* Posts by John Brown (no body)

25248 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2010

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Datacenter migration plan missed one vital detail: The leaky roof

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Architect Smartitect

"And add in to that the "well within budget" fixture that will need a shed load of unbudgetted for maintenance within a few years"

Maintenance for which there will be minimal, if any, budget. Alway lots of cash splashed for "prestige" projects, but nothing to keep them working/looking good into the future.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

a small room without air conditioning was chosen as the "server room"

That reminds me of the time a department bought in some wonderful new "space saving" student work stations. Hexagonal, with the PCs in a cupboard by the footwell. The cupboard doors were very well made. So well made that there was no inwards airflow. The hot exhaust from the PCs went into the central column. Which was capped at the top with a big hexagonal plinth for the screens to stand on with no slots in it.. The fault calls for PCs "crashing" started coming in almost from day one.

I have no idea if these were custom made or "off the shelf" units, but they were clearly not fit for purpose. They were, on the other hand, quite expensive so were not going to be replaced, The fix was to cut slots in the top of the plinth and cut the bottom 10cm off the doors.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: What?

"Cinder blocks are made from a mixture of cement, sand, and cinders."

With the closure of coal fired power stations and the gradual conversion of steel plants to electric, will cinder blocks go away? Are we importing them? Or importing other peoples cinders to make them? Or is someone out there researching what other kinds of waste can be used to make even cheaper, lighter (and probably weaker0 "cinder" blocks 2.0? Or will heritage railways be the only source?

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Facilities 'so called' experts

Agreed. 5 stars. Would read this poster again.

BOFH: You want presentation layer, but we're physical layer

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Color? Liter?

It's neither. El REg has chosen to use a "North American" style guide. Probably also why Paris is gone but BOFH remains. Blood and gore is ok, but the slightest hint of a nipple and it has to be censored.

Teams of aerial drones might one day help to build houses

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Properties of materials

Not to mention that it seems most of the time, work and energy goes into preparing the ground and installing/connecting to the local infrastructure. Seeing new housing estate go up, it seems like months from first breaking ground to staring on building the house. Next thing you know the houses are finished and people are moving in, The actual build process seems to be shortest part.

I suppose if it's a small, off-grid, single story building in a hard to reach place and you don't want foundations, then it might work as described. Other than that, it might work eventually, some way down the dev process. I suspect, more likely, it will lead to other developments in other fields.

Meta told to pay $175m to walkie-talkie techies for infringing IP

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: video?

"Pedo-peeper?"

I'm guessing that;s the cause of the downvote? For clarification, I'm using the ped- root for walk and deliberately didn't put the "e" in ie paedo-peeper, which would have an entirely different meaning. On the other hand, IIRC the USA spells pedophile rather than the English spelling of paedophile so may have lead to some confusion or knee-jerks if the downvoter is America.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: video?

"I suggest walkie-webcams."

Veloci-vid?

Pedo-peeper?

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Thumb Up

I was thinking it's more like near-live streaming, which was around before the patent was applied for.

It does look like MetaBook infringed the patent, but the patent itself sounds dubious to me.

Amazon accused of singling out, harassing union organizers

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: In todays headlines..

"those of us who resisted the union's recruitment attempts and negotiated our own conditions"

That is NOT an option for the vast majority of manual/hourly paid workers. They are too easily replaceable and thus have no power whatsoever without some sort of collective. Clearly you've never in your life been in that position or you'd know that. On a similar note, it seems pretty clear from past court cases and current evidence, that Amazon are not even respecting the current legal rights afforded all workers, let alone improving working conditions.

Meta accused of breaking the law by secretly tracking iPhone users

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: "We have carefully designed our in-app browser"

"but why would they need this functionality otherwise?"

To annoy you enough that the only viable and convenient "solution" is to install their choice of s/w, not your choice.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Only way to stop it -

s/salary/remuneration/

Some CEOs, especially at the big tech companies, don't get huge salaries, but do get massive bonuses and share options. Tax reasons usually.

Update your Tesla now before the windows put your fingers in a pinch

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Coat

So the modelas affected are....

...the S, 3, X, Y models? Yeah, Elon, we all saw what you did there.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: The complexity of all this software...

If there are many car crashes killing many people in the same make and/or model with the same root cause, that's what leads to recalls. A 1000 random crashes with a 1000 random cars of all makes and models and causes, not so much. Likewise, accident "hot spots" being given lower speed limits (and/or speed cameras) or junction realignments to lower the risk. But those often don't make the headlines the way a mass death incident does, even though the end result is often similar.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Beauty

On the other hand, in the highly regulated market of car manufacturing, how did this get past the regulators and out the door in the first place? It's not a manufacturing defect. It's an incorrect parameter. If the regulator has discovered there is an issue with the windows "pinching" people, then that surely must mean there is something in the regulations specifying the amount of force the window mechanism is allowed to apply and under what conditions it must stop or reverse back to open. Tesla didn't apply those regulations and specifications properly. This is quite different from finding out some time down the line that the brake lining wears faster than expected in the real world than it does in the lab, or the glue holding the headlight glass in place deteriorates quicker than expected when in sunlight much of the time (had that latter one happen to me when the headlight glass flew off and over the top of the car while doing 70mph!! Scared the shit out of the driver behind me, luckily well back and out of harms way)

Japanese boffins build solar-powered, remote-controlled cyborg cockroach

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: umm

Have you seen the tiny size of current laser emitters? CD and DVD players are years old tech now and there lasers were small enough to attach to larger insects. The power source might be a bit trickier though.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Ethics

"There are no ethical concerns. It's a cockroach. Jesus Wept."

And what about if it was a slightly more cuddly creature? A mouse is ok? A puppy or kitten? A chimp? A human? Where do YOU draw the line?

Larry Page's flying taxi startup Kittyhawk calls it a day

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: it lasted longer than I thought it would

"Way back when this thing first surfaced I pointed out some problems and was roundly downvoted."

On the other hand, much the same was said about the Wright Brothers. If people don't try, things will never be invented. There are problems now which may eventually be overcome. Or they may not. But not trying because current science or materials technology currently says no doesn't mean one should not try and solve some of the problems now. At the very least, the partial solutions will likely improve other areas of science and technology The hype over so-called AI is another example of this. We all know here there is no such thing as AI, at least in the terms the hype implies, but the algorithms and machine learning is getting better (many of the problems IMHO are the training data used, much of public facing stuff being trained on random scrapings from the web).

IT services giant Wipro fires 300 for moonlighting

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Must show loyalty constantly

...and fall under the bus when they suddenly realise that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

San Francisco cops can use private cameras to live-monitor 'significant events'

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: This is not a policy that the SF board, or any city board should be driving

From a UK perspective, it all seems a little strange that individual towns and cities have their own Police forces and can decide what they can and cannot do. I suppose from a US perspective, it all feels normal and just "the way things are".

Tongues wag that Softbank's Son may sell Arm to Samsung

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Joke

Re: Not going to end well

"Can't think of many large companies which may be able to afford about 60B bucks and not involved with ARM directly currently."

IBM? :-))))

(I imagine they ARE involved with ARM in some way, but none that I am aware of)

Charter won't pay out $7b after cable installer murdered woman. Just $1b instead

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: WTF

"I can totally understand Charter appealing."

To the extent that the fine seems to indicate they completely culpable, yes, it's understandable. But this and the original article do make it clear that there were specific failings by Charter in their hiring and vetting process as well as their duty of care to employees and customers. When you employ people that go into customers homes, you have some responsibility to make sure they are mentally stable and "safe" around vulnerable people. You also don't let them wander into your vehicle pool on their day off and take a van without authorisation or a job sheet.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Law and Order Gangsta Style

He went home in disgust?

US accident investigators want alcohol breathalyzers in all new vehicles

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Depends. Were you still over the limit after getting up early from a night of heavy drinking?

I get the point though. In a "call the lawyers" part of the world, these things will almost certainly be over cautious and fail with false positives rather than false negatives so the manufacturers don't get sued. We already see it in current automotive automation where adaptive cruise control slows you down when well back from the recommended distance between you and the car in front, or automatic headlights switching on because a dark cloud just passed over the sun.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Or the other way around ...

Because lots of cars are left unattended and unlocked and/or windows open?

(I still upvoted you for the obvious thought that will pass through the minds of many drunk students thinking it's a funny and original idea and they are the first to think of it though :-))

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Not again...

"'Merkins and personal responsibility rarely occupy the same space."

That's part of it. The rest is "Gummint ain't telling ME what to do...muh FREEDOM, damn commie Feds!!"

Tesla Megapack battery ignites at substation after less than 6 months

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Look to Dinorwig

True, but it leaves evidence that the RSPB can count, and count on to infuriate it's members :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Coat

Re: every time a lithium battery goes to heaven, […]

Gloria gets car sick on Mondays?

Emissions-slashing hybrid trains to hit tracks in Europe

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Headmaster

"all be in"

They say every day is a school day. Today's lesson is that "all be in" is actually not three words, but only on. Albeit. :-)

But I do agree with you on the "gen set" idea for cars. As you say, it's been done. And not just be BMW. But there seems to be none currently in production. There must be a reason for that because it does seem like an obvious solution for long range driving minimising if not zeroing pollution at the point of use.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: If only battery production was green...

"Trains could work with alternative technologies such as redux flow or sodium ion as the energy density issue is less of a problem."

Yes, just make the seats a bit narrower and reduce the leg room a bit to make space for the batteries :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: State of rolling stock

So those new trains on the East Coast line were bought in 2nd hand then? They told us they were new!

Firefox 105 is here, and it's faster and more memory-frugal

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Already released in Linux Mint

Not sure. I last did a pkg upgrade on FreeBSD a couple of days ago and got the new Firefox 105 then too. FreeBSD is normally a little behind Linux releases. Either there was almost no work involved[*] in FreeBSDing the source or Mint was late to the party :-)

[*] That's not to denigrate all the much appreciated hard work the FreeBSD Ports team and the groups and individuals maintaining the ports and packages do, but they are not always in the same loop or have the same resources as the big Linux "distro" teams.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: My gripe

"Their support staff is well aware of the issue, have been for years, and they seem about equally invested in fixing it as Mozilla."

As back in the day when stuff worked or didn't work with FF or IE, devs mark all those kind of problems as "will not fix" because the metrics say they are self-repairing. User get so sick of waiting for a fix, they just install the browser that works with that site, possibly only for the few incompatible sites they encounter. What the devs see is that "everyone" is using the browser that "works" and almost no one is using the "incompatible" browser, therefore it's not worth spending time and resources fixing a problem only a very few "whiney" people have.

Microsoft debuts Windows 11 2022 Update – now with features added monthly

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: “43 trillion security signals”

If we stack them all on top of each other, we might end up with a space elevator!

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Testing Win 11 right now

"if people spent some time to learn to use the search function instead of trying to sort everything, a lot of complaints about “they moved Feature X to a new location” would stop pretty quickly."

Yeahbut, Search only works if you know what you are looking for. And if you know what you are looking for, a user adjustable hierarchical menu is quicker because if if stuff is where you put it, then it's where you expect it, not hidden away in some ever changing location depending on if there is a "Y" in the name of the current day.

Letter to FCC: Why are US carriers locking handsets to networks?

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Buy from the Mfr

If you buy "on payments", you're taking out a loan and paying interest, often at quite high rates. You have to ask yourself, "should I pay up front, should I take a bank loan, should I use a credit card, should I pay the retailers outsourced loan-shark rate?". Then work out which is cheapest or most affordable,

'Last man standing in the floppy disk business' reckons his company has 4 years left

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Hmmm

Parallel, SCSI or IDE/ATAPI?

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: The company now has an estimated half a million disks in stock

"18090 MB / 1.44 = 12562.5 disks per installation"

IIRC, the last time Windows came on floppies, they used a special 1.6MB format.

I forget the exact details now, but running a program called FDREAD would patch DOS (or intercept the floppy interrupt handler) and allow reading of differently formatted disks created with FDFORMAT. Handy for turning 40 track 360K DD disks into 80 track 720K disks on a 1.2MB floppy drive. (cheaper disks!) More if you were brave and added an extra sector per track and maybe an extra few tracks if the drive could handle it. Likewise, using the more expensive 1.2MB HD disks, you could safely get 1.44MB. On the later 3.5" HD disks, 1.7MB was doable.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Extinct?

Yes. Apparently, one of them did a double back flip in a fit of exuberance and this was interpreted by a passing alien space ship as "Help, save us from our giant lizard overloads", who lobbed a big rock over in aid and sympathy. The Coelacanths promptly did a runner and stayed hidden till the heat was off.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: NASA

NASA run some very old hardware to support long term missions, Voyager probably being the most high profile. Some old stuff can be emulated, but much of it is original kit. Or at least original design. Some of it may be a bit "Triggers broom" :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Older media still has its place

"When was the last time you updated your anti-lock brake software?"

Probably when the car last had a dealer service. They do firmware updates, often without telling you. Whether it actually was the ABS s/w is another matter.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: I'm surprised

Likewise, there are IDE- PC-Card[*] devices which present as a hard disk too.

Experience in the community indicates that SD cards are too "fragile" long term for emulating a hard disk with many r/w cycles.

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Bummer

According to GpTek, yes, they do. On the front page they even make a model specifically for weaving, embroidery, knitting, CNC, and music applications. That version is an adaptor to make a USB stick appear to be a physical floppy disk to the hardware,

They are certainly popular in the vintage computing community. From comments I've seen there, you put multiple floppy images on an SD card or USB pendrive and can then select which image is presented to the host computer from a thumb-wheel switch/LED display. I've seen them used on Amigas and Atari ST so they do support various formats. You might need to buy the correct version or model though. Although looking at the linked site, they are wholesale only and make no mention of Amiga or Atari. Maybe others buy them and flash the firmware to cover those computers.

Document Foundation starts charging €8.99 for 'free' LibreOffice

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Does that mean there's will be a version with proper accent entry?

Holding down a letter to get an accents pop-up? Are you saying Macs don't have auto-repeat on key-press?

Uber reels from 'security incident' in which cloud systems seemingly hijacked

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Lack of adequate policies and training yet again

Good point! :-)

White House puts $50m into floating wind turbine projects

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Fiddling while Big Oil carries on as usual

According to Wikipedia

The world's first commercial floating offshore windfarm, Hywind Scotland, was commissioned in 2017.[40] It uses 5 Siemens turbines of 6 MW each, has a capacity of 30 MW and is sited 18 miles (29 km) off Peterhead. The project also incorporates a 1 MWh lithium-ion battery system (called Batwind).[6]

WindFloat Atlantic, sited 20 km off the coast of Viana do Castelo, Portugal, has a capacity of 25 MW and has operated since July 2020.[56]

The 48 MW Kincardine Offshore Wind Farm is the UK's second commercial floating offshore windfarm, and completed construction in August 2021.[42][57] "

All of the first 20 or so results from Google, searching on "the first floating wind farm in the world" (without the quotes), say Wikipedia is correct. There were a couple of single test installations earlier, one off the coast of the Netherlands and one off the coast of Norway (Also called Hywind) off the coast of Norway and lead directly the Scottish Hywind farm.

Can reflections in eyeglasses actually leak info from Zoom calls? Here's a study into it

John Brown (no body) Silver badge
Happy

Just a tie. Context is everything.

Appeals court already under fire for upholding Texas no-content-moderation law

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: So if I wanted to troll Texas...

In Texas, gravy is one of your five-a-day :-)

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Here we go...

"One of the largest US cities, currently de-populating claims it doesn't have the support services or infrastructure to host a few hundred migrants, but a suburb apparently can."

Everywhere has plenty of space for tax payers. Welfare recipients, not so much.

"“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore."

Don't say Pentium or Celeron anymore, it's just Processor now, says Intel

John Brown (no body) Silver badge

Re: Given their namings….

"laptops...faster clocked CPUs...that fit the existing CPU socket"

Not something I see very often on the many business grade laptops I see everyday. In many cases, the base RAM is onboard too with a single SODIMM socket for expansion. Consumer grade often won't even have any socketed RAM, never mind a socketed CPU. At best, it'll be a socketed NVMe SSD, about the only upgradeable item in the system nowadays. Making things slimmer and lighter (and cheaper to make) has driven this. Leading to many more models on offer at many price points because you can no longe buy a cheap model and later upgrade it. So yet more landfill.

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