Posts by bernmeister

NASA boss balks at billion-dollar estimate for recycled Moon rover

Classic

They used TTL 7400 devices on Voyager. Bomb proof and easy to design.

Re: you might think some generic assemblies

There might be a shread of thuth there. 1 billion does sound like a lot of cash to modify an existing rover. Perhaps Elon Musk could be invited to give a quote.

Windows 10 refuses to die, and the security bill is coming due

What about the hidden systems?

Systems not connected to the iternet dont need an upgrade. I have seen POS and travel announcment systems running XP!. They work well. Why fix it when it is not boken? I upgraded to W10 a while back and my Webcam, scanner and printer stopped working because they had no W10 dtivers.

NASA says it will isolate volunteers from the outside world for a year

Re: The psychology of isolation

The Antarctic. There are no predators just hostile conditions. An alternative would be be a high altitude location. Molas Lake Campground in the USA would be comfortable. I hesitate to suggest anywhere hazardous

Re: The psychology of isolation

You are right there. Isolation is only part of the experience of long space missions, and one of the least important.

Large Hadron Collider goes offline to make room for its enhanced successor

Re: Chance of humanity ending

"The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) uses roughly 0.65 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually, which accounts for about half of CERN's total yearly consumption. This is equivalent to the power needed to supply roughly 115,000 to 150,000 homes for an entire year" (Google).. So CERN total consumption is equivelent to powering 300,000 homes a year. That quite a lot.

OpenAI Codex bombards SSDs with needless write operations, costing millions

It happens

On a smaller scale there are always things conspiring to harm an SSD, accidents like running a defragmenter, logging loops and others. I lost 5gb to an obscure logging loop.

The memory crisis is getting so bad that even retro RAM prices are going to the Moon

Re: Pop little bubble, pop!

I have a feeling that bubble will not be allowed to burst even if AI never lives up to its promise. With so much invested players will be forced to keep it going much like a mummified Guru.

XP-era Windows spotted haunting London's driverless railway

Does it matter?

If your system is not exposed to the Internet or anything similar and your hardware is functional there is absolutely no need to upgrade Windows. Upgrading could result in some hardware becoming non-functional due to loss of driver support. Dont upgrade for the sake of it.

Signal says UK plan to scan devices for nude images 'endangers us all'

Can we trust AI with this important job?

Can we trust AI with this important job? I have seen image recognition AI that can't tell the difference between a shovel and a spade. It even confuses horses with other 4 legged animals. This will just turn into another government ran fiasco.

UK drivers' agency shrugs off claims of week-long booking site smashes, blames browser configs

Its been there for a long time.

Its been there for a long time. Three years ago I had the same problem looking for driving tests for my wife. I got locked out and could only get in using Firefox Incognito. The reason I was given was that I was navigating the site to fast using an old Toshiba laptop and copper connected internet. What do they expect people to use, tin cans and a length of string? Now theres a project to occupy idle hands.

UK govt dept sent a document 'in error.' Now it's being used in a £370M contract lawsuit

Tangled

"Oh, what a tangled web they weave, / When first they practice to deceive!"

Moon's mighty magnetic field was a 5,000-year titanium blip

Re: Was the titanium in

You are correct, Titanium & it's alloys are paramagnetic. Howver, rocks containing Titanium minerals can be magnetic.

The primary magnetic titanium mineral is ilmenite which is weakly magnetic. Other magnetic titanium-bearing minerals include titanomagnetite, which is strongly magnetic due to high iron-titanium oxide content.

It is strange that the researchers mentioned Titanium but not iron.

NASA repurposes Mars Helicopter’s ancient Snapdragon SoC to help Perseverance rover navigate

Wizards

Those guys at NASA are upgrade/repair wizards. Their list of achievements is amazing

Matrix is quietly becoming the chat layer for governments chasing digital sovereignty

Re: I keep reading that...

Criminals are also using their brains to plan crimes. Rerhaps brain function should be restricted.

Marching orders delayed: Veterans' Digital ID off to a slow start

Tried it, didnt work.

This digital ID thing is a bit flakey at the least. I tried to renew my driving licence recently and having gone through all the hoops and hurdles of the GOV.UK One Login app used to get to the DVLA section something stalled with the response "inadequte security information". I tried a few times, sent a message off to the right people and was told that the "inadequte security information".was at their end. I have had bank accounts, building society accounts, NHS, tax etc for decades but for some reason that was not enough. They sent me a link for the old DVLA online application form. This link was not visible on the new site. The link worked, the old form worked and a new licence arrived by post on time. I suspect this may happen with other GOV.UK One Logins.

I complained and the response was that security checking was done by a third party and GOV.UK is not responsible for it.

iProov performs the "liveness" check (ensuring you are a real person) and "likeness" check (matching your selfie to your ID document).

iProov uses subcontractors Veriff and Inverid to assist with these checks.

Ther is probably more to it than that.

Cop cops it after Copilot cops out: West Midlands Police chief quits over AI hallucination

I asked Google AI

I asked Google AI to prove that it was not jusr a glorified index. It boasted that it was distinct from an index because it could fill in missing information (hallucinate)

Nothing to declare at border control except a Windows 7 certificate error

Be Sensible

If a machine is not connected to the internet and has no Wi-Fi connection there are few security concerns. If it works well dont replace it. I have seen stand alone point of sale (POS) systems running Windows 7 and they work well. They were very expensive new and very expensive to replace. Even upgrading the OS would be pointless. Most of the POS peripherals dont even have drivers for W10.

UK's long-delayed Emergency Services Network eyes satellites for help

Obsolete

Some components for the Airwave Tetra system became obsolete by the time it was installed. Keeping it going was a major effort. Will any replacement system fare better?

AI faces closing time at the cash buffet

Re: Pointless

Customer service chatbots at the least save the bother of reading product descriptions, instruction manuals and terms and conditions. Is that convenience really worth it?

GOV.UK to unleash AI chatbot on confused citizens

The response to that question will be "Sorry, I dont have information on that subject".

Throttled

A sensible way to limit the chatbots hallucinations is to ensure that it only quotes from the published gov information. Basically just an automated index. Any other interpretation is just hallucination.

The future of long-term data storage is clear and will last 14 billion years

Re: "I gave it 120%"

The statement "allowing data to be encoded in five dimensional space" has me puzzled. I dont beleive it exists.

Space-power startup claims it can beam energy to solar farms

Why?

Now here is a thought. Rather than place systems in orbit to catch the sunlight at night why not place a set of interconnected solar farms at intervals around the surface.of the globe? Cost and politics may be a factor but it would need no special technology.

Electric cars no more likely to flatten you than the noisy ones, study finds

The question of what is the effect of extra weight is easily calculated. I used Google AI to do the calculation. The results are surprising and tie up with the statistics.

How much energy is transferred to a 100kg mass when struck by a 2000kg mass traveling at 30km/h? The amount of energy transferred to the 100 kg mass, assuming a perfectly elastic collision, is approximately 12,598 J (Joules).

How much energy is transferred to a 100kg mass when struck by a 1000kg mass traveling at 30km/h?Assuming the 100kg mass is initially at rest and the collision is perfectly elastic, approximately 11478.42 J (or 11.5 kJ) of energy is transferred to the 100kg mass.

Even being by a ten ton truck is only a bit worse. The energy transferred to the 100kg mass is approximately 13615.22 J.

An elastic collision is one in which the objects after impact become stuck together and move with a common velocity. Thats a bad pedestrian crash. In all three cases the collision is probably fatal. Crumple zones help reduce the damage.

My apologies for using Google AI for every calculation.

Lawyer's 6-year-old son uses AI to build copyright infringement generator

Its no big deal

You dont need AI to infringe copyright. Anybody with just pencil and paper can do this. Publish and you are damned. Just paint the golden arches on your store front and see what happens.

Digital ID is now less about illegal working, more about rummaging through drawers

Re: It’s about tax

I needed to replace a driving licence online. The multiple "prove your ID" loops were endless. I contacted GOV.UK One describing the problem and was told there was insufficient information held to confirm my ID. I have held many UK passports. Five in row. I have current bank accounts dating back decades but the explanation was that the ID verification was done by a third party who did not have enough data. I was eventually given a link to the old DVLA online lycence form, that worked OK. I have a very bad feeling about these new online services.

It wont work well for some.

This digital ID is linked with GOV.UK One Login. Have a go at setting up your ID and using it on a GOV.UK site. I needed to replace a driving licence online. The multiple "prove your ID" loops were endless. I contacted GOV.UK describing the problem and was told there was insufficient information held to confirm my ID. I have held many UK passports. Five in row. Had bank accounts dating back decades but the explanation was that the ID verification was done by a third party who did not have enough data. I was eventually given a link to the old DVLA online lycence form,

We're all going to be paying AI's Godzilla-sized power bills

Re: Cheer up.

Meanwhile, let them eat cake.

Britain jumps into bed with Palantir in £1.5B defense pact

Everybody (most) are off topic.

I have read many comments and dont see much to do with "The UK has struck a defense deal with US spy-tech biz Palantir".

No suds for you! Asahi brewery attack leaves Japanese drinkers dry

There is a pattern here

Attacks on the NHS, car manufacturers, supermarkets, brewers etc suggest that these attacks are becomong more focused. What next? Critical government systems, defence systems all are vulnerable. I have this dream of a hack that deposits millions into the bank accounts of every person in the world. Wont happen, hackers are not that nice.

Windows Security Update turns smooth NDI streams into jittery messes

Streaming stuttering

Can they make it worse? I used to get perfect streaming on W8 but have never worked why W10 gives ptoble,

Dwarf planet Ceres may have been habitable - for microbes - a couple of billion years back

Nutrients

Despite having nutrients Ceres may be as sterile as an unopened tin of beens.

Re: "LGMs – little green microbes"

A complex situation. Who will do the FenchFries?

Re: "LGMs – little green microbes"

Your right there. Apparently sterilzed sealed comtainers full of sterilized nutrients can be left for a very long time without showing any signs of life. Nicolas Appert's and Louis Pasteur foumd this out a long time ago. If the planet Earth was completly sterilized it would stay like until seeded by life from outside.

Nuclear reactors smaller than a semi truck to be tested in Idaho

You should have how how bad the other bloke did.

I have seen those videos. The train was completely demolished but the waste container was unscathed with just a few scratches(big ones).

Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty

Re: Encryption

Perhaps Morse code would be OK. -.. --- -. - / -... --- - .... . .-. / .. -. - . .-. -.-. . .--. - .. -. --. / -- .

Encryption

Perhaps people should dig out their Enigma or Lorenz software. If you are really worried about data interception put some effort into making it secure.

Quantum code breaking? You'd get further with an 8-bit computer, an abacus, and a dog

Re: Quantum computing and Fusion is twenty years away...

The same for many other things, sometimes the time scales are even shorter. Li-ion battery performance increases are a good example. The optimism of some researchers seems to be boundless. I cant even spell "optimism" without using a spell checker.

Puzzled

I have searched for the purpose of the abacus and dog but could not find it. I understand the VIC-20 bit and have used it myself for simple code cracking.

Financial 'stretch' for UK to join Europe's Starlink rival, says minister

Why?

Why would the UK need an EU version of Starlink or even Starlink itself? Openreach and Virgin Media provision of fibre internet and others 5G internet is good . Am I missing something?

Cold without the compressor: Boffins build better ice box

Re: Room temperature?

Summer time temperatures at, Laurel, Maryland location can reach 27C all day during the summer. Perhaps their lab has no air conditioning or is a Portacabin in the grounds. Poor guys, they must sweat a lot during the summer, hence their preoccupation with cooling devices.

Brit space sector struggles to compete with £90K graduate banking salaries

Choice

Anybody who chooses banking over maths, physics, and engineering is showing a disinterest in the subject. People working in the sciences do so out of interest not financial gain.

Researchers claim spoof-proof random number generator breakthrough

Re: Why is this better?

The randomness you are describing is impressive but is well known. In order to publish, novel ways of doing things need to be found. People will carry on inventing new ways of generating random numbers. I was going to say forever or until the cows come home but could not find a suitable epithet.

Re: Jury selection

That approach works in other areas as well. On an Air India flight I was offered a free upgrade to business class because I was so well dressed.

Peep show: 40K IoT cameras worldwide stream secrets to anyone with a browser

Re: No Mention Of.....

2,718,424 cameras are currently visible on Shodan. Username and password were needed for the ones I saw. Some will have backdoors known only by a select few.

Wanted: IT manager for UK government agency – £60k

Dont forget to add supplements

Dont forget to add South East weighting of £6,000 ps and relocation allowance. There may be a few others I have not mentioned. I used to work for the civil service and the allowances I received were generous

The UK wants you to sign up for £1B cyber defense force

The wrong trousers Grommet

They are going to recruit the wrong people. I did a GCHQ recruitment interveiw and the test revolved around scheduling a bus timetable. My ability to code and decode had no impact. I went all the way to Cheltenham and back paid by the government and felt that I was not the one that lost out.

Boffins warn that AI paper mills are swamping science with garbage studies

Garbage everywhere.

AI is not just swamping science with garbage studies but it is filling the internet with with rubbish articles. Lots of repetition and no solid information are surely the hallmark of AI articles.

Pentagon declares war on 'outdated' software buying, opens fire on open source

Re: There are three urgent priorities here.

Its back to the Magic Sate then. An all American invention. I am sure Trump would approve of it.