* Posts by Conundrum1885

714 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Oct 2014

World's largest heap of untreated nuclear waste needs more bots to cart around irradiated crap

Conundrum1885

Re. Re. Zero point

Is this incidentally why solar grid tied inverters generally are designed not to run in standalone mode? I was told ages ago that this was to stop grid backfeeding but surely this is a simple matter of a sensor that turns off the external link in the event of voltage/frequency going out of specifications.

Conundrum1885

Zero point

Its not completely impossible to build "Clean" fission reactors, as in a properly designed plant ie LTWAMSR the core is only ever at between 400 and 700C in operation, outside these limits it is either shut down or in a failsafe cool down mode pending repairs.

The trick is to avoid using beryllium as this complicated things given how toxic it can be, though molten salts generally aren't particularly nice with the right materials they can be virtually shipped in solid form then assembled on site block by block inside the pre-fabricated monolithic containment unit.

I did look into building a small scale non-energy producting version just to get the temperature down and using liquid metals is an acceptable compromise given that many of these can be magnetically pumped. In fact this makes things even simpler as convection currents within the core generate power directly.

The inner core could be a solid lump of iron with an external neutron reflector and this would be an effective way to keep things under control.

Geometry changes too much and it goes sub critical then shuts down.

We asked for your Fitbit horror stories and, oh wow, did you deliver: Readers sync their teeth into 'junk' gizmos

Conundrum1885

Re. BT

Sounds to me more like Apple incompatibility with non Apple devices.

For a while we had this on every pair of BT headphones, turns out that this is well known.

The problem seems to be that in order to meet strict EMC requirements Apple used the exact frequency reference whereas cheaper headphones did not, resulting in passband being slightly off with variations in ambient temperature by a fraction of a MHz so packets got lost in the noise.

Of course a PC or Android BT card has stricter requirements so usually works fine however in my experience very short range.

It can to some extent be patched in software, Apple did actually release a fix for the older iPads and headphone(s) then worked.

So did the Android tablets after this fix.

Incidentally this can be checked with an SDR, at least in my experience BT headsets etc use the 26 MHz band as a reference clock and so can be tested with a modified dongle.

You look like a fungi. Got mushroom in your life to build stuff with mycelium computers?

Conundrum1885

Or in this case

Engage the displacement-activated spore hub drive.

Anyone seen Lt. Stamets? Last I heard he had an entire supply cabinet full of Mycota fall on him and now he's stuck in the Delta Quadrant near Borg space.

Fortunately the Borg took pity on him and dropped him off somewhere just past the Devore Imperium. So instead of cubes its inspection fleets. Mwahahahaha...

Not sure if the Devore believed the whole "came from the other side of the galaxy using the mycelial plane" story.

Seriously, this sh!t again? 24m medical records, 700m+ scan pics casually left online

Conundrum1885

Re. Data

It appears that at least some of the images are test ones given with the owners consent eg for medical consultant training.

The problem will be sorting out whose images they are, without the original data which is behind firewalls etc.

On the flip side if the original owners really wanted to, they now have access to "Their" data without heinous charges, and

in all likelihood should they choose it can be uploaded to a consultant of their choice for a second opinion.

Get ready for "XrayBook" and "MRIBook" :-)

UK.gov's smart meter cost-benefit analysis for 2019 goes big on cost, easy on the benefits

Conundrum1885

Re: Alleged benefits?

Quite right, can you be more specific about the blinkenlight? I helped swap a MB on a fridge and the symptoms were very similar.

Also a common problem seems to be failed start capacitors on the compressor/motor unit.

Freon leaks are thankfully rare these days unless someone went cleaning ice out with a machete.

I did look into running certain items off a salvaged UPS with a couple of recycled bicycle SLAs as these are sometimes perfectly good if long charged from solar after a bit of reconditioning: worked for me.

Procedure here was after measuring it at 7.8V and less than 20mA available run it down to nothing through a 100 ohm 5W power resistor then slowly charge it for several weeks off a 12V 500mA solar panel during the hottest part of summer with periodic disconnections to test.

This worked well, full voltage and enough capacity to run a B/W TV for several hours.

Don't bother taking these apart, it won't help. Think the "depleted acid" variety have no available free oxygen so normal room air poisons the chemistry quite effectively. Old style lead acids are less fussy but aren't suitable for a domestic environment due to H2 production and other nasties like H2S if not charged properly.

Note if the SLA in question has bulged or split he is dead, Jim.

E-bike ones are good as the reputable makes are already optimized for high current use and better manufacturers even add thermal cutouts.

And the teeny-tiny bottle of AI whisky goes to...

Conundrum1885

HALcohol

Sounds good.

Also suggested by SO, "PC Load WHISKY"

Magnetic cockroaches, dirty money, wombat poo and posties' balls: It's the Ig Nobels 2019

Conundrum1885

Square wombat poop ?!

Yes saw this article.

Apparently its to do with surface tension among other things.

I have no mouth and I must scream: You can add audio to wobbles in latest Windows 10 patch

Conundrum1885

Audio

Seem to distantly recall this happening on 7 before.

Cause was actually a bad driver, seems the manufacturer provided ones had a major bug.

Also had this happen on XP, *AND* 98SE

Geo-boffins drill into dino-killing asteroid crater, discover extinction involves bad smells, chilly weather, no broadband internet...

Conundrum1885

Kaboom!

On the flip side, had the non-avian saurians not been wiped out we would not exist.

Picture the impact being a glancing one so still bad but more like a Mini KT not full extinction level event.

The good news is by just over 6.8MYa the descendants of one of the many bipedal species probably the Hadrosaur, or Troodon would have reached a late Stone Age existence, figuring out that growing their own crops was a much more reliable food source.

By maybe 5.2MYa they would have reached the early Space Age.

FTL Spin Drive (tm) breakthrough maybe by 4.7MYa assuming they figure out how to avoid blowing themselves sky high in the process.

Valorous Vikram lunar lander – or Star Wreck: Enterprise? India's Moon craft goes all silent running during descent

Conundrum1885

6 pin plug?

Doubt it. More than likely an IDC based one.

Also do the BORG still use standard voltages?

Conundrum1885

Re. 404

404: Moon Not Found

I did hear that it nearly worked. Well done for getting this far, it demonstrated considerable technical skills even to reach lunar orbit.

Might yet be recoverable if its just as I suspected a comms issue and the rest of the lander is running.

If it s a fuel leak then not such good odds.

Project "Schrödinger"

Conundrum1885

LD versus PLED

Also worth trying: take the centre section from an old projection TV Fresnel lens and use this.

Can cause problems so will need a physical shutter to protect the delicate diode in the event of excess light.

For the APDs here a setup that may work is optocouplers to multiply the voltage (2*PP3) with lower noise and make the whole thing battery operated: data can be sent back to the analysis machine using Bluetooth.

A row of burner diodes to create a ring of light rather than a single dot may well work and then each one can be independently driven so the pulses sum over distance but still keeping it below the Class 2 limits.

What a bunch of DoSers: Wikipedia says it was walloped by 'bad faith' actors over weekend

Conundrum1885

Re: Fundamentally flawed model

Interesting. I encountered such a design on a router the other day.

In this case it works but the performance sucks because the manufacturers cheaped out and did not populate the "AUX" instead using blinkenlights on the special 10 way connector.

Might explain why the thing kept running scorchio and frequently locked up requiring reboot.

I did find that the manufacturers had used rubbish capacitors, replacing them all did help and meter say NYET! <19uF on a 100uF unit and 107 on the 220uF.

Sadly it also looks like there are problems with the regulator as it still runs hot, perhaps I can recase it and add some sort of automated reset circuit.

Seems that line noise sends these right to Grethor and no amount of firmware will fix this.

Using chip antenna from an old Wifi or Bluetooth headset will work though it can sometimes cause problems.

Outlook turned eBay into DD-Bay: Topless busty babe mysteriously fronts souk's emails

Conundrum1885

Tits up

Because.

Also wasn't there an update for Fortnite that got pulled because the physics was uhm, too realistic?

The time a Commodore CDTV disc proved its worth as something other than a coaster

Conundrum1885

Re. Terminal

I used to have one of these!

Supposedly its possible to use an Arduino R3 and some resistor logic to make it verk but its a lot of effort.

But if you love that orange glow and want to use it as a novelty lamp it will work just fine.

Incidentally some of them actually did have an external power supply so it would run off some strange voltage like 28V and this will (I tried!) run off two SLAs in series. So come Armageddon the thing will still work! Handy in these uncertain times.

Think some of the newer ones had dual orange/green screen using the high/low energy phosphor method.

OK, let's try that again: Vulture rakes a talon on Samsung's fresh attempt at the Galaxy Fold 5G

Conundrum1885

Re: Fold

Actually this was openly discussed on several forums. It looks like Samsung got my messages but they had already implemented the fix I discovered at the time, in the form of screen compensation and had indeed read the paper(s) cited mentioning ITO migration as a potential wear mechanism.

Incidentally it does work at least on my Note 4, got the burn down to sensible levels simply by running it in full red mode for several days.

The fix for screen issues on the Fold seems to have been a simple redesign: not clear if this will work long term but the additional support of the wraparound cover may well improve its chances. The screen is still sensitive but far less so with more support behind it the chances for impact damage have dropped off.

Big bang theory: Was mystery explosion over New York caused by a meteor? Dunno. By a military jet? Maybe...

Conundrum1885

Maybe

Coincidence that "ST:Voyager" is on the Horror Channel in the near future.

Or is it the past. One can never tell.

But seriously, do we know for sure that this was in fact natural and not some experiment gone wrong?

Machine self awareness

Conundrum1885

Update

Had to change out another RAM stick. Laptop now replaced (Core i3) but good chips transplanted from my Vaio as they are fine and pre-matched.

Dare I try the old 1TB HDD from the 520 or would it be better to nuke it from orbit?

Drive diagnostics on ~8m old Toshiba say good, no obvious anomalies.

Darn strange, never seen anything like this. The kicker was that the DVD drive suddenly stopped responding and upon reboot (eventually) it simply

didn't show up at all. Took apart and reseated literally every single connector and moved the connector 1mm closer to the drive and as yet it seems fine.

Russian spacebot stranded outside the ISS as Soyuz fails to dock

Conundrum1885

TSA

Nah, it has lithium ion batteries, dangerous materials (hydrazine, N2O4) and also firearms. Of course its going to get blocked.

On the flip side its all fixed now, only a slight maLffFffFfffffFunCtioN

A carbon-nanotube RISC-V CPU blinks into life. Boffins hold their breath awaiting first sign of life... 'Hello world!'

Conundrum1885

Carbon memory

Distantly recall an idea to use vertical CNT arrays as nanoscale memory.

The plan here was similar, fix in place then lay down the interconnects and R/W logic, but ion implant Zn or some other metal so that one metal atom ends up in each tube, then use standard wear leveling and error correction so more than one CNT stores each bit, yet also acts as a CRC for another elsewhere.

Conundrum1885

Re. So it is possible...

CNT based sensors seem to work well but yes this is the first time such a complex structure has been made.

Incidentally it is said that the very first CPU was made by cutting and pasting physical pieces of film, to make the mask that was later optically miniaturized and used.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson moves to shut Parliament

Conundrum1885

I have it on good authority

That this will end badly.

Disclaimer: the last time I tried to use experimental technology to predict things, it didn't end well.

Incidentally I still don't know why it worked but the results were intriguing to say the least.

Now rebuilding my force beam generator in case I can adapt it.

AMD agrees to cough up $35-a-chip payout over eight-core Bulldozer advertising fiasco

Conundrum1885

AMD

I often wonder: the "Quad Core" in my laptop APU does not seem to be that fast at all.

Yet a full fat Phenom 2 quad core of the same speed (S1G4) is loads faster according to my measurements.

Could this be due to heat? The APU is essentially a combined CPU and GPU on the same silicon, so

though the GPU portion will emit heat it is typically a fraction of that from the CPU.

The Tell-Tale Heart! Boffins build an AI that can tell your sex using just your heartbeat

Conundrum1885

Fascinating

As a recent (2k) graduate, I had to study 12 lead ECGs.

Of course at the time deep learning wasn't exactly mainstream but there were discussions about using neural networks to sort and store ECG data more efficiently eg for ambulatory monitoring.

I did briefly explore whether a RAM chip could be used but at the time 16MB was far too expen$ive which would have been about the bare minimum. Also problematical was the loss of power so most commercial monitors recorded data to tape resembling answerphone storage.

Incidentally thanks to advances you can now approximate a 12 lead using three segmented electrodes with some degree of repeatability.

Even putting the amplifiers on individual electrodes as a very small chip scale (CSP) is a well known method now and if memory serves NASA pioneered this.

Can't bear to part with that well-worn copy of Windows 7? Microsoft might let you keep it updated an extra year

Conundrum1885

Incidentally

Why is it that not one of my microcontroller programming tools will run correctly on 10?

It works fine on 7, 8, 7 x64, 8 x64, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, DSL.. But not 10.

Get massive problems even in XP compatibility mode, in the end did find that running it on a single core partially worked but not sure why.

Perhaps someone can shed some light on this?

Serial port USB dongles seem to be dead as a brick on 10, can sometimes get loopback working,nothing else will change state but the read side will.

Even tried using Bluetooth serial but the thing refused to work, port state sticks etc.

Can't access memory with SPDTool either, yet it worked before.

relevant: https://alxndr.info/blog/2016/03/03/downclocking-ram-with-spd.html

More on that monster Cerebras AI chip, Xilinx touts 'world's largest' FPGA, and more

Conundrum1885

AI Core

Sounds intriguing. But 15 kW is way too much power.

I did look into building a smaller version and using the larger superchip (tm) to compile code for it.

The problem is finding a powerful enough processor/TPU combi that can run in isolation.

For my purposes a 5 TFlop system may be good enough.

Buying a Chromebook? Don't forget to check that best-before date

Conundrum1885

Re. In other news, Google is providing Linux "kernelnext" for older Chromebooks

Incidentally if the developers are reading this PLEASE add external HDD and ODD support.

It really sucks that the device has a USB3 port yet will not work with even a low power 418mA drive.

I did some tests and yes it should work though believe there are licensing problems with DVD playback however the workaround is to have the appropriate update issued at a fixed cost similar to rPi MPx keys.

Also things to add: battery diagnostics.

Conundrum1885

Re: That's Chromebook right out of my buying list then

Modding a used one from say a broken motor, is a messy task but feasible.

I have the same problem here with a defunct starter motor. Car is otherwise OK but parts aren't available for a price that makes it worth repairing even though barring a couple of CV joints , door seals and a cam belt it might see in the next decade.

Conundrum1885

Ah HEll NO!!!!!

I have had this for a very short time and looks like it has 2.5 years left on its "Doomsday Clock".

Sounds like its time for another upgrade, and unload the dinosaur so someone else can use it. 2 years is more than enough for GCSEs.

Battery life isn't too bad but starting to go, down to 87% capacity.

On the flip side, on my "To Do" list is upgrade the Wifi card and hack the FW to support external DVD over USB3. Even if I can get it to see the disk this will be good enough though it likely won't be able to burn or play disks.

Brits are sitting on a time bomb of 40m old electronic devices that ought to be recycled

Conundrum1885

Re: 66 comments not one of you noticed the potential fire hazard.

99 Red ballooning batteries, spontaneously combusting...

I did find one BL-5C which had puffed up to near cartoonish proportions, however it also measured 0.00V so chances are the fail usually just renders it puffy-but-inert on small batteries.

Something the size of an iPhone 4S might be a problem though, had a few S6's go Puffy McBrokenScreenFace and never did find out why.

'Hey Google, remind Greg the locks have been changed, and he should find a new place to live. Maybe ask his mistress?'

Conundrum1885

Alexa

BA1404

Have also seen variants that use the good old fashioned tuned crystal harmonic (tm) method, these are very good but typically have terrible dynamic range.

I did see a version that used an actual dedicated IC possibly also included on some Sony MP3 players and strangely enough Minidisk.

Conundrum1885

Re: Random

Micropower FM transmitters are actually legal: Last I checked it was a special chip with limited output power and PCB antenna. If memory serves they are in the 108 MHZ range

Conundrum1885

Random

Why does the Echo Dot not include an actual radio?

Its not hard, basic DAB is doable using a $0.50 RF micro plus if the Internet goes out it stays connected.

For that matter have it bidirectional so the Echo Dot acts as a hotspot for nearby radios.

(sends this idea to Google)

Breaker, breaker. Apple's iOS 12.4 update breaks jailbreak break, un-breaks the break. 10-4

Conundrum1885

Rubber duck

Because.

Also incidentally this problem happens on Android as well. A recent patch caused a very old bug with SD cards and external devices present in the N4 and others to reappear, causing me to wrongly conclude that the card had been corrupted.

If anyone else gets this the symptom is that a specific block of text in the first 512 bytes will be duplicated, if seen then any good forensics tool should be able to get most of not all of the data back with fair success.

Shame that S*****g didn't just fess up and release a fix tool, people probably lost data because of this.

Astroboffins have spied the largest star that has gone supernova and it's breaking all the rules

Conundrum1885

RE. Re. Rinse and repear?

If iron were unstable we would not exist.

In fact it is said that elements like lead are so common because they decay from much heavier ones.

The strange distribution of certain nuclear isotopes is not strange after all.

Incidentally I did find something intriguing: a sufficiently powerful hypernova *might* be an unexplored

way that low mass black holes may be produced, as tiny instabilities in the wavefront.

A big enough core fragment might also collide with another at near relativistic velocities, triggering a black hole

but most of the time it does not thus explaining the anomalously high brightness. Think an H-bomb in a bathtub.

Conundrum1885

SHAZAM!

Wonder how many civilizations in its host galaxy this took out?

On the flip side, if they were hostile ones then karma is indeed a b*tch.

Even the Green Lantern Corps wouldn't want to visit this galaxy.

Conundrum1885

Trademarking

The name "Meganova" to describe something this monstrous.

Film at 11!

The NSA's own bastard operator from Hell, aka Edward Snowden, puts out memoir next month

Conundrum1885

RE. Re. Intelligence

It is generally believed that based on the methane releases observed on Mars, if life is present then it is likely to be incredibly simple.

It is alas doubtful that anything even as complex as a worm evolved, however based on available data something may have survived

deep underground so at the moment we just don't know.

Incidentally by factoring in presence of long lived radioisotopes underground the conditions may be suitable for organisms, even though

the Martian surface has been complely inhospitable for at least >1.8G years or more.

It's a God-awful smell affair.... is there life on Mars? Rocks ruled out as source of mystery methane on Red Planet

Conundrum1885

Methane

Sounds like there may be an announcement very soon. Could all that methane be leaking from remnant underground life in caves?

Just how complex could life get assuming:

1) hypersalinity

2) weak but significant geothermal energy

3) radioisotopic decay

4) relatively low temperature, say 278.15K

5) life started approximately the same time as Earth, say between 3 and 4GY ago.

Not very Suprema: Biometric access biz bares 27 million records and plaintext admin creds

Conundrum1885

Face-Off

Its not like you can replace fingerprints. This is the big problem with biometrics as I've been saying for years.

Get a copy of the hash and its possible to rapidly do a go-no go and iterate to a possible print that will work on *other* readers.

Sounds like someone will be getting the mother of all GDPR ass kickings.

For heaven's sake: Japan boffins fail to release paper planes in space after rice wine added to rocket fuel

Conundrum1885

Re: emergency abort or two

I think the technical term is "Eject the warp core" followed by klaxons and a very large security door lowering.

Alexa, can you tell me how many Chinese kids were forced into working nights to build this unit?

Conundrum1885

Terrible

I do not approve of child labor.

I actually go out of my way to reuse and repair older phones where possible, on the basis that doing so is kinder to the environment.

Re. US prisoners, within reason giving them something to do is fair but blatant exploitation is not.

Ohm my God: If you let anyone other than Apple replace your recent iPhone's battery, expect to be nagged by iOS

Conundrum1885

Bricky McBrickface

Yes this should be illegal.

Deleted original post because as mentioned I hadn't actually seen the video though had read blog posts.

Could this ever happen if the phone went into a specific failure mode without actually disconnecting the battery?

If so then simply resetting it incorrectly, CPU overheat or other "unforeseen" event could feasibly trigger the booby trap so Apple may be on

the verge of another Error 53 fiasco.

Re. cars yes some older units worked but depending how the relay is configured back feeding through the lighter socket won't work key or no key.

Nuclear incident

Conundrum1885

Nuclear incident

Just a heads up but there was a serious accident in Russia last night which may have involved

nuclear materials at a submarine base, sadly two deaths and multiple injuries.

No radiation detected in Norway but there were reports of a local increase in a nearby town of about 3* background.

Any more news folks?

so far https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-08/two-killed-in-blast-at-russian-navy-missile-testing-ground?srnd=markets-vp seems to be the most accurate.

-A

Ransomware attackers have gone from 'spray and pray' to 'slayin' prey'

Conundrum1885

Re. Security is too expensive...

Cost of antivirus, antimalware and a basic IT security policy - maybe $3000/year

Cost of average ransomware attack - $30,000 or more, dwarfed by GDPR exposure.

Incidentally with attacks like "Warshipping" on the rise maybe its time to upgrade to WPA 3.1

Neuroscientist used brainhack. It's super effective! Oh, and disturbingly easy

Conundrum1885

Smart meters and 5G

TBH these are more scare tactics. The only major problem with 5G is the £xpen$e, downloading that film on Netflix may be "free" but go over your data limit and it will cost.

In actual fact good old mundane inverse square law will mess up your day, I've had nothing but problems with 4G here due to the higher frequencies being more likely to be blocked/attenuated by windows and building materials.

Smart meters actually work well most of the time though are known to cause phone interference when malfunctioning. For some reason this was missed from the rollout information.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5467612

I had to resort to measurements with my SDR to sort this out.