* Posts by x 7

3849 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Nov 2014

BT broadband is down: Former state monopoly goes TITSUP UK-wide

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which day did BT complete the EE takeover? Am I right in thinking yesterday?

Has a techie shown his disgust by pulling the plug? A real life BOFH in the heart of BT?

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Re: self-generated DDoS

"In the days before fibre broadband, BT Retail didn't use the DSL username+password stuff that practically every other ISP used, they simply checked that the line ID presented to the kit was a valid line ID for BT Broadband."

not quite true - it did need a user name and password. But username could be anything@btbroadband.com

Us contractors for BT usually set them up as user= "btuser@btbroadband.com" with password "btuser"

That worked on all BT domestic connections

Why the Sun is setting on the Boeing 747

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Re: Really?

"As for the probabilities of losing engines, well it looks like you're assuming that the probabilities are independent - I'd suggest that in most cases of multiple failure they aren't."

Correct - that is my assumption. But if you want to look at non-independent failure then the four-jet fares even worse because of the risk of uncontained turbine failure, or an engine fire, taking out the adjacent engine. That's not possible in a trijet

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"But the fourth engine gave the plane a significant safety advantage in that it would retain much greater propulsion power if one of the engines failed."

not really true

If you lose two engines on a three engined aircraft you're going to crash

If you lose two engines on a four engined aircraft you are probably also going to crash

the probability of losing two engines on a four engined craft is higher than that of losing two on a three engined craft. Now, which is safer?

Police Scotland will have direct access to disabled parking badge database

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Re: @X7 Wow!

"and also managed to denigrate every person out there who might aspire to either a car with a bit more room for whatever reason, or something with a little power because you know, they actually enjoy driving."

Good, you got the message. Its that sense of automatic "entitlement" again which people use to self-justify irresponsible acts such as overusing the earths resources. Driving overlarge vehicles too fast is one such example.

"A large vehicle or more power does NOT equate with irresponsible hooniness (or is that hoonism?)"

I don't know the word "hooniness", but if I did I'm certain I would disagree. Large vehicles and more power both equate to selfish use of resources, and increased risk on the road to others

"Most people of my acquaintance, admittedly not a large scientific survey, usually acquire larger or more powerful vehicles simply because they've decided that it gives them a bit more comfort when driving."

There are a lot of smaller vehicles out there which have perfectly adequate performance and comfort levels for driving, even long range. Insisting that a large vehicle is required for such tasks is self-delusional

Chip chomped after debug backdoor found in Android phones

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Chinese government strikes again!

And found out again.....

Hackers mirror 250GB of NASA files on the web

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Re: its all fake

"x 7 - WHY have you been making more sense as of late?"

sorry about that, its not intentional

Note to self: must try harder when trolling.......

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Re: Terminator seeds

the problem is the apparent bias and prejudice on behalf on Monsanto....

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its all fake

If it was true they would have found the real records of the Roswell aliens

Uni of Manchester IT director resigns after chopping 68 people

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Re: co-op IT are dysfunctional

" haven't gone done."

I read that as not working?

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Re: Truely disturbing

" Michael Jackson's sperm?"

what? you mean he actually had one?

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ex Co-Op bank?

good riddance

maybe the department can now sort itself out

Microsoft: Yes, we are going to kill off Enterprise Agreements

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Re: This is going to be the death of Microsoft

"What's the fact he's Indian got anything to do with it?"

well, he's scalping his customers

oooops - wrong Indian

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what if I don't want cloud-cuckoo land services?

El Reg nips down to the Hewlett You Inn?

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look at the pix, its hardly a pub.

Just a staff canteen with an alcohol licence.

I take it HP don't have a "No drinking on the job" rule?

How Symantec scuppered Veritas sell-off six ways to Sunday

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Re: º∆º

"Veritas' core products are the kind of robust software that most companies could only dream about"

thats why they can't sell them then

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" "can be no assurance that we will be able to hire key personnel to fill all of these roles in a timely manner or that such new hires will succeed in those roles....""

In translation "we have a crap product that doesn't sell, and everybody knows it"

Secret Service Silk Road scammer in the slammer

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Oh boy.

He's going to need a big jar of vaseline soon

Brit airline pilots warn of drone menace

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Re: I hope you drone pilots have decent insurance

sorry I keep typing Tarleton.........of course its Farleton

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Re: I hope you drone pilots have decent insurance

"The Tornado was reported to be *off-course*"

No such concept as "off course" on a military flying exercise. They have a start point and a destination. There are certain areas which are off-bounds such as big cities. Otherwise at low level they have free reign to go wherever seems best at the time. In this case, one Tornado went west of Farleton Fell, one east. No issues, thats how things work. At the time it was a regular sight. Nowadays they tend to take a more challenging path up the Lune Valley and Lune Gorge, but that's because there are fewer aircraft flying so they can all take the difficult route.

In this particular case, they were following a slightly different route and time path than originally intended because Tornado #2 was unable to use its bombing slot at Donna Nook due to conflicting aircraft, so they rerouted to drop some bombs in Scotland instead.

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Re: I hope you drone pilots have decent insurance

1) The Tornado was a GR1. NO air-to-air radar. The radar fit is ground imaging only

2) The report clearly says that the JetRanger would not have been visible to the Tornado crew until AT MOST 17 seconds before impact. In reality probably 5 seconds. That assumes the pilot wasn't having to look at altimeter data, change radio settings, change engine thrust or one of a myriad other tasks which would have taken his eyes in the wrong direction. In this particular case he was worried that the other Tornado in the formation was on the other side of Tarleton Fell, and the two were likely to be on a collision course when they reached the north end of the fell. His concentration would have been set on that potential impact. In reality whats five seconds? Head down, head up, bang you're dead.

Read the report. Its all in there. Along with the fact that the helicopter company had found the reporting advisory scheme unworkable so had abandoned it - so the military had no knowledge of the helicopters presence. So whose blame was it?

Read the report before you post again. So at least if you want to spout bullshit, at least its informed bullshit.

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Re: I hope you drone pilots have decent insurance

just rereading that full report, and theres some interesting stuff there

first they say that to have had a chance to see the JetRanger, the Tornado pilot would have had to be sweeping his head left-right every five seconds, at the same time trying to avoid sightline blocks. On a multi-hour flight, not practical

Secondly, the JetRanger would have remained invisible to the Tornado until at earliest 17 seconds before impact. - and more probably just 5 seconds

So, if something the size of a JetRanger is damned invisible until its too late to take action, what chance has a pilot of seeing and reacting to a small drone in front of him?

All those who are saying its up to the pilot to see and avoid the drone are nothing short of stupid idiots

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Re: I hope you drone pilots have decent insurance

Just found online the summary of the report of the Farleton crash

As I thought, there was no notification process in place to advise the military of the presence of the helicopter (which was on a pipeline inspection - not pylons)

http://bit.ly/1NMxeb9 -summary report

http://bit.ly/1TxmpB2 -full report

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Re: I hope you drone pilots have decent insurance

"NOTAMs"

thats the very point........my memory is shaky (its several years since I read the report) but my belief is that there wasn't a NOTAM that day

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Re: I hope you drone pilots have decent insurance

The Tarleton helicopter crash isn't really a good example.

It was due to a combination of a low-level high speed military aircraft, and a helicopter at low level doing an electricity pylon survey. Due to the ground contours, the low levels and the aircraft attitudes both were in each others blind spots. But even if the Tornado pilot had seen the helicopter, at that speed and level there probably would not have been time to take avoiding action.

The real cause was the fact that a civilian aircraft was at low level in a military low flying zone, on a flying day. The only thing that could have stopped the crash was a warning to the military by the helicopter inspection team that they intended to be there that day, so enabling the Tornado to reroute.

Why a detachable cabin probably won’t save your life in a plane crash

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Re: If weight is such an issue...

"Indeed they do. Any move to do so in the UK, and presumably the rest of the EU, would get a sex discrimination suit dropped on your desk the same morning."

All those fat girls called Sharon & Tracey..........

do they still appear in Viz?

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Re: Looks as though it requires a high-wing aircraft configuration.

"One word: Ekranoplan"

bad example. The Ekranoplans all had boat hulls with wingtip stabilisers and were stable in the water

Also the engines (on most) were not wing mounted, but instead set high on the hull above the wing level to avoid spray

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Re: Really?

"Pan Am flight PA6"

thanks for that link, just proves the point there's always an exception to something.

Combination of an aircraft built like a tank, what must have been remarkable flying, decent weather and a ship within range. The aces don't normally all come up like that

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Re: Really?

It would be fair to say there have been no distant-water survivals. As far as I'm aware the only survivors from water landings have been in coastal waters. I'd be glad to be proved wrong however.

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Re: Really?

"Humphrey Bogard(!)"

is that a gay love child between Humphrey Bogart and Dirk Bogarde?

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Re: Looks as though it requires a high-wing aircraft configuration.

" a 747 can't land on (rough) landing strips or gravel runways"

actually it shouldn't be too difficult to convert the 747 design to do that.....

the original plans were based on a competing concept for the C-5 Galaxy and would have had rough field capability

whether existing aircraft could be converted is unlikely, but new builds probably could be without too much hassle. It just needs the demand - which at present isn't there

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Re: Looks as though it requires a high-wing aircraft configuration.

"Hmm. I wonder which route all the Lockheed Galaxies I used to see at FFM airport took?"

Not many people to get out of a cargo plane, so the risk is less. And military families tend not to sue when their loved ones get killed, unlike civilian passengers......

As has been said elsewhere, there are valid technical reasons for using high wing designs on military aircraft: the reduced risk of FOD outweighs the increased risk of sea loss

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Re: And now.....

"high octane fuel exploding "

jet fuels are kerosenes, not high octane fuel

Like diesel, you can throw a fag end into it and it wont burn. Takes a fair bit of heat to make it ignite

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Re: Nothing new.....

" big, Russian, "Flying Cranes"."

They were actually built in the USA by Sikorsky, who was Russian by origin but very much part of the USA industrial complex

To be precise the S-64 SkyCrane, which in military service became the CH-54 Tarhe

The design has now been sold off and someone else still has them in limited production

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-64_Skycrane

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Re: Looks as though it requires a high-wing aircraft configuration.

" the 1968/9 film Doppelganger (aka Journey to the far side of the Sun) "

yet again Gerry Anderson got there first.......he really should have patented the ideas he came up with

Lincolnshire council IT ransomware flingers asked for ... £350

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Re: Observed truths were are told should be "wrong"

"Hating on all BMW drivers and black people eh?"

round here a black or white BMW = drug dealer

black or white Audi = wannabe drug dealer. Or a management reject

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$500?

that really does sound like the fee per machine.

more checks needed before publishing.............

CSC boss Gossain is now an ex-exec

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ex-exec?

Don't worry, when CSC finally migrates to being an ex-company, he won't be alone. It can't be far away

Back to the Future's DeLorean is coming back to the future

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Re: Different engines under the hood...

"pretty but incompetent sports car, "

what makes you say the Jensen Intercepter was incompetent?

I'm not criticising you, just genuinely interested in what you thought was wrong.

Any comments on the 4x4 version with the Ferguson transmission? I always thought that would be an interesting beast to drive

Land Rover Defender dies: Production finally halted by EU rules

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Re: Roll me over

a few months back in another thread there was a very passionate description of a Land Rover roll over accident in which a chap watched his whole family die. When a land rover rolls with any kind of energy the whole body comes apart like a wet cardboard box. They're not safe. Never were, never can be.

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Re: Just

"parked up in Wetherby Services"

been plenty of floods in an around Leeds over the years

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Re: Mini Moke link

just a shame that the new Mokes don't meet USA or European safety laws

No room for the airbags

No ABS

I'm guessing the crash resistance tests were probably poor as well........

really a vehicle like that should be given approval checks more like those of a motorbike, not a full sized car

Israeli drones and jet signals slurped by UK and US SIGINT teams

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Re: Loathe to say this, but 'agencies' should follow good project governance.

"Define what winning the "war on terror" actually would be"

kill all the terrorists, potential terrorists, their financiers, supporters and hangers-on.

There you are, simples

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Re: Why would you do this?

"... or a British ISP/telco. Yes, I'm looking at you Dido!"

I'm loathe to say it......but that idea looks a bit dicky to me

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Re: Eastenders

nuke Watford at the same time just to be sure - after all there could have been an error of decryption and no-one cares about collateral damage nowadays

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Re: "Anarchist training manual"

"Mary Berry"

Is that Chuck Berry's wife?

The next Cuban gristle crisis: US Navy warship powered by beef fat

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Re: "The rest of us should get by on beans and lentils -

" triple destilled banana gin ..."

now that sounds like a business worth exploiting

Most of the world still dependent on cash

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Re: Eh?

"ostrich roll"

wouldn't emu roll be more authentic?

I guess too far south for cassowarys........

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Who's the naive prat who financed the survey? Anyone with a brain could have predicted the results.

Countries with a technical infrastructure (electricity, phones, internet) use electronic money

Those who haven't, don't.

And those with the least technology i.e. those with no mains water, no sewerage, no permanent roads, are the least likely to use electronic money. And those with the least are a bloody big proportion of the worlds population

Looking at it from another angle, the push to use electronic money, even among the worlds poor, is just another form of taxation. But a taxation from the corporate system, not a taxation of government.. It represents another step in the corporate usurpation of government