Posts by elljay75

You know what's coming next: FBI is upset it can't get into Texas church gunman's smartphone

Re: FBI can't unlock smartphone

That's easy.

Ask the Australian government. Following the Port Arthur massacre, gun laws became one of the tightest in the world.

Gun amnesties were run. Anyone with a gun who didn't have a legitimate need for it was required to hand their weapon in or have it disabled.

Once the amnesty was over, anyone who still hadn't handed their gun over was invited for a chat with the boys in blue. Sometimes they were invited to stay in a big house with lots of other naughty people who had done something wrong.

Gun control isn't complicated. But it does need balls to take the step of removing weapons - especially assault rifle and military grade weapons systems - from the hands of the general population. Something that no American senator or politician has.

Thats how I would plan to remove gun ownership.

Boeing 737 turns 50

Re: I always feel safer in Boeings than Airbus.

The rudder in question exceeded the certification requirements, and the NTSB tested the composite materials because the rudder had suffered a delamination problem before it was first put into service. American Airlines were number 2 on the hitlist because they weren't training their pilots good recovery techniques in simulators. If the co-pilot hadn't been kicking the rudder back and forth, the aerodynamic forces would have stabilised and the accident would never have happened.

That said, Airbus also get a dishonorable mention as the A300 had really sensitive rudder inputs with a pretty limited amount of travel to go from hard left to hard right. (A300s and A310s used "real" flight controls as opposed to fly-by-wire systems). There were also 10 previous incidents involving rudder overstress with that particular aircraft, which suggests a bunch of overzealous pilots or that the rudder was oversensitive.

Report is here ..

http://www.webcitation.org/6MCNWZiF6?url=http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2004/AAR0404.pdf

With all that said..... Given that most airliners from Boeing and Airbus now use composite materials, it really doesn't matter what you're flying nowadays - it's likely to be some sort of composite you're sat in! And airliners such as the B777 use graphite panels as their rudder panels, so clearly Boeing also see merit in using composite materials for flight controls.

Trouble at t' mill (or TIKO 3D Printer Factory)

Trouble at t' mill (or TIKO 3D Printer Factory)

So I had an email this morning from Tiko... makers of the cheap 3D printer.

In fact so cheap it's no longer available.... so I guess that makes it priceless?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

You are receiving this email because you pre-ordered a Tiko 3D printer on or after November 28th 2016.

We regret to inform you that due to circumstances beyond our control, our company may not be able to fulfill these orders. As such, we are refunding the full balance of your pre-order. You should receive an email confirmation from Stripe shortly. Please allow 5-10 business days for this transaction to appear on your bank statements.

We appreciate your business, and apologize for any inconvenience. We hope that you will consider Tiko products in the future. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at [e-mail]

Sincerely,

Team Tiko

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How ... dashed.... annoying....

BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

Haven't read all the comments, however.....

I'd say they could probably try and use the same "evidence" that the big Hollywood $tudios use .. namely tracking your IP address from the website. Bear in mind that, AFAIK, the BBC monitor and record your iPlayer history - all they theoretically need to do is correlate an IP address with a subscriber ID (for example, from Virgin / BT / some other ISP) and then Auntie is well and truly up your fanny .....

600,000 cable modems have an easy to pop backdoor in a backdoor

As this is a security hole, in an Arris modem...

Could you call this an Arris 'ole.....?

Australia's PM says data retention laws think of the children

Re: BS

Whilst I hate to disagree with the comment about LNP opposing the move to compulsory data retention..... according to this article, George Brandis was under the impression that "The public would accept a level of mandatory data retention" whilst Mark Dreyfus, the then LNP attorney general, scrapped the move....

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/24/government-shelves-metadata-collection-plan

Alec Baldwin kicked off plane for playing with his phone

Spoiled child syndrome?

Seems to me like Mr Baldwin needs to take a big dose of grow up pills

He was probably told on several occasions to switch off said game - which as far as I know from reading the website needs a network connection to function. So the chances are that he wasn't using flight mode because if he had been, he wouldn't be able to play the game.

He probably would have been invited to turn off the device or leave the flight - again he decides he doesn't want to stop playing his game, so he is required to take the only other option available to him and the airline.

Just because he's a star, doesn't mean a bag of rocks as far as I can see. Nor does the fact that all the electronics are pretty well shielded. As someone else made the comment, the rules are indeed the rules. The rest of us must abide with them, I see no reason why Mr Baldwin can't grow up and follow them too.

BTW, I've been on many flights where, even though the passengers have been allowed on to the aircraft, they're still refuelling or running other checks, which means that the "no electronic devices" rule is enforced. I'm not saying that this was the case, but merely that there are many situations in which the "no devices switched on" precaution is exercised even if the aircraft isn't about to go hurtling into the sky at a rate of knots.