Posts by H in The Hague

Who knew that hosing a table with copious amounts of cubic metres would trip adult filters?

Re: Inside joke?

Wake & Paine funeral directors in Twickenham is also somewhat unfortunate. Been like that for decades, have actually driven past their shop.

Re: Over sensitive company intranet

"she could never remember which was the male connector and which was the female"

I learned a bit about electronics and connectors before I learned about the facts of life - so initially found that naming convention quite unfathomable.

"I'm old enough to remember when Middlesex and Essex were blocked by spam filters"

I wonder how anyone living here copes with those filters:

The Manhood Peninsula is a large peninsula of land to the south of Chichester. The name is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon maene-wudu meaning ‘common wood’ or 'common land'.

https://peninsulapartnership.org.uk/where-is-the-manhood/

Re: Think of the poor steel supplier

"All of a sudden we had e-mails intercepted by the ISP's porn filter whenever we received proposals for the erection of the structural steelwork."

I think a council got taken to court because they never replied to e-mails from somebody who wrote to them complaining about an erection on an adjacent property.

Calls for 'right to repair' electronics laws grow louder across Europe

Re: How do they know?

"How do they know how much potentially useful kit I've got carefully archived in my attic?!"

The fact that you visit these pages is enough to suggest you do. :)

(Note to self: must make sure my next house has an attic.)

It may date back to 1994 but there's no end in sight for the UK's Chief customs system as Brexit rules beckon

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"Why did the UK fishermen sell their fishing quotas?"

You can also lease them, perhaps if you fancy a change from working in IT:

https://www.findafishingboat.com/licence-list/uk-commercial-fishing-quotas-for-sale

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

Years ago, there was an interesting programme on Radio 4 about the history of passports. Basically, the passport as we know it was only introduced at the beginning of the 20th century. So not actually particularly historically relevant. Sorry, didn't catch all the details, was paying attention to the traffic on the A31 through the New Forest at the time - will be a while before I make that drive again, I reckon :( .

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"we are basically surrendering to a fishing lobby"

Which accounts for approx. 0.1% of the UK economy - plucky fishermen. I wish politicians paid as much attention to say, the UK automotive industry, which is many times larger and v dependent on supply chains across the North Sea.

Mind you fishermen also seem to play an overly large role over here, though not quite as much as in the UK.

Years ago, translating some government documents about fishing practices was a bit of an eyeopener - even with quotas we're fishing too much and trawling in particular does a lot of damage to the seabed and its flora and fauna. Fortunately wind farms, where fishing vessels cannot operate, may provide refuges for the fish which might help stocks recover.

Re: Still. The Farage Garage will be open for business on time.

"Why did the UK fishermen sell their fishing quotas?"

I think that's mostly the English ones, Scottish ones tended not to sell their quotas.

https://www.bbc.com/news/52420116

Suggests they sold the quotas when times were tough, to overseas fishing operators who took a longer term view.

But I'll be the first to admit I know v little about this area. Still it'll be interesting if in a month or two British flagged vessels will still be landing their catch in Scheveningen, the fishing port just down the road from me.

EU says Boeing 737 Max won't fly over the Continent just yet: The US can make its own choices over pilot training

Re: Brexit?

"I would claim pilot tests and training is in English in every EU country and more or less around the world, like it is in the air, how else."

That is mostly correct for general aviation and scheduled aviation. However, training for UAs/drones is likely to be focussed on hobbyists, photographers, roofers, surveyors and many other non-aviation users. Hence training and the exams will probably be in the local language. UK pilots can obviously resit the exam in English if they go to an EU based training body. It just means more hassle, more bureaucracy.

A greater problem might be that if you want to take your equipment (drones + cameras and scanners) to the EU you'll have to import it temporarily. Now, I'm not sure about the details, but I think that means either paying VAT on entry to the EU and reclaiming it when returning to the UK, or providing a bond, or arranging a carnet for temporary export (https://www.londonchamber.co.uk/export-documents/ata-carnet/). Lots of paperwork and costs.

Re: Brexit?

"But seriously, I do not see the CAA (also known as Committee Against Aviation) being able to build up enough capacity to mirror all the capabilities ..."

I'm by no means an expert, but I have been following some of the developments as I have a customer who's active in unmanned aviation (drones). Certainly in unmanned aviation, the CAA seems to have simply copied the new EASA regulations. Unfortunately, once the UK is out of EASA, UK UA pilots' certificates won't be accepted in the EU. Pilots would probably have to recertify in a country where they can take the test in English (probably Ireland or the Netherlands). But that's a detail and I gather Boris is not a details man.

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=415

When even a power-cycle fandango cannot save your Windows desktop

Re: Too Many Stories!

"When your left hand gets caught in a conveyer belt ..."

Happened at I plant I used to visit. Fortunately it was just his sleeve that got caught and he could resist the pull for long enough so the motor protection tripped.

The other day I wanted to use a hole saw. I must have been a bit tired and applied it to the panel at an angle so the saw part, rather than the drill in the centre, touched the panel first. Made the whole thing skid, saw grabbed my jumper and pulled it and somehow kept pushing my hand against the trigger of the drill. An interesting experience!

Here's one for the weekend -->

Dell online store charges 16 million dollars for new laptop with paint job

Re: Windows screen capture

"I have not got, and do not want, an XBox."

Neither have I, but you don't need it. I get the impression the screen recording feature was designed to record gaming sessions. But it will also record other screen action (but apparently not in all programs). Tried it this morning and it happily recorded me jumping between Firefox tabs, etc.

You can enable it in Settings - Gaming - Record .... On. There are keyboard shortcuts to start and stop recording. You can select the directory for storing the MP4s in Settings - Gaming - Captures.

See https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-capture-video-clips-in-windows-10

Windows screen capture

"So we pressed Windows 10’s built-in video screen-capture software into service with a swift Win-Alt-R ..."

Thanks for the tip! Wasn't aware of that feature as it's related to the Gaming settings.

Here's one as a thank-you -->

The revolution will not be televised because my television has been radicalised

Re: FT FY

"— WHAT? TWO QUID FOR A NEWSPAPER!?!?!?"

Yup, and worth every penny. Weekend FT costs EUR 5 here and worth every cent (though I'm v disgruntled that it doesn't include the FT Magazine). Also seems to be one of the few newspapers which still employs effective desk editors or proofreaders - and it shows.

With less than two months left, let's check in on Brexit: All IT systems are up and running and ready to go, says no one

Re: "Also there was Zero obligation to trigger Article 50 on ANY particular date. "

"... you deeply believe you are the next Churchill/Thatcher ..."

Can't comment about Churchill, rather before my time. Re Mrs Thatcher, Mr Johnson seems to have forgotten that she signed the Maastricht treaty, which established the European Union. She also had a word for people who want to give government subsidies to failing businesses (one of the sticking points in the Brexit negotiations), and that word was 'socialist'. She may also have had a word for men who are rather forgetful about their marital vows and have children in other relationships however I'm not party to that. Though I imagine it would not have been a flattering term.

Have a good weekend.

India, UK strike tech co-operation pact and plot deeper links once Brexit's done

"I get the feeling this agreement is a token to make it look like the UK is forging ahead with Brexit planning ..."

And a meagre token at that, as all or most of this could have been done while the UK was in the EU, nothing to do w Brexit.

H₂? Oh! New water-splitting technique pushes progress of green hydrogen

Re: Hydrogen storage

"Result: inferior performance and load-carrying capacity of the hydrogen fuelled vehicle when compared with its diesel or petrol equivalent."

No. One of my customers has just started testing a heavy vehicle for demanding applications which is powered by hydrogen fuel cells. They (v serious and competent engineers) expect it do deliver the same performance as the diesel vehicles they also build. They're developing it because their industrial customers are asking for options to reduce their carbon footprint.

Did I or did I not ask you to double-check that the socket was on? Now I've driven 15 miles, what have we found?

Re: Failing switches?

"Then your fingers touch the contacts in the socket."

No they don't. The sockets are normally fully plastic (or ceramic in older or v high power models) on the outside - so normally no live parts you can touch. Live parts are only potentially exposed if you unscrew the lamp - the assumption is that you would unplug the luminaire first.

Re: Poor On-Call this week

"plug my DVM into the power cable & then the wall power socket itself"

Even that doesn't always work. A while ago the guys in the workshop complained that the electric water heater didn't work and could I come and remove it for return under warranty. I started by checking that it was plugged in and used a two-pole tester to confirm that the socket outlet was live.

Disconnected the heater from the water supply, awkward due to the narrow kitchen cabinet. Removed the unit, capped the pipes, etc. Decided to be a good handyman and use the vac to clean the cabinet. Plug the vac into that outlet - doesn't work. Odd, tester shows it's live.

Trip the circuit breaker, take the cover off the outlet and discover that a builder had decided to rerun my cabling but didn't reconnect it properly. One wire was not fixed in the terminal but just pressing against it. High resistance: the outlet will light up a tester, but can't provide enough current to run the heater or the vac. Needless to say the innards of the outlet were rather scorched. Replaced outlet, reconnected water heater. Told them not to work with the contractor again.

"No, I am not paranoid (at least about this), I've been shocked too often already by supposedly dead contacts/wires."

Hear, hear! I not only check for a voltage between the live and neutral wires, but also check each of those wires against earth and an earthed object such as the wall (just in case the earth connection is interrupted).

The first time that saved me was when I went to replace a socket outlet at a friend's place. No voltage between live and neutral, no voltage between live and earth, but full mains voltage between the supposed neutral and earth. Turned out some !#@! had wired the consumer unit (old, with single pole breakers) incorrectly, with live connected to the neutral house wiring, and neutral to the live wires. So had to start by sorting that out.

The second time was when a circuit at home failed. Breaker switched on, but no voltage between live and neutral. Then decided to measure both live and neutral against earth, and found them both to be live - the breaker in the rather old consumer had gone bad in a way it ain't supposed to. That's when I decided it was time to replace the whole consumer unit (which here in NL you can do yourself, but in the UK would be a job for a qualified electrician (who never make mistakes, oh no they don't)).

It's almost that time of the week again -->

"plastic shutters that cover the live and neutral that only open when the earth pin is inserted"

I think modern Schuko sockets also have shutters, which will only open if both pins are inserted. They are not operated by the rim earth contact as the flat Europlugs for double-insulated equipment don't have an earth contact.

Unfortunately, the UK design choice means that plugs for double-insulated equipment are just as bulky (and unpleasant to step on in the dark) as plugs for earthed equipment.

Congrats, Meg Whitman, another multi-billion-dollar write-off for the CV: Her web vid upstart Quibi implodes

Re: Meg Whitman drives another company into the ground

"No one can match the UK's 'Dido Queen of Carnage'."

Yup, another world-beating UK achievement - would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

Let’s check in with that 30,000-job $10bn Trump-Foxconn Wisconsin plant. Wow, way worse than we'd imagined

Re: Will people learn?

"Unless you can get $1M/job in subsidies. Or you can import 'components' from your plants in China ..."

I think these folk produce all their products in the US, in Durango, CO:

https://stoneagetools.com/

And these guys mostly manufacture in the US, I think (except for some of their cheap consumer products):

https://thetorocompany.gcs-web.com/company-history

I don't work for these companies or use their products but some of my customers have links with them. Both companies export successfully worldwide.

Re: Will people learn?

"Unless you can get $1M/job in subsidies. Or you can import 'components' from your plants in China ..."

If you're good at building kit you don't need subsidies. I've got two customers who build serious equipment (mostly in NL & UK, elsewhere in Europe, one new plant in the US) and source quality components in Europe. Their kit is more expensive than that of their competitors but sells worldwide because it works well, is reliable and easy to maintain, and because the operators like it (i.e. lower TCO). But they are privately owned and can take a long-term view, and everyone from CEO to shopfloor operative is v focused on making ever better products. That's entrepreneurship.

GSM gateways: Parliament obviously cocked up, so let minister issue 'ignore the law' decree, UK.gov barrister urges court

Re: Keeping watching the birdies everyone

"Internal Markets Bill, [...] can be used to change ANY UK or International legislation with out reference to Parliament."

Some folk in Scotland are already worried Westminster is going to use that to overrule the Scottish building regulations which, in areas such as fire safety, are more demanding than English regulations. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

UK tech supply chain in dark over Brexit preparations months ahead of final heave-ho

Re: Codejunky: Name a benefit.

"So she cant go over and get a temporary residency permit? Then she is an idiot because she just needs to go over and get one in whichever country she wishes to work in."

No, having lost freedom of movement she cannot necessarily get a residence/work permit. It is likely that the host country will only issue that if she has skills to offer which the locals and other EU citizens do not have. Just like EU citizens will face those problems in the UK. (Example: as far as I understand it, people without a degree and the self-employed will not qualify under the system envisaged by Priti Patel - somebody whose own parents would now be denied a residence/work permit under these rules.)

Many of my friends' children have benefited from freedom of movement to study, live and work wherever in Europe they wanted. Same applies to many of my colleagues. Hence I am v sad that they've lost that freedom.

So, Codejunky, if anybody is an idiot it is you. (I've so far refrained from applying that term to you, but as you erroneously apply it to others that restraint has just evaporated.)

UK govt advert encouraging re-skilling for cyber jobs implodes spectacularly

Re: You missed off...

"since we're dragging back archaic terms"

Hear, hear!

I always thought that "cybernetics" was a term mostly used in the Soviet Union. Wot's wrong with plain old "IT"?

Beware, drone fliers, of Scotland's black-headed gulls. For they will tear your craft from Mother Nature's skies

Yellow

Apparently gulls don't like yellow, which is why you can get yellow covers for some AU. And in some parts of town here the council provides yellow bin bags to stop them being ripped open by seagulls. Unfortunately, I don't know how effective this deterrent is.

There ain't no problem that can't be solved with the help of American horsepower – even yanking on a coax cable

"And when did they do soldering in the Middle Ages ?"

I think we may have been doing that for millennia. Some of the ancient gold and silversmiths and other craftspeople used processes very similar to those employed by their modern equivalents.

Plane-tracking site Flight Radar 24 DDoSed... just as drones spotted buzzing over Azerbaijan and Armenia

Drones on Flight Radar 24?

"Open source researchers claim to have picked up the live flight tracks of drones over Armenia and Azerbaijan"

Would anyone using an unmanned aircraft for something nasty leave the transponder (which Flight Radar depends on, despite the name - I think) switched on?

We're not getting back with Galileo, UK govt tells The Reg, as question marks sprout above its BS*

"... cost of making phones capable of receiving an MSF time signal?"

Low I would think, lots of digital clocks in cheap weather stations, etc. receive the MSF time signal.

https://www.npl.co.uk/msf-signalhttps://www.npl.co.uk/msf-signal

Anyway, it would be sufficient if the GSM base stations could receive the MSF time signal and use it as a back-up to the GPS time signal. No need for the phones to receive it.

" eLoran? "

Would be more involved but is rather beyond my ken. Anyway, can it provide sufficient accuracy to be an alternative to GPS for terrestrial navigation? If not, dead reckoning + map following (as used by an earlier generation of automotive navigation systems) might be more accurate. That would also be relatively easy to implement given the sensors in most smartphones, etc.

How do you solve 'disruption' at the UK border after Brexit? Let's call Peter Thiel! AI biz Palantir – you're hired

Financial stability <-> public service contracts

If a remember an earlier El Reg article about this contractor correctly they've been loss-making for years. How sustainable is that? I thought that financial stability was one of the requirements when tendering for UK public sector contracts:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/900525/MSC-Guidance-2020.pdf

Any public procurement wizards out there who can enlighten us?

The power of Bill compels you: A server room possessed by a Microsoft-hating, Linux-loving Demon

Re: Power!

"A TDR (Time-Domain Reflectometer) will tell you exactly where the break is."

Any suggestions for an affordable one?

Though your definition of "affordable" may be different from mine. Been lusting after one of those since I was a young lad.

Tech ambitions said to lie at heart of Britain’s bonkers crash-and-burn Brexit plan

Typing error in the article

“Cummings Johnson - and we have to assume his boss Johnson

Cummings too"

Quote in the FT, from a No 10 insider:

"If you’d dropped in from Mars, you’d struggle to work out whether Cummings or Johnson was the prime minister"

https://www.ft.com/content/aa53173b-eb39-4055-b112-0001c1f6de1b

Brexit border-line issues: Would you want to still be 'testing' software designed to stop Kent becoming a massive lorry park come 31 December?

"... to use state aid to bolster the UK’s tech industry. We used to call that picking winners."

Yup. What really gets me is that for decades the Conservatives have been complaining about Labour wasting taxpayers' money in that way - and now they want to do it themselves.

(Note: I may be relatively conservative, but currently most definitely not Conservative.)

Re: Please remember

"Now - remind me - did the EU say our bananas had to be straight or bendy?"

Well, I actually read the regs. They say that "excessively curved" bananas cannot be sold as first grade (or something along those lines).

However, you normally won't find them in the shops as the requirements of the British Retail Consortium (note: an industry body, not even unelected bureaucrats) are, on the whole, stricter than EU or UK product regulations.

Anyway, I prefer apples and blueberries :)

Re: Please remember

"NOTHING comes in and tough shite"

Ermm, has it crossed your mind that production at most larger British vehicle manufacturers (Jaguar Landrover, Rolls Royce, Dennis Eagle, etc.) will grind to a halt within a few days (or even hours) of their supply lines being interrupted? Same applies to many other industries.

And no, they' can't easily source those parts elsewhere or make them in-house, and even less so at an acceptable cost.

I've got friends and customers in those industries - they're likely to get hurt and I'm really p**** off about that.

UK govt: It's time to get staff back into the office! Capita: Hey everyone... about that...

Re: Isnt that good?

"And we're in the UK, which the dubious claim of having the smallest homes in Europe[*]. "

Sadly so. Possibly because in the UK the housing market is focussed on the number of bedrooms. In other European countries they tend to look more at the number of square metres.

Another thing you notice when comparing UK and, say, NL houses is that in the UK the windows tend to be very small. According to a construction industry friend of mine that's because brickwork costs less per square metre than windows :(. And I think there's some security mark which also favours small windows :(.

I got 99 problems, and all of them are your fault

Re: Ahh yes the

"I'm really curious, how does a factory bike differ from any other ordinary bicycle?"

Doesn't actually differ massively from a standard Dutch heavy duty bike.

This one has a carrier at the front with a bin for tools and components. Likely to have pedal-back brakes, therefore no brake cables which can snag and get damaged. May not have gears as it's only used on the flat across short distances. Basically, very robust, with a minimum of parts which need maintenance.

Re: Ahh yes the

"And it can take nearly an hour to walk from the office at one end of factory to the problem"

You need one of these:

https://vandijkbikes.nl/product/fabrieksfiets/

Fabrieksfiets = bicycle for use in a factory.

And here's one for the weekend (best not combined with cycling across the factory) -->

And it's off! NASA launches nuke-powered, laser-shooting, tank Perseverance to Mars to search for signs of life

Microphones

Here's some more info about the microphones:

www.dpamicrophones.com/nasa

The mics and preamp only required slight modifications for this application. These DPA mics are based on the Bruel & Kjaer measurement mics.

Someone made an AI that predicted gender from email addresses, usernames. It went about as well as expected

Re: The complaint seems confused

"And every time I get through my Tesco's clubcard statement with discount codes, it's literally for the same things as everyone else's, because they're pushing a particular product,"

Interesting. The main supermarket I use here in NL, AH, does a mix of generic and targeted promotions. The odd thing is that the targeted promotions are for items I buy regularly, and would buy even if they were not discounted. So that's costing them money. It would make more sense to send me promotions for different, but related items. Guess I just don't have the kind of brain you need to work in a supermarket marketing dept.

Re: The complaint seems confused

"This may well be true but does it predict better than random? This might have value to advertisers."

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that gender-targeting ads works (I'm not so sure about that). Then if you misidentify a significant proportion of users and serve them the wrong content your advertising is likely to be less effective than when you serve neutral or random ads - a lot of folk might be a bit sensitive about having their gender misidentified :).

Though it can be good for a laugh - in so far as adverts register with me I've noticed that I've been served a lot of ads aimed at plus-sized German-speaking ladies who favour drab-coloured clothing. If that targeting is based on my search history a lot of them must also be interested in loadcells, chainsaws and stain-isolating paint. Inspiration for a novel, anyone?

UK formally abandons Europe’s Unified Patent Court, Germany plans to move forward nevertheless

"Share of global GDP for the EU has been falling fast for decades. [...] The only way to increase our share of global GDP was to leave ..."

I'm no international trade economist, but it strikes me that the reason the "share" (size in relative terms) of the UK and the EU in global GDP is falling could be that the emerging economies are getting bigger in absolute terms, rather than UK/EU getting smaller in absolute terms. In other words, poor countries are getting richer - good news.

Incidentally, although I have a small business and believe in free markets, entrepreneurial spirit, etc. that doesn't necessarily mean I think GDP is the best measure of human happiness and wealth (which includes more than just material wealth). I guess in the eyes of some that makes me a leftwing loon - so be it.

" ...leaking details of those applications to their cronies in big business, thus allowing the bigger company to "publish first" and claim the Patent"

Could you explain that a bit more? Perhaps give an example? In my limited knowledge of European patents it's all about the priority date, which you establish by filing for a patent. Don't think that's got anything to do with the publication date.

Re: advantages all backwards

"Patent assertion/defence starts at about £10million."

Have you got a source for that? Which country/court, or EPO?

Re: Replace all the EPO officials

"For the EPO to have any validity, [...] with the agreement of the European Parliament"

Please note the EPO is not an EU body! So beyond the control of the European Parliament.

That's not to say the EPO wouldn't benefit from some reforms, but that's beyond my ken.

UK.gov admits it has not performed legally required data protection checks for COVID-19 tracing system

Re: But of course

"The fact remains that Nicola Sturgeon presented a consistent message throughout. "

Yup, I strongly disagree with much of her politics, but she does seem to be an effective leader and inspire confidence.

Re: But of course

"- Do you still remember the 'ziekenfonds' system? "

I don't have personal experience of it. As far I am aware those on lower incomes were covered by the Zikenfonds, while those above an income threshold had to get private insurance. Doesn't necessarily sound better than the current NL system, esp. not if your income varies from one year to the next.