You're not going to get water hot enough to make coffee unless you run the servers at 90C+. There's that whole second law of thermodynamics thing. You also need a temperature gradient to drive heat transfer according to the basic heat exchanger design equation:
Heat transfer=Heat transfer coefficient*area*mean temperature difference
(You could use Fourier's law if you prefer). A better use would be a district heating across the building the server farm is in. How well that works depends a lot on where you are. But this scheme doesn't inherently waste either water or energy. It also allows you to run cooler, as most people won't want their rooms warmer than 30C. I think that a waste-free implementation would be very difficult to design though.
English Heritage has the potential to do quite well in the private sector. So could a lot of the arts which are currently subsidised, though that reminds me of a Yes, Minister episode...
In the latest edition of Private Eye I read that British Waterways are currently leaving the public sector because they're fed up of being punished for DEFRA's mistakes.
And that's before you reach the army of clipboard Hitlers who can enter your property with impunity.
My problem is not the information gathering powers of the police, but that the police are becoming a wing of the Labour party, and innocent people who object to Labour policy are increasingly subject to police action.
It makes a lot of sense when the state is responsible for your health, as it is in the UK. In the US I can't see it's any of the government's business if you decide to make yourself fatter than holy hell.
A good example of a case covering both points you make was the BA/Virgin price-fixing case, handled by the Office of Fair Trading here in the UK instead of by the EU. It wasn't monopoly that caused the problem, but oligopolist price fixing.
The US DoJ got a look in on that one for obvious reasons.
Please mod this down. This is the trite masquerading as the insightful. The entire argument is predicated on the concept that 'normal' people* can agree when they sit down and talk peacefully. I cite precedent** that this is not the case.
Simplification of the law would be great, but it won't absolve the need for legal specialists, nor will it simplify the complex interactions between free agents in a democratic society.
*Lawyers, as we all know, are bred in special vats. **c.f. the entire of human history
Also if this precedent is allowed to stand, what's next? "I heard from colleaques you voted Libertarian." "Um, yeah I didn't like either McCain or Obama." "Well I'm sorry but this company doesn't support third parties since Homeland Security has designated them as terrorist-friendly organizations, so I'm terminating your employment due to incompatible non-politically correct views."
Your example is an illustration of State power. You know, that bit where it was Homeland Security who had authority, not the corporation. A better example would be an oil company that only employed Republicans, for example. Or the BBC only employing Labourites.
I guessed it'd be the same through Europe at least, but I didn't *know*. The service wasn't even announced over here, as far as I can remember, one day it just started.
But you have to admire Google's cunning here. To monetarise this service they're going to have to extract useful information to allow more targeted adverts (e.g. you get a voice mail asking you to pick up some flowers and suddenly every AdSense advert is showing Interflora). To do this they would have to transcribe your voice conversations and mail into text. If they're doing it anyway, turn it into a feature and advertise it!
Doesn't GPL have explicit anti-sue protection, with that whole section on lack of implied merchantability or warranty?
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
I know I find it confusing that my MacBook has both bluetooth and wifi. It also has an ethernet port! All these network connections are confusing my poor Mac-addled brain.
Or, you know, you could turn the 3G off if you didn't want to pay for it? Like MobileMe.
I think that asking for advice can be a key part of the decision making process, as it can tell you what your true emotions are. If everyone tells you to do something, and you feel disappointed, you know how you feel about that decision.
It sounds stupid, but it can be really hard to isolate how you actually feel in these circumstances.
A coin toss can work quite well for smaller things.
Well, it's a market. So you and your clients come to a mutually acceptable value on your time. The issue at hand, though badly expressed, is still true; geeks have a habit of severely undervaluing our time and knowledge.
This reminds me of neighbour tech support. They had a computer that wasn't working, they'd called MS and had hung up when they wanted £50. I went around and (eventually) worked out that a capacitor had blown on the graphics card, something an MS helpline could never have worked out. I told them which graphics card to get as a replacement and went home without charging a penny. Was pleasantly surprised to get a voucher for £20 through the letterbox.
In retrospect that's underpayment, but they're good friends so I don't care.
It made me very angry for the tech support line to try and charge them when they couldn't hope to fix the problem. It was obvious from the error message that the problem was with nVidia anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it bad that I actually winced when I read that?
You're not going to get water hot enough to make coffee unless you run the servers at 90C+. There's that whole second law of thermodynamics thing. You also need a temperature gradient to drive heat transfer according to the basic heat exchanger design equation:
Heat transfer=Heat transfer coefficient*area*mean temperature difference
(You could use Fourier's law if you prefer).
A better use would be a district heating across the building the server farm is in. How well that works depends a lot on where you are. But this scheme doesn't inherently waste either water or energy. It also allows you to run cooler, as most people won't want their rooms warmer than 30C. I think that a waste-free implementation would be very difficult to design though.
English Heritage has the potential to do quite well in the private sector. So could a lot of the arts which are currently subsidised, though that reminds me of a Yes, Minister episode...
In the latest edition of Private Eye I read that British Waterways are currently leaving the public sector because they're fed up of being punished for DEFRA's mistakes.
What's the point? If you've written it yourself why not just upload the pdf? Why take it from digital media to dead tree and back again?
Hmmm, absence of jackboots you say?
And that's before you reach the army of clipboard Hitlers who can enter your property with impunity.
My problem is not the information gathering powers of the police, but that the police are becoming a wing of the Labour party, and innocent people who object to Labour policy are increasingly subject to police action.
It makes a lot of sense when the state is responsible for your health, as it is in the UK. In the US I can't see it's any of the government's business if you decide to make yourself fatter than holy hell.
Wow, in America everything is bigger! Even the year has 20 months!
Then you don't know your British history. For a long time "inner cities" was a code-word in the political caste for black Britons.
This got so out of hand that it led to the joke "Inner cities of both sexes..."
A good example of a case covering both points you make was the BA/Virgin price-fixing case, handled by the Office of Fair Trading here in the UK instead of by the EU. It wasn't monopoly that caused the problem, but oligopolist price fixing.
The US DoJ got a look in on that one for obvious reasons.
Please mod this down. This is the trite masquerading as the insightful. The entire argument is predicated on the concept that 'normal' people* can agree when they sit down and talk peacefully. I cite precedent** that this is not the case.
Simplification of the law would be great, but it won't absolve the need for legal specialists, nor will it simplify the complex interactions between free agents in a democratic society.
*Lawyers, as we all know, are bred in special vats.
**c.f. the entire of human history
Wait till the Torygraphy releases the attack dogs on the opposition tomorrow.
Guido has some spoilers up already. It's gonna be sweet.
There was that whole thing with Brain Training failing to recognise northerners (e.g. not recognizing that 'yella' is yellow).
Brown is worse. Even Berlusconi at least has charisma.
Considering this is how legitimate dissent is treated, this is a good company to divest right now.
The MP breached his position of trust though, even if it was inadvertent.
Also if this precedent is allowed to stand, what's next? "I heard from colleaques you voted Libertarian." "Um, yeah I didn't like either McCain or Obama." "Well I'm sorry but this company doesn't support third parties since Homeland Security has designated them as terrorist-friendly organizations, so I'm terminating your employment due to incompatible non-politically correct views."
Your example is an illustration of State power. You know, that bit where it was Homeland Security who had authority, not the corporation. A better example would be an oil company that only employed Republicans, for example. Or the BBC only employing Labourites.
I guessed it'd be the same through Europe at least, but I didn't *know*. The service wasn't even announced over here, as far as I can remember, one day it just started.
Yeah, any time your phone isn't connected to the network. Obviously you don't find out until after you get re-connected.
Over here in the UK most providers even send you a text if you missed a call while your phone was out of signal.
But you have to admire Google's cunning here. To monetarise this service they're going to have to extract useful information to allow more targeted adverts (e.g. you get a voice mail asking you to pick up some flowers and suddenly every AdSense advert is showing Interflora). To do this they would have to transcribe your voice conversations and mail into text. If they're doing it anyway, turn it into a feature and advertise it!
Google is staffed by geniuses.
Doesn't GPL have explicit anti-sue protection, with that whole section on lack of implied merchantability or warranty?
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
From the GNU how-to.
Does anyone know how this would interact with the potential EU law?
I know I find it confusing that my MacBook has both bluetooth and wifi. It also has an ethernet port! All these network connections are confusing my poor Mac-addled brain.
Or, you know, you could turn the 3G off if you didn't want to pay for it? Like MobileMe.
I agree with Guido here, "accomplishment" has been redefined to mean "RsG approves of this", which leaves most of his argument begging the question.
I think that asking for advice can be a key part of the decision making process, as it can tell you what your true emotions are. If everyone tells you to do something, and you feel disappointed, you know how you feel about that decision.
It sounds stupid, but it can be really hard to isolate how you actually feel in these circumstances.
A coin toss can work quite well for smaller things.
Well, it's a market. So you and your clients come to a mutually acceptable value on your time. The issue at hand, though badly expressed, is still true; geeks have a habit of severely undervaluing our time and knowledge.
This reminds me of neighbour tech support. They had a computer that wasn't working, they'd called MS and had hung up when they wanted £50. I went around and (eventually) worked out that a capacitor had blown on the graphics card, something an MS helpline could never have worked out. I told them which graphics card to get as a replacement and went home without charging a penny. Was pleasantly surprised to get a voucher for £20 through the letterbox.
In retrospect that's underpayment, but they're good friends so I don't care.
It made me very angry for the tech support line to try and charge them when they couldn't hope to fix the problem. It was obvious from the error message that the problem was with nVidia anyway.