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macd

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Here we go again.

Quotes from the article:
"The last time the Sun reached a peak in activity, satellite navigation was barely a consumer product."
The last peak was about 10 years ago.

"it [amount of GPS error] varies quite a lot across the Earth; looking at the UK it will be about 10-metre errors in the positioning."
We're all doomed.

"Ten metres out is probably going to be OK for a sat-nav system in a car, but if you're using the system for something safety-critical like ships coming into harbour... "
Didn't know sunspots also afflicted the Mk1 eyeball.
 

Bilgediver

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As that story's a week old, you might have read it by now! Then you'd have seen that the scientists' guess is that there might be a 10 metre error in UK GPS positions. Is that such a big deal?

Yes.....The train doors will stay closed :D:D:D
 

prv

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Remember the 'millenium bug'? Billions chucked at it.

Ever consider that it was that money and effort chucked at it that *made* it a non-event for most people? That was the desired result, and it was successfully achieved.

Yes, there was a lot of silly media exaggeration about your toaster exploding and gangs of post-apocalyptic zombies roaming the streets, but there were genuine problems in the computing infrastructure that needed to be fixed.

Pete
 

elton

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The BBC are confusing a reduction in accuracy with errors. I don't think it's even possible for GPS to produce errors.

(And as prv suggest, hard work prevented the millenium bug causing problems - contrary to the ill-informed opinion of BBC's 'You and Yours' presenter, Winifred Robinson.)
 

Seakindly

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some of my best friends..

Now, no offence intended (some of my best friends are in IT...etc) but this point about 'possibilistic risk' and the paralyzing grip it has on western culture is worth getting a handle on. I don't know about Winnifred Robinson of the BBC but the Pentagon considered the millennium bug could reduce the US to a Balkan State. Lloyds of London refused to insure non-Y2K compliant ships. I have no doubt there were some software implications in some institutions -but aeroplanes falling out of the sky? You only have to do limited searching to find contemporary predictions of apocalyptic proportions by otherwise sober commentators and 'experts'. A detailed review of the policy and publicity showed that technical experts who had properly estimated the limited extent of the 'problem' just could not get a platform or opinion heard.
Seltzer has some useful insights on this:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Some-Perspective-5-Years-After-Y2K/

..but that's not point really - as Frank Farudi argues convincingly, the unknown was once an exciting challenge. Now it provokes anxiety and fear.
Thank goodness -everyone on this forum defies that by going to sea.

Farudi's piece is here:

http://www.frankfuredi.com/images/uploads/Furedi_-_issue_Pieterman_d.d._27_augustus1.pdf
 

Grumpybear

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