* Posts by Symon

2809 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2009

Fujitsu-backed FDK claims nickel zinc batteries ready for use in UPSes

Symon
Alert

Easy to recycle!

As this guy demonstrates.

https://youtu.be/kNGg0P7B5fI

Remember kids, always use marigolds when rebuilding lead acid batteries.

We have some sad news about Facebook. It has returned to the internet after six-hour mega outage

Symon

Re: Not a failure of testing - a failure of change enablement

Who said anything about a 'hack from outside'. As any fule kno, most of them come from inside.

Symon
Paris Hilton

Re: Not a failure of testing - a failure of change enablement

How do you know that this wasn't a malicious attack?

Symon
Devil

"It also confirmed an accidental configuration change ultimately caused the loss in connectivity"

It did no such thing. It just said "configuration changes".

To paraphrase:-

"These aren't accidents, they're throwing themselves into the outage! Throwing themselves into the outage gladly to escape all this hideousness."

Feature bloat: Psychology boffins find people tend to add elements to solve a problem rather than take things away

Symon
Happy

Re: people tend to add elements to solve a problem

It didn't always work. E.g. the Lotus Esprit used the driveshafts as the lower suspension arms. Absolutely terrible NVH!

http://www.lotusespritworld.co.uk/EGuides/EMaintenance/UJ.html

Symon
Devil

Re: people tend to add elements to solve a problem

Unlike Earl "Madman" Muntz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntzing

Memo to scientists. Looking for intelligent life? Have you tried checking for worlds with a lot of industrial pollution?

Symon
Coat

McCROSKY :-Try and calm them down. And for God sake, be diplomatic.

Stinson turns to two burly men in leather jerkins and black hoods. They hold a large caldron of molten lead next to window.

CONTROLLER 5 :-Give 'em the lead!

We know it's hard to get your kicks at work – just do it away from a wall switch powering anything important

Symon
Thumb Up

Ah, the home made molly-guard. Bravo!

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/molly-guard

https://www.google.com/search?q=molly+guard

Symon
Coat

Perhaps for the train from Penistone to Scunthorpe?

First UAE interplanetary probe now in orbit around Mars – two craft from China, US near Red Planet, too

Symon
Headmaster

Actually, I think you'll find it's an ice giant.

Symon
Terminator

"nuclear-powered rover Perseverance "

Thursday week at 8:30pm GMT. I think this is the mission with a chopper!

https://www.cnet.com/videos/how-nasas-mars-helicopter-could-change-the-future-of-space-exploration/

Web prank horror: Man shot dead while pretending to rob someone at knife-point for a YouTube video

Symon
Terminator

Re: This is why they should be banned.

Maybe use a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range?

Symon
Coat

Re: This is why they should be banned.

Well, back to the story, "There are two kinds of people in this world. Those with loaded guns and those who dig."

https://youtu.be/s2w9X_tHU7k

EncroChat hack case: RAM, bam... what? Data in transit is data at rest, rules UK Court of Appeal

Symon
WTF?

If you want to search all of Plod's websites, use this in Google:-

site:police.uk

HTH.

Takes from the taxpayer, gives to the old – by squishing a bug in Thatcherite benefits system

Symon
Coat

Re: Timing

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, Galloping through the sward

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, And his horse concorde

He steals from the rich, And gives to the poor, Mr Moore, Mr Moore, Mr Moore

--

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, Dum dum dum the night

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, Dum de dum dum plight

He steals dum dum dum, And dum dum dum dee, Dennis dum, Dennis dee, Dum dum dum

--

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, Riding through the land

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, Without a merry band

He steals from the poor, And gives to the rich, Stupid Bitch.

"Blimey, this redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought."

Symon
Headmaster

2^16

I suspect that the memory chips actually had 1536 more bits than stated!

"64,000 bits of information."

To plug gap left by CentOS, Red Hat amends RHEL dev subscription to allow up to 16 systems in production

Symon
Linux

Re: Can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Springdale?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/where-centos-linux-users-can-go-from-here/

I'm waiting for Rocky. I'm hoping they release a montage of the development process.

You look for the largest objects in the universe and two come along at once: Astroboffins spot mega radio galaxies dwarfing Milky Way

Symon
Paris Hilton

"A large team of researchers []..] said they managed to find not one but two huge radio galaxies over a small patch of sky. [..] Based on our current knowledge of the density of giant radio galaxies in the sky, the probability of finding two of them in this region is less than 0.0003 per cent."

Maybe there's a black hole or something very massive between us and the giant radio galaxies, and the two galaxies are the same one? Gravitational lensing and all that, like the twin peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro.

https://youtu.be/IdTy1j7z-K4

p.s. I'm sure they've checked this, right?

Looking for something on which to spend all that bonus Bitcoin? How about The Hoff's very own KITT?

Symon
Happy

Re: Bad list

If you're doing films as well, then we need to mention the Mustang in SF!

Symon
Thumb Up

With a white stripe and a dent in the roof, right?

p.s. Just rewatched it, maybe it wasn't the Torino with the dent!

https://youtu.be/j_vNyn5jpTo

Symon
Pint

What about Jim Rockford's Pontiac Firebird?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-turn

Symon
Coat

What about the boat?

Knightboat: The Crime Solving Boat

https://youtu.be/uoV1-fsFCmw

Cf. 'Thunder in Paradise'

The Novell NetWare box keeps rebooting over and over again yet no one has touched it? We're going on a stakeout

Symon
Pint

Re: Fluorescents...

If you have an old fluorescent fitting, make sure you change the ballast from magnetic (basically an inductor and a bi-metallic strip) to electronic.

https://www.lampshoponline.com/advice/ballasts-explained-the-complete-guide#_Swapping_magnetic_ballasts

There's a myriad benefits. Faster turn on time, even when it's cold. More efficient. Less EMI. No flicker. Longer lamp life. No hum. Etc...

p.s. Disadvantages. "There is a risk of electrocution when changing a ballast so if you’re unsure ask an electrician to do the job for you." :-)

Dratted 'housekeeping', eh? 150k+ records deleted off UK’s Police National Computer database

Symon
Big Brother

Re: the loss relates to individuals who were arrested and then released with no further action

Plod has to delete the data after 3 years anyway. What's more, keeping a backup after this time would mean the data wasn't deleted, which would be illegal. To be honest, I'd be more worried if they _were_ able to restore a backup after this cock up...

https://policecautions.uk/2019/01/30/how-long-can-the-police-keep-my-dna-and-fingerprints/

What if I was never Charged or Convicted?

Charged but not convicted

If you were charged but not convicted of an offence, at any age, then your DNA and fingerprints can be retained for three years, plus a two year extension if granted by a District Judge, or indefinitely if you have previously been convicted of a recordable offence which is not “excluded”

Pizza and beer night out the window, hours trying to sort issue, then a fresh pair of eyes says 'See, the problem is...'

Symon
Devil

Re: Doubtless with the assistance of a baseball bat peppered with rusty nails.

Yes, and still use it to write their obituary.

Brit registrar 123-Reg begins 2021 in much the same way it ended 2020 – with DNS issues

Symon
Coat

Nice pun, I dig it!

Lay down your souls to the gods of rock 'n' roll: Conspiracy theorists' 5G 'vaccine' chip schematic is actually for a guitar pedal

Symon
Big Brother

"adjust the frequency"

Kenneth, what's the frequency?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather#%22Kenneth,_what_is_the_frequency?%22

It's just a pair of arrows. What could be more innocent than that?

Symon
Coat

Re: I guess Kiss isn't part of the IBM family

Like the (possible) nip-slip in Psycho? The titles for that film were made by Saul Bass too...

Watt's next for batteries? It'll be more of the same, not longer life, because physics and chemistry are hard

Symon
Happy

Re: Sodium Sulfur

Well, vanadium is the 20th most common element in the crust, and you're correct that world production is low. But that's because no-one needs any more than is already produced. For example, chromium is the 21st most common element. World production is 26,000,000 tonnes per annum. So, if demand increased, it wouldn't be hard to produce some more. It turns out that we release about 110,000 tonnes of vanadium into the environment each year through burning fossil fuels, which is more than actual production.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium#Earth's_crust

This article is interesting.

https://www.theregister.com/2015/05/31/rare_metals_mineral_reserves_talk_preamble/

As is this.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/worlds-biggest-liquid-air-battery-starts-construction-in-uk

Symon

Re: Sodium Sulfur

We British won on aluminium and caesium, but we lost on sulphur!

p.s. For large fixed installations, you might wanna look at vanadium flow batteries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery

I'm as big fan of liquid sodium as the next man, it's a perfect nuclear reactor coolant for example, but I dunno if it's the best option for energy storage.

Symon
Paris Hilton

"Sodium-ion batteries are made using the most abundant element on Earth "

I suppose there's oxygen in there?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust

Brexit trade deal advises governments to use Netscape Communicator and SHA-1. Why? It's all in the DNA

Symon
Boffin

Ursula von der Leyen.

I wondered why they got her involved. I gather she's a cut'n'paste expert.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen#Plagiarism_accusations

'Following the science' rhetoric led to delay to UK COVID-19 lockdown, face mask rules

Symon
Paris Hilton

Re: The Institute for Government, a bunch of non-scientists

Get a room.

UK firm NOW: Pensions tells some customers a 'service partner' leaked their data all over 'public software forum'

Symon
Headmaster

Re: Now pensions

NOW: Pensions. Or as they're now known, NO: Pensions.

p.s. Re: stollen, at least you're keeping it seasonal!

Just let this sink in: Capita wins 12-year £1bn contract to provide training services to the Royal Navy and Marines

Symon
Megaphone

Re: Thats that f88ked then

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/the-equipment/commando/royal-marines-individual

"Grenades are used by Royal Marines to augment their individual firepower in close combat scenarios."

Let's hope that Crapita don't go the way of the US's Gunnery Sargeant Hartman.

Hartman: [referring to Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Whitman] Do any of you people know where these individuals learned how to shoot? [Joker raises his hand] Private Joker?

Joker: [stands up] Sir, in the Marines, sir!

Hartman: [impressed] In the Marines! Outstanding! Those individuals showed what one motivated Marine and his rifle can do! And before you ladies leave my island, you will all be able to do the same thing!

Rocky has competition as more CentOS alternatives step into the ring: Project Lenix, Oracle Linux vie for attention

Symon
WTF?

What are you on about? Is Scientific Linux being resurrected?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Linux

"In April 2019, it was announced that Scientific Linux would be discontinued"

Larry Ellison says he's not following Oracle to Texas, prefers his private Hawaii pad

Symon
Megaphone

"He'll no doubt fly into Austin as necessary. "

I wonder if Austin has an airport curfew like San Jose?

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Ellison-Sues-Over-Airport-Rule-On-Noise-at-Night-2785281.php

Rogue ex-Cisco employee who crippled WebEx conferences and cost Cisco millions gets two years in US prison

Symon
Headmaster

Re: Sudhish Kasaba Ramesh

"in Texas, the chair"

No.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution/authorized-methods-by-state

"Texas Lethal injection is the sole method. "

HTH.

Rocky Linux is go: CentOS founder's new project aims to be 100% compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Symon
Devil

FreeBSD anyone?

Oh, no one knows what goes on behind locked doors... so don't leave your UPS in there

Symon
Pirate

p.s. Hatton Garden re-enactment :-

https://youtu.be/kA51CPLcYAo

Symon
Big Brother

Stop this happening to you!

Use your NUT!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_UPS_Tools

It will tell your Zabbix server or email you or whatever that something's awry!

Symon
Coat

Re: It was the cleaners!

"flip cover", although its technical name is a molly-guard.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/molly-guard

Symon
Holmes

Who needs a key when you've got a Hilti DD350 diamond coring drill?

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/media/images/82485000/jpg/_82485649_hatton2.jpg

What does my neighbour's Tesla have in common with a stairlift?

Symon
Big Brother

Re: Summon the lawyers!

162 Penalty for placing rope, etc. across highway.

A person who for any purpose places any rope, wire or other apparatus across a highway in such a manner as to be likely to cause danger to persons using the highway is, unless he proves that he had taken all necessary means to give adequate warning of the danger, guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F1level 3 on the standard scale].

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/66/section/162

Also, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54989167

"What if you don’t have a drive?

If you can find a parking space on the street outside your home you can run a cable out to it but you should make sure you cover the wires so people don’t trip over them. Once again, you have the choice of using the mains or installing a home fast-charging point. "

Megabucks in funding, 28 years of research, and Boston Dynamics is to be 'sold to Hyundai' for 1/40th of an Arm

Symon
Coat

GGR!

Blake: Fuck you-- that's my name! You know why, mister? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an $80,000 BMW. That's my name.

Kremlin hackers are right now exploiting security hole in VMware software to hijack systems, NSA warns

Symon
Devil

Re: If I....

Be careful with that approach. The hashcat is coming to get you...

https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/correcthorsebatterystaple-isnt-a-good-password-heres-why/

https://hashcat.net/hashcat/

HTH!

Symon
Big Brother

Re: If I....

re: "You or I cannot memorise" So what?

https://www.troyhunt.com/only-secure-password-is-one-you-cant/

Writing it down on a piece of paper isn't so bad. It's secure from online attacks, especially if you don't reuse passwords. If someone's prepared to break into your office to get the password, they're probably prepared to threaten you with a claw hammer or bribe you to get the password. But just use a password safe. Then you just remember one password. Try this:-

https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/lockwise/

It's also getting easier to protect your accounts with 2FA. There are several free authenticator apps for smart phones.

Don’t panic, but five jet drones just used their AI to chat and collaborate while in flight

Symon
Thumb Up

Re: This Reminds Me Of Dark Star!

"Let's have some music in here, Boiler."

"Sure thing!"