Posts by anothercynic 2487 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Dec 2014
Deutsche Telekom ran a sovereign cloud thing for Microsoft (!?! Or who was it?) a few years ago, but I believe whoever the hyperscaler was bought that part back and integrated it back. So it's a question of who you trust.
DT has operations in the US, and if the orange turd decides that you either comply or lose your US operations, DT is likely to just cave.
The thing is that pre-Trump, there was a modicum of "we'll stick to the law"... and for the better part of 70 years, there was a mutual understanding that everyone in the western hemisphere has to work together and trust each other. Here the orange turd runs roughshod over *every* law that he considers to be a hindrance. He's made it very clear that laws don't matter to him. The GOP boys and girls supporting his rampage are just as guilty by association.
So, in a sense, the orange turd is doing the rest of the world a massive favour by doing what he does, because it lays bare the lie that the grand USA was always looking out for everyone in the western hemisphere, and it bloody well no longer is the case. Politicians in Europe should disabuse themselves of that notion rapidly (but you can still see the German chancellor going "but, but, but... he's our friend!" while de Gaulle is laughing from the grave). Sadly, Labour is also still sticking to the 'speshul relationship' spiel first coined by Churchill of all people, and that special relationship is special no longer. The sooner the UK realises this and starts making plans to possibly have to go it without the US, the better.
Everyone, the bad guy is *inside* the house (NATO), and it will take *everyone* else to keep him from destroying the modern view of what the world is, the security Europe (and Canada) depends on, and unleashing what looks to be the next world war unless he and his cronies are stopped.
As for cloud, I've asked these questions of my management, and the attitude has been "oh, but what can *we* do" - Well, wean yourself off AWS and Azure for a start, and don't run *any* critical infrastructure on either!! Yes, it's going to be maybe more expensive to in-house the stuff but right now, orange shitler could by one diktat cut us all off at the knees and leave us completely and utterly fucked. That's a risk I'm not happy with (as much as it's senior management's issue to deal with).
Main accepted theories by *whom*? The ones shouting loudest with their dodgy podcasts, or worse, those with their position as woefully under-qualified secretaries of health?
Scientists the world over do not believe that for a second, because they *know* how epidemiology works. They understand the nature of viruses and how they can jump species thanks to one small mutation in their RNA. The likes of Robert F Kennedy Junior do not, probably because they get high on their own supply too often.
That's why this bodge job is not enough. It should be *TURNED OFF*. As much as that Americanadoafrican fascist keeps bleating on about how offenders will be booted off, is there *any* proof at all that he has booted anyone off? Doubtful.
But what is *really* telling is how many companies continue to advertise on Shitter alongside this slop, ignoring the obvious risks to their reputations. Let's just say that these companies will enter the FO state of FAFO soon enough (apparently they fear that Americanadoafrican fascist more than their reputation tanking)... weird that.
Various people in Westminster and surrounding Westminster have suggested for months that the government departments leave Shitter, but as someone pointed out, it took *forever* to get government departments to *start* using Twitter (when it still was a blue bird tweeting away) and that it's the mandarins and especially the SPADs who are unwilling to switch to networks that are less embroiled in trouble and fascist propaganda... The whole thing was described as getting an oil tanker to turn (which takes an age). Apparently government departments still think that Shitter is where the general population lives. *eyeroll*
These days, much of the IFE stuff runs over satellite backhaul and local caching. When the plane is at a home base, it gets the latest info, often over Wi-Fi, but for things like news streams, satellite live streams are used. Many airlines are opting for Starlink or the other LEO-satellite backhaul providers, because it's a lot cheaper than the GSO-satellite stuff (like Inmarsat).
The days of loading the latest movies into an on-board controller with a hard-drive or a USB stick (or tapes! Who remembers those?) have been over for years.
Spot on, Malcolm. At worst, some function in the IFE will allow non-privileged read-only access to on-board cam footage/speed info, although that's very likely via IFE-supplier kit that has been appropriately approved.
There was a big fuss about devices being 'hacked' to 'gain access to privileged controllers' on the 787 because Boeing *did* do away with physically-separate data cable bundles in favour of a VLAN-like approach, but neither Boeing nor the IFE integrator were ever able to reproduce what this so-called hacker had claimed to manage to (and what they did manage to reproduce only showed that the interface(s) exposed were non-privileged). One can only hope that Airbus watched that with interest and made sure that if they did go for a single physical on-board network approach on the A350, privileged data devices (like FADEC, FBW etc) were not visible or reachable from an IFE device.
Absolutely... and you could take one AC unit and run it on battery/PV only without being plumbed into the mains.
And if you look at how Germany has revolutionised micro-generation with their 'Balkonkraftwerk' (balcony power station) concept that allows anyone to deploy up to 800Wp without complicated paperwork and major electric work at home (by plugging it into the Schuko wall plug, once you have had your electricity meter checked), I don't get why other countries don't do the same, especially in sunnier climates!
I'll stick to properly specced and designed kit with LiFePO4 battery tech - much more stable, long-lasting than and still packs the same punch as Li-Ion.
There are pretty good suppliers out there who let you start out with something small and then up-rate your setup as you get on with it. Black Friday/Cyber Monday and now the Christmas sales are a good time to start the move to battery-backed PV/backup power.
I decided to try something small, purely because I know in summer, this will make a difference when the sun's out longer than just 3 hours a day ;-)
Canadians used to *love* to visit Florida (snowbird, summer heat, you get the drift) and Vegas.
Florida pretty much saw their Canadian visitors evaporate after Drumf decided to slap tariffs on Canada, and Canada went "FUVM" with their money. So places like the Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico (especially Mexico after Drumf did the same to them, and Canadians went "you're our people") and Europe saw a big influx in Canadian tourists.
Vegas has also seen a big downturn to the point that the tourism board is trying to persuade Canadians to go back. But they won't. They've been mortally insulted by the orange turd and his weirdoes in the White House.
It depends on the airport and the country.
In Europe, I am aware of Copenhagen Airport where they required a transit visa because of the way the airport is laid out (you can't actually get from one side of the airport to another gate unless you enter the country/airport). I don't know whether that has changed in the last 15 years, but at the time it caused absolute drama because the Danish border police were not amused by the fact that they had to now babysit someone until the departing flight was ready to close doors. Only then did the airport people send a car for a gate-to-aircraft door transfer that was officially airside.
In LAX, Air New Zealand, when they moved from Terminal 2 (where they provided the Koru Lounge to Virgin Atlantic passengers etc) to the Tom Bradley international terminal (the massive one where all A380s end up), notified passengers that there was no sterile 'airside' space/lounge, and that those flying to/from NZ to/from LHR would be required to enter the US for transit processing. That pretty much killed ANZ for me, especially because they'd stopped their AKL-HKG-LHR flight a few years before, so you *had* to go via LAX. :-/
In South Africa, you had a similar thing - The flights done for BA by Comair went from the domestic terminal, not the international one. That meant you had to officially enter South Africa too, despite being just a transit passenger from [insert departure airport] to [ultimate destination airport in other country] because Johannesburg was *the* hub airport in Southern Africa and everyone flew there.
A lot of these things are historical... bad/outdated airport layouts, opportunities to cash in on transit visas, legal requirements based on old airline/intergovernmental treaty agreements... the list goes on. So yes folks... there are weird and wonderfully wacky combinations that catch you out when you least expect.
Price sensitivity is something that I've tried to educate friends and family about too, especially those who travel with equipment (sports, camera, etc) and where flying for 45 quid from Ryanair gives you endless shit and hassle over your bulky baggage (and being nickeled and dimed for being a fraction over your allowance, or being given grief over choosing an option that makes zero difference to the end result), whereas flying for 75 quid with BA would give you less drama, more flexibility, maybe a light, amused telling-off and an airport that is a damn sight more convenient or decent than the other one. Weigh up the hassle of flying with airline X from another airport against the higher price of airline Y but absolute convenience to the same destination, and see what is worth more.
Granted, for my case, flying to Amsterdam or Brussels for a trip to Eindhoven was the only option (only Ryanair went to Eindhoven airport), but the fact I didn't have to traipse all the way to bloody Essex (costing me another 2 hours, *plus* the usual bitchy commentary from the Ryanair check-in people) and didn't have to jump through hoops to get my luggage on the plane made up for the price difference.
But, for a quick 24-48 hour mini-break in city X, you can be price sensitive and fly with El Cheapo Air and know you only paid for what you used (a seat, a seatbelt, and maybe, just maybe, the loo on the plane).
Not shooting yourself in the foot. Some aggregators I know have quoted some seriously unrealistic prices (as in *very* low prices for business class seats), and then when you try to check the price with the airline it's twice as much (*and* when you check the reputation of the aggregator of the one offering the flight on that airline for that price, you realise it's not great).
Using the aggregator to find the flight you want, and then booking exactly that flight with the airline direct is arguably the safest option, since your contract is with the airline directly, not some middle man with some dodgy connections or a dodgy reputation.
The premium of booking with the airline direct is worth it when the crap hits the fan.
This. The assertion that standard jet-engine conversions (like the CF6) needing awful amounts of water to keep them cool is... bollocks. The water is usually used in a CCGT cycle to increase efficiency (more bang for your buck).
And the 'Symphony' is also subject to the laws of physics and metallurgy, so all the bluster about their engine being better is just that... bluster. Unless you REALLY have created a wonder metal/ceramic that handles things better than the stuff the likes of GE, P&W and RR have spent decades improving, you're just bullshitting. Sorry.
I find it ridiculous that some Linux packages categorically don't set up SELinux contexts and rules for their application.
I have not had any issues with SELinux in the sense that I set up contexts correctly. When I have issues, yes, I have to sit there for absolute hours trying to find the cause, but SELinux stays *on* on our servers and we make sure that the applications run in user contexts and appropriate SELinux policies.
Any app developer (looking at you, Shibboleth) not bothering to provide SELinux contexts should be taken out back and... taught to do it right
While I agree with you generally, Micron has not said they're withdrawing from the DRAM market... just from the consumer market. So, if they sold Crucial to someone who will buy masses of (D)RAM chips from them and takes over dealing with pesky hoi polloi, Micron would be rid of the consumer stuff but still sell to a 'strategic partner'. Selling Crucial does not necessarily have to mean not using Micron chippery. :-)
I find it unconscionable that a company like Micron is happy to throw away a brand like Crucial instead of selling it to someone who is thrilled to keep the amazing customer loyalty to the brand alive.
It goes to show how this AI palaver is making everyone do crazy stuff... I hope Micron gets its fingers well and truly burnt and goes pop when the AI bubble does same. If you can't be arsed to keep a trusted consumer brand alive, you don't deserve to return to it when you suddenly find yourself in a deep hole after your chase for untold riches explodes in your face.
As for replacements? Samsung would be my bet. Their SSD and memory products have been rock solid for absolute years - they own the firmware, the controllers, the fabs, everything is in-house. So for RAM, you should be fine (it's just hardware), and for solid-state you should be fine too.
Someone in the area I know asked Vodafone to install FTTP, and apparently they closed the ticket because someone (unnamed) across whose front door access they needed to dig up the pavement, refused permission.
So I'm considering putting flyers through the doors of every house/flat/block to say "we in the area can't get fibre because one of you eejits refused permission. Please give permission next time because otherwise you won't get access to fibre either. Let's all play along and ask the contractors to make it easy for everyone to get fibre in future by upgrading the ducts properly".
I'm not holding my breath though because everyone around here seems to only think as far as their nose.
Yes, this is the problem here too, and especially when the contractors then don't lay the cables neatly next to each other (not necessarily *touching* each other, but if there are already two cables running up the house, why lay the third one a completely different way instead of sticking to the consistency of all three cables, all provided by the same cable company, running up next to each other).
Thankfully, when a fitter showed up recently to do something similar, I asked him to remove the obsolete cabling at the same time, which the lad did because he agreed that it looked crap that cables ran willy-nilly up the walls. And yes, an apartment block with 24 units having 24 dishes makes zero sense, especially when the building management could provide one or two dishes (one for free services, one for paid-for satellites which might have a different track across the sky), and then plumb each unit in with appropriate cabling...
But then again, you'd then be beholden to the whims of building management ("oh, you didn't pay the satellite TV fee this month, so we'll turn you off")... who knows.
And breathe!
I too have experience with contractors not doing what they're told... I had to go round, inspect the work, and then go tell them "this needs removing", "that is obsolete, remote that", etc... They were tempted to reuse old piping for heating and I very swiftly disabused them of the notion, telling them that inaccessible piping is what got us to the situation in the first place and that I'd rather have exposed copper piping that can be boxed in. The end result was ok.
You don't want to stand anywhere near *any* accelerated beam in *any* facility. There's a reason why proton beam therapy is used to kill cancerous cells, and why people undergoing PBT are effectively locked into a solid frame to ensure *nothing* moves.
I've seen what a beam does to a living thing (a spider that happened to be in a beamline cell when the cell was lit up)...
Sorry to have to say this, but you clearly have no idea what science CERN is involved in.
That said, you *can* potentially find light sources (like Diamond Light Source in the UK, ESRF and SOLEIL in France, ALBA in Spain etc) that could potentially simulate extreme radio events like the ones potentially found at 40-45,000 feet up. If anything, those sources (which use electrons at close-to-light-speed to generate radio waves of various frequencies, which in turn are bundled into beams a few microns in size) would be more appropriate than a proton-smasher like CERN. You don't want to use linear accelerators either, because that's not what they are designed for. It's not simply a case of "oh, just bung that into a box in front of a linear accelerator"... some experiments (in LINACs, light sources etc) take *months* to design and implement, others take years (CERN being one giant experiment with some experiments on the side).
And just to set the record straight, Airbus is not 'funded mostly by EU states'. It's a publicly listed and traded company. CERN on the other hand *is* funded by governments, including non-EU and non-European ones.
US-East-1 is the default selection in AWS, so it's no wonder that it gets hammered more than anything else.
Maybe AWS should check the rough region of where the user is logging in from to suggest alternatives... It would also default European users to Ireland-1 or similar for Europeans. Nothing stops you from selecting another region, but the default should be a region closer to you than US-East-1.
Just my opinion...
I can only echo what David says. The eVisa system is an absolute mess, and those subject to it have been told by campaigners to always keep an up to date screenshot of their status on their phone, in case the damn system falls over yet again.
And digital ID with a 'government wallet' - Does that mean you have to unlock your phone to access it to show a police officer on demand? How convenient...
The operative part of your story is "should all be much the same". But they aren't. Healthcare institutions in the US are way way more careful about data disclosure than police departments are, and tax authorities and financial institutions are... well... similar in that tax authorities like sticking their noses in people's business and financial institutions are trying to keep the snoopers out.
But yeah, the police departments have a bad rep for a reason - Coppers think they are above the law because 'we *are* the law' (despite breaking laws nonetheless), whilst healthcare institutions are terrified by the mere thought of breaking healthcare laws/regs. If police departments didn't have qualified immunity and all that jazz and actually were held accountable for their actions (which they are widely not), they'd also be more careful about digging around in data they should have warrants for *first*.
Quite honestly, the way CC makes money does not endear them to their own customers. And they could have joined forces with Tesco and gone "you know, you're right, we'll join you", but instead they look after their bottom line first and gave Tesco the middle finger.
So I'm not breaking out my tiny violin for them... hang on, trying to find it... nope, nope, sorry, no tiny violin for Computacenter.
Watches are an easy-to-transport valuable asset. If you buy a fancy Patek and keep it in pristine order, you can sell it again and get your value back (sometimes more, sometimes less). And sometimes you can explain it away by claiming it's a fake from the Far East... :-)
It's the preferred asset to diamonds, gold bars or stacks of cash (all of which are more difficult to explain to Customs these days). ;-)
That might've been the case in the early years, but the hot parts are a lot of alloys and ceramics these days, along with a lot of boundary layer cooling tech that doesn't require exotic titanium metal construction. :-)
Silicon wafers for solar panels are not constructed from pure silicon anymore either... a lot of the panels are more a mix of doped metals, although Perovskite metals and crystals are now even more interesting despite lead being a component. :-)
Well, it's nice to see that the fact Eskom has been so comprehensively screwed up for the last decade has driven South Africans to move to micro generation (of green and not so green kind)! I know Eskom's not particularly pleased with this, and I know some energy suppliers elsewhere in southern Africa aren't either because their own populations have discovered that maybe using something that is available in abundance from that big ball in the sky instead of paying through the nose is preferable, but deprives the electricity suppliers of income.
This shows the law of unintended consequences in action. :-)
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