Posts by MachDiamond

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin waves bye bye to October 13 ESCAPADE

"Blue Oink is there to soak up tax dollars."

The tax dollars to date have been very insignificant and were paid for completed contracts. The financing has been from Jeff's sale of Amazon stock and not much else.

IBM quietly axing thousands of jobs, source says

Re: What about the WARN notice?

"requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of planned closings and mass layoffs of employees."

And if your name is Elon, what penalties are imposed if you don't? A mild scolding, a few years down the road?

Lebanon now hit with deadly walkie-talkie blasts as Israel declares ‘new phase’ of war

Re: If I were a world leader or in the administration thereof. . .

"Or just an immediate ban on electronic devices on airlines, or importation of any devices containing Israeli components."

I doubt the products had a "Made in Israel" label on them. They could have been shipped from Taiwan from a seemingly Taiwanese vendor. Anything shipped to an address in Lebanon got the loaded product and specific marketing was set up to hit that market. Lots of Asian online sellers are here today and gone tomorrow. That's one of the reasons any lifetime product guarantees are useless. For some things I buy on eBay, I look at the vendor's "about" page and will often decline to buy from one in China yet claiming a US shipping point. They often set up an account named "BobsDeals" so look like US seller and occasionally have somebody go over their ad copy. If they don't, their grammar and word usage will rat them out. In this case, choosing a common Lebanese name for a vendor and having ad copy that's appropriate for the region will put customers at ease and simplify the process. I could buy from a vendor in Germany while using a translation app, but that would be more work since I'm not fluent in German.

Re: Experts

"in two more days, we'll have another type of personal appliance that you shouldn't buy second have from Northern Israel."

Hmmm, I doubt the same trick can be used again with much success. I'd be building my own battery packs and not buying them online at a very low price. I suspect that there was a flood of really low priced replacement batteries on the market for some time prior. If they didn't last as long as the OEM cells, people wouldn't be surprised due to the cheap price. If they had an Icom handie talkie with a removable pack, they'd get two at the low price and keep one on a charger and not be too concerned.

Re: If an Icom IC-V82

"For the same reason, if I was using pagers, they would only send encrypted messages,"

I don't see why they wouldn't just send coded messages rather than encrypted.

Re: If an Icom IC-V82

" No encryption allowed on Amateur (Ham) radio, unless someone changed that recently."

I have a strong feeling that the entities in the middle east would not worry too much about what's "allowed". Placing explosives in devices isn't "allowed" either, but there you are.

SpaceX faces $663K FAA fine for Musk's alleged launch impatience

"These are paperwork issues, all of these launches were perfectly safe."

Really? You've been given access to the technical documentation and have had the chance to do site visits to make sure that everything has been implemented correctly?

Paperwork requiring government sign off is a PIA, no argument there. What has to be done is getting it started well in advance and pushing to get progressive check offs so only a little bit is left to inspect and approve once the work is done and the cleaners have been and gone. Waiting until 30 days before and sending an "unless otherwise directed" missive ala the Rouge Warrior doesn't cut the mustard. Real space companies have departments to deal with this carp.

I file flight plans as soon as I have made a commitment to fly days in advance. I don't wait until the morning of only to find out that if I left an hour before I'd miss a TFR. Since it's campaigning/fund raising season in the US and I'm not too far from a major city, it can be a concern. I can also let a customer know of any issue in advance as well so we can make other arrangements if needed.

Re: The FAA should have power to block all launches till fines are paid.

"Does SpaceX pay its fines? Or is it like Twitter, and waits for the bailiffs to show up?"

You title says it all. Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base are military installations so SpaceX could easily be locked out of having more than a maintenance crew on site. At minimum, the fines should be put in escrow if SpaceX decides to appeal or they don't get licenses back. I'm sure the Russians would love to take some more US money to add flights to ISS.

There's no point in confiscating Starlink satellites but ground stations.......

AI giants pinky swear (again) not to help make deepfake smut

The bleeding edge

Porn is often where you find the latest in visual technology. I expect the day after 4k cameras were released, there was adult content that very few could play at full res. With AI generated smut, we can decide whether we want to have the performers covered in ink/clang (like bling, but heavier/more) and surgically enhanced. No more having to take what we can find.

EU OKs $1.9B aid for Intel Polish plant, assuming x86 giant doesn't end up cutting it

"That does not sound like a good deal for Poland to me."

Yes, in a couple of years, the depreciation on that plant will be as bad as buying a new car.

Re: More corporate welfare.

"Nope, corporate welfare needs to die."

I don't see why large companies constantly need giant government handouts. Don't give that money to humans either. Just don't collect it in the first place and people won't have paid it in tax taken from their pay.

The big companies are going to located facilities where it makes sense to put them. The whole pandering for money is only there to get some bidding going so the place(s) where it makes sense will up their bid so the company isn't out of pocket on their expansion. When I had manufacturing company, I couldn't get an SBA loan since my ancestry wasn't on the approved list (European) and the local governments seemed to be on a war path to force me out of business with fees, permits, taxes and if they can swing it, fines for my pallet racking being too tall.

Boeing union workers in US reject contract: 96% vote to strike

"WHy doesnt B simply fire 99% of their management and with that money saved give it to the real workers ?"

Ok, management is paid the same as an experienced line worker so everybody gets an additional $1,000 every year.

Yes, I agree that executive salaries are way over the top, but winding them back still wouldn't be that much if spread across all of the non-management employees (who work for the Union, not the company). I'm not saying that they shouldn't be reeled in just for the look of the thing.

The port crane operators when on strike at the Port of Los Angeles/Port of Long Beach some time back. Once it was revealed that they work a short day and pull down a healthy six figure salary, people lost any compassion for them. The unions were fighting against computerization of shipping manifests since it would reduce headcount in the staff that did all of that work manually. Most other major ports in the world have gone the automated route since it can get ships in/out faster if the paperwork is all done and dusted.

Re: Is that fire door unlocked?

"Unions are the only reason you can open the fire doors and maybe not burn to death."

There was a time when unions made significant contributions towards worker safety, but the vast majority of that is codified in law. If companies don't offer pay raises, benefits and other consideration, workers will jump ship often to another maker who will offer them more. There is a limit or would be if there weren't unions. Training somebody new costs money since they won't be as useful initially and they might have been hired to replace somebody that left who was exceptionally good. Not only that, a whole bunch of institutional knowledge has walked out of the door too. There are laws regarding divulging proprietary information to a new employer or at least a durable contract that forbids it, but that often won't apply to workflow and doing things a certain way to increase efficiency. That sort of stuff isn't documented that often either so when somebody like Elon fires an entire division, new hires have very little in the way of training materials to learn their jobs.

If Unions were simply concentrating on workplace safety and reasonable compensation, they wouldn't be hated by management so much. Union employees whose jobs amount to little more than button sorting can wind up with compensation (salary plus benefits) that should allow a spouse to stay home and raise 5 kids.

Re: Assurance the next commercial plane will be built in WA...?

"Even if Boeing started designing a new plane today, this union contract will long expired before the first bird flies."

The goal will be to set a precedent that the Union gets to make those sorts of demands. The UAW has US auto makers in a bind with that sort of thing. Ford can't shut down an unprofitable line or kill off a model few want to buy without a blessing from the union. The UAW also gets a say where a new model will be built and which factories will be updated first.

"A 25% raise isn't good enough?"

The bigger concern is the Union's ability to tell Boeing where they can make their aircraft. It might make more sense to build a plant elsewhere to get out or the miserable weather, be closer to suppliers or have access to less expensive utilities. Washington state is hyper-liberal and the politicians like to come up with taxes on larger companies to fund SJW causes. Of course, they don't have a patch on California, but it's still a bit worse than Oregon. If Texas gets a few more large employers, it could make a lot of sense for them to secede as they've been threatening. Boeing relocating there would be a boon.

Re: replace them all

"play in our orchestras"

So that's it! I thought I just sucked at playing cello when all along it was they'd have to pay me too much.

Australia’s government spent the week boxing Big Tech

Re: "off limits until kids turn 16"

"There was a crackdown on the whole 'random children travelling on adult's passports without photo verification' thing some years back."

Photo verification of a child that doesn't even crawl yet is useless. The US requires they have a Social Security Number for their parents to take the tax deduction from day two (you'd think a new mother would be rather spent, but the government doesn't see it that way. The last Supreme Court justice couldn't describe what a woman is).

Re: "off limits until kids turn 16"

"Vapes are becoming so hard to get that people are reverting to black market cigarettes."

You could grown your own tobacco, but vape juice is easy to make on your own and parts to build a juice box can be had off of eBay via suppliers in China. The biggest problem with jacking taxes way up on things people want is it opens the door to organized crime. The risk is minimal compared to the reward and do people get sentenced to years in prison for smuggling ciggies? My friends in California tell me it's no problem to get flavored cigs from select corner shops if they know you. They get them from people spending a weekend in Las Vegas that buy tax free from the Indian store and there's no ban in Nevada. Just load the boot with a few cases and one can pay for their trip (but not likely their gambling loses).

Re: "off limits until kids turn 16"

"As far as I know, no country delivers ID cards to anyone that is not a legal adult in that country, and that generally means 18."

Not at all. My youngest sister had a state issued ID when she was around 8yo. That way she could use "her" credit card (on her dad's account). The card was kept locked up so my other sister and I wouldn't take her to the mall to go shopping.

Trump taps Musk to lead 'government efficiency' task force

"and now back in the news for crossing the aisle and throwing his weight behind the Demorats?"

He's just mad that The People chucked out his useless daughter.

Re: The talent and expertise will not be sacked.

"It's easy to talk about but most give up when they realise they need a passport and visa."

Getting a visa for Oz or NZ is no problem. Getting one that allows you to work IS a big problem. It can even be a pain to get performer visas sometimes. One band I was with had a bunch of crew since it was a complicated stage production and it took a bunch of wrangling to get the last person on the list (I can't remember what the limit was for bands at the time). We were tempted to re-file as a traveling circus and calling everybody a performer rather than making a distinction between the band and the crew.

Re: Government efficiency by Musk

"The lunar lander version of Starship will have landing legs and likely will have engines mounted higher up on the fuselage."

Really? That's not been in any design Elon has made public. Did I miss something?

Elon's plan is to launch an orbiting fuel depot and a whole bunch of rockets to tank it up. There's no talk of cargo missions to the moon to pre-position supplies. Building a landing pad would take people. Too much is unknown about doing anything more than walking about on the surface to automate it.

Re: Government efficiency by Musk

"How are they going to build a catcher on the moon/mars ?"

The premise behind catching the rocket is to decrease the time it takes to reuse the rocket along with saving the mass of the landing legs. Something going to the Moon or Mars is far less likely to be reused and it would take a lot of need to spend the time building the capability off-Earth.

SpaceX blasts being stuck in bureaucratic orbit as Starship approval slips

"Whether it's stolen tech/knowledge or just working with "we know this can be done" advantage I leave for the reader to decide. "

Rockets have been landed for ages. Not doing it was a financial decision, not a technical one. I worked at a company that was doing it long before Grasshopper.

"Yeah...and I suppose you also believe (and publicly proclaim) that Haitians are barbecuing Fluffy in Ohio somewhere, too."

Cats can be a bit stringy. Local avian life on the other hand.....

Re: Elon throws a tantrum

" What you seem to be complaining about is a lack of understanding of the SpaceX development process. "

Fire, Aim, Ready. I have plenty of experience in manufacturing and aerospace and what Elon is doing isn't a valid approach other than as an exercise to spend as much money as possible. It's pointless to set a launch date and launch whatever there is on that date regardless. It's better to get to something that has a reasonable expectation of doing what it's supposed to and then setting a date.

BO isn't selling "joy rides" for the sake of being an amusement company. They gone step by step in a responsible fashion to have a craft that is competent enough to launch people. They also launch experiments with New Shepard though to little fanfare. The development of the BE-3 engine has given lots on insight to developing the BE-4 which is not only useful in-house, but as a saleable item. Jeff isn't being summoned to testify regarding "accidents" due to a rushed development program. He is making noises about increasing the rate of progress since he doesn't want to sell all of his Amazon stock to support the company and that's likely part of the reason he stepped down as CEO of Amazon to spend more time at BO so there's no lag in making decisions when they need to be made at the top level.

A first launch success for New Glenn would be ideal, but if the rocket performs most of the first mission with only a minor anomaly, that can be acceptable since it is a very complex system. Just clearing the launch pad isn't going to suffice to call it a success (in hindsight). The booster cartwheeling and then exploding at altitude isn't acceptable either. Missing the barge on landing might be ok depending on why. The main goal for a customer is for their payload to be put where it needs to go, intact and functional (not shaken to bits).

Re: Food adulteration

"and suppliers put all sorts of poisonous shite in the food and drink of the day,"

In trying to make bread more white, they poisoned their customers. Fast forward to today and people are keen on "organic" rustic loaves that are wheat colored and have bits in. I don't see a point in bleaching flour so I buy unbleached. My bread looks like bread and the house smells amazing when I'm baking.

Get somebody drunk and you might be in with a chance. Feed them a good home cooked meal and you may have to fight them off. There's that whole thing of not being charged with crimes that's a bonus to the latter approach. Carbs as aphrodisiacs.

Re: Chinese Money

"They own quite a large chunk of American corporations, infrastructure, and supply contracts already, and that percentage is growing all the time,"

They've spend a lot of time and money to take over sections of US manufacturing to risk losing access to the US market.

Re: Prize knob

"The whole Xitter saga reeks of him being forced into buying it after blowing smoke and being told by regulators to put up or shut up"

He signed the contract, plain and simple. Had he not immediately gone on a rant disparaging the company in ways expressly prohibited by that contract, he could have paid them a cancellation fee and walked away. When he bought a load of stock, Elon was invited to be on the Board, but he declined. That position would have given him all the insight into the company that he could want. It wasn't regulators that forced him to do anything. It was his lawyers that finally convinced him that he was going to lose the court case or at the very least looked really bad if he managed to win.

Now Elon/SpaceX have a fixed price contract to deliver an uncrewed lander to the moon and back up to lunar orbit. 2/3rds of the contract has been paid and there is still no functioning prototype of the core vehicle, not to mention the orbital depot, tankers or even the space-rated cryo couplers needed to transfer propellants in orbit. SpaceX hasn't even delivered a mock up of the lander interior to NASA so it can be evaluated and the design smoothed out. The tortoise may wind up delivering a lunar lander before SpaceX has half of the technology ready for their architecture.

Re: Elon throws a tantrum

"But that's because far they have not *tried* to land the two parts in a recoverable or reusable way. "

Blowing up negates any chance of "trying". It looks like IFT-4 also had issues.

Elon has stated a few times that the Raptor engine is being run right on the edge. How is that a good thing for a rocket that's supposed to be renewable? I would want to have a decent amount of margin rather than being at the limits of the materials.

Re: November

"That's actually kind of... odd."

What? That the US elections are being held on Guy Fawkes day? The first Tuesday of November has been election day in the US for some time. Rather than just calling for an election and sending agencies scrambling to set up polling locations, it's more organized to hold voting on a particular day a couple of times each year.

Re: "Campaign for a Rural Unspoiled Traditional England"

"A Google search shows no such organisation with this name."

That's ok. If you use AI to do your research, you get an out if you wind up with utter tripe. Unless you're an attorney. At least one has been disbarred for not vetting an AI generated brief where the machine was making things up.

Lots of things are possible and some might sound likely on first listen, but a lot is lorry loads of organic fertilizer. Some might even be the blamed entity starting the rumor that they interfered with something so they didn't have to spend the money and take the risk in the first place but wound up with the results they wanted. A nation such as China has to be careful they don't go too far and wind up getting slapped with trade embargoes or high tariffs. If they donate to fringe groups, it can't be in large amounts and has to be in ways that aren't particularly traceable.

Re: Elon throws a tantrum

"New Glenn is also not fully reusable, so also more like Falcon Heavy than Starship."

Starship isn't fully reusable yet either unless your definition includes gathering up all of the pieces, melting them down and making a new rocket out of them. New Glenn's booster is designed and built to be recoverable, but the missions they contemplate have the second stage going too far/fast to be a good risk to bring back and also have the performance to re-land without a huge hit to how much can be launched.

The SpaceX Raptor engines will still need more work. The last flight where they did accomplish a simulated landing of the booster still had a dead engine. Had they recovered the stage, that engine would definitely need replacing and the rest given a good examine to make sure nothing else has gone beyond tolerances. If too much work is needed, it gets into the realm of "refurbishable" like the Shuttle. Elon and Gwen talk about a regime where turn around is less than a week. Of course, they've talked about that for years now.

Re: SpaceX hasn't put the Starship in orbit

"True, but that's only because the burn was terminated just before it reached orbital velocity"

The fuel gauges looked a little low as well which may have been a factor in deciding not to test an in-space relight where that capability is intended so the ship can de-orbit. A bigger concern is those near empty fuel tanks were on a mission with nothing inside the rocket. There didn't seem to be enough for a de-orbit burn and fuel to land.

Transport for London confirms 5,000 users' bank data exposed, pulls large chunks of IT infra offline

Re: 17 year old arrested for the hack?

"Plus theres some quite good tooling out there to genearte convincing speech based on voice samples of an individual"

There's an ad on YT for a product that lets you change your voice to all sorts. If you need an older male voice with a Sydney accent, they might have it. A mature lady's voice to play the part of a Vip's secretary.... A young girl's voice to be the company presidents daughter. The product is supposed to be for independent content producers, but I see it as a social engineering dream.

Re: 17 year old arrested for the hack?

"Back then we had to learn stuff on our own with just books and mags, we didn't have forums. These days kids into the same thing have thousands of posts, code samples, FOSS, forums that will encourage competition between people willing to put in the time."

You must really go back. I'm no spring chicken and was on a few BBS's before the internet that had discussions about *things*. I'd have to save up to do any war dialing as calls to number 10 miles away could be "local long-distance" and cost money. I didn't know about Blue Boxing until the telcos pretty much cut that off. (I do have a Captain Crunch whistle).

Today it's far easier to find more information in a snap. I don't have to dial into a system from a POTS line either, I could use the wi-fi of a downtown hotel. Slow but pretty anonymous. The speed is considerably faster too.

Re: 17 year old arrested for the hack?

"even if security is lax, it can't have been trivial."

Just realize that a teenager living at home has nearly no costs so doesn't have to work to eat and also has lots of free time to fixate on something. They might be skilled, but could also have stumbled across some insecure information left lying around by some contractor and used it to access something. The point is that the victim wasn't chosen in advance and was just picked based on that insecure load of Login/Pass pairs that was found.

I'd agree that if you picked TfL as your target and worked from there, it might be a tough nut to work cold.

Re: Surprised? No

"Can it be stopped? I'm inclined to think that most IT infrastructure has grown to the point where no-one entirely understands it."

There's been no downside to dodgy security thus far. Anybody that can get people to give them PII, will do so and store it to be sold on. There's no risk to the company should something go wrong.

There are ways to store information that isn't available in one large dump on demand if it needs to be accessed regularly. Sure, the C-level idiots may want that function for themselves, just in case, but it just opens up a giant hole in security. For particularly sensitive data such as hospital records, having a requirement that people needing large data sets work from an approved location that has physical security and checks. A physician that needs to look at charts for their patients in hospital could do that via their unique login if they are on record as attending that patient.

I stole 20 GB of data from Capgemini – and now I'm leaking it, says cybercrook

Re: Fortunately the value of generic data is vastly overrated

"This. It's a lot less trouble to buy a new harddisc than to tidy up the crap that accumulates on the current one(s). Besides, that random kitten meme that I downloaded at half three in the morning three years ago...might be quite the thing that I need at some random point in the future."

It's also easier to keep paying the monthly rent on a storage unit than clearing everything out and renting a truck to pick up what's to be kept. Been there. If I ever get a storage unit again, it will have a defined term and will be a stepping stone to moving house.

Re: Fortunately the value of generic data is vastly overrated

"One of the problems with having what is effectively infinite storage space is that there's a tendency to store an infinite amount of junk in it, "just in case"."

There's also no downside in warehousing personal data and huge upsides to being able to sell it for nearly costless revenue.

Re: Reap what you sow

"Getting into my 50s I'm starting to see the world for what it really is, a right pile of shite, full of greedy, selfish morons with zero idea how to do anything properly without effing up eveyrthing they touch!"

There's no ownership of responsibility. Senior executives are insulated from prosecution so why should they care if they mishandle personal data? If those execs could wind up with fines, jail and a lifetime ban on working in that industry, maybe there would be more care.

NASA engineers play space surgeon in bid to unclog Voyager 1's arteries

Re: Stunning engineering....

"but a consequence of material science advancing as far as it has..."

Material science is very far ahead, but so it modeling lifetimes so spec'ing components that will last not much longer than the warranty period is simpler. OTOH, If you look at the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, they had to last a minimum of 90 sols after a rough trip to the red planet and survive the conditions once they got there. If they didn't, many senior people on the teams would never work on that sort of project ever again. Harsh, but due to the cost of those sorts of missions, NASA and other stakeholders can only support winners. Since the rovers were built so well, they lasted many years and even kept on dragging a duff wheel or other failure.

Re: Stunning engineering....

"purchased a top of the line induction cooktop from them for $7k. "

To me, full swank would be an Aga. The downside is that it's too hot here in the summer to use one year-round.

Rant:

I found a range today for free but the person posting the ad had stuck it in front of their house, first come, first served. It's about 45 minutes from me and I'd need to rent a truck to move it so it would be a total waste of time and money if I did that and found it had already gone. I'm ranting due to it being a model that I want and the only issue is the housekeeper hit the stainless with the wrong sort of cleaner and discolored the metal. Grrrr.

Re: Stunning engineering....

"though I did have to fit a new thermostat in about year three."

The skills to do that are fading away. My counter-top convection oven is a complete Frankenstein since the point where the selector switch broke and no replacements were to be found. The PID controller on it now is more accurate, the relay is bog standard and I expect if there were a replacement part available, it would have cost more. I have some fun doing "steam punk" control refits on things so the bodge looks intentional.

Re: Stunning engineering....

"Can you imagine anything built today still working in 2071???"

I have a waffle iron made in the 1960's that's still working (2 power lead replacements). I found a cleaner one at a second hand shop so I have two now. No wi-fi, bluetooth or Alexa capability.

Boeing's Calamity Capsule returns to Earth without a crew

Re: A lengthy period in space is not good for human health.

"- stick to the plan with 50% chances of being incinerated alive in a fucked-up capsule but keep Boing stakeholders happy (won't be their problem, is a NASA accident)"

The chance of an unsuccessful landing was nowhere near 50%. The difference with the unknown trustworthiness of the thrusters wasn't demonstrably greater than the risk of going in a capsule with no known issues according to Scott Manley who has been following all of the technical disclosures.

8 months in space at their ages is going to mean a good year or more of physical therapy to recover as best as they can to good health. It's debilitating to spend extended amounts of time in space so it's not a bonus to have to stay longer than planned.

Astronomers back call for review of bonkers rule that means satellite swarms fly without environment checks

"Fukushima had considerable defences against tsunami's"

With batteries and generators in the basement next to the ocean, I'm not seeing those defenses. Even if those were at the top of a hill and the water went that high, chances would be good that they'd still work. Being sat in a pool of salt water was a problem.

SpaceX tries to wash away Texas pollution allegations

Re: 70 years ago...

"It's all consistent with theoretical physics, it's just that nasty reality that keeps getting in the way."

Sort of. It might be consistent with theoretical physics for atoms/sub atomic particles, but doesn't scale up to anything of a useful size, like a spaceship.

Feds urge 3D printing industry to end DIY machine guns

Re: Dubious Conversions

"You can't blame the file manufacturer, or start to place restrictions on sales of hand-tools to try to curb this problem. "

How about rocks? Stoning used to be popular.

Lengths of lumber? Sir Dennis Eaton Hogg thought well of traveling with a sturdy cricket bat.

Just about everything has been used as a weapon. There's no closing Pandora's box once its been opened. What can be done is have serious consequences that are enforced for using a weapon. There should be no way somebody arrested and charged with a crime that involves any sort of weapon can get out on a personal recognizance signature bond. Only, perhaps, if there's strong evidence that it was in self defense or to protect somebody else under immediate threat. With so many officers wearing body cams, a judge should have a quick look before letting an arrestee out of custody. As it is, many criminals have been taught that they won't receive harsh treatment (at the hands of the law) and will in the end have most of the charges dropped anyway.

Re: Handgun?

""cheap labour" meaning state-sactioned slavery per the 13th amendment"

Sure. Incarceration is supposed to also rehabilitate the criminal beyond just warehousing them for some time. Learning a trade would be a good use of time and the government is a huge consumer themselves so there's plenty of work to go around. I am against private industry being able to engage prisoners for work unless the output is for government use. ie, the private company is managing the program on behalf of the government, but the less of that, the better.

Even big companies deduct for room and board or it becomes a component of a worker's compensation in certain circumstances. Take, for instance, cruise ship workers. They can't commute to work and cooking in their rooms would be a bad thing. Many oil fields have bunk houses and cafeterias but workers are allowed to provide their own arrangements if they like. A prison has many other expenses as an oil field worker isn't surrounded by guards to keep them from leaving. While medical insurance might be provided, prisoners are often covered beyond what many health insurance packages will provide without a lot of extra premium costs. There's controversy in the US over the Government paying for "gender affirming" surgery to prisoners. I expect it can be very expensive (I haven't had a need to shop) so doing a crime with a 2-3 year ticket (out in 18 months) could be a trade somebody might find acceptable.