Posts by John Brown (no body)

Re: Cult of Elon

Based on some peoples experience posted above, even if only anecdotal, it make me wonder if this is a common misconception or deliberate rule-bending amongst US employers and not specifically a SpaceX issue, only making it into El Regs pages because it's SpaceX in this case.

Re: Civilian spend on, uh...

"I can't help wondering if this is all just a way to screw funding for black project hypersonic research out of the civilian budget."

That was my first thought on reading the headline. The US seem to be behind the curve when it comes to hypersonic missiles, both Russia and China claiming to have productions models in service while the US appear to have cancelled the only thing close to working.

With this is a starting point, and if NASA genuinely are looking at commercial hypersonic passenger flight, one wonders if they are so far behind the curve that one of SpaceXs originally stated goals of fast point to point passenger flights with Starship[*] may come sooner :-)

[*] Not really, I doubt that will come to pass in my lifetime, if ever, not least because of the limited take-off and landing sites around the world, however, there's still Reaction Engines to keep in mind :-)

True, but is that because the writers can't do better or that they know studios simply won't take risks? Sequels, prequels, re-hashes, re-makes & reboots, "franchises" and "safe, well known" book/comics adaptions and even live-action remakes of animations are the order of the day and have been for at least the last three decades.

"Turns out that it's not (usually) cost effective. Depends on jurisdiction."

That's certainly true in the UK and again, as per my other post, laws need to change to suit the circumstances. Currently, it's often cheaper to demolish and replace a building than to refurbish or repurpose it. This is at least partly, possibly primarily due to VAT constraints. There's no VAT on building materials used for new constructions but there is VAT charged on materials used in refurbishment. It's probably a bit nuanced than that, and probably requires tax specialists be involved in projects to look for all the exceptions and loopholes just to do what really ought to be a relatively straight forward conversion project.

"and then there often also are zoning laws which prohibit using commercial real estate for residential purposes."

So, the local councils also need to move with the times and change, amend or create exceptions in zoning laws. It would likely bring housing prices down a bit in city/town centres and allow people to move back into the area, be nearer to the office for when they need to meet face to face and bring people in general back into the city/town centres. Or maybe even make it affordable for nurses, fire-fighters and police to love closer to work instead of commuting miles in from the outer reaches.

Re: Context is everything

"I've long believed that those who think public transport is a good way to commute live close to a bus or train route that also passes close to their place of work with no need to change."

And even for those people, let alone everyone with more complex public transport routes, how much more does it cost travelling in only 2 or 3 days per week? Most "season tickets", whether annual, monthly or weekly only become viable if you travel 4 or 5 days per week so that leave everyone paying the normal, everyday one-off return prices for 1,2 or 3 days per week, 3 days probably being the worst since you are paying almost or even as much as a weekly 5 day travel pass, which really sticks in the craw. Public transport needs to buck up and come up with new pricing schemes based on number of journeys taken rather than frequency of journeys. Why can't I buy 20 return trips at a discount, in advance, instead of only being allowed to buy a "1 month pass", at the same price, and "lose" any days I don't travel into the office?

Re: Motorway charging stations in Denmark

Agreed, I don't understand why that was not mandated right at the beginning. Now, even if mandated, it's going to take years before it becomes the norm other than on new charge points. The operators will all whinge about cost and time to retrofit existing points and lobbying will probably gain them years more time. Could you imagine the problems if the current subscription/payment methods used for EVs existed for petrol/diesel?

Re: I thought the US liked battery cars...!

And when the car is fully charged in a few hours but your in the office, a train ride away, who disconnects the car so the next person can use it? maybe the European/UK idea of having your own cables is the better idea. The charger could "eject" the cable from the charger end when full and have, for example, four parking bays per charger so at least other get a fair crack of the whip. There may need to be some care taken when ejecting a cable from the charger that is still plugged into the the care if it's raining or snowing though :-)

Re: Wait, batteries are rated in km?

for private cars the battery type will be a trade off tending towards the cheapest that gives the initial 'Range X after Y mins'*.

Or, as with current ICE cars, different fuel types and engine capacities allowing the purchasers to choose if they want long, range, high performance, economy etc, which doesn't have to be limited to choice of make/model but the battery pack itself, both capacity and the type of battery could be a user choice based on their needs within the constraints of the drive train.

Ideally, this wold mean standardised battery packs, at least per manufacturer if not across the board. It doesn't have tp be a single pack per vehicle, maybe just a number of easily interconnectable batteries of a standard shape and size.

Re: Where are the backups?

"And the other server is sharing the same SAN to maximise efficiency."

...and enables SAN-wide de-dupe to save space.

Re: "their own backups as a contingency"

"Edit: The setup can be any combination primary/backup1/...backupn/mirror with storage local/cloud/offline/mirror - where mirror location can be local or remote depending on requirements and feasibility."

I don't know what the mix of CloudNordic customers are, but I'd bet a fair number of them would glaze over after listing to that :-)

Small and medium businesses in particular probably don't have people who understand that. They are buying in a service that they rely on, true, but they are also relying on those experts to tell them what they need to buy. Just as with plumbing, electrics, water, or anything else that's not core business and the company isn't large enough to have on-staff employees dedicated to doing. Some will have been told of the extra costs of separate backups and will have chosen to not pay for it of course, but it's CloudNordics job to make sure the customer understands what they are buying (or not buying), that's not just the good and moral thing to do, it's making sure they DO buy backup or UNDERSTAND the consequences of not doing so. That's a level of self-protection for CloudNordic

You mean there are clients that don't do that? That sounds like every other email client I ever used.

(No, I've not really used console based mail clients :-)

Re: Hmmmm...

"As a famous aristocrat once said - the height of good manners isn't following etiquette, it's making the other fellow feel comfortable."

Knowing how to do that already elevates you massively above the "other fellow" because the "other fellow" either doesn't care has no inkling of whether or not he's making *you* uncomfortable in the first place. So, yes, good manners to fit in with how he operates, but where are *his* manners in trying to fit in with how *you* operate?

IMO, the height of good manners is to accommodate the other person but also to educate them so others don't have to fit around their quaint eccentricities every time.

Re: Wrapping at column 78

> Here endeth the history lesson.

...and in slightly more modern terms, the "spare" 8 chars at the end of the 80 column line allows for a number of levels of quoting before exceeding the line limit and wrapping.

> Person I'm quoting

>> Person s/he is quoting

>>> Earlier person being quoted.

Re: You don't have to be from IBM or middle-aged

"We used to just groan at quips like these when found in cheap Christmas crackers -- now they win prizes."

True, most joke are like that when taken in isolation. In the context of a comedy show, where the audience are generally prepared and predisposed to laugh at something "funny", it's more about the surrounding patter and delivery of the line. As Frank Carson used to say (a lot!), "It's the way I tell 'em!"

Re: That rogue engineer...

There are exits to the N,S, E and W. It's dark. You hear the sound of a Wraith behind you.

>?

Re: Not holding my breath

No, not a "British thing". Here's the BBC talking about them in 2017 and referencing a strong down tick in car accidents in Italy where they were already popular (600,000 of them).

Telematics.com state that almost every car insurer in "the UK and USA" offer "black box policies"

Viasat tells us that ALL EU built cars after July 2022 have "black boxes" as standard, although that is not for continuous monitoring. It's intended to notify of crashes and retain data only for the past minute or so of driving. Viasat also do insurance "black boxes" too, so I have no doubt a software change will be all that is needed to turn any of those legally mandated black boxes in to full on insurance driving monitors.

So, I can be fairly sure that both Spanish and Portuguese insurers already offer this "service" and even if not, all new cars across the EU have some form of "black box" already.

Re: Not holding my breath

I don't know. Good point. We'd have to compare two new young drivers, one with and without a "blackbox" and see how their insurances costs compare after 5 or so years. Someone may have done that, but my Google-Fu isn't helping just now,

This link seems to indicate that over time, the benefits of having a blackbox reduce while the downsides continue, eg one or two "mistakes" could cost you for "years to come".

Re: Not to mention the economical fallout

"What part of the bill bans ad-blockers? pretty sure it does not ban ad-blockers. Also the ID part is a unworkable mess"

Whoosh!

Although the rest of your comment was pretty spot on if we assume the post you replied to was meant to be taken seriously :-)

Re: Well forget the second accident

My guess is that the same number of "back office" control and monitoring people will be required but have half the vehicles each to look after.