Posts by Timbo 586 posts • joined 6 Jun 2007
"there were constraints in early DTT receivers that effectively bricked them"
In 2009, Freeview changed the data block size (IIRC) when they "updated to the NIT (Network Information Table), which some receivers could not accommodate" (info from wiki). so earlier "big box" TVs with built-in Freeview were bricked.
The TV could still be used, if you used an external set top box (Sky, Freesat, Freeview) to feed a signal into the AV input.
In the article it is said that the rogue rocket was moving "end over end"...so it is quite possible that this was still happening as it hit the Moon (which has no atmosphere to slow down any such movements).
So, the double crater could just be from one end hitting the surface first and millisconds later the other end also landed, creating the second crater.
So, Elliott Management own Sandisk?
And EM, also have shares in WD and want them to spin out/separate the HDD/Flash memory business...
Anyone see a ploy here by which EM then takeover the WD HDD/Flash business, then discontinue making HDDs and then they can name their own prices for Sandisk and WD SSDs....
""Are you sure you want to cancel?"
Buttons available -
"OK" "Cancel"
Does cancel cancel the booking, or cancel the request to cancel...."
So, the error here is that the correct answer to the question should be:
"Yes" "No"
So, blame the person who mis-labelled the buttons. !!
"Cost-cutting" seems to be a "thing" for Boeing to do...the 737 Max being another casualty of short cuts being made to save money...
The sad part is that lives are dependent on Boeing NOT cutting costs, so that travelling in one of their craft is safe for the "crew" and any passengers on board.
The BBC website says:
"Boeing had attempted to fly Thursday's mission in August last year but was forced to abandon that exercise when valves in the capsule's propulsion system wouldn't open and close properly on the launch pad.
This issue still requires a permanent fix but engineers were happy to let the latest launch go ahead with temporary corrective measures in place."
So, hopefully, this flight will give them enough feedback to make more permanent and lasting "fixes" before any human guinea pigs are allowed to hitch a ride.
The one thing that concerns me is the amount of air volume, between the floor/desks/work areas and the internal "roof"...as that is some distance between them....and all of that air volume will need either heating (in winter) or cooling (in summer)...and that will take a lot of energy either way.
And how are they going to regulate the internal temperature, as surely some people will prefer one ambient temperature while others might prefer something slightly warmer or cooler, as per their personal preference?
I think the issue with Mars atmosphere and the winds that sweep over the surface, is that:
there is no liquid (in the form of rain) that could wash the dust away - and even if there was some drizzle, that could just turn the dust into sludge
there is no easy way of "brushing" the dust away, (which could cause damage to the surface of the solar panels)
alternative mechanisms could be used but each has weight or other implications, such as motorised panels that could rotate, or maybe small off-centred weights fitted to small motors that could "vibrate" the panels, which might help shift the dust, but it might also lead to too much structural vibration and the panels might stop working.
Personally, I think the solar panels should be in an inverted V "shape" (like the 2 sides of a tent) and then rotated once the lander has landed to face-on to both sunrise and sunset...the panels themselves would then be maybe at 25-30 degrees (relative to the ground) and hence no dust could rest on the surface as they wouldn't be horizontal !
"However, since we don't know what is driving the accleration, we don't know if it's permanent meaning at least two outcomes are possible: heat death through unchecked expansion; collapse back into nothingness if gravity regains the upper hand."
Both of these scenarios are equally "scary", but luckily not a single person alive today will be around to see what happens to our Universe...especially when galaxies cease to form at the end of the "Stelliferous" Era.
What is also very, very scary is that our Universe is only about 13.8 billion years old...which is nothing, when compared to the very long timescales we could be talking about in terms of how the Universe will eventually achieve it's fate. Then we are talking about trillions upon trillions of "earth" years in the future...
Personally, I find it hard enough to cope with what's hapening next week !
"But from the photon's viewpoint it is emitted and absorbed in the same instant with zero travel time"
Yup - Neil de Grasse Tyson did an explanation of this on one of his StarTalks videos on Facebook - well worth checking him out, as he offers many explanations of how things work within the space-time construct we find ourselves in. :-)
"The telescope's instruments operate in the near, mid and far-infrared wavelengths"
Such a shame, but I guess there is quite an overlap with JWST now, so less need for 2 different instruments (and the necessary staffing to stage and monitor the observations) to be looking at the same patch of sky.
I hope that SOFIA is put out to pasture in a suitable museum, for future generations to admire, rather than being consigned straight to the scrapyard/recycling centre.
At the end of the day, both Amazon and Google are subsidising the "retail" prices of various IoT devices that are slurping up data (whether it is anonymised or not) and they are using this to provide advertisers with "relevant" information that the advertisers can then use to target the user with further "sales pitches" about similar products.
Obviously, for advertisers, it's a "win-win", as "targetted adverts" do work...as they have done in print media for many years.
(You only need to compare the adverts in magazines for men, compared to adverts in womens magazines...very, very different).
The issue though is that even if you bought a magazine, you can skip the adverts and just read the articles (in the full knowledge that you won't be plagued with endless adverts afterwards.
With "voice controlled" devices, you have little control over your data and how it might be used, leading to the data being used to target you later on to buy otehr stuff...so, surely an "opt out" function should be provided?
The trouble is that too many people are "sold" on the concept of all the things that IoT devices can do...but when the "back end servers" are shut down or the parent goes bust, then peole are left mostly with landfill products.
And if the OS is proprietary, then you are down the river / up the swannee (whichever boat you prefer !).
I had the same issue with Sonos - having equipped my home (expensively) with 4 different ZP units, plus 3 CR100 Controllers, only to find that Sonos upgraded the firmware, which then wouldn't "fit" into the available memory of each device, the new firmware didn't support the CR100's, and now, due to their use of TuneIn in their otherwise proprietary firmware, I cannot receive any non-UK internet radio stations (thanks to the recent Sony+Warner Bros High Court judgement against TuneIn) and Sonos have not offered a workaround for their older kit running on older firmware.
So, I would now only buy expensive kit, if it does NOT rely on a firms back-end "servers" and/or the OS is open source and can be tweaked by users with access to the code.
(I recall some Linksys WRT routers from ages ago, where the OS was "open" and plenty of tweaked firmware "updates" were available. The same was true with some early versions of Android, where one could "burn" a new OS into the mobile...but that seems to have stopped now).
"As for "sky pollution", AIUI, these satellites are not visible to the naked eye once at altitude, or at least, very faint."
Sadly, not quite true...even with their new "dark paint finish", Starlink satellites are still posing a threat to astronomers and asteroid-watchers as well as causing significant "interference" with the view of the night sky.
Just look at the Starlink Overpass photo here:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/04/world/satellite-pollution-night-sky-view-scn/index.html
Starlink do not have anywhere near their full complement of 42,000 satellites in orbit yet, and Amazon plan to send up another 3500+ satellites.
Then add in the OneWeb constellation and no doubt a few others from other countries will soon be in orbit...and very soon, the chances of a "Kessler Syndrome" event occurring are far more likely...
I used to work in the hifi retail trade and we had many tape decks come into the shop, (brought in by indignant customers claiming the machines were "faulty" and demanding refunds or new machines) as they sounded "muffled" (and clearly the owners had not RTFM).
In those days (late 70s/early 80s) you could buy bottles of isopropyl alcohol from most UK High Street chemists, and I'd get a (maybe) 500ml bottle for about 50p and it would last ages.
Add some cotton buds and the knowledge of knowing where (FYI: tape heads/pinch roller/capstan) and how much to apply (FYI: sparingly) and many faulty tape decks were sorted in a few minutes...plus the now brown gungy cotton buds were shown to the punters as proof of what happens when you don't keep the deck in tip-top shape.
PS A good alternative, if you couldn't get hold of isopropyl alcohol was:....neat vodka, which does just as good a job and unlike certain other spirits, it leaves no residue.
"Since her signing authority was $10,000"
One assumes she was ordering just a few iPads at a time, at maybe $1,000 each...so, if each order was for say, $6,000, she could sign this off without requiring authorisation?
She could then do this multiple times, using different PO numbers, even with the same firms and they wouldn't bat an eyelid, coz they had a highly regarded University, buying from them.
And if she was buying for a "Department" that she could claim had maybe 50-100 staff, then her ruse could easily work...
Mind you: ANY Finance Director who is buying IT worth more than $5 million ($40m divided by 8 years) per annum must surely have been questioned by the "Board of Governors" at some point...?
My first hard drive was a Seagate ST125-1 20 Mb, in a 5.25" form-factor, using MFM as the transfer interface...
A year later I got a Seagate ST251 40 Mb HDD to partner the 16 Mb of RAM I had (at £100 per 4Mb SIMM) !!
Everything worked great under DOS...and then Windows 3.11 came along and sapped all the computing power and I needed an 80 Mb drive, so I switched to a SCSI interface with an Adaptec AHA2942 add-in card....and I could then install more HDDs !! (as the MFM interface was limited to 2 devices).
Nowadays, a 20 Mb file is nothing and I'm running a Gigabit Ethernet connection that can transfer 20 Mb in a blink of an eye !
I know it's 2022 and I know about Mooore's Law etc but this is just unimaginable:
"100 Million transistors per square mm"
"92 Million transistors per square millimetre"
"165 Million transistors per square millimetre"
So millions of transistors in a space no bigger than this > []
We've come a long way since I got my first 80486DX33 around winter 1990....which had a transistor count of: 1.2–1.6 million for the entire CPU
"Anybody taking odds on whether these fly-boxes may eventually add to what needs to be tracked?"
It could be that Woz is going to put up satellites that can cause "space debris" to drop out of orbit, in a controlled way.
This could be via all sorts of methods, as have been tried recently, such as "nets" or "harpoons", or even the odd "PAM" (power assist module) that might be strapped onto the larger "birds"...
Perhaps if Roscosmos has already spent money on developing the rocket and lander for Rosalind Franklin, they might just consider donating said hardware, as a way of bringing Russia "back into the fold" as it were (and assuming the Ukraine/Russia conflict ends very soon).
Without the Russian "contribution" (as it was), integrating a new rocket/lander into this mission might be tricky...and probably rather expensive.
Plus I doubt ESA will get any refund from Roscosmos... :-(
There are reports of Russian people leaving Russia and heading for Finland...and others getting flights to Istanbul and further afield, as people fear Putin will declare martial law very soon and seal the borders to prevent anyone leaving.
It is clear that Putin will stop at nothing to get his way, even if it leads to many people of many nationalities in both Russia and Ukraine being injured and/or killed by this invasion.
Whilst NATO is doing it's best to prevent an escalation of the situation, the fact is that Putin is doing everything he can to ensure there IS an escalation...and it'll then be a question of what happens next and when/if the nuclear launch option takes place.
Most of the reactors at the site (that has been partly damaged by Russian attacks) have already been shut down and the one remaining "working" reactor is being shut down.
This will mean that the site should be safe - unlike the Fukashima reactors, no graphite is used, so there is nothing to "burn" inside the reactor - and the reactor itself is very strong (for good reason).
Closing the plant down makes more sense as it deprives Ukraine of a lot of it's electricity...blowing it up and hoping the wind blows in the right direction, is not a good plan, as the radioactive debris could easily head back to Russia...
But then again, Putin has been shown to be quite "unbalanced" by launching this invasion on a sovereign country that is actually home to many Russian speaking people.
One wonders what is happening aboard the ISS with the current Expedition 66 crew...2 from Roscosmos, 4 from NASA and 1 from ESA.
Maybe the Russian cosmonauts will stay in their own section and not stray into the "NASA exclusion zone" ;-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_66
Additional crew are due to arrive on 18th March 2022, with 3 extra crew from Roscosmos joining, taking the number onboard to 10....(though at least 2 crew will subsequently return to Earth on 30th March).
They could organise a nice game of 5-a-side football with 5 from NASA/ESA and 5 from Roscosmos. !
"I'm not saying you'd expect a refund any time soon, but I'd be filing papers with whatever international court of arbitration is applicable."
If I was OneWeb, I'd write off the satellites, perhaps upload a virus to them, (if they were suddenly switched on, thereby making them unusable)...and then accept as "payment" the monies from the sale of one (or more) oligarchs recently seized "assets"...
There's some nice shiny boats/yachts that have been seized by France already...and maybe OneWeb fancies branching out into a London football club (unless Abramovich can sell it quickly...though the b*$t*rd Tory govt is taking it's time to increase sanctions against some of the sponsors of it's political party...giving them a chance to move their funds :-( )
One could argue that sometimes deals are done with countries so that the income from the sales help to "grow" the local economy by way of jobs and $$.
And yes, it is ideal to have a "backup" choice of supplier(s)...but sometimes, many factors can mean you stay with the #1 choice, through thick and thin.
I had a similar dilemma back in the days of MS-DOS
...and I used both Quarterdeck Desqview (and later on QEMM386) as well as the shareware 4DOS "command.com" replacement, which had it's own way of being able to use selective config.sys/autoexec.bat files to boot into any configuration you wanted very easily.
it was also possible to colourise specific filenames with given extensions...so you could run dir/w and all "exe" file names could be coloured (say) red, or batch filenames might be coloured blue"...etc.
It is surely about time to instigate some high level of blocking to any data traffic coming out of Russia and it's various "outposts" such as in Belarus and in the Donbas regions - this must surely be implemented at the various UK "international hubs", such as LINX.
This might then limit any potential damage to networks within the UK, esp those concerned with providing utility services as well as core emergency services.
Yes, some businesses and news gathering services might be affected....but this only need be temporary, until the Ukraine/Russian "situation" cools down.
"plus the fuel to get the additional mass out of earth's gravity well, plus more fuel for course changes en-route due to increased inertia, plus whatever is required to get that additional mass safely to the surface of Mars..."
The InSight landed mass is 358 kg.
My suggestion for 2x balloons big enough to cover the 2x 2.15m (dia) solar panels with a thin expandable sealed covering, using maybe a thin polythene might add a few tens of grammes, same with a storage balloon - and a small pump and a valve (and some thin plastic tubing) might add maybe 50-75 grammes. So, perhaps 150g (6 oz) in total.
In the big scheme of things that's a minor sacrifice compared to being able to extend the mission by perhaps months or years?
An easier way would be to cover the solar panels with a transparent "balloon" type bag.
If dust builds up, inflate the "solar panel balloon bag" from a small expandable "storage balloon" which has been slightly pressurised and filled, via a small on-board pump, with clean, Martian atmospheric gas during a non-storm period).
Then simply open a valve from the "storage vessel" to inflate the "solar panel balloon" using the pressurised gas, and the dust should fall off. One could also statically charge said inflating gas with an opposing electric charge which might help repel any residual dust.
Cost: 2 bespoke balloons, a pump, a couple of valves and a small static charge anode.
"If NASA was going solely on price, they might have chosen DPD."
I assume you WANT to get the samples back?
If you really, really, really want the samples back I wouldn't use DPD - they have a habit of either losing parcels, or claiming that they don't have them, or that they will be delivering on a certain day, even sending an email out to confirm this...and then not turn up until it suits them on another day (which happened to me this week).
DPD = "Delay Parcel Deliveries"... ;-)
"The likelihood of all my backups failing at once is 0."
Surely the issue is whether your backups are tested such that you can restore from them.
I once knew a firm who had ONE backup tape that was used at the end of business every day, week in week out. And they NEVER checked that the data written to it was OK.
It took me a week to at least convince the owner to have at least 3 tapes in rotation...(original, father, grandfather)....and with a view to having more blanks available so that they could store some backups offsite, at a second location. (This was pre-internet days, when sneaker-net was the "norm".)
Surely a "rolling stop" is more environmentally friendly...as the vehicle is still moving.
Whereas, coming to a complete stop, even for a few seconds, means you lose the kinetic energy you had when last moving and you now have to use more energy to get moving again.
I know that in theory US-based "STOP" signs should be used on more (potentially) dangerous junctions...but it does seem that in many cases they have been put there to impede traffic, rather than keep it moving.
(We have a similar problem in the UK, with "timed" traffic light signals that stop traffic, even if no other traffic is crossing the junction...this is especially more wasteful, in the early hours, when few vehicles are travelling on local roads.... ).
When was 2001: A Space Odyssey filmed? 1968
When was 2001 (the year): 21 years ago...
What I want to see if someone put up the money for a "space wheel", which as I recall, even in the film could be seen still undergoing construction (and hence it is obvious how it could be built - simple frame and then add the walls to each section ).
The film version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZoSYsNADtY
The 2009 CGI version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ll_6RimCuM
And then there should be plenty of space for a "space toilet", "videophone with large display" and lots of curvy (maybe inflatable?) comfy chairs...so, why not have some space for a film studio? Perhaps a version of "Romeo and Juliet in space"...Shakespeare would have loved his play being performed as it was meant to be seen...in zero G !! hahahahaha
"BTW, another interpretation would be to say that it's a pilot for an auto, which is a fairly common abbreviation for a car, being an automobile. It's unlikely that this is the intention though."
That's exactly what I conjectured previously (see above)...and I got 18 down votes as a result !!
Next time I go to the USA, I'll check out some "auto wreckers" - which might have nothing to do with cars and are simply machines that will wreck anything you put in them.
Or I might buy a new truck that has an "auto" gearbox, instead of a stick shift"?
Or I could get a paper shredding machine that has an "auto feeder" - but I doubt I could put a car through it !
Surely Mr Musk can step in here...?
Just get him to send in some StarLink sat dishes by parachute and then they can connect these to the end points of the various local ISPs....a bit of local network techs "wizzadry" and a few network cables will do the trick, even if only on a temporary basis, until the undersea cable is fixed.
The "marketing" benefit to Musk of re-connecting Tonga to the web must easily outweigh the cost of some satellite dishes and dropping them in 'chute?
This is an interesting read:
https://www.southerncrosscables.com/home/industry/cables
So, they grapnel one of the broken ends up, off the seabed (that could be somewhere between 1km and 7.6km below the surface).
I guess they have to move the ship "backwards" (along the line of the cable), as there is unlikely to be any slack in the cable to allow it to be raised straight up that far !
The cable end is brought onto the repair ship and they test/check if the fault is there. Then they attach a buoy to it, and set it to sit on the surface, awaiting for it to be spliced onto the other end eventually.
Then they move off and find the other end and do the same.
So, once the two ends have been checked/repaired, those two ends could be maybe a few km apart (where before they were "joined" to each other).
I would imagine they then have to splice in a new long section of cable to take account of this increased distance between the two ends..and once spliced, they then drop the cable back onto the seabed...but they'll be a long "run" of cable that is now looping around on the seabed...but at least the connection will be working.
This idea also works well in reverse - as I took a friend of mine who has spent many years in Hong Kong and is fluent in Chinese, to my local fish & chippy, who happen have a Chinese owner and staff (but who speak very good Engrish).
So, ordering "2 large Cod and chips to take away please", to the counter staff, resulted in them speaking to the "fryer" in Chinese what the order was...at which point my friend, translated what they had said to me, and to their amazement, he then spoke to them in Chinese, to tweak the order slightly, as they had missed out translating the English word "large"...
The look of surprise and shock on their faces when this tall English guy spoke fluent Chinese back to them was priceless...and they ended up chatting in Chinese while the order was cooked...
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