Same old crap

Maybe, just maybe, NHS England has crap IT and does some dodgy money-grubbing deals because

1) Successive governments have failed to fund it properly - what comes first, cancel an operation or cancel an XP upgrade?

2) Too much power in hands of administrators who decide that balancing the books (e.g. charging for patient and visitor parking) is more important than a caring clinical service. A friend kept having to leave the labour room every four hours to feed the meter!

"Patient data is a national asset"

No it isn't. It's confidential.

What it is, is an NHS asset. Incredibly valuable for optimising access to the wonderful services offered. In the right circumstance an invaluable resource for medical research. But NOT for law enforcement.

These Home Office people really are scum. "Good morning Doctor. Could you tell me when you've stitched up Mrs Shirzai's caesarean please? We've got a plane waiting to take her back to safety in Afghanistan"

No, no...Mr Bloggs is a good English name... more likely it's

Oh by the way Mr Al-Jamil, this prescription can only be filled at a police station.