As the owner of a dozen computers, half of them SMP, here's my answer...check your applications. It's nice that your OS supports SMP, but if your applications don't you're just wasting your money. For ex. I'm a hobby 3D animator (I've made some nice money at it too). My dual P2-233 box blows my single cpu 400 away when it comes to render times. So my recommendation? Go through your most commonly used applications one-by-one and ascertain their SMP support (should be clearly labeled in the documentation).
Oh, and if you're a gamer, I seem to recall a.plan statement from Mr. Carmack stating that Q3A will not support SMP, despite the popular rumor that it will. Something about a timing issue between the CPU's on Intel chipset SMP boards.
At least not in the situation you described. Financial disruption isn't considered to be an acceptable grounds for war by the American government, or most gov's for that matter. In all likelyhood, if the attacks could be proven and their origin verified, you would see extreme economic and trade sanctions taken against country B.
There is a better example of cyber-war that could lead to a bomb-war though. Let's say that country B got sick of negotiations, and took out the telco and power grids in a major urban center. Chaos would reign (imagine New York with no power or phones for three days). Would we attack then? Yes. Reagan pretty much set the standard for those types of intrusions with attack on Libya in the 80's. For those that don't remember, that was a sticky situation for the US. You had Libyan non-government civilians attacking US citizens outside of US held land (i.e. no direct military threat or national disruption). Reagan drew the "line in the sand" and basically said that if the action is supported by a foreign government, and brings real, deliberate, physical harm to US citizens, we have the right to attack and defend ourselves. An attack on the stock market would hurt, but it wouldn't cause the kind of harm that he defined (and his statements are held as the litmus test of such interventions today).
I'd also like to add another point to your statement. It isn't actually required for a hacker to gain access to encrypted or secure networks to gain important information. Imagine the strategic value in locating a message on a non-secure military email server, from some Army generals secretary, indicating that the said general was about to leave with his troops to go visit some "military situation" before that information was made public. This information could be leaked to the press or an enemy government and tip them off to a potential attack before it came.
Also, regarding secure encrypted communications, it isn't always necessary to read that information to know somethings up. In WWII the Pacific Allied armies sucessfully predicted an incoming Japanese attack (on New Guinea I think) by monitoring their radio communications. Now, we couldn't actually understand what those communications were saying, but when Allied codebreakers noticed a massive increase in the number of transmissions being sent to one area, they correctly predicted that an attack would come from there, and the Allies were able to fend off the attack. Now, imagine you're an enemy of the US and American armies are sitting right across your border threatening to attack (the Saddam Hussein situation). What would you surmise if your government paid cracker informed you that he just detected a massive increase in the communications networks of the American army? That's what the Pentagon is worried about.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...free doesn't mean diddly to corporations. When I converted the company I work for over, I didn't care about price, to be honest the final tally for the conversion was just under $90,000. We knew we were going to lose money, but we did it anyway. Why? Source access.
We wanted to (and did) write a custom GUI tailored specifically to our company's needs, with just the features we required, and certain "features" that can't be found in any OS (like remote keyboard locking...don't ask). When I was initially approached by the higher-ups about locating software that was "better suited to our needs", I immediately suggested Linux. When I explained to them that we could integrate our apps and OS into one stable package they were ecstatic, when I mentioned that it was free I didn't even get a shrug.
Not all Linux users are home users. I run a 350 PC Linux only office and co-ordinate hardware purchases with offices in 3 other countries. We replace our systems in phases with a set goal of replacing all of our systems every two years. Now, I don't have time to constantly build PC's myself so we buy off the shelf HP's. I figure that there's around 1,000 unused MS OS licenses (DOS, Win3.x, Win95, Win98) sitting in one of our file cabinets. I would LOVE to be able to get refunds for them.
Did you sign a contract when you were hired? If so, you should go back and read it...you may be shocked. After reading this, I just went over to my filing cabinet and dug out my original contract for my present employer. Guess what, not only did I give them all rights to anything I develop now, but they also have rights to anything I develop within two years after leaving their employ.
Here's where it gets funny. I also still have the contract from my last employer, and they have rights to anything developed while I worked for them or developed one year after I left the company. Now, I've only worked here 9 months. Does this all mean that if I came up with a cool idea tomorrow, these two big companies would be forced to battle over the legal ownership of an idea that only exists in my head? That's nuts (but it'd be kinda funny to see).
What is wrong with the computer industry? When a business is in need of money, the solution is simple...raise prices. Five years ago I was happily paying $3500 for a computer, and like many people I was happy when the prices started to slide, but everyone assumed that the slide would be temporary. This obviously wasn't the case.
Now the industry is in trouble and trying to find an easy way out, raising prices and keeping the jobs in the US sounds good to me. I realize that a lot of people are going to scream at the thought of paying more for a computer, but if it's neccesary to keep the industry viable, so be it. There's no reason for anyone to complain about spending $1500-$2000 on a computer (I've always found sub-$1000 PC's to be kind of a bad joke anyway).
Well, I won't say why it can't be done (it probably can), but I will say why it shouldn't...bloat. Why does my desktop OS need to have the code installed to run a 5000 station network? Why should my proxy server have to support the latest games? Why should my development PC support DVD movie decoding and TV tuning? Yes, you could write a "one size fits all" operating system, but it would be so unbelievably huge that it wouldn't do anything well. I believe that targeting the professional and consumer market with a single product shortchanges both. I personally feel that if Linux ever moves into the mainstream consumer market, we will see two "versions" emerge. One idiot proof version for Joe Six Pack to point and click his way around, and one standard version for server usage and for the command line lovers (aka, a watered down Linux vs. a real Linux).
I'm seeing quite a few posts here replaying that old line "warez doesn't hurt anybody". I always get sick when I hear that and I'll tell you why.
Four years ago a good friend of mine quit his job and released a small graphics animation product as shareware. In 6 months the program was downloaded over 7,000 times, but he only received ~20 registrations (it was only a $30 program). When we began browsing warez and crack sites, we found out why. The program had already been cracked and few people are going to pay for a program they can get for free.
Undaunted he began work on a second program, another piece of graphics software, and released it again as shareware. Same story, 12,000 downloads, 40 registrations, and a crack in less than a week.
Next he came up with an idea that should have solved the situation. He combined the two programs into one, and released the original two programs as freeware. The new prog was dubbed the "Professional Version" and offered NOTHING that wasn't available in the other progs, except the integration. This program was not released as shareware, but was available via his company website in an encrypted file. Voila, over 400 registrations in two weeks...then it too was cracked (it was only a $45 prog!). After the crack/decryption info was released he received ZERO registrations.
Finally, after 3 years of wasted time, over $30,000 in personal monetary losses, and after enduring a lawsuit by his investor, he closed the company and laid off his 2 employees. So, can you still say piracy doesn't hurt anybody? This guys entire business was destroyed because some warez doodz decided that his software was worth stealing and that it "really can't hurt anything". The only good thing that came out of this situation was the eventual purchase of his source and rights by Equlibrium for $40000. Then again, a $10,000 profit for 3 years worth of work isn't anything to brag about...
I used an LPX case, Cyrix MediaGX 266 CPU/sound/video, 1.6GB HDD scavenged from my broken laptop, and a 10" active matrix screen off an old IBM Thinkpad. The low profile computer case sits under the drivers seat, the screen was built into my dash by a local stereo shop (they also wired the PC audio into my radio speakers), we installed a small APC UPS to filter the power, and the whole thing runs (mostly) off of IBM ViaVoice (yes...this is a Windows95 box). My cell phone hooks up to it for checking email or Slashdot, I run DeLorme mapping software for finding my way around, and I can play Quake in the parking lot while the wife is shopping at the mall.
I can't give an exact construction price since I already had a few of the parts, but I would estimate it somewhere around $1000 and 10-15 hours of labor. Of course, if you wanted to play MP3's on this thing I'd recommend springing for a better sound card (the GX sound support can be shut off).
Oh, and don't flame me for running a Windows PC in my car...I'll switch it over when I see a good voice recognition prog for Linux. I've already found or written Linux replacements for all of my other SW, but the voice rec is the key to the entire operation and I can't do without it.
Think of them as gravitational eddies where the gravity wells interact and produce a 'dead spot'. As for other planets, yes they do have an effect on the actual location of the Lagrange points, but they don't nullify them. The actual L points (theres more than one) tend to float around a bit as the gravity wells shift in relation to each other. Objects located in those points only require occasional thrusts to keep them centered in the phenomena.
We can make air, water, and fuel on Mars out of the Martian atmosphere. The materials required for this simply aren't present on the moon, but are abundant on Mars
Lifting items to Mars via the moon is pointless. You would essentially be launching it twice (Earth to moon, moon to Mars). The fuel difference between Earth/Moon and Earth/Mars launches is actually small (it would require more energy to launch it twice)
How did Zubrin put it..."The moon is like a beautiful siren beckoning the unwary explorer toward her rocky shore". If you read up on it, that is a very accurate statement.
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As the owner of a dozen computers, half of them SMP, here's my answer...check your applications. It's nice that your OS supports SMP, but if your applications don't you're just wasting your money. For ex. I'm a hobby 3D animator (I've made some nice money at it too). My dual P2-233 box blows my single cpu 400 away when it comes to render times. So my recommendation? Go through your most commonly used applications one-by-one and ascertain their SMP support (should be clearly labeled in the documentation).
.plan statement from Mr. Carmack stating that Q3A will not support SMP, despite the popular rumor that it will. Something about a timing issue between the CPU's on Intel chipset SMP boards.
Oh, and if you're a gamer, I seem to recall a
At least not in the situation you described. Financial disruption isn't considered to be an acceptable grounds for war by the American government, or most gov's for that matter. In all likelyhood, if the attacks could be proven and their origin verified, you would see extreme economic and trade sanctions taken against country B.
There is a better example of cyber-war that could lead to a bomb-war though. Let's say that country B got sick of negotiations, and took out the telco and power grids in a major urban center. Chaos would reign (imagine New York with no power or phones for three days). Would we attack then? Yes. Reagan pretty much set the standard for those types of intrusions with attack on Libya in the 80's. For those that don't remember, that was a sticky situation for the US. You had Libyan non-government civilians attacking US citizens outside of US held land (i.e. no direct military threat or national disruption). Reagan drew the "line in the sand" and basically said that if the action is supported by a foreign government, and brings real, deliberate, physical harm to US citizens, we have the right to attack and defend ourselves. An attack on the stock market would hurt, but it wouldn't cause the kind of harm that he defined (and his statements are held as the litmus test of such interventions today).
I'd also like to add another point to your statement. It isn't actually required for a hacker to gain access to encrypted or secure networks to gain important information. Imagine the strategic value in locating a message on a non-secure military email server, from some Army generals secretary, indicating that the said general was about to leave with his troops to go visit some "military situation" before that information was made public. This information could be leaked to the press or an enemy government and tip them off to a potential attack before it came.
Also, regarding secure encrypted communications, it isn't always necessary to read that information to know somethings up. In WWII the Pacific Allied armies sucessfully predicted an incoming Japanese attack (on New Guinea I think) by monitoring their radio communications. Now, we couldn't actually understand what those communications were saying, but when Allied codebreakers noticed a massive increase in the number of transmissions being sent to one area, they correctly predicted that an attack would come from there, and the Allies were able to fend off the attack. Now, imagine you're an enemy of the US and American armies are sitting right across your border threatening to attack (the Saddam Hussein situation). What would you surmise if your government paid cracker informed you that he just detected a massive increase in the communications networks of the American army? That's what the Pentagon is worried about.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...free doesn't mean diddly to corporations. When I converted the company I work for over, I didn't care about price, to be honest the final tally for the conversion was just under $90,000. We knew we were going to lose money, but we did it anyway. Why? Source access.
We wanted to (and did) write a custom GUI tailored specifically to our company's needs, with just the features we required, and certain "features" that can't be found in any OS (like remote keyboard locking...don't ask). When I was initially approached by the higher-ups about locating software that was "better suited to our needs", I immediately suggested Linux. When I explained to them that we could integrate our apps and OS into one stable package they were ecstatic, when I mentioned that it was free I didn't even get a shrug.
Not all Linux users are home users. I run a 350 PC Linux only office and co-ordinate hardware purchases with offices in 3 other countries. We replace our systems in phases with a set goal of replacing all of our systems every two years. Now, I don't have time to constantly build PC's myself so we buy off the shelf HP's. I figure that there's around 1,000 unused MS OS licenses (DOS, Win3.x, Win95, Win98) sitting in one of our file cabinets. I would LOVE to be able to get refunds for them.
:)
Of course, my home PC's are hand built
Did you sign a contract when you were hired? If so, you should go back and read it...you may be shocked. After reading this, I just went over to my filing cabinet and dug out my original contract for my present employer. Guess what, not only did I give them all rights to anything I develop now, but they also have rights to anything I develop within two years after leaving their employ.
Here's where it gets funny. I also still have the contract from my last employer, and they have rights to anything developed while I worked for them or developed one year after I left the company. Now, I've only worked here 9 months. Does this all mean that if I came up with a cool idea tomorrow, these two big companies would be forced to battle over the legal ownership of an idea that only exists in my head? That's nuts (but it'd be kinda funny to see).
What is wrong with the computer industry? When a business is in need of money, the solution is simple...raise prices. Five years ago I was happily paying $3500 for a computer, and like many people I was happy when the prices started to slide, but everyone assumed that the slide would be temporary. This obviously wasn't the case.
Now the industry is in trouble and trying to find an easy way out, raising prices and keeping the jobs in the US sounds good to me. I realize that a lot of people are going to scream at the thought of paying more for a computer, but if it's neccesary to keep the industry viable, so be it. There's no reason for anyone to complain about spending $1500-$2000 on a computer (I've always found sub-$1000 PC's to be kind of a bad joke anyway).
Well, I won't say why it can't be done (it probably can), but I will say why it shouldn't...bloat. Why does my desktop OS need to have the code installed to run a 5000 station network? Why should my proxy server have to support the latest games? Why should my development PC support DVD movie decoding and TV tuning? Yes, you could write a "one size fits all" operating system, but it would be so unbelievably huge that it wouldn't do anything well. I believe that targeting the professional and consumer market with a single product shortchanges both. I personally feel that if Linux ever moves into the mainstream consumer market, we will see two "versions" emerge. One idiot proof version for Joe Six Pack to point and click his way around, and one standard version for server usage and for the command line lovers (aka, a watered down Linux vs. a real Linux).
I'm seeing quite a few posts here replaying that old line "warez doesn't hurt anybody". I always get sick when I hear that and I'll tell you why.
Four years ago a good friend of mine quit his job and released a small graphics animation product as shareware. In 6 months the program was downloaded over 7,000 times, but he only received ~20 registrations (it was only a $30 program). When we began browsing warez and crack sites, we found out why. The program had already been cracked and few people are going to pay for a program they can get for free.
Undaunted he began work on a second program, another piece of graphics software, and released it again as shareware. Same story, 12,000 downloads, 40 registrations, and a crack in less than a week.
Next he came up with an idea that should have solved the situation. He combined the two programs into one, and released the original two programs as freeware. The new prog was dubbed the "Professional Version" and offered NOTHING that wasn't available in the other progs, except the integration. This program was not released as shareware, but was available via his company website in an encrypted file. Voila, over 400 registrations in two weeks...then it too was cracked (it was only a $45 prog!). After the crack/decryption info was released he received ZERO registrations.
Finally, after 3 years of wasted time, over $30,000 in personal monetary losses, and after enduring a lawsuit by his investor, he closed the company and laid off his 2 employees. So, can you still say piracy doesn't hurt anybody? This guys entire business was destroyed because some warez doodz decided that his software was worth stealing and that it "really can't hurt anything". The only good thing that came out of this situation was the eventual purchase of his source and rights by Equlibrium for $40000. Then again, a $10,000 profit for 3 years worth of work isn't anything to brag about...
I used an LPX case, Cyrix MediaGX 266 CPU/sound/video, 1.6GB HDD scavenged from my broken laptop, and a 10" active matrix screen off an old IBM Thinkpad. The low profile computer case sits under the drivers seat, the screen was built into my dash by a local stereo shop (they also wired the PC audio into my radio speakers), we installed a small APC UPS to filter the power, and the whole thing runs (mostly) off of IBM ViaVoice (yes...this is a Windows95 box). My cell phone hooks up to it for checking email or Slashdot, I run DeLorme mapping software for finding my way around, and I can play Quake in the parking lot while the wife is shopping at the mall.
I can't give an exact construction price since I already had a few of the parts, but I would estimate it somewhere around $1000 and 10-15 hours of labor. Of course, if you wanted to play MP3's on this thing I'd recommend springing for a better sound card (the GX sound support can be shut off).
Oh, and don't flame me for running a Windows PC in my car...I'll switch it over when I see a good voice recognition prog for Linux. I've already found or written Linux replacements for all of my other SW, but the voice rec is the key to the entire operation and I can't do without it.
...are not a theory. They exist.
Think of them as gravitational eddies where the gravity wells interact and produce a 'dead spot'. As for other planets, yes they do have an effect on the actual location of the Lagrange points, but they don't nullify them. The actual L points (theres more than one) tend to float around a bit as the gravity wells shift in relation to each other. Objects located in those points only require occasional thrusts to keep them centered in the phenomena.
How did Zubrin put it..."The moon is like a beautiful siren beckoning the unwary explorer toward her rocky shore". If you read up on it, that is a very accurate statement.