* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Accused hacker Lauri Love's extradition appeal begins

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I am an Aspie. I don't hack stuff and then cry like a baby.

"asking her to put her socks on can end up in all out war."

rebellion. yeah, kids NEVER do THAT. heh.

I have to wonder what justification she puts behind NOT wearing socks. "I don't like them" [even irrationally] would explain a lot.

I wonder if she would object so much to an alternative like tights or nylons [depending on her age]. Just a thought. (maybe you could give her the alternative of "this" or "that" where you win either way - a Xanatos gambit, but SHE gets to control which one - so from her perspective, she wins)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I am an Aspie. I don't hack stuff and then cry like a baby.

"you really think 99 years in jail is a fair and just sentence for what he did?"

If I steal 99 cars, should my sentence be higher than stealing just one?

Anyway, that's probably what's involved in the 99 year figure. We won't know until it all comes out in the trial.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Commit the crime, then do the time...

"It's about revenge."

Well, SOCIETY's revenge, yeah. But what's MORE important is DETERRENCE. You know, a few high profile crimes being tried and debated and talked about and the sentence is SO BAD that people say "I better not do that, I don't want to go to jail for a LOOONG time like that!"

That's the idea, anyway. It's why there's still capital punishment for murder.

It's also why, when I hear about a criminal who's shot to death by a cop, I say things like "It would be better if he had not died. THEN he would have to go through the trial and jail sentence. Getting shot to death by a cop during the commission of a crime was getting off EASY."

back in the day, I knew this guy who wanted me to help him break into government computers. This was before anyone had heard about 'hacking' or 'hackers'. This was when the internet was still called "the Arpanet" and the Apple II hadn't been released yet. I told this guy "I don't want ANYTHING to do with ANYTHING like that" and probably mentioned something about "Iron bar hotel" as someplace I did NOT want to go. He ended up going there. And when he did, he had written down my name in his "book". And since I was in the Navy at the time he was arrested, I had to explain all of that to an N.I.S. investigator. It wasn't very fun. I didn't even know the guy's real name, just the handle he always went by - 'Alroandukar'. So every time they asked me about what I knew about this guy, I was really trying hard to think about who they were talking about... And then it was like "Oh, THAT guy. I told him ..." etc.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Commit the crime, then do the time...

"Plenty of people get through life on autistic spectrum"

I suggest that AD[H]D, certain 'autism spectrum disorders', etc. are simply a means by which CERTAIN PEOPLE are trying VERY hard to DIAGNOSE "Success" as A DISORDER.

AD[H]D - an advantage if you are a hunter, if you are in the military, if you are a policeman or fireman, where you must react quickly to rapid changes in the environment that might KILL you.

'Ass-Burgers' - not giving a Flying Fornicate about things like 'political correctness' and instead, having too much intelligence to fall for ridiculous "social cues" and just tell people to SAY WHAT YOU MEAN and quit being "subtle", it's IRRITATING.

Famous, successful people in the past (and presently) are likely to have been "diagnosed" with such things, and yet THOSE CHARACTERISTICS made them HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL. Thomas Edison is possibly one of those people. And maybe Einstein. And maybe Bill Gates.

Yeah, I just had to say it. Those of us with non-linear creative minds are often considered "eccentric" (like being called 'geeks') and yet WE are the truly BRILLIANT people who invent the new, shiny that everybody craves. [most El Reg readers probably fall into this classification]

"mortals" giving labels of 'psychological disorders' to brilliant-minded people simply because they don't give a flying fornicate about certain "social rules" that are unimportant anyway. Yeah.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Commit the crime, then do the time...

"There's nothing sudden about having Asperger's and to suggest he has only recently developed it as a some kind of defence against extradition is ridiculous."

Why am I reminded of that one 'South Park' episode...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: 99 years

"A potential sentence of 99 years for this offence is grossly disproportionate and therefore unjust"

it's easy to play amateur judge, jury, attorney in a case for which there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of detailed information as to what, why, and the nature of alleged damages done.

If I break into a computer 100 times, and it's a 1 year sentence each time, wouldn't that mean a 100 year sentence? Just pointing that out...

But if he's found guilty, and the sentence is too long, he should definitely appeal it. There are probably more than enough uber-liberal appellate judges (especially in New York and California) who'd feel sorry for him or something, maybe shed a few tears on the bench, and reduce the sentence on principal.

FCC boss Ajit defends axing net neutrality by… attacking Cher

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I actually agree with some of the things Pai is talking about, aka the biased filtering and handling of "certain topics" and "certain political ads" by content providers. The examples he provides are just 'one of many' as I understand it, and NOT "straw men".

Pai's position is generally consistent iwth mine, DE-regulating at the FCC. The fact that the FCC should not have the *kinds* of jurisdictional powers that are covered by the misnomer of "net neutrality" is a part of this.

For things like 'paid packet prioritization', I think packet prioritization SHOULD happen. I also think that it should be limited, so that it doesn't adversely affect NORMAL traffic. Maybe the FCC can regulate the portion of traffic that can be prioritized [that would be reasonable] so as to prevent normal service from being pre-empted. But outright BANNING it?

There are already "multiple levels" of service, and you typically pay MORE for the better service. Competition makes this happen. Prioritization (or lack of it) could easily become a competition issue, and not something for governments to control wtih a heavy hand.

I still think that much of this argument started with the torrent downloaders of pirated content... and their allegations that ISPs were filtering and/or throttling the torrent uploads.

The six simple questions Facebook refused to answer about its creepy suicide-detection AI

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Talk about it?

"those who talk about suicide rarely carry it out" etc.

this is very true. I wonder if that was factored into their algorithm. "Oh no, he STOPPED ranting!" as an "positive indicatort" in the fuzzy logic algorithm.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Ridiculous trying to automate this

"but it can't really derive emotional state from them. How could it tell the difference between a serious suggestion of suicide and a sarcastic one?"

the 'creepy' aspect is "what if it CAN" ?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Judging by..

"they genuinely are knuckle-draggers. Thick, backwards and bigoted."

As compared to many people on the LEFT, who are genuinely CONTROL FREAKS, SNOBS, and ARROGANT, that are COMPELLED to CONTROL OTHERS through governments and "howler monkey" Saul Alinsky style intimidation, because you ARROGANTLY *FEEL* that you are SUPERIOR to everyone else, who must COMPLY to your "feely" whims like a bunch of BORG (or else they're "knuckle-draggers").

Brainwashed, indoctrinated, FOOLS! Or, in other words, COMMUNISTS.

(there, I said it. happy?)

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: I wonder how many false positives they're getting...

"From all those disappointed Trump-voters..."

not NEARLY as many as the number of REAL positives for Bernie voters who were screwed over by their own party (and especially Mrs. Clinton).

yeah you just had to go and try to slam on Trump, didn't you? (troll icon observed) [I'm a VERY satistfied Trump voter, thank-you-very-much, who's INFINITELY DIS-SATISFIED with what Con-Grab and "the Establishment" are doing, resisting the Trump plan, but i digress...]

but if the Faece-Bitch weenies are REALLY trying to manipulate people (and I'm sure they ARE), they'd generate 'False Positives' on those who ARE satisfied Trump voters that RABIDLY COMPLAIN about Con-Grab and "The Establishment", because people of "the left" don't "get it", not at all.

And I'd really hate to be repeatedly "911"d by a bunch of leftie-anti-suicide-bots. Or worse, SWAT'ted.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"...... advertise sun spectrum lightbulbs?"

or tropical vacations

'Break up Google and Facebook if you ever want innovation again'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: woefully misinformed

"They suck money out of the world economy."

GUMMINTS suck money out of the world economy (and spend the money UN-wisely, or to gain more power for the politicians).

Google seems to be doing well because at least SOME people are willing to pay for their 'pay for' services. And they hire a lot of people with the money they earn. THAT is a VERY good thing. No 'money sucking' there. It's all good.

There is SO much anti-capitalist sentiment these days... damn COMMUNISTS! "Class Envy" ruins everything. [instead, work your ASS off and BE "the rich guy", or at least learn along the way JUST HOW MANY OBSTACLES that gummints and class-enviers have put in your way of BECOMING rich!]

Try living in a world where you NEVER GET TO KEEP PROFITS or are NEVER REWARDED for working hard or investing wisely. I'd throw up my hands and ask "Who is John Galt?"

And if a company like Google becomes successful, the ENVIOUS and COMMUNISTS come out of the shadows and point fingers at them for being a target, and want them stopped simply for being successful.

(granted I don't want them TRACKING ME so I use 'Duck Duck Go' for search, and NEVER log in for youtube, but they DO have a lot of useful services I make use of, from Android dev tools to API keys and "google maps" when I want to find something - but I use a 'special' browser that deletes history/cookies whenever I do that, and avoid logging in).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Can you think of ONE bit of positive reporting on Google?

"In fairness, what is there positive to report?"

1. Android dev tools are a free download

2. LOTS of free documentation and support for Android dev tools

3. Getting a 'google API' key is essentially FREE [except in high volume API usage cases, like maps]

4. Android STILL lets you set up a phone to install applications "not from the store"

5. Search engine has "privacy mode" if you want it.

6. google drive/docs gives you free storage and (user-based) file sharing for limited online storage that's a fairly large capacity (last I checked). businesses can pay extra for business-related cloud storage stuff.

7. You don't have to log in in order to use the more popular "things"

8. Google maps, also free to use. Embedding them is also free, for doing development or for 'small bandwidth' sites (needs an API key).

The only "bad" they seem to do is tracking you personally, based on your search patterns (if you tell them it's ok, that is), and possibly hoovering up your e-mail and documents stored on their servers [but if you encrypted everything, it wouldn't matter]. Pretty much everything else is fine with me.

I find that Google's privacy policy is moderately acceptable, in that I can tell them NOT to track. But I _still_ use 'Duck Duck Go' for searching.

As for Faece-Bitch they can just shrivel up and die a horrible death, as far as I'm concerned. They completely malfunction with 'NoScript' running. Laughable.

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Regulation

"They are breaking actual real laws today."

which ones? Just because you say it, doesn't make it real. It DOES imply "fake news" though.

Proof, please. Otherwise, 'fake news' regardless of how many fanbois and howler monkeys up-vote you due to "wish fulfillment" or something.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: They just store what you give them

if you don't have a Faece-Bitch account, does that stupid 'F' icon (and its script) STILL track you?

[I'm just curious]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Yes kudos on "faecebook"

"But I think breaking it up or, ideally, getting rid of faecebook would be the best approach."

why must a heavy-handed GUMMINT-style "solution" be set against Google and Face-bitch, just because a lot of us do not LIKE them ???

Seriously, if they're NOT engaging in any kind of "unfair business practices", but instead are just providing "a service" for free or for money, and anyone ELSE could come along and do what they do without being interfered with, then WHERE is the problem that requires A GUMMINT to "break up the duopoly" ???

Now, if they ARE engaging in anti-competitive "unfair business practices", then they deserve whatever legal remedies are inflicted upon them. Otherwise, they should be LEFT ALONE.

Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Siemens tease electric flight engine project

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Bah!

"Filled with hydrogen"

I assume it's a non-smoking flight? (for 'no smoke' I'd put up with the hydrogen)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Me thinks you don't know how a Prius works

the Prius' solution to electric hybrid drive is BRILLIANT. It solves nearly all of the problems [except cost].

[eventually, I'd expect nearly ALL (decent) cars to be hybrids]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Advantages

"there's currently no efficient way of making renewable jet fuels in volume"

true. synthetic oil can be made from organic garbage, but I think it would cost 2 to 3 times as much as drilling for it (currently) costs. Eventually this will be the ONLY option, but I don't see THAT happening within the next 100 years...

and by then, I'd hope we would have fusion reactors small enough to fit on a plane.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Advantages

well, as I understand things, you'd need a "jet engine sized" generator to power electric jet engines, so I'd expect it adds weight to the plane.

If, on the other hand, the engines are lightweight enough to allow OTHER materials to be lighter (such as the engine support brackets), it might be "a wash". But probably not.

Until we've got small nuclear reactors that are capable of making the electricity to efficiently propel the plane through the air, I expect that pure mechanical systems (like turbofans) are better than hybrid electrical ones.

Net neutrality nonsense: Can we, please, just not all lose our minds?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: I know everyone in USA loves cable TV tiers --

"by using selective throttling."

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!!

*PROVE* that "they" ARE doing this (selective throttling), HAVE done this in the past, and WILL do it in the future, before you invoke CONSUMER-EXPENSIVE REGULATIONS to STOP something that is NOT happening!!!

PROVE IT FIRST! Because _nobody_ wants THAT, naturally, because "throttling" just SOUNDS bad.

and are we sure it wasn't the TORRENT [ab]users that created this kind of FUD in the first place?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Not a broadcasting issue

"The less government is involved with something, the more innovation and lower the cost it is due to choice. The more they are involved the beyond what is absolutely necessary, just costs us all money."

RIGHT! ON!!!

Now, here's something I just thought of: was this whole "net neutrality" thing thought up because ISPs were allegedly THROTTLING TORRENT TRAFFIC? So the "copyrighted media ripoff" crowd might have ACTUALLY BEEN BEHIND IT? (just pointing it out)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: 2 questions

"throttling back some services in favour of others"

I doubt that actually happens, "throttling back".

FYI traffic prioritization would happen at the routers, anyway. PAID traffic prioritization would help pay for BETTER routers (and faster wires between them). Is it such a BAD thing? In other words, it's another example of a rising tide "lifting all boats". THAT as opposed to the "create a FREAKING DAM and then TAX people to PAY for it" approach.

keep in mind that if you reach into the back pocket of some cable company executive and plan on taking that money and doing "something else" with it, that cable company exec will pass the cost along to THE CONSUMER. EVERY TIME. So 'class envy' will never work. Just let them make money by PROVIDING SERVICES that people WANT [and the quality to go with it]. Just keep them from engaging in 'unfair business practices' (like forcing Netflix to pay more because otherwise they'd "throttle Netflix", for example).

Then we'll all be better off with LESS REGULATION.

"net neutrality" is such a MISNOMER anyway, like the way "Fairness Doctrine" was. GUMMINT chooses these names the way "the left" tosses around EMOTION BOMBS when they want something.

And if regulations go UP, "who benefits" ?

POLITICIANS AND GUMMINT BUREAUCRATS. And people who have THEM "in their back pocket".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Actually, Google and Facebook win either way

Google and Facebook with a "Xanatos Gambit" approach? No surprise, really.

The REAL problem, that nobody seems to be mentioning, is that there are a LOT of problems with the Obaka-era-style approach of attempting to regulate the internet. And, some people actually want MORE of that?

_I_ do NOT! And, I *ESPECIALLY* do not want CONTENT regulation!

It took DECADES to *FINALLY* get rid of an outdated FCC regulation on radio station licensing, the so-called "Fairness Doctrine", which DID (in a way) 'regulate content' by literally FORCING a radio station to provide what THEY claimed was "equal time". What it DID do is make "big media" possible, and they had a literal MONOPOLY on the news for DECADES. But, ABOLISHING the 'fairness doctrine' literally made Fox News and talk radio possible, where a host like Rush Limbaugh could simply say what he wanted to, without having the "fairness doctrine" stand in his way. And the reality is, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News ARE the "equal time" against the left-biased lame-stream media. And they KNOW it.

Conclusion: DE-regulation caused "big media" to LOSE THEIR MONOPOLY!

And if "big cable" really IS trying to stop people from watching TV via Netflix, by throttling or "DoS"ing the traffic, they would be in violation of an anti-trust law aka "unfair business practices". Some of these anti-trust laws have been in place for over 100 years.

We do NOT need "more gummint" to REGULATE things because they *might* be happening. Consider WHO benefits from "more regulation". It's not the consumer, because WE END UP PAYING FOR IT through higher costs passed on DIRECTLY TO US by the same people that are TARGETED by the regulation. Their costs go up, and then OUR costs go up.

De-regulating the electric power industry has helped to provide competing solutions. De-regulating telephones is similar. De-regulating works as long as you prevent "unfair business practices". Anything BEYOND "preventing unfair business practices" is WAY TOO MUCH.

Apple embraces El Reg! iOS 11 is now biting the hand that types IT

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"40 engineers - 1 iPhone. 8 marketing staff - 8 iPhones."

THAT is a VERY interesting observation...

/me wonders how many of those engineers had 'no smart phone' [just a dumb one that acts like a phone - yeah, that would be ME]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Here is my theory

it would be funnier (and a whole lot creepier) if autocorrect were like Siri and is processed "in the cloud" [so they can see what you're typing, muahahahah!]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: What do you expect?

"and now he's on Facebook asking mates whether he should get the 8 plus or the X."

well, the 'on Facebook' part explains the rest

What's that fresh, zesty fragrance? Oh, Linux Mint 18.3 has landed

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Up to date updates

as long as it's *NOT* "2D FLATSO" (or dependent on MONO) I'll be happy with it. I never use those things anyway, being familiar with the command line and "apt get"

Pokémon GO caused hundreds of deaths, increased crashes

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Presumably, Danny 14 ...

"Mostly it's people + guns that kill people, but good luck with banning people."

let's ban ROCKS, too, while we're at it - because some border patrol agents were recently killed by ROCKS...

and we'll ban knives, and cars, and airplanes, and ...

Don't shame idiots about their idiotically weak passwords

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"a searchable encrypted password repository"

like 'keepass', particularly the OLDER one (now maintained as KeePassXC), and NOT the one that uses C-pound and ".Not" (blechhhh)

and, on a related note, a sequence from the movie 'hackers' (copied from IMDB)

The Plague: Someone didn't bother reading my carefully prepared memo on commonly-used passwords. Now, then, as I so meticulously pointed out, the four most-used passwords are: love, sex, secret, and...

Margo: [glares at The Plague]

The Plague: god. So, would your holiness care to change her password?

and also, an obligatory reference to "correct horse battery staple"

Tesla reveals a less-long-legged truck, but a bigger reservation price

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

"Over to those living on the left side of the pond.."

well, there are (to be honest) a LOT of factors involved in gasoline "total cost" and electricity "total cost", particularly when you factor in wear, replacement, engine efficiency, and things like that.

I once modified a gas hog car engine to run on 4 cylinders most of the time [carbeurator mod], but kept the V8 power for whenever I "punched" it, and not only did it run better and stopped backfiring when I shut it off, but I got significantly better "around town" mileage. It was hard to codify, but my gasoline consumption was significantly lower, maybe half of what it was. This not a new idea, but brings up the efficiency of gasoline and diesel engines in 'around town' driving. This is where electric actually makes sense. [if the hybrid vehicles could sufficiently OWN this, by running on battery only, we wouldn't need pure electric vehicles, but stupid gummints require the engines to 'cycle' all of the time because the catalytic converters won't heat up otherwise - go fig, yeah].

THAT being said, we're talking trucks now. MOST of the fuel usage will be highway miles, for THAT kind of truck. If it were delivery vans and 'attached bed' trucks [most of which do local 'around town' kinds of things] I could see the desire to cut costs by going electric. But not long-haul 'semi' tractor/trailer rigs. It makes no sense.

Fuel cost here is around $3.20/gal aka around $0.84/l [higher now, because, Cali-Fornicate-You] and electricity varies depending on who you are and how much you use [yeah, it's all political]. but my last SDGE bill was $21.40 for 16 'therms' (natural gas), and $152.56 for 582 kwH. yeah all of those computers and compact flourescent lights going 7/24, and REFUSING to wear thermal underwear around the house. Anyway that works out to around 26 cents per kwH and $1.34 per 'therm', which [if I get the exchange rate right] is somewhat MORE than what you're paying. The taxes and "you must use 'renewables' extra cost", that's why.

San Diego is known for its high energy prices, so this should be no surprise to anyone.

in any case, gasoline cost per kwH would be around 11.5 cents, using these metrics, less than HALF of the cost of equivalent electricity.

That being said, 'thermal power' isn't enough for engines. Carnot efficiency of a gasoline engine is less than 50% as I recall, and actual piston engine efficiency is in the mid-30's (typically), reduced somewhat from having pollution devices slapped onto it. Modern engines 'get it right' by improving other aspects of the design, work WITH the pollution devices, that kind of thing, to improve overall efficiency, but it's still going to SUCK when you're going slow around town and spending a fixed amount of fuel per hour on just keeping the thing spinning while the car's not moving [or is moving slowly, where only a fraction of the power consumed actually spins the wheels].

You compare that to electric cars, and ideally the electric motor doesn't heat up too much, and neither do the batteries, and so you get twice, maybe 3 times the efficiency of a gasoline engine.

On the other side, there are power losses during battery charge. We'll say "85 percent" going into the battery, as a ballpark. The rest of the energy is lost as heat.

Then you have battery capacity losses over time, requiring EXPENSIVE replacement. Or you can go 100 miles instead of 300 after 2 years' worth of battery cycles, whatever...

and the inconvenience and extra cost just isn't worth it.

Now... if hybrid cars worked as they SHOULD, i.e. allow you to charge the batteries OR run on gasoline/diesel, at your OWN discretion, such that they take advantage of NOT spinning the engine unless it's loaded down 50% or more of its capacity, and shutting it OFF when it's running on the battery, then it would be GREAT to have an electric hybrid vehicle. Otherwise, it's a waste. Why? because MOST electric power worldwide is STILL made by burning oil and coal. So all of the environmental arguments are completely WORTHLESS here. What you have left is UNNECESSARY expense to the owner, coupled with INCONVENIENCE and less "freedom of movement" (which is what THEY wanted in the FIRST place, right?).

Team Trump goes in to bat for Google and Facebook

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Donald Jr vs Ivanka

"The US Government has debts of up to $19.9 TRILLION."

which is TWICE what it was in 2009.

Thanks, OBAKA.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: What did you expect?

"You right wingers are so tribal."

and THAT RANT got 31 UP votes?

howler monkeys, indeed.

icon, because, facepalm.

/me observes that there's so little actual information in the article, I can't find anything to comment about, one way or another, without it all looking like "fake news" commentary.

But if I had to make a comment, other than "let's wait and see when we get more information", is that STOPPING excessive lawsuits is a GOOD idea. There's way too much "tort" going on as it is.

Business as usual, says Aruba veep after Meg exits daddy HPE

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: What IoT COULD Be

as much as I like (and derive income from) IoT, I have to wonder whether its hype is as bad as 'cloud' hype, 'slab' hype, and the "dot bomb" bubble of the noughties...

I mean, do you REALLY want wold+dog to see the temperature (and description) of yesterday's leftovers in your fridge?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

divorcing their success from Micro-Shaft

would be "a good start" for the new CEO of HP.

I would specifically like to see Linux-based HP laptops as a major marketing thrust. I bet it would succeed, too.

156K spam text-sending firm to ICO: It wasn't us, Commissioner

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"can they please multiply the penalty a hundred fold for making ICO waste time and effort"

"can they please multiply the penalty by the number of text recipients for making the text recipients waste time and effort"

that would be MY version. Yours wasn't bad, though.

/me asks for a dominatrix icon

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: RE: Kenny

"Going home to put some potatoes in the freezer in preparation..."

mercury filled hollow point armor-piercing potatoes, shot with an appropriately large cannon

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: 30p/text

the last cold-caller (an obvious "something wrong with your windows machine" scam) got option 2 following an option 1 "who is calling please" type of exchange [I got a phone number, too, and reported it to the 'do not call list' reporting site]. The thing is, after option 2, he kept calling me BACK. So I repeated, then left the phone off the hook a few times.

You KNOW you have a "good troll" when you can TROLL THEM BACK, and they FALL for it!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: 30p/text

"Pathetic"

Exactly. The fine is WAY too light.

In the game of American Football, it's often a strategy to 'take a penalty' instead of allowing the other team to score. Typical penalties of this nature would include 'pass interference in the end zone' which results in the ball being moved next to the end zone. BUT... the defending team still gets ONE MORE CHANCE to stop the score from happening, or maybe as many as 3 more chances, with a lower scoring 'field goal' on the 4th down, which is better than a 6+1 point touchdown.

So what if the offending company is counting "fines" as part of its "cost of spamming people" ?

And that's why it's PATHETIC.

Sorry 'strange physics' fans, IceCube finds the Standard Model stands

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

er, NOT photo-electric effect - I meant 'Compton Scattering' but too late to edit...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

I'm sure a barrel of warm brandy, especially when carried by a St. Bernard, would be 'warmly' welcomed.

anyway...

as the article points out, the probability of interaction between atomic particles and/or nuclei, is known as a 'cross section', measured in 'barns', which proves that scientists have a truly geeky sense of humor (the idea of hitting the 'broad side of a barn' was involved in that particular nomenclature).

the equivalent measurement, from barns to square centimeters, can be calculated here:

http://www.unitconversion.org/area/square-centimeters-to-barns-conversion.html

Or maybe we can substitute an El Reg unit for it, perhaps 'horse arses' or 'boss faces' or 'second story windows' [whichever].

I'm also intrigued that higher energy neutrinos interact more often with regular matter. I would be equally interested in knowing whether the interaction is like 'scattering' where the neutrino isn't absorbed, or like 'photo-electric effect' where it IS absorbed, but then gets ejected again with a lower energy [and perhaps some 'friends'].

Any of those interaction methods would show up as "detected" but the nature of the interaction may not be so easily determined from that.

Another problem for CERN to solve, perhaps?

A certain millennial turned 30 recently: Welcome to middle age, Microsoft Excel v2

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Now that I use an OS that Excel doesn't support"

I'd guess Libre Office 'Calc' will do what you need, yeah.

On a semi-related note, has anyone ELSE observed that the Windows 2.x screenshots with Excel 2.0 in the article look WAY TOO MUCH like 2D FLATSO Win-10-nic ? Just wanted to point that out. Yes, I am _COMPELLED_ to do so.

Of course, "that" look+feel was based on Windows 1.0, even 2D'er and FLATSO-er than 2.x [but at least the colors weren't all 'shades of grey'].

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

They use Excel for everything

"They use Excel for everything, regardless of whether it is the most suitable tool for the job."

I would think it would be easy for them to migrate to Libre Office, and then Linux, because of that.

Royal Navy destroyer leaves Middle East due to propeller problems

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Navy Lark Questions (@TRT -:you beat me to it again)

"And the crew are unable to repair it? Am I missing something?"

that's why I'm thinking it's some kind of damage that they don't want disclosed. ran over a whale, fouled it up with a classified sonar device that's towed behind the ship on a cable, or they got hit with one too many RPGs, yotta yotta. (or a design flaw for that matter).

I could tell a 30+ year old submarine sea story about a fouled screw and how we realized it was like that, and why it happened, but I probably shouldn't...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Propellor problems?

"Captain calls over to the harbourmaster... 'Oi, mate! Can I have a tug?'"

The U.S. Navy has what they call "Sea-going Tugs" (I expect the Royal Navy has them, too).

When I was on a sub (back in the 80's), we tied up outboard of a sea-going tug in the Hong Kong harbor. Not only did the tug have better anchors than a sub does, they could also run their fresh-water evaporators in the harbor [regulations kept us from running ours on the sub] for showers and other non-essential water usage. We had to run the reactor for electricity, though, and so it kept a good portion of the crew on the sub for half the time we were there (engine room crew was basically 'split in half' so that we could spend at least SOME time in town). I still had a good amount of time to tour around town and visit the 'China Fleet Club' though... so it worked out pretty well.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Propellor problems?

"Cavitation damage, I wonder..."

it might also be related to sound signatures. A ship with a definite 'lope" in its propeller sound signature can easily be tracked from a very very long distance away [by a sub with passive sonar, for example].

Such a problem could also be caused by damage, like part of a blade snapping off, and/or significant fouling by 'something' from fishing nets to floating debris, or one too many RPGs fired at it from small boats filled with ISIS and/or terrorist types...

"Oops, the towed sonar device's cable got stuck in the screw, fouled it up, and caused some damage" or "we ran over a whale and it damaged one of the screws".

that kind of thing

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Less is more?

"There's a continual trend for fewer, more expensive defence assets."

they're probably looking at a number of conflicting issues, political as well as economic, as to why to do it 'that way'. But they're "not wrong" in the approach they've taken [just not IDEAL I would guess].

I prefer the "more of the less expensive variety" approach, though. It tends to suffer losses with a greater chance of rapid recovery, like the way things were in WW2, ya know?

Back in WW2, US and UK produced a great deal of fighter aircraft (like P-51s with Merlin engines in them) that were significantly LESS advanced that ME-262s. But the ME-262 was expensive and hard to build.

End result: overwhelming numbers with "good" but not "great" tech WON THE WAR over the "superior" tech. Obligatory reference to Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority".

Now fast forward to the 21st century, and potential for "see I told you so" by Arthur C. Clarke...

1. There _IS_ a need to develop new tech. You need at least SOME 'bleeding edge' war machines.

2. There are ALWAYS problems when you're on the bleeding edge of tech, and fixing a ship usually involves more than just calling out for a repair tech (think drydock).

3. There should ALSO be a fallback of "traditional tech" you CAN rely on. So rather than sinking the entire budget into a brand new class of ships, you should be upgrading the old ones, too.

4. There's an implied need to balance the financial, personnel, and political implications of "all of that"

Back in the 80's I was on a 688-class sub. We had a "fix" for the main engines, that was later "fixed better". We had a 'workaround' for a problem with the shaft and bearings that was eventually "fixed properly". We changed propellers 3 times in the short time I was on the sub (~4 years). Each of those 'fixes' required a month or two in a shipyard drydock. Those are expensive and limited resources. but it DOES reflect the effect of 'bleeding edge' tech, since the 688 class submarine had only been around for a few years at that point.

Since then, there have been a LOT of 688 class submarines, which ultimately led to 2 newer classes [the most recent of which seems to be designee for lower cost and high reliability].

Anyway, I expect the Royal Navy has this *kind* of thing in mind and, unfortunately, it might mean some down time for their ships while problems are ironed out. So, for now, some 20+ year old U.S. frigate will probably remain 'on station' while it's getting fixed...

/me notes that LESS spending on Austerity, and MORE spending on military, means that you buy something that's made in the UK, meaning jobs instead of 'need for austerity', and you ultimately get "a ship" instead of "more hands out begging for more money". You get what you pay for, ya know?

Linus Torvalds on security: 'Do no harm, don't break users'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: What?

"sometime it is that the feature was ill-conceived, and the vulnerability is inherent to the feature."

give me ONE example of that, please. Otherwise, it's "paranoia bait" 'what-if'ing

Keep in mind - Linus personally reviews things. I doubt that an ill-conceived feature exists in the kernel. If it DOES then Linus would swear at HIMSELF.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: As I understand it

" these cry-babies (or MS trolls) who have "mission critical" services"

I would laugh my backside off if it turns out that these people's "mission critical" services get NUKED by not being in the 'white list' (and it's not editable).