* Posts by John Smith 19

16326 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

US military makes first drop of Mother-of-All-Bombs on Daesh-bags

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"In summary then: we're fucked."

You were on an upvote till that paragraph.

ISIS have an agenda that no Western state can or will implement.

It is bu***hit that the cannot be defeated. In Afghanistan bombing the dams that make the region so ideal for growing Opium would be a start. F**k the ruler-de-jour. You can bet either they or their ministers have a fist buried deep in that pie.

But the core is the cankerous Wahhabism, based in Saudi Arabia and exported by the House of Saud to stop it disrupting their "nice little earner."

Lacking the guts to confront these Aholes they've instead bankrolled madrasas all over the Middle East to export this infection to other countries.

Confront Wahhabism. It didn't exist before the 19th century. The idea that it's the majority religion of Saudi is BS.

Boffins fabricate the 'most complex bendy microprocessor yet'

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Fascinating in all sorts of ways but still a long way from "there yet."

Yes MoS2 (or "Moly" as some engineers refer to it) is often used as a solid lubricant so there should be plenty of materials prop data around for (especially at highish temperatures like 200c, much better than Silicon). Plus it's (relatively) non toxic (compared to Gallium Arsenide, which contains err Arsenic).

The amazing bit is not the bit ALU microprocessor.

IBM built a "cheap" computer in the 1960's using a 1 bit ECL ALU with registers to give the actual word length. Likewise when Ferranti built their 16 bit microprocessor in the 70's in TTL the chip had a 10 000 gate allowance. Once again a 1 bit ALU with I/O registers made the impossible possible.

But a microprocessor core in 115 transistors!!! The downside is the mobility at 3 cm^-2 v^-1s^-1 (compared to 1000+ for Si). That suggests (like all previous "bendy" circuit plans) the clock frequency will be low, RF comms will be very difficult and you'll still need a chunk of Quartz for the clock (unless you go to asynchronous or clockless designs).

BTW this was done on a Silicon wafer. They say it makes no difference and the work could be done on glass or plastic substrates IE plastic film as the processes are mild.

The 2 biggest issues with the whole roll-to-roll electronics concept are the low clock speed (due to poor material properties) and the high line widths that truly high volume (printing press) type systems can achieve. IIRC that's 10micrometres. Historically there has been little pressure to narrow it but that's what you'll need to raise those clock frequencies. Again it's not the processing, it's the RF comms. Until you fix that a mobile phone you can print remains a comic book fantasy.

Astro-boffinry breakthrough: Loads of ingredients for life found on Saturn's Enceladus

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

The moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus could supply new discoveries for centuries.

So NASA will probably manage to launch a probe for each planet to them sometime in the next decade

Personally I wish NASA and ESA would figure out ways to launch as secondaries on most launches with one instrument per probe on a "little and often" basis. JPL was certainly looking at this with Ariane 5 comm sat launches.

With reasonable timing they could arrive more or less simultaneously on target. If they all make it great science haul. If one or two didn't make the window not a complete loss.

How's that for a remote login? NASA puts New Horizons probe to sleep 3.5 billion miles away

John Smith 19 Gold badge

"Sounds like they have a Simpsons fan on staff."

I'd guess so.

Obviously as they've become more mainstream they've had to adopt something a bit more formal but the results they have achieved for the funds involved (DUFF was reported on El Reg in 2014 at around $64m. Peanuts by NASA's usual estimates for nuclear projects) have been astonishing.

I think the Kilopower demo is looking at a few $100m. This contrasts with the current line item for nuclear on the NASA Mars DRA 5 (the Design Reference) at $13Bn.

John Smith 19 Gold badge

"Think there is an error with your numbers there, $240 for an RTG?"

If only.

That was indeed wrong. It was correct in my OP.

That is of course $240m

Making Pu238 however remains a massive PITA.

John Smith 19 Gold badge

"unlike the Pu240, which is proving to be an expensive PITA to make."

My apologies.

That should indeed have read

""unlike the Pu238, which is proving to be an expensive PITA to make.""

Since the US insists that it be made by irradiating Neptunium to begin with (which has to be made first) yes I'd say it is a PITA.

The fuel for Kilopower is being contributed by the DoE for free as it's basically excess nuclear weapon cores, of which they have an abundance.

Roughly an RTG is about $240 each while Kilopower reactors are expected to be 30-60% cheaper, as well as being more powerful (at least double), just as reliable (heat pipe cooling to Stirling engines, which have a lot of development history) and can be set be set at idle power when in transit if they are not providing power for an ion thruster.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Pint

The download rate is basically set by the power supply

Currently an RTG.

By Dec (hopefully) NASA will be well into its Kilopower project. The first US designed space rated nuclear reactor since 1965. This will be be a complete 1Kw (except for the radiator design) but the design can scale to 10Kw. Enough to power a substantial ion thruster.

Amazingly the current RTG's cost about $240m a pop for <500W BOL power. Kilopower is expected to be 40% cheaper and the US has substantial stockpiles of its fuel already, unlike the Pu240, which is proving to be an expensive PITA to make.

Kilopower is the reactor formerly know as KRUSTY (KilopweR Using STirling technologY) and follows up on the original DUFF PoC a few years ago.

Sot he next generation of outer planet probes might get there faster and report their results faster as well.

Now I'll be going down to Mo's later to raise an arm for that.

Brexit factor lacking in Industrial Strategy, say MPs

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"What the EU wants and what we will give it should be vastly different. "

That is what makes it a negotiation.

As is the question of wheather it takes place before, after or in parallel with the talks for a UK/Europe trade deal, as the two are not the same. In fact I'm not sure if the same countries the EU nominates to do one will also do the other, and if so how it will be split.

I would suggest that if they take place in parallel (and HMG has enough clueful staff and a good plan) they will trade things the UK needs and wants (like travel records of all non UK people coming into the UK) against what the EU wants IE the UK's agreed contributions to assorted multinational programmes, including the pension pot for UK former EU staff (and staff who will become "former" when the EU pulls out but who are still eligible to be paid an EU pension in the UK).

No doubt both sides will be totting up the figures for the various line items and come to different ideas of what each is owed by the other.

All in less than 730 days, since the talks have not even started.

I sometimes wonder just how many of those Brexit votes were made by independently wealthy Ex-pats living abroad who have no real involvement in the UK, other than some historical grudge against whoever was in power when they left its shores.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

IIRC HMG put up £5.5 Bn over a certin period to EU R&D nad got back about £8Bn

Still not to worry.

It will be BAU till Brexit.

Of course last time I checked the EU is looking for 50Bn to settle the outstanding UK obligations, that's 3 and a bit years of UK contributions (about 14Bn net) to the EU before the UK starts to see any addition funds it can put into its own companies, and "Take back control" as the beloved blond haired buffoon Foreign Secretary kept telling you.

Half-baked security: Hackers can hijack your smart Aga oven 'with a text message'

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Boffin

Aga. The cooker you'd design if you were a blind nobel prize winning physicist

Which is who did design it.

No hassle, fail safe cooking.

Designed by a man for men to cook with. *

Now I'd say Agaphiles come in 2 types. The hard core minimalists and the trendies. I can't see the hard core buying one of these (why would turn an Aga off?). The trendies OTOH bought theirs because everyone was doing it. So they'll buy this IoT b***ocks if they can be convinced it's "the next big thing."

*As for energy efficiency at circa £5K a pop they are built like tanks and flooded with insulation. It may take a while to get up to operating temperature(s) but having done so I expect it to "cruise" with fairly low heat input.

Big Internet warns FCC's Pai: We will fight you all the way on net neutrality

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Actually it looks like getting them to pass any kind of legislation is a mammoth task

Because hey everyone wants a hand out for their cooperation.

HMRC beer duty bungle leaves breweries struggling to pay online

John Smith 19 Gold badge
WTF?

Clearly this tax change has taken all the devs by surprise

Apart from the fact it happens every f**king year annually of course.

And it's usually a raise (although $deity knows how they'd cope with a reduction).

Software dev cuffed for 'nicking proprietary financial trading code'

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Time for a transaction tax."

No this will not work as expected.

But a transaction "time filter" that means you have to hold the share (I'm talking 1 whole second here, which normal people would barely notice).

But OMG that would mean a share could only be traded 86400 times in 1 day.

Which for most people would seem to be enough.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"your missing is understanding..trading - shares and bonds..injecting cash into a company"

A common misconception amongst people who make their money dealing these things.

The people who bought stocks or shares (depending on what side of the Atlantic you're on) from the company contributed directly to the company. If you could have bought Amazon stock from Amazon that would have gone into their corporate reserves. If you bought them from Jeff Bezos that went into the "corporate account" of J. Bezos.

Other than direct purchases from the company you just bought a share in the company that entitles you to a share in their profits, or a vote at their AGM. If you're really dumb you've bought shares that offer neither then you've bought on faith either they will never go down and so make a safe investment or plan to off load them on some other mug investor as soon as the price goes up.

This is why a company like say Inmos could be sold by its owner (the British Govt) but end up with FA, because the funds did not go to them, they went to the government of the time.

This may make people think world stock markets are basically giant casinos where "investors" bet on wheather a stock will rise or fall and that it may rise or fall based on absolutely no change in the financial well being of the company.

You'd be absolutely right. And like all forms of gambling the betting shops (nearly) always make money regardless of wheather the stock goes up or down.

Except that unlike Coral or Mecca if they f**k up they get the USG to bail them out.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

You say "sophisticated algorithmic trading models"

I say automated man-in-the-middle attacks.

Actually the code is likely to be very complex because what hedge funds do is not simple (otherwise people would spot what was happening).

The myriad of different trades hedge funds make on basically every stock on the exchange (all of which seem to be able to be cancelled without executing and therefor having to pay any money) act as a test language on the state of the market moment by moment.

And by that I mean what they swoop in, buy enough of at a slightly better price then sell on to the actual customers.

So the algorithm is roughly

1) Generate trades

2) Build map of what's being bought

3) Buy what's being bought by offering a slightly higher price

4) Sell on to the actual buyer.

Obviously this only works "in the moment" hence the obscene amounts of money they will spend to put their servers as close as possible to the servers of the stock exchange they are using to rip real traders off from and their fondness for proper compiled languages running close to the metal with minimal cruft. Running a language parser that sophisticated (and keeping it running as they come up with new trades to probe the market) is indeed a skilled job.

It's interesting how quickly one of these giant-to-big-to-fail "institutions" goes down the pan when they actually have to honor their trades (as happened a few years back).

DARPA seeks SSITH lords to keep hardware from the Dark Side

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"IIRC there was eventually some doubt about the formal definition proof" (for VIPER)

I think the big issue was they could not verify the layout tools that mapped the logic design to the actual chip. So the logic design was verified but how could you know what was on the chip? Probably the same but might be (or might not be if a logic change triggered a latent bug in the layout SW).

Also the thing was dog rough on speed with a 26Mhz clock to deliver 1MIPS (which didn't sound very impressive). I think it was implemented as a state machine on a Ferranti gate array but the ARM was around that time and mapped the logic to PLA's on chip, which with registers will give a viable state machine as well.

It's tough to find stuff on VIPER. It looks like RSRE quietly buried it. Vaguely 6502 like? Their work on reliable Ada lead to the work on SPADE and the founding of Praxis systems

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

"The program is managed by Linton Salmon "

Well I reckon he's swimming upstream on this one.

But I think these guys might give it a try.

Cowardly Microsoft buries critical Hyper-V, WordPad, Office, Outlook, etc security patches in normal fixes

John Smith 19 Gold badge
FAIL

"ordinary folk are probably happy with installing these changes as soon as possible, "

Which was how a lot of people ended up with MS "GenuineAdvantage" snooper on their machines checking their licensing keys.

Systems-on-a-chip are a huge, unaudited attack surface, says Project Zero's Wi‑Fi attack man

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

it's 2017 and you can still trick processors that should not be receiving code into executing stuff

directly.

I know, it's very complicated to make things secure. Difficult to stop gaps in protocols blah blah.

But were Broadcom thinking "Ha, this is way too complex for mere mortals to unscramble. No one in their right minds would bother"

Surprise.

Trump's govt hiring freeze means there's no US Privacy Shield chief: We tracked down the woman filling in for now

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"than some politically installed "America First!" yahoo. "

Maybe.

Until it comes to the politically installed "America First!" yahoo-in-Chief of course.

UK boffins steal smartmobe PINs with motion sensors

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"W3C specifications do not specify any policy do not discuss any risks associated with this"

Perhaps because they feel that mfg should

a) Be aware of the risks, because why should customers buy from them.

b) Be free to implement whatever view of privacy they think fit.

Unfortunately so far it seems most mfg privacy policy is not to bother with giving the customer any.

Of course that maybe because IRL phone mfg sell to networks, not end users so feel the network is their customer.

Except for that new UK one El Reg reviewed a little while ago that seems to have quite a good one for stopping apps asking for stupid amounts of data for the (very) dubious privilege of running their (usually) shoddily written code.

Toshiba conglomerate: Can we keep going? We don't know

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Hello Tosh, got a Toshiba?

Not ofr much longer it looks like.

Internet Society tells G20 nations: The web must be fully encrypted

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Politicians. Stuff can be misused. The good outweighs the harm. Stop trying to ban stuff.

Because cars, lorries, mail, guns, sugar, fertilizer and of course the internet and encryption all count as "stuff."

Only stupid, populist politicians who want to "look" (rather than be) tough on crime can be anywhere close to actually believing this BS.

Intel's buggy Puma 6 chipset earns Arris a gigabit-modem lawsuit

John Smith 19 Gold badge
WTF?

"Arris opted for a chipset from Intel's rival Broadcom in its latest gigabit cable modem"

Arris make the boxes.

Who knew?

So the suit is saying it's their fault for not co-ordinating a fix roll out off of Intel's under performing hardware.

Which seems a rather limiting view of the plaintiffs lawyers given the root cause is Intel's silicon can't get it up.

Uber responds to Waymo: We don't even use that tech you say we stole

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Backing up his porn collection?"

Hmm. Yes I like that. Very plausible. And he's taken the 5th because some of them are quite nasty (but legal). I'm sure his lawyers can supply a list of suitably distasteful topics.

Sadly I suspect that this being Google they may have a little more intelligence on the files contents than just the number and size.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

He's downloaded 14 000 file off the company server and he's pleading the 5th.

Obviously he is innocent until convicted by a jury of his peers but let's be honest his behavior has been what a lot of people might consider a tad suspicious.

Not that I'm sure he has a complete explanation for these (apparently) suspicious actions.

Boeing 737 turns 50

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Thumb Up

Hard to believe there are so many out there.

And quite a few of the originals as well.

The back log suggests that while the basic design may be pretty old the market it serves is still very real.

Reworked Arista kit going back on sale in America

John Smith 19 Gold badge
FAIL

"is built into the third-party merchant silicon used by Arista, Cisco, and several others."

I'm shocked. Shocked I tell.

Even Cisco does not make their own silicon.

So whose patents are these? Either Arista is a test case for Cisco ("Push in the bayonet and if it meets fat, push harder" as Lenin put it) or this is just total BS to try and Cisco know it.

So either sleazy or incompetent

Eric S. Raymond says you probably fit one of eight tech archetypes

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Terminator

"I have detailed files"

Sarah "To make you a more efficient killer"

Forget Mirai – Brickerbot malware will kill your crap IoT devices

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

" Is it just me who is secretly applauding this... "

No.

In fact it looks like a sort of "inoculation" for stupid developers.

It keeps infecting stuff till they take the (fairly) elementary precautions against it or the customers acquire the knowledge to stop it infecting them.

It appears to be applying ecological pressure to the IoT eco system.

It's evolving smarter devs and smarter users.

It's pretty ruthless behavior from whoever developed it but basically they seem to want IoT to evolve or die. Otherwise the malware does not seem to actually do anything which is just weird.

I wonder if we'll find the developer is called Ajax.

Overcharge customers, underpay the serfs. Who else but Uber (allegedly)

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Bottom line. It's double bubble.

Charge the customers for the longer route (when they know a shorter route exists)

Pay the drivers for driving the shorter route (while thinking they will be paid their cut for longer fare).

The actual overcharge is to the customer.

I'm not sure what stringing the drivers along with raised expectations of a larger takehome is but I suspect it's one of the clauses of some workers rights legislation probably passed in the last century, which is when this sort of abuse of management power was quite popular.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Oh Silicon Valley Companies don't mind rules

Just as long as they don't actually have to follow them.

Like Uber

Or Google (copyright)

Or Apple. (everything)

No rules are fine for everyone else but we <company name here> are special.

Outsourcers blamed for cocking up programmes at one in three big firms

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

" Probably HR finally got fed up of being called Human Remains."

I'm so f**king tired of this euphemistic BS.

Let's call it "Fresh Meat Processing"

Because that's what they do.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Now instead of one throat to choke, you have 10 throats."

That's the usual justification for going with some big outsourcing outfit.

It's the usual justification HMG offers up.

Perhaps you should ask the PAO how well that works IRL?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"outsourcing" lets all company TUPE'd staff "work to rule "

Back in the day this was only possible (in the UK) in large nationalized industries that had developed 1000 page rule books of what to do in every given situation.

But now it's all on a contract the first question is "What does the contract say?"

Always.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
FAIL

"They do all like their little independent silos."

Because how many of those outsourcers staff actually work for them?

Not damm many.

The actual domain experts will probably be in sub-contractors, or sub-sub-contractors.

And under strict instructions not to let on that in fact your ERP/CRM/Mainframe/Payment system is in fact not being installed by Atoss/Crapita/SCS but Joe Blogss Contracting (who actually know WTF they are doing).

Democrats draft laws in futile attempt to protect US internet privacy

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"and a lot of us are waiting for a bunch of Congressgritters' browsing history to come out. "

What do you mean "come out?"

Under this plan theirs, along with the members of the FCC can simply be bought outright.*

*Unless of course they have bought the special "discretionary" package at $99.99/ month*

*Because privacy is important to us (that's why we're so glad you let us sell other peoples) and you to. So pay up b**ch.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Information Sold for Profit"

Nice acronym.

Doesn't mean I like the idea any more.

Big-in-Japan AI code 'Chainer' shows how Intel will gun for GPUs

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

A note about a lot of AI problems

They can be described as searching for a solution amongst a very large number of possible solutions.

So the challenge is to find a way to cut down a search space (which is usually exponentially growing) to something that can find a solution (ideally optimal but often just a solution) before the heat death of the Universe.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

At heart Intel makes hardware and will throw its superior linewidth at the problem. Until....

It runs out of linewidth.

Then it's a massive corporation whose used to a fat margin on high end chips sustained by it's ongoing bromance with MS, with the executive overhead to match.

You don't need neural networks to run Windows.

You don't need Windows to run core neural network applications.

And BTW has anyone repealed Amdah's law? I don't think so.

Boaty McBoatface sinks in South Atlantic on her maiden deployment

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Go

Exciting times.

I forget, is the one powered by about 30 000 Duracells?

Still pretty impressive.

Pong, anyone? How about Pong on a vintage oscilloscope?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Thumb Up

Quake on an Oscilloscope.

Wow, converting a 'scope into a vector scan display is quite remarkable.

Boeing-backed US upstart reckons it'll be building electric airliners

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

BTW 3g is what people on a modern roller coaster ride can experience

IIRC back pre unification the West German govt did fighter pilot training, then tested pilots in a centrifuge. Downside was by that point they'd already had the super duper expensive fighter course and might wash out.

The East Germans first move was to send them on a roller coaster. If they didn't barf (or barf too badly) then they got the training.

Still think a catpult takeoff is a bad idea.

I'll note the maximum power demand is likely right at the start, to overcome the rolling resistance of the fully weighted plane, and electric motors are very good at reaching full torque pretty fast.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Go

10-50 seat commercial passenger aircraft are a thing.

And BTW NASA (well the first A) has been looking at way to simplify regional airline operations and make regional airports (of which I believe the US has quite a number) more useful and active (y'know increasing economic around the US, something close to the heart of the D himself).

Thumbing through an old Popular Mechanics for (IIRC) 1975 I see a blurb about the first flight of an all electric light aircraft (2 seat) with an endurance of 15 mins. Obviously knocked up by a home builder who took the statement "building a human carrying electric aircraft is impossible" as a personal challenge ( the dad of the guy who built that pong game from discrete transistors?)

4 decades later and behind all the massive hype batteries really have improved quite a bit, as has the generator and power electronics technology (so you can directly connect your generator/alternator to a turbine without a gearbox and then dial in whatever voltage and current you want from the battery pack output).

The question of course (which being at home with the Kumars failed to answer) is wheather the technology has gotten better enough to built a flying Prius.

There is a fine line between spotting when all the pieces are available to carry out a truly bold piece of disruptive technology and selling the idea that their might be.

Time will tell if this is John Carncac's old company or if this is the Oculus Rift of aerospace.

The beast is back: Reborn ekranoplan heads for the Arctic

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

"It's a lake hopper with a purported range of 4000 km!"

Well Americans do call the Atlantic, "The Pond."

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

Did anyone hear the name "Caspian Sea Monster" and think.

Great name for a porn actor?

I also move in "ground effect" mode.

Jailed biz coach accused of $17.5m HPE fraud writes to fans saying 'join me'

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Oops I think Autonomy is stll going on.

So that should be "Allegedly" had them for $8Bn.

My apologies for any distress called.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

"he ignored a High Court order. "

And as British Judges have no trouble reminding the clueless "I am the law" is not just a line in a comic.

Granted wigs and stockings are not common fashion choices for men (outside of a High Court bench of course) but you mock them at your peril.

'Evidence of Chinese spying' uncovered on eve of Trump-Xi summit

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Happy

"by the threat actors, "

Interesting use of language.

I think it's in "Fight Club" when someone explains "If we find a vibrator in someones left luggage we never refer to it as 'The' vibrator. It's always a vibrator."

So amusingly restrained, given some of the reactions of their clients when they realize they have just had their corporate data turned inside out.

Douglas Coupland: The average IQ is now 103 and the present is melting into the future

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

" problem is,.. that people tend to lack the ability to critically analyze the data "

And it's in no ones interests to improve the calibration of peoples internal BS meters.

The mass gullible are much too easy to (profitably) manipulate.