* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Time to brush up on current affairs. Because we're predicting Li-ion batt lifetimes using impedance and AI

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Whilst on this topic..

actually... battery life _IS_ a selling point for laptops, slabs, and even phones.

There are 2 factors to consider:

a) weight/size

b) capacity

You can have a lightweight laptop with lousy capacity. You can also have a laptop with a bozillian hours of operation, but it weighs a lot or is 3 times as thick because of all of the batteries. Then there's replaceable vs soldered-in batteries [a big problem nowadays with slabs and phones at least].

So if you can predict the number of charges on a battery BEFORE you install it, you can (literally) grade them and select "the best" to go in the higher end devices, etc.. and ALSO let people know when it's time to "buy a new one" for the cheap stuff and/or automatically adjust for a repaired device [new battery].

Anyway, this is how I see it. But I also expect that only very new designs will start using something like that, maybe as soon as a year or two from now. [there is a predictable time delay from innovation to implementation and finally getting out to market].

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

my guess is that it would be hard to use that kind of algorithm with a microcontroller, so NOW "someone out there" will need to produce a charge controller that can be queried [let's say using I2C or SPI] for the charge cycle calculation. That should also work for phones, laptops, and even cars [if it's designed for multi-battery systems].

At least, that's what I'd LIKE to see happen - intelligent LiPo/LiIon charge controllers that can also measure battery capacity.

I worked on something a while back that would estimate battery life using the known charge characteristics, the known discharge current, and the number of 'ticks' it would take to cross specific voltage thresholds during the charge and discharge. It duplicated (more or less) my understanding of the 'smart battery' tech that goes into phones and laptops. Still it was easiest to rely mostly on the charge controller IC to make sure the battery was properly charged and then just intelligently measure things to estimate capacity. [and I don't really want to see the universe encumbered with SOFTWARE PATENTS over this...]

So in my view, THAT is the best place to put this kind of AI batterty tech - in the charge controller, with a way of reading it (like I2C or SPI).

RHEL pusher Paul Cormier appointed CEO to lead Red Hat into the IBM era

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Reverse Takeover...

RH taking over IBM instead?

And here I was hoping IBM would FIRE POETTERING!!!

COBOL-coding volunteers sought as slammed mainframes slow New Jersey's coronavirus response

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: No so much COBOL as the tools

I was guessing AS/400, HP/3000, or VAX actually, not an old 360...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Solving the wrong problem...

they need Simon the BOFH to help 'em out

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Solving the wrong problem...

"management do not understand."

Yeah they need to wait "over by the window" while the schmott-people are working...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: "cobalt [sic] computer skills"

as far as 'cobalt' is concerned - it was probably auto-corrected by a spell checker. They're lucky it wasn't turned into something more snark-worthy!

And you know those teleprompter-only politicians, couldn't ad-lib a one-line kid's joke if their LIVES depended on it!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: COBOL is still running

"I still have an RL02 in the garage if they need some more storage."

hence my earlier comment about SIMH

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: We've been saying an upgrade is necessary for literally decades.

see icon </snark>

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Is that actually what they need?

If you write PROPER HTML code that does NOT rely heavily on scripting (particularly NOT things like JQuery or any OTHER "modern" abomination that does the same thing) you won't have this problem.

I like tables with embedded 'style' values. It's easier to control the appearance of a specific page that way. And I keep any common CSS definitions *SMALL*. Anything more than a handful of things is TOO MUCH and needs re-design. [well HELL, _THERE_'s your problem! Your CSS definitions, when unmangled, is over 4000 lines! and what's that 16,000 line script thing DOING anyway?]

I have NEVER found a web-based thing that could NOT be done entirely on the server. Sometimes it's a little kludgy to force it, but that does NOT mean it can NOT be done effectively [and even efficiently]. Unless you're doing a dynamic stock ticker with charts, you don't need script to update it once a second (or at ALL)! And click-through-scripts RARELY need to be there. Hyperlinks and buttons with forms. DUH! [on occasion I've done an on-click but that was for embedded touch-screen systems, for which you control the browser and everything else about it, and if I didn't SPECIFICALLY think it was a better way to do it I would NEVER have done it that way]

And suddenly... your site looks good on Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Intarweb Exploiter, Safari, Opera, Konqueror, Midori, and even on mobile when you rotate the screen properly!

(minus the stupid-script and ridiculous-styles just about ANY browser will look pretty good with your pages if you don't totally bork the formatting and include the 'viewport' meta tag)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Is that actually what they need?

since when would Oracle web front ends NOT support Firefox???

That's just WORSE than SILLY, it's ARSE-ININE!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Is that actually what they need?

for MANY such situations, SIMH comes to mind... (assuming there's a working simulator for their hardware, and chances are, there is).

Back in the day gummints liked IBM and VAX and occasionally HP or Data General minicomputers. Later there was Sun and DEC Alpha and others I'm probably not aware of. So "how ancient" is it? In the worst case, if you can manage to hook up a tape drive or serial [or even ethernet] link to transfer stuff, SIMH might fix the problem...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: No so much COBOL as the tools

back in the 90's when I worked with those older systems I'd typcally transfer the files to a windows system, edit it with something reasonable, then transfer the files back. But as I recall the HP systems I worked on also had a decent visual editor, so it wasn't that bad to just use THAT. Although the program I used to access the minicomputer was called 'Reflection' (and was a DOS application) it ran fine in windows 3.0 and was easy to use to transfer files back and forth. Mostly I did FORTRAN though, and a report writing language called 'QUIZ'. I did _some_ COBOL which I literally picked up by reading the manual for it.

Anyone used to using Linux or one of the BSD's should be able to manage working on a mainframe as well. They _do_ have the same roots, unless you're one of those wimps that MUST use a GUI for _EVERYTHING_ (and wouldn't understand bash or command lines if they were face-slapped by it). Yeah I've seen mac users like that, even though OSX is FreeBSD underneath!

maintenance coding, though, is usually not hard if you are not required to write things from scratch. Then you can just take what's already there, and fix it, and use the existing environment to do it.

(How many systems have I done that with.... a LOT, from PDPs to HP/3000 to VAX to .PCs with DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and even Macs)

yeah, they could PAY me, but I'm not interested in volunteering. This chaos is all SELF-INFLICTED. by OVERREACTING to coronavirus by SHUTTING DOWN BUSINESSES (which creates the layoffs), and it is _NOT_ a solution to a pandemic problem, and I'm going to LET THEM (the gummint, that is) SUFFER until they (the bureaucrats and politicians) LEARN THEIR LESSON! In the interrim, they can solve the unemployment problem by LETTING THE BUSINESSES RE-OPEN, since NOW is the time to do that anyway. After all, why "enable" them to continue with the BAD (gummint) BEHAVIOR, if they're addicted to MISMANAGEMENT and ABUSE OF POWER like that.

Or, they can PAY me.

We're number two! Microsoft's Edge browser slips past Firefox in latest set of NetMarketShare figures

bombastic bob Silver badge
Gimp

Re: A glorious No 2

Sorry, my face is UNRECOGNIZABLE - I'm wearing a mask to protect everyone ELSE from my GERM CLOUD!

(was troll icon until I corrected it)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Firefox blocks tracking

"Wasn't this to be expected now Firefox blocks many trackers by default? Usage will look much lower than it really is if many counters can't count any more."

I like your thinking!!! And, it probably means HIGHER usage for Firefox by the security-minded!

Now if I could JUST get them to ABANDON AUSTRALIS [at least for those of us who HATE it]

{when you can ONLY feed at the pig trough, you feed at the pig trough, but you will RAPIDLY GO ELSEWHERE as SOON as something ELSE is available!}

Kaspersky cleans up poisoned watering hole, Google presses pause on cookie crackdown

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

cve.mitre.org appears to require script for proper rendering

seems strange (even ironic) to me that a web site that has CVE reports on it would REQUIRE SCRIPT in order to render properly,...

went to see what was up with SystemD, clicked on the link, saw poorly formatted text etc. and noscript telling me that one site had been blocked.

You'd think SECURITY PEOPLE would GET IT, ya know?

16 years and counting: How ESA squeezed oodles of bonus science out of plucky Mars Express probe

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: So, when is Ron Howard shooting the movie of this upprade?

maybe you can add some cool 3D graphics and rotating cameras around the person at the keyboard like they did in the movie 'Hackers' - and Penn GIllette. Gotta include Penn Gillette!!!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Remote software updates

if the device you are reflashing a boot loader onto is entirely encased in plastic, it's kinda the same thing, but in my case those devices were only ~$100 each, and not in orbit around Mars. Still for GPL compliance the end-user needed to be able to do the same thing (even worse for breath-holding I think), successfully, or create an expensive paperweight in the process. The only way to attach hardware to recover the device involved drilling holes accurately and soldering wires through those holes onto the board, probably ruining the purpose of potting it in plastic in the first place (waterproofing for ocean operation).

So yeah, major emphasis on "get it right the first time" and (somewhat) necessary nervous behavior and unusual religious activity might be involved.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: You can't call it MEX!

actually, it just makes me want to toast the crew with a shot of Tequila!

(even thought they apparently coded it in ADA... that wasn't necessarily a good idea, but obviously they overcame it anyway - so good! job!)

Things that go crump in the night: Watch Musk's mighty missile go foom

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Vacuum

you might be able to duplicate what happened with a simple experiment

a) pressurize a plastic 2L bottle somehow [specia cap?] using something that's close to its condensation point, like a refrigerant gas.

b) release the pressure rapidly [it will cool the bottle slightly]

c) quickly seal it after venting (a check valve might help)

d) watch the fun

note that gas velocity through the valve will draw a slight vacuum if the valve closes rapidly, due to momentum, depending on the length of the pipe involved. And it cools the place where the gas once was, even more effectively if it can try and condense into a liquid afterwards (like refrigerant).

similarly, (don't try this at home - gutless disclaimer) lighting off alcohol vapor within a 2L bottle through a 9mm hole in the cap might give you a similar effect (it also makes for a fun rocket - distance and safety precautions apply). The velocity of the escaping exhaust through the cap literally draws a vacuum behind it, and the bottle (which quickly cools down the remaining gasses and they have lots of water vapor in them) implodes a bit.

Also...

Rocket fuel tanks are designed to be pressurized because that gives the entire rocket more structural strength, gives positive head pressure [stop it you with dirty minds] for the fuel pumps, and also PREVENTS the 'implode when the pressure drops too low' problem, particularly on launch where compressive stress would otherwise 'accordion' the rocket.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Does it open at the front?

not quite twice the fuel...

a) tanks half full weigh half as much, need half as much thrust from that

b) tanks empty as you burn off fuel, even less required at the very end

c) going up you're accelerating upwards, which has a higher fuel requirement, since it's 1G thrust plus acceleration needs. Coming back, it's less than 1G thrust.

even if the payload coming back is the same (or slightly higher for that matter), it's a fraction of the weight of the fuel. And so the limiting factor here is fuel weight for the return trip, which will be considerably LESS than half of your fuel.

In an ideal scenario I would venture to guess that the going up fuel would be 3 or 4 times the coming back fuel. Then you add a safety margin. So maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the fuel is for coming back SAFELY, a bit less than 1/2. But still significant.

Not only is Zoom's strong end-to-end encryption not actually end-to-end, its encryption isn't even that strong

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Why do so many businesses seem to need video?

has anyone else used Slack? Or even IRC? If you video conference, who wants to see an engineer in his "home clothes" [or lack of] anyway?

IRC is free, and setting up your own IRC server wouldn't be all that hard... or just use freenode like everyone else with a serious project.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: I don't use common definitions either

"Mime artists are confined to working at home at present."

You know, a MIME is a *TERRIBLE* thing to waste!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pint

Re: I warrant that the Corona Virus will not set fire to your servers.

as long as there's plenty of alcohol in that hand sanitizer you can expect a belch followd by "another, please"

Where's the best place to add Mentos to Diet Coke for the most foam? How big are the individual bubbles? Has science gone too far?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Been wondering...

take a lesson from a 12 year old - explaining otherwise complex concepts in terms that mortals can understand [and having fun with it]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Cool waste of time

soda fizzing depends on the temperature of the soda due to solubility of CO2 in water and the equilibrium reactions involved. So it needs to be the same in each experiment. The Chem teacher knew this, of course.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: efficient insertion of Mentos is key

if I could do an instantaneous release I could build a soda bottle rocket with the mentos-diet-coke reaction.

The idea would be to cap the bottle with the mentos [and release mechanism] inside, using a 'rocket engine' cap [of my own design], and use some kind of pull-string arrangement (through the nozzle). Then you pull the string to launch it. I've already got a nice nozzle design, complete with fin/legs to spin it, as OpenSCAD files that can be 3D printed, if anyone wants to look on github for them. Maybe it could help El Reg launch another space plane?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: The Diet Coke bottles were kept at 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 degrees Fahrenheit)

the curve for dissolved gas in water isn't linear. The maximum point is around 2 deg C, with a minimum of around 60C (as I recall), but then it increases again after that, assuming you apply enough pressure to the water to stay liquid, so that very hot water under pressure can hold onto even more dissolved gas than 34 degree water at 1 atmosphere pressure. Or something like that. And according to a few online references, several types of gasses have different curves and minimum points. In general, however, it follows the pattern I described. But none of the online references bothered to extend the curve past the boiling point at sea level atmospheric pressure, because they're not concerned about managing the water chemistry of a pressurized water nuclear reactor...

Boeing 787s must be turned off and on every 51 days to prevent 'misleading data' being shown to pilots

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: How long does it take to reboot a 787 ?

typically VxWorks will come up really fast.

a) you compile it for your hardware - so no driver loading and/or hardware detection

b) it's an RTOS and not a monolithic kernel. Startup and scheduling are different. You could easily optimize restart times [let's say in-flight reboots being made possible].

c) the processes would all be compiled in, so no program loads either, as far as I can tell. This could be wrong, based on what they might be doing, but I suspect it'll be like it was for wifi routers with VxWorks, which is what I worked on - wireless, networking, WPA, asynchronous packet handling, stuff like that.

So yeah maybe it boots up in under 5 seconds? Possibly boots up even faster than THAT...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Windows Server 2000

"Seeing the real problem"

someone already posted a valid suggestion - millisecond rollover, and an algorithm to test for periodic timing that was poorly written. [during rollover you might end up with a "storm" of data collection for a brief period of time, as one example, or NO DATA COLLECTED AT ALL - even worse]

Again, my working with microcontrollers has already gotten me to discipline myself with respect to these kinds of maths so that the controller can run for MONTHS unattended, as you would expect it to, and not have a rollover issue after 49.71 days, or anything reasonbly close to that, depending on whether your millisecond timer is actually happening every 1.024 milliseconds...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: Windows Server 2000

maybe they had it working on the ultimate answer (or the ultimate question)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Millisecond roll-over?

I've run into that problem (32-bit millisecond timer rollover issues) with microcontrollers, solved by doing the math correctly

capturing the tick count

if((uint32_t)(Ticker() - last_time) >= some_interval)

and

last_time=Ticker(); // for when it crosses the threshold

[ alternately last_time += some_interval when you want it to be more accurate ]

using a rollover time

if((int32_t)(Ticker() - schedule_time) >= 0)

and

schedule_time += schedule_interval (for when it crosses the threshold)

(this is how Linux kernel does its scheduled events, internally, as I recall, except it compares to jiffies which are 1/100 of a second if I remember correctly)

(examples in C of course, the programming lingo of choice the gods!)

do the math like this, should work as long as you use uint32_t data types for the 'Ticker()' function and for the 'scheduld_time'; or 'last_time' vars.

If you are an IDIOT and don't do unsigned comparisons "similar to what I just demonstrated", you can predict uptime-related problems at about... 49.71 days [assuming milliseconds].

I think i remember a 'millis()' or similarly named function in VxWorks. It's been over a decade since I've worked with it though. VxWorks itself was pretty robust back then, used in a lot of routers and other devices that "stay on all the time". So its track record is pretty good.

So the most likely scenario is what you suggested - a millisecond timer rolling over (with a 32-bit var storing info) and causing bogus data to accumulate after 49.71 days, which doesn't (for some reason) TRULY manifest itself until about 51 days...

Anyway, good catch.

Automatic for the People: Pandemic-fueled rush to robo-moderation will be disastrous – there must be oversight

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: @SVV

your ROT13 auto-translate is broken

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: grep is cheap

I like to do things such as poking fun by using the 'F' word *FEEL* in place of a DIFFERENT 'F' word, and it's obvious to everyone what I really mean. So nanny-bots won't pick up on 'FEEL'. I've also seen 'onion' jokingly bot-swapped for the word 'soy' in one particular forum.

The obviousness is that bot-nanny-moderator-artificial-STUPIDITY ain't gonna work.

DARN that CRUD, *FEEL*ing mentally challenged "Twitterers" !!!

^^^ example

(and don't forget the spelling errors b0rking the filters)

NASA's classic worm logo returns for first all-American trip to ISS in years: Are you a meatball or a squiggly fan?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Meatball

uncrewed space missions are like haaving sex through VR and video games.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Meatball

yeah, the old meatball logo looks more "science fiction"-y than the worm.

Cloudflare family-friendly DNS service flubs first filtering foray: Vital LGBTQ, sex-ed sites blocked 'by mistake'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Cloudflare won't say what "adult content" is

"you don't want your 5 year old watching a 15-rated movie by accident, but you'd probably have no problem with your 15 or 16 year old watching it."

5 year olds wouldn't WANT to watch something targeted at adults or even teenagers, as a general rule. At least, none of the 5 year olds I've ever seen... (they'd wanna see disney stuff, over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and ...)

as for 15 or 16 year olds, if you've already taught them to make reasonable decisions on such things, let them watch what they want. Chances are they won't choose to watch the pr0n and offensive stuff... [because they won't be rebelling - heh]. But that takes some up-front trust-building and early education, and treating them as if they're responsible already [the pygmalion effect - yeah].

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: So?

I figured it was an opinion anyway, but it WOULD be interesting to see some science.

I'll put some science in here regarding male homosexual sheep, who were born with part of their brains "female sized" - a part responsible for aromatase metabolism with respect to testosterone, as I recall. These sheep had clear developmental differences in their brains, which was directly linked to their behavior (homosexuality). That being said, it's most likely a propensity and not a guarantee, but even so, becomes an actual medical issue of possible "female brain in a male body". And that's what I think the "what's wrong is the body" statement is really referring to.

So ^^^ there is some science. Does it help?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: So?

"Trans children from conservative SOME religious families may need help from outside sources"

I'd agree with the fixed version. Overgeneralizations about conservatism aren't helping [just as overgeneralizations about gay and trans people aren't helping].

Being 'different' is something you have to deal with all of your life (learn and master martial arts at a young age, and be confident - I suggest THAT for ANYONE).

Being a genius in a world of 'normals', believe it or not, can be JUST as frustrating... maybe even WORSE! (Flowers for Algernon - Charlie was "different" and socially isolated at both ends of the intelligence spectrum, but at least when he was mentally disabled, he was happy).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: So?

Understandable AC, but how much effort must the REST of the world make in order to satisfy the apparent needs of the trans community? How come "live and let live" is NOT the solution? You cannot change others, but you CAN change yourself. By being as unoffensive as possible you will greatly help your cause, because people will see you as an example of a trans person and say "I know someone..." and be less likely to be prejudiced, bigoted, offensive, etc. towards trans-people in general.

[this applies to religions, too - if members of a particular religion, let's say Westboro Baptists, show the world that they're no longer hating specific groups of people (a very un-christian thing I might add, captain obvious says) but instead are doing good things without compromising their religion, people would be more tolerant and even accepting of them]. OK they're probably not ready to do a gay or trans wedding, but still... and as far as I'm concerned, bigotry is a form of avarice which is ALSO a sin. So if they reject people for ONE type of sin, they should reject themselves for the OTHER kind, too.

ok captain obvious isn't helping now, so no need to thank him. heh.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: So?

if it's a voluntary service that PARENTS want, I agree with giving it to them. Generally, however, I think it's better to deal with it like this: warn your kid about the internet, trolls, pedos, child exploiters, whatever, and just say "there is a LOT of stuff on the internet you really don't want to see, really disgusting shock sites, bizarre human behavior, sick and disgusting things like pictures of somebody's crap, and the kinds of things you really don't want to fill your mind with. There's not enough brain bleach etc. etc. etc.".

Then you kinda monitor what's going on, but keep the channels open. Seriously, if you treat a kid as being responsible, and give him the knowledge and parental availability for making rational decisions on his own, chances are he WILL make rational decisions on his own at an age where you still have a LOT of influence, and that's likely to last the rest of his life.

Either that, or shelter your kid like a "preacher's kid" might be and watch ALL HELL break loose when he turns 18 and discovers porn, sex, drugs, bizzare human behaviors, and so on (kinda like what OFTEN happens to PKs in college or in the military).

(ironically chosen icon)

Amazon says it fired a guy for breaking pandemic rules. Same guy who organized a staff protest over a lack of coronavirus protection

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Unions? who needs them?

*ahem* all you need to do is complain to OSHA within the USA and they'll take care of any workplace safety issues. Managements comply with OSHA because they *FEAR* OSHA and for good reason.

Does UK have a similar oversight/regulation ministry? Just curious... [I would expect so]

Every time I consult I check for OSHA compliance that I'm aware of, just to make a point. Typically I'll just tell them "you need a XXX to comply". [I do this with lots of things, GPL even]. Last time I ran into this the company had no eyewash but was working with chemicals. But it was in the owner's garage, so what can you do? Needless to say, entry/exit was too dark at night (in an alley, through an old door), parking was pathetic, but it was a startup and it paid. So there ya go. Later they got an office and several regular on-site employees. Then later after that, lost funding. Ah, well.

(but yeah you needed eyewash and fireproof lockers and other OSHA compliance things to work with chemicals like finishes and polymers and fiberglass and ... you get the idea)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Wow!

"Indeed, and all it shows is that Bezos is just another repressive tycoon who cares not for human health or welfare."

to assuage his own guilt, like so many rich liberal types in his kind of position, he'll gladly donate zillions of dollars to various "charitable causes" [but I would suggest that many such 'charities' are _REALLY_ "buying something" after all...]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Unions

unions like Teamsters more or less gave unions a bad name.

A good union will provide the employer with skilled labor at a reasonable price, manage the payroll and benefits and vacations and absences and seasonal temporaries and training and labor relations and OSHA and all of that OTHER "HR Crap" that is SUCH a pain in the butt.

A bad union strikes for ANY reason and asks for too much money from the employer to the point where people get fired or the company goes out of business (right Hostess? San Diego operations closed down and Hostess had to sell their business to 'Little Debbie', who has turned it around, but apparently NOT in California, where wages would have had to be too high).

So yeah the 'need' for a union in general (rampant widespread exploitation and unsafe working conditions) has been generally prevented by other gummint regulations. But the 'good' aspects of a union would make them worth keeping.

/me points out that if I were to build a factory someplace, I'd contact the local unions and look for good prices, or at least get an idea of what the prevailing wages are and weigh it against the value added by a union force vs the possible additional cost.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: One Sided Reporting

correct. and those are only the KNOWN infections.

It is quite possible that back in December and January, when travel between U.S. and China was still open and on-going, that a LARGE number of asymptomatic people (and a few symptomatic ones) traveled with Corona Virus from China to the USA and landed in California, exposing California to the virus back in December and January [when I quite likely would have been exposed].

Back in December, the company I've been doing contract work for had a manufacturing related problem with a piece of equipment that's important to a new contract. To improve quality, they sent a few engineers to China [not sure where, I did not go] where they worked on getting the assembly-related issues and some design issues resolved. So far so good, right? After coming back, one guy was feeling kinda sick [I was in the office that day] with symptoms similar to Corona virus. I jokingly said that he'd make all of the rest of us sick, too, even though we were all 'generally careful' to not be exposed. But a week or two later, I had mild symptoms similar to what is describe for Corona Virus [and so did my kid, who still lives with me as an adult]. AFTER that was over, Trump issued the travel ban to China when they disclosed that the virus was spreading in Wuhan and they were trying to mitigate it. No blame, just fact.

And so, did I get Corona Virus? I think I did. And so did anyone I came into contact with, mostly grocery stores and other people at the office. But there were NO KNOWN CASES of this virus being published in the news. And yet, it was probably HERE.

And so, have people in California ALREADY been largely exposed to the Corona Virus? Not from me (or my co-worker) per se, but by the MANY THOUSANDS of people who were flying back/forth to China over that 2-3 month period from November 2019 through January 2020.

Given THAT, what are the NEW projected numbers for fatal corona virus cases? They might be a whole lot LOWER... [and if there's a test for Corona Virus antibodies, and I "pass", I should be able to return to work on-site, right???]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: One Sided Reporting

if that were the case I wouldn't read it

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Troll

I would've been one of the first to criticize this if it were truly one-sided. It does leave questions in my mind, but this is an ongoing story that I expect to see more info on as time moves forward...

[not sucking up, seriously not, heh]

Now, if we could just get CA's "governor in name only" NUISANCE (and other states) to stop it with shutting down the REST of our jobs, some of which just can't be done off site [or depend on on-site people to make the work possible], we'd be much better off. I wouldn't mind practicing social distancing on site, but I want the OPTION TO BE ON SITE. [now that the supply lines for medical supplies are going into place and extra hospital beds being made available, it's time to GO BACK TO WORK].

That being said, our Amazon employee in question, who MAY have been fired for complaining too hard, should at least have been grateful for being able to SHOW UP for that job... unlike SO many others right now!

And, of course, Amazon shouldn't be firing whistle-blowers. Additional investigation into this is welcome.

Tech's big names start to disclose possible bottom-line coronavirus impacts

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

biggest losers from "shutdowns"

The biggest losers from an economic shutdown caused by the desire of gummints to be "unnecessarily safe" from ourselves [instead of practicing safer work habits like the grocery store employees are doing, we have to SHUT! DOWN! INSTEAD! - very very bad policy], the biggest losers are the ones who hire MORE people than large companies: small and startup businesses.

Those are the ones _I_ typically work for as a contractor. Small business wants to create a new product, or meet requirements for a sales contract. Contractors do the work, particularly engineering things. And when THOSE companies are SHUT DOWN, guess what happens? That's right, *ENGINEERS* have to *STAY* *HOME* *WITHOUT* *PAY*. And right now, THAT is a LOT of people! Sure, 'work from home' is common with this kind of business, too, but when you need to actually MEET with people to make decisions, or test designs, etc., THAT part is completely SHUT DOWN, and REALLY getting in the way of small and startup businesses STAYING ALIVE.

"Big Business" will take advantage of "gummint pork", and say "we can weather this", while SMALL and STARTUP businesses will often GO UNDER. [no wonder the big boys don't complain, they can watch their potential competition VANISH for a while].

And Independent Contractors will have to "absorb" the out-of-work-time (that's 'small busines' too, by the way). OK it's typical for contractors to go through periods of "out-of-work-time" but when you HAD a good contract, and it gets KILLED by GUMMINT, it STILL pisses you off!!! And I hate looking for work, it's SUCH a pain in the ass. I'd MUCH rather stick with a contract I'm familiar with for as long as it can last.

Delivery drones: Where are they when we really need them?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Delivery drones of the future...

For a 'delivery blimp' you need a LOT of volume in the gas bag if you use helium. But, GOOD NEWS! A _hydrogen_ blimp takes only half as much volume in the gas bag as Helium. Nevemind that whole Hindenberg thing... that's just "old news" [heh]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Not gonna happen.

"Perhaps when someone discovers the anti-graviton"

I actually figured out (through various maths) how to create gravity waves, essentially by spinning a heavy gas within a super-strong magnetic field at a high rate of rotational speed (approaching relativistic velocities). To be useful, it would probably require a prohibitively large amount of power, an impossibly strong magnetic field, etc.. But it would look an awful lot like the magnetron in your microwave oven. That being said, if the drone were the size of a 'big rig' [and consumed even more fuel] then MAYBE it could be done...

Maybe anti-grav could be "the next thing" after fusion power plants have been successfully operating for >100 years...