Posts by nobody1111

NASA scrubs Artemis mission yet again because SLS just can't handle the pressure

Re: Recycling

Er, the Saturn V used highly refined fuel oil + liquid O2 for the first stage. Basically high quality diesel/jet fuel.

If you limit yourself to fuels that are relatively easy/safe to handle/allow throttling/ then the hydrocarbons give you the most energy/volume. Very important when air resistance is a factor. It is only when one is out of the atmosphere that the energy/weight advantage of hydrogen comes into play.

The Mickey Mouse kludge of the space shuttle design was a political decision, not an engineering one. It has been argued that the primary purpose was to require the maximum manpower to operate in order to keep the knowledge base employed in the interim between Apollo and the proposed manned Mars missions.

You can never have too many backups. Also, you can never have too many backups

Re: Stack popped reading that procedure....

At first reading it made no sense to me either. I suspect it was a case of Programs + Data > 5MB. So they had the software on the fixed 5MB drive and the data on the removeable 5MB. So the procedures was probably:

1) Remove existing data removeable (R1).

2) Insert blank removeable (R2)

3) Copy software on fixed (F) to (R2).

4) Delete software on (F).

5) Insert (R1)

6) Copy data from (R1) to (F)

7) Insert blank (R3)

8) Copy data from (F) to (R3)

At this point you actually have 3 copies of the data on (R1), (R3), and on (F).

9) Insert (R2)

10) Delete the data on (F) and copy the software from (R2) to (F)

11) Insert either (R1) or (R3), and label and store the other as a data backup.

At this point you are done.

Yeah, it was convoluted, but the cause was that the actual (F) drive was too small to fit all of the software + data and so the (R) drive was being used for live storage.

Now, if you really want to talk about kludges from that era let's talk about using a videocassette recorder for backup...

After 40 years in tech, I see every innovation contains its dark opposite

> From the day Steve Jobs walked onstage in January 2007 with the first iPhone, only twelve years passed before half of the adults on Earth owned a smartphone...

And this useless date matters how?

1st smart phone, with touch screen - 1994 - IBM

1st downloadable apps - 1997 - Nokia

1st internet capable phone - 2001 - Nokia

1st nothing particularly special or noteworthy - 2007 - Apple

Happy birthday, Windows Vista: Troubled teen hits 15

We had it on some new higher end machines. From what I remember in the office environment on a domain it was noticeably better than XP. We definitely had fewer problems, especially network related.

But we weren't running games or much older software.

50 US airports to be surrounded by 5G C-band-free zones

Ok, calm down. The word "interfere" can have lots of meanings. In this case it is not what most people mean by "interfere". The two services are on two different bands and would normally not be a problem.

The issue is due to some of the aircraft receivers are overly sensitive to out-of-band transmissions. Google "front end overload" for discussions of the type of issue we are dealing with. The telcos are arguing that their equipment is producing a clean signal within their assigned band. Which appears to be true. They are then saying that it isn't their fault some aircraft have (arguably) defective equipment. Which is a valid point.

The airlines are complaining because they bought equipment the FAA approved as safe and now all of a sudden it may not work due to the Telco's action. Which is also a valid argument, though I think it is a bit weak.

There are two simple fixes. The telcos can spend a lot of money and purchase and install special antennas that will not allow any emissions above a certain height. Or the airlines can spend a lot of money purchase and install new equipment without this weakness. The battle isn't over the problem. The battle is over who will pay for it.

LoRa to the Moon and back: Messages bounced off lunar surface using off-the-shelf hardware

As worded this isn't really anything special. Ham radio operators have been doing this for decades and with smaller antennas. Some just by leaning a Yagi against the garden fence.

I suspect ignorance on the reporters part, though. A signal is not "amplified to 350w using the 25-metre dish of the Dwingeloo Radio Observatory in the Netherlands" just by changing the antenna. A more likely case is that a couple of milliwatts sent through the dish had an ERP (effective radiated power) equivalent to a 350 watt sent to a dipole. A pretty good accomplishment but hardly headline worthy.

Come back to us when you are doing it through a a handheld Yagi.

Apple's macOS Monterey upgrades some people's laptops to doorstops

Worked on this last week. Two year old macbook owner "upgraded" the OS because "the computer told her to." Tried all the usual and some of the more arcane fixes. I was finally able to get it to boot into safe mode after all of the other resets but never could get any further. Trying to reinstall from scratch, repair the install, or just letting it boot normally results in it reaching one point then hanging. Yes, it was allowed to sit for over 24 hours at that point. Yes, the HD has plenty of free space. Yes, everything is stock. Yes, when you do the key press to report progress nothing happens.

Citibank accidentally wired $500m back to lenders in user-interface super-gaffe – and judge says it can't be undone

Re: UI Screw Up

Except...it didn't go to the wrong accounts and the amounts were exact to the penny on what was owed.

Yes, the defendants are being somewhat weasels but legally so. Citibank borrowed money and (inadvertently) paid it back early (which in the US is usually allowed.) It is Citibank's claim of "oh, I didn't mean to pay you, now loan it back to me" that the judge denied.

Go and pay off your car/house loan then ask for your money back. Your lender may be a bit hesitant too.

Hacking the computer with wirewraps and soldering irons: Just fix the issues as they come up, right?

Ah, yes. Honeywell Multics.

Combine an OS quirk that identically named batch files had priority over system commands with terminals that allowed primitive "programming" via ASCII codes. Result = hacking that was almost too easy.

Make a batch file called DIR. Whenever anyone (hopefully with higher access) tried to list the files in your home directory the batch file would go to the user's own directory, give you full access, send you an email saying you now had access to this directory, then display a text file that looked like a boring directory listing. Normally each of these commands would show on the screen but via the terminal hacks you could temporary disable the terminal from displaying anything, do the command, then turn back to normal.

Report: Aussie biz Azimuth cracked San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, ending Apple-FBI privacy standoff

"...used by Syed Farook as attended a work event in San Bernardino, California, in 20215..."

I guess you REALLY do need a copy editor.

The silicon supply chain crunch is worrying. Now comes a critical concern: A coffee shortage

Re: A year on from the great bog roll hoarding ....

"Friends don't let friends purchase supermarket coffee."

That's the truth. But even buying the higher end products involve navigating quite a bit of lying, ah, I mean marketing.

"100% XYZ coffee" can often mean grade Z rejects.

"Grade A XYX coffee" in big letters with "blend" in small letters means if you are lucky the bag contains a single Grade 1 bean.

etc.

Everything you need to know about the HPE v Mike Lynch High Court case

Re: Why so pro-Autonomy?

Most of the practices mentioned are flat out fraud under US laws. And the defense of "well, you should have caught that we were lying" is almost a joke. Which perhaps explains why they didn't bother to put up anything than a token defense in the US criminal trial.

In a similar vein the "well, our auditors didn't catch that we were lying" argument in the US could actually hurt their case. They are essentially admitting to fraud. The purpose of an audit is to verify that the numbers presented are prepared based upon certain rules and practices (GAAP - Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.) While an audit will make an effort to detect fraud it is no guarantee. By definition the client is lying and trying to cover up the lie. The auditor can't magically know when they are told a lie when the information given is wrong but internally consistent.

A good example is the flip flop scheme. You give me money, I give you the same money back, and we both record it as a sale. It is fraud under US law but if you aren't given the agreement how would you know? Did (on paper) A buy from B? Yes. Did A pay B? Yes. Did (on paper) A sell to B? Yes. - or even better A sell to C, B's subsidiary.) Did B pay A? Mix that in within a lot of other transactions and it can get difficult to catch from the outside.

Your hardware is end-of-life... and it's in space. Worry not, Anglo-Japanese sat to test new orbital cleanup method

Re: Satellite Capture

Pretty common 50+ years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(TV_series)

EU aviation wonks give all-electric training aeroplane the green light – but noob pilots only have 50 mins before they have to land it

Re: Reserve power?

"...are they that slow that they wouldn't make another airport within 5 minutes for an emergency landing?"

Erm, yes? Most GA aircraft are. You are generally flying at 100 kts or less. So 5 minutes is around 8nm.

These aircraft are a good way to practice touch and goes. Which are a high percentage of training time. Fuel and engine maintenance savings should lower operative costs by around 25-33%. So a material benefit. But replace a piston single for training? Nope.

Oh, and Register? "...marking a small but significant step on the route to all-electric airliners." Yeah, right. Batteries have nowhere near the energy density of gasoline much less fuel oils. Wasn't there some scam recently where somebody tried selling some ignorant managers that a diesel electric airliner was possible? Then after spending quite a bit of money they invited an engineer to actually run the numbers. Project cancelled and everyone ordered to not talk about it.

You've duked it out with OS/2 – but how to deal with these troublesome users? Nukem

Re: Timing is off..

Right for the wrong reasons. Compaq did launch the clone market but they reverse engineered the BIOS.

As it was later the first company to produce computers based on the 386 processor you could make a tongue in cheek argument that at that point IBM became the clone.

Calling all the Visual Basic snitches: Keep quiet about it and so will he...

4 letters? Luxury! Wait, make that Security!

Worked for a multi billion US$ corporation where a mid level manager had a 2 letter user name and password. Both the same. With read access to everything and write access to almost everything.

But at least the two letters were not his initials. No, they were his department's.

US Supreme Court blocks internet's escape from state sales taxes

> Hmm, I argue that it's impossible, even in principle, to have a correct calculation of state sales tax due.

When you have conflicting interpretations just pick the one with the highest tax. If the customer disagrees they are always free to apply for a refund (and yes, States do have standard procedures and forms to apply for said refunds. Mistakes do happen.) If the customer is really going to leave over having to pay tax on their ball of yarn they probably aren't a customer that you want anyway.