Posts by Neil Barnes

Re: Back to the future

The problem is not alternate services. The problem is persuading people to use them instead... most of them don't seem to believe there *are* any alternatives to WhatsApp any more than they believe there are alternatives to Google or Microsoft.

Re: Congratulations, you have discovered that the only thing worse is

I've had a similar experience from the other side: years ago, I found some information about an uncommon engine control unit. Every now and then I do a search to see if anything new has been discovered about it. Invariably, the search leads to a forum post somewhere that asks 'have you talked to Neil? He knows all about it'...

Re: What the fuck is a meter?

Checks URL... hang on, when did it change to .com?

Right after you type '.co.uk' and hit return, apparently...

Re: Conflating two different things

I have a vague memory of a story some years ago wherein an employee managed to be employed by two different departments of the same company, in the same building...

Re: About frakking time

Nobody needs to change their phone every year

But... shiny!

Idiots... I change mine when the battery won't hold charge. Hasn't happened yet with this cheapo Xioami.

How much of this is fashion led development; must have the new shiny?

I have tools over eighty years old; I have domestic electronics pushing thirty years; and I'm embarrassed if a product *I've* designed is non-functional after a couple of years. I know I'm fighting entropy (and the bean counters in the purchasing department) but there's no reason why solid state electronics, used within their stated parameters, shouldn't last pretty much forever - excepting using sensitive parts such as some non-volatile memories and some capacitors.

Re: Ah yes, Castrol

Yes, but we must not forget that at the factory all engines were inspected for leaks. If they didn't have a leak, one was installed.

Re: motors from two French automakers

I'm not surprised that the keyfob can be reprogrammed - or rather, the security system can be told to accept a different fob; I don't think the fob would change its RFID chip value though that's possible for some chips - from inside the vehicle.

Like A Mouse above, my concern is why the access is available from outside a locked vehicle - if indeed I read the article correctly and that is what happened.

Re: @Neil Barnes

@Zolko

Amazing. After only sixty years I am obviously losing my ability to communicate in English. I am not an armchair warrior; I've spent a lot of my career in parts of the world either close to war or suffering the results (including as it happen, Ukraine. I rather enjoyed the time I spent in Kiev) and it does not fill me with a delight for combat. Equally I am not an armchair warrior, and do rather take offence at the implication. I've even read one or two history books in my time. So I am sorry that you have completely missed the point of my comment.

I'll spell it out.

Dear Mr Putin.

The way to stop this war is not through negotiation with an illegally invaded neighbour. It is for you, Mr Putin, to issue the orders that withdraw your army back where it belongs - into the country of Russia. No part of Ukraine is a part of Russia - it may have been in the past, but you seem to think that your illegal occupation of parts of it entitles you to call it yours, to occupy it, to kill and maim its inhabitants - and incidentally cause huge property damage to parts of it.

The only way Ukraine can stop this war is to stop fighting, and that looks a somewhat unlikely possibility. But Russia could stop it tomorrow just by withdrawing. How many people have already died because of Putin's vanity project?

Re: "No chance of any peace, not even at 8,900 metres"

Very pleased to note last month that Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail are very strict no-drone areas.

Re: Illegal speech???

Well, in the USA, perhaps, by statute.

But your post illustrates the basic fallacy that there *are no rights* other than those which a legislative body permits. 'Human rights' are a myth; in spite of their adoption and support by the United Nations, look how many places simply do not permit those rights to be exercised. As long as a government - legitimate or not - can usurp those rights for even one of its citizens, those rights may as well not exist.

Re: Showing my age too

Hmmm... Those early CDs had limited dynamic range

Those early CDs had exactly the same dynamic range as the later ones; the standard didn't change. The problem was more likely that the mixing engineer was unsure of his medium. Though early _D to A_ converters weren't all that brilliant; a common problem was that they decoded left and right channels alternately instead of simultaneously

Consider: it's a 16-bit uncompressed medium, sampled at 44.1kHz. That's 96dB dynamic range (for specialised signals!) - subtract 11dB quantisation noise (a common broadcast estimation) and leave 18dB headroom and you're still looking at 71dB dynamic range. Later producers would often tweak the levels so that the headroom disappeared, which would give even better dynamic range (though that wasn't what they wanted; they wanted *loud*).

Which is all somewhat better than 15ips half track tape in the eighties, and significantly better than any commercial pressed vinyl was or ever will be.

Makes sense. Our issue was that we bought a new car while in the process of moving from Berlin to Potsdam so it ended up being initially registered in Berlin then transferred to Potsdam a month later.

Re: Haven't retired yet

One would think that 'the Mythical Man-Month' was, in fact, just a myth...