Posts by ricegf

Combustion engines grind Linus Torvalds' gears

Re: It's not the electric motor

And that never happens to their gas vehicles? Automakers perfected the whole parts-swap shenanigans on their internal combustion engine products!

Re: It's not the electric motor

Also a cost thing. Although Tesla is moving to 48 bolt accessory subsystem that never(-ish) needs a battery swap. Ford praised the design, though they haven't yet adopted it.

Re: the rumble of the V8

New EV prices are competitive with gas vehicles now, as are 3-5 year old used vehicles.

12 year old EV beaters don't exist yet because they haven't been in mass production for 12 years. Patience.

And the batteries will handily outlast the vehicles based on extensive field data. You can find the degradation curves online with a simple search. Are we still having to explain that one?

Re: Makes perfect sense

The only issue for hydrogen vehicles is storage?

Where to begin.

Over 90% of hydrogen is grey, manufactured from natural gas, producing just as much GHGs as burning the stuff. You can make it blue from water IF you have money to burn, because...

While grey hydrogen costs "only" 3x the price of gasoline per mile, green is at least 9x using renewable electricity. And grey itself is at least 10x more expensive than grid electricity in an EV. (Electricity, gas, and especially hydrogen prices vary a lot, but I've yet to see hydrogen prices anywhere near competitive with its successful competition unless extremely subsidized. The first hit is always free, right?)

The nozzle freezes to the car when refueling on humid weather.

But that's rarely a problem, since you can count the number of refueling stations on one hand and still give Exxon the finger. Road trip? Only if you orbit a hydrogen station.

And don't expect a hydrogen refueling station building boom anytime soon. New stations cost more than gas stations, far more than fast chargers, and my calculator lacks the zeros for how much more than Level 2 chargers. And the few existing stations are shutting down, at least in California.

You can't refuel at home overnight. Gas vehicles can't, either, of course. But EVs...

Carrying around a pair of 700 bar tanks filled with hydrogen can only end well. At least a hydrogen leak in your enclosed garage is unlikel - oh, wait.

Speaking of which, the tanks occupy the space I need for the frunk. Not to mention the legroom.

Acceleration is leisurely, even given the battery you still need to keep it acceptable and to store regenerated electricity.

And the price? The cars are barely affordable as long as they include hefty subsidies.

And then there's... my tired fingers.

Just the storage? Oh, my sweet Nelly Rose.

Boeing's Starliner proves better at torching cash than reaching orbit

Re: Decision time

"NASA would have to choose between payload capacity, hitch-hikers risking injury during splash down and testing out Dragon's original propulsive landing plans."

I could be wrong, but I believe the original propulsive landing relied on the hydrozene check valves that were replaced with burst disks after a crew dragon exploded during tests due to a valve leak. I'm not certain propulsive landing remains even theoretically possible in a production crew dragon now.

Europe blasts back into the heavy launch biz with first Ariane 6 flight

Re: The Devil you know

But it the operator fails to solve the problem, they will have few customers.

Ariane 6 ready to rocket, bringing heavy-lift capability back to Europe

Absurdly and wonderfully big

Starlink is expected to generate $3.1 billion in profit in 2024, actually, but as a private company you won't see an audited statement that proves it.

But the same argument that applies to the Ariane 6 applies to Starlink: The ability to download massive amounts of data ("the payload") including live video streams during reentry of Starship is simply priceless and in itself another very marketable product. We had fast, reliable Internet in our last Caribbean cruise because... You know.

Nor is Starship primarily intended to launch Starlink satellites, although larger and more capable satellites with lower launch costs will expand profit margins. Falcon 9 is the Family Truckster of launch vehicles - cheap, reliable, reusable, unique. But Starship is a container ship. It doesn't deliver 2 astronauts and 3 days of supplies to the moon - it delivers a 16-story warehouse. It doesn't deliver a Mini-size rover to Mars - it delivers 100 colonists and 2 years' supplies.

SpaceX is everything laughable and magnificent and stereotypical and absurd and wonderful about America. And I love it.

The Land Before Linux: Let's talk about the Unix desktops

Not sure about the definition of "tiny", but certainly not enough. For the desktop market in 2023, Windows had about 70%, OS X about 20%, and Linux much of the the rest with roughly 1/3 Chrome OS and 2/3 Gnu. Perhaps a significant portion of Gnu is in a Windows Subsystem for Linux container, though.

Android works fine as a Linux that is the biggest seller of all in personal devices, but I truly miss and would love to see a revival of Nokia's Gnu Linux phones, the spiritual descendent of my late beloved N900 and the briefly sold but well-received N9 successor that Microsoft killed with a $1 billion check. But I'm probably just weird. *sigh*

Proprietary

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Re: Meet the New War....same as the Old War

And it can't even run Linux programs natively because it only uses the Linux kernel

I take it you don't use a Chromebook? Despite all of your screaming that it's something else, running Linux apps is still as simple as Settings > Advanced > Developers > Linux Development Environment > On.

I taught an entire Linux programming course at a major university on my Chromebook. Because... It's Linux. Same commands, same package system, same apps.

Spotted in the wild: Chimera – a Linux that isn't GNU/Linux

Re: Too much for one person - it won’t last

Because Linux itself was launched by a consortium of major computer vendors with a long list of paying customers?

The origin of the Linux kernel doesn't prove that Chimera will last, but it certainly disproves that Chimera can't last, doesn't it?

Re: Sound and fury

What's interesting to me is that the lone developer makes a careful analysis of all existing options, adapts the best fit, and moves on.

What a rare and lovely skill.

Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market

It's just Linux

I taught a Linux-based university course on an Acer Chromebook with no issues when my 7 year old Dell laptop went nuts (during lecture!) early in the semester. It ran the same tools (slightly different versions) with the same presentation and results.

It is indeed just Linux with a default web-based desktop.

Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux

Oh? I started my new Dell PC a couple of years ago. It set up encryption for the drive, upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11, rebooted - and asked me for the encryption key.

What encryption key?

To their credit, Dell people spent two hours on the phone with me trying to break into my new computer. We went to the Microsoft website to recover the key, for example: It literally said "There's nothing for you here". (Who writes Microsoft's error messages?)

Finally they gave up and provided a phone number at Microsoft, but that person just wanted my credit card number before they could help me. I think not.

Just me? Nope. One of my students at university asked for my help. He had bought a Dell computer and it had encrypted the drive and upgraded to Windows 11, too, locking him out. I told him to return it to the local store as defective.

Just Dell? Nope. The university computer I was given came with a one-time login to allow me to set up a local boot password. However, Windows grabbed control as soon as I entered my credentials to install mandatory patches and then rebooted, giving me no opportunity to set a boot password!

Am I just unlucky? Perhaps. But I believe the real culprit is that people tolerate Windows because it's all they have used. They assume all desktops are like that, and since it runs the applications they learned early on, they stick with it. Or as many people I know like my brother who can get away with it, just switch to iPhone only.

Their choice, of course. But from an objective perspective of someone who has used all 3 major desktop OSes extensively starting with Windows 1.0 (it ran PageMaker!), Mac OS 1.0 (bitmaps and an Imagewriter? Priceless!), and Mandrake Linux 7.0 (before they were sued by King Feature Syndicate and became Mandriva and I like so many others switched to the Warty Warthog), in terms of user friendliness, Windows is in a rather distant third place.

Just my $0.02 - but I've paid far more than that in my dues! :/

Google accused of ripping off advertisers with video ads no one saw. Now, the expert view

Re: Prove how valuable it is

We already know that ads influence people. Take Bud Light, for example...

After decades contributing to science, John Goodenough powers down

Good Grief

American is not a race. And The Reg is not American.

Throwing the race card and hitting yourself in the eye. It never ends.

An unexpectedly fresh blast from the past, Freespire 9.5 has landed

Lindows actually won the lawsuit

I remember it well, being of a certain age. Lindows' argument was that "windows" was the generic description of a computer desktop by the time Microsoft got around to writing theirs. Just as you can't trademark Hotdog™ as the brand of your hot dogs, they argued the word windows was an invalid trademark on a windowed operating system.

Their argument was getting great traction, too, so Microsoft wrote them a $20,000,000 check to settle the lawsuit in full. All Lindows agreed in response was to change their name.

Sounds like a win to me.

Lenovo ordered to pay $140M for InterDigital patents – sees this as a 'major win'

Nokia was never owned by Microsoft

Microsoft has never owned Nokia. Rather, Nokia sold its mobile phone division to Microsoft in 2014 to bolster Windows-based phones, then bought it back in 2016 after Windows-based phones were obliterated in the marketplace.

General Motors goes electric with $2.5b US government loan for battery plants

Typical. Just, typical.

Tesla repaid their loan early and with full interest, then went on to lead the EV revolution even without any federal tax credits for drivers these last few years. So naturally, the Reg leads with a wisecrack about government handouts to Tesla.

I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems all too well

Let's discuss!

Sure, I'll bite. What printer do you have that won't work with which distro? What filesystem are you unable to mount?

We used to laugh (good-naturedly) at Windows, because every time we bought a new printer it just worked with Linux whereas we had to manually install drivers for Windows. Windows is closer to Linux now in that respect, at least. They're learning.

I've always had great difficulty mounting any non-Windows filesystem on a Windows machine, but have rarely found ANY filesystem that Linux can't mount.

Of course, WSL 2 is getting much better at providing a reasonably good desktop Linux experience on Windows with minimal effort. My Chromebook's Linux support is also quite good. Perhaps you'd be happier taking that route instead of a native install?

Re: Chicken and egg

Oddly, you seem to be in much more pain about this than Linux users!

Re: Some concerns though

Why do you assume new distro developers must aspire to mass adoption?

Are you not aware that the huge base of fanfic authors don't expect to write a best seller? They write for the love of writing and exploring their corner of fandom.

Similarly, distro (and free software) developers often develop simply for the love of development and better understanding their chosen technologies.

Your "waste of time" is a normal person's "fascinating hobby"!

No

No. If the Linux desktop grows too much, it will attract rent-seeking corporations who will lock down choice in favor of profits.

The Internet was the great democracy experience. Now we have Facebook and Google.

DOS and Windows brought computing power from mainframes to individual control. Now you pay subscription fees for your web-based apps and cloud storage.

Streaming let you cut the cable. Now you pay the same fees to Netflix, Hulu, and Sling.

Can we please just keep Linux to ourselves?

Choice is a Feature

Choice is a feature, not a bug. If one desktop distro was ubiquitous, I'd need to find a new desktop OS just like I keep searching for a workable replacement for smartphone Android.

Boeing's Starliner CST-100 on its way to the ISS 2 years late

Re: Fund DreamChaser, please

Rockets launch capsules or shuttles and then land on their tails (or in the case of Rocket Lab, parachute and get captured mid-air by a helicopter).

DreamChaser is equivalent to a capsule, not a rocket. Capsules either splash down in the ocean (all US capsules prior to Starliner) or touchdown on land with retros and / or airbags (Russian and Chinese capsules and Starliner).

Shuttles perform runway landings. This is much gentler for sensitive cargo, likely a major factor in DreamChaser selection as a cargo ship, and simplifies reuse. But they also have more interior space and greater flexibility for crew missions.

And they just look cool. Hard to put a price on that.

Fund DreamChaser, please

Given Boeing's ongoing litany of engineering, uh, challenges across do many of its programs, I'd be delighted if Congress added funding for the crew version of the DreamChaser shuttle to the upcoming budget.

DreamChaser will begin cargo operations next year, and was designed for human transport as well but want funded in the final round of that program's funding. Given the upcoming breadth of human stations, a third option would be most prudent.

Rivals aren't convinced by Microsoft's one-click default browser change

Re: No Browsers?

choco install brave --pre

brew cask install brave

sudo apt install brave-browser

For Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu-family Linux, respectively. The web isn't the Internet.

Fans of original gangster editors, look away now: It's Tilde, a text editor that doesn't work like it's 1976

Classic MacOS was on v6 and didn't have that many standard keystrokes and things yet.

What? MacOS 1.0 specified how menus should be laid out and which keyboard shortcuts went with the common menu items. That was the point of MacOS from the start - learn one application, know how to use the rest for free.

Feds charge two men with claiming ownership of others' songs to steal YouTube royalty payments

Re: Throw the book at the cocks

In the USA, critical analysis is an affirmative defense against copyright infringement claims. The OP is permitted to show a reasonable number of website screenshots for the purpose of demonstrating the validity of his assertions. Not that YouTube would care about the law or justice, of course.

Reg reader returns Samsung TV after finding giant ads splattered everywhere

Re: Buy secondhand

A sticky square cut from a Post-It note over the camera lens works great. Using a fine-point sharpie to write them a brief love note on the sticky side is purely optional.

Oregon city courting Google data centers fights to keep their water usage secret

Re: we have the technology...

Hydroelectric, inevitably.

Waterfox: A Firefox fork that could teach Mozilla a lesson

Re: I'd love to try Waterfox, but there's a problem...

S/he did what I did - I followed the product's website instructions, which led to a dead end.

I seriously doubt any project will "thrive" if their installation instructions are stillborn, and you have to add repositories provided by a random commenter on an El Reg article to actually install it (which is better than installing executables downloaded from the official project page how?).

Re: Thriving

The actual claim was that the project is thriving, not that Waterfox has more users than Firefox.

The Waterfox repository is gratifyingly active based on commit frequency, though not as active as Firefox. But I suppose "thrive" implies long-term trends, which I too would like to see

84-year-old fined €250,000 for keeping Nazi war machines – including tank – in basement

Re: WTF?

Unless you decide to join a gang or otherwise commit suicide, your odds of being shot in the USA is much less than your odds of being stuck by lightning. Not to drag facts into an emotional discussion, of course.

LibreOffice 7.2 release candidate reveals effort to be Microsoft-compatible

Back when I worked a corporate job, we had to switch one large team away from Word because its conditional text feature regularly corrupted documents. Fixing corrupted Word documents was actually a line item in their budget, as I recall. (We moved to FrameMaker, I believe, because the team had used it earlier and thus needed little training to implement the switch.)

In general, back when I used Office, I found less popular features to be bug-ridden and unreliable, but perhaps we were just above the safe power user level. I've personally had fewer problems with LO. *shrug*

Re: Surprised

This is a feature, not a bug. But LO has several alternate UI configurations, even the abominable ribbon one.

I actually had to switch my last book from Word to Writer because Word kept moving images outside the margins. The bug report on it was rather old - no idea if it has been fixed since, because I don't see a reason to switch back, being happily non-corporate now.

Re: Use early Microsoft formats where possible for interchange

Or just txt or md - though in all 4 cases complex formatting is lost.

Reveal Codes RIP

WordPerfect's Reveal Codes (which were an unrelated precursor to the web's HTML) was the last time I felt truly in control of a document's content and layout. That Microsoft used their Windows monopoly to cram Word down corporate throats will forever be to their shame - not that Gates' or Ballmer's Microsoft had any. At least Sayella has given up his predecessors' irrational jihad against free and open source software.

Kaspersky Password Manager's random password generator was about as random as your wall clock

The Only Safe Password

The only Safe Password is twelve words rolled using the Diceware tables. In a darkened closet. With death metal music playing at full volume. Rolled with hand-carved dice. That you smash immediately thereafter with a sledgehammer.

LibreOffice community protests at promotion of paid-for editions, board says: 'LibreOffice will always be free software'

Re: This has been handled badly, but it's not beyond hope.

They don't pretend to be honest - or did you miss the entire "Would you like to switch to Edge? Yes or Yes?" fiasco?

Pro tip: Plug in your Tesla S when clocking off, lest you run out of juice mid hot pursuit

It's actually a strength of battery operated vehicles: They are fully refueled at start of shift, so officers never needed to visit a petrol pump - IF the vehicle is connected to the mains while at the station house. But as the article briefly notes, ignoring fuel levels never ends well regardless of whether you store the energy as petrol, diesel, electrons, hydrogen, or a wound-up rubber band.

Back to drawing board as Google cans AI ethics council amid complaints over right-wing member

"Oppose immigration"?

She doesn't "oppose immigration". She opposes immigration that violates immigration law - like pretty much every other country on the planet. Orwellian newspeak is a poor substitute for rational debate.

Pointless US Congress net neutrality vote will take place tomorrow!

"I think the point is that Democrats aren't actually in government right now. So they can't do anything but try pointless things."

If that's their point, it's badly damaged by their claim that the LAST time they held the presidency and both houses of Congress (by overwhelming majorities) that the Republicans blocked them at every turn but one.

Why are the Democrats so dang impotent now when they are only *one vote* short in the Senate and reasonably close in the House? You frustrate me, Ds!

More of the Same

So the Democrats are running in the midterms on 2 main promises: "We'll impeach the president" and "We'll raise your taxes". Always popular slogans. 8-(

I wonder if the Republicans are funding the Democratic ads this time around? I certainly would!

Revenge pornography ban tramples free speech, law tossed out – where else but Texas!

"Several revenge porn laws have run into constitutional problems."

So... NOT only in Texas, then.

Tech giants' payouts go to everyone but affected citizens. US Supremes now urged to sort it out

Re: Here's my two cents

If The Jerk could do it, so can they! https://youtu.be/qaz2hxZLycY

T-Mobile US let hackers nick my phone number, drain my crypto-wallets, cries man who lost $20k

"Surely a username/password was also required?"

Yes. From the article:

"From there, the thieves used the cell number to reset the password on Tapang's online cryptocurrency account – which was linked to that number – and then take over its wallets and drain his funds."

Electric cars to create new peak hour when they all need a charge

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

It's not necessary to eliminate all fossil fuels, only to reduce fossil fuel use to where plant life can handle the CO2 load again. It's fine to use natural gas as the last line of defense against a significant voltage drop, though we have other options and potential options to explore first.

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

You'll likely be a late EV adopter. No shame in that. Us boxed in types will thus pay for the research that delivers a 1000 mile range EV that recharges in 5 minutes to your grandchildren. ;-)

Re: I've been pointing this out for years.

A tree takes carbon from the atmosphere and sequesters it in wood. You burn the wood and release the carbon. Net change in CO2 this century is zero.

You burn coal, releasing carbon sequestered millions is years ago. Net increase in CO2 this century is significant.

The percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere had been rising steadily since about 1950, indicating that we've saturated the ability of plant life to handle the supply.

We don't know for certain the impact of a higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, but "bad" is pretty likely.

So, investing in not releasing long sequestered CO2 is a very good idea.

Releasing briefly sequestered CO2 is the better option of the two. Capturing and using fusion power arriving daily from the nearest star is even better.

Importing wood pellets from the USA is rather suboptimal for the UK, though. :-)