* Posts by Schnoerkelman

19 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2012

To Puerto Ricans: A Register apology

Schnoerkelman

Re: Logarithmic tail

And just looking again at the plot it sure does LOOK like a linear curve with a knee in it. Two straight line segments. Perhaps they had (say) 4 linemen (sorry, gender neutral fails me) and reduced it to 3 which would give a very similar result. Co-incidence is, in my opinion, very likely if the scenario above is true. Still, it makes a good story and until we have further data everyone can speculate!

Energy firm points to hackers after Kiev power outage

Schnoerkelman

I hope you've noticed that there are a few points on the line between carpet bombing, summary execution and letting them walk. Clearly the thermonuclear option is the simplest but perhaps not always the best.

As to being connected, "Smart Grid connectivity" doesn't imply Internet connectivity (notice the use of capitalization to indicate proper names). Iran's control systems were not connected to the Internet but still caught a cold.

Finally, "a -1˚C maximum and a -9˚C minimum" doesn't count a cold in them there parts (nor in Nebraska).

Heathrow Airbus collision 'not a drone incident'

Schnoerkelman

Those nasty plastic bags again

I'll bet we don't hear too much on the rest of the media outlets that no drone was involved. And if we do, at least here in GoodOldGermany, you can be certain it will come with a call to ban plastic bags (which is already a headline theme).

Balloon-lofted space podule hits 30,000m

Schnoerkelman
Mushroom

Re: Helium balloons

Running out of helium? Not really. No need for fusion here at home, the hard work's already been done long ago and far away. Helium is generated naturally by alpha decay all the time.

"Most terrestrial helium present today is created by the natural radioactive decay of heavy radioactive elements (thorium and uranium, although there are other examples), as the alpha particles emitted by such decays consist of helium-4 nuclei. This radiogenic helium is trapped with natural gas in concentrations up to 7% by volume, from which it is extracted commercially by a low-temperature separation process called fractional distillation."

More here from Worstall@Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/06/18/were-really-not-about-to-run-out-of-helium-no-please-stop-it-were-not/

Miss Brittany dethroned for posting 'nude' Facebook pics

Schnoerkelman

Re: Not normally one to complain about it, but...

There is clearly a t-IT angle visible.

Ich nicht bin Charlie: Facebook must crack down on racists, says Germany's Merkel

Schnoerkelman
FAIL

Re: That's "Ich bin kein Charlie"

Sorry, I think you've got the wrong war there...

Tegile looking at some really flashy fabric

Schnoerkelman

Re: Infiniband

"The problem with IB, is very few, (outside of HPC), use it."

One can't be reminded about what they say about farmers here in Good Old Germany:

"Was der Bauer nicht kennt frisst er nicht"

which is often mistranslated as never touch a running system...

Bitcoin fixes a Greek problem – but not the Greek debt problem

Schnoerkelman

Re: QE

"The Federal Reserve *caused* the Depression. Not just didn't alleviate it, but made it happen. And the German insistence that that's not what happened is why it's all been so much worse in the eurozone.

And that really is about it I'm afraid. The Bundesbank, and thus much of the ECB, is about 60 years behind the intellectual curve."

Thanks for that Tim. I've been waiting to hear someone spell it out so clearly for a long time as I rage privately here in Good Old Germany against the insane policies and seemingly incredible lack of understanding of macro economics among the entire political class here.

Did you almost prang a 737 jet with a drone over Dallas? The FAA would like a word

Schnoerkelman

Not to be confused...

"Love Field (not to be confused with the much larger Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport) is a hub serving a few airlines flying regional trips."

It's not Heathrow but a few regional trips is pushing it a bit...

The following airlines offer scheduled passenger service.

Airlines Destinations

Delta Air Lines Atlanta[60]

SeaPort Airlines El Dorado (AR)

Southwest Airlines Albuquerque, Amarillo, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston (begins August 9, 2015), Birmingham (AL), Charleston (SC), Charlotte (begins August 9, 2015), Chicago-Midway, Columbus (OH), Denver, Detroit (begins August 9, 2015), El Paso, Fort Lauderdale, Houston-Hobby, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Lubbock, Memphis, Midland/Odessa, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, New York-LaGuardia, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Omaha (begins August 9, 2015), Orange County, Orlando, Panama City (FL), Philadelphia (begins August 9, 2015), Phoenix, Pittsburgh (begins August 9, 2015), Portland (OR), Raleigh/Durham (begins August 9, 2015), Sacramento, St. Louis, Salt Lake City (begins August 9, 2015), San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose (CA), Seattle/Tacoma, Tampa, Tulsa, Washington-National, Wichita

Virgin America Austin, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, San Francisco, Washington-National

For the 12-month period ending October 31, 2007, the airport had 247,235 aircraft operations, an average of 677 per day: 39% general aviation, 37% scheduled commercial, 23% air taxi and 1% military. At that time there were 693 aircraft based at this airport: 3% single-engine, 4% multi-engine, 93% jet and 1% helicopter.

On Monday, December 8, 2014, city officials announced a plan to add 4,000 parking spaces at Love Field, including the proposed construction of a 5-level parking garage across from Ticket Hall. Despite a 2008 forecast predicting that Love Field would have adequate parking to meet demand through 2018, the airport ran out of parking around midday on Thanksgiving, November 27, 2014, forcing arriving travelers to park off-airport and use other means to reach their flights. The parking shortage is expected to worsen in 2015 as the anticipated number of daily departures increases from 148 to 190

Tim Cook: I'll give just a THIRD of what Gates gave to charity last year

Schnoerkelman

Re: Tim's and Apples's wealth

It might be noted that giving away one's wealth involves giving away what has already been taxed as income or capital gains (this being the USA). That Apple (a company) uses the laws as written by elected politicians to maximize the return to its owners (the stockholders) seems to me just about right. If you want Apple to pay more taxes then it should be obvious how to get that done.

I would prefer the tax only once when it's distributed approach and find corporate taxation simply a bad idea.

When you've earned it and lived your life I can think of nothing better to do than to give it away at the end (or before if it suits you). Bravo to Gates and all the rest for doing the right thing.

Deutsche Bank pens cloudy infrastructure deal with HP

Schnoerkelman

Re: Replacing IBM deal ?

No, that contract was replaced last year -- IBM again. This is a different part of the bank (IB as I understand it).

I wish I'd leaked sooner says Edward Snowden in post-Oscar chinwag

Schnoerkelman

Well said

"Our rights are not granted by governments. They are inherent to our nature. But it's entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges are precisely equal to only those which we suffer them to enjoy."

+1 on that.

Robot vacuum cleaner EATS WOMAN

Schnoerkelman

I hope

that someone has ordered a root cause analysis.

Is EU right to expand 'right to be forgotten' to Google.com?

Schnoerkelman
Big Brother

The first thing that appears when everyone Googles me...

"The European Union is arguing that the so-called "right to be forgotten" (you know, sure, I once got my head stuck in railings and the press had a field day, but it was fifteen years ago and it shouldn't be the first thing that appears when everyone Googles me)".

Yes, but that's not quite he same as "It shouldn't be possible to find out in any way where I've had my head". One can argue (perhaps) that the first intent is reasonable, but purging the result set world wide is quite another thing.

Wir streiken! German Amazon workers down tools

Schnoerkelman

The employees are now at the upper end of what is common in the logistics industry. In the first year, the hourly wage amounted to at least 9.55 euros plus bonuses, after two years they receive shares.

Sure, the retail tariff would pay more. But: Why should people who pack packages be paid the same as retailers working in a shop? The jobs differ significantly. And what would happen if Amazon simply outsourced the whole thing to an external logistics service providers -- would the employees be better served? ("Wirtschaftswoche")

At least some of the employees are also fighting back against a "negative portrayal" of their employer - more than 1,000 people have signed a corresponding petition. Further, Amazon's nine warehouses are in structurally weak regions such as northeastern Hessen where every job is welcome first of all. ("Die Zeit")

For reference the newly passed minimum wage is 8,50 Euro (effective 2015). The unions have just started working on getting it raised to 10,00 but that's not going to happen RealSoon(tm).

'Wind power causes climate change' shown to be so much hot air

Schnoerkelman

Re: Death by a thousand cuts

"Frankly, the only ones who argue against global climate change aren't climatologists, but instead are scientists who are not climatologists (the best "study" I saw was one that had anyone who had a B.S. degree called a scientist, apparently, a nurse is a climatologist, as is a mechanical engineer!) that were funded directly by think tanks that have their funding traced to petrochemical companies."

Cite? I'm particularly interested in data linking specific studies to funding by the petrochemical industry.

Botnet PC armies gulp down 16 MILLION logins from around the web: Find out if you're a victim

Schnoerkelman

Re: Überprüfen ist sehr einfach!

And for those without a German language background the translation via Chrome is quite good. Alles klar?

What killed Motorola? Not Google! It was Moto's dire software

Schnoerkelman
Alien

Iridium: would you believe atomic number 77? A satellite network based upon atomic weights would be fractionally interesting though.

Oracle de-cloaks JavaScript Nashorn project

Schnoerkelman
Boffin

Boot nail: Nashorn is coincidentally the German word for Rhinoceros.