Posts by M7S

"prioritise voice and sms over data"

Just a sec, has anyone thought about the telemedicine kit that we're all supposed to be fitting in our ambulances now? If everytime there's network congestion or a failure the people needing our help most will the ones really suffering from denial of service. Accolc isn't going to be triggered for stuff like this (and it's pretty useless for working level emergency services anyway)

And don't you dare suggest data over Airwave.

If you really want to cause confusion and upset

Think of a three letter word not currently banned, for the sake of example, lets choose "mim"*. Start something on the internet, mumsnet or the Daily Mail website might be good, about how this is a secret term for something really vile (remember "hobby"? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/10/nominet_review_of_registration_policy_dot_uk_domain_names/)

Then whip up a furious campaign about how hundreds of vehicles are driving around with this message concelaed in their registration (eg LB56 MIM), exposing the kids to this vile term and they should all be revoked before the kids google it and clearly the DVLA don't care etc etc, the sort of meaningless froth which panics public figures into soundbites.

*if this is a term for something nasty already, your author is in genuine ignorance of this.

I say M15 SPY for sale many many years ago. I wonder if there's a "BT repair van" with blacked out windows and the registration NS4 parked around the corner from the Ecuadorian Embassy? On the topic of offensive registrations, does Eadon (where is he by the way, the place doesnt seem the same without him...) drive around with L1NUX?

"optically stimulated luminescence"

They fired frikkin' lasers at it?

There's also the cost to end users

You can bet your bottom dollar that IP in this spectrum for end users watching TV won't be "unlimited" and that therefore there will be a cost to the end user in terms of bandwidth usage etc. Now this may not bother those of you "buying" your boxsets from Sky, Netflix etc but all of a sudden it will cut a swathe into the viewing figures of much of the television output, and viewing of different programs at the same time by members of a family in different rooms would also be costly. (I remain deeply deeply traumatised by having to miss Planet of the Apes as it clashed with The Brothers in the early-mid 1970's)

Whilst such a cull might improve quality a bit it would also make the producers less likely to back anything "risky" and therefore ultimately choice will deteriorate and we'll have even more repeats of Bargain Hunt. I would point out that it also means that you're paying to watch advertisments but on reflection, given that some people pay nearly £1000 p.a. to Rupert Murdoch for just that my arguement invalid on that point is rendered somewhat invalid.

Will this be as successful as BT's Century 21?

As the changes I see as an end user (both domestic and business) are not quite what I understood to be what was promised, I can only hope that they have more success over the water

"keepass"

why, are you in danger of losing yours?

On the initial map

our green and pleasant land doesn't look very, well, green.

Are things that bad or did we plant the wrong kind of forest?

"The cars were diverted to Europe", because?

Do we get a different kind of battery that they'd ordered in sufficient numbers or, primitive "old-worlders" that we are, are we expected to propel them in the style of the Flintstones?

About 30 years ago on BBC1....

I remember being shown central locking for houses, in the same way as with cars so you could go out, turn the key in the lock of the front door and be confident you'd not left any back doors or windows insecure (it was locks only, not closing of the apertures). Whether or not you got a "bip-bip" to confirm that all was well I do not recall but it would seem sensible, as would not unlocking all doors around the perimeter in a reverse of the operation.

Seemed a good idea but I've not seen it since in the mainstream, however it seem the sort of thing that would go with home automation, but it begs the question "would anyone really have this if it was vulnerable in any way to outside interference?" I'd willingly put it (wired only) on my house for nipping into the garden but for longer absences I'd still have a mechanical deadlock on every door and window, just as I do now, which makes me wonder if much of this automation is worth the bother in the first place.....

How would this stop the issue of toy selection changin from one week to the next?

They'll surely have some kind of expiry/lockdown on the file in the same way that digital cinemas do. After all regardless of how they are produced there's a licensing cost for all these things, which I expect is per unit or "up to a given number".

If they want to offer a menu (sorry) with multiple options, they could just ship boxes of each in an adaptation of what they currently do.

The internet protection offered by BT OpenReach protects my 8yo from this kind of thing very well.

No effing internet worth a damn.

The downside is he cannot access the support website the school has for homework etc, we're all still headscratching over that one.

Those WW2 fighter pilots saved us from a life of tyranny and enforced conformity.

In this case, if it is true, I'm going to need a new irony meter.

Still, it makes you wonder what he'll come back as this time and how (if you're into reincarnation with Karma) this might differ slightly from what he expected.

@Sean Timmarco Baggaley - "Yet he, too, chose to stay and work with Jobs."

I don't know the details of the case, but if I had a new boss arrive who was a pillock, and I had relatively non-transferable skills (for example being a paramedic) and a family to provide for, I might elect to stay. It's not an endorsement of my new boss or their views, its living as most people do, in the real world.

Do Sandmen still get to renew?

Only I've got this itching in my palms

Emergency Services Tranining

There's a few comments above about training firefighters to deal with "this type of car". Even one suggesting "in the target market areas" which presumes that, charging/range issues aside, that owners might in some way be restricted to certain areas. I can think of better criteri to confine people to certain areas, but that's for another thread....

Car design has become hugely complex. I'm involved in rescuing people from cars in the UK and even with petrol ones there are issues. For example, in serious collisions, the best way to extricate someone involves removing the roof. A few years ago Trumpton would turn up, fire up the Holmtatro and six snips later we were shoving spinal boards and KEDs (other extrication vests are available, if your local NHS trust bothers to carry any at all) down people's backs.

Now there are all sorts of hazards in the roof, some cars have airbag curtains (meaning there are possibly un-discharged pyrotechnics in the roof) and for a few the fuel line goes through the roof via the a- and c-posts, so removal becomes a nightmare. Remember it's your ability to walk again that we're trying to preserve here so whilst cutting a car apart is fun, there is a reason behind it.

Another issue is power. In the old days (again) turn up, open the bonnet and cut the earth strap from the battery to prevent sparks and make everything safe, then attend to the casualty, perhaps wind back the seat after we've braced them to get the extrication gear on, maybe even slide the seat backwards to get better access to the legs or forwards so we've more room to work on the rear passengers. Oh no, not now becase all the seats are electric with no manual release (at least not without tools and a mechanic).

I'm sure there will be issues with electric vehicles as they become more widespread and the subject is of interest as I'm hoping to get one for a few days trial later this month (Not a Tesla), but now crews are having to try to identify the model of a vehicle on arrival (can you tell a partially burned Cosworth from a normal Sierra?, showing my age I know) and then look it up which requires lots of books or a tablet of some form with connectivity (and we're not all in shiny London with good signal) whilst trying to work out if the time critical patient can be removed "properly" or if we're going to have to risk their spine because there is not time to make the scene safe and their compromised breathing or circulation takes priority.

I've no complaint about the article and this is El Reg but comments having a pop at this car because it's electric are rather wide of the mark.

How broken is retreivable?

Some companies put their old HDDs, once wiped, through industrial shredders.

As we're not big enough to afford that I wrap mine in a plastic bag (to prevent shrapnel), put them on the hard standing outside my office and apply a sledgehammer repeatedly before they go to the recycling bins at the local tip. If picking up any old granule means that the bin-divers with cracker friends can recover my data, we're going to have to think of a new strategy. Do these things dissolve harmlessly over time in sea water perhaps?

Liberator

I'd love to see the faces in Mission Control if they get a request from above for the plans.

To be clear I don't mean the DSV, lovely bit of design that it is, although that would also be an interesting build.

Life imitates art

Man hit with brick and stabbed after buying his copy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24127999

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/techandgadgets/grand-theft-auto-v-fan-stabbed-and-hit-with-brick-as-gang-rob-him-of-computer-game-8821177.html

A bit of a rum do.

What will happen if one NATO country (or perhaps more) is found to have effectively conducted a damaging electronic attack on the infrastructure or commercial interests of another NATO country? If the attackee really kicks up a stink (and given that the EU has ambitions to subvert and replace NATO) this could prove really quite awkward.