* Posts by ectel

46 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2014

DARPA's air-steered X-65 jet heads into production with goal of flying by 2025

ectel

Re: What could go wrong...

Of course the reduction in Defence spending allows spending on other things that are diesrable to the population, or the reduction in the taxation burden

Utumatly Polititans tend to do what gets them elected, and that does include spending less, or diferently to the past

Brainwaves rock! Scientists decode Pink Floyd tune straight from the noggin

ectel

Re: patterns with regression-based decoding models.

There is no Pre-Waters Floyd, only Post-Waters

If you want to see Early Floyd check out https://thesaucerfulofsecrets.com/ Nick Mason playing the Sid Barret and upto Animals. A superb show.

Bad software destroyed my doctor's memory

ectel

Re: Handwritten v typed

I knew a Chest Consultant that didn't recognise the patients face, but did recognise them from their chest x-ray

ectel

We have HL7 and FRIE https://www.hl7.org/fhir/overview.html

The devil is in the detail, particularly when you have multiple systems. EG think of a large trust that has 2,3 or more pathology systems and patient administration systems. what identifiers are you going to use? what to do when the Date of Birth is different on one system to another? all sorts of problems and compromises.

That's where the difficulty and therefore cost is

ectel

Sometimes the inverse works

I work in NHS IT looking after a system that is written by a Clinician (from a different trust) . It seems to have hit a sweet spot, works really well for the users, adaptions that are needed are quickly understood and implemented as all of us have worked in type of department it serves. From an IT point of view it runs on Ruby/Postgresql and is open source, the tables are well organised to serve the UI so report writing is easy.

Sometimes things can be done well

Scientists strangely unable to follow recipe for holy grail room-temp superconductor

ectel

Re: It could be useful anyway.

Lead, although toxic is easy to handle in such a way as to reduce/remove the risk, so if the super-conductor contains it is not a problem. Compare that to Florine or other nasty's that are harder to handle

A room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor? Take a closer look

ectel

Except a superconducting iron would not heat up

France says non to Office 365 and Google Workspace in school

ectel

One would hope that medical students don't put PII* into there course notes irrespective of the cloud provider or even if it is written on a bit of paper**. There is no reason to.

"This 58 year old Male presenting with headache" is enough to give the medical context, no need to put in anything more, and it would be frowned upon (ie student disciplinary) to do so.

*Patient Identifiable information

** As a medical STUDENT their handwriting should be legible, after graduation all bets are off.

Twitter engineer calls out Elon Musk for technical BS in unusual career move

ectel

The Hospital versions..

"We need to cool the patient during this operation, go and get some ice autoclaved"

"Go to stores and get some Fallopian Tubes"

Heavy, man: Tuxedo puts out 2.2kg Stellaris AMD Gen 4

ectel

Standards!

What is this 2.2kg? We all know it should be 0.2529 adult badgers

I don't know whats the point of having standards if no one uses them.... <mutter mutter>

Sizewell C nuclear plant up for review as UK faces financial black hole

ectel

Re: Out of date?

Sir Humphrey at his finest.

"I confidentially brief, You leak, He is charged under section 8 of the official secrets act"

Braking news: Cops slammed for spamming Waze to slow drivers down

ectel

The AA and police

The way my Grandpa told me (old enough not to have ever taken a driving test)

An AA man at the side of the road would see you aproching with your shinny AA badge on the gleaming grill of your car (a Jaaaag in Grandpa's case). The AA man would then Salute you as you passed.

However, if there was a police car making a speed trap further down the road, they would NOT salute, thus you where made aware of the police, but the AA man had not done anything specific to alert you, so was not guilty of obstruction justice / whatever.

Voyager 1 data corrupted by onboard computer that 'stopped working years ago'

ectel

70's Tec

"When was the last time you did some troubleshooting on 1970s tech? Let us know in the comments below."

Well my knees are feeling a bit creeky, and I'm 70's Tec

A character catastrophe for a joker working his last day

ectel

Re: Nothing so severe

I was on a train ariving at 05:50 at London Liverpool Street. The train anouncment was "Wakey Wakey, rise and Shine! we are now ariving Liverpool Street"

UK government refuses public review before launch of NHS data platform

ectel

The Crying shame is that this can be done right

For a long time (20 years - ish) I have been working in the NHS sending data to the Renal Registry

It collects data on Renal Patients. It is run by Clinicians, has strong patient reps, and is very careful of who gets to see the data.

It is an example of doing things right, has enabled many changes in the way that we care for patients with renal failure, backing changes in care with hard data showing the efficacy and outcomes.

So when the article talks about the good outcomes that can be made from looking at health data I agree. But without the safeguards (and I don’t see them here) the risk out ways the benefits.

It costs money to do this stuff. So either you pay to do it or you have to allow the data to be sold to pay for the analysis you want.

UK govt promises to sink billions into electronic health records for England

ectel

Baby/ Bathwater

We have a lot of invested time and energy in EPR's PAS's Path systems, let alone Specalist Clinical systems (that I work with)

Its got to better to link these up rather than chucking out the lot and starting again with some new system.

Interfaces are what makes the systems work, not puting in the new shiny shiny every 5 years.

Bipolar transistors made from organic materials for the first time

ectel

Re: Durability?

A pacemaker is a set of wires (between 1 and 4 ish) going into the muscles of the heart, and a control box

a "Box change" is a day case and done fairly easily

Placing the pacing wires (or moving/removing them) is more dificult.

Fun fact, if a pacing box is not used during an op, but has been opend it can be used by a vet. Dogs can use human pace makers.

512 disk drives later, Floppotron computer hardware orchestra hits v3.0

ectel

Re: Get off my lawn, etc.

Cassette????! copying the code from the user manual (zx Spectrum for me)

aaah R: Tape loading error, how I don't miss you

Intel's mystery Linux muckabout is a dangerous ploy at a dangerous time

ectel

Re: Footnote

Christmas 2022 i hope!

Boffins find way to use a standard smartphone to find hidden spy cams

ectel

Re: Haven't movie theaters been doing it for years?

Also I was failing to see how IR could determine if the pop-corn was from the concession stand or home.

Maybe it could tell if you were cooking you own popcorn

Opt-out is the right approach for sharing your medical records with researchers

ectel

The thing is, you hear about the factor X fiasco, but did you hear about the Epo usage in Renal Patients?

opt out consent used to collect identifiable data was used to show regional variations in Hb in renal patients. Result: Standardisation and improved outcomes for all renal patients.

All of this done under the requirements of the Act https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/41/section/251

Find all the fascinating (anon) data here.

https://ukkidney.org/sites/renal.org/files/publication/file-attachments/23rd_UKRR_ANNUAL_REPORT.pdf

Interestingly in the first few reports Hospitals where anonymised, but quickly moved away from that so that good practice could be shared.

BOFH: You'll find there's a company asset tag right here, underneath the monstrously heavy arcade machine

ectel

Re: "I'm sure we'll lose the records of it in the fire, though...""

In his book Chickenhawk [0] Bob Mason describes a Huey going down, suddenly all the quartermasters see an opportunity to sort out missing stores by claiming they were on the helicopter.

When they totted up all the stores supposedly on it, it was 5 tones over max weight

"No wonder it went down"

[0] Highly recomneded

Think you can solve the UK's electric vehicle charging point puzzle? The Ordnance Survey wants to hear about it

ectel

My Dad has a plug in Hybrid (smaller battery). 6Kw (max) of solar cells on the roof of the house. Car charges at max of 10 Amps. (takes about 4 hours). Moderately sunny day will give 3Kw = 10a(ish) even on a cloudier day, it will equal out over the course of the day.

OK so its not fully EV, but he only does local mileage most of the time, so (particularly in lockdown) didn't put petrol in the car for about 4 months!

The flip side to this is that he has enough financial capital to a) have a big house with a big south facing roof b) buy the panels a decade ago and got an outrageous feed in tariff c)afford to by a new hybrid rather than wait for 2nd hand ones to become available.

Richer people get to make savings due to their financial position.

The web was done right the first time. An ancient 3D banana shows Microsoft does a lot right, too

ectel

re: Atack vector?

How about a gorilla throwing a banana? (not a 3D one)

https://archive.org/details/GorillasQbasic

On this most auspicious of days, we ask: How many sysadmins does it take to change a lightbulb?

ectel

Re: Facilities are to blame

We had a phone number that if you got 2 numbers transposed in the area code was for Shrewsbury Prison. We got a lot of calls asking to arrange a visit.

I usually said they would be welcome to come, but would not find there relative here.

God bless this mess: Study says UK's Christian beliefs had 'important' role in Brexit

ectel

Re: Religion in the UK?

I was brought up in a Christian environment, I recognise that had i been brought up in a Islamic faith or a Buddhist one then my religion would probably be different.

Did I chose Christianity from a list of faiths? No. Do I discount other faiths? No.

To me (YourMilageMayVairy) that that I call God is to big for me to ever understand fully, I am not so arrogant to say that I have it all right and people that think differently to me are wrong. I don't think i chose Christianity because it has always been a part of me. I did choose to affirm my faith through baptism an being received into membership (the Methodist version of Confirmation in the Cof E)

ectel

Re: Sad...

Amen!

ectel

Re: Religion in the UK?

I am sorry if your experience of faith has been like that. It is not like that for me. Particulary the do "what Father tells you". Firstly Taize's emphasis is on personal exploration of faith, not do as we say, but an emphasis on sharing in the style of the brothers life (simplicity, silent prayer, community) if only for a week.

Away from Taize, my faith is not about doing what I am told, but sharing in the life (in the person of Jesus) and influences of the what I believe to be God. (other people will put what I ascribe to God as something else(maybe mindfulness or other spiritual type stuff), people of other faiths will describe things through the lens of there own tradition or structure)

I am also sorry if that is your perception of the EU

ectel

Re: Religion in the UK?

Hello

Just to be clear, I am a Christian, my wife is a Priest in the Church of England, My patents are Methodist Ministers (retired).

Just to deal with the "Jedi" thing : Growth numbers is not the same as Stock numbers. That said numbers in all churches are declining in general, numbers in the under 40's are low.

I think my experience of the Brexit and the church leads me to a few observations

1) Some people will divorce their Faith and politics and say that one does not infulance the other (I'm not sure I believe them)

2) I have heard theological arguments for both leave and remain, I personally find the remain ones more persuasive.

3) the church of England is very broad, making any assumptions about it as a group (even that they are all Christians!) is a bit if an ask.

On the day of the vote, I was in Taize with people from across Europe. It was a good place to be to remind you of what europe can be about.

Scottish Environment Protection Agency refuses to pay ransomware crooks over 1.2GB of stolen data

ectel

Another reason they won't pay is, Have you ever tried raising a purchase order in a public sector body?

Has the options paper been developed, with at least 5 options? Has HR been involved in assessing impacts on the workforce? Has anyone worked out what budget code its is going to come from? Has the risks of doing it or not been put on the risk register? Has the options paper been circulated to the right committees? Has it been signed off by the Investment Group (meets bi monthly) Has Trevor seen it? Has the full business case been worked up? Has estates signed off (even though it is nothing to do with them)? Who is Trevor?

And so on ad infinitum

Leaked draft EU law reveals tech giants could face huge 6% turnover fines if they don't play by Europe's rules

ectel

Re: The only good thing

I entirely agree that it is not ideal, however I think it is less easy to get out of, and that is a good thing

Also, yes I can see that it is possible that it could be over zealously applied, however there are checks and balances that i hope would work

Careful now we seem to be agreeing, can't have that on Reg forums!

ectel

Re: The only good thing

How can the EU fine profit? we all know that Facebook Amazon et al are past masters of moving profit away to somewhere else and not showing a profit (or paying taxes on the non existent profit) at all.

With that level of offshoring going after the revenue (gross input to the company, that is possible to prove) is the only way forward

Did I or did I not ask you to double-check that the socket was on? Now I've driven 15 miles, what have we found?

ectel

Re: Failing switches?

Re: 15Amp round pin in stage use - Its to differentiate between a socket that comes from the mains (13A Square) and one that comes from a dimmer. The presence / lack of fuse is co-incidental

So long, Top Gun... AI software waxes US F-16 pilot's tail 5-0 during virtual dogfight drills

ectel

Re: Rockets and Jets!

Yes they have guided missiles, but they have envelopes of engagement. 2 aircraft fighting will go with missiles first, but as they get closer together they will be out side the missiles envelope ( a missile finds to go straight off the plane and there is a trade off between speed and maneuverability the)

So quickly, when the planes are close the missiles don't work, then you are down to guns.

The Phantom went to Vietnam with out a gun, big mistake, every fighter since has had one

50%+ of our office seats are going remote, say majority of surveyed Register readers. Hi security, bye on-prem

ectel

Re: Loss of human contact

I get what you are saying, But... I have worked from home for 10+years, not meeting my team face to face, but now we have twice weekly video team meetings, so suddenly i am in the loop a lot more. Technology has changed working methods have changed, if it is done right it can work, it is (to use a over used phrase) "the new normal"

ectel

The rest of the world has joined me

I work part time. Before lock down I worked 1 day on site, 2 from home. Now I am 3 days from home. I work for a hospital

Now the rest of the team I work in are also working at home we have team meetings on Video that allow me to attend (they happen on my normal off site days)

Working across Hospitals is easier as Video calls stop us having to travel 15 miles between sites. In my team there is no real desire to go back to the office (apart from maybe the air-con in hot weather), The clinical team I support don't want me in the building (at risk patients) again everything now happens my phone,email of video.

Because I have worked from home for 10 years or more, I have on office room, so i can end the day and shut the door.

I think my working from home experience has improved since everyone joined me in it.

Mozilla warns more Firefox website breakage to come because devs just aren't checking for SameSite snafus

ectel

Re: How about...

But most websites don't need this level of functionality. The time and effort involved to update a minor site for a local club or something is not going to happen.

If the functionality is needed then yes some sort of warning, but something that complains about EVERY website that is not up to latest standard (and that is a nebulous thing to describe) is going to get ignored and just annoy the user, so that they won't use the browser that flags it and will go to one that doesn't

Only true boffins will be able to grasp Blighty's new legal definitions of the humble metre and kilogram

ectel
Linux

Re: Spelling

Was I the only one that thought "why is offence not taken when scruples is set to read+write+execute for the owner and the group but only write for all users? "

If most people can only write scruples but not read them or execute them no wonder we are in such a state! maybe we need 755 scruples. that way everyone can understand the scruples and act on them.

ectel
Linux

Re: Spelling

Was I the only one that thought "why is offence not taken when scruples is set to read+write+execute for the owner and the group but only write for all users? "

If most people can only write scruples but not read them or execute them no wonder we are in such a state! maybe we need 755 scruples. that way everyone can understand the scruples and act on them.

Railway cables overpowered errant drone's compass and flung it back to terra firma

ectel

Re: Third rail

the Magnetic observatory at Heartland in North Devon was sited there specifically as it was as far away from railways as they could find

"The observatory was purpose-built for magnetic work, and continuous operations began in 1957, the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Hartland is the successor to Abinger and Greenwich observatories. The moves from Greenwich to Abinger and then to Hartland were made necessary as electrification of the railways progressed, making accurate geomagnetic measurements impossible in South-East England."

Orford Ness: Military secrets and unique wildlife on the remote Suffolk coast

ectel

Re: V3?

Long range gun , Barrel very long with additional "Booster charges" along it

A concept that next saw light of day with Sadam Husain's Super Gun

ectel

Re: Nobody is quite sure what it was originally built for.

When I went on to the Ness last year there was a NT Guide who was involved in doing research on the activities on the Ness (his job before it closed was firing nuclear weapons casings in to a concrete wall at about 200mph - simulating a drop from low level that hit something sideways)

He said that they had begun to find out some information about the mystery ring, that the ring was footings for a rotating thing (wheels run on the ring) probably some sort of antenna.

Can I recommend this book as a most informative history of the Ness?

BOFH: Their bright orange plumage warns other species, 'Back off! I'm dangerous!'

ectel

Re: Fiat 500

@ Trygve Henriksen

Well if you want to improve on the 2CV then you have to go Dyane, 2 extra HP, More aerodynamic, higher trim levels. (Just don't mention that production started after the 2cv and finished before it)

I have had my Dyane 28 years so far.....

'The capacitors exploded, showering the lab in flaming confetti'

ectel

Sorry Mr. Leggett...

Was that Headingham School?

NHS patient letters meant for GPs went undelivered for years

ectel

"5 years is far longer than is necessary."

No actually. Most hospital records have to be retained for 8 years after the last treatment or the death of the patient. Maternity records have 25 year retention. The reason for retention is a mix of medical need and also in case there is legal action in the future.

Complex patients can have a paper hospital record that is 2' thick.

Full info here. https://www.bma.org.uk/advice/employment/ethics/confidentiality-and-health-records/retention-of-health-records

SLOW DOWN: Insecure-by-design software on road

ectel

Best one I saw...

...was in France on the A7 one summer heading for the Mediterranean. "Slow down, the sea isn't going to evaporate"