Posts by Timbo

Trump admin says tech companies are abusing H-1B visas, slaps $100k a year to allow entry

Re: Say what you will about the UK, we know how quickly things can turn.

"How can he afford that and all his boot licking trips to the USA on an MP's salary."

Well, Fartage's partner recently bought a house for GBP 850,000 in his constituency and Farage says she can afford it as she is a relative to a rich person in France.

And yet there are those who claim that Farage loaned her the money so the house is legally in her sole name, so that Farage did not have to pay the extra amount of "stamp duty" as it would be his second home (as he already owns another house, prior to this purchase).

If you want to look up his "political history" check here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage

US science left out in the cold amid plans to retire Antarctic icebreaker

Ending the lease?

"NSF intends to terminate the lease of the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer in FY 2026."

So, if the lease is terminated that implies that the NSF do not own the ship.

Can it therefore continue operations, if funded by a different "body", maybe one that isn't in the US (and hence dependent on the whim of tRump and the majority Republicans in Congress?

Then, if any scientists want to do work on it, they can pay their way.

Scientists spot massive black hole collision that defies current theories

Re: 400,000 times faster than Earth

My "back of a fag packet" calculation gives a similar result:

Earth spins at approx 1,000 MPH.

So, 400,000 times this is 400,000,000 MPH - which is 111,111 miles per second = about 4.5 Earth rotations every second = 270 RPM

And cross checking with the wiki, which gives the "Equatorial rotation velocity" as 0.4651 km/s

So, 400,000 times = 186,040 km/second (which is about 116,275 miles per second, which is close enough to the above !)

Game, set, botch: AI umpiring at Wimbledon goes long

Re: But Shirley!

"True, but the umpire has to see it and be sure that it was a wrong call. "

I've watched the TV replay a few times now and the umpire, sitting high up in his chair *IS* watching the flight of the ball, after it leaves the racket of Ms Kartal and heads across the net.

So, there is no excuse for why he did not intervene and rule that the ball was out (as there was no line call from the robot that we now know was inoperative) so why he didn't have the confidence to award the point to Ms Pavlyuchenkova is clearly something that the AELTC needs to question and find out.

According to the press reports, the umpire concerned, Nico Helwerth, is having a "rest day" today, which is most convenient.

And the AELTC have confirmed changes have been put in place so the robot cannot be turned off. I wonder how much testing this specific system underwent before being commissioned (though the same system is used elsewhere with no major issues (it is said !).

Techie traced cables from basement to maternity ward and onto a roof, before a car crash revealed the problem

Re: Ah, the frantic blinkenlights...

Sonos started off with a really good but limited range of products, namely a wireless mediabox (to play your source material, stored on a NAS, with your hifi system) plus another mediabox with a built in 2-channel audio amplifier, which did the same job, once connected by speaker cables to a pair of hifi speakers.

And it was all controlled by a funky handheld CR100 controller with a great display.

But they got a bit drawn into expanding their range...and by doing so, they stopped updateing the older firmware (they claimed due to limited memory in the devices) and for a while they've been marketing and selling a centre-channel speaker for TVs and a subwoofer.

They also love selling direct, undercutting those retailers who have supported the brand and the margin offered to resellers has always been pretty poor.

The lack of repair capability has also affected them, with customers being asked to return faulty products for assessment, and when told they were not repairable, customers would be offered a rather derisory discount off the full retail price of a new device.

So, what was once a great cutting-edge product is no longer leading the field and they've lost many previously happy customers due to their failure to maintain support.

The passive aggression of connecting USB to PS/2

"Using a 2.5 kg keyboard as a sword..."

My first PC came with a heavy Cherry Extended (PC-AT) keyboard and it had a huge thick metal plate on the underside...and that keyboard worked for many years, even though the PC was upgraded and then replaced at least two other times. The keyboard used a large round DIN style connector that was plugged into a matching DIN socket, not one of those small pansy purple PS/2 types...

"Kids today don't know they're born with their bluetooth this, M365 that."

Just show some of the kids the 3 different connectors on 1980's hard drives: MFM, RLL and SCSI...and then show them some PC motherboards that don't have the right on-board connectors for these drives and then give them a box of mixed ribbon cables, 4 pin Molex adaptors and various HDD adaptor cards and get them to connect the drives correctly and then get them to install DOS (from a 5 1/4" floppy) onto a working drive and to then boot the computer. !!!!

Re: slap a keyboard ...

"t was a long time since I used a PS/2 port, and I don't remember any failing, but it does strike me as poor engineering if you could break the electronics with an accidental tug of the cable."

I don't think it was a problem if a PS/2 device was unplugged (accidentally or otherwise ;-) ). But woe betide you, if you plugged it back in, while the PC was still running...

Re: Polling vs Interrupted keyboards.

"However before USB, before PS2, before RS232 for mice was standardised, mouse history also includes Bus Mice which needed their own ISA card to connect them into a PC."

Yup - I remember buying a mouse for a pre-Windows 3.x 286 PC I had on which the motherboard only had one 9-pin serial port (which I needed to connect to a modem) and one 25-pin parallel port for my printer. So, to add a mouse, I had to find a suitable one that came with it's own 8-bit ISA bus adaptor card. (The mouse was needed to help quickly navigate various menu options in both a DOS-based graphics program (rather than using keystroke combinations) as well as to use with various comms programs, such as ProComm+).

Nowadays, people are lucky as most PC motherboard have got multiple USB 2.0/3.0 connectors, network ports, 3.5mm audio sockets, TosLink optical outputs, lots of PCI slots, SATA and maybe eSATA sockets, and many graphics cards have multiple HDMI and Displayport sockets.

Microsoft trims more CPUs from Windows 11 compatibility list

"Microsoft is slowly but surely removing itself from the home user market."

NO-ONE should be that surprised by this - it's just shades of the old x86 two-step dance between Intel and Micro$oft going all the way back to the 486/Pentium and Win 3.x/95/98 etc:

RUN

1st step: Intel releases a new CPU and a new memory subsystem

2nd step: Microshaft releases a new version of WinDoze, which absorbs the extra speed of the new CPU and increases it's requirement for memory

GOTO 1st step

Biden signs sweeping cybersecurity order, just in time for Trump to gut it

Such a shame...

I thought THIS website was a technology based platform...and here we have some quite virulent political posts about what will or won't happen under Trumps aegis - and all this clap-trap about various other regimes and their supporters in various other countries...

I wonder if the website editors should impose some restrictions on what is allowed, without anyone getting upset that this will somehow restrict *their* "freedom of speech".

Heart of glass: Human genome stored for 'eternity' in 5D memory crystal

Re: Sending one out into space.

"We already sent a plaque on a probe telling the enemy fleet exactly where we are."

Well, there are TWO probes we launched into space - and on these plaques we told them where we were, "when" it was launched (and just gave our planets position withing the Solar System, plus a few markers out to various stars).

But since then the Solar System has moved around the Milky Way a little bit and it will continue to do so, for many aeons to come, so any one (or thing) will need to do a lot of searching within the MW to find out where we are.

And by then it might be too late anyways, if the human species hasn't either nuked itself (due to some depot with his/her finger on the trigger) or starved or warmed itself to extinction due to a lack of food and/or someone leaving that electric fire switched ON 24/7 :-)

A last look at the Living Computers museum before collection heads to auction

"Sounds a lot like Derby Computer Museum - the UK's best kept secret when it comes to museums stuffed with old IT tech that you can actually switch on and play"

Ditto the North West Computer Museum, in Leigh, WN7 2LB (near Manchester) (I just checked and post code might be WN7 1HS, according to their Facebook group).

Open Wednesdays to Sundays 10am-4pm (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays).

Admission: GBP7 per adult, GBP4.50 per child or concessions

https://www.nwcomputermuseum.org.uk/

Forget feet and inches, latest UK units of measurement are thinking bigger

Re: What the hell is a meter?

"The Americans used metre at first but Webster switched it to meter in his dictionary, saying that was more consistent with diameter, barometer, and thermometer, and that stuck."

But Webster screwed up as one of those words (diameter) is actually to do with a unit of measurement.

Whereas the other two (barometer, and thermometer) are actually the devices used for taking the measurement.

No doubt the US educational system was not mature enough (at the time) to know the difference !

And of course, the mis-spelling of the words: colour, aluminium, tyre, sceptical, doughnut, jewellery, etc have also slipped through.

Re: Osman is only good for the big stuff

"we could introduce the Sunak"

Perhaps, but I believe that the said Sunak unit may soon be consigned to the history books, and will therefore become a meaningless and obsolete unit, just like the Carucate, Puddee, Rod and Slug.

And so therefore there is little need to update the Reg Standards, and sully the existing extensive range of measurement units.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_obsolete_units_of_measurement

Dublin debauchery derails Portal to NYC in six days flat

quote

the time zones difference is problematic

end

Well, maybe...but does each portal show both the remote and local live video at the same time? and hence there is the possibility of real time interaction taking place across the pond?

Just remove the live feed and use a time-lagged version, maybe an hour or two out of step with the live feed and that then mostly solves the issues of any interaction which may be gratuitous...

VMware giving away Workstation Pro, Fusion Pro free for personal use

Re: They have hidden it well

and clicking that link leads to here:

https://store-us.vmware.com/workstation_buy_dual

which currently says:

[quote]

VMware Store

Down for Maintenance

As part of the transition to Broadcom systems, the store will be moving to a new domain. As a result, store will be shutdown starting 30 Apr 2024.

To be notified when store is back and operational, enter email here. (link to: https://www.digitalriver.com/cloudvista.)

For more information, see KB article 319284. (link to: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=319284 )

Thank you for your patience.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

[/end]

So, just bookmark it and come back some other time?

But BAD PR from Broadcom to announce this and make it unavailable.... :-(

Re: They have hidden it well

I found it here:

https://www.vmware.com/content/vmware/vmware-published-sites/us/products/desktop-hypervisor.html.html

We never agreed to only buy HP ink, say printer owners

Re: HP claimed it went "to great lengths"…

""I won't be buying a HP printer......My next printer will be a laserjet."

errrr....with respect, isn't "Laserjet" a HP trademark? Maybe you just mean a "laser printer"?

https://trademarks.justia.com/789/75/laserjet-78975490.html#:~:text=LASERJET%20Trademark%20of%20HEWLETT%2DPACKARD,Number%2078975490%20%3A%3A%20Justia%20Trademarks

Five ripped off IT giant with $7M+ in bogus work expenses, prosecutors claim

Re: Lashings

and thinking of "the ex page three model Corrine Russell that had a part"

She played a small (blink and you'll miss it) role in the film Highlander (1986) as the "escort" who visits the hotel where the Kurgan was staying, playing the character "Candy".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinne_Russell

Scary bit: she's now 60 !!

If you're Russian to the Moon, expect traffic: Moscow's Putin a lander into orbit

oh dear....

As of today (20th August) it seems that LUNA-25 has crashed.

Might be due to a malfunction, or maybe a crafty Ukrainian drone collided with it and it then took a nose dive to the lunar surface.

I just hope it hasn't contaminated anything there, like many thousands of gallons of otherwise pure ice, or maybe Putin just wants to lay waste to anything that might of use to any other (peaceful) nation.

Nice icon to perfectly highlight a post.

UK voter data within reach of miscreants who hacked Electoral Commission

Re: Electronic voting

"I wonder if we will see a flood of spam mailshots arriving through our letterboxes shortly?"

The data breach was some time ago - Spring 2022 - going by the fact that it's taken 14 months for news of this breach has been made public.

So, IF the any part of the database has been downloaded, one can assume it has already been traded multiple times on the dark web and hence if any significant people were being scammed as a result, it would have happened by now.

Either way, for this data to be on an internet connected computer system and accessible (to whom?) once a login/password was entered, shows a complete disregard for installing best-quality security systems to prevent "bad actors" from getting in. :-(

Farewell, Aeolus: Doomed ESA weather sat reenters atmosphere over Antarctica

Surely ALL satellites...

...should have a built-in mechanism to allow them to either:

a) be de-orbited safely,

or

b) use some remaining fuel, so that the satellite is directed to "skip" off the Earths atmosphere (which might have happened to any returning Apollo Command capsule if it got its telemetry wrong) and hence go off into the darkness of space, never to be seen again?

Otherwise, I think a few older, retired astronauts (aka Space Cowboys) can be launched into orbit and strap PAMs (Payload Assist Modules) onto redundant tech and then said satellites can be sent off into the void?

NASA to store pair of probes it's built but can’t send to target asteroids

Re: Send the probes after Snoopy!

"Knowing what damage it may have incurred would be incredibly useful "

I'd prefer to send a mission to see what happened to the TESLA Roadster car that was deployed to some long term orbits around the heavens.

The whereisroadster.com website is still online and reporting where it is !!

Fan facts:

If the battery was still working, Starman has listened to Space Oddity 538,711 times since he launched in one ear, and to Is there Life On Mars? 725,891 times in his other ear.

Starman has completed about 3.5598 orbits around the Sun since launch.

Re: Cheap

"nothing is really lost."

apart from the small matter of just under $50m from NASA's overheads.

That could have bought maybe 2 spanners for the ISS :-) (as various tools have been lost on spacewalks outside the ISS).

Software picks out more satellite photobombs in Hubble image

Re: Time to move the telescopes

Well, they did with the James Webb and it is at Lagrange (L2).

But they had to sacrifice the ability to service / refuel the telescope in the near future, whereas for Hubble, they have carried out servicing missions.

One would assume that for future optical telescopes, the success of the JWST will mean that new deep space telescopes will also be put into much higher orbits, assuming that we do not have any problems occurring due to Kessler Syndrome event(s).

https://asherkaye.medium.com/kessler-syndrome-what-happens-when-satellites-collide-1b571ca3c47e

Offshore wind power redesign key to adoption, says Irish firm

and here, from the same day, about the interim report on the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65461401

European air traffic control confirms website 'under attack' by pro-Russia hackers

But surely...

..and good IT professional, can design a solution whereby specific "foreign" and/or "unknown" IP addresses (that is those who are not authorised to access said systems) can be easily prevented from accessing anything by a fast acting firewall/gateway system?

For sure a massive and targeted DDoS campaign (using VPNs no doubt) could flood said gateway(s), but by now, with so many miscreants causing untold havoc, there must be a better way of protecting any important infrastructure/systems?

for reference:

https://phoenixnap.com/blog/prevent-ddos-attacks

RIP Gordon Moore: Intel co-founder dies, aged 94

Re: And I had just bought some more Xeons, too…

I bought a no-name motherboard for an i486 at a computer fair in London for about GBP 100. (as I had already got myself a 486DX-33 beforehand).

At the same show I bought 4x 4 Mb of RAM SIMMs to go with it, at GBP 100 per SIMM, so that made the total GBP 500.

The crazy thing was that where I worked, they had 2 Hewlett-Packard PCs in the sales office: one was a 286 @12 Mhz and the other was a 286 @10Mhz.

I brought my 486 in to work (as the firm didn't want to buy a PC for me, preferring instead for me to hand write reports for our office secretary to then type out !!) and I got abuse from our chairman for doing this...until I pointed out to him that I was freeing up the secretarys time (from typing up my reports) so she could then spend more time doing work for him !!).

All I had to do was to run a long parallel cable from my PC to the office HP LaserJet so I could print stuff out. Them were the days !!

Techie fired for inventing an acronym – and accidentally applying it to the boss

Re: LULU

"That's something to Shout about"

Oh, VERY well played Sir !!

Just a shame it isn't the "First of May" today, but I won't "Boom Bang a Bang" on about that "If I were you" as "I Don''t Wanna Fight" about it" so I "Hope you understand" !!

But Lulu did have/has got a great voice... she's 74 now, and is still touring :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lulu_(singer)

Anyone want an International Space Station? Slightly used

Re: um

"...but it would still need a strap on Saturn 5 to get things in motion."

I'm sure they could use a stage from the SLS and use this to nudge the ISS higher and over time it'll break free.

Or get Tommy Lee Jones/Clint Eastwood to strap some PAMs to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu4tB54Uw5I

Zoom chops president it hired less than a year ago

Re: stock options totaling $45 million over four years

"Well, he still collected a lot of Zoom lolly."

I see what you did there...well played !!

(and for those NOT in the know: [url]https://www.pinterest.com/pin/150729918753907684/[/url] )

Three billion objects, 10TB+ of data – yup, it's the largest-yet survey of our galaxy

"Things have come a long way since William Herschel's attempt to map the shape of the Milky Way Galaxy..."

Indeed...as a boy, and armed with a copy of the Observers Book of Astronomy, I had thought that all the observable stars and galaxies that we could see were all "within easy reach" and not that far away (relatively).

But the numerous new telescopes have since shown that we no matter how good these instruments are, the more we look, the more "objects" we find, and that these are not just massively distant from us, but also (due to the expansion of the universe), they are going to become UNobservable - as they move away from us faster that the SOL.

Fragged, fragged and thrice fragged! 20 years of id Software’s Doom

Not long to go...

..until 10th December 2023, when DOOM will be 30 years old !!

Anyone feeling old yet?

(And I still have 3 or 4 CDROMs of WADs...as well as the expansion packs for QUAKE !!)

BBC is still struggling with the digital switch, says watchdog

Too many "heads in the sand" technophobes run the BBC

When the UK started the switch to digital TV, in November 1998, the BBC FAILED to recognise the fact that they could then have implemented a subscriber based service (instead of a paper TV licence) for the required external Digital TV receivers, using a "conditional access module".

And then with the growth of the internet and the higher download speeds available with "fibre to the street", they have FAILED yet again to take on the likes of Netflix/Amazon Prime etc by offering an online "subscription based" streaming service for all their TV channels, as they continue to "push" their outdated "iPlayer" and "Sounds" apps...

I know the BBC are highly fearful of their income from TV licence money reducing significantly (as more consumers use other sources of entertainment and do not renew their TV licences) and they still employ 3rd parties (at vast expense) to visit consumers homes in order to "police" and take to court any "TV licence evaders" - and yet this could so easily have been avoided years ago with a basic subscription service.

And they still pay Sky to broadcast their TV channels for FREE when they could easily make a standard charge of say £5-10 per month.

Soyuz leak puts a stop to planned ISS spacewalk and work on Nauka module

Re: Well

"They can't blame sabotage by a homesick NASA astronaut this time."

...or maybe the Russians can blame Ukraine's "Special Forces" for hitting the Soyuz with a well aimed cork fired from a bottle of a combination of Coca-Cola and Mentos ?

The cubesats lost in space from Artemis Moon mission

It took a very long time...

...to recover the Orion capsule from the Pacific ocean landing site.

I was watching live on the NASA Youtube channel until just after splashdown (17:40pm GMT) and then switched to the KSC Newsroom YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si2iks2-T34) and the capsule was eventually hauled into the well deck of the USS Portland at 23:40pm...

Admittedly, none of the recovery boats touched it for about 2 hours, as they were waiting for the ammonia gas (used in the cooling system, designed for the eventual astronauts) to vent off - and once they had clearance, they could then start lashing guy ropes and a rubber ring around the capsule.

It then took 4 hours to get the capsule into the well deck - I'm sure they had their reasons, but it was like watching paint dry ! Most of the time, the capsule was just bobbing up and down, so I hope that when humans return to Earth in this thing that they are not left inside getting seasick, whle some US Navy chaps frig around outside...

Raspberry Pi hires former spy gadget-maker who baked devices into surveillance ops

Re: Didn't answer the obvious ...

...and surely lots of chocolate is supplied in aluminium foil?

So therefore, hiding a Pico inside something that is supposed to resemble chocolate and hence could be covered in foil, means such a device is useless transmitting via wifi until it is unwrapped...and then what could it measure, if the device is still covered in real or even imitation chocolate?

How do you solve the problem that is Twitter?

It seems to me...

...that Elon Musk has bought a white elephant - a seemingly stupid thing to do, unless he has some way of nurturing the company into a high profitability position very quickly (as otherwise, it'll be bankrupt unless Musk spends even more money on keeping it going).

And with potentially fewer active members and fewer advertisers, clearly it might just become another "MySpace", "Napster" or "Friendster" and just sink without trace, aside from Musk who no doubt will continue "broadcasting" to fewer and fewer interested parties, until like the Captain of the Titanic, Musk and his ship will sink into the depths of oblivion....and a niice tax-write-off for the IRS to deal with !

Boeing swipes at Starlink as it finishes two internet slinging satellites

Re: Err....

At least when it comes to de-orbiting these SES birds, the manufacturing "bunch" have some previous history of how to do it :-(

Square Kilometre Array Observatory construction commences

Re: You can run but you can't hide

The SKAO quoted:

"Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX (which is currently deploying the Starlink mega-constellation), said recently in a public statement that:

“… Starlink won’t be seen by anyone unless looking very carefully and will have ~0% impact on advancements in astronomy.”

The SKAO study shows that, for radio telescopes in general and for SKA in particular, this is not the case and specific mitigation actions will be needed to minimize this impact."

So, once again, some selfish, self-opinionated, rich guy thinks only of himself and doesn't do his homework to understand the impact his business(es) will have on specific communities, in this case the scientific "world".

US Air Force reveals B-21 Raider stealth bomber that'll fly the unfriendly skies

Shades of TV detector vans ?

The US Air Force claim they will get 100 of these B-21's built...and showing off ONE of them (to allow other countries to see what is coming into service int he next few years) is a very good way of deterring some countries for flexing their muscles too much.

But I doubt the USAF will actually receive 100 planes any time soon...and robably won;t have 100 in service at the same time, given that these will (in theory) be the long term replacment for the B1 and B2.

Even so, at $692m-752m EACH, they are pretty darned expensive, so I hope we don't see a recurrence of the Boeing 737-MAX flight software problems, leading to loss of the airframe and possibly any flight crew.

And I wonder if each plane will have big enough fuel tanks to get to (and fly back from) Moscow, Beijing or anywhere else?

After lunar orbit trip NASA's Orion capsule is on its way back home

Re: 'Terra Firma'

I do not think that Artemis is "validated/approved" to make a landing on "land"...so the use of "terra firma" must be a (sloppy) reference only to the planet Earth.

Twitter layoffs were bad but Meta's mass ejections could take the cake

87,000 employees ??

I want to know exactly what ALL of these 87,000 employees are actually doing...

For sure there will be "back-office" staff keeping the hardware ticking over and people selling advertising space and the like.

They claim to have a "brilliant" search function...but you try finding a given name in a given city or in a given age range, or even a given gender (where first names are used for any gender) - it is impossible...as you can only search on the "name" parameter and nothing else !

And given the level of AI already being used to "police" FB posts, it does seem to me that FB is somewhat overloaded in the wrong departments...

How to watch NASA Jupiter probe's flyby of Earth

I wonder though...

Will Lucy still be in full working order after 12 years traveeling through space and avoiding space junk and any particulates that are in the way?

And how many El Reg readers will still be around to witness Lucy arriving and starting it's data collection...

In fact, will El Reg still be here?

Or if Putin has his way, and starts chucking nukes around, maybe no-one will be around to collect any data at all... :-(

Japan tests probe to land on Martian moon Phobos, bring a chunk of it back to Earth

Re: UAC

nah - We've got Duke Nukem - send him in !!

India's Mars Orbiter Mission loses contact, burns all fuel, deemed 'non-recoverable'

Re: we're loosers

But ESA has been sending European astronauts to the ISS for years (but in American and Russian spacecraft)...and ESA have been involved in manufacturing many space satellites for years...and they have also been building rockets to launch these satellites as well.

So, you think they are falling behind because ESA has not sent their own astronauts into space in their own spacecraft using their own rockets. Such nit picking is unworthy !!

Was there life on Mars? Perseverance scrapes up promising samples

Not collected until 2033?

So, these samples have mostly been collected from under the surface of Mars...and they have now been put into these "collecting tubes" and just left on the surface of Mars?

And they will be there for 10+ years until something collects them and brings them back to Earth...so will these samples have been irradiated from being exposed to radiation from beyond Mars atmosphere? Seems a bit dumb to be expecting to see "formerly pristine buried soil samples" in its original state if it has then been "damaged" from being left on the surface for so long?

Don't say Pentium or Celeron anymore, it's just Processor now, says Intel

Re: Given their namings….

"They might be better off reducing the range of products. Most of of them are not especially special, just a little different."

True...but Intel and their hardware manufacturing partners want products at different price points and using the same motherboard design.

This way they can offer a $499 laptop with a slower CPU and for just another $50/$100/$200 you can get the same hardware but using slightly faster CPUs. This then allows these brands to offer a range of products at different price points to suit people with different budgets.

And limiting the range of processors has another impact: I've helped a few friends when their 3-4 year old laptops started going slowly (usually due to dust/detritus buildup inside the fan assemblies). It's a simple task (usually) to take the laptop shell apart, clean out the fans and then I've bought some faster clocked CPUs (from the same range) off "laptop breakers/recycling" firms for just a few $$ that fit the existing CPU socket and they give a nice boost for no real extra cost while also renewing the silicon paste to keep it ticking over. So, that market would vanish with fewer CPUs in each range !

FCC floats 'five-year rule' for hoovering up space junk

Irresponsible satellite operators?

It seems to me that there has been a complete lack of "accepting responsibility" from both governments and private operators with regards to de-orbiting any of their "birds" once a mission ends.

Whlle it might cost millions of $$ to build and then launch a satellite into orbit, very little thought has been given to including in the "build budget" a few extra $$ to actually make a "controlled re-entry" at the appropriate time...

And in the meantime future missions are being compromised by all this junk in NEO.

It seems to me that any future satellite operator should either build-in a "working" de-orbiting system...or maybe lodge suitable funds with an Earth based company, who will then co-ordinate the de-orbiting of the now-defunct satellite....and perhaps such a mission could de-orbit a number of similar "targets" (in similar orbits) making the cost of de-orbiting each bird cheaper...?