Posts by fpx

Qatar’s $400M jet for Trump is a gold-plated security nightmare

I'm sure the NSA still has the blueprints where all the bugs were installed before the aircraft's delivery to Qatar.

US Transpo Sec wants air traffic control rebuild in 3 years, asks Congress for blank check

Problem Solved!

No problem, our DOGE geniuses can easily train an AI to replace all human air traffic controllers. And the best part is, it gets better with every crash!

Trump wants to fire quarter of NASA budget into black hole – and not in a good way

Re: Make Aerospace Grotty Again

"I'm sure after many years, and many billions, you can tell me (ie, cite) the exact relationship between CO2 and temperature, the exact amount of anthropomorphic CO2 & methane emitted by human activity vs natural, the amount of warming over and above the expected following an Ice Age (large or small) etc etc."

Once upon a time, a very religious family friend gave me a small book about science in the bible. One of its lines of reasoning was that "carbon dating is imprecise, therefore we must discount all science based on it. There is no need for carbon dating, because the chronology presented by the bible is perfect." It used this argument to disprove the notion that dinosaurs lived many millions years ago -- a figure implied by "bad" carbon dating, when the world is proven to be just 6000 years old.

Fundamentalist christians reason that, because Science cannot put precise numbers on anything (see above), it can't be true. Better believe the bible, which is obviously very precise about everything.

America's National Science Foundation tells DEI, misinfo studies: You're fired

Re: tragedy and farce

Slow motion? Not at all. The movie was set 500 years in the future. At the moment we are on track to accomplish that in just four.

Pentagon needs China's rare earths, Beijing just put them behind a permit wall. Oops

Problem solved ... once and for all!

"a single F-35 contains 900 pounds of rare earths, while a Virginia-class submarine uses more than four and a half tons of the stuff"

There's your alternative source of rare earths. Just recycle a few jets and submarines. Don't these F-35s sit on the ground most of the time, waiting for service, anyway?

PIRG's 'Electronic Waste Graveyard' lists 100+ gadgets dumped after support vanished

"Again, the end of support means that your Windows 10 PC won't suddenly stop working, yet running Windows without the availability of security patches isn't considered wise."

That's just the half of it. My home PC is still running Windows 7. It still works perfectly well for me. It hasn't received security patches in a while, but it runs behind a firewall that is configured to let in absolutely no traffic. Safe enough for me as long as I don't install any malware myself.

Most applications have also stopped receiving updates. I wouldn't mind, but of course the rest of the world is moving on, and many Web sites now insist on using new features that aren't supported by the old browsers that I am using. For about two years I've been getting banners that my browsers are not supported; now, there's some features that do not work.

The same happens with cloud-based apps. Just to quote one specific example, the Dropbox app will be the next to go; it keeps reminding me that it will cease working in May.

I can still run ancient Commodore 64 software from 40 years ago in an emulator, but some apps that are less than 5 years old -- no chance.

Self-driving car maker Musk's DOGE rocks up at self-driving car watchdog, cuts staff

Re: Self-driving is a fallacy

I would be happy to delegate driving to my car. I don't need FSD that works everywhere in all conditions. I wish manufacturers would focus on the tedious parts of driving first. If the car would drive autonomously in clear highway conditions, and in stop-and-go-traffic, that would be a major relief. If the driving conditions are more complex, I am happy to take over, but please with an advance notice in minutes, not fractions of a second.

Trump kills clearances for infosec's SentinelOne, ex-CISA boss Chris Krebs

"Matters such as the contents of a laptop belonging to Biden's son Hunter that allegedly containing evidence of corruption and proof that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.”

What a bombshell. Hunter's laptop also had definitive proof that the election was stolen!

Oh.

You know, I'm a great fan of the Oxford comma. Corruption COMMA and proof. Makes this so much clearer.

SpaceX scores $5.9B lion's share of Space Force launch contracts

Funny that DOGE hasn't found any waste whatsoever among these missions. $10B is just the launch cost, who knows what we could have saved by cancelling the lot.

Oh well, it might happen anyway when they find out that the government employees that are essential to planning and launching missions have been terminated for "performance."

HP Inc settles printer toner lockout lawsuit with a promise to make firmware updates optional

Security?

"Lores has also argued that using third-party suppliers is a security risk, claiming malware could theoretically be slipped into cartridge controller chips."

If that were possible, then the printer itself is the security risk.

VA IT contract cancellation DOGE boasted about ... was due to end in 10 days anyway

Re: Wasn't it ideal

But ... but .... but ... an organization that seeks out to employ disabled veterans is discriminatory! It must be sued to change its evil D.E.I. practices.

Move fast and break things. If this government ends up broken, Elon can find another to retire to.

National Science Foundation staff axed by Trump fear for US scientific future

It's not just the talent that is lost, but also the future talent that will never apply for a government or government-funded job.

But then, who needs talent when Elon's death star AI will instantly solve fusion, sea-level rise (don't call it global warming) and world peace the moment it is turned on, with no science involved.

Lightsail space tech gets tailwind from Caltech breakthrough

So the the lightsail, you can send a spacecraft to some other star system in a few hundred years? Great! And then what? After having accelerated to relativistic speed, the spacecraft will arrive at relativistic speed, with no means of slowing down. So it has a few minutes to observe, and then it's off into a much bigger void beyond.

Boom's XB-1 jet nails supersonic flight for first time

Re: 80 passengers?

It's an engineering marvel that will never be economical to run.

First, even if the ticket price were "just" 5k, there's a limited set of business and first class travelers willing to splurge on saving a bit on travel time. When you have the choice of 5 hours squeezed into a tight seat versus 10 hours in a fold-flat bed, and the ability to charge those extra 5 comfortable hours as overtime, what do you choose?

Second, you are saving significant time only on non-stop flights, and there will be few of them. If you have to connect, most of the time saved evaporates. Now the total time is 8 hours instead of 10, for triple the price.

Third, because of the factors above, only a few number of these jets will be built. Economies of scale will not apply, making the plane more expensive to build and run. All those airline options will evaporate when Boom will be unable to keep its promises -- just like Branson's pre-orders did.

This jet will certainly find a niche as a toy for the super-rich, though. "Nyah, nyah, your puny Gulfstream can't even go supersonic!"

Man admits to paying magician $150 to create anti-Biden robocall

Note the Twisted Logic Here

This guy got exactly what he wanted, media and regulatory attention, and he knows that this attention plays in his favor. He knows that in the end, very likely, he will not get fined, but just be told to be nice in the future. Which turns the entire exercise into a net win for him.

Too many politicians these days have swallowed that very same logic, that there is no negative attention. The negativity eventually evaporates when the media frenzy turns elsewhere, leaving only attention behind. Welcome to entertainment circus politics in the 21st century.

JetBrains' unremovable AI assistant meets irresistible outcry

Not Without Your Consent

Ah, the old excuse. Of course your consent is buried on page 42 of a 100+ page document in legalese that you have to click through. The statement is just as nonsensical as "we take your privacy seriously."

US agencies warn made-in-China drones might help Beijing snoop on the world

In Other News ...

Using made-in-USA technology might help Washington snoop on the world.

Like using Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Tesla. Washington reserves the right to gain access to data collected by American companies worldwide or businesses operating in the greatestest nation in the inner solar system.

Sure, the difference is what you are doing with the data. I don't mind the data being used to solve crimes, but I'd prefer them to go in with a warrant based on probable cause, not to blame guilt based on association, rumor or what US citizens would refer to as free speech.

This could still wing its way to you, if you have the dosh: One Concorde engine seeks new home

Re: Asking for a Friend....

How long will it run at full thrust before it's sucked the Mustang's tanks dry? Or rather, to how many percent of full thrust will it be able to spin up before it runs out of gas?

Branson's wallet snaps shut for Virgin Galactic

Credit where Credit is Due

Give Bransom some credit for getting this venture off the ground. He has no obligation to fund this business indefinitely.

There's no ticket price for going to orbit yet, and once there is, it will be at least 100x as expensive. There's a significant slice of population who can afford a $500k joyride, but not a $50M one.

I'm not part of either slice, and even though Branson says that he doesn't have the deepest pockets anymore, I'd still be happy to trade him for mine.

Google Chrome coders really, truly, absolutely ready to cull third-party cookies from 2024

Re: I have this browser open to read El Reg and nothing else

Yes, it's a pain in the ass.

But, unlike merely refusing third-party cookies, it is actually a solution to the problem, which is that Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook etc. are all tracking you with their first-party cookies.

I wish browsers were able to sandbox cookies into windows or tabs.

I Don't Care

I don't care about third-party cookies. I flush all my cookies down the drain after each browsing session, and each session is to one site only. For example, I have this browser open to read El Reg and nothing else. When I'm done with El Reg, I close the browser, which is set to delete all cookies upon exit.

As the commenter above already said, the big advertisers have no problem to track you across the entire web anyway.

AMD's latest FPGA promises super low latency AI for Flash Boy traders

The commenters above appear to misunderstand the nature of these trades. It's about detecting minuscule price differences between trades. I.e., if you see an offer for stock of company A at $10.01, and a purchase order for the same stock at $10.05, these traders will step in and buy the stock from the first trade and sell them to the second trade.It's a guaranteed profit, you just have to be a few microseconds faster than the competition. This guaranteed profit is sucked from the other market participants, since of course the fair thing would have been to let the two trades settle directly at $10.03.

Cryptocoin Ponzi scheme AirBit Club co-founder jailed

Roulette table

Give me your money, I offer a guaranteed 90% ROI, way better than any casino or lottery!

Airport chaos as eGates down for the count across UK

No Layovers

LHR was already on my list of airports never to layover in. The threat of missing my connection is way too high. Also on the list are PHL and ORD in wintertime, and all of the greater NYC area airports any time of the year.

NASA, DARPA enlist Lockheed to build nuclear-powered spacecraft

Having dangerously limited knowledge of the subject, I wonder why you would use hydrogen instead of, say, liquid nitrogen. Wouldn't that be easier to handle and more efficient, given its higher mass?

Rocket Lab wants to dry off and reuse Electron booster recovered from the ocean

Re: Probably just as well

How hard would it be to stick some small wings and wheels on the rocket, and have it come gliding down, Space Shuttle style? No fuel needed.

It would not have to be a very soft landing, since there's no people onboard, and the structure can withstand quite a few G's.

You're too dumb to use click-to-cancel, Big Biz says with straight face

Re: How about a simple rule?

Seconded. Also require clear information, on an easily reachable online page, about when the next payment will be processed, and offer an option to forward-cancel on that date, or better yet, on a specific future date.

Attorney sues Microsoft for $1.75M, claiming his email has been useless since May

Re: $6 per month service

Once upon a time, about a decade ago, I read the T&Cs for Microsoft Windows.

There was a clause that, if anything goes wrong, such as Windows eating your homework, and unless you can prove gross negligence, damages are limited to the amount of money that you paid for the Windows license, or US$ 50, or the actual damages incurred, whatever is less.

It wouldn't surprise me if a similar clause applied here. So good luck attempting to prove gross negligence against an army of lawyers.

'Joan Is Awful' Black Mirror episode rebounds on Netflix

That may be true but does not apply to my point above, which was about updates. A software provider -- like Apple in this case -- is free to attach new T&Cs to an update. It's a bundle. You have the choice to accept the updated T&Cs and install the update, or to decline the update, in which case the prior T&Cs remain in effect.

To use some more concrete examples, if you do not like Windows including more forced advertisement, you can remain with unsupported, vulnerable legacy versions. If you do not want to agree to new data collection terms and conditions with the latest WhatsApp update, you are free to remain with an earlier version -- that will be disconnected from the network in 30 days.

See, you have a choice! Or not.

Let's not forget that you not just have to read the T&C once. There is software (looking at you, Apple) that makes you re-agree to the new and improved T&Cs whenever you install a minor update.

With software updates now coming at you pretty much round the clock, new T&Cs are essentially coming to you faster than you can read them.

Amazing that this is legal.

Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim

These days, the only way to get attention from customer support is by raising a stink on Twitter. Have less than a million followers? Forget about it.

And if you read all the fine print of the license agreements that you had to agree to in order to use your smart devices, you will find out that Amazon, Microsoft, Google can disable your accounts for essentially any reason. And of course you've given up the rights to sue them or join a class action suit along the way.

Sure, some of those clauses might not stand in court, but who's got the deep pockets to fight them about it?

Study recommends mandatory 3-year vacation so astronauts' brains can recover

You do not need a donut. You could start with two sections connected with a wire rotating around their center of gravity.

Bookings open for first all-electric flights around Scandinavia … in 2028

With specs like that, the plane would be ideal for island hopping, like Heathrow to the channel islands.

I'll take those 200 km all-electric range with a grain of salt, though. And going from prototype to passenger flights in two years is completely preposterous.

Twitter now worth just a third of what Musk paid for it

Break Even

Must mean that there is an even chance of it breaking completely.

Virgin Galactic flies final test before opening for business

Re: A fad if they don't rethink

Virgin Galactic is the only game in town to ride a rocket and see space.

Commercial ventures that take you to orbit may just be around the corner, but will be somewhat like 50 times as expensive.

If I had a few billion in spare change, sure, I'd thumb my nose at those poor suckers and wait a few years to take a real trip to "outer space", a.k.a. LEO, but at this price point, Virgin Galactic will still find plenty customers among the merely rich.

Since I don't even qualify for that, I'll have to stick to the few milliseconds of micro-gravity that I can get in a rollercoaster.

Handwritten Einstein essay on theory of relativity goes under the hammer

What a load of revisionist (neo-) Nazi crap.

I see that similar drivel was recently added to the English-language Wikipedia page for Friedrich Hasenöhrl.

The German-language Wikipedia page states, in part, in my translation, "the similarity of both formulas was used by proponents of nationalsocialistic German Physics to sow doubt about Einstein's originality. Max von Laue responded that while other authors before him applied the concept of inertia to electromagnetic energy, Einstein applied it universally for all kinds of energy."

Orqa drone goggles bricked: Time-bomb ransomware or unpaid firmware license?

> "The binary firmware and update files are encrypted with a custom 1kB block encryption [...]

This sounds very much like, "I have implemented this perfect encryption that nobody can crack because I am the only genius who understands it."

A statement that has been proven wrong again and again.

Licensing questions aside, it was very unprofessional of ORQA to purchase a software module without documentation.

Saturn's rings are shrinking and boffins will use the Webb 'scope to find out why

> "leading to development of a theory that Saturn's gravity [...] attracts matter from its rings"

Have they also concluded yet that Saturn isn't flat?

Apple pushes first-ever 'rapid' patch – and rapidly screws up

I keep putting off updates because every update also includes new content that I do not want, features that I do not need, obnoxious new "assistants" that must be disabled, new "privacy" settings that must be turned off, and new annoying click-through messages to achieve what I want.

Musk tried to wriggle out of Autopilot grilling by claiming past boasts may be deepfakes

Re: All you need to know about Musk

It's all about the ads. It's about the license holder selling advertisements in certain regions only. Viewers outside the region don't count into their ad revenue and thus must be denied.

Microsoft probes complaints of Edge leaking URLs to Bing

> Despite offering a wealth of privacy toggles

See, that's the issue right here.

Edge is going to spy on you unless you manually go in, find every one of them, and turn them off.

Of course new privacy toggles are introduced with every update, and existing ones are modified, reverting to "yes of course I allow Microsoft to spy on every web page I visit."

It's a game of whack-a-mole that those of us with finite time can not win.

To improve security, consider how the aviation world stopped blaming pilots

Pilot Error

In the end, a large proportion of aviation accidents come down to pilot error, unfortunately. Pilots have ultimate control over their aircraft and are in position to avoid accidents. Most aviation accidents would have been preventable, if the pilots hat acted properly. Unfortunately, that "proper action" is sometimes obvious only in retrospect.

Therefore, when an accident happens, there is a culture of questioning why it came to that, and why the pilots did not use their opportunity to avoid the accident. Were pilots given false, conflicting or misleading information? Were they distracted by an overload of concurrent events? Were they following a checklist, and if not, why not?

I encourage everyone to read NTSB aviation accident reports. They go into deep detail about what could have been done to prevent an accident. The reports do not blame the pilot, but investigate why pilots acted the way they did, and what should be done to assist future pilots in recognizing a similar situation, and to arrive at the proper action earlier.

This holistic approach to investigating incidents without attributing blame is something that we can all learn from.

Happy Valentine's Day: Here's the final nail in Internet Explorer's coffin

Microsoft's own free viewer for Visio only runs in Internet Explorer. There's a long how-to to get this plugin running in Edge using its "IE mode", requiring a full page of registry edits.

Latest Windows 11 build shares desktop real estate with, er, Spotify

Re: As long as it's removable!

Cue the pop-up, "Spotify has updated their widget. We realize that you uninstalled the previous version, but we have re-installed the new version for your convenience since we really think that you should check out the new and improved features!"

With every new version, Windows keeps turning more and more into a giant billboard.

Beijing grants permit to 'flying car' that can handle 'roads and low altitude'

Re: Why?

Helicopters are mechanically complex and therefore pretty expensive to operate (in the range of US$1k per hour) and difficult to fly. Because of both, it is expensive to get a pilots license (in the range of US$100k, and many times that if you intend to fly commercially), meaning that you have to spend $$$ to fly yourself or spend $$$ to hire a pilot to shuttle you around.

An electric quad- or octocopter could be significantly less complex (since you would not have turbines or a tilt rotor), and with automation much easier to fly. In theory, together that could bring down the operating cost considerably, so even people that are not obscenely rich could afford an occasional trip, but also the merely rich.

So if you build one, the market will be there, even with all the limitations you mention in terms of restrictions, licensing, payload, etc.

Uncle Sam greenlights first commercial nuclear small modular reactor design

Prepping for the coming zombie apocalypse, can I get one of them for my underground volcano island lair?

Live Nation CFO on Taylor Swift ticket chaos: Don't blame me, bots made me crazy

The problem is that tickets are sold at artificially deflated prices. If tickets were sold at market value, i.e., where demand meets supply, all problems with bots and scalpers will disappear.

Keeping supply constant means rising prices. Sure, artists would look like even more greedy bastards if their tickets were $1000 instead of $100.

Keeping prices constant means rising supply, i.e., making 100 tour stops instead of 10, or doing three concerts a day for weeks at a time, you know, like theaters or musicals do.

Belarus legalizes piracy – but citizens will have to pay for it

Frankly, I agree with the sentiment that it ought to be legal to pirate content that rights holders refuse to make available. An increasing amount of content is geo-restricted. E.g., movies or TV shows made for a streaming platform that refuses sign-ups outside of their geofence. Streaming platforms should be forced to open up to the world.

Ah, to live in Antigua and Barbuda, which was officially allowed by the WTO to pirate US content, in retaliation for the US refusing to allow its citizens to engage in "free trade" (online gambling) with the country. (https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds285_e.htm)

NASA starts assessing Orion capsule for refurb

There was an interesting article about the Artemis III mission, i.e., the sequel to the sequel, in the paywalled NYT the other day.

The gist was that Elon Musk has sold the NASA a lunar lander, that does not exist yet. The lunar lander needs a Starship, which does not exist yet, to get off the ground. However, the Starship only has enough fuel to get to earth orbit. Therefore, SpaceX must deliver a gas station to orbit, which does not exist yet. And as much as 8 launches of a tanker, which does not exist yet, are needed to fill up the gas station, using fuel transfers which have never been attempted in microgravity before.

And it does not help that the SpaceX engineers and leadership must first fix Twitter.