Posts by JeffyPoooh

MH370 airliner MYSTERY: The El Reg Pub/Dinner-party Guide

Re: Smartphones

@Psyx

'Underwater Locator Beacon', a.k.a. 'Underwater Acoustic Beacon'.

Beer can sized gadget. Triggered by water. Pings acoustically at about 37kHz at about 160 dB for either 30 or 90 days.

Usually attached to the "Black Boxes'.

Re: "The satellite would thus know to keep one of its receiving assemblies aligned..."

One good reason for an hourly handshaking signal is the same conceptual logic as your mobile phone: What if someone wants to call you? Where are you? How does the network find you?

A handshaking signal upon power-up and every hour thereafter is about right for the Inmarsat network to know at least under which satellite is the aircraft. In that way, they know where to find you (roughly), in case somebody is calling you.

Yes, the Inmarsat offers a vast range of modes and speeds. The satellites offer Global, Regional, and Spot beams (fixed pattern).

Re: "The satellite would thus know to keep one of its receiving assemblies aligned..."

@ Psyx

Okay. Sorry, I missed that it was trite. Cheers. Here, have a beer...

Re: What if it was ditched and sunk intact?

"...extremely difficult to land a large jet on water under any semblance of control, to the extent that it has *never* been done."

"We'll be in the Hudson." A very very high semblance of control.

Yes, a few bits broke off (e.g. an entire engine), but the only residual floaty bits were a couple of passengers that fell off the wing.

Re: "The satellite would thus know to keep one of its receiving assemblies aligned..."

"ie downward at planet earth."

As opposed to randomly aiming off into space? And the Inmarsat satellite depends upon random airliners to keep its spatial orientation? Utter nonsense. Doesn't anyone have any common sense about how technology works, at least in general?

Ref: MH370_last_ping_corridors.jpg image.

Inmarsat at about 64E, .: must be I-3 F1 at 64.5E. Inmarsat satellites do have spot beams, but the pattern is fixed. These satellites do not steer beams onto individual aircraft clients. That is *obviously* impractical for a general service provider such as Inmarsat.

The oh-so confusing "tilt" angle of 40 degrees (ref image) is simply a representation of the calculated range ring from the satellite, where the computed range intercepts the Earth. The range was derived by Inmarsat boffins based on signal timing (range).

Re: Here's more sensible analysis...

"The Northern arc seems a likely route..."

The two arcs are not routes. They are a representation of the possibilities for *** -> a single position at a single point in time, <- *** about 7.5 hours into the flight.

One single point anywhere along those lines. This is assuming that the boffins at Inmarsat have done their sums correctly - likely (but I hope that they've checked their assumptions).

"The satellite would thus know to keep one of its receiving assemblies aligned..."

"The satellite would thus know to keep one of its receiving assemblies aligned at a suitable angle."

FAIL.

Complete bollocks.

This city's smog is so TERRIBLE, people are told to stay indoors. Beijing? No – PARIS

It could also be because... ...ocean.

Yes. But look up the Low Emission standards. ULEV TZEV etc.

They're ridiculously tight. Fleets fail due to insufficiently impermeable fuel lines. Crazy.

These modern cars simply do not pollute the air (aside from CO2).

Re: That'll be all those crappy French cars with engines burning oil.

They've made a mistake. They've reportedly instituted usage limits on cars.

They should have instituted limits on just the diesel smoldering cars and trucks. And then invited modern petrol powered cars to SVP leave their engines running day and night to clean the air.

Brawling neighbours challenge 'quiet' cul-de-sac myth

Re: Tip toe through the cat crap

We don't have any cats left in our neighbourhood. We do however have a happy and well fed eagle living nearby.

FANBOIS' EYES ONLY: United Airlines offers FREE MOVIES on iOS kit

So, is this via WiFi?

How well will it work when 100+ people try to use it at once?

Google's Drive SLASH, secret 'big upgrade': Coincidence? Hardly

De-Dupe on a gloibal scale

Maybe Google already has copies of most files on Earth. A bit of clever de-duping might lead to efficiencies.

Battery vendors push ultracapacitor wrappers to give Li-ions more bite

"...adding RF and EMI shielding capabilities."

Both RF & (!) EMI? Wow...

Backdoor snoops can access files on your Samsung phone via the cell network – claim

Re: Lot's of speculation

Even the memory card jammed into the phone can run code.

Does Apple's iOS 7 make you physically SICK? Try swallowing version 7.1

Re: Better than Android then?

Buy your choice of phone and several tablets, a tablet or two of each ecosystem. Duh.

Re: "If you want security-upgrade details, you'll need to wait."

Undoubtedly, another batch of knock-off cables will stop working.

Not funny Apple. I'll wait a few weeks and order more off ebay anyway. So stop being all Microsoft on us, okay?

RSA booked TV's Stephen Colbert to give the final speech. This is what happened next

Re: Growing like Topsy

Re: The Chinese have the "...world by the bollocks..."

If you owe the bank $10,000, then you have a problem.

If you owe the bank $17,000,000,000,000, then it's the bank that has the problem.

Well done on the privacy lawsuit. Now NSA will keep your phone records INDEFINITELY

@Fazal Majid

"At some point they will run out of disk space and collection will stop."

Nope. The growth curve of storage capacity is exponential. Capacity is still accelerating away from content creation.

Passenger jet grounded by two-hour insect attack

Re: is it so hard to add an optical clogging sensor there?

"...within the travel time matching twice the length of the pitot tube... ...Can't be so hard."

Other than the tens-of-GHz counters required to measure the time of laser returns over the not-quite-enough-inches scale, yes - easy peasy.

Yet another concept would be your suggestion, but acoustic measurement. Sweep an audio signal and monitor the peak resonance as a function of unobstructed length.

There are already redundant pitot tubes. Unfortunately, there are also redundant mud dauber wasps, or redundant masking tape left after painting.

Inventions - "Dime a dozen, cheapers in bales of twelve..."

Given the ongoing problems with blocked pitot tubes, I hereby place these novel (?) inventions into the public domain.

First:

Using valves, high pressure air, and appropriate pressure senders, periodically blast some high pressure air out the pitot tubes. Monitor the resulting pressure signal for irregularities. Integrate this novel Pitot Tube (itself!) Built In Test (BIT) feature with the Air Data system so that it can be done periodically during flight.

The blast of high pressure air will simultaneously clean and test the actual tubes themselves. Any blockages would be fired out.

Next:

Use photosensors to monitor ambient light entering the pitot tube itself. Compare it against other references. Use LEDs to add light if required. Darker than expected means blocked.

These concepts would provide the ability to actually test the Air Data system, including the Pitot Tubes themselves. They'll require very clever implementation to avoid increasing the overall failure rate. The photosensor concept is probably more harmless in this regard. But I like the blast cleaning concept.

Cheers.

Pine trees' scent 'could prevent climate change really being a problem'

Re: Physics, Chemistry, Biology

Economy, yes.

Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Physcology, Socialogy, Economics...

Physics, Chemistry, Biology

In order of increasing importance to the climate models.

In order of increasing difficulty to include in the climate model.

New radio tech could HALVE mobe operators' bandwidth needs

Re: Sending and receiving on the same frequency?

This "new" (?) tech is already a relatively common feature on satcom modems; the sort of modem that fits into a 19-inch rack and is ultimately connected to the big silly dish outside. In that application, the EIRP needs to be adjusted down a bit to account for the fact that the two transmitters are aimed at the exact same transponder at the exact same time. Each modem cancels out what it transmitted (Y) from what it receives (Y+X), revealing the desired signal from the other guy (X). So the transponder can be used in both directions at once, in almost exactly the same manner as a single twisted pair can carry telephone conversations in both directions at once.

Software needs meaty cores, not thin, stringy ARMs, says Intel

Re: Because...

Real men use just a single NAND gate and a handful of delay lines.

US Senator lobbies feds to BAN BITCOIN

If bitcoins were made illegal...

How do I make mine go away? They're kinda sticky, in a legal sense.

Re: "the currency helps facilitate criminal activity"

"There [are] about 1.25 trillion dollars in currency."

Many types of money supply. 'M0' is just one.

Boeing going ... GONE: Black phone will SELF-DESTRUCT in 30 secs

"There are no serviceable parts on Boeing's Black phone and any attempted servicing or replacing of parts would destroy the product. ..."

So, essentially, exactly like an iPhone then.

Elon Musk plans GIGAFACTORY to feed his thirsty Tesla motors

"To combat [battery quality control issues, possibly contributing to battery fires in their cars], Musk is planning an American battery factory that will make batteries from raw materials instead of components, [reducing the long term risk to his brand, negative press caused by the occasional car fire]."

There, I fixed it for you.

Antarctic glacier 'melted just as fast Long before human carbon emissions'

Logical fallacy

Why was it melting 8000 years ago? There doesn't have to be only one single root cause of glacial melting.

(*Root* cause, because all possible causes of melting eventually flow through the intermediate cause of temperatures above 0°C.)

TV scraper Aereo pulled off air in six US states after tellyco court injunction victory

Re: Crucial difference

"Also, insects have antennae; televisions have antennas."

And Aereo (I believe) has non-functional, fake little "antennas" that fulfill a pure legal-decoration function.

If wee little paperclip antennas installed in racks in the basement data centers actually worked, then why does everyone else spend so much time up on the roof struggling to get an OTA HD signal? Why doesn't Aereo drop this service model and start selling these amazing "antennas" to the public? Perhaps the same technology can be applied to directly detect signals from deep space missions using nothing more than a slightly larger paperclip?

Re: Help! My radio signal is being stolen!!

"...renting out an antenna?"

I suspect that their racked and stacked paperclip size "antennas", typically installed in a data center, are completely fake.

Facebook pays $19bn for WhatsApp. Yep. $45 for YOUR phone book

I've poisoned my phone book

I don't use my Android for actual phoning (I've an iPhone for that), so I've laced my Android phone book with all sorts of hilarious contacts and dangerous telephone numbers.

Poison chalice.

Official: British music punter still loves plastic

Sometimes they're also cheaper

Just as with physical books (delivered) sometimes being cheaper than $10+ e-books, physical CDs (delivered, or store-bought) are sometimes cheaper than buying sometimes DRM-infested MP3s.

NASA's orbiting space-broadband probe LADEE beams back Moon snaps

622 Mbps and they didn't bother including a tiny hi-res camera?

Seems like a missed opportunity.

Tata says USA rejecting HALF of Indians' work visa requests

"Tata says USA rejecting HALF of Indians' work visa requests"

Simple; just submit twice as many applications. Problem solved.

Free space optics gets shiny new snake-oil paint job

And in related news...

The BBC World Service top-of-the-hour 'pips' arrive at my house about 15 seconds late (referenced to a variety of reliable time sources). I suspect that SiriusXM satellite radio is fed through the Interweb, and the latencies here and there, not to mention the trip to and from the satellites, and some buffering in the radio itself, it all adds up to about 15 seconds. Sometimes 18. Making it all kinda pointless in a charming sort of way.

I expect that the 'High Frequency' Traders will eventually move to neutrino communications, shooting neutrinos straight through the Earth's core. Shorter path.

Smart getaway drivers would yell at Officer Glasshole: 'SafeSearch off, Horse porn'

"... officers can scan a room ... other stats in an instant."

So facial recognition now works reliably? Last I heard it still needed a few more years of false promises and false positives.

Remember when 'they' promised to pan a camera across the Superbowl crowd and ID known criminals?

No, pesky lawyers, particle colliders WON'T destroy the Earth

Well, it's a good thing that Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays don't exist...

Uh, but they do.

10,000 km road trip proves Galileo satnav works, says ESA

GPS in smartphones

Not ready for prime time. Turn on GPS and the high capacity Li-Ion battery goes flat in about two hours (YMMV). Amusingly, a dedicated handheld GPS works on two low capacity AA cells for many, many hours; thus proving that the people that design smartphones have made a FAIL. They need to fix that.

Re: Does this mean

General Motors' OnStar system not only broadcasts positioning and communications signals to the GPS satellites, it also commands these satellites to actually follow your vehicle around, hovering nearby.

At least according to the TV ad.

CERN outlines plan for new 100km circumference supercollider

Instead of laying it flat, underground...

...tip it up on edge, vertically.

Then Beardy Branson and Elon Musk will participate in the project.

Beware, Musk will want to run the whole thing on batteries, recharged by solar power. And Branson will one day bring Justin Bieber along, leading to all sorts of trouble.

Google admits 'garbage in, garbage out' translation problem

Re: Data retention, it's all the rage

If they run out of disk space (LOL), they could use a hash. Obviously.

Another option might be to include some unprintable characters as a type of 'Google Translate wuz here' watermark. If people are cutting and pasting, then they might not notice the watermark.

Meanwhile, how come nobody has seeded the 'net with Monty Python style nipple-fondling mistranslations?

Sony to close North American ebook store, punt customers to Kobo

Buy an e-Book?

e-book = often $10, sometimes outrageously higher.

Used Hardcover Book - Very Good or Like New = often $0.01 + S&H = $6.50 (YMMV)

$10 price class gets you into the 'Signed By Author' category of used books - Collectible.

Yes, I have a Kobo, and Kindle Apps on several types of tablets and smartphones. No, I'm not paying $10 for an e-book. The e-readers are loaded up with lots of free classics that need to be read, pdfs, etc.

Chaps propose free global WiFi delivered FROM SPAAAACE

Maybe those making this proposal...

Maybe they should look up 'Pathloss' on Wikipedia.

"Wifi" (<- this) from LEO from a tiny, power-starved satellite? Yeah right.

Greenland glacier QUADRUPLES speed, swells seas

Re: ReduceGHGs

Wzrd1: "...they'll claim that the sea swells with heat..."

El Reg: "...melting land-based ice adds to sea-level rise as it dumps its chilly self into the ocean."

Hmmm...

Ocean heat expansion problem solved. The world's oceans 'on the rocks'.

Boffins say D-Wave machine could be a classic*

Secret?

So D-wave are not bothering to apply for any patents?

Or are they 'secret patents'? LOL

Security 101 fail: 3G/4G modems expose control panels to hackers

Sigh...

WAN .NE. LAN

It's big, it's expensive and it's an audiophile's dream: The Sonos Sub

25 Hz?

Not really trying very hard, are they?

More Woofer than subWoofer.

Symantec: WA-HEY... profits. But security firm's sales won't budge

Sekurity! through endless crashing

As far as I can see, you could achieve the same result by filling your PC with old staples, shorting things out and causing random crashes. It's difficult for the malware to install itself when your PC doesn't work at all.

We're on the same wavelength! TV stars cosy up to flog spare Hz

Re: single-def?

Thank you. Saved me the typing.