* Posts by anothercynic

2064 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Dec 2014

Pentagon said to have pulled $2.5B Intel defense chips grant

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Pentagon thinks!

$2.5 billion is pocket change for them. ;-)

Rancher faces prison for trying to breed absolute unit of a sheep

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: "The .. crime we uncovered here could threaten the integrity of our wildlife species in Montana"

Until one escapes... All it takes is one escapee to breed. I wouldn't quite point at Jurassic Park (since that was frog DNA that supposedly allowed the dinos to change sex in a single-sex environment), but the point is the same. Ditto the analogy of another poster about the rabbits in Australia. Oh, and the cane toads (they were not for shooting, but they also bred like... er... the rabbits, and are now a pest in much of Oz).

Biosecurity is a big deal. Don't ever think of taking anything of biological origin that is not biologically inert to the Antipodes without declaring/quarantining it... you *will* be fined/prosecuted for endangering the biodiversity of the country you're visiting. Same goes for some African countries with concerns about F&M and other diseases that spread via dirt/spores.

Palantir boss says outfit's software the only reason the 'goose step' has not returned to Europe

anothercynic Silver badge
Joke

Re: In all modesty, if they weren't stopped...

Bigly!

Work for you? Again? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks

anothercynic Silver badge

Ahhh yes, rigged skills assessments... the classic thing that American managers love to use too.

Speaking from past experience.

Juniper sued over HPE buyout after allegedly ginning up execs' wallets

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: isnt this normal for HP ?

And that said, a Juniper shareholder who clearly doesn't understand share classes. By the sounds of it, he just realised that as a public shareholder his shares are just there for funding, not for anything substantial. I'd love to see him get shares in Meta and try this on with the Zuck (who has shares with the vast majority of voting rights). :-)

Dave's not here, man. But this mind-blowingly huge server just, like, arrived

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Jazz Cabbage

I must admit that's the first time I've heard that... its brother "dagga" on the other hand...

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Jazz Cabbage

Maybe said El Reg hack is of a certain age and maybe hung around with people who used said terminology for said... herb.

:-)

Dumping us into ad tier of Prime Video when we paid for ad-free is 'unfair' – lawsuit

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Query: the timing of ads

Current. Spooks producers revealed in one of the extras in the early Spooks DVDs that they had to shoot with the US and UK satellite/cable markets in mind, i.e. with 46-50 minutes of 'real' content, and then ten minutes of stuff that fleshed out some things for the Beeb.

I always found that the Beeb episodes made more sense, because the 'filler', as you call it, actually added context that was simply not there in US episodes of 'MI:5' (the name of Spooks in the US).

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Query: the timing of ads

From what I've experienced since this switch, it's either right at the beginning with an ad or two (similar to NOWTV), and maybe one ad halfway through, or an ad when you've paused and unpause.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Idiots

Freevee used to be IMDBtv, and it was separate from Prime and anything else. Sadly, yes, there seems to be this irritating mish-mash of services that makes it look like there's more than there is.

I'm supportive of the lawsuit, mostly because I use Prime mostly for shopping, but if you're bunging me into an ad-'supported' tier, please bugger off until my Prime membership is due for renewal. *Then* you can ask me if I want to have ad-free movies and TV.

Ford pulls the plug on EV strategy as losses pile up

anothercynic Silver badge

Chloe, that is a distinct problem in larger cities... I can only commiserate. And if you're in a major thoroughfare (like a major road, or where a lot of pedestrians walk), you can't simply have a charger installed and pull your cable through a window (I've seen this here though). That needs dealing with first before the death of ICEVs is announced and celebrated.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Spent Batteries

Yep, and there are several companies (in the Netherlands and the UK) who will pick those half-capacity batteries apart to build/refresh others. It's a good way to keep things going.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Spent Batteries

There are several recycling companies out there who recycling EV batteries (both in Europe and the US). They are small because there's no major feedstock yet, but their output goes back to the large battery manufacturers. No-one in their right mind wants to dump lithium into landfill, not least because of the fire risk!

anothercynic Silver badge

The car I have use of comes with two cards, one for the local 'home' infrastructure, i.e. where the car is based, and one for more general infrastructure (I assume the card works for those chargers compliant with PCPR'23). Quite useful when your local infrastructure is, well, local... :-)

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Once upon a time....

Well, I *did* say 'not that great', not 'it's utterly shit'. Given that in summer months you get nearly 50 miles (25%) more out of the battery, I'd say I'm being nice here.

And variance is not 'much less than you state'. Why? I use an MG4 EV at least twice a week. I know what my eyes see when I start the car to set off (it's always at 100% when I get it). So, unless 'Moggy at Electric Classic Cars in Wales' uses an MG4 EV at least twice a week, I'll stick to what I see, thank you.

And no, plugging the thing in is not a hassle at all... the charging column's software that glitches is more of an issue. :-)

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Once upon a time....

The MG4 is actually a quite a nice EV... in summer its range is around 200 miles, in the winter it's not that great (120-150 miles). It's ideal as a runabout or a small commuter.

Alaska Airlines' door-dropping flight was missing bolts

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Major major cock-up

This was picked up and fixed at BOEING, so it's Boeing who needs to carry the blame. And I'm waiting for the CEO's little sideways jibe at Spirit to be walked back too.

Cloudflare sheds more light on Thanksgiving security breach in which tokens, source code accessed by suspected spies

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Am I reading this correctly?

This is also why I refuse to migrate to 'cloud-hosted' solutions like LastPass or the new 1Password services. Nope, nope, nope.

Standards-obsessed boss ignored one, and suffered all night for his sin

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: is to gradually push less

Damn those Boxer engines... ;-)

Fujitsu gets $1B market cap haircut after TV disaster drama airs

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Fushitesu

IS. And ALSO. Fujitsu is also responsible.

WTF? Potty-mouthed intern's obscene error message mostly amused manager

anothercynic Silver badge
Trollface

Ohhhh, the dictionary from the Other Place says it's ok... ;-)

NASA, Lockheed Martin reveal subtly supersonic X-59 plane

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Douglas X-3 Stiletto, anybody?

Yes, they've done basics in wind tunnels and yes, you can do a lot of number crunching with CFD. BUT - Nothing beats testing the theory out in real terms with real objects going fast and going BOOM.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Douglas X-3 Stiletto, anybody?

Then again, shock waves have a way of obeying their own physics once they have left the plane behind them, so way down at ground level that "quiet thump" rides on some unproven assumptions.
Hence the new effort to test the hypothesis with said long-nosed plane! And yes, the data ought to be interesting and will probably be eagerly awaited by the likes of Boom Supersonic (whose Overture is designed along this line of research).

:-)

Why do IT projects like the UK's scandal-hit Post Office Horizon end in disaster?

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Building software is hard...

I have never been confused about HS2.

HS2 has always been a good project. Why? Because it creates *capacity*, something the Victorian-era railway corridors heading north don't have. If you've ever gone on a rail journey from Paddington, Marylebone, St Pancras, Euston or Kings Cross (or Liverpool Street, for that matter), you'll notice how close the built-up areas are to the rail tracks. Often it's only 4 tracks, maybe you have 6 if Overground or the Tube happen to be nearby. The Chilterns are the only real corridor left with some space (and yes, unfortunately, it's greenbelt land and thus should not be built on).

The media plays everyone like a fiddle. Those complaining for environmental reasons missed the point of the project because the media concentrated on the "look, we'll be in Birmingham 15 minutes faster" speed angle more instead of the environmental benefits like "we'll be there faster, but the towns inbetween get better local stopping services because there's more capacity on existing lines, and boy will we be able to pull lorries off the roads by shoving their cargo on trains!" - The former sells papers better than the latter. The constant whining introduced uncertainty, and yes, the councils and politicians protesting against HS2 crossing their constituencies didn't help much either. Unfortunately, several MPs are of the Tory persuasion and used their shmoozing powers to persuade others in their party to vote against various things, and also persuaded the men with the money to start cutting the cost of it. Bizarrely, there are enough local politicians of both camps up North who fully appreciate the benefits HS2 was going to deliver to their areas, only for them to get shafted by their own MPs in Westminster!!

It's a travesty. We deserve the railways we have because we want the best but refuse to pay for them. No, they are meant to magically manifest out of thin air with no environmental impact and money off the magic money tree!

anothercynic Silver badge

This. He was pretty clear that while HS2Ltd wasn't completely innocent, a lot is the government's constant changing of scope that was arguably the biggest driver of cost. Inflation (and COVID) had an effect, sure, but the biggest issue is the constant meddling with the scope.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Building software is hard...

This! This is what's made HS2 more expensive than it should be. The government is the paymaster, despite this being delivered by 'HS2 Limited'. The funding comes from the Treasury (via the DfT). The amount of time (and money) wasted in the chopping and changing of specifications for Euston (which is in a difficult spot, as any Londoner knows), is absolutely incredible. The rail industry pointed out time and again that the station should have at least 11 platforms for capacity reasons (well, once you build it, you can't really expand), but the government first decided that 10 would be enough (reducing the capacity and hence the benefit ratio by a significant margin), and now, is 'putting a stop' on development at Euston altogether (and driving the lines only to Old Oak Common in West London for the time being), which nobbles the project even further. Let's not add the cancellation of Phase 2b (to the East Midlands) and the nobbling of Phase 2a (instead of to Crewe, shoving more trains onto one of the most congested parts of the West Coast Main Line between Birmingham and Manchester).

Sometimes I do wish we had people in government who said "the project is now set in stone, get on with it" and leaving it be to run to the end without interference, which provides clarity and assurance to suppliers and the industry, so contracts can be costed with less contingency for cancellation, coming in cheaper and making the whole thing more cost effective. But no... we have politicians who like to meddle to show their constituents (or other shouty people in their party) they're doing 'something'.

How governments become addicted to suppliers like Fujitsu

anothercynic Silver badge

*smirk* And which blue are you? ;-)

anothercynic Silver badge

Sad thing is that the government keeps claiming that they couldn't possibly block Fujitsu from tendering in future is because they have the massive mainframes at HMRC etc.

It seems said ministers fail to realise that one *can* split services from actual hardware, so tendering for new mainframe type hardware is possible without tying oneself to having to allow them to tender for software projects like Horizon (or whatever the next project is).

Whether Fujitsu et al would go for that is another question, but money is money and money talks, and if you are given a choice of earning another 23.6 million on another mainframe upgrade or nada, I suspect the account manager(s) in question would say "yeah, we'll take those 23.6 million".

Office gossips beware – chitchat could choke your career chances

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Believing office gossip....

Ironically, I recently saw a clip from some podcast where they spoke to a white bloke from Jamaica (I think he was a rapper or something), where he explained that it was hard to persuade people that yes, Jamaica has white people and yes, they do speak with the Jamaican creole lilt, and that no, he was not taking the mickey.

I can fully appreciate that given that one *can* be from Africa and not be black, or not be white and not speak in a specific accent, but rather cut glass Queen's English. It's surprising (well it shouldn't be, this is the problem with stereotypes) how sticky (or persistent, if you prefer) stereotypes are!

Another airline finds loose bolts in Boeing 737-9 during post-blowout fleet inspections

anothercynic Silver badge

Aaaactually, it's to cozy up to the Pentagon. They give the company more money...

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: A gross understatement?

Please keep in mind that Royal Mail is not innocent either. Until 2012, the Post Office was part of Royal Mail. The Horizon-related prosecutions started before 2012, so RM is just as liable as the PO is. Vennells is just the last one holding the bag with the warm, brown, smelly stuff in it.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: A gross understatement?

It wasn't a mod by Spirit. It was a mod requested by Boeing.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: A gross understatement?

It may suggest that, yes...

anothercynic Silver badge

Alaska Air

Please don't refer to Alaska Airlines as 'Alaska Air', just because you can't be bothered typing an extra 5 characters. It's that kind of lazy journalism that leads to airline names getting mangled, or worse, mis-associated with other airlines with similar-sounding names but which are not related at all.

Nearly 200 Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes grounded after door plug flies off mid-flight

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Door plug flies off mid-flight ö

It's not a plug door because it isn't one. It's a plug. It's installed and fixed in place by bolts.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Door plug flies off mid-flight ö

No, that is a PLUG. A cabin door doesn't 'blow off', certainly not on a 737. A door is not 'unused and sealed to look like a window'. It's a PLUG. That's the point of a PLUG. It, as the name implies, PLUGS the door frame without the need for a door. JFC.

anothercynic Silver badge

Jon, together with Dom Gates from the Seattle Times, is all over this story. The safety stuff (like this incident) is always free, but this is high quality aerospace journalism. :-)

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: "Safety is our top priority"

Thing is that the pilots didn't reset and carry on (and this is also a reason to check the CVR recordings along with the FDR). It went pop in climb. Previous flight notes given to maintenance after flight indicated there was a problem and that maintenance was meant to look at it. That hadn't happened (yet?), and someone in scheduling decided that a quick flight over land wouldn't be a problem (the authorisation for ETOPS was withdrawn). It wasn't a problem until, well, the cork popped and now 170+ pax and crew live with the trauma of nearly having been sucked out of a door-sized hole in the fuselage. That little kid who lost his short and whose mum was quick-thinking enough to grab and hold on to him will have mental scars for life, and I would *not* be surprised if that family is going to launch a lawsuit against the airline and more importantly Boeing.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Numbers

Correct. Most of them do, in fact. The door is only not installed (and replaced by the plug) if the amount of seating is below a certain threshold. Most European and Asian airlines load them up. United likes their fancy biz class up front, and so does Alaska, so the number of passengers drops to below the threshold.

anothercynic Silver badge

Yes, and the FAA should force Boeing to go through improved certification, IMO. Grandfathering this in on the basis that blah-blah-blah doesn't count anymore.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Nearly 200 Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes grounded after door plug flies off mid-flight

However, the plug door *is* installed by Boeing (Spirit only partially rigs it for protection during the train ride to Renton).

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Nearly 200 Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes grounded after door plug flies off mid-flight

No, because no MAX is built in Charleston. Only the 787 is built there.

The MAX is only built in Renton.

Driverless cars swerve traffic tickets in California even if they break the law

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: If Corporations Are People

Read again carefully... Texas and Arizona already do this. California, uncharacteristically, lags behind and hasn't updated their laws yet.

ESA's Mars Express continues to avoid retirement home

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: NASA, again, proves its worth

MEX is an ESA project, as the article points out. However, your point stands as far as the engineering and science aimed at space is concerned.

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: No Martian would dare invade earth

Funny you should mention Speed Queen...

I have an Indesit washing machine that has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. A washing machine is only as good as you treat it... In those 20 years, the only thing I've had to replace was the broken door handle. Everything else still running as expected. :-)

China bans export of rare earth processing kit

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: LiDAR? Really?

It's not LiDAR that's the licensable technology... it's things that improve LiDAR accuracy etc... things that make it more cost effective and cheaper. :-)

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Oops!

Ahhh yes, let's blame Biden, when it actually was the orange Trumpet and his cohorts in Congress that started this slide down the slippery slope. And given the current administration is given no choice but to horsetrade with the MAGA brigade in the House of Representatives and the horde of lobbyists that rule Congress by proxy, there's not much left to be said.

And yes, absolutely, this *is* China giving the rest of the world the big middle finger. I don't see why they shouldn't.

Philips recalls 340 MRI machines because they may explode in an emergency

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: If you aren't full of shrapnel you will probably suffocate

Well, that's what the advisory points out... chemical exposure (exposure to He), lack of oxygen (all O displaced by He), etc...

Cloud engineer wreaks havoc on bank network after getting fired

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: Amazing!

This. But then again, this is First Republic Bank... One of those weird banks that went pop in the space of a week or two earlier this year (or was it 2022?) and had to be gobbled up by JPMorgan to stay 'afloat'. I bet the JPMorgan folks weren't impressed...

Tesla says California's Autopilot action violates its free speech rights

anothercynic Silver badge

Re: According to Musk, fraud is protected under the 1st Amendment

Dear Tesla, freedom of speech does not equal freedom from consequences. That's what the DMV (and actually the DoT and FTSB) is for... making sure you don't bullshit people and get them killed.

Sorry Tesla, you're wasting money you should spend on fixing your labour relations, your quality control and your 'Autopilot' instead.