Whoever thought up this "functionality" should be made to pay for all the lost data. I kid you not. There's stupid, then there's this "behavio[u]r", amounting IMHO to will[-l]ful destruction of user data.
Given a modest amount of understanding of electronics and computers, I would have predicted this from first principles.
I would expect someone who is choosing a hard drive for a system to have taken this into account.
If you designed your systems (including "home-brew"), then it's your fault ; if you're talking about systems that someone else put together for you, then it's their fault. UNLESS they described the system accurately to you, and you had described your needs accurately to them. You did write a contract, didn't you?
Describing yourself as a "computer engineer" doesn't necessarily confer upon you knowledge of either computers, or engineering. (IANA Computer Engineer.)
The 2004 solar storms caused 2V voltage spikes troughout my systems, which generally exceeds the voltage tolerances of the current drives. The voltage log was scary to read afterwards.
It's a shame you posted as AC ; it might have been interesting to see those voltage logs. (Obviously, as this is an externally-caused event, the worst outcome your site could get is "we are now definitely aware of this problem ; potential customers are encouraged to ask about our mitigation equipment and procedures.")
I always thought that click-of-death sounds cam from a latch on the voice coil (head positioning actuator) failing to release it for some (electronic) driver issue.
But it's 4 or 5 years since I ripped a hard drive apart ; are they back to driving heads with motors instead of using a voice coil, strong magnets, and feedback from the platter's tracks to position the heads?
In Hollland we got something called TBS (Ter Beschikking Stelling/To be made available) it is sentence given to crazies on top of or instead of a prison sentence and it is basically forced mental care. And where prison sensentences have a fixed time (we do got real life sentences in Holland) TBS can last until a doctor says your fit to be returned into society. It is NOT a nicer option then jail no matter what people think.
There is something broadly similar in the UK ; actually, there may be a couple of different routes to something essentially similar (IANAL) when you're detained or supervised until you've demonstrated to (several) doctors that you're no longer mad, bad or stupid, and that they think you're unlikely to relapse. Then you're released into the community (not a valid concept in America, by all accounts coming out of America, by Americans), typically under some degree of supervision. There is also, normally, a provision in the sentencing instructions to the effect that "you do something bad; you go back to jail, no further trial necessary".
But then I might have a more relaxed attitude about it because I am subjected to my forename (Iain) being misspelled on an almost daily basis.
I've been in meetings with 3 other people who apparently have the same name as me, but all with different spellings. Bloody vowels!
It (wobbly spelling) is a feature of languages that have only relatively recently been put into writing in a more-or-less phonetic script. Cast your mind back to the hash you made of spelling when you were learning your French or German or Latin, until you got your "eye in" to it. (Spanish, I always found more precise about such things. YMMV)
Mea culpa ; I was sure that I'd checked that before submitting.
(And living in Scotland, I know that there are people who get (moderately) irate about it. Which is why I'm sure that I checked it. In the wrong places, obviously.)
I'm shocked the government made a choice for a person over a corporation/lobby group/foreign power. First time In my life I think I've agreed with a home secretary?!?! must be getting old.
You'll probably be a lot older before you have to recycle that comment.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
Is that Hobbes of the "Calvin &" variety, or Hobbes of the "nasty, brutish and short" variety?
(Actually, "nasty, brutish and short" doesn't clearly differentiate the two, does it? Wiki-ing, neither does "little attracted by the scholastic learning" help much. One "Hobbes" has a stuffed tiger, the other wrote "Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil")
Maybe we should give up elections altogether and just have a government of Guardian readers.
As a matter of fact, we most likely have a government of people who read Grauniad, Scum, Indescribably Boring, Daily Flail, Torygraph and others, as well as their constituency rag(s).
In which order they read them is... isn't a terribly good indicator of their inclinations. Of the 2 MPs I've known on a social level, one would read his favoured paper first in the daily pile and one would read it last ; different people, different strategies.
The issue is about using an extradition treaty designed to process terrorists for sending over people for other offences, especially when the sentence is FAR worse in the US than it would be in the UK.
Precisely.
To be more precise, at least one US official has expressed the desire to murder the (alleged) hacker using the power of the US state and the Westinghouse grid. Since MacKinnon has grown up in a civilized country where the state doesn't routinely murder it's own citizens, this in itself is sufficient to make the extradition unjustifiable. (IMHO)
Odd how you can diagnose a person as "sane" with no medical background and never having met him.
A person with Asperger's Syndrome is not insane by reason of that diagnosis. The two are as closely related as Athlete's Foot and polydactyly (being born with e.g. 6 toes/foot) : the same parts of the body are affected, but otherwise there's no necessary relationship.
When I was looking to replace my stolen hand-held GPS in 2004, I was debating whether to get one with GPS-only, or GPS+GLONASS. Then I decided that the small amount of additional coolness factor of owning something that wasn't subject to shutdown by the US military wasn't worth the potential for doing jail time with hard-labour for being in possession of spying equipment.
That's probably not so much of an issue this decade, but I've still not replaced the "proper" GPS, because I frankly don't see the need ; my navigation is perfectly adequate without one. The wife did get us a SatNav (which uses GPS for it's position finding) for the car, and it's base maps are over 20 years out of date, illustrating the point that the important thing about a SatNav system is not one of the position-finding technology, or the route-finding algorithm, or the base map, or the "wireless updates for the safety camera database", but it is all of the components and their interactions.
(Incidentally, I object to being required to subscribe to a "safety camera database" which is a euphemism for "speed where ever you dare database" ; if we ever replace this "Road Angel" heap of shit, I'll be looking for a system without this unnecessary capability.)
If by "leading the way" you mean "stigmatizing bike riders as too poor to own a car",
Why do you assume that people who ride bikes are too poor to own a car? I ride a bike around town most of the time, despite owning a car worth GBP_to_your_currency_conversion * antilog(5) of your currency unit. I find it more economically worthwhile to have the wife go to work (using the car) and earn an income while I'm on leave (and not required to go anywhere other than to the shops and/ or pub). Obviously when I'm not on leave, I don't need a car either.
Slashdot Mirror
What is the price premium? (Off to normal hardware site ...)
Seek times and data rates?
Do I need that?
Shiny, new and high-tech? Yes, but I still don't need it.
I know that it's a very un-Slashdot thing, but I don't need that shiny-bright-new-unreliable tech.
Given a modest amount of understanding of electronics and computers, I would have predicted this from first principles.
I would expect someone who is choosing a hard drive for a system to have taken this into account.
If you designed your systems (including "home-brew"), then it's your fault ; if you're talking about systems that someone else put together for you, then it's their fault. UNLESS they described the system accurately to you, and you had described your needs accurately to them. You did write a contract, didn't you?
Describing yourself as a "computer engineer" doesn't necessarily confer upon you knowledge of either computers, or engineering. (IANA Computer Engineer.)
It's a shame you posted as AC ; it might have been interesting to see those voltage logs. (Obviously, as this is an externally-caused event, the worst outcome your site could get is "we are now definitely aware of this problem ; potential customers are encouraged to ask about our mitigation equipment and procedures.")
I didn't know that. That makes a small (but possibly significant) difference.
I just got back from a run to Orerve. Stroppy bastards there.
On the inside of the skull.
Emplaced at birth.
But it's 4 or 5 years since I ripped a hard drive apart ; are they back to driving heads with motors instead of using a voice coil, strong magnets, and feedback from the platter's tracks to position the heads?
There is something broadly similar in the UK ; actually, there may be a couple of different routes to something essentially similar (IANAL) when you're detained or supervised until you've demonstrated to (several) doctors that you're no longer mad, bad or stupid, and that they think you're unlikely to relapse. Then you're released into the community (not a valid concept in America, by all accounts coming out of America, by Americans), typically under some degree of supervision. There is also, normally, a provision in the sentencing instructions to the effect that "you do something bad; you go back to jail, no further trial necessary".
Google for "define:vidictiveness"
It's a transpondian barbarian ; just be thankful that his fleas haven't managed to get through the Internet Tubze to you.
I've been in meetings with 3 other people who apparently have the same name as me, but all with different spellings. Bloody vowels!
It (wobbly spelling) is a feature of languages that have only relatively recently been put into writing in a more-or-less phonetic script. Cast your mind back to the hash you made of spelling when you were learning your French or German or Latin, until you got your "eye in" to it. (Spanish, I always found more precise about such things. YMMV)
Mea culpa ; I was sure that I'd checked that before submitting.
(And living in Scotland, I know that there are people who get (moderately) irate about it. Which is why I'm sure that I checked it. In the wrong places, obviously.)
The very nice ones are mostly the ones with passports. The not-so-nice ones don't go abroad except when they don't need a passport.
You'll probably be a lot older before you have to recycle that comment.
[Depressed, now.]
(I swap tweets with someone who lives on #MarsTime ; it puts a different perspective on time.)
Kick him in the nuts as well, why don't you? Just a second, I'll get my staple gun and pin out his ballbag on the door.
Do you have some chilli powder to hand?
Is that Hobbes of the "Calvin &" variety, or Hobbes of the "nasty, brutish and short" variety?
(Actually, "nasty, brutish and short" doesn't clearly differentiate the two, does it? Wiki-ing, neither does "little attracted by the scholastic learning" help much. One "Hobbes" has a stuffed tiger, the other wrote "Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil")
As a matter of fact, we most likely have a government of people who read Grauniad, Scum, Indescribably Boring, Daily Flail, Torygraph and others, as well as their constituency rag(s).
In which order they read them is ... isn't a terribly good indicator of their inclinations. Of the 2 MPs I've known on a social level, one would read his favoured paper first in the daily pile and one would read it last ; different people, different strategies.
You missed out the stage of being lost and then found again. What sort of Vogon are you?
Ah, so in accordance with the US government official's expressed plan, he'd be electrocuted ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H burned to death with 240V, not 110V?
What magnanimity!
What, magnanimity?
Precisely.
To be more precise, at least one US official has expressed the desire to murder the (alleged) hacker using the power of the US state and the Westinghouse grid. Since MacKinnon has grown up in a civilized country where the state doesn't routinely murder it's own citizens, this in itself is sufficient to make the extradition unjustifiable. (IMHO)
You missed out the "publicly" in "publicly embarrassed the imbeciles".
I believe that sentence normally follows trial and conviction. This is punishment while on remand awaiting trial.
A person with Asperger's Syndrome is not insane by reason of that diagnosis. The two are as closely related as Athlete's Foot and polydactyly (being born with e.g. 6 toes/foot) : the same parts of the body are affected, but otherwise there's no necessary relationship.
That's probably not so much of an issue this decade, but I've still not replaced the "proper" GPS, because I frankly don't see the need ; my navigation is perfectly adequate without one. The wife did get us a SatNav (which uses GPS for it's position finding) for the car, and it's base maps are over 20 years out of date, illustrating the point that the important thing about a SatNav system is not one of the position-finding technology, or the route-finding algorithm, or the base map, or the "wireless updates for the safety camera database", but it is all of the components and their interactions.
(Incidentally, I object to being required to subscribe to a "safety camera database" which is a euphemism for "speed where ever you dare database" ; if we ever replace this "Road Angel" heap of shit, I'll be looking for a system without this unnecessary capability.)
Why do you assume that people who ride bikes are too poor to own a car? I ride a bike around town most of the time, despite owning a car worth GBP_to_your_currency_conversion * antilog(5) of your currency unit. I find it more economically worthwhile to have the wife go to work (using the car) and earn an income while I'm on leave (and not required to go anywhere other than to the shops and/ or pub). Obviously when I'm not on leave, I don't need a car either.
As for the basic thesis of TFS, "well, duh!"