For example, designing a good audio amplifier is hard, but if a transistor (or capacitor) is bad, finding and replacing it is easier than designing the amp from scratch.
Same thing with a car. Some things cannot be fixed and need to be replaced, but electrical components (relays and such - my car (Mercedes W123 200) was made in 1982 so it does not have very complex electronics) can be fixed most of the time (unless the relay is worn out and there is hard to find). Replacing the bad module is the next step, but why replace, say, the fan speed control amplifier (expensive) in a Nissan Primera P12 (2003) if all the module needs is a much cheaper temp fuse or a most a MOSFET which is not as cheap as the fuse but stil much cheaper than the whole module (the amp is just the MOSFET, fuse, a couple of resistors, a small capacitor and a heatsink)..
As for the carburetor - you may only need to replace the bad part, not the whole unit.
And I use arrows for movement, invert mouse Y axis (so the (fps/tps) game is controlled like a plane), right click for jumping.
Other functions are accessed by the keys around the arrow keys, for example, reload is enter, alt fire is delete and so on.
I think some game had inverted Y axis as the default, or it seemed more intuitive when I first started playing games that allowed you to look up and down. In any case, if I can move the pointer independently from the panning, the Y axis stays normal, if the pointer is fixed and the whole image pans when I move the mouse, I invert the Y axis.
How that system worked in practice, I'm not sure, but in theory it sounds great to make it easy for someone who has the aptitude to be able to pursue that ability through to a career.
Well, there are quite a few skilled musicians who are still popular. Then again, there is no way to know what could have been if my country was not occupied by the USSR.
The problem is that a big disaster in a nuclear power plant affects a wide area and is broadcasted around the world, so people are afraid of it, while coal and other methods kill people all the time, but only in small numbers at once, so nobody cares.
It's the same as with planes vs cars for transport. People die in car accidents every day, but since the numbers are small nobody cares. On the other hand, if a plane crashes somewhere, half the world knows about it since a lot of people die at once.
This video isn't the best, but the concept is to put the balloons at high altitudes where wind is constant and since these have verly little impact on the ground, they can be placed anywhere
Unless the system that keeps it in place fails, then I imagine it would make quite an impact on the ground.
I do not have the schematics of the flashlight, but maybe it could be operated from 3-4 AA batteries (nominal voltage 4.5-6V) if it can tolerate higher or lower voltages.
Also a lovely circular fail mode when using the flashlight to see what I'm doing while jumpstarting my car in the dark, if I had the juice to charge the light so I could see what I was jumpstarting, I wouldn't need the jumpstart
Your battery might be too weak for the starter motor (which pulls more than 100A), but strong enough for the flashlight (which uses much less current).
For some reason my link did not get posted the last time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Soviet_Union Is where you can read more about the copyright law in the USSR, it is quite interesting and in some cases logical (or at least seems logical to me).
I do not remember the amount, but for a performance for recording, it was not much (less than someone would earn in a month working in a factory 8 hours a day), but enough, I guess. They also got paid for performing on TV, be it a music show or a video clip.
Also, the more popular bands had a lot of concerts (sometimes 2-3 concerts per day and they all could be in different places), for those they earned more money.
This was for the performers, I do not know how much the songwriters/composers got paid, though they probably got paid for each song/text. The more popular composers and song writers had many songs created.
I found a wikipedia article on copyright in the USSR, it is quite interesting. For example, if the work was available in a form suitable for TV or radio, it could be used for free (that's why the artists only got paid for the recording), any personal use was OK.
Yea, something like that was in the USSR. The artist got paid for performing, whether that was for a record or in a concert. Then, in case of the recording, the record would be made and sold, but people could copy the music to tape, since the record belonged to the state and by extension to the people. The artist got paid only once for every performance, that is if they got permission to perform at all (you had to be good and your music had to be appropriate for the ideology). That was in line with everyone else, since, for example, a factory worker got paid for the amount of items he/she made, that is for the actual work done.
While usually a bug in the code indeed exposes the security measure to possible abuse, if you run transparent however, lacking a public IP address makes the chance those particular bugs get abused drop dramatically
Oh, OK. Since I do not have a lot of money, I want to use the physical machine not only as a router, but give it other functions as well, for example VPN server (so I can connect securely with my laptop, I won't start using unencrypted connections just because the internal IPs of my network are public accessible). In this case the device will have to have its own public IP.
I'll also read about the method of counting machines behind NAT, it looks interesting.
Anyway, I use a NAT router without an additional (hardware) firewall, just the software one that is provided with the OS (both Windows and Linux) of the router I use. It drops packets that are not set up to go anywhere (the alternative would be for the router to interpret those packets as directed to it, which is less secure).
NAT can be used for other things than just saving addresses, I do hope that it will be available for IPv6 by the time my ISP starts using v6 and/or it becomes really needed.
Additionally a firewall can be run transparent lowering the attack surface of your security measure on the ('evil') outside, the principle of NAT makes this impossible for NAT implementations as far as I know.
OK, now I'm a bit confused. I assume that by transparent firewall you mean that the internal IPs are exposed (the firewall behaves like it is not there, well, other than filtering some packets). In that case I do not see why the attack surface would be lowered. I mean a NAT router also has a firewall (on Linux for example, iptables can be used as a router and firewall). If there is a bug in the firewall code then the device can be hacked and that does not depend on the mode. Same with NAT, if there is a bug in the code then it can be hacked.
Also, a transparent firewall would allow the bad guys to count how many machines you have. While this is not really serious, it would help them, especially since with NAT they cannot be sure whether port 12345 and 12346 go to the same machine or not.
However if you want to drop everything/connections you don't want it remains true that, while it's not the purpose of NAT, it is the added result. One simple rule in a firewall does the same on the other hand.
Yes, and both methods work well. What I meant was, you said about connectivity issues that are present with NAT. Yes, I need to forward a port for you to be able to connect to me. But the same would be true if I used a firewall - I still would have to add a rule to allow your packets. If I used Linux and iptables, the rules would look very similar.
Also, the point is that with IPv6, nobody would force you to use NAT, like it is with IPv4. If you do not like it or use protocols that do not support it, just do not use NAT, while I could continue to use it (if it becomes available of course).
There's doubt about how wise it would be to define a standard for IPv6 NAT since it's likely to promote the use of NAT(partially due to familiarity with it), and thus maintaining connectivity issues existent in IPv4 today. (As well as application development challenges that come with the use of NAT)
Well, "connectivity issues" will remain because people will be using firewalls that block by default. Adding an exception is the same difficulty as forwarding a port on a NAT router. And your applications should use the IP addresses in the packet headers anyway.
Some find NAT to be a security measure, or even worse(in my opinion at least) a best practice concerning internet connectivity for clients.
NAT for clients is essentially the same as a firewall that blocks by default. Would you advise not to use one?
I'd much rather not use NAT at home, instead have only a decent firewall configuration to provide security and limit only the connectivity I choose to limit.
That's your choice, but I'd rather block by default and allow what I choose to allow. That way, there is less chance that I miss a port and get hacked (if I miss a port on a block by default configuration, the connection does not work and I find out quite fast, if I miss a port on an allow by default configuration I might not know about it until I get hacked).
I once used NAT to load balance two internet connections with zero cooperation from the ISPs. The application I used also did not know about this and even BitTorrent worked over such configration.
I'm waiting for my ISP to offer IPv6. No, I do not want to use a tunnel because of two reasons: 1. Since there are no exit points inside my country, the connection will be slower 2. When the ISP actually starts offering IPv6, the tunnel configuration will not work for it (so I can't prepare for it now) and I might actually have new computers with newer OSs by that time, so configuring the old ones might be pointless.
Also, maybe by the time the ISP offers IPv6 some OS will support NAT for it (NAT has more uses than just making more than one PC appear as one to conserve addresses).
There is a way to do it. Assign the extended IPs to the internal networks, while keeping the original IP as the public one. That way, the old routers would still be able to route it correctly.
A longer version:
Extend the IP address by 4 more bytes, up to 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 (for example), place the additional bytes somewhere in the packet header where the old routers do not really look (options for example). So, old routers will see 1.2.3.4 and deliver it correctly to the ISP/company that has it and has the new routers, which can then deliver the packet inside their network to the correct destination. Yes, you won't be able to assign 1.2.3.4.5.6/48 to one ISP and 1.2.3.4.5.7/48 to another, but IPv6 is also set to assign huge subnets to one ISP.
This way old devices can still somewhat communicate by using the old half of the address and each company/ISP will be able to decide what to do with them, provide a static page saying you need to upgrade, use NAT to provide some of the services etc.
Yes: Play games and play Blu-ray discs. Other OS was NEVER a major reason for people to buy a PS3.
Well, even if one person bought PS3 for both games and other OS, it was still immoral to turn the feature off without a partial refund. If the PS3 did not have the other OS feature, maybe the person would have bought Xbox360 or no console at all.
This feature may not have been one that majority cared about, but it was still advertised and official, not an undocumented function. Overclock capability is undocumented and not advertised, so you cannot blame Intel or AMD that your CPU is unstable when overclocked even though the same model runs great for everyone else.
There are a lot of rarely used functions of devices. But then the fact that the manufacturer included that function means that it is used by someone (otherwise, why include it and raise the price/lower the profit?). Same thing with the Other OS feature. Sony knew that it was useful to someone, that's why they bothered to include and advertise it in the first place. Then they act surprised when some people actually use it.
optional update
Not optional if you want to use your device as it was advertised - for games, Bluray and other OS.
security flaw in their gaming console
Right, if you don't update you'll get hacked. I don't know of anybody who got hacked trough their PS3 or got malware on it. As for people hacking their own consoles - I do not really see a problem. I can hack my PC all day long, try out various security measures etc.
a feature that is neither for gaming nor for playing Blu-ray discs?
Yet a feature that was advertised and a feature that may have caused some people to make the decision to buy a PS3 instead of a competitors product.
A feature which very few ever used, and of those that do, can continue to do so just fine?
They cannot for various reasons: 1. Some applied the update without being warned that it will turn off the Other OS feature without a way of restoring it (if some Windows update messes up my PC, I can format, reinstall and make sure that I do not install that update again). 2. Some bought the PS3 for both games and Other OS, otherwise maybe they would have bought a PC for both games ans Linux or Xbox360 for games and PC for Linux.
As for "not affecting a lot of people" and why I care even tough it does not affect me directly, well, next time I could be part of the "not a lot" set - buy a device for some function just to get that function removed some time later. Though maybe that's why I prefer older devices if they can serve the same function - I can repair them and modify them as much as I like without any trouble from the manufacturer.
Yea, if another service is much better than Skype, then people will gradually switch to it.
For example, people are ditching IE and using other browsers because they are better. Not a lot of people would use a browser that was "the same as IE, but open source".
With networks (like Skype) this is more difficult since you need to convince your friends to switch, but it can be done. There were other VoIP services before Skype, but they were worse than Skype. Also, some IM services, like ICQ are no longer used as much as they were.
"As good as" won't do. It would have to be much better.
Here's why: Normally, Skype works, also, a lot of my friends use it. So, I'm quite happy with it. To get me to switch to another system (and to somehow persuade my friends to do it too, since if I'm the only one using the new system it's not very useful) the new system has to be much better than skype. Being "open" is not a high priority - Skype is available for Windows and Linux, I do not need to pay for it (legally), so I will not try to write my own client.
So, there is no point for me to switch to another system (and convince all my friends to do the same) if all I'm going to end up with will be "as good as Skype". I can use Skype without all that additional effort of switching.
Alternators are not generators, you can spin them all day long without generating any electrical energy at all if you never apply any voltage to the coils. They don't have permeant magnets in them, you have to energize the electromagnets, which you do by giving it some more juice from the jump start.uote> Yes, but the "does not have enough power for the starter, but is not 0V" battery could provide power to the coils - they must use much less power than the starter.
My dad said that he once drove the car to a gas station to buy a battery without any battery connected. He got the car jump started and then the car ran quite well without the battery.
Probably has something to do with the car not having any computers, so the electrical load probably is smaller.
Well, maybe the monitoring software needs to write the data somewhere and one of the places is the local disk (so that if the network goes down the data is still recorded), so the PC would still have to have a writable storage device (the hard drive).
As for removable storage, again, maybe they need it to move the data in case the network is down. That's why I wrote the need to obtain permission. If they do not need it, then the permission will never be given.
I have a German Psion Series 5, the function names in its version of Excel are German, but if I copy the file to another Psion with English interface, it works and the formula names are in English.
So, I guess you could have the localized commands, but do not save them as text, save them as a command number (or something like that) instead, so that a different language version of Excel could then insert the English command names.
Slashdot Mirror
Why do you need a TPM for that? Just write the software to a CD-R then boot from that CD when you need to.
Designing something is harder than fixing it.
For example, designing a good audio amplifier is hard, but if a transistor (or capacitor) is bad, finding and replacing it is easier than designing the amp from scratch.
Same thing with a car. Some things cannot be fixed and need to be replaced, but electrical components (relays and such - my car (Mercedes W123 200) was made in 1982 so it does not have very complex electronics) can be fixed most of the time (unless the relay is worn out and there is hard to find). Replacing the bad module is the next step, but why replace, say, the fan speed control amplifier (expensive) in a Nissan Primera P12
(2003) if all the module needs is a much cheaper temp fuse or a most a MOSFET which is not as cheap as the fuse but stil much cheaper than the whole module (the amp is just the MOSFET, fuse, a couple of resistors, a small capacitor and a heatsink)..
As for the carburetor - you may only need to replace the bad part, not the whole unit.
And I use arrows for movement, invert mouse Y axis (so the (fps/tps) game is controlled like a plane), right click for jumping.
Other functions are accessed by the keys around the arrow keys, for example, reload is enter, alt fire is delete and so on.
I think some game had inverted Y axis as the default, or it seemed more intuitive when I first started playing games that allowed you to look up and down. In any case, if I can move the pointer independently from the panning, the Y axis stays normal, if the pointer is fixed and the whole image pans when I move the mouse, I invert the Y axis.
How that system worked in practice, I'm not sure, but in theory it sounds great to make it easy for someone who has the aptitude to be able to pursue that ability through to a career.
Well, there are quite a few skilled musicians who are still popular. Then again, there is no way to know what could have been if my country was not occupied by the USSR.
The problem is that a big disaster in a nuclear power plant affects a wide area and is broadcasted around the world, so people are afraid of it, while coal and other methods kill people all the time, but only in small numbers at once, so nobody cares.
It's the same as with planes vs cars for transport. People die in car accidents every day, but since the numbers are small nobody cares. On the other hand, if a plane crashes somewhere, half the world knows about it since a lot of people die at once.
This video isn't the best, but the concept is to put the balloons at high altitudes where wind is constant and since these have verly little impact on the ground, they can be placed anywhere
Unless the system that keeps it in place fails, then I imagine it would make quite an impact on the ground.
I do not have the schematics of the flashlight, but maybe it could be operated from 3-4 AA batteries (nominal voltage 4.5-6V) if it can tolerate higher or lower voltages.
Also a lovely circular fail mode when using the flashlight to see what I'm doing while jumpstarting my car in the dark, if I had the juice to charge the light so I could see what I was jumpstarting, I wouldn't need the jumpstart
Your battery might be too weak for the starter motor (which pulls more than 100A), but strong enough for the flashlight (which uses much less current).
For some reason my link did not get posted the last time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_Soviet_Union
Is where you can read more about the copyright law in the USSR, it is quite interesting and in some cases logical (or at least seems logical to me).
I do not remember the amount, but for a performance for recording, it was not much (less than someone would earn in a month working in a factory 8 hours a day), but enough, I guess. They also got paid for performing on TV, be it a music show or a video clip.
Also, the more popular bands had a lot of concerts (sometimes 2-3 concerts per day and they all could be in different places), for those they earned more money.
This was for the performers, I do not know how much the songwriters/composers got paid, though they probably got paid for each song/text. The more popular composers and song writers had many songs created.
I found a wikipedia article on copyright in the USSR, it is quite interesting. For example, if the work was available in a form suitable for TV or radio, it could be used for free (that's why the artists only got paid for the recording), any personal use was OK.
Yea, something like that was in the USSR. The artist got paid for performing, whether that was for a record or in a concert. Then, in case of the recording, the record would be made and sold, but people could copy the music to tape, since the record belonged to the state and by extension to the people. The artist got paid only once for every performance, that is if they got permission to perform at all (you had to be good and your music had to be appropriate for the ideology). That was in line with everyone else, since, for example, a factory worker got paid for the amount of items he/she made, that is for the actual work done.
if noncommercial infringement in the developed world were considered "okay", would anyone pay for music or movies?
People would still most likely go to concerts and cinemas.
While usually a bug in the code indeed exposes the security measure to possible abuse, if you run transparent however, lacking a public IP address makes the chance those particular bugs get abused drop dramatically
Oh, OK.
Since I do not have a lot of money, I want to use the physical machine not only as a router, but give it other functions as well, for example VPN server (so I can connect securely with my laptop, I won't start using unencrypted connections just because the internal IPs of my network are public accessible). In this case the device will have to have its own public IP.
I'll also read about the method of counting machines behind NAT, it looks interesting.
Anyway, I use a NAT router without an additional (hardware) firewall, just the software one that is provided with the OS (both Windows and Linux) of the router I use. It drops packets that are not set up to go anywhere (the alternative would be for the router to interpret those packets as directed to it, which is less secure).
NAT can be used for other things than just saving addresses, I do hope that it will be available for IPv6 by the time my ISP starts using v6 and/or it becomes really needed.
Additionally a firewall can be run transparent lowering the attack surface of your security measure on the ('evil') outside, the principle of NAT makes this impossible for NAT implementations as far as I know.
OK, now I'm a bit confused. I assume that by transparent firewall you mean that the internal IPs are exposed (the firewall behaves like it is not there, well, other than filtering some packets). In that case I do not see why the attack surface would be lowered. I mean a NAT router also has a firewall (on Linux for example, iptables can be used as a router and firewall). If there is a bug in the firewall code then the device can be hacked and that does not depend on the mode. Same with NAT, if there is a bug in the code then it can be hacked.
Also, a transparent firewall would allow the bad guys to count how many machines you have. While this is not really serious, it would help them, especially since with NAT they cannot be sure whether port 12345 and 12346 go to the same machine or not.
However if you want to drop everything/connections you don't want it remains true that, while it's not the purpose of NAT, it is the added result. One simple rule in a firewall does the same on the other hand.
Yes, and both methods work well. What I meant was, you said about connectivity issues that are present with NAT. Yes, I need to forward a port for you to be able to connect to me. But the same would be true if I used a firewall - I still would have to add a rule to allow your packets. If I used Linux and iptables, the rules would look very similar.
Also, the point is that with IPv6, nobody would force you to use NAT, like it is with IPv4. If you do not like it or use protocols that do not support it, just do not use NAT, while I could continue to use it (if it becomes available of course).
There's doubt about how wise it would be to define a standard for IPv6 NAT since it's likely to promote the use of NAT(partially due to familiarity with it), and thus maintaining connectivity issues existent in IPv4 today. (As well as application development challenges that come with the use of NAT)
Well, "connectivity issues" will remain because people will be using firewalls that block by default. Adding an exception is the same difficulty as forwarding a port on a NAT router. And your applications should use the IP addresses in the packet headers anyway.
Some find NAT to be a security measure, or even worse(in my opinion at least) a best practice concerning internet connectivity for clients.
NAT for clients is essentially the same as a firewall that blocks by default. Would you advise not to use one?
I'd much rather not use NAT at home, instead have only a decent firewall configuration to provide security and limit only the connectivity I choose to limit.
That's your choice, but I'd rather block by default and allow what I choose to allow. That way, there is less chance that I miss a port and get hacked (if I miss a port on a block by default configuration, the connection does not work and I find out quite fast, if I miss a port on an allow by default configuration I might not know about it until I get hacked).
I once used NAT to load balance two internet connections with zero cooperation from the ISPs. The application I used also did not know about this and even BitTorrent worked over such configration.
While I'm at it, jumbo frames can be up to 1MB. Network gear claiming to be IPv5 compliant MUST support this. Boom, less overhead.
That would be really fun on 100mbps LAN and Wi-Fi. Oh, look, somebody is sending a 1MB frame, OK, my VoIP/game packet can wait those >100ms...
I'm waiting for my ISP to offer IPv6. No, I do not want to use a tunnel because of two reasons:
1. Since there are no exit points inside my country, the connection will be slower
2. When the ISP actually starts offering IPv6, the tunnel configuration will not work for it (so I can't prepare for it now) and I might actually have new computers with newer OSs by that time, so configuring the old ones might be pointless.
Also, maybe by the time the ISP offers IPv6 some OS will support NAT for it (NAT has more uses than just making more than one PC appear as one to conserve addresses).
There is a way to do it. Assign the extended IPs to the internal networks, while keeping the original IP as the public one. That way, the old routers would still be able to route it correctly.
A longer version:
Extend the IP address by 4 more bytes, up to 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 (for example), place the additional bytes somewhere in the packet header where the old routers do not really look (options for example). So, old routers will see 1.2.3.4 and deliver it correctly to the ISP/company that has it and has the new routers, which can then deliver the packet inside their network to the correct destination. Yes, you won't be able to assign 1.2.3.4.5.6/48 to one ISP and 1.2.3.4.5.7/48 to another, but IPv6 is also set to assign huge subnets to one ISP.
This way old devices can still somewhat communicate by using the old half of the address and each company/ISP will be able to decide what to do with them, provide a static page saying you need to upgrade, use NAT to provide some of the services etc.
Yes: Play games and play Blu-ray discs. Other OS was NEVER a major reason for people to buy a PS3.
Well, even if one person bought PS3 for both games and other OS, it was still immoral to turn the feature off without a partial refund. If the PS3 did not have the other OS feature, maybe the person would have bought Xbox360 or no console at all.
This feature may not have been one that majority cared about, but it was still advertised and official, not an undocumented function. Overclock capability is undocumented and not advertised, so you cannot blame Intel or AMD that your CPU is unstable when overclocked even though the same model runs great for everyone else.
There are a lot of rarely used functions of devices. But then the fact that the manufacturer included that function means that it is used by someone (otherwise, why include it and raise the price/lower the profit?). Same thing with the Other OS feature. Sony knew that it was useful to someone, that's why they bothered to include and advertise it in the first place. Then they act surprised when some people actually use it.
optional update
Not optional if you want to use your device as it was advertised - for games, Bluray and other OS.
security flaw in their gaming console
Right, if you don't update you'll get hacked. I don't know of anybody who got hacked trough their PS3 or got malware on it. As for people hacking their own consoles - I do not really see a problem. I can hack my PC all day long, try out various security measures etc.
a feature that is neither for gaming nor for playing Blu-ray discs?
Yet a feature that was advertised and a feature that may have caused some people to make the decision to buy a PS3 instead of a competitors product.
A feature which very few ever used, and of those that do, can continue to do so just fine?
They cannot for various reasons:
1. Some applied the update without being warned that it will turn off the Other OS feature without a way of restoring it (if some Windows update messes up my PC, I can format, reinstall and make sure that I do not install that update again).
2. Some bought the PS3 for both games and Other OS, otherwise maybe they would have bought a PC for both games ans Linux or Xbox360 for games and PC for Linux.
As for "not affecting a lot of people" and why I care even tough it does not affect me directly, well, next time I could be part of the "not a lot" set - buy a device for some function just to get that function removed some time later. Though maybe that's why I prefer older devices if they can serve the same function - I can repair them and modify them as much as I like without any trouble from the manufacturer.
Yea, if another service is much better than Skype, then people will gradually switch to it.
For example, people are ditching IE and using other browsers because they are better. Not a lot of people would use a browser that was "the same as IE, but open source".
With networks (like Skype) this is more difficult since you need to convince your friends to switch, but it can be done. There were other VoIP services before Skype, but they were worse than Skype. Also, some IM services, like ICQ are no longer used as much as they were.
"As good as" won't do. It would have to be much better.
Here's why:
Normally, Skype works, also, a lot of my friends use it. So, I'm quite happy with it. To get me to switch to another system (and to somehow persuade my friends to do it too, since if I'm the only one using the new system it's not very useful) the new system has to be much better than skype. Being "open" is not a high priority - Skype is available for Windows and Linux, I do not need to pay for it (legally), so I will not try to write my own client.
So, there is no point for me to switch to another system (and convince all my friends to do the same) if all I'm going to end up with will be "as good as Skype". I can use Skype without all that additional effort of switching.
Alternators are not generators, you can spin them all day long without generating any electrical energy at all if you never apply any voltage to the coils. They don't have permeant magnets in them, you have to energize the electromagnets, which you do by giving it some more juice from the jump start.uote>
Yes, but the "does not have enough power for the starter, but is not 0V" battery could provide power to the coils - they must use much less power than the starter.
My dad said that he once drove the car to a gas station to buy a battery without any battery connected. He got the car jump started and then the car ran quite well without the battery.
Probably has something to do with the car not having any computers, so the electrical load probably is smaller.
Well, maybe the monitoring software needs to write the data somewhere and one of the places is the local disk (so that if the network goes down the data is still recorded), so the PC would still have to have a writable storage device (the hard drive).
As for removable storage, again, maybe they need it to move the data in case the network is down. That's why I wrote the need to obtain permission. If they do not need it, then the permission will never be given.
I have a German Psion Series 5, the function names in its version of Excel are German, but if I copy the file to another Psion with English interface, it works and the formula names are in English.
So, I guess you could have the localized commands, but do not save them as text, save them as a command number (or something like that) instead, so that a different language version of Excel could then insert the English command names.