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1. Email access to the local system through something like IMAP or POP, but I'll settle for Lotus Notes in a pinch.
2. Network filesystem access for my workstation, either direct or VPN. No remote terminals! My software is needed to do my calculations, and if I can't store the files on "your network", then I'll store them on my hard drive and too bad for you.
3. Filesystem access from remote locations (home, other offices). I travel a lot and can't get much done if I'm limited to working in "their" office.

1. To provide a PC with all relevant security patches installed, and virus protection enabled.
2. To use Client sanctioned applications where, in my professional opinion, they are capable of performing the tasks. This usually means Microsoft Office and usually means I get in a scrap with the IT guys when Excel is mandated for doing material balance or matrix calculations - both duties it is not suitable for. (Anybody able to explain to an IT dude what a Singular Matrix is and why it is not Invertible, in spite of what Excel does?)

1. Email access to the local system through something like IMAP or POP, but I'll settle for Lotus Notes in a pinch.
2. Network filesystem access for my workstation, either direct or VPN. No remote terminals! My software is needed to do my calculations, and if I can't store the files on "your network", then I'll store them on my hard drive and too bad for you.
3. Filesystem access from remote locations (home, other offices). I travel a lot and can't get much done if I'm limited to working in "their" office.

1. To provide a PC with all relevant security patches installed, and virus protection enabled.
2. To use Client sanctioned applications where, in my professional opinion, they are capable of performing the tasks. This usually means Microsoft Office and usually means I get in a scrap with the IT guys when Excel is mandated for doing material balance or matrix calculations - both duties it is not suitable for. (Anybody able to explain to an IT dude what a Singular Matrix is and why it is not Invertible, in spite of what Excel does?)

And another oddball use of spreadsheets that will curl most people's short hairs.

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And another oddball use of spreadsheets that will curl most people's short hairs.

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To be blunt, the guys who wrote the Excel GUI got an "A" in computer science, but the guys who built the calculation engine only got a "C+". To be a truely great spreadsheet, Excel must:

• Use backward chaining to iterate circular calculations
• Not invert singular matrices
• Put in a more robust statistics package, although this may be a sub-set of the matrix math problems.

Any engineer who gives me a calculation done in Excel using circular reference calculations had better be prepared to get his butt roasted. I've had 10Mb files modelling a copper smelter that converged to a wrong answer - that's unacceptable given that the same calculation saved as a 1-2-3 file converged to a correct answer in 10 seconds using Lotus 1-2-3.

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To be blunt, the guys who wrote the Excel GUI got an "A" in computer science, but the guys who built the calculation engine only got a "C+". To be a truely great spreadsheet, Excel must:

• Use backward chaining to iterate circular calculations
• Not invert singular matrices
• Put in a more robust statistics package, although this may be a sub-set of the matrix math problems.

Any engineer who gives me a calculation done in Excel using circular reference calculations had better be prepared to get his butt roasted. I've had 10Mb files modelling a copper smelter that converged to a wrong answer - that's unacceptable given that the same calculation saved as a 1-2-3 file converged to a correct answer in 10 seconds using Lotus 1-2-3.

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Have your promo pack on the site. Only one of my Clients does, but that gives them an advantage over the competition. Make sure the promoters know who you are, what you play, and what you need on stage for plugs and boards.

And photos! Fans love em. Promoters need em. Find yourself a good PHP type package like yappa-ng and smile for the birdie!

My $0.05 about music online: consider it your radio play. Release a few "singles" to your website (and wherever else you can) and don't skimp on the quality. The promoters are listing to a dozen MP3s a day and if yours doesn't stand out, then you won't be on stage.

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Shameless link to my own template

I'm presently on the move from Alberta to British Columbia for work, so yes, migration can also happen without leaving your own country. There has always been a place for mobile professionals in the world -- in the 1800s they were explorers, fur traders and mercenaries, in the 1900s they were generally business men, and in the 2000s they are engineers and exotic dancers.

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I'm presently on the move from Alberta to British Columbia for work, so yes, migration can also happen without leaving your own country. There has always been a place for mobile professionals in the world -- in the 1800s they were explorers, fur traders and mercenaries, in the 1900s they were generally business men, and in the 2000s they are engineers and exotic dancers.

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I'm presently on the move from Alberta to British Columbia for work, so yes, migration can also happen without leaving your own country. There has always been a place for mobile professionals in the world -- in the 1800s they were explorers, fur traders and mercenaries, in the 1900s they were generally business men, and in the 2000s they are engineers and exotic dancers.

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I'm presently on the move from Alberta to British Columbia for work, so yes, migration can also happen without leaving your own country. There has always been a place for mobile professionals in the world -- in the 1800s they were explorers, fur traders and mercenaries, in the 1900s they were generally business men, and in the 2000s they are engineers and exotic dancers.

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I'm presently on the move from Alberta to British Columbia for work, so yes, migration can also happen without leaving your own country. There has always been a place for mobile professionals in the world -- in the 1800s they were explorers, fur traders and mercenaries, in the 1900s they were generally business men, and in the 2000s they are engineers and exotic dancers.

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I'm presently on the move from Alberta to British Columbia for work, so yes, migration can also happen without leaving your own country. There has always been a place for mobile professionals in the world -- in the 1800s they were explorers, fur traders and mercenaries, in the 1900s they were generally business men, and in the 2000s they are engineers and exotic dancers.

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The oilsand projects I'm working on cost, typically, $1B per 22k bbls/day.

Iraq is now producing about 1.5 Mbbls/day of crude. Let's assume that the $85B is a capital cost to keep this oil moving (which is nonsense, but you insist in including these costs in the oil capex. So be it). This means that the capex to develop a 1500k bbl/day plant should cost $65B. So, yes, the cost is a little bit higher than developing oil in a safe place like Alberta or Alaska but it is not orders of magnitude higher.

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Titanium is extremely difficult to work with-- just ask the Australians who were lining high temperature autoclaves with them. Titanium is brittle and burns at high temp and high O2 overpressures (think Sodium fires). Welding it is an art and must be done under an inert atmosphere making it very succeptible to something known as 'human error'. Zirconium is in the same family as Titanium and likely suffers the same firey fate.

I'm not aware of Molybdenum ever being used in its 'elemental' form. Most common uses are as sulphides and oxides as lubricants or in alloying with ferrous metals. There is likely a reason for nobody using it in elemental form - I don't know what it is. I'll check some of my reference books and get back to the group with the results. I suspect it is a promiscuous metal and will corrode easily.

Technetium, Ruthenium, Iridium, Scandium and Hafnium are so rare that I have never encountered them in my career. I suspect you would have a hard time a) finding enough of them, and b) finding anybody who knows how to weld them.

Tantalum is often used as a substitute for titanium in autoclave parts that are subjected to high O2 atmospheres. Unbelievably expensive... a solid Tantalum component is worth several times the costs of titanium in the same component.

Platinum, Rhodium and other PGMs (paladium, etc) are expensive and ductile. Need to alloy them with something to get the strength up (think 24 karat gold versus 10 karat gold). But what happens to the melting temp when you start alloying it?

Niobium is, to my knowledge, only mined in a single place in North America: Niobec. These guys don't make an elemental product, they make an alloy known as Ferroniobium that is sold to steel plants for use in alloying.

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