Posts by Phil O'Sophical

After repeated warnings Facebook bans Britain First for 'inciting hatred'

incite animosity and hatred against minority groups

Whay does it matter that they are "minority" groups?

UK.gov urged to ensure punters can 'still roam like at home' after Brexit

Re: Brexit wins

(possibly, I'm guessing) loss of reciprocal healthcare.

No, you're not guessing. You're scaremongering.

Ex-GCHQ boss: All the ways to go after Russia. Why pick cyberwar?

Re: Tougher sanctions

Apparently we're taking a really hard line.

We've sent 23 Russian diplomats home, and won't be going to watch the footie. Putin must be quaking in his boots now.

Fun fact of the day: Voice recognition tech is naturally sexist

Re: sex sells

No, they find female voices less aggressive so their response is differently primed.

Maybe they should be aggressive? After I've ignored the satnav for the sixth time, and she is still calmly saying "when possible, make a U-turn", I find it disappointing that she hasn't started to get snarky, or gone off in a huff. Not very realistic...

Capita screw-ups are the pits! Brit ex-miner pensioners billed for thousands in extra tax

Re: Scargill

He wouldn't care as long as he got his bung, and a chance to blame the Tories.

Developer mistakenly deleted data - so thoroughly nobody could pin it on him!

Re: Two years ago

The argument wasn't empty. "${XXX}/" becomes "/" when XXX is empty. It's poor coding, rm is doing just what it was asked to do.

Rant launches Eric Raymond's next project: Open-source the UPS

Re: Lack of clue

They also seem to be asuming that there's only one set of requirements for a UPS. I have three at home, for my server, desktop & TV/satellite system. Well over 99% of the outages I see are < 5 seconds due mainly to summer thunderstorms, or winter snow-on-cables. All the UPSes happily coast through those, no need for anything fancy.

The one I use to power the server is over-specified, and does link to a NUT monitor process. I get an email when the power goes out, and if it stays out for a long period the server will do a clean shutdown. So far I've had to replace the (sealed lead-acid) batteries once, when the originals lost too much capacity.

The fancy one that Raymond is suggesting would be OK for my server, but probably over-priced. It would certainly be overkill for the other two.

To be honest, the biggest criticism I have of the one I use for my server is the amount of power it consumes itself when in standby (i.e. normal mains operation). That will be my primary concern when I come to replace it.

Europe is living in the past (by nearly six minutes) thanks to Serbia and Kosovo

Re: You probably also think we use inches.

If the PTB had balls all this could have been sorted 50 years ago. But we seem to be happy sitting between the two systems.

It's a question of convenience. Peope use metric measurements for calculations etc. because it's easier. For things like distances, though, no-one actually cares about the actual number. Tell someone "it's 12 miles away" and that translates mentally into "about 15 minutes in the car" or "too far to walk, I'll take the bike", etc. Tell them "20km" and they have no mental reference for it, so it's meaningless. Same for fuel consumption, what matters is "how much to fill the tank" and "more or less economical than my last car". Litres/gallons/pints are irrelevant as such.

Re: For those who wonder...

If then Britain is alone with DC then, well, how surprising, not.

How can you be that unaware of the situation outside your borders, yet still feel competent to comment on another country's political choices?

Local and medium distance is AC, for long haul DC is more efficient. That's pretty consistent worldwide.

Re: Mains powered clock

Is there such a thing at all nowdays? It is cheaper to throw in a quartz osciallator or a real time clock than to measure grid frequency.

That was my thought when I first heard about this, but I suppose there are still some mechanical clocks with synchronous motors around.

Auto manufacturers are asleep at the wheel when it comes to security

Ah, lucky old Fred...

Will the defendant please rise? Utah State Bar hunts for sender of topless email

Re: Calling

Private Browsing

He's busy with Corporal Punishment and Major Scandal. General Uproar will be along in a moment.

Netflix could pwn 2020s IT security – they need only reach out and take

Re: I remember when....

containers really aren't that new. Docker was first released in 2013, but the underlying kernel primitives hit Linux in 2006.

And Solaris has had fully-fledged containers (zones) since way back in 2005.

'A sledgehammer to crack a nut': Charities slam UK voter ID trials

Re: Doesn't seem to understand how voting works

An argument for getting rid of First Past the Post if ever I saw one.

I give you Italy as a counter-argument.

Sacked saleswoman told to pay Intel £45k after losing discrim case

Re: I feel you are vindicated as well

Are you suggesting that she has a chip on her shoulder?

Intel outside?

10 PRINT "ZX81 at 37" 20 GOTO 10

Re: Over 40 and used one of these?

I got burned off of anything with a 'Sinclair' label on it with his Radios. Useless POS.

Not everything. My original Sinclair Scientific still works, RPN logic & all!

Re: The best thing about the ZX81...

It also had lots of working examples of how to drive peripheral functions via the GPIO - instead of dedicated logic ICs.

Ah yes, making correctly-sequenced traffic lights using Red, Yellow and Green LEDs - seemed so clever at the time, all programmed in hand-assembled hex.

Good luck saying 'Sorry I'm late, I had to update my car's firmware'

Strangely, I like my computers to not do anything unless requested.

Me too, but it isn't my computer.

You have to be an idiot to blindly upgrade everything the second it pops up.

Couldn't agree more, but try telling that to the company IT people who provide the laptop & software image. Even when I change the registry entries to block updates, the next connection to the corporate network resets them. I've given up, I manage my own systems as they should be managed, and the company can do what it wants on the ones it owns.

Surely anyone who's opened their Windows laptop in an airport for a quick email check while waiting at the gate is familiar with that problem!

Re: OTA Updates for Cars

Why single out Tesla? Just because it uses electricty to power the engine doesn't make it any more or less vulnerable to a control system hack than an ICE car. The hacks which have been carried out so far have been on things like Jeeps, not Teslas. Every car with onboard electronics and OTA (which these days means most new cars) is vulnerable.

UK.gov told: Scrap immigration exemption from Data Protection Bill or we'll see you in court

They voted for no [benefits | housing | healthcare | recognition | rights ] for foreigners. Trying to claim the opposite is outright disingenuous.

You've spoken to them all have you? Or is this just your political prejudices showing though?

Organic battery tech could work better than a woolly hat in the cold

Re: Naphthalenetetracarboxylic

Naff for short?

Full shift to electric vans would melt Royal Mail's London hub, MPs told

Re: I see the anti-electric brigade have shown up

I am continually amazed that some usually very bright people here are thick as bricks when it comes to solar, wind and electric cars.

And I'm continually amazed how may people think that they can rewrite the laws of physics just by waving their hands around. It's perpetual motion all over again, and it still doesn't work.

Re: The solution is clear

Easy, roll into your nearest friendly local service station "Two Thousand triple A's and a rank sandwich please mate"

Sorted, surely this would be the most realistic situation, not triple A's of course, a standard sized battery.

Until you calculate the grid connection such a service station would need in order to keep that stock of batteries on hand, and charged. Then it become smuch less feasible, especially in urban areas.

A flow battery might work, where you just pump in/out some new electrolyte.

Re: Points to ponder

300km "occasionall"y is a good argument for easier vehicle hire when you need to do that (or a drop in range extender on an EV)

But who is going to make or hire them if 90% of the fleet is electric? It's an argument that only works as long as EVs are a niche market, and it still requires a parallel distibution system for liquid fuel for the long-distance vehicles.

Having a specific vehicle as a daily driver _just_ so you can do a 4000km trip a couple of times a year comes under several shades of silly.

Yes, I'd love to have a stable of cars at my disposal so I could choose the right one each day, but I can't afford that, nor do I have space to keep them, so I need one that is a compromise for al my needs.

Re: Fag packet calculation time...

Completely nonsensical. You are talking about one form or fuel, engine, technology and doing a direct conversion to another?

No, I'm talking about the amount of energy consumed by a vehicle over the course of a year. Energy is energy, the source doesn't matter. If a vehicle requires 20kWh to complete a certain journey, it will take require that whether it comes from a battery or a tank of petrol. Basic thermodynamics.

As well as different efficiencies you also have to look at the electricity required for refining petrol/diesel as well as the energy require in the logistics of delivery, extraction etc.

Indeed so, but even allowing for electric motors being more efficient than petrol engines, so requiring less stored energy, the difference is only a factor of 2 at most, it still doesn't add up. There are energy costs related to distribution and extraction for all types of energy. Grid+battery isn't some magic 10x more efficient, which it would need to be for this to work.

It is pointless starting with ICE and converting when electric cars already exist and their capacity, charge capabilities and efficiencies are already known.

That's a nonsensical statement, and unrelated to the issue at hand. Take the average distance travelled by a vehicle in a year, across the whole UK fleet, work out how much energy you need to cover that distance (which will be the same irrespective of the engine type in the vehicle) and work out where you can get that energy from. The total cannot be met by grid-supplied energy with the current system.

Anyone who starts with that calculation is not going to come out with a reasonable answer.

Sorry, but it's basic physics, start with the same numbers & you'll get the same answer.

Re: Points to ponder

How much electricity does it take to produce a litre of petrol?

Hard to say. It takes around 1 - 1.5 kWh of energy to refine a litre of petrol, but much of that comes from the raw crude. How much energy do you need to use to charge a battery to get the 10kWh equivalent to 1 litre of petrol?

Do you always have to charge an EV from empty to full, rather than just top it up?

Makes no difference, the average energy use over a year is all that matters. With 25m vehicles it averages out no matter of you do a full charge once a week, or a top-up every night. Your neighbours will have different patterns, the average will end up the same.

When will there be a unified means of public charging (you don't need an app to buy petrol)?

If/When there is enough demand.

Why do people consider EVs in the same way as an ICE vehicle

Because they want to use them in the same way? Seriously, though, there's no standard way to use an ICE vehicl.. I do 50km/day commute, with 300km once or twice a month, and 4000km once or twice a year. That's not something that would work for an EV, but isn't necessarily a "standard" pattern.

Then come back and help solve these problems about power and suchlike.

The right way to solve them is by choosing the right technology, not pressing ahead with the wrong one. We have an excellent existing infrastructure for distributing liquid fuel, and which could be used with alcohol or similar. That could be made from renewable sources + waste, and is easily taxed for road use (unlike electricity). That's what governments should be spending their R&D money on. Plug-in rechargeable is a niche market for 2nd or 3rd cars, and will remain so, at least until it's taxed the same as other fuels when it will vanish (again) due to the impracticalities.

Re: Fag packet calculation time...

by 25million at the same time

Nobody mentioned "at the same time", that would be completely impossible to sustain. The calculation is straightforward:

Work out how much energy the UK car fleet consumes per year, when it burns petrol/diesel. For 2016 it was around 140TWh petrol, 130TWh diesel (with another 150TWh for haulage), calculated as Tonnes of Oil Equivalent (TOE). UK annual electricity consumption is 360TWh, so to recharge all those vehicles from the grid would require more than doubling electricty production. UK generating capacity is around 100GW and there are 8760 hours in a year, so all the existing power stations would have to run flat out, 24/7, to meet that demand. That's assuming the load is spread out evenly across the year, not "all at once" which would be even more impossible. Even if we assume an electric car is 50% more efficient than petrol the numbers still don't add up.

Of course, if we can't replace haulage with electric, which seems likely given the range & charging issues despite Tesla's electric truck (and the long replacement cycle for commercial vehicles) we'll still have to maintain a parallel diesel infrastructure to refuel lorries, so many car drivers will simply rely on that, thus potentially increasing the number of dirty vehicles on the road.

Electric cars for everyone just won't work.

Re: Can't they upgrade it?

Or make use of the London Underground's generating plants

They shut Lots Road down 15 years ago, I think LU buys all its power from the grid these days.

Re: Fag packet calculation time...

My 2018 Leaf is currently being charged using the power generated by the PV system on my roof. It will take a big fat zero watts from the grid (provided the sun stays out for 3-4 hours).

To fully charge a Nissan Leaf takes 7.5 hours from a 7kW charger (Nissan's figures). To do it in 3-4 hours will obviously require about 15kW, which is ~ 80m² of solar panels in the UK, at a cost of around £40K. That assumes, of course, that you have 80m² of south-facing roof available. You may have, most people won't.

It all goes to show that the calculations are far too complicated for the back of an envelope.

Not to get a basic idea of feasibility, or lack of it, they're not.

Inviting nearby exoplanet revealed as radiation-baked hell

Plane of the flares?

Surely it will depend on what plane the flares are in, and where the planet is in it's orbit? We've seen our Sun send out a few flares that would have toasted satellites, etc., but we weren't in the way at the time.

Intellisense was off and developer learned you can't code in Canadian

I saved this bit of C a long time ago. I'll leave out the comments, which rather give the game away, but it is credited to Ian Phillipps, Cambridge Consultants Ltd

It's harmless, and SFW. If you cut/paste it you'll need to remove the blank lines (and only the blank lines)

#include <stdio.h>

main(t,_,a) char * a; { return!

0< t? t< 3? main(-79,-13,a+ main(-87,1-_, main(-86, 0, a+1 )

+a)): 1, t< _? main(t+1, _, a ) :3, main ( -94, -27+t, a ) &&t == 2 ?_

< 13 ? main ( 2, _+1, "%s %d %d\n" ) :9:16: t< 0? t< -72? main( _, t,

"@n'+,#'/*{}w+/w#cdnr/+,{}r/*de}+,/*{*+,/w{%+,/w#q#n+,/#{l,+,/n{n+,/+#n+,/#;\

#q#n+,/+k#;*+,/'r :'d*'3,}{w+K w'K:'+}e#';dq#'l q#'+d'K#!/+k#;\

q#'r}eKK#}w'r}eKK{nl]'/#;#q#n'){)#}w'){){nl]'/+#n';d}rw' i;# ){nl]!/n{n#'; \

r{#w'r nc{nl]'/#{l,+'K {rw' iK{;[{nl]'/w#q#\

\

n'wk nw' iwk{KK{nl]!/w{%'l##w#' i; :{nl]'/*{q#'ld;r'}{nlwb!/*de}'c ;;\

{nl'-{}rw]'/+,}##'*}#nc,',#nw]'/+kd'+e}+;\

#'rdq#w! nr'/ ') }+}{rl#'{n' ')# }'+}##(!!/") : t< -50? _==*a ?

putchar(31[a]): main(-65,_,a+1) :

main((*a == '/') + t, _, a + 1 ) : 0< t? main ( 2, 2 , "%s") :*a=='/'||

main(0, main(-61,*a, "!ek;dc i@bK'(q)-[w]*%n+r3#l,{}:\nuwloca-O;m .vpbks,fxntdCeghiry")

,a+1);}

Re: C fun

Reminiscent of the alleged Fortran error in NASA satellite code, where what should have been written as a DO loop was written as something like:

DO 20 I=1.10

...do stuff with I here...

20 CONTINUE

One almost impossible-to-spot typo completely changed the code.

Re: US Rappers

Would that be pronounced Ooro or Oyro?

EE: Data goes TITSUP* for Brit mobile customers

Re: EE

Tautology?

Brexit to better bumpkin broadband, 4G coverage for farmers – Gove

Re: @ Charlie Clark

True, but of most of the people I know who voted Brexit did so because they don't like foreigners,

Maybe you need a better class of acquaintances?!

For the record, I despise a hell of a lot of the EU, like the insistence on two parliaments, the fact that we pay for wastes of space like that scumbag Farage ...

However, we've now thrown away the chance to fix it.

We've spent 25 years trying to fix it and achieved precisely zero. Time to throw it away and start again.

Re: For most of us, Brexit is about economics

Comedy gold.

Says the anonymous coward who can't actually produce a real fact-based rebuttal.

Re: @ Charlie Clark

Under WTO rules you will not have a better deal than you do at the moment. It will be worse and everybody will pay more, not less, for goods coming in from Europe.

Do you have a clue about what the WTO is and how it works? It exists to make trade flow freely, and with the lowest tarifs and taxes possible. It isn't there to impose some sort of punitive rates on countries who can't agree, quite the opposite, it's there to ensure that in the absence of agreed rates the defaults are reasonable, often ZERO.

The level of stupidity and delusion from Brexit supporters is amazing...

But it pales before that of the remainers who are so besotted by their EU masters that they have no clue how the world outside the EU works.

Careful with the 'virtual hugs' says new FreeBSD Code of Conduct

You have to put the onus on people not to offend.

No, the responsibility is shared equally. People shouldn't be intentionally and gratuitously offensive, but there's also a responsibility not to be over-sensitive or to look for offence where it wasn't intended, and certainly not to take offence on behalf of someone else.

Bad news: 43% of login attempts 'malicious' Good news: Er, umm...

a new trend of enterprise systems being targeted, not only to steal their data, but to steal their computing resources,

And which can only get worse as "the cloud" becomes more dominant, especially as people lose poorly-secured mobile devices with apps pre-configured with all their login credentials.

Farts away! Plane makes unscheduled stop after man won't stop guffing

Re: Reminds me of...

Considering some of the garbage that the Olympics include as "sport", you'd have thought that farting would have been included long ago.

They probably can't work out the right dope tests to catch cheaters. Is there a test for vindaloo?

US docs show Daimler may have done a Dieselgate – German press claims

Re: Testing irl

I think that is largely what the independent labs did, and how they found the problems to begin with. Legislating for precise, repeatable, test cycles was always likely to lead to precise cheat coding, far better to leave it to independent labs doing variants on real-world driving, and collating total data.

PM urged to protect data flows post-Brexit ahead of Munich speech

El Reg is not the place I ever thought they'd appear.

Then perhaps you don't understand why people voted for it?

Anyway, coming from an EU 27 country, I can tell you that brexit just doesn't matter as much to us as it does to the UK.

It will, your politicians are already trying to work out how to get you to cough up the money they won't be getting from the UK. The idea that they should adjust their budget to fit their income clearly doesn't appeal to them.

The EU, run by politicians for politicians. The rest of us are just expected to pay the bills and do what we're told.

@Voland's right hand Re: Complex problem

It is disappointing to see how credulous people can be, in believing (and transmitting) the nonsense published in the papers (the Daily Express, of all things), all in the name of protesting about Brexit. It's easy to see why the term "remoaner' was invented.

You, like many people, seem to be confusing what the EU requires with what it makes possible. Take driving licences:

There are mutual recognition agreements between them. This is the exact reason why UK license will NOT be recognized. There is NO mutual recognition agreement. It will be in the "yet to be signed" queue and (surprise, surprise) UK has not signed and ratified the relevant conventions to get an automatic recognition (at least Vienna convention of 1968, probably more).

Wrong. Mutual recognition is defined by international agreements that have much wider scope than the EU. The UK is one of the 74 signatories to the Vienna convention on Road Traffic of 1968, and has both signed and ratified its predecessor, the Geneva convention on Road Traffic 1949. Those conventions define mutual recognition of driving licences worldwide and will not be changed by Brexit.

Private drivers have the workaround of getting an international license so there is a way around it (albeit annoying and painful).

Wrong again. An International Driving Licence (or more correctly Permit) is merely an internationally-recognised translation of your national licence in an agreed format, as proof that you have a valid national licence. It's no "workaround", you still drive on your national licence, under the aforementioned agreements, which apply inside and outside the EU. You can get an IDP by post for £5.50.

The big Bugbear is the insurance. There is a mutual recognition agreement for 3rd party liability insurance in Europe which is beyond Eu. Non-Eu and non-EEA countries like Serbia, Monte Negro, etc participate in it and agree to the same final arbiter. That arbiter is the same as for Open Sky agreement. It is called ECJ. According to stated policy by UK government this is red line.

More FUD. International car insurance in Europe is covered by the Green Card scheme, which has 47 members inside and outside the EU, as you say it is not an EU system. The EU directives simply lay down the rules that EU members must follow in terms of having insurance, making claims etc. For example it makes having insurance mandatory (something that was not always the case, for example it's been mandatory in the UK since 1930, but only since 1958 in France). Here again everything exists without the EU, the EU just says how its members must apply the rules. Post-Brexit it would certainly be possible for, say, France to pass a law saying that UK insurance wasn't valid in France (or vice-versa). That would be a very stupid thing to do given the tourism that would be lost, and again it would need deliberate action. Bexit won't, in itself, change the current situation.

As for the ECJ, you are misrepresenting the situation. The UK's intention is to prevent the ECJ from being able to overrule UK courts on UK matters, the usual example being when a UK court decided to expel a hate-preacher and was prevented from doing so by an ECJ ruling that it would disadvantage his family. There's clearly no change in the ECJ's ability to rule on pan-European issues within its jurisdiction. The UK would still have to respect such judgements, just as it would respect US Supreme Court rulings on US issues, etc.

MOT databases

You're clutching at remoaner straws here. There are EU directives which require each EU member to enact national legislation on roadworthiness, Unless the EU or UK decides to change the rules in a non-compliant way this will remain valid. It won't magically evaporate after Brexit.

Clearly there will need to be agreement on data exchange rules, but that is so fundamental to all trade between EU and non-EU countries that it will obviously continue.

executive summary is - ROYALLY SCREWED

Not even close, but it's up to you. If you want to cower in your little English garden behind your little English fence, planning your next holiday in Skegness because you're scared the big, bad, Brexit wolf won't let you go anywhere else you are entirely free to believe that.

The rest of us will continue our travels around the EU, and the other 80% of the world, as before.

Re: Complex problem

A driving licence issued by the United Kingdom will no longer be recognised by the member states

That's nonsense. EU countries accept driving licences from the US, Australia, etc. without problem. The only time an international driving licence is advised is when the original isn't in a western alphabet. Suggestions that GB or NI licences would be treated any differently is just FUD. Don't be so gullible.

Helicopter crashes after manoeuvres to 'avoid... DJI Phantom drone'

Well, why not. Other aircraft are required to have navigation lights & some are required to have ID transponders.

Home fibre in the UK sucks so much it doesn't even rank in Euro study

Re: False advertising!

@ Phil O'Sophical, You can get fibre LAN card in the computer. But those are expensive (up to $599) and that would require a different modems than are in use today. Normal Ethernet works today at the speed of 1Gbps or more (depending on hardware and cables in use) even if it is a copper connection.

Yes, I'm well aware of that, we have racks of the stuff, Fibre, 10G and 1G, in the server room beside me. It's not something the average home user wants, need, or cares about, though and nor does it change the question. Almost no "Fibre" connection is 100% fibre, so why nitpick on the name as long as you're getting sufficient performance at a suitable price?

Re: False advertising!

An inch of fibre followed by half a mile of damp string isn't a Fibre connection!

But where do you draw the line? If the Fibre stops at the modem and has copper/wifi to the PC, is it still "Fibre"? What if the Fibre stops at the pole 10m down the path? 100m? The cabinet 500m away?

Most people really don't care, they just want "fast enough" Internet, and they aren't going to pay more than they need to for clever technology that they don't understand anway.

Stop calling, stop calling... ICO goes gaga after home improvement biz ignores warnings

Re: Bigger teeth

ban the current bosses from being directors for the next 10 years.

They'll just start the next one in the name of their wife/boyfriend/dog.

For deliberately ignoring the law they should get fined personally, with jail time for the second offence.