I had to upgrade a server from three 9 GB SCSI drives to whatever the boss could afford (which turned out to be a 160 GB IDE and a DVD±RW), and this case had five 80 MM fans inside, one of them inside a standard ATX power supply, which fit neatly into the case.
I stand corrected -- apologies! Yep, a 2U is tall enough for 80mm fans. How 'bout I ammend my comments to say "if you buy 2U, check the the fan mountpoint sizes in the specs to make sure upgrades/replacements are easy to obtain" -- advice I could've used myself a few years back when I first started experimenting with rackmounts, since the 2Us I ended up getting used smaller/noisier fans inside.:-)
1. Oddly placed power supply. In this one it's near the front, on the right side, and therefore blows its warm air directly across the motherboard. This also creates some rather odd cable clutter problems, but nothing too terrible.
Related anecdote: the 2U cases I was working with had the PS mounted in the middle of the right-hand side, with the PS's fan blowing across a group of brackets intended for mounting internal hard drives. Nothing like hot power supply exhaust blowing onto your already-hot drives. A secondary problem I encountered with this particular case configuration was that the cables for the hard drives were cramped enough that one of the hard drive power lines eventually managed to slip through the PS's fan guard and blocked the PS fan from turning. (If the fan had been more powerful, I suppose the alternative problem would have been the fan chewing apart the wires.)
So tip from experience -- if any cable passes near a fan with enough play that it could reach the fan, some day it will joyfully leap into the spinning blades of doom.:-) Lesson I learned from that -- use tie wraps to secure cables to safe locations if they run past or near fans.
3. Limited choice in video cards. Basically you HAVE to go low-profile here, since there is no way to squeeze both an AGP and PCI riser into the same case (unless the AGP riser goes the other direction, again something the case is not designed for).
Never used any of these myself, but there's some AGP+PCI combo risers
here -- Scroll down to the RC2-013/-014/-017 -- looks like they're using a double-stacked riser backplane plugged into the AGP slot with ribbon cables for the PCI slots. Just a random tidbit I found one day when I was looking for some other piece of rack gear. Maybe it'll come in handy for someone.
I believe this server case came with the PCI riser, it certainly looks like it would have to be.
FWIW, The 1U and 2U cases I'd bought (new) all included (PCI-only) riser cards. It'd be a good thing to ask about if purchasing a second-hand 1U/2U case though. I've seen these risers sold separately on several web sites that stock rack-oriented computer gear, so folks aren't SOL if they pick up a low-profile case and find the riser is missing. (The site I linked to for the PCI+AGP combo risers also sells more traditional 1U/2U PCI risers. The designs look the same as the risers in my cases.)
Your video card comments reminded me of another factor for people considering 1U/2U cases. Since the number of cards you can install is limited, you might be tempted to omit the video card entirely. (I know I was.) Just make sure your machine's BIOS will still boot if it doesn't detect a video card -- as I discovered, several of my motherboards would refuse to boot without a video card. (In the BIOS settings, there's usually options for setting which POST errors to halt on, with options like "All", "All except keyboard", etc -- if you're planning to run without video, make sure there's an option like "All except kbd+vid
This is Slashdot... what are the odds of that happening?:)
Yeah, those pesky VNC-fanatics will probably be popping in any minute now, talking about how it's really quite fast compared to X forwarding or that Windows remote access thing you mentioned...and it all goes downhill from there.
Oh, wait... You probably meant the whole Linux vs Windows rivalry, didn't you?;-)
Get a mainboard that supports serial console redirection, like the Tyan Tomcat i875P
Oh, now that is nice! (Especially given the price difference between serial cables and KVM cables.:-) Thanks for pointing that out. Convenient timing, too -- I just started looking at components for putting together another computer.
However, if you do want to live without a KVM switch, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP Pro and Windows Server 2003 support remote access right out of the box. Or, you can use VNC for access, but it is *much* slower.
Just thought I'd throw this out. Let's see if it ignites a flamewar:)
Hopefully no flames break out. I only mentioned Linux and X forwarding as an example of an alternative to using a KVM in a multi-system, single-monitor environment. (I'm a Linux developer, so that's what I'm most familiar with.) Hopefully others will see both our posts for what they are -- general info that might be of use to people, not "my OS is bigger/better/badder than your OS" tripe.:-)
Painted mine black, but whatever floats your boat...:-)
Good points all around in parent post. Additional thoughts from my own experience:
As others have pointed out, another problem with 1U/2U rack cases is the noise. They typically use 40mm/50mm case fans, and the sound of those poor little guys whirring their hearts out is like living in an airport. While you might be able to tolerate this with a single computer, once you stack up 3/4/5 machines, the noise levels can become remarkably unpleasant. After 3 months of insomnia, I chucked those cases in the closet and replanted everything in 4U cases. (I've since seen low-noise 40mm Pabst fans popping up every now and then -- the airflow is much lower than the turboprop-wannabe stock fans, but I'm tempted to pick up a few of these, bring the 1U case out of storage, and give it another shot -- for a minimal single-CPU/single-drive system, the reduced airflow should still be sufficient.)
4U cases, OTOH, are much easier to quiet down. These typically use 80mm or 90mm case fans, and many have mount points for a couple of 60mm fans on the back. There's a variety of low-noise 80/90mm fans on the market. Not quite as wide a selection in the 60mm range, but they're not particularly difficult to find if you need the extra airflow. (FWIW, I've been happy with the Vantec Stealth line.)
The parent poster's comment about 4Us taking standard power supplies is good to keep in mind. The PS in a 1U/2U case is going to be a nonstandard size -- which can be a killer if it dies on you. With the standard-sized ATX PS used in a 4U case, if you lose a PS you can pop down to your local computer supply store, buy a replacement, and be back up and running in no time.
If you're running Linux, you can manage without a KVM once your machines are set up and running properly, since you can always forward X sessons from multiple boxes over to whichever machine your monitor is connected to. That being said, a KVM is awfully handy if you need control over a machine during the early boot stages -- you can't get to the BIOS settings display using X forwarding.:-)
Personal preference I've developed regarding rails is to use the 26" rails even though most 4U cases are only 20" deep. The longer rails make it more awkward when you first put the case in the rack (since they stick out past the ends of the case), but afterwards they'll let you slide the case out far enough that you can get to the connectors on the back. (Like flipping off the switch on the power supply or unplugging the cord while you're working inside the machine.) I find that being able to do all the work from the front of the rack is more convenient than having to hop back and forth between the front and rear to yank things off and plug things back in again. If you rarely work inside your case, it's not a big deal -- save a few bucks and go for shorter rails, or even skip the rails completely and bolt the case directly to the rack.
You mentioned lots of HD space. If you're planning something serious, like a 4+ drive RAID configuration, pay close attention to mountpoints and airflow. Many entry-model 4U cases only have 2 mount points for hard drives. You can pick up 3.5-5.25" adapter brackets that'll let you mount additional drives in the 5.25" external bays -- there's usually 3 external bays on an entry-level 4U case. If you pick up one of the inserts that fit into the 3 external bay area and allow you to mount 5 hard drives sidways, be very *very* cautious if you're using 7200 RPM drives. Those drives run hot normally, and there's almost no space between the drives in these inserts, hence little room for airflow. You'll want a dedicated cooling fan, preferably built into the rear of the insert, or you're going to run a real risk of the drives quickly overheating and dying. (Been there, fried that, bought new drives.)
Oh yes, and something that drove me crazy for a while -- if you pick up a second-hand rack and the mou
'Can we trust the darned things?' 'Can we know what we know?'
The obvious solution is to have the computer create a new proof that shows that the algorithm it used to create the original proof is, in fact correct.
And to prove that the proof of the proof can be trusted, have the computer create a proof of the proof of the proof.
And to prove that the proof of the proof of the proof can be trusted,...
While its a nice political gesture to want everyone to have broadband ( its not a necessity, but its nice to have ), how about everyone having a job to pay for it?
Ah, you miss the subtlety of the plan!
See, once this goes into effect, there'll be a massive demand for broadband installation technicians, generating thousands...nay, hundreds of thousands of jobs across the nation.
To meet the huge demand, the training programs for these techs will have to be done at an accelerated pace, meaning that a certain percentage of these installations will be done improperly. This in turn means that ISPs will be hiring even more customer support representatives to log all the problem reports.
The increased demand for capacity at the customer support centers will boost employment at the local telcos.
Tracking the problem reports will require ISPs to expand their database systems, resulting in more job creation for both software database companies like Oracle, and computer sellers like Sun, IBM, Dell, etc.
Shuffling broadband installation techs (as well as Oracle, Sun, IBM, and Dell sales staff and maintenance techs) around the country will revitalize the domestic aircraft industry, which will increase the number of peanuts in their inflight snacks from 3 to 4 during the first year, and may go as high as 5 or even 6 in subsequent years. The increased demand for peanuts will turn Georgia into an economic powerhouse on the level of New York City, or at least Des Moines.
The free ponies (you remember the free ponies, right?) will of course create a major demand for grain, providing more jobs in the agricultural area. At the other end of the pony-grain-chain, major cities will be hiring unprecedented numbers of street-sweepers.
Why, this could single-handedly revitalize the entire US economy!
The problem I would see with this is the addressing of the ram. You couldn't use straight pins to do that high of number for addressing...
Do I detect the foul stench of RDRAM's corpse rising from its grave? (A serial memory bus would certainly help address the pin-count issue.)
I can just see the future (assuming Rambus waits for "Talk Like a Pirate Day" to pounce):
Rambus: Avast, ye scurvy memory-lovers, and prepare to hand over all yer sparkling treasure. We be the Pirates of Rambus IP, and we're here to double yer prices, scuttle yer standards committees, and rape yer sheep.
...please show how DE Beers misuses their monopoly...
Geez, that's easy! Just the other day, I went to buy a ruby ring. The store would only sell me a ring with a diamond. I reiterated my desire for ring with a ruby, not a diamond. The store said they couldn't sell the ring with a ruby -- if they did so, De Beers would vastly increase the price on any future diamonds the store purchased for their rings. I asked for a plain ring, without a gemstone of any kind, thinking I could try and install a ruby on my own. Again, the store refused, although they pointed out that I could buy the diamond ring, remove the diamond after I brought the ring home, toss it in the trash, and then install the ruby if that's what I really wanted.
The store was obviously more concerned about the economic penalties of disobeying De Beers' policies than gaining the business of people who preferred a choice of gemstones, like rubies instead of diamonds. It's truly frightening how much influence De Beers has in the ring-selling industry!
Oh, wait -- I seem to have made a few typos...
"ring" should have been "computer"
"diamond" should have been "Windows"
"ruby" should have been "Red Hat"
"De Beers" should have been "Microsoft"
"gemstone" should have been "operating system"
Whoops -- I guess I don't actually have a story that applies to De Beers after all. My apologies for straying so far off the parent poster's topic...
In reality most hours are the same length. Hotmail was down for a few standard-length hours.
Anyone who's watched the "time remaining" during a Windows installation or a large file copy ("...but it's been 3 minutes remaining for the past half hour!") knows that Microsoft uses their own, superior standards for time measurement, rather than slavishly adhering to those obsolete SI units.
As for the RAT... I'm not familiar with that TLA, what is it? Not the squeaky kind with the tail and beady little eyes I assume.
Yep, all Boeing aircraft carry a genetically engineered mutant rat on a really big exercise wheel to power the aircraft in the event of total engine failure. Ever wonder why those massive aircraft only have 4 inches between each row of seats? It's because they have to leave room for the emergency backup rat.:-)
Okay, time for reality. I'd never heard of this TLA either, but
Google is everyone's best buddy, and reveals that RAT stands for "Ram Air Turbine". As a previous poster stated, it's a propeller-driven hydraulic pump that keeps the hydraulics working enough to operate the control surfaces, hopefully allowing you to land if you lose all your engines.
A little follow-up googling located a page with a
picture of a RAT. Haven't found a picture of an aircraft with the RAT deployed -- the page I linked to just shows the RAT itself.
A little while ago I spent roughly this amount on a game called Uru. (For those living in caves, it's the latest in the Myst series.) I seem to remember paying quite a bit more for Windows, but maybe the price has come down since then. No matter.
When I'm playing Uru, I wander through a variety of odd (but usually very pretty) environments, often sitting for hours on end contemplating alien mechanisms that I don't understand. Sometimes I click on a control or two (or ten), and sometimes things start working as a result. Other times I wander for days, trying every knob and button I can find, peering suspicously behind doors, retracing paths I've been down dozens of times, and in the end I still haven't figured out how to make some odd machine power up or work properly.
Which pretty closely parallels many of my experiences trying to get Windows to do things.
So...ummm...I guess by analogy, if Uru is worth the money, then surely Windows must also be worth it.;-)
Should we bring our gnus instead? I'm fuzzy on the details, but I thought I read that the FSF has some sort of license allowing them to be out in public.
That, and because Ogg Vorbis is the worst fucking name of all time.
New advertising campaign:
With a name like "Ogg Vorbis", it's got to be good...
Re:Forget the alarms -- my personal anti-theft dev
on
Stolen Laptop Alarms
·
· Score: 2, Funny
[my personal anti-theft device] Is a huge freaking drawing on the top of the laptop. I used to have an old AST with a mushroom cloud and "DO IT!" written on it.
You must have had a lot of fun taking that through airport security...:-)
Unfortunately, a lot of laptop theft happens in really noisy places like airports and train stations. If one of these goes off in the terminal at O'Hare or LAX, it will get ignored.
So have an "airport mode" for the system that changes the alarm from a generic siren to a prerecorded message. Something like, oh...
I AM A BOMB!
I AM A BOMB! ...AND BY THE WAY, THE PERSON CARRYING ME HAS BEEN FEELING VERY DEPRESSED LATELY...
Re:Only so much carbon...
on
Space Burial
·
· Score: 1
mass of average person: ...
number of bodies needed to change the Earth's weight by 1%: ...
Population of Earth: ...
Weight of Apollo 11: ...
Number of Apollo 11's needed to change Earth's weight by 1% ...
Pffft. Who can understand abstract comparisons like that? Here's the proper one to make:
mass of Volkswagen (per VW's specs)
about 1,400 kilograms
Number of Volkswagens needed to change Earth's weight by 1%:
42,672,857,142,857,100,000
Everyone understands VWs as a unit of measurement!;-)
Well, the moral of the story, boys and girls, is that you shouldn't trust information you find on-line if you can't verify the source as someone you trust.
Definitely good advice.
Doh! Wait a minute, that's just something I read online from someone who's trustworthiness I can't verify. Ha! I'm on to your little game, and you're not gonna catch me that way! I'm gonna go and trust anything I read online.
Double-doh! Now I've gotta trust your advice again. Errrr, so I'm not going to trust your advice. So I am going to trust your...
Infinite recursion detected, process Raven terminated... AT$@AA#-^%%%
Why do people keep perpetuating this myth? We're talking about an OS that runs on dozens of different architectures. Sure, people complain about "stable" being too far behind the power curve, but nothing's stopping you from moving to the "unstable" branch. There's a huge developer community supporting *BSD...errrr...ummm...
Oh damn, did the parent say Microsoft? That's different. Everyone knows that Microsoft is dying.;-)
I thought 2.2 was safe. Then again, we thought they were not going after copyright infringement. I'm guessing that is a typo.
It's not a typo -- I suspect you just got a bit confused by all the version numbers getting tossed around in that paragraph of the filing.
The 2.2.1 reference is to a version of the EVMS project over on SourceForge -- they're not talking about a Linux kernel version there. EVMS provides administrative tools for storage management.
Table B, a few lines down, addresses the Linux kernel files/lines related to EVMS, and they're only talking about 2.4 releases of the kernel there. (Or, more accurately, a 2.4.x kernel after applying the EVMS 1.0.0 kernel patches.)
SCO's objection is to the code and kernel patches that IBM contributed to the EVMS project. SCO is not making any allegations against the 2.2 Linux kernels in this filing.
The part that I keyed on was the front to back registration. If it is so small that humans won't notice it, how will that prevent counterfiting?
You must have missed this paragraph in the HP article:
Two-sided documents - This technique takes advantage of the front-to-back registration accuracy of HP printers by changing the position of objects an infinitesimal amount, too little to be seen by most people, but enough so that a machine can detect it.
HP is targeting registration offsets for use in machine detection of counterfeits, not human detection.
Slashdot Mirror
I stand corrected -- apologies! Yep, a 2U is tall enough for 80mm fans. How 'bout I ammend my comments to say "if you buy 2U, check the the fan mountpoint sizes in the specs to make sure upgrades/replacements are easy to obtain" -- advice I could've used myself a few years back when I first started experimenting with rackmounts, since the 2Us I ended up getting used smaller/noisier fans inside. :-)
Related anecdote: the 2U cases I was working with had the PS mounted in the middle of the right-hand side, with the PS's fan blowing across a group of brackets intended for mounting internal hard drives. Nothing like hot power supply exhaust blowing onto your already-hot drives. A secondary problem I encountered with this particular case configuration was that the cables for the hard drives were cramped enough that one of the hard drive power lines eventually managed to slip through the PS's fan guard and blocked the PS fan from turning. (If the fan had been more powerful, I suppose the alternative problem would have been the fan chewing apart the wires.)
So tip from experience -- if any cable passes near a fan with enough play that it could reach the fan, some day it will joyfully leap into the spinning blades of doom. :-) Lesson I learned from that -- use tie wraps to secure cables to safe locations if they run past or near fans.
Never used any of these myself, but there's some AGP+PCI combo risers here -- Scroll down to the RC2-013/-014/-017 -- looks like they're using a double-stacked riser backplane plugged into the AGP slot with ribbon cables for the PCI slots. Just a random tidbit I found one day when I was looking for some other piece of rack gear. Maybe it'll come in handy for someone.
FWIW, The 1U and 2U cases I'd bought (new) all included (PCI-only) riser cards. It'd be a good thing to ask about if purchasing a second-hand 1U/2U case though. I've seen these risers sold separately on several web sites that stock rack-oriented computer gear, so folks aren't SOL if they pick up a low-profile case and find the riser is missing. (The site I linked to for the PCI+AGP combo risers also sells more traditional 1U/2U PCI risers. The designs look the same as the risers in my cases.)
Your video card comments reminded me of another factor for people considering 1U/2U cases. Since the number of cards you can install is limited, you might be tempted to omit the video card entirely. (I know I was.) Just make sure your machine's BIOS will still boot if it doesn't detect a video card -- as I discovered, several of my motherboards would refuse to boot without a video card. (In the BIOS settings, there's usually options for setting which POST errors to halt on, with options like "All", "All except keyboard", etc -- if you're planning to run without video, make sure there's an option like "All except kbd+vid
Yeah, those pesky VNC-fanatics will probably be popping in any minute now, talking about how it's really quite fast compared to X forwarding or that Windows remote access thing you mentioned...and it all goes downhill from there.
Oh, wait... You probably meant the whole Linux vs Windows rivalry, didn't you? ;-)
Oh, now that is nice! (Especially given the price difference between serial cables and KVM cables. :-) Thanks for pointing that out. Convenient timing, too -- I just started looking at components for putting together another computer.
Hopefully no flames break out. I only mentioned Linux and X forwarding as an example of an alternative to using a KVM in a multi-system, single-monitor environment. (I'm a Linux developer, so that's what I'm most familiar with.) Hopefully others will see both our posts for what they are -- general info that might be of use to people, not "my OS is bigger/better/badder than your OS" tripe. :-)
Good points all around in parent post. Additional thoughts from my own experience:
As others have pointed out, another problem with 1U/2U rack cases is the noise. They typically use 40mm/50mm case fans, and the sound of those poor little guys whirring their hearts out is like living in an airport. While you might be able to tolerate this with a single computer, once you stack up 3/4/5 machines, the noise levels can become remarkably unpleasant. After 3 months of insomnia, I chucked those cases in the closet and replanted everything in 4U cases. (I've since seen low-noise 40mm Pabst fans popping up every now and then -- the airflow is much lower than the turboprop-wannabe stock fans, but I'm tempted to pick up a few of these, bring the 1U case out of storage, and give it another shot -- for a minimal single-CPU/single-drive system, the reduced airflow should still be sufficient.)
4U cases, OTOH, are much easier to quiet down. These typically use 80mm or 90mm case fans, and many have mount points for a couple of 60mm fans on the back. There's a variety of low-noise 80/90mm fans on the market. Not quite as wide a selection in the 60mm range, but they're not particularly difficult to find if you need the extra airflow. (FWIW, I've been happy with the Vantec Stealth line.)
The parent poster's comment about 4Us taking standard power supplies is good to keep in mind. The PS in a 1U/2U case is going to be a nonstandard size -- which can be a killer if it dies on you. With the standard-sized ATX PS used in a 4U case, if you lose a PS you can pop down to your local computer supply store, buy a replacement, and be back up and running in no time.
If you're running Linux, you can manage without a KVM once your machines are set up and running properly, since you can always forward X sessons from multiple boxes over to whichever machine your monitor is connected to. That being said, a KVM is awfully handy if you need control over a machine during the early boot stages -- you can't get to the BIOS settings display using X forwarding. :-)
Personal preference I've developed regarding rails is to use the 26" rails even though most 4U cases are only 20" deep. The longer rails make it more awkward when you first put the case in the rack (since they stick out past the ends of the case), but afterwards they'll let you slide the case out far enough that you can get to the connectors on the back. (Like flipping off the switch on the power supply or unplugging the cord while you're working inside the machine.) I find that being able to do all the work from the front of the rack is more convenient than having to hop back and forth between the front and rear to yank things off and plug things back in again. If you rarely work inside your case, it's not a big deal -- save a few bucks and go for shorter rails, or even skip the rails completely and bolt the case directly to the rack.
You mentioned lots of HD space. If you're planning something serious, like a 4+ drive RAID configuration, pay close attention to mountpoints and airflow. Many entry-model 4U cases only have 2 mount points for hard drives. You can pick up 3.5-5.25" adapter brackets that'll let you mount additional drives in the 5.25" external bays -- there's usually 3 external bays on an entry-level 4U case. If you pick up one of the inserts that fit into the 3 external bay area and allow you to mount 5 hard drives sidways, be very *very* cautious if you're using 7200 RPM drives. Those drives run hot normally, and there's almost no space between the drives in these inserts, hence little room for airflow. You'll want a dedicated cooling fan, preferably built into the rear of the insert, or you're going to run a real risk of the drives quickly overheating and dying. (Been there, fried that, bought new drives.)
Oh yes, and something that drove me crazy for a while -- if you pick up a second-hand rack and the mou
The obvious solution is to have the computer create a new proof that shows that the algorithm it used to create the original proof is, in fact correct.
Ah, you miss the subtlety of the plan!
See, once this goes into effect, there'll be a massive demand for broadband installation technicians, generating thousands...nay, hundreds of thousands of jobs across the nation.
To meet the huge demand, the training programs for these techs will have to be done at an accelerated pace, meaning that a certain percentage of these installations will be done improperly. This in turn means that ISPs will be hiring even more customer support representatives to log all the problem reports.
The increased demand for capacity at the customer support centers will boost employment at the local telcos.
Tracking the problem reports will require ISPs to expand their database systems, resulting in more job creation for both software database companies like Oracle, and computer sellers like Sun, IBM, Dell, etc.
Shuffling broadband installation techs (as well as Oracle, Sun, IBM, and Dell sales staff and maintenance techs) around the country will revitalize the domestic aircraft industry, which will increase the number of peanuts in their inflight snacks from 3 to 4 during the first year, and may go as high as 5 or even 6 in subsequent years. The increased demand for peanuts will turn Georgia into an economic powerhouse on the level of New York City, or at least Des Moines.
The free ponies (you remember the free ponies, right?) will of course create a major demand for grain, providing more jobs in the agricultural area. At the other end of the pony-grain-chain, major cities will be hiring unprecedented numbers of street-sweepers.
Why, this could single-handedly revitalize the entire US economy!
Do I detect the foul stench of RDRAM's corpse rising from its grave? (A serial memory bus would certainly help address the pin-count issue.)
I can just see the future (assuming Rambus waits for "Talk Like a Pirate Day" to pounce):
Rambus: Avast, ye scurvy memory-lovers, and prepare to hand over all yer sparkling treasure. We be the Pirates of Rambus IP, and we're here to double yer prices, scuttle yer standards committees, and rape yer sheep.
Flunky: (...whisper whisper whisper...)
Rambus: Errrr...rape yer RAM.
Excuse me, but here in the US the politically-correct term is Freedom Bastardz. ;-)
Geez, that's easy! Just the other day, I went to buy a ruby ring. The store would only sell me a ring with a diamond. I reiterated my desire for ring with a ruby, not a diamond. The store said they couldn't sell the ring with a ruby -- if they did so, De Beers would vastly increase the price on any future diamonds the store purchased for their rings. I asked for a plain ring, without a gemstone of any kind, thinking I could try and install a ruby on my own. Again, the store refused, although they pointed out that I could buy the diamond ring, remove the diamond after I brought the ring home, toss it in the trash, and then install the ruby if that's what I really wanted.
The store was obviously more concerned about the economic penalties of disobeying De Beers' policies than gaining the business of people who preferred a choice of gemstones, like rubies instead of diamonds. It's truly frightening how much influence De Beers has in the ring-selling industry!
Oh, wait -- I seem to have made a few typos...
Whoops -- I guess I don't actually have a story that applies to De Beers after all. My apologies for straying so far off the parent poster's topic...
Anyone who's watched the "time remaining" during a Windows installation or a large file copy ("...but it's been 3 minutes remaining for the past half hour!") knows that Microsoft uses their own, superior standards for time measurement, rather than slavishly adhering to those obsolete SI units.
Hotmail was only down for 10 MS-minutes.
Would it help if they started referring to their service as GNU/Hotmail? ;-)
Yep, all Boeing aircraft carry a genetically engineered mutant rat on a really big exercise wheel to power the aircraft in the event of total engine failure. Ever wonder why those massive aircraft only have 4 inches between each row of seats? It's because they have to leave room for the emergency backup rat. :-)
Okay, time for reality. I'd never heard of this TLA either, but Google is everyone's best buddy, and reveals that RAT stands for "Ram Air Turbine". As a previous poster stated, it's a propeller-driven hydraulic pump that keeps the hydraulics working enough to operate the control surfaces, hopefully allowing you to land if you lose all your engines.
A little follow-up googling located a page with a picture of a RAT. Haven't found a picture of an aircraft with the RAT deployed -- the page I linked to just shows the RAT itself.
A little while ago I spent roughly this amount on a game called Uru. (For those living in caves, it's the latest in the Myst series.) I seem to remember paying quite a bit more for Windows, but maybe the price has come down since then. No matter.
When I'm playing Uru, I wander through a variety of odd (but usually very pretty) environments, often sitting for hours on end contemplating alien mechanisms that I don't understand. Sometimes I click on a control or two (or ten), and sometimes things start working as a result. Other times I wander for days, trying every knob and button I can find, peering suspicously behind doors, retracing paths I've been down dozens of times, and in the end I still haven't figured out how to make some odd machine power up or work properly.
Which pretty closely parallels many of my experiences trying to get Windows to do things.
So...ummm...I guess by analogy, if Uru is worth the money, then surely Windows must also be worth it. ;-)
The voices in my head told me I wasn't. That's normal, isn't it?
(/me[0] thru /me[5] say it is, /me[6] isn't sure, and /me[7] just keeps singing off-color ditties about wallabies. But 7 always does that.)
Should we bring our gnus instead? I'm fuzzy on the details, but I thought I read that the FSF has some sort of license allowing them to be out in public.
New advertising campaign:
With a name like "Ogg Vorbis", it's got to be good...
You must have had a lot of fun taking that through airport security... :-)
So have an "airport mode" for the system that changes the alarm from a generic siren to a prerecorded message. Something like, oh...
Pffft. Who can understand abstract comparisons like that? Here's the proper one to make:
mass of Volkswagen (per VW's specs)
about 1,400 kilograms
Number of Volkswagens needed to change Earth's weight by 1%:
42,672,857,142,857,100,000
Everyone understands VWs as a unit of measurement! ;-)
Why else do you suppose angels have wings? ;-)
Definitely good advice.
Doh! Wait a minute, that's just something I read online from someone who's trustworthiness I can't verify. Ha! I'm on to your little game, and you're not gonna catch me that way! I'm gonna go and trust anything I read online.
Double-doh! Now I've gotta trust your advice again. Errrr, so I'm not going to trust your advice. So I am going to trust your...
Infinite recursion detected, process Raven terminated... AT$@AA#-^%%%
CARRIER DISCONNECT
Why do people keep perpetuating this myth? We're talking about an OS that runs on dozens of different architectures. Sure, people complain about "stable" being too far behind the power curve, but nothing's stopping you from moving to the "unstable" branch. There's a huge developer community supporting *BSD...errrr...ummm...
Oh damn, did the parent say Microsoft? That's different. Everyone knows that Microsoft is dying. ;-)
It's not a typo -- I suspect you just got a bit confused by all the version numbers getting tossed around in that paragraph of the filing.
The 2.2.1 reference is to a version of the EVMS project over on SourceForge -- they're not talking about a Linux kernel version there. EVMS provides administrative tools for storage management.
Table B, a few lines down, addresses the Linux kernel files/lines related to EVMS, and they're only talking about 2.4 releases of the kernel there. (Or, more accurately, a 2.4.x kernel after applying the EVMS 1.0.0 kernel patches.)
SCO's objection is to the code and kernel patches that IBM contributed to the EVMS project. SCO is not making any allegations against the 2.2 Linux kernels in this filing.
You must have missed this paragraph in the HP article:
HP is targeting registration offsets for use in machine detection of counterfeits, not human detection.