Posts by Dig

700km on a single charge: Mercedes says it's in it for the long run

No Need to Panic

Are you assuming everyone would need a complete fill up every day at 350GW chargers.

Average mileage per car per year is about 7500miles or 12000km. this is only 32Km/day. The car mentioned can do this in approx 100/700*32 or 4.5KWh a more realistic gold id.3 will do this in 8KWh. 23million registered cars = 184GWh per day, a lot of these will be overnight so assuming it averages at a 8 hour charge this will mean a maximum of 23GW/hr is required, this is quite easily achieved on the grid at the moment, and considering they will have 10-20 years before this capacity is fully reached and during that time the BMW type of efficiency may be achieved along with reductions in other energy usage, this should be easy. Of course there will be HGVs as well being replaced needing a bit more but my guess would be a lot of people would start installing solar PV with local battery storage which would reduce the load required on the grid.

Jammy dodgers: Boffin warns of auto autos congesting cities to avoid parking fees

Re: I said that!

Always good to make up quotes by Thatcher, or almost any politician nowadays. Guess it keeps the distrust and vitriol going eh.

Should the super-rich pay 70% tax rate above $10m? Here's Michael Dell's hot take for Davos

Re: Super rich don't pay salaries either

Ahh the true socialist/Marxist view. The one that has worked precisely nowhere ever.

Just giving the people more more devalue the money, this cause inflation meaning the products that were made affordable by giving people more money become more expensive. Meanwhile there is no need to work because you get given the money regardless of work put in No incentive to become an entrepreneur when all money you get is re-distributed to those who did not take the risk. Who runs the businesses then, the government, well history has shown that doesn't really work.

I'm not saying that the sytem can't have tweaks here and there but swinging tax hikes definitely don't work.

Apple yanks iPhones from sale in Germany – and maybe China, too – amid Qualcomm spat

About that picture

Please don't use that stock photo again.

Canuck couple returns home after night on tiles to gaggle of randomers hanging out in their flat

Re: It always pays to carry a Micro-Uzi in a shoulder holster

This looks like the book for you

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Sharpen-Pencils-David-Rees/dp/1612193269

F***=off, Google tells its staff: Any mention of nookie now banned from internal files, URLs

Call me a prude..

..but why would you want to litter internal documents and commits with swear words and such like or is his just for some in house blogs, even then why?

Hello 'WOS': Windows on Arm now has a price

Re: I Wish You Luck

" I am more enthusiastic for ARM. The reason Intel is a power hog is because the chip, internally, is a RISC. It emulates the IA instruction set in software, i.e. microcode. That is clearly not as efficient as simply running RISC instruction set. "

Surely Internally x86 is now RISC. It takes a CISC and converts it to a stream of micro instructions. It's a bit like compression in that sense then, meaning lower bandwidth on the external bus. The conversion to micro instructions would seem to be a fairly trivial task in terms of die size and power.

Fix this faxing hell! NHS told to stop hanging onto archaic tech

Re: User story

"User story

You have three options:"

I suggest a fourth.

4, Place document on scanner, Select your email address from list. Walk to PC, open email in forward mode, write "here's attached docs you asked for". You can check first that you did of course put them in the correct way round, haven't been screwed up or lost in the in tray. Not only that but you can add a read receipt, send to multiple people at once. lots of other benefits as well.

Re: @ wolfetone

@pɹɐʍoɔ snoɯʎuouɐ

"there are things that can be done, NHS funding of "alternative" treatments should be stopped for a start."

Too late

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/21/a-misuse-of-scarce-funds-nhs-to-end-prescription-of-homeopathic-remedies

Intel top brass smacked with sueball for keeping schtum about chip flaws

What Inflation

Have you seen the share price graph for the last 5 years. The price movement from this little problem just seems to ave caused the normal noise in the share price. In fact its higher than it was 3 months ago and 1 year ago. It also appears that the market may also be starting to shrug off any recent drops. The most likely causes for the shares to drop will be in shareholders having class action lawsuits against the company.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=intel+share+price&rlz=1C1CHFX_enGB521GB521&oq=intel+share+price&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l2j69i65l2j69i60.2277j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

UK exam chiefs: About the compsci coursework you've been working on. It means diddly-squat

When I were a lad

Back in my GCE 'O' level and A level days you picked your own project to work on. The teacher would mark the work and then have it cross checked by others as the examiner wouldn't necessarily have the same hardware to run it on. They were mainly judging the documentation standards and perceived development effort and rely on the trustworthiness of the teach to gauge that it actually worked.

My O level project was a disk editor for a CPM based 380Z and the A'level was a Compiler for Sinclair QL Basic.

I guess in them days there may have been more trust in the teachers, and there were probably less students taking the subject so more rigorous examination could have been performed.

Now I guess every one is supposed to do the same thing so the marking structure is easier and more consistent.

Kernel-memory-leaking Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

I don't quite get all this griping about one company or another such as this company doesn't give one hoot about security much better with this.

If one thing that can learned from various security warnings over the years is that everyone suffers from them, in some case they can be patched without issue in others (which is unfortunately the case here) the patch causes a performance hit.

For those crowing about AMD here was a security issue on their Opteron

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/06/amd_microcode_6000836_fix/

Luckily for them it could be fixed with a microcode update.

A lot of big American companies are risk averse due to the large fines that can be imposed for negligence, however humans are involved in all parts of the process so mistakes can, will and are made.

Lessons will be learned but unfortunately another issue will slip through.

Report: Women make up just 17% of IT workforce, paid 15% less than men

Outperforming the stats.

Only 16% of GCSE students in computing are female and at A level that falls to 8.5% so 17% is outperforming the stats. This is surely where the failure is not at the point of employment.

I have been involved in recruitment of several rounds of recruitment. Each time I receive about 20 CVs I have only every received 2 from female applicants. One was employed the other had previously been convicted of criminal activity in the workplace so was deemed unsuitable for the job.

Why Theresa May’s hard Brexit might be softer than you think

It seems the states can negotiate an FTA in about 18 months though it does take another 2 to 3 years to implement it. It seems to be the European union with 28 sorry 27 countries that take 7 to 10 years as each country has their own issues to resolve. So while renegotiating a deal with the EU we could complete one with USA Australia canada new Zealand etc. This is one reason I guess for leaving. The UK were seen as a nuicence by other states and didn't really sign up to how the rest of EU thinks the EU should be, except perhaps 60% of the Scots and some Corbynites. Now they will be able to get to where they want quicker without UK.

Also could someone explain why you wouldn't just use the EU rules in place for importing from WTO areas that are in use today with the EU if no other arrangement is in place. Doesn't seem to require emergency rules just a bit of common sense.

Putting the 'Port' in Portal: Old-school fan brings game to Apple II

Not exactly modern but

Came across this port of dragon's lair to a zx81

https://youtu.be/V6-_48Aqso0

It’s Brexploitation! Microsoft punishes UK for Brexit with cloud price-gouging

Strange then that UK manufacturing output grew by 40% between 1970 and 2000 most of that increase during conservative govenments.

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/7617/economics/economic-growth-during-great-moderation/

School cyber safety spiel shows smut to 'Strayan students

Looks pretty clear, and wasn't open networks the point of the lecture?

From the video it looks like the site was displayed for all to see, hence the blurring of the screen image.

Wasn't the open network though the point of the demonstration. I believe Jarryd wass supposed to be connecting his phone to an open network automatically and then Symantec were demonstrating how they could pick up all sorts of things from his phone as a result.

Some student wag in the audience then though they'd have a laugh by also connecting. Probably wasn't fully expecting it to work but hey give a room full of students a chance and the'll try anything.

Dirty diesel backups will make Hinkley Point C look like a bargain

I've got an idea..

Increase pumped storage capacity without any additional Dams by converting it to pump jelly, or maybe semolina would be better. Actually pumping pitch would be better, it would take years to run out. Just a few technical issues to resolve though.

Smelly toilets, smokers and the Kardashians. Virgin Media staff grill top brass

Re: Dirty Toilets

Yeah they should take a leaf out of welsh call centre staff. At least they use the bin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x453CYKGjj8&ab_channel=BBC

Re: Health and Safety

No need to have hot water at all it just encourages bacteria growth. To Kill bacteria you would probably need water hot enough to blister the skin. Use soap with cold water and not only will you kill the germs but also reduce your carbon footprint.

The hot water probably has to be that hot to stop germs forming in the tank. They could use a local electric water heater by the sink which could be set cooler though.

Bing web searches may reveal you have cancer (so, er, don't use Bing?)

Re: Statistically challenged

Normally when analysing data like this you would split the dates into a series of sets si they may be referring to each set. Alternatively they may be using multiple algorithms. The accuracy refers to the false positive rate. So based on search results that aren't for the cancer they can give between 6 and 32% of people a go see your doctor now warning with only a false rate of 1 in 100000.

Must listen: We've found the real Bastard Operator From Hell

Is it just me

Or was anyone else transported back to days of watching max headroom.

Router configurations suck (power out of mobile devices, that is)

"will be approximately 0.014 mAh”

So that would be 14µAh, then ?

Yes but that's per advertisement. If the router or routers are advertising once every ten seconds then that would equate to 5mahr or 100% more than the sleep current.

Health and Safety to prosecute over squashed Harrison Ford

HSE Myths are nonsense.

Of course the items they quote aren't specifically covered by health and safety there are very few specific rules about this apart from duty of care by both the employer and employee, so risk assessments and appropriate actions etc.

The no salt with tequilla example is a case in point. Of courses there is no rule that covers this but perhaps the bar found that spilled salt was causing a slippage problem in the bar after a heavy session and customers had been falling. The action they take could be to clean up rather than ban it, but perhaps putting out signs to trip over and mopping the floor in a busy nightclub would be impractical, or using one of those urinal mats and equal tripping hazard or just plain ugly, hence the decision to stop the practice.

You could bet a customer slipping over on a salt spillage and hurting themselves would sue the bar for allowing the floor to become slippy.

Microsoft steps up Windows 10 nagging

Won't let me upgrade.

Been trying to do it for months on Sons Toshiba but it just gets to the end of the install then says something wrong and rolls back. Doh

ITU: we'll have 5G standards ready by 2020

Re: Who needs this?

the Use case is 720 people being able to download the UltraHD movie at the same time. Though I gues with the protocol overhead and such like its more like 72.

Helium has a go at Internet of Things thing – using ultra-low power tech

There are definitely situations where the switching of bands is used. Siemens use a dual band architecture in their wireless fire alarms. This allows them to meet the German VDS standard. Several other such platforms exist in the fire industry that also do this as they get a bigger allowance on attenuation and can therefore install with a longer range between nodes.

The bands used tend to be 868 and 433 rather than 2.4G but 2.4G hass advantages being more universal.

Europe's top court mulls vandal's right to privacy after bloke catches thug on home CCTV

Does this also now mean that photographers can now no longer take pictures in public spaces unless they contain no identifiable faces. I can see lots of policeman taking cameras and citing data protection laws now.

GOD particle MAY NOT BE GOD particle: Scientists in shock claim

Was the research sponsored by..

A supplier of very large magnets and refrigerant.

A SCORCHIO fatboy SSD: Samsung SSD850 PRO 3D V-NAND

Re: Real life testing...

This hasselblad produces a 1.2GB Raw which could grow when processed.

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/hasselblad-h4d-200ms-200-megapixel-hands-on-preview-17174

Phishing miscreants THWART securo-sleuths with AES-256 crypto

no phishing related content.

Apart from a shed load of gobbledygook, a demand for your pin number, mother's maiden name, a request for money and finally notification you have won the state prize in a lottery you never entered.

Pedals and wheel in that Google robo-car or it's off the road – Cali DMV

Re: From the archives, 1999

You haven't got a Nexus 4 by any chance. Mines constantly freezing with a blank screen requiring me to turn off then back on.

Thankfully the long off press always seems to work, this must be either hardware controlled or have a separate controller.

iPhone owners EARN MORE THAN YOU, says mobile report

You forgot the celebrity factor.

Don't forget all those high income pop-stars, footballers etc who will heavily skew the result as well. The average premier league footballer earns 1.6 million and I bet greater than 90% have Iphones (made up statistic alert).

You and your friends may be in the higher income bracket but obviously not high enough to not worry about things like value for money.

That being said, I have an Android device and my wife's carer and the carer's daughter both have IPhones.

Apple wins patent on charging iThings THROUGH THIN AIR

Re: Inefficiency is irrelevant

I though this but the numbers still add up to quite a bit. If I assume an average of 0.5 watts on standby I have 5 TVs so 2.5w. Assuming 25 million households with a similar number of sets gives 62.5megawatts. Not near the top of powerplant production but still sizeable. Ok I do turn off the sets at the switch but I'm probably in the minority. Add on all the mobile phone chargers laptop chargers microwave clocks etc etc etc and it all adds up.

Gemalto rash cache clash dashed: US courts trash Android patent bid

Please Help Explain.

But the patent says "At least a portion of the memory may be located in the processor." not that it is located in the memory just that some portion and only may be.

Anyway how is this different from putting a Spectrum on a chip and changing the language from basic to JAVA. Thats just a progression based on the fact that previously microcontrollers wouldn't have enough memory for this and now they do. Can anyone see what the novel bit is.

Come off it, Moon, Earth. We know you're 60 million years older than we thought

See those people who were sceptical or didn't believe in the age of the earth presented in a survey the other month were right. Whose laughing now. Actually they probably don't care. Another few years and they'll have added another billion or so years and we will all be saying how naive the scientists were to believe their guesses.

Four-pronged ARM-based Mac rumor channels Rasputin

Re: ARM vs. x86

Simple explanation. Every op code in arm will have a direct or very similar mapping to an op code in x86 so already both will be the same performance, excepting process differences, any extra will then come down to memory bandwidth utilisation. This is where the cisc architecture then kicks in as a single opcode(OK it may be multiple words) is then converted to multiple intermediate instructions but using less bandwidth on the bus.

10 PRINT "Happy 50th Birthday, BASIC" : GOTO 10

Re: Horrible Travesty of BASIC

So true, of course early limited versions could be missused, of course the best was QL Superbasic where the following could be done

for f = 1,3,-7, 15 to 12 step -1

next f.

It wass fully procedural and I wrote a Superbasic subset compiler in it (only integer arithmatic) for my A levels which was faster than the comercially available supercharge compiler.

Not only that but goto exists in C so you can, and people do write spaghetti code in C. What is it with open source stuff where people insist that all variables can be a maximum of 2 character long.

QL rules yeah ( except that useless graphics layout)

Really? Sigh. Really? Apple's lawsuit against Google is REVIVED

Re: Except that Apple keeps winning

Oh good only a few more years and it will have expired then.

UK bank heist-by-KVM gang sent down for 24 years after nicking £1.2m

ugh.

"None of this had anything to do with online banking.."

Isn't that the joke?

Most Americans doubt Big Bang, not too sure about evolution, climate change – survey

Re: Questions do not tie up with the headline assumption

You just reminded me of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

Old but always relevant.

Questions do not tie up with the headline assumption

The question is "mostly because of man made heat trapping gasses" I think most non-experts would say they are not sure because they don't know the other causes or what percentage.

I know the world is old but is it 4.5 Billion or 3.5 billion, the question doesn't say this is what is scientists hold as a fact and do they agree with it, it doesn't event say approximately 4.5billion years.

And due to the half life of facts things like the big bang could be replaced by something else in 50 years time so you would be right to be doubtful if you don;t follow the latest cosmological discoveries.

Is a preamble to the questionnaire missing saying theses statements are currently regarded as the truth by researchers in the respective areas?

Forget sledgehammers – crooks can CRACK ATMs with a TEXT

Physical Access?

"This is not as difficult as it might seem at first and doesn't entail physically opening up a target machine, "

So how do they tether a mobile phone via USB to an ATM without physically opening it. Do they have USB slots on the front in Mexico.

French novel falls foul of Apple's breast inspectors

Re: And this is censored......

But this was censored by the publisher not"Europe", or any ratings body. The only scenes removed for legal reasons is the depiction of swastikas for the German market where this is illegal.

Finally! Some actual, novel tech: Apple patent to revive geriatric gear

Prior art maybe LED and RF control circuitry.

OK first off II admit it I haven't read the patent but it doesn't normally help as I can't quite work out what exactly they are patenting wrapped up in all the obfuscation,banality and referenced prior art.

Anyway, good smoke detectors can detect any aging effects in its LED by increasing the current supplied. This can also be used to overcome contaminant build up. The detector can then signal it needs cleaning or reach end of life back to the panel, the panel could have remote management to inform the maintenance people as well.

Rf circuitry requiring tight tolerance crystals may also apply compensation based on the aging of crystals used in the system.

I should think a lot of what NASA do with their rovers also has similar capabilities.

Of course they seem to be adding that the changes applied are orchestrated by a remote computer in some way but that just doesn't seem novel enough to me, but then I'm not a patent layer. It just seems like feedback to me.

Apple patents touch-sensitive controls for MacBook

This is truly revolutionary for Apple

Instead of take previous invention from a computer and apply to a mobile device we now take sensors from a mobile device and apply them to a phone. WOW I wish I had thought of that. I guess the hard part is known which ideas are worth patenting and which I would think are obvious and not worth patenting. Perhaps I just can't afford the fees, or the lawyers.

Toshiba opens curtains, reveals air-cushioned 5-terabyte terror

Try Kids.

Give the laptop to the kids for a few months then the attrition rate may rise. Though I wouldn't store critical data on it.

Tried replacing with an OCZ SSD but had to go back to spinning rust as when the Mint distribution closed unexpectedly more often than not it took the file system with it. Hopefully Toshiba improve their S/W.

Fancy a little kinky sex? GCHQ+NSA will know - thanks to Angry Birds

Just monitoring you purchases

Ready for whoever buys catcher in the rye.

Twitter: It's JUST LIKE Elder Scrolls (no it's not)

Games are generally used to escape actual life. Nowadays some people use twitter and Facebook to escape real life after all you can troll, bulshit and bully in perfect anonimity, if it all goes wrong then create a new account and start the game again.

I am a recovering Superwoman wannabee

RE: Matt Bryant

Perhaps you should try a quick poll of your work colleagues., For those who have young families ask them if they would rather be at home with the kids or at work leaving their partner to look after them. See how the answers compare between men and women in the office and between those who seem to be getting the better assignments/bigger wages etc.

As others have said you can work all hours for the company, concentrate on the family or you can decide to have a "good" work/home balance whatever that may be,. Trying to work all hours for the company while doing the family thing can work for a while but you probably end up exhausted. The thing is when the man concentrates on the work he will feel less guilt about it (at least at the time, they may feel delayed guilt years later).

Those that work just the hours required so they can get back to the family make that decision and will rightly or wrongly not normally be promoted above others.

I wonder if Phoummala thinks her male colleagues are also wrestling with their work life balance or are they either 1) single 2) have no kids 3) find it a quieter life at work.