* Posts by x 7

3849 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Nov 2014

Dodgy software will bork America's F-35 fighters until at least 2019

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Re: Ditch it already

"That's a laugh, we're talking a fifty year old engine design whose control systems were designed and built by a company that ceased to exist around a couple of decades ago and whose assets were transferred to a company which did nothing with them and which in the last couple of years has successfully been getting rid of any development and support people who would have any kind of clue what to do with something from that era."

I think its fair to say that when Rolls Royce and Bristol Siddeley were forced into a shotgun marriage, the takeover was the wrong way round. Bristol's had better engineers, better designs and better manufacturing techniques. The one new engine RR had development - the RB211 - had been misengineered so badly it eventually bankrupted them - requiring assistance from Bristol to get the engine bearings working . Wheras Bristol had developed the Pegasus, the Olympus and several others in that same time frame. Yet Rolls Royce became the "parent" company and their incompetent management gained the whip hand. Bloody Wedgewood Benn and his "strategic industrial corporations"

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Re: "158 of which are Category 1" / severe illness / helmet

" Old Sarum Airfield Museum is now on my places-to-see list for my next visit to the UK*!"

if you're interested in aircraft museums, Boscombe Down and Yeovilton are both an easy drive down the A303 from there

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Re: x 7 - GE (USA) .ne. GEC (UK)

this is a good brief biography on Weinstock

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/07/wein-j27.html

its written from a very Socialist perspective, but it looks pretty accurate

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Re: x 7 - GE (USA) .ne. GEC (UK)

Lord Weinstock

Thatcher's industrial god. That bastard did more to destroy British manufacturing industry, and exported more jobs than any other single person - including her.

He destroyed our lead in radar, missiles, sonar, torpedoes, railway engineering, telecoms, power engineering, marine engineering/ship building, and much much more. His concepts survive within BAE Systems even now - thats why we no longer build any civilian aircraft, and rely on foreign partners for military stuff. Why we no longer build locomotives, or ships. If there's one person who can be blamed for our industrial decline, its him

PS - don't forget Althom/Alstom started out as Alsace-Thomson-Heuston as opposed to British-Thomson-Heuston, who were both licencees / part subsidiaries of Thomson-Heuston of America. The UK company became part of AEI then GEC, while the American company became part of GE

Its a funny old world how things go in circles...

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in service until 2070

and now the Pentagon reckons the F-35 "Fighting Turkey" will be in service until 2070

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/2016/03/24/f-35-fly-until-2070-six-years-longer-than-planned/82224282/

given that theres no internal space for addons, retrofits, uprades, and the engine is already at the limits of performance then that's going to be on heck of a conjuring trick.

We don't know if the composite airframes will last that long, we can be very very certain the stealth technology used won't be relevant by then - and we can be very very certain that by 2070 any manned aircraft as slow, unprotected and unmanoeverable as an F-35 will have all the efficacy of a flying coffin

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Re: @bri

" Alternatively, if we fitted EMALS, we wouldn't need STOVL. But BAe insists that the EMALS retrofit - on carriers for which we paid significantly more for them to be modular and modifiable - is going to cost as much as a new build. Despite the fact that General Atomics - the manufacturer of EMALS - quoted an order of magnitude less..."

my understanding is that the alternative, cheaper EMALS system from the Anglo-French company Converteam was disregarded, despite the price advantage - and the fact that Converteam were already supplying the electric transmissions for the ships, and had provided "plug in" capability for their version of EMALS within the power generation equipment.

Its irrelevant now, as Converteam were taken over by (American) GEC and the project shut down. Funny that. I'd love to know how big the behind-the-scenes backhanders were

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Re: A boondoggle through and through and now ejection seats are also a problem?

"Who flew an RV-7 this afternoon"

come on Vic, you know you're not supposed to release details of whats flying at "The Secret Airbase in Wiltshire" (TM)

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Re: "158 of which are Category 1" / severe illness / helmet

"We've got a couple of Canberras at the museum."

ever looked where the nav seat on PR9 Canberra? In the nose. That must have been an interesting ejection.

As for your Canberra - presumably a 3 or 4-seater? I didn't think the rear seat crew on those had ejection seats - wasn't their emergency exit via the landing gear hatch? So an accident on take off or landing was unsurvivable for them

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Re: Lessons of History....XZ457

that must have been a lot of work, rebuilding the wreck.....I presume she's way beyond ever flying?

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Re: Expected?

anecdotal story from a BAE Systems manager

Apparently there was a shortage of ADA programmers on the contract for the carriers and the F-35, but loads made redundant by the scrapping of the Nimrod project, and Harrier support.

But BAE refused to contemplate moving them across projects, instead preferring to dump existing staff and (try to) employ new juniors. New juniors who didn't exist. Just one of the reasons the carrier project is so screwed up

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Re: boltar A boondoggle through and through and now ejection seats are also a problem?

@Matt Bryant

I presume you actually mean a navalised Typhoon, not Tornado? Thats what was offered to the Indians

And did you mean to say a "true swing-role Tornado"?

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Re: @Ledswinger

"So we really should be asking: WTF are we doing wrong?"

Simple

In the F-35 project, research and production have been allowed to run side by side, with problems found during the build requiring new basic R&D

Historically aircraft companies would build pure research designs, the results of which may get incorporated into production designs. With the F-35 that was deliberately curtailed so that the production model IS the research project. Hence the extended lead time.

Everything about the F-35 is new an experimental. New engine, new vertical lift fan, new airframe using new materials and new construction methods, totally new avionics, completely new sensor suite, new fully integrated helmet, all requiring new software. All new, all likely to go wrong. And then you add to it the new development process itself, and the new oversight methods..........

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Re: A boondoggle through and through and now ejection seats are also a problem?

"It would have been orders of magnitude easier and cheaper to develop a supersonic Harrier"

probably not true.........a supersonic Harrier would have required plenum chamber burning, and this would have to be used on landing due to the extra weight. That would have given major problems with exhaust gas temperatures and pressure, more or less destroying any landing surface, steel or concrete. There's a thread on PPRUNE somewhere where John Farley (Harrier chief test pilot) states that he told Hawkers he would have refused to fly the plenum chamber burning P.1154 super-Harrier due to the dangers involved in landing it.

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Re: "158 of which are Category 1"

""Severe illness." Eh?"

I THINK this is a reference to the unique nature of the helmet: its a kind of hybrid virtual reality device which integrates "real" vision with the inputs from cameras and other sensors dotted around the aircraft. For instance if the pilot looks "down" he can "see" right through the aircraft to the ground below.

It must be bloody difficult perfecting that integration, and I can see that getting it wrong could have a disturbing effect on the pilots spatial coordination, vision and concentration. Imagine seasickness at high G and/or Mach1.5 with vision on the verge of hallucination

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Re: Ditch it already

"Just twist a few Arms at BAE and get an updated Harrier back into production. Avionics from the Typhoon would make the thing a lot simpler."

the jigs and tools have gone, the factory has gone.......and more importantly, the design team has gone.

The technology has been lost

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at this rate the only aircraft capable of launching from our new carriers will be Russian

Computers shouldn't smoke. Cigarettes aren't healthy for anyone

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Re: Time Computers-

that comms room was a fucking deathtrap......couldn't hear the firebells from in there. Once during an alarm I had to kick the door down to break the lock so I could tell the networks team to get out......the joys of being a fire marshal. The fools inside had totally ignored us doing a high-speed evac of the call-centre

I've no photos unfortunately. Actually I'd forgotten how bad it was until you reminded me....but now you have, I shudder at the memory

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"Nicotine is a colourless liquid!"

what s/he means is the toxic nicotine-containing tar which condenses on walls and ceilings. Toxic mainly because of the carcinogenic nitrosonicotines and nornicotines it also contains. As I've mentioned before, one of my previous employers used to make them for standards checking

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one bastard called Bob who worked for me at Time Computers left three dead crabs in his work computer when he left. Took us weeks to realise that it wasn't the air conditioning that was the problem....

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I went to a house in Blackpool to fix a dead PC. Owner was a chain-smoking lazy sweaty stinking fat bastard who'd not picked up the empty beer cans and pizza boxes dotted around his house for at least six months. Claimed to be a game developer "so needed the PC urgently".

Chain smoker. I got the side open, and it was completely full of ash. Not just a covering: it was completely full of ash, while all the surfaces were brown with nicotine tar residues. No spare space inside, it was a wonder the machine had not ignited.

I screwed the side back on, told him "Its a health hazard. I'm not touching it until its been professionally decontaminated". He started mumbling and crying about his "games" and I was quite blunt: "you should have thought of that before, and backed up. IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM"

I told the agency I was working for, and they blacklisted him. Working in his house, or on the machine was an environmental hazard: I would have needed a full COSHH assessment before starting!

Tracy Emin dons funeral shroud, marries stone

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rocky future ahead then.

But she always looks stoned anyway.

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just wondering.....was it one of these weird neopagan ceremonies? I think they call it "handfisting" or something like

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Re: NSFW....

you mean this one

http://oglaf.com/noblesse/

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Re: @X7

"@X7 Was that last line really necessary?"

sorry, was calling her a "bitch" too extreme? I guess I could have said "witch" instead.

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Well....I guess she has an excuse for when she gets arrested for cannabis use.

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"I wouldn't say no to her"

I would!

but ladies seem to have such lower standards than us men

"I suspect you're no oil painting, X7."

you're correct, but my friends all believe I have one hidden in the attic

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"As one of the most acclaimed artists of her generation,"

total bollox

"As one of the most notorious artistic con-artists of her generation,"

more like it

was the stone shaped like a lingham? Only way that ugly bitch would ever get any satisfaction

ExoMars probe narrowly avoids death, still in peril after rocket snafu

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so whats wrong if a few microbes get to Mars? Regard it as the first stage of terraforming

Cosmic bonks, breakups led to birth of Saturn's moons as dinos died out

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Re: The T Rex had hands...

hands may have been too short, but most reptiles have long prehensile tongues

they'd have to be careful with those teeth though

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"Or at least that's my experience having shelled out for a really nice (so I'm lead to believe) 12"er."

it'll only keep her happy if it has long-life batteries

Let’s re-invent small phones! Small screens! And rubber buttons!

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Re: Small != Small

"The Dump doesn’t have small hands as such but he does suffer from fat stubby fingers."

in which case FFS keep him away from the nuclear button......he'll probably hit it while flushing the toilet

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Dabbsy

this device will solve your TV control problems

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Remote-Massive-Buttons-Satillite/dp/B0011OVNHI

iPad bricked by iOS 9.3? Don't worry, we'll get through this together

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the only thing required to upgrade an iPad or iPod is a big hammer

Microsoft introduces yet another Skype for Windows 10

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I just find it amusing that the Microsoft spokesperson was Tech Girl Barbie

Oracle fires big red Solaris support sueball at HPE

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naive question maybe, but I'm out of touch........is there now an open source version of Solaris available? I mean one that can actually be used....

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desperation moves of dying companies

neither can see a future making money by selling stuff, so they have to extract whatever they can from what they have already sold.

Troubled Acer is going to chop itself into three bite sized chunks

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"It seems that about the only supplier of the larger laptops with Win7 is Acer"

certainly the only mass-market brand.

Some resellers offer rebadged 17" or 19" Clevos, but they're not cheap

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Acer

what software?

what services?

all they've got is the original ALi Acer Labs chipset business, and most of that was sold off to nVidia as ULi years ago

Israeli biz fingered as the FBI's iPhone cracker

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Re: At last, some good news about Windows phones

"Oh well, as the only two users we should be safe!!!"

not if you downgrade to Windows 10

BT: We're killing the dabs brand. Oh and can customers re-register to buy on our site?

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Re: Can it be true!...

"I'd long since forgotten about the Buzby ads."

were they the ones with Maureen Lippman? Or was that a different display of bad taste by BT?

What to call a £200m 15,000-tonne polar vessel – how about Boaty McBoatface?

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"ITYM Alexander Selkirk"

Correct, I did mean him

I made a stupid brain-fart

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Re: This is why everyone thinks students are w*****s

"My nomination, if the site comes back up; "2 Girls, 1 tub"."

So "rub a dub dub, two screws in my tub"

A nursery rhyme about ships propulsion devices

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"Nice, solid woody names those."

slightly bad taste methinks WRT "Atlantic Conveyor". Especially considering how some of the people on that ship died (something even I will NOT post here)

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damn page is still u/s, otherwise I would have suggested naming the ship "RRS William Dampier" after one of our greatest, earliest maritime explorers. First man to circumnavigate the world three times, the first by accident.

He instigated the study of ocean currents, and some of his charts are still in use. He predates Cook by around 100 years

He marooned William Selkirk, and then navigated the ship that picked him up again years later. First man to properly chart any part of Australia

'Hot Tech Talent' IT job board ads caught up in sexism allegations

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Re: Image this

" many women will look at the image and think "I want to be more like that woman - successful, confident, healthy, desirable, shaggable"

FIFY

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Re: Hmm

you mean:

"Just another feminist blogger dictating an opinion..."

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those women look like ferds to me: female nurds.

nothing sexy except maybe their brains

Microsoft's equality and diversity: Skimpy schoolgirls dancing for nerds at an Xbox party

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Re: @ Steven Roper (was When I was at school ...)

"was a craze the girls had for wearing black, very brief knickers called "bumhuggers."""

I don't remember those

Photos please.

Microsoft to add a touch of Chrome to Edge

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I'm finding when installing Win10 that Edge frequently cannot run a wide range of websites especially anything with multimedia

In most cases I end up disabling Edge and setting IE as default, unless the user prefers Chrome

Look out, Windows Phone 8 users – yes, both of you – here's ... Windows 10 Mobile

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Re: And what do you get from W10 mobile?

"so eventually you will be navigating to addresses that can't be found, or roads that have changes, bus timetables that have changed, businesses that have moved"

thats when the programme gets renamed to "THERE"