Posts by John Brown (no body)

Considering it was an almost continuous job before, the new coating appears to have lasted about 10 years so far. There are, apparently, some areas which may need patching, bit nothing approaching a full re-paint job. Most likely it's some areas that may not have been prepped properly and according to one article I read, some flaking requiring a touch-up is to be expected.

"Maybe we should consider to reduce the influx of plastic garbage and prevent the problem instead of trying to solve a problem that persists because of our collective stupidity?"

That's a great idea, and most of the more advanced economies have already taken action, at least with regard to gross/larger items such as plastic bags floating down rivers. In some parts of the 3rd world however, it's a very very different story for many reasons, not least of which, money, or lack thereof. Now, I know that people will use the most striking image possible to raise awareness, but when you've seen multiple photos of multiple rivers in multiple countries choked with plastic waste flowing down to the sea, it can get a bit depressing.

Re: "CHERI-flavored computers will be more resistant to exploitation than ordinary ones"

nappy???? what's that?

Re: Russian mir

"hat nobody will be able to inspect."

You can see it with the naked eye. A good pair of binoculars or a telescope should prove to you what it actually is in some level of detail. Unless, of course, you think the binocular and telescope manufacturers are also in on the conspiracy.

Re: Why 17 hours?

Because the definition of the second is embedded in the definitions of other measurements. If you vary the second, all those dependencies will also vary. Dependency hell!!

Re: Expected more

"This has benefits and problems: it will work well with software that does not understand leap seconds. It will work badly with software that does understand leap seconds. It adds yet another possibility for confusion when computers using different time standards have to agree on the time."

Agreed. Leap seconds have been around for a while now and most systems deal with them, They are a known factor. Facebooks backing of the "smearing" is even noted by them as complex to do. So why change? Why not just put the effort into making sure existing stuff deals with the present system instead of creating a new "complex" system than most system probably don't support.

Re: Standard procedure

ISTR an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati when they sent Johnny Fever (I think) out to the transmitter shack to keep them on the air. That show was from the 1970's :-)

Re: Think of the poor bureaucrats

The American Dream, including the "pursuit" of happiness. But if only if you can afford it.

Re: Do what?

Yeah, but these where supposed to be mainframe operators, so should have a bit of a clue as to what they are doing. If the are you sure message never appears when sending a normal message, it ought to be enough to make them wonder why the are you sure response happened this time and look at the command they typed.

Re: About a billion web pages have been authored to help

"I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't also an element of the fact that the contacts on SD cards are small and presumably made against tiny spring-like contacts in the phone, which sound very much like something that would be prone to intermittent failure through dust sand, grease, vibration, and so on."

Possibly, but I suspect unlikely. When did you last have a SIM card fail?

Re: The Bit-Theory

If a 1 penetrates a 0 do you get a bum-crack emojii (I)

Re: Maybe its Huawei

"There's a kill bit that makes the MicroSD card read-only so you can retrieve the existing files, but nothing I found can change it back to read-write."

That seems to be a "feature" on SSDs too. It seems to be a failure mode where some (or too much) of the device has errors, possibly from too many write cycles, so the whole drive goes read-only to limit any further damage or data loss. It's a relatively common cause of boot time BSODs on Windows laptops because Windows, like any OS, needs to write stuff during the boot process. SSDs/Sata/m-sata.nvme.whatever terminology, seem to be improving though. I'm not seeing so many failed SSDs this last year or two. Maybe the silicon is better now. Or maybe the TRIM/wear-levelling has improved, or Windows is no longer forcing certain writes to the same places for "special" files. Who knows? Who cares? Whatever the cause, they seem more reliable and longer lasting.

I used to have a clip from The Goodie singing Black Pudding Bertha as my ring tone until the Ecky-Thump branded SD card mysteriously wiped itself while on a trip darn' sarf'

"As regards the problem in the smartphone, my suspicion would lie fair and square with Android I'm afraid. "

Agreed. As per both your and Dabbsie use cases, other than in phones, SD card either Just Work, or fail with r/w errors after lots of use. I don't think I've ever had one spontaneously re-format or refuse to work in it's "home" device only to work in something else or to be "fixed" by a re-format. There is the possibility that it's environmental in that it can get quite hot in a phone along with all the physical movement and jogging around it gets which would be the exception rather than the rule with most other devices, but it does seem more like and Android thing.

Re: Bank of England notes.

"All banknotes destined for destruction went through a punch press before they left the premises, so even if someone trousered them at the incinerator, they were already useless"

Someone has got to get the notes to the punch press. Someone operates or supervises the punch press. It's just moving the "problem" elsewhere in the process. Possibly to a point in the process where security is or can be much better, but never totally infallible.

I suppose the best option is that all the notes go through a sorting machine that splits good, going back into circulation and bad, going down the chute into a stacker/baler for destruction (or direct to a shredder/furnace), no humans involved.

I learned about scanning half-toned images and the likely consequent moire patterns from reading the Aldus PageMaker manual all those years ago :-)

I also used a similar effect using fine horizontal lines at different angles on two layers of OHP transparency to create rudimentary animation of data flows when teaching. (only became possible to do accurately when laser printers came along)

Re: Years ago....

"the GPS mapping of *every* address to within 3 ft or something like that"

If that was the case, every address would have a unique post code. Barring flats/multiple occupancy buildings, that's clearly not the case. Many houses in a street will share their post code, hence the need to have the door number too. Theoretically, the door number (and maybe flat number) and post code should be all you need to address a letter. At least, when the post code system went national, that was the claim. I suppose people must've tried it. On the other hand, it can get interesting in more rural areas.

Re: Years ago....

"I am talking back in the late 80s/early 90s - the copier vendor known by the mis-spelled medieval device of ordnance had firmware in their colour machines (the crap logo copier 0.5x10^3) which wrote "Specimen" across anything it recognised as currency of certain denominations."

That was probably one of the early digital copiers. The copiers in most offices around then were almost entirely optical in their process and had little if any smarts fitted, maybe a "digital" zoom which operated a server to adjust the lenses if you had a slightly more flash one. They certainly had no way of recognising what was being copied.

Re: Don't know if it's just that my coffee hasn't kicked in yet...

"(see also: micelles, and how the "beauty" industry has suddenly discovered how surfactants work a century after the word was coined)."

Not to mention their most common "secret" ingredient, Aqua :-)

Re: "What's next?"

There have been many SF stories warning/predicting of possible corporate rule taking over from governments since at least the 1950's. I'm sure we all have our own favourite examples, so I won't bother listing them

Re: Doctors Wearing Performance Trackers and Peeing into Bottles

""Excuse me, Mr. Johnson, is that urine yours or mine?""

Amazon doesn't care, they will take the piss anyway.

Re: Weak

"The ADPPA seems weak now. It will get weaker on the House floor, and then the Senate committee, and then the Senate, and then the Conference committee (if it even gets that far without being McConneled)."

And after all that, it will be interpreted and enforced by the FTC, headed by political appointees. So expect the "interpretation" to change every time a different party President gets elected.