Re: Home Delivery
Time to mention the space elevator? Of course as that would terminate in territory outside US jurisdiction US companies will have to conform to international law.
Posts by Vinyl-Junkie
460 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Dec 2013
Who owns space? Looking at the US asteroid-mining act
Friday 27th November 2015 13:58 GMT
Re: Home Delivery
Especially when you consider the size of payload needed to make this economically viable. Even for the more expensive elements you would have to be talking about payloads in the tens of tonnes. A far cry from the ISS resupply capsules etc. A fraction out in the re-entry burn and Washington DC might get upclose and personal with a returning ore-carrier....
There's probably a downside, too....
'Shut down the parts of internet used by Islamic State masterminds'
Wednesday 18th November 2015 10:17 GMT 
It is time...
..that politicians in every democratic country (can't do a lot about the others) were forced to pass an examination before being allowed to stand for office.
Candidates would have to demonstrate a reasonable grasp of technology (e.g. how the Internet works), science (e.g. the Theory of Evolution is called a theory because...), how to do basic research (e.g. here are 10 stories, five of them are lies; please identify which is which) and that they can actually find their arse with both hands.
We might then start getting some intelligent debate in politics.
Although I'm not holding my breath....
Ouch! Subaru telescope catches astroid prang
Friday 13th November 2015 16:47 GMT 
So not Mars after all then....
".....indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, "as flaming gases rushed out of a gun.""
H.G. Wells. The War of the Worlds.
Horrid checkbox download bundlers drop patch-frozen Chrome
Virgin Media whines about Sky's customer service claims, ad watchdog agrees
Wednesday 11th November 2015 12:26 GMT 
Sky have been excellent...
..every time I've had to call their customer service (which tbh is not all that often). They have resolved the problem quickly or, if not of their making (hello BT!), have managed the offending party so I don't have to. They even gave me a refund (without my asking) for all the services that depend on Sky broadband when I had an extended outage, even though the problem was originally caused by BT.
Furthermore theirs is the only customer service department I have used in connection with broadband who actually take any notice when you say "I've worked in IT for the past thirty-odd years and I've already tried this, this and this, so please put me through to your second-line support". Everyone else insists you go through the script, so they can get you to do all the things you've already tried...
Space fans eye launch of Lego Saturn V
Monday 9th November 2015 14:44 GMT
Re: Model
Corgi did a beautiful 1/72 Sea King and Apollo 11 command module diorama in the early noughties. It was a limited edition and now commands sums significantly above the original asking price.
There are some good free card models of the Saturn V out there on the web, including one in 1/32nd scale!
Doctor Who's good/bad duality, war futility tale in The Zygon Inversion fails to fizz
Sunday 8th November 2015 06:50 GMT
"And it doesn't matter the genre. If it's fiction then it requires some level of suspension of disbelief."
Absolutely right; or maybe x7 actually believes there are that many murders among the dons of Oxford colleges, or that a medieval monk used modern policing techniques to solve (again the abnormally large number of) murders around Shrewsbury.
TalkTalk may tell investors to tighten belts after cyber incident
Thursday 5th November 2015 16:44 GMT
I have no axe to grind, I have never used TalkTalk (and now never will) but I am absolutely disgusted with their attitude to a major data breach. Contrast their approach with Vodafone, who having been compromised for roughly 0.1% of the number of customers that TalkTalk were (but with a big question over how useful the stolen data is as it WAS encrypted) have contacted the affected customers, offered help in changing bank account numbers if the customer desires, and full compensation in the event an account is compromised.
If TalkTalk had offered the same service then there would still be criticism for lax security in the first place "You didn't encrypt the customers' financial data? Really?!" but we would at least have some respect for them trying to limit the impact. It is the way they have tried to weasel out of their responsibilities that has got everyone's back up.
Cops use terror powers to lift BBC man's laptop after ISIS interview
Friday 30th October 2015 17:16 GMT
Re: don't trust em...
As it is now officially the weekend, and I will not be responding any more to this thread, please accept an upvote and a virtual pint!
The only thing I would add is that media controlled by big business is almost as bad; in this respect the BBC is a rare thing, being state-owned but not state-controlled (although the Tories are working on it) and truly independent (it gets as many accusations from the left about being right-wing biased as it does from the right about being left-wing biased, suggesting it is, if not totally objective, at least biased to a fairly neutral standpoint).
Friday 30th October 2015 17:05 GMT
Re: Pity they didn't shoot him
I asked for hard evidence; unsubstantiated stories of cash donations handed in at CND branch meetings is not hard evidence. There is absolutely no hard evidence (and practically none of any other sort) that CND was funded by the Soviets (or any other foreign power). I know that many of the members of our local CND who I used to see in my local high street in the 1980s handing out leaflets were friends of my parents and/or parents of my friends. I also saw the same people when they were raising money for the local Round Table, and campaigning on behalf of our local Tory MP. Hardly left-wing.
If you really believe that CND was Soviet funded, please feel free to send a record of your comments on this site, together with your name and address, to CND and see how long it takes them to sue you for libel....
Friday 30th October 2015 15:49 GMT
Re: Pity they didn't shoot him
"CND is a foreign financed"
Hard evidence please? Successive Tory governments throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s tried very hard to prove that CND was foreign funded and failed (wasting a great deal of taxpayers' money in the process). Furthermore despite the fact that the KGB and other eastern European intelligence services have been open to western scrutiny for years now, no evidence linking foreign funding to CND has ever emerged. I am not, and never have been, a member of CND, for the record.
"the younger generation are less susceptible to commie brainwashing than their hippy elders of the 1960's"
Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we are no longer living under the permanent threat of a global thermonuclear war then? Not to mention the fact that the Green Party, who also espouse the scrapping of Trident without replacement, has to a large extent taken over from CND as the political face of nuclear disarmament (since New Labour severed its links with CND), and which has a considerably larger membership, of all ages, than CND ever had.
I also think you are (probably deliberately) missing the point; you can insert a suitable organisation of your liking into the example; unless of course you believe everything the government does is right and should never ever be questioned or protested against.
Either way, and using your own criteria, I conclude that you are an idiot. ;)
Friday 30th October 2015 15:04 GMT
Re: Pity they didn't shoot him
You don't *know* he's an idiot, you *think* he's an idiot based on what he has written in his posts and what your definition of an idiot is. Other people's opinion may differ.
Likewise he *thinks* you are a *fascist* based on what you have written and on his definition of what a fascist is. Again, other people's opinions may differ.
You have both shared your opinion of the other; to a third party there is no difference in the way that the conclusions were arrived at, and therefore your opinions of each other carry equal weight.
Personally I *think* you are someone who has misguidedly bought into the lie that the US and UK governments have sold you about how these measures are vital for democracy and the American/British way of life. Again that is my opinion based on what you have written; it may, or may not, be accurate.
I utterly deplore and detest ISIS and its various related organisations; I find their practices abhorrent and their philosophy warped and repellant (having actually had chance last night to watch some of the interview in question, which if you had your way I would not be allowed to do). However I believe that journalists have the right to go where they want and interview who they like without fear of reprisal or having to disclose source material. Anything else is allowing the thin end of the wedge; it may be ISIS this time but perhaps next time it will be a journalist who has interviewd a Greenpeace activist responsible for disrupting a Japanese whaling mission, or a member of CND for organising a peaceful protest outside the Trident submarine base or... well you get the drift..
As for "sory" blame a touch screen that I apparently double-tapped too fast, so I was auto-corrected!
Thursday 29th October 2015 15:40 GMT
Re: Give me liberty or...
"any country that aspires to call itself free and democratic."
I think you mean "any country that aspires to BE free and democratic." The USA calls itself free and democratic, is neither, and does not have a free press. Calling itself something does not mean that it is; witness the many "Democratic Republic of ...." which flourished under Soviet influence which were neither republics nor democratic.
Thursday 29th October 2015 15:25 GMT
Re: Enemy combatant
I am curious as to when exactly we declared war on IS. Given the government's policy of referring to IS as the "so-called Islamic State" I suspect we haven't, as you can only declare war on another country. So, not enemy combatants then.
Criminals? Probably; although you have no evidence that the person interviewed is an active member of IS or merely a sympathiser. If talking to sympathisers was treason, then most of the current generation of politicians are guilty of treason for talking to the sympathisers of the PIRA, UDF and other organisations in order to secure the Good Friday agreement. If communicating with criminals is treason then there are a lot of traitors in this country; let's start shooting the ones who turn up at prison visiting time each week shall we?
I would actually like to hear interviews with these people, as I have often read, watched or listened to accounts from people on both sides of the government v freedom fighter/terrorist (which usually depnds on your point of view) to understand what their grievances are and maybe go some way to resolving them without resorting to carpet bombing, as has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread. I suspect I will find their views and their philosophy as repugnant as I find their actions, but hey!, let me make up my own mind; I don't want the government making it up for me.
Thursday 29th October 2015 15:07 GMT
Re: bullying ...
"Who in their right minds will speak to that film maker now?"
And there in a nutshell you have the reason that journalists do currently enjoy (or did up until this travesty) the right to protect their sources, indeed it is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights to which the UK is a signatory. Those who find corruption or wrongdoing in their workplace or elsewhere where a direct report to the authorities is not advisable or possible must have a channel to which this can be brought to others' attention and, if the alleged practice is widespread, the media is often the best way to bring it to the public's attention so that change is demanded.
If journalists are not able to protect their sources then people will not talk to journalists, and the world will become even more corrupt than it already is.
Caption this: WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg
Laid-off IT workers: You want free on-demand service for what now?
Of course you can text and call while driving – it's perfectly safe
Made you jump! Space to give Earth an asteroid Halloween scare
Wednesday 21st October 2015 09:23 GMT
Warning shot...
The aliens have sent their message to tell us to improve our evil ways and now fired a warning shot across our bows by accelerating an asteroid to "ludicrous speed", hoping that the ape descended lifeforms might actually realsie something was up. Unfortunately because we're too busy tramping each other into the dust either in the name of religion or to make an extra (insert local unit of currency here) to have developed the necessary means of communication to receive the message we'll still be in the dark when the next one slams into us dead centre....
Elderly? Disabled? You clearly need a .38" Palm Pistol
Lotus F1: 38°C? Sand in your Vblocks? Must be building a data center in Bahrain again
A thousand mile Atom merci mission: Driving from Monaco to London in an open-topped motor
Monday 12th October 2015 16:07 GMT
Thing is...
..it's quite difficult to finder "proper" lubricants in aerosol cans. WD40 on the other hand works as a lubricant and can be sprayed into those hard to reach places.
Toolkit for motorbike touring: Multi-tool, Cable ties, gaffer tape, WD40, coil of insulated wire. Anything that couldn't be fixed with that lot at the roadside long enough to get you to a garage was likely to require the services of a recovery truck in any case.
Man goes to collect stolen-car court docs found in stolen car in stolen car
Monday 12th October 2015 15:46 GMT
Re: week old sashimi
I suspect the former; apparently the habit of leaving keys on the sun visor has actually increased in recent years. Drivers carry the alarm/locking keyfob but leave the keys in the vehicle. It is this habit which has led the automotive industry to develop folding keys and keyless ignition systems, all becasue 'merkins don't like to spoil the cut of their trousers with unsightly keys...
WIN a 6TB Western Digital Black hard drive with El Reg
Holy litigation, Batman! Custom Batmobile cars nixed by copyright
Friday 25th September 2015 11:21 GMT
The flight sim community went through this a few years ago. A certain aircraft manufacurer started asking for royalties on commercial use of their airframe designs. Not only the ones they had built but also the ones by every manufacturer they had ever acquired (even if it was A was bought by B who was bought by C who was bought by.... without end).
Ubisoft were particularly badly hit as the then publisher of the IL-2 series, which (among other things) led to their Pacific subsim having US marked Lancasters in the anti-submarine role.... (which of course was quickly altered back to the real aircraft in an unofficial mod!).
Ironically said manufacturer now publishes a certain FSX-derived sim...
Blighty's Bloodhound 1,000mph rocket car unveiled ahead of record attempt
Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank becomes TV reality
Techies! Shadow IT means you need to up your game
Tuesday 11th August 2015 13:06 GMT
Re: I'm going to stick my neck out here...
There is a certain amount of truth in what you say, but quite often the problem arises because the customer says "oh I just want this installed, it does just what we want, it's only for four users and it's free/incredibly cheap" without thinking that the systems people need to assess its impact on the network and infrastructure, the applications people need to ensure it doesn't conflict with existing applications (frequently the reason for retaining older web browsers), the desktop people need to assess its impact on the corporate build (particularly if using managed libraries), the information governance and security people need to look at what data is stored, where, under what T&Cs, and how well it is protected, the support people have to learn what is needed to support it (and what the services and SLAs from the supplier are) and so on.
Apart from taking time, in most organisations carrying out these assessments is chargeable to the department that requests it, so the "free" application ends up being charged to the department at several thousand pounds.
I think it is this that causes the sucking of teeth - the assumption on the part of the requestor that because something is for a small number of users it is somehow exempt from the processes (ITIL driven or otherwise) needed to ensure a stable corporate environment.
Tuesday 11th August 2015 12:54 GMT 
There are reasons why IT departments insist on particular applications...
“49 per cent [of employees] are more familiar and comfortable with the unapproved application, so using it helps them get their job done more quickly and easily”.
Whilst the application spaffs employee and customer data over unencrypted connections; stores it in locations not subject to data protection laws (and I very much include the USA in this category), and with no means of enforcing retention policies; and is hosted on sites with minimal password protection, few or no backups of customer data and where security patching is tardy or non-existent.
Of course it is unlikely that a single shadow application would do all of these things, but any one of them is a good reason not to use it. Unfortunately that 49% either don't know or, more likely, don't care about data security.
Three-mile-high pyramid found on alien dwarf world, baffles boffins
Ideal solar system for SECOND EARTH found – and it's just 186 light-years away
Thursday 16th July 2015 15:43 GMT
Re: Oh, dear...
@ Chris G: You're advancing a hypothesis based on a single example, which is poor science. There is insufficient evidence for either case until we have met at least one alien species. Once a species reaches a certain level of intelligence and communication it could choose to build a planetwide civilisation based on altruism; the human race has already passed this point but is too tied up with outdated visions of nationalism and imaginary friends to have done so. It is possible, even probable, that a species that could co-operate on such a path would become non-aggressive over time.
Or you could be right.
At the moment the only thing we can say for certain is "we don't know".
Lawyer brands client 'small penis asshole' before challenging him to a DUEL
Neil Young yanks music from streaming services: 'Worst audio in history'
Thursday 16th July 2015 09:52 GMT
Quality on streaming is not the important thing for me.
I use streaming services to find new music close to what I already like; I don't care if the quality is not particularly good because I'm probably listening to (usually) up to about four random tracks from an album in their entirety to decide if I actually like the general sound/style of the band in question. This is far better than the 30 second clip you get on Amazon.
If I do like it I buy it on CD or, for preference, vinyl.
As I already know Neil Young (and do have a couple of albums from when he was good) the withdrawal of his material makes no odds to me whatsoever. It will, I suspect, prevent other people who use streaming services as I do from discovering and buying his recorded material. So his loss.
Did speeding American manhole cover beat Sputnik into space? Top boffin speaks to El Reg
China wants to build a 200km-long undersea tunnel to America
Friday 10th July 2015 09:34 GMT
Re: It's not for people, only goods...
I too have done trans-continental travel in the United States, and agree with those who say it's not boring (even Iowa; "oh look, a farm"; 50 miles of flat fields "oh look, a farm"... repeat for several hours. ) because it's the people as much as the scenery that makes the trip. I was amazed at how much people talk to each other on the train in the US, as well as the diversity of those travelling. This was particularly true of the observation car and the dining car (where the sittings are regulated and the car always full, so you have to sit with others).
Icon because of the several bottles of Samual Adams I enjoyed both evenings on my way across the USA.
A quarter of public sector IT workers have never used the cloud
Friday 10th July 2015 09:02 GMT 
This is as much about terminology as anything else...
My mother (in her 80s) is convinced she hasn't "used the cloud"; yet she has a OneDrive account , a Flickr account (and uses both of them) not to mention all the things she takes for granted like the Apple Store, cloud based email, Amazon Prime etc. Many of my contemporaries (in their 50s) who do not work in IT are unaware that such services are "using the cloud".
I suspect if the question had been phrased differently the response might have been somewhat different.
And that's not even taking into account private/hybrid clouds that many end users may not even be aware they are using; to them it's just the new system. So meaningless question, meaningless answer...
Behold the mighty Swiss SPACE JUNK NOSHER PODULE
Tuesday 7th July 2015 10:16 GMT
Re: It wasn't Drax, it was Blofeld!
You're right; it's YOLT that has the spacecraft consuming rocket; the shuttle in Moonraker is hijacked off the back of the 747. Many years since I saw either of those films (I much prefer the books), and memory had blurred them into one.
So: Has the world learned nothing from Ernst Stavro Blofeld?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
