* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

VW engineer sent to the clink for three years for emissions-busting code

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Did He Have An Option ???

I'd say that for something NOT overtly illegal, you just politely complain about it in writing to the appropriate people, but do what you were asked to do anyway. Let the HR weenies and legal staff sort it out.

As for what was apparently done, i.e. writing a software method that's not even spoken about in 'normal terms', that knowingly 'cheats' on emissions tests, by first detecting if such a test is being done and THEN changing the engine's behavior accordingly [which is blatant, and can't be explained away[, knowing that auto makers must comply with these limits in order to sell cars in the USA, and then blatantly NOT complying [reducing the price of the cars, or making them perform better, or both] by cheating on the tests - as for THAT, I think any reasonable person would have inherently understood the ethical problems, and possible criminality, of actually DOING that.

So yeah he had an option, and I think in HIS case, it should've been to ask for a meeting with H.R. to discuss what his boss wanted him to do. But apparently he didn't do that, and instead, went far beyond expectations to invent something that basically "hacks the system". Nice hack, yeah, but illegal as hell.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: life&death? Did He Have An Option ???

"if all polluters were murderers, the jails would be very full."

count the number of cigarette butts you find alongside any given road, especially near bus stops [regardless of whether anti-smoking laws prohibit it], as an example. [enough of them, and they can clog storm drains, right Texas?]

"arson, murder, and littering."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArsonMurderAndJaywalking

[and don't EVEN get me started on smokers' exhaust polluting the air I need to breathe]

US focuses eyes in the sky as Hurricane Harvey starts to slam into Texas

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: I wonder if the US has a unified water grid...

Unified Water Grid - not a bad idea except for several mountain ranges beginning with the Rockies in Colorado

it would be SO expensive to pump water across the mountains (and a couple o' thousand miles) that it becomes seriously cost prohibitive, but it's well known that normal weather patterns typically put drought in California while flooding the Mississippi valley. And vice versa.

So yeah if we DID have the tech to send water across 6000+ foot mountains [several times] it would be nice to do that. Who knows it might solve LOTS of problems that way, but at a very high cost...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Good luck Texans!

Good luck, yeah, but think about it...

Texas has tornados and hurricanes. Florida has hurricanes. And California has earthquakes. etc. It's to be expected, depending on where you live, and if you haven't seen one in a while, you probably will soon. There hasn't been a major storm in that area for a decade or so, so I guess "it's time".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Can't Trump build a wall to keep it out?"

yeah, would be nice if he could. Nothing even remotely like that worked for Katrina [N.O. being surrounded by levies and stuff, some of which broke, resulting in floods].

Seriously, though, think about it: if there is nothing humans can do to STOP it, then why the hell would anyone think that humans CAUSED it... [just to make a point]

Oh, and it was upgraded to category 4, probably after the article was written.

Fox news had a reporter standing out in the middle of a street being blown about and rained on while discussing the situation on live TV. If it weren't a serious cause of property damage and possible loss of life, it'd be funny watching him. Then again, if they'd played 'Yakkity Sax' in the background...

Minnesota Senator calls out US watchdogs: Why so cozy with Amazon?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: It is surprising how quick it was for one reason

"Trump hates the Washington Post"

so do a LOT of people. G. Gordon Liddy called it "The Washington Bleep" back in the 90's.

The 'Washington Bleep' is probably as bad as CNN as far as "fake news" goes.

But yeah, 1st ammendment, as long as it's not outright libel, they can print whatever.

Funny how Bezos owns it, though.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Short Answer

"we can expect more of this..."

which is of course good and bad at the same time, depending on your perspective.

On the one hand, you don't want gummint red tape gumming everything up [and requiring payola in the form of campaign contributions to get past it, which is the worst form of corruption in this regard]. On the other hand, you want enough regulation to keep the playing field level.

A good point, Amazon mail-order groceries probably aren't going to dent Safeway, Kroger, Walmart, Target, and others who are busy going for each other's markets at the moment.

Safeway and Kroger have traditional "union worker" staffing. Walmart and Target do not. Safeway/Vons has merged with Albertsons/Lucky stores (a few years back) and as such, there's "less choice" except for Walmart and Target. So competition is still there. I don't go to "whole foods" type markets anyway since their prices are high and selection low (by comparison). Several of THOSE exist around here, like Henry's or a couple of others I can't recall. So yeah, the only ones really affected are those who can ALREADY afford to have groceries delivered to their houses. That's not me, nor anyone shopping at Vons (Safeway) or Ralphs (Kroger) or Walmart or Target [me most of the time, to save money].

Realistically, this buyout/merger probably won't affect too many people. It sounds like the FTC made the right call... and GETTING OUT OF THE FREAKING WAY while they were at it.

Node.js forks again – this time it's a war of words over anti-sex-pest codes of conduct

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Normal differences, nothing to see here.

There is a hell of a lot of misogyny in tech, and it's perpetuated by guys who think that anything that questions male domination is "political correctness" or "virtue signaling."

EW, you used 3 of those terms in a single sentence! Wash your mouth out with soap, please!

'misogyny' is a myth. 'MISANDRONY', however, is reality. Ask any father going through a divorce in Cali-fornicate-you. [both of course are equally bad]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: sounds like he should be working on unix

actually, Linux [thinking Linus]

and look how SUCCESSFUL Linus has been!

you have to wonder...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: "It's our job as journalists..."

I dunno, I read 'El Reg' for the entertaining twist on the news. If I'm concerned about truth, I can research it further, myself...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: "there are downsides to codes of conduct"

"Anon for reasons that should be obvious."

considering how THAT GUY is being HARASSED by Node.js [to which he's apparently contributed well enough to be one of the project leaders] and by people forking it, etc. over what he TWEETED (??!!) I would say that your use of A.C. may be well justified.

As for me, I don't give a crap if someone tries to retaliate [bring it on, I love a good fight! but I'm easily bored, too, so you have to meet high standards]

This has been happening too often, from Mozilla to Google and now THIS guy.

So I understand the A/C for the post. you have my upvote for what you said.

{and a code of conduct should *NEVAR* stray into your *PERSONAL* life, especially POLITICS, RELIGION, and PERSONAL OPINIONS}

San Franciscans unite to smite alt-right with minefield of doggy shite

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: Remember when...

Antifa protesters and other rioters aren't doing any equivalent of fighting WW2 against Nazis. they are busy causing riots and damaging people/property to create CHAOS, which is how they operate. It's a form of TERRORISM to do that. And it's being TOLERATED by left-leaning gummint and law enforcement "people in charge".

RIOTERS should be SHOT. The National Guard can handle that. If I were the mayor of a town where Antifa started rioting, I'd call them in when the first window gets broken, or the first firecracker is thrown at a cop. That'll fix it.

Peaceful protest marches are more effective. They get the word out. No need to start a riot.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Fines?

"I'm pretty sure it's not legal to leave the emissions from your dog's behind behind in California"

it's not - you're supposed to pick it up and dispose of it. In San Francisco that might require taking it to some kind of inconvenient "disposal center" but for the rest of us, use one of those single-use plastic bags [the kind california recently made illegal for grocery stores to bag your food in, so I do "no bags" now so I don't have to buy "re-usable" ones] and if you hold the bag around your hand properly, you can safely grab the doggie land mine and wrap the bag around it. SAFE! [plastic mitts, in convenient dispensers, also provided in some areas for this very purpose]

So yeah, you're SUPPOSED to pick up the dog crap and throw it out or something. And if it's wrapped in plastic, it would help cut back on the smell a bit... [I wonder if those free plastic mitts have deoderizer on them]

But yeah, it's pretty much state wide from what I understand, though at the city/county level and not a state law. Pretty sure. Otherwise, in coastal communities, a big rain storm would wash a bunch of dog crap right into the ocean from the storm drain overflow [same if the dog crap is on the beach]. So yeah, it needs to be cleaned up. We don't want high bad-bacteria levels in the water.

And so the protesters would've had to accumulate a bunch of crap-bags from the usual walks where they had to pick it up. That should complete the picture, I guess.

[seeing the other post, with reference to 'dumping', that might be a different thing entirely]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: biological warfare

"The stench of rotten eggs is not H2S, it is thioles "

like my farts. similar gas.

"They also have an interesting side effect - they saturate their receptors so people exposed to them stop feeling the stench"

yeah I'm 'nose blind' to them, heh.

/me goes off and clears a room. muahahahaha!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Hmmmm....

yeah they "promise" to get together and clean it up afterwards, but you know how it is with lefties... whenever you see photos of 'the aftermath' when they leave, trash all over etc. because most of them have the mentality that "someone else" will do it [usually gummint]. It's how they think. Gummint does EVERYTHING according to leftists, so cleaning up their mess would make sense, to THEM.

here's an example: http://www.king5.com/tech/science/environment/ton-of-trash-left-behind-after-environmental-protest/197524056

and don't forget trash arranged in the form of a peace sign, at woodstock... [yeah why couldnt' they haul it away instead?] OK not a protest, but it was hippies "back in the day", a foreshadowing of the future behavior of left-leaning protests, I'd guess.

This as opposed to Tea Party rallies in which the level of trash afterwards was apparently VERY SMALL (and piled near trash cans when they overflow).

http://goodsensepolitics.blogspot.com/2009/09/compare-garbage-after-tea-party-vs.html

So yeah, who IS going to clean that up? THEY say THEY will. I wouldn't hold my breath... well, I guess I'd hold my breath anyway, because the stench of the DOG CRAP will be pretty foul.

Yeah, they CLAIM they'll clean it up, but they're "fulla crap". had to say that.

PC sales to fall and fall and fall and fall and fall for the next five years

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Useless

"I use it maybe once a month to fill out my overtime sheet in Word."

obviously you're one of those "content consumer" 4-inch types. enjoy your mediocre computing experience.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: "Developing world - if you were to only have *one* computing device"

"So what's going on up there in Silicon Valley? Its like the PC makers are too busy reading MSM / Gartner / IDC reports, instead of asking people on the ground what they really want!"

In Silly Valley they're isolated in their bubble community of wacky-weed addicts without a clue as to what the rest of the world is like. Their politics, attitudes, and marketing proves it.

Win-10-nic is the #1 reason why PC sales slump. #2 is the lack of "new computer performs better than old computer". Why replace something that works with something that works about the same (but has Win-10-nic on it) ???

Predictable. Predictable. Predictable. It's so damn obvious I don't know what else I can say without a cluebat and a cat5-o-nine-tails to emphasize the point by BEATING IT into those clueless douchebags that seem to be "in charge".

Nasty firmware update butchers Samsung smart TVs so bad, they have to be repaired

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Bricked TVs

were the updates MANDATORY?

El Reg gets schooled on why SSDs will NOT kill off the trusty hard drive

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Remeber folks HDD is a great archive medium, much better than any old tape....

well, sounds like backups and archiving ought to be a multi-plan thing then.

a) store on multiple machines/hard drives/SAN/etc.

b) periodic tape/dvd/SD card/whatever archival

c) cloudy backup for when it's appropriate

that's kinda what I do...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: This was my grandfather's HDD.

"Kalok, right? Both the name of the brand, and the sound they would make when it broke..."

I bought a Kalok drive in the 90's. When I loaded a beta version of Win '95 it started swapping to disk a LOT, which caused the drive to eat itself. Sounded a lot like breaking glass.

(fortunately, I did regular backups, and only lost time and the cost of a new hard drive)

Prior to that, I had left a Seagate drive on top of the case, with extended length IDE+power cables going into the back of the computer (a secondary hard drive). I stored "work files" on it, mostly (whatever I was working on at the time, source code etc.) and did regular backups. But whenever the drive had been off for a while, after being on for a while, it wouldn't spin up. But the spindle stuck out through the circuit board, just a little. So I'd grab it with pliers and manually spin it until it free'd up, then power up the drive. It worked for about a year like this until I finally replaced it.

So what's in the new Windows Insider build? Bug fixes, an AR goof-around, and a font

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

If you're gonna do "something 3D"...

Micro-shaft: If you're gonna do "something 3D", why not 3D SKEUOMORPHIC UI APPEARANCE????

You know, instead of that 2D FLATSO FLUGLINESS that began with Windows "Ape".

(and while you're at it, get rid of the SLURPING and AD-NAGGING, too)

Micro-shaft: majoring in the 'minors' with another worthless "new, shiny".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

The only new emoji that would matter is "REALLY PISSED OFF AT MICRO-SHAFT" which would look a LOT like a hand with a firmly extended middle finger...

Mozilla ponders making telemetry opt-out, 'cos hardly anyone opted in

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: This user has visited one or more of these sites today

yes, having that information means they can sell it to whatever 3rd party wants it.

^^^ the REAL motivation behind telemetry

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

"Silly Valley" has gone INSANE

"Why on every front are they trying to copy the worst ideas of the competitors"

(from topic 'idea of opt-out telemetry')

'Silly Valley' has gone INSANE. It's turning into an ISOLATED MICRO-CULTURE, in which they all suck one anoth... scratch one another's backs and tell each other how great their ideas are, while the REST OF THE PLANET is angry. Redmond is also a similar micro-culture and maybe they do occasional culture exchanges between Silly Valley and Redmond or something...

Point being, these guys are SO isolated from what end-users (read: customers) want, that they're falling for the SAME traps that Microshaft and Google and Facebook, and "all of the others" have fallen for.

What Mozilla has done to reduce their market share:

a) become WAY TOO MUCH like Chrome (2D FLATSO, hamburger menu, etc.)

b) stop supporting the plugin interface needed for 'Classic UI' plugins

c) favoring "new shiny" _WAY_ over "make it better"

What they should do instead: LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMERS! Not pollsters, not shouty activist users, etc.. And stop relying on bots and slurping and other 'impersonal' tactics that effectively turn people into MINIONS to be exploited.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: I think that's a good idea

"This is basically what Windows 10 does"

and that is PRECISELY why we do NOT want this telemetry stuff to be OPT OUT

NEWS FLASH: _MOST_ people do NOT run Win-10-nic.

If Mozilla becomes "slurpy" like Micro-shaft and Google, they'll lose their entire market share, and someone else will fork their code so that we'll have a reasonable browser alternative, other than the data slurpers.

Microsoft, Red Hat in cross-platform container and .Net cuddle

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: No thanks

"Basically, .NET scores better than average in every category except that it was made by Microsoft."

Sorry. but no. ".NOT" and C-Pound score LOWER than WHALE CRAP on every scale I can think of.

NOTE: if you code for wxWidgets, you get a cross-platform toolkit that is a lot like MFC. I suggest using THAT. And forget C-pound and ".NOT". Make your applications run WITHOUT that monolithic dead-man strapped to your back. And static link while you're at it. your customers and support techs will thank you.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

it means .NET developers can now target Red Hat Linux

target FOR DESTRUCTION you mean...

".NOT" in Linux is like the proverbial lipstick on the non-oinky end of the proverbial BOAR.

Redmond: NO. Just NO.

Headless body found near topless beach: Missing private sub journalist identified

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: This story is still nowhere near as strange as...

Shhhhh... don't tell anyone it was me

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: Making light of tragedy

"There is absolutely nothing funny about this story."

I dunno, I laugh at "dead baby" jokes and "man with no arms/legs" jokes...

What do you call a man with no arms/legs floating in the water?

BOB! [had to do that one]

(coat, please)

Accused! Yahoo! hacker! pleads! not! guilty! in! US! court!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

it was the one armed man!

that's who done it!

Germans force Microsoft to scrap future pushy Windows 10 upgrades

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Too late...

Don't touch the hair... don't touch the hair... don't touch the hair... TOO LATE!!!

If you've seen the movie, and understand the reference, it's kinda like what happened to Brad, after it was "too late", to suddenly find yourself with Win-10-nic instead of 7 (or even "Ape") and now, you can NEVER go back to the way it was before...

So even when Micro-shaft [heh - perfect considering the earlier reference] promises to "never do it again" it doesn't matter, not one bit. You've lost your virginity and that's that. And not in a GOOD way, either.

US Navy suffers third ship collision this year

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

"they may have learnt how to do handbrake turns with a destroyer to scam Lloyd's List."

back full port, ahead full starboard. similar idea to a handbrake turn.

If the ship has multiple screws, even if the rudder is immobilized due to a mechanical problem, you can still attempt to steer it with the engines [though the effect isn't quite as good].

Methinks they need to run more drills on operation casualties *like* loss of steeering, work out the bugs, and get some kinds of procedures in place to avoid situations like that one.

Normally a collision is due to a mistake on the part of the officer of the deck. But with "that much information" in play in a busy channel, maybe it's just not humanly possible for one person to keep track of it all...

(holy @#$% it's a big fat tanker, how the hell did we NOT see that coming?)

Can North Korean nukes hit US mainland? Maybe. But EMP blast threat is 'highly credible'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Never understood the obsession with ICBMs

Just bang Kim Jong "Fatass" Un's into a wall someplace. It's obvious who the aggressor is.

Didn't anyone learn how to STAND UP to a bully, especially when he's basically "all talk"?

Trump is doing the right thing, up to and including having CHINA involved in this, in an actual good way. The USA isn't going to pre-emptively "glass" N. Korea, so having China threaten us just let's them 'save face' on the issue. The REAL issue is China "going neutral" if N. Korea launches missiles at the USA (including Guam, I might add) or an ally (like Japan or S. Korea). THAT should have Kim Jong "Cartman" Un relieving himself without the benefit of a toilet bowl. And THAT is what we want. Because _SANE_ negotiations don't work with people who are INSANE. Like Kim Jong "fat boy" Un.

We (the world) have been collectively appeasing and paying this ass-hat (and his ass-hat father, Kim Jong "So Wonewy" Il) off with various deals, favors, etc. expecting proper response, i.e. NOT developing their nuke program. Of course, we kept OUR end of the bargain. The Kim family doesn't keep THEIR end of ANY bargain. So it's time to play HARDBALL with these idiots. And China _IS_ with us (even if they won't admit it).

Energy firm slapped with £50k fine for making 1.5 million nuisance calls

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

adding 3 or 4 more zeros onto the end would be more appropriate of a fine. but I like my "punch in the nose" idea a whole lot better. More personally satisfying.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: You have to question their intelligence...

ack, it's purely a numbers game. they'll irritate 999,999 people to get that ONE sale.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Spawn of Satan

""I wanted to know what company to avoid giving any business to.""

I would prefer "I wanted to know who to report to the FCC over violating the 'do not call' list" then inform them to NEVER CALL YOU BACK AGAIN.

/me really HATES telemarketers, especially the ones who ignore the 'do not call' list and use robo-dialers and won't pick up on their end, so I can't swear at them properly. I want to quote that line from 'Demolition Man' where Stallone's character needs toilet paper... "You @#$-brained @#$-faced duck-@#$%^ @#$%-busting" etc.. Actually I want to find out where they live... [edit: not to break any laws, of course. no way! Send them a nice postcard at Christmas time or something]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Different planet

"Can we get some real regulators that make punitive fines please."

how about authorizing EVERYONE who received such a nuisance call to give one punch in the nose, each, to anyone held responsible. 1.5 million punches in the nose oughta be a nice DIS-incentive for this kind of irritating self-serving nuisance...

UK.gov to treat online abuse as seriously as IRL hate crime

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Safe space

" If Twitter could verify users' real names and addresses before letting them post, everyone would play (reaosonably) nice."

no they wouldn't. But I have a solution: thicken your skin, and have fun with it instead.

"Have nice day" <-- make it sound like 'Gru' said it.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

"So someone who politely criticises your viewpoint in an online forum isn't going to qualify how ever much you're offended."

unless he's got the wrong "political position" in which case the appropriate level of censorship and "chilling effect" applies. It doesn't matter HOW polite you are, when this level of potential censorship is taken to its logical extreme.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: Slippery slope?

you need John Cleese to read that as if it were part of the 'Prejudice' sketch... and we'll continue to just call them 'Belgians'.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: Slippery slope?

it's never a hate crime when the target is a white guy. didn't you know that?

Microsoft rolls its own hyperconverged appliance program

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

I think they're just hedging their bets

I think they're just hedging their bets, trying to cover all possible angles with a "Microsoft solution" or something similar, even if it doesn't really sell very well [or earns less than Azure].

It's what you do when you're trying to take over the world. You want your fingers in EVERYTHING.

Google's Android 8.0 Oreo has been served

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Next Gen

I can think of other words beginning with 'P'...

Peanut Butter!

I'm waiting for them to put some 3D skeuomorphic renderings into the base system. At least some shadows around the buttons, for crying out loud!

until then... meh [and don't force me to download/upgrade unless I _WANT_ to dammit!]

Boffins blast beats to bury secret sonar in your 'smart' home

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

yet another reason...

yet another reason to NOT have a device with an "open mic" on all of the time in your house.

(there should at least be a physical switch to disconnect it. same with cameras. and not a 'soft disconnect' either - a HARD disconnect)

Private sub captain changes story, now says reporter died, was 'buried at sea' – torso found

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Just sub armless fun

torso was used as an emergency flotation device?

The sky is blue, water is wet and UK PC shipments are down

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Will M$ be forced to do a u-turn?

I wish they would, but their ARROGANCE that began with the insider program for Win-10-nic suggests that they are INCORRIGIBLE and will simply go down in flames wondering "why" ...

maybe they can turn it around by *FIRING* this person, the one responsible for 'the ribbon' and 'the metro' (Sinofsky was merely a high profile scapegoat):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Larson-Green

She's obviously taken the company in the WRONG direction with "one windows, everywhere". It's time to re-organize a bit. But they won't do it, for a number of reasons [some being 'political correctness' reasons, and fear].

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: C'mon, at least make it rhyme...

"The sky is blue, water is wet..."

you forgot to mention 'Satan Clause' (sequence near the end of 'The Last Boy Scout'). He's out there...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: re: the sky is blue etc

Once you get past the HDD to SSD upgrade what is there to be gained from swapping out the old with the new?

a crappy user interface, that comes with embedded spyware and adware, called "Windows 10" (aka Win-10-nic). WOW, something to "look forward" to! (NOT)

(from the article)

Brexit and the general election were highlighted by Gartner as being among the reasons why the good folk of Britain purchased far fewer PCs in Q2.

Gartner: you're doing it wrong. blame Win-10-nic. And Windows "Ape" before that.

SUMMARY: if my existing computer is "good enough", and I can add RAM and/or purchase an SSD and just re-install Windows 7 (or XP for that matter), then *WHY* should I buy a NEW computer with Win-10-nic on it? It would be a _COMPLETE_ waste of money, and I'd end up with an INFERIOR computer (because, Win-10-nic).

And... THAT is why PC sales have slumped. K?

Voyager antenna operator: 'I was the first human to see images from Neptune'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

"I pity the first human to see images from Uranus..."

encircled by the S.S. Hemorrhoid, the S.S. Dingleball, and the fingers from the 'Goat' constellation

leaving now...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wow - that's fast!

I think -168dbm is about the same as a "gnat fart", though -168db would be roughly 1/10^17 [I said 'roughly'] as 'db' is a ratio, but 'dbm' is the log10 of a signal's strength (in milliiwats).

So I guess if someone can quantify "gnat fart" in milliwatts, then we'll be able to translate -168dbm into "gnat farts".

I think a gnat's ass is around 0.1 mm [that is mostly a guess, gnats are hard to measure with calipers].

also, when the noise floor level is hundreds or thousands of times the signal strength, which is actually somewhat common with cell phones, you need some tricky techniques to demodulate it accurately (edit: at the tower, not the phone itself). but yeah, we do that kind of thing pretty well, now.

one thing worth mentioning - how come nobody said "V'ger" yet?