Re:Not for experts?
on
Black Hat
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· Score: 4, Insightful
It's good to post it because we all know someone who could use a book like this.
My mother-in-law, brother-in-law and wife who like to download libraries of "little smilies" from banner ads, chocked full of spyware, who don't understand attachments and their danger are prime examples.
I can explain it till I'm blue in the face, but all I get is a blank stare. A professional writer, with a sense of humour, might be able to get through to them.
For example, how many people in the car, how much do they weigh? Anything in the trunk?
How much fuel is in the tank (it's heavy, and if they assume you have a full tank, you'll burn more fuel than if you always drive with less than half a tank)?
Yah, I ran this for about a year before I switched ISPs (and got a new, spam-free email account).
It was amazingly accurate, with about one mistake per thousand emails once I had it trained. I'll go back to it if I start to get a bunch of crap in my in-box. I remember reading that spammers would test their emails against the most popular anti-spam filters, but they still almost never got through Popfile.
I tried SpamAssassin as well, after I had some issues with PopFile (it would stop responding after a large volume of email), and it was more difficult to set up, and didn't have the nice configuration options of Popfile.
RAID 1 (mirroring) cards are cheap (and sometimes built into the motherboard), but for every gigabyte you want for storage, you need to be two gigabytes worth of hard drives.
RAID 5 cards cost more money (sometimes a thousand dollars or more), but if you set up a 5 drive system, only one of the drives is "wasted" storing redundancy data (of course, you need to buy five hard drives). RAID 5 on three drives is possible, bu the "wasted space" ratio goes from 20% to 33%, as a whole drive's worth of capacity is used to store parity info.
There are other RAID setups that use combinations of striping, mirroring, etc in an attempt to overcome performance bottlenecks.
Another interesting setup is NetCell's SyncRaid/Raid XL - Tom's Hardware had an article on it a while ago, but actually getting it is tough.
If you are planning on building a new system, Anandtech had an interesting article on RAID on the motherboard.
After a few years of experience with Promise RAID 0+1, Promise RAID 5, 3Ware RAID 5 and SCSI RAID 5, and recently 3Ware SATA RAID 5, I would say that the cheaper solutions often provide a false sense of security, especially if using IDE drives. We have a machine that has a Promise RAID-5 IDE setup that on reboot, seems to require a few restarts to get up and running, and when we lost a drive recently, it took quite a while for the array to rebuild (though this might not be an issue at home, where it's faster to rebuild an array than rebuild your whole computer on a fresh drive). I had a Promise RAID 0+1 card in a computer a few years ago that would corrupt any large file that I moved between hard drives on the computer.
If your data is important, get a good card from a trusted manufacturer (3ware is pretty good, and they have open source Linux drivers), and go SATA.
And I bet he's not adding his labor to the cost-per-gallon (the article doesn't say). And there are no transportation costs (unlike a gas station, that has to pay for diesel for the big tankers to bring in their fuel)
"While not cheap, it is a relatively paltry human cost, comparable to a major accident with conventional forms of power and industry."
Unless you, or someone you love is one of the 50 that died, or one of the 600 that came down with thyroid cancer.
On the other hand, modern nuclear plants would probably be safer than alot of the earlier models, or plants that are falling into disrepair due to lack of funds.
The guy discovered that his canola was resistent to Round Up. He harvests those seeds, and then sows them across his entire farm. He most likely knew about Roundup Ready Canola, and I would bet he knew what he had.
He some how came to the conclusion that if he got the seeds from plants that were the result of "the wind" Monsato's patents didn't apply. Of course they did - he was knowingly planting Roundup Ready seed the second year, and did so over 95% of his 1000 acres.
That's like finding a copy of Microsoft Windows, making a copy, and deciding that Microsoft has no rights to the copy, and distributing it. Yah, I'd probably toss both the Monsato-monstrosity and the Microsoft-monstrosity, but this guy decided he wanted to use their product without paying.
"Mr. Schmeiser, 74, cast himself as a farmer of the old school who habitually used seeds from previous crops to plant new canola....
He has steadfastly insisted that the seed somehow blew onto his fields from passing trucks or from neighbouring farms...
He said he was astonished to discover that a great deal of the canola in those areas survived his spraying, suggesting that had somehow acquired a resistance to the herbicide. He used portions of the seed from those areas for his crop the following year."
He claims it blew off a truck (kind of like buying a DVD player that "fell off the truck"). Second, he took the seeds from the plants, which was miraculously resistent to Round Up, and then resowed his field with it the next year. 95% of his 1000 or so acres were found to contain this Monsato-frankenstein-canola.
Not quite as simple as Monsato finding a few plants in one field, and sueing him. He probalby woudln't have been guilty at the end of the first year, but the second year, when he re-used the seed, he was.
Heh - just posted a comment saying the same thing. SPUD is great, but I often forget to sign in, and get a bucket full of kale, carrots, apples and pears.
A local organic delivery company, SPUD, still seems to be going strong.
Their website is nice, their prices are good compared to the local grocery stores, they have products we can't find elsewhere, and it's pretty convenient.
What I don't like is their default-delivery model. If I forget to sign in and configure my groceries two days before the delivery date, we get the default order. We like apples and carrots, but we can't eat as many as they put in the order.
I think it was the Soviet Union, and I suspect that since they are now "Russia" and a bunch of small countries, and they are struggling to get a fledgeling caplitalist economy up and running, that they were wrong.
Actually the Canadian dollar has jumped due to a weak US dollar. The exchange rate is 1.35 now, rather than 1.65.
Second, my heating bill is cheap. I live in Vancouver, and it snows maybe once a year. The farther north you go, the better insulated the houses are.
Third, your tax calculates are way off.
$8000 CDN (or about $5200 US) is tax free. From there to $35,000, you pay 16%. From 35K to 70K, you pay 22%. From 70K to 113K, you pay 26%. Over 113K, you pay 29%. Then you add provincial taxes onto that. Now, look at this page and compare tax rates between 2003 and 2004. Notice they are going down? Do a Google on Canadian budget surpluses.
Fourth, Canada is not a socialist country. We are a capitalist country with a more comprehensive social net.
Finally, yes, MRIs are difficult to get in Canada. But that's pretty recent, with budget cuts to health care; ten years ago, the systems were pretty comparible. Canada is paying off a big national debt, and it costs $30 billion to service it a year. Once that's paid off, healthcare spending will rebound. It's also nice to know that while I'm not getting and MRI on demand, no one else is either:)
And as someone pointed, out, we can alwasy cross the border to the US and get one for $600 US ($800 CDN).
"In the first three quarters of 2003, the United States imported more oil (including crude oil and petroleum products) from Canada than from any other country. During the same time period, the United States also imported about 2.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of Canadian natural gas, representing 87% of total U.S. natural gas imports."
and
"This makes Canada the top petroleum supplier to the United States and the third-largest supplier of crude oil imports (behind Saudi Arabia and Mexico, and ahead of Venezuela). Canada has been the top supplier to the United States of refined petroleum products, including gasoline, jet fuel, distillate, etc., since 1996."
You have one example, with which you generalize the entire country?
I'm sure you can find those same companies in the mid-west US.
The Blackberry is Canadian; is that not innovation and risk taking? Ballard made one of the first hydrogen fuel cells, and it's Canadian. Greenpeace was started in Canada. So was Electronic Arts. There are alot of more adventurous Canadian companies out there; the percentage might not be as high.
That's true. Take it farther, and admit that nothing is free. Even if the doctors and nurses worked for nothing, you would still owe them your gratitude.
I meant free-compared-to-the-US. Maybe I should have said, your taxes pay for a good chunk of your health care services, rather than a post-income-tax expense. The tax rate is comparible between the two countries (and don't say parts of the US have lower tax rates - Alberta has no sales tax, and a flat provincial tax), and Canada has had a federal budget surplus for going on 10 years.
I guess that's true. I've read that this last bump in the road hit the US much harder than it did Canada and what US-recovery there has been has been called "jobless".
"does Canada value freedom and speech in all the same ways as the USA does"
Uh, we have a constitution as well. And we have the same rights as you do. But we didn't get it before 1980-something.
Before that, we had the BNA Act (British North American Act); it didn't really formally promise or guarantee anything, but being a rational, respectful people, we pretty much just agreed to get along and give others the same rights we would like ourself.
Now, maybe it's time to pick up a book, and learn about the country that does the most trade with the US, provides the most oil and gas to the US, speaks the same language with basically the same accent, and in general has been Americas closest ally (current situation aside). Canadians know alot about America and Americans, and show a fair bit of interest about what goes on there.
Would be nice to see that feeling reciprocated one day.
As a Canadian who looked at relocating to California (but didn't, though I flew back and forth for 4 months), I did a fair bit of research into the US/Canada thing.
Myth #1 - Taxes are really high. Reality: not really. You don't pay 50% until you make over $100,000. The average annual tax burden is somewhere around 30-35%. There are provincial and federal sales taxes, however, and you can't write off your mortgage interest. You can, however, put money into a retirement savings plan, and that investment is tax free, and the growth on that investment is also tax free. You pay tax when you withdraw. Also, there are no inheritance taxes in Canada, unlike the US.
Myth #2 - You have to make $80,000 CDN to have the same lifestyle you had on $60,000 US. Depends on where you come from. A friend who worked in California found that if you made $60,000 CDN, you needed to make $60,000 US to have the same lifestyle - the exact opposite. Cars are more expensive in the US, rent is more expenive in parts of the US, etc. And this is compared to Vancouver, one of the most expensive parts of Canada.
Myth #3 - the unemployment rate is higher in Canada Reality: it's computed differently in Canada vs the US. If people stop looking for jobs in the US (ie they can't find them), then they aren't considered unemployed, whereas they are still counted as unemployed (or perhaps unemployable) in Canada.
Myth #4 - It's tough to get into Canada Reality: if your young, healthy and wealthy (or well educated), you've got a pretty good shot. We have two Europeans working in our office, and both just became citizens.
Other things to note: health care is essentially free. At worst, you'll pay $100 a month for basic care. Most employers then add extended health and dental. You go to the doctor or dentist you want. None of that HMO crud you see in the US. But because healthcare is public, you have no option of spending more to get better service (ie to use private services). In the US, the more money you are willing to pay, the better the service you will get. But you have to pay the money up front. Families aren't forced into bancrupcy because an uninsured family member comes down with cancer.
If your wife/girfriend gets pregnant, and she was working and paying taxes and employement-insurance-deductions (most everyone does, unless you are self employeed), she can take a year off with partial pay. Alot different than 6 weeks of no pay that you find in the US.
In most parts of Canada, you can find true wilderness an hour or less from where you live.
Expect to see hockey as the national pastime (the national sport is lacrosse, and it's actually pretty popular); forget baseball or basketball unless you live in Toronto. And Vancouver has the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Things aren't as hyper-competitive as they are in the US, and as a result you'll find it a bit less exciting, but a bit more polite; people hold doors, wait their turn, and say "Thank you" (a Canadian TV show did a skit about a Canadian version of Fear Factor, and one of the things a Canadian had to do was to say "No" to a waiter/waitress when asked if their meal is ok - couldn't do it).
On the job front, things seem to be improving quite a bit. Canadians tend to work less than Americans. You are more likely to end up in a union (yuk) but sysadmins are usually only in a union if they work for the government. Someone said that Canadians take their jobs way too seriously. I've found it was exactly the opposite. Overall, I didn't see much difference (and I worked in San Francisco during the.com boom) - people are pretty similar, and so are the jobs.
Finally, the beer. The wonderful beer. I've has some great American beer (Pyramid, Fat Tire, ESB) but in general I like Canadian better (Big Rock, Okanagen Springs, Grandville Island, etc).
Uh, I make a six figure income, and my tax rate is around 35%. Yes, every dollar I make over $110,000 is taxed at 50%, but the first $7000 I pay no tax, and the tax rate increases from there. Taxes aren't much worse than California.
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It's good to post it because we all know someone who could use a book like this.
My mother-in-law, brother-in-law and wife who like to download libraries of "little smilies" from banner ads, chocked full of spyware, who don't understand attachments and their danger are prime examples.
I can explain it till I'm blue in the face, but all I get is a blank stare. A professional writer, with a sense of humour, might be able to get through to them.
FarCry will tide me over for the FPS-scary-monsters-in-the-dark type game for a while. And it was free with my AMD64 processor/motherboard.
Doom was great. Didn't need any more till Quake 2. FarCry beat them to the punch.
Maybe in 2006 I'll feel like taking another crack at this type of game.
Most hockey players in the NHL are still Canadian.
In fact, during the Stanley Cup playoffs, CBC mentioned that Tampa Bay had more Canadians playing than did Calgary.
For example, how many people in the car, how much do they weigh? Anything in the trunk?
How much fuel is in the tank (it's heavy, and if they assume you have a full tank, you'll burn more fuel than if you always drive with less than half a tank)?
How much air in the tires?
What accessories (lots of speakers, a/c)?
Yah, I ran this for about a year before I switched ISPs (and got a new, spam-free email account).
It was amazingly accurate, with about one mistake per thousand emails once I had it trained. I'll go back to it if I start to get a bunch of crap in my in-box. I remember reading that spammers would test their emails against the most popular anti-spam filters, but they still almost never got through Popfile.
I tried SpamAssassin as well, after I had some issues with PopFile (it would stop responding after a large volume of email), and it was more difficult to set up, and didn't have the nice configuration options of Popfile.
RAID 1 (mirroring) cards are cheap (and sometimes built into the motherboard), but for every gigabyte you want for storage, you need to be two gigabytes worth of hard drives.
RAID 5 cards cost more money (sometimes a thousand dollars or more), but if you set up a 5 drive system, only one of the drives is "wasted" storing redundancy data (of course, you need to buy five hard drives). RAID 5 on three drives is possible, bu the "wasted space" ratio goes from 20% to 33%, as a whole drive's worth of capacity is used to store parity info.
There are other RAID setups that use combinations of striping, mirroring, etc in an attempt to overcome performance bottlenecks.
Another interesting setup is NetCell's SyncRaid/Raid XL - Tom's Hardware had an article on it a while ago, but actually getting it is tough.
If you are planning on building a new system, Anandtech had an interesting article on RAID on the motherboard.
After a few years of experience with Promise RAID 0+1, Promise RAID 5, 3Ware RAID 5 and SCSI RAID 5, and recently 3Ware SATA RAID 5, I would say that the cheaper solutions often provide a false sense of security, especially if using IDE drives. We have a machine that has a Promise RAID-5 IDE setup that on reboot, seems to require a few restarts to get up and running, and when we lost a drive recently, it took quite a while for the array to rebuild (though this might not be an issue at home, where it's faster to rebuild an array than rebuild your whole computer on a fresh drive). I had a Promise RAID 0+1 card in a computer a few years ago that would corrupt any large file that I moved between hard drives on the computer.
If your data is important, get a good card from a trusted manufacturer (3ware is pretty good, and they have open source Linux drivers), and go SATA.
And I bet he's not adding his labor to the cost-per-gallon (the article doesn't say). And there are no transportation costs (unlike a gas station, that has to pay for diesel for the big tankers to bring in their fuel)
"While not cheap, it is a relatively paltry human cost, comparable to a major accident with conventional forms of power and industry."
Unless you, or someone you love is one of the 50 that died, or one of the 600 that came down with thyroid cancer.
On the other hand, modern nuclear plants would probably be safer than alot of the earlier models, or plants that are falling into disrepair due to lack of funds.
The guy discovered that his canola was resistent to Round Up. He harvests those seeds, and then sows them across his entire farm. He most likely knew about Roundup Ready Canola, and I would bet he knew what he had.
He some how came to the conclusion that if he got the seeds from plants that were the result of "the wind" Monsato's patents didn't apply. Of course they did - he was knowingly planting Roundup Ready seed the second year, and did so over 95% of his 1000 acres.
That's like finding a copy of Microsoft Windows, making a copy, and deciding that Microsoft has no rights to the copy, and distributing it. Yah, I'd probably toss both the Monsato-monstrosity and the Microsoft-monstrosity, but this guy decided he wanted to use their product without paying.
"Mr. Schmeiser, 74, cast himself as a farmer of the old school who habitually used seeds from previous crops to plant new canola....
He has steadfastly insisted that the seed somehow blew onto his fields from passing trucks or from neighbouring farms...
He said he was astonished to discover that a great deal of the canola in those areas survived his spraying, suggesting that had somehow acquired a resistance to the herbicide. He used portions of the seed from those areas for his crop the following year."
He claims it blew off a truck (kind of like buying a DVD player that "fell off the truck"). Second, he took the seeds from the plants, which was miraculously resistent to Round Up, and then resowed his field with it the next year. 95% of his 1000 or so acres were found to contain this Monsato-frankenstein-canola.
Not quite as simple as Monsato finding a few plants in one field, and sueing him. He probalby woudln't have been guilty at the end of the first year, but the second year, when he re-used the seed, he was.
Heh - just posted a comment saying the same thing. SPUD is great, but I often forget to sign in, and get a bucket full of kale, carrots, apples and pears.
A local organic delivery company, SPUD, still seems to be going strong.
Their website is nice, their prices are good compared to the local grocery stores, they have products we can't find elsewhere, and it's pretty convenient.
What I don't like is their default-delivery model. If I forget to sign in and configure my groceries two days before the delivery date, we get the default order. We like apples and carrots, but we can't eat as many as they put in the order.
I think it was the Soviet Union, and I suspect that since they are now "Russia" and a bunch of small countries, and they are struggling to get a fledgeling caplitalist economy up and running, that they were wrong.
Alberta has a flat provincial tax, and no provincial sales tax.
Just to clarify.
Actually the Canadian dollar has jumped due to a weak US dollar. The exchange rate is 1.35 now, rather than 1.65.
:)
Second, my heating bill is cheap. I live in Vancouver, and it snows maybe once a year. The farther north you go, the better insulated the houses are.
Third, your tax calculates are way off.
$8000 CDN (or about $5200 US) is tax free. From there to $35,000, you pay 16%. From 35K to 70K, you pay 22%. From 70K to 113K, you pay 26%. Over 113K, you pay 29%. Then you add provincial taxes onto that. Now, look at this page and compare tax rates between 2003 and 2004. Notice they are going down? Do a Google on Canadian budget surpluses.
Fourth, Canada is not a socialist country. We are a capitalist country with a more comprehensive social net.
Finally, yes, MRIs are difficult to get in Canada. But that's pretty recent, with budget cuts to health care; ten years ago, the systems were pretty comparible. Canada is paying off a big national debt, and it costs $30 billion to service it a year. Once that's paid off, healthcare spending will rebound. It's also nice to know that while I'm not getting and MRI on demand, no one else is either
And as someone pointed, out, we can alwasy cross the border to the US and get one for $600 US ($800 CDN).
Hmm... I see it different, also from the DOE:
"In the first three quarters of 2003, the United States imported more oil (including crude oil and petroleum products) from Canada than from any other country. During the same time period, the United States also imported about 2.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of Canadian natural gas, representing 87% of total U.S. natural gas imports."
and
"This makes Canada the top petroleum supplier to the United States and the third-largest supplier of crude oil imports (behind Saudi Arabia and Mexico, and ahead of Venezuela). Canada has been the top supplier to the United States of refined petroleum products, including gasoline, jet fuel, distillate, etc., since 1996."
Here is the link
You have one example, with which you generalize the entire country?
I'm sure you can find those same companies in the mid-west US.
The Blackberry is Canadian; is that not innovation and risk taking? Ballard made one of the first hydrogen fuel cells, and it's Canadian. Greenpeace was started in Canada. So was Electronic Arts. There are alot of more adventurous Canadian companies out there; the percentage might not be as high.
That's true. Take it farther, and admit that nothing is free. Even if the doctors and nurses worked for nothing, you would still owe them your gratitude.
I meant free-compared-to-the-US. Maybe I should have said, your taxes pay for a good chunk of your health care services, rather than a post-income-tax expense. The tax rate is comparible between the two countries (and don't say parts of the US have lower tax rates - Alberta has no sales tax, and a flat provincial tax), and Canada has had a federal budget surplus for going on 10 years.
I guess that's true. I've read that this last bump in the road hit the US much harder than it did Canada and what US-recovery there has been has been called "jobless".
"does Canada value freedom and speech in all the same ways as the USA does"
Uh, we have a constitution as well. And we have the same rights as you do. But we didn't get it before 1980-something.
Before that, we had the BNA Act (British North American Act); it didn't really formally promise or guarantee anything, but being a rational, respectful people, we pretty much just agreed to get along and give others the same rights we would like ourself.
Now, maybe it's time to pick up a book, and learn about the country that does the most trade with the US, provides the most oil and gas to the US, speaks the same language with basically the same accent, and in general has been Americas closest ally (current situation aside). Canadians know alot about America and Americans, and show a fair bit of interest about what goes on there.
Would be nice to see that feeling reciprocated one day.
As a Canadian who looked at relocating to California (but didn't, though I flew back and forth for 4 months), I did a fair bit of research into the US/Canada thing.
.com boom) - people are pretty similar, and so are the jobs.
Myth #1 - Taxes are really high.
Reality: not really. You don't pay 50% until you make over $100,000. The average annual tax burden is somewhere around 30-35%. There are provincial and federal sales taxes, however, and you can't write off your mortgage interest. You can, however, put money into a retirement savings plan, and that investment is tax free, and the growth on that investment is also tax free. You pay tax when you withdraw. Also, there are no inheritance taxes in Canada, unlike the US.
Myth #2 - You have to make $80,000 CDN to have the same lifestyle you had on $60,000 US. Depends on where you come from. A friend who worked in California found that if you made $60,000 CDN, you needed to make $60,000 US to have the same lifestyle - the exact opposite. Cars are more expensive in the US, rent is more expenive in parts of the US, etc. And this is compared to Vancouver, one of the most expensive parts of Canada.
Myth #3 - the unemployment rate is higher in Canada
Reality: it's computed differently in Canada vs the US. If people stop looking for jobs in the US (ie they can't find them), then they aren't considered unemployed, whereas they are still counted as unemployed (or perhaps unemployable) in Canada.
Myth #4 - It's tough to get into Canada
Reality: if your young, healthy and wealthy (or well educated), you've got a pretty good shot. We have two Europeans working in our office, and both just became citizens.
Other things to note: health care is essentially free. At worst, you'll pay $100 a month for basic care. Most employers then add extended health and dental. You go to the doctor or dentist you want. None of that HMO crud you see in the US. But because healthcare is public, you have no option of spending more to get better service (ie to use private services). In the US, the more money you are willing to pay, the better the service you will get. But you have to pay the money up front. Families aren't forced into bancrupcy because an uninsured family member comes down with cancer.
If your wife/girfriend gets pregnant, and she was working and paying taxes and employement-insurance-deductions (most everyone does, unless you are self employeed), she can take a year off with partial pay. Alot different than 6 weeks of no pay that you find in the US.
In most parts of Canada, you can find true wilderness an hour or less from where you live.
Expect to see hockey as the national pastime (the national sport is lacrosse, and it's actually pretty popular); forget baseball or basketball unless you live in Toronto. And Vancouver has the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Things aren't as hyper-competitive as they are in the US, and as a result you'll find it a bit less exciting, but a bit more polite; people hold doors, wait their turn, and say "Thank you" (a Canadian TV show did a skit about a Canadian version of Fear Factor, and one of the things a Canadian had to do was to say "No" to a waiter/waitress when asked if their meal is ok - couldn't do it).
On the job front, things seem to be improving quite a bit. Canadians tend to work less than Americans. You are more likely to end up in a union (yuk) but sysadmins are usually only in a union if they work for the government. Someone said that Canadians take their jobs way too seriously. I've found it was exactly the opposite. Overall, I didn't see much difference (and I worked in San Francisco during the
Finally, the beer. The wonderful beer. I've has some great American beer (Pyramid, Fat Tire, ESB) but in general I like Canadian better (Big Rock, Okanagen Springs, Grandville Island, etc).
Because I am familiar with California, and it's a place most geeks can relate to.
Uh, I make a six figure income, and my tax rate is around 35%. Yes, every dollar I make over $110,000 is taxed at 50%, but the first $7000 I pay no tax, and the tax rate increases from there. Taxes aren't much worse than California.
And you'll finally be able to shut your fucking brother-in-law up about his new Aibo and how fucking wonderful it is.
Park it in the driveway, and you'll never be broken into again.
A cheap ATI TV Wonder VE (Value Edition) - mono sound, and the tv gets out of sync.
I only use it for watching hockey, so it doesn't really matter.
The weird thing is that the tv card just passes the audio through to the sound card (a built-in on the MB).