"There are plenty of 'poor and desperate' people in every country, what makes them any better than poor and desperate people elsewhere?"
Why should I sacrifice for them, too? To what specific end? The abstract construct of "betterness" is not relevant to my situation. Resources and opportunity protected be exclusivity sustain my situation better then surrendering to an open border policy. What would _I_ get from that? If you wish people to support a notion, demonstrating concrete benefits is better than the subjective constructs of "right, wrong, better, worse".
"There are also lots of rich people overseas who could benefit your country / town."
They are not being completely excluded, but filtering them helps me too. When the rich overwhelm a neighborhood (let's use northern New Jersey as an example) they drive out the less-prosperous. That is why I took advantage of the options in our protected society to move elsewhere. If we had open borders, it is reasonable to excpect that we would be flooded, and my choices would be constrained by the population pressure.
Tell me what open borders will do for me, not what they might do. That is not good enough.
"On the surface it looks like a good idea, but it's absolutely ridiculous that a human shouldn't be able to freely roam the public spaces of their own planet!"
Explain that unsupported assertion, if you can.
Exclusivity prevents other humans from taking advantage of resources in my bit of planet, so why should I want to give that up? It is like the construct of property rights.
I want MY property which I worked for, and I have no reason to give it to you. I want the benefits that go with MY countrymen restricting access to MY country, and have zero logical reason to want everyone else to have unfettered access to it. I would not benefit by an invasion of the poor and desperate.
If a tourist gets involved, they take the extra risk of being a foreigner going against a local. From what I read in the US, there is essentially no right to intervene with force if one is a civilian in the UK. If I'm over there and see a similar incident, I'd quietly leave. Why take an ass-beating and a trip to the slammer for being stupid? Back home, I know there is strong support for lawful intervention, and if necessary I can use armed force. In the US, many police would like to see civilians shoot violent felons, and privately give tips on smart use of firearms.
"Actually, De Beers is terrified." Good. I could give a damn about collecting sparkly rocks, but would love to have inexpensive diamond grinding, drilling, and sanding tools and abrasives.
It is their country, belonging to them, not me or you. They do not, therefore, owe anyone else an opportunity to become a Dutch citizen or live there anymore than I owe someone else a bedroom in my house. The choice the Dutch and the rest of Europe have is either to be flooded with immigrants from every place that is worse than Europe, or start hurting a few feelings and restrict immigration. Importing the poor, uneducated, and people who do not believe in the fundamental precepts behind ones own country makes no sense. so why should it be allowed?
"This is why you should encrypt your hard drive." That is why I should have stuff that matters on encrypted on removable media like a CF card or USB key, and nothing of even potential interest on the hard disk. The only loss when a laptop is confiscated or stolen should be....the laptop.
If you can boot from a live CD (or USB key), do that, use a virtual keyboard, and bypass whatever nasties lurk on the hard disk. Live distros are so full-featured and convenient to work with that I carry at least one in my CD wallet whenever I travel. Aside from security issues, you can have your distro of choice everywhere, and if you prefer Windows there are some pretty nifty BartPE live CD options available.
Scanning five-year olds is merely a way to identify them. It does not mean they are regarded as Usama mini-Laden. While there is no threat to a child posed by scanning their retinas, that info can be used to identify them should they be misplaced or borrowed without permission.
I also use a CF card in a PCMCIA adapter. No protrusion, no problem, and it cost about ten bucks. They fit neatly into the laptop so they are protected better than a USB key. While I have a PCMCIA adapter in my destop, I use a USB/CF adapter too.
For someone who needed a solution that wouldn't leave tracks, a "frugal install" to hard disk of a bootable CD image would allow any saved data to be kept to removable flash.
That is a consequence of diversity (dons flame suit) by which I do NOT mean that "some groups are bad people" The US is not a melting pot, but is instead composed of many different groups. That means that (except for unifying events like 9/11 that sell lots of bumper stickers) that we have no overall national consciousness nor do we identify with more than our chosen sub-group. Crime (white-collar or no-collar) is committed by people who do not care about their victims. American society is so extremely tolerant that there is not SOCIAL censure for anything but breaking extreme taboos like pedophilia. There being no expectation to care about each other (which would foster self-discipline and restraint), we don't. The price of living in a society without self-discipline is imposed discipline. The public demand security they will not themselves work for, so they will gradually support a police state as the more convenient of two evils.
The military has been neglected and mismanaged since the Reagan administration ended. He rescued us from the Hollow Force era, and the military has been living on the results for too long. I've been in the USAF since '81 and have not seen it this bad. It has been under continuous drawdown, procurement of new systems is not done with thought to economies of scale, and services like the Navy and AF are slashing personnel to pay for few and overpriced new systems. It is, provably, a bipartisan clusterfuck.
"no worry got hw support but tell that to the one who want to use it that day." Especially when the IT folks are being wiped out by the (in our case) USAF drawdown. Economy hardware dies often, and there are fewer IM'ers to maintain systems and recover data. "Well if you want military reliability you have to pay military prices" which are often cheaper over time. We killed MANY consumer and business-grade lappies until some sections got smart and bought Panasonic and Itronix.
Mike Sparks is no web designer, but is quite a bright guy and IMO the BattleBox concept is sound.
Having accumulated a couple of years in tent cities, I'd much prefer living in a container (that could have held gear and goods when deployed) instead of a rapidly deteriorating, smelly tent. Rather than having to build wooden walls and floors as is standard practice for tents, a container is turn-key ready. It is far more resistant to fire and weather, and can be turned into a stout bunker with sandbags, revetments, or conventional containers filled with sand.
The military already containerizes quite a bit of equipment, and could stand to containerize more. Much of the Army already deploys that way, even boxing/flatracking helicopters.
Testify!:-) I have two 40' High Cubes for shop buildings, a 20' and want more. I mounted the electric boxes using through-wall galvanized hardware and silicone sealer, with anti-seize on the threads "just in case". After being through Hurricane Hugo, and over the years seeing what fire does to workshops, I went ISO and will never go back to stick-built.
Recycled shipping containers are great small buildings (adding power and light is easily done with a drill and a holesaw) but new containers are a better bet than modding old ones if you are producing a commercial structure. You want new hardware, gaskets, etc. and will need a custom steel floor instead of the hardwood in most containers. Sea Box and other US firms do all sorts of custom ISO boxes. Check out their site for examples.
As far as recycling containers into ordinary (but fire and storm-resistant) small buildings, there is a business opportunity for firms willing to mod them. A basic door, window, and ventilation kit would be easy to make.
They can be painted to blend with a neighborhood. Since I live in a semi-rural suburb, I painted the street side of mine in woodland camo, and the rest with reflective aluminum roof paint. They disappear behind my treeline quite nicely.:)
"If all else fails, make a stand that they lock into on the parking lot."
Instead of rackmount servers, why not rackmount containers? You can do exactly what you are suggesting with standard container handling fittings and basic welding equipment. The size and shape are such that any firm producing container trailers could easily make them, and they could allow a slid-in installation from a rollback or Landoll trailer. This would eliminate any need for a crane, and keep the boxes above potential flooding. Here's how:
Back up your container to the rack so the bit of container that overhangs your rollback/Landoll has about two feet on the rack edge. Run your winch to a snatch block at the other end of the rack, then winch the container in place. (Your rack rails will center and stop the container if properly designed.) Flip and secure the corner locks, and you are good to go.
"Sandbagging the roof would also make it more work to get it out." Sandbags are labor-intensive, rot, and hold moisture. If you want a protective roof, slice another container horizontally and fill with reinforced concrete. Might be best to put it on top first, then use a concrete pump.
"On the other hand, anyone with a semi-tractor and a cable cutter could steal your entire data center..."
Only if you are silly enough to leave it on the container hauler chassis. Once on the ground, you'd need a rollback, a Landoll trailer, rough-terrain forklift, or a very large commercial wrecker and a flatbed.
20-footers can be placed with a common commercial rollback (they don't need to be delivered on a trailer), and if desired they can be locked to anchors on the ground. Just pot the anchors (containing standard lock fittings) in the ground, lower/slide the container on top of them, lock, then tack weld the locks. More secure than a conventional structure, and fitting a Lojak tracking box into the ISO would be easy enough. There are many ways to use these 20' modules indoors and out. ISO container structures are versatile, easy to work with, and I encourage anyone needing a building or internal structure to check them out. There are many companies customizing ISOs for every use including modular homes.
A 20' ISO box is a nice small format that can fit INSIDE many conventional commercial buildings. The advantage of this is that it eliminates the need for a custom structure. You could populate a warehouse or similar building with these, then add more as needed. The are easily delivered by commercial rollback trucks (just call your local towing company) and are not difficult to place. They can be moved by forklift, or even fitted with casters. (Tandemloc make a wide variety of ISO handling equipment and their catalog has good pics of same.) You could have quite a stout setup, including locking the containers to floor anchors. The is plenty of potential here for a quick-deploy, disaster-resistant (love those gasketed end doors!) facility. I have a couple of 40' High Cube ( I recommend the extra height for work spaces) and a standard height 20'. They are terrific small buildings.
"I have this vision of a giant, square hole being dug in the ground, the walls being covered with borg-like equipment, then dozens of cargo containers being stacked and slotted into place as if they were large battery cells. It will be, the DATA CENTER OF THE FUTURE... (echo echo echo echo"
If you pot the result in reinforced concrete, the boxes not only form the passages but provide an anti-spall liner and moisture barrier.
We don't need to place those requirements on the auto industries because recycling cars has been a profitable business for as long as there have been wrecked and worn cars! Making the manufacturers take them back would be silly. The auto recycling industry employs tens of thousands, serves millions, and is a vital part of the transportation ecosystem. With the rising price of scrap metal, used parts, scrap catalytic converters, etc. I'm delighted to buy and scrap all the cars I can get. Modern cars are so expensive to repair that fixing used cars depends on having plenty of organ donors. What I find interesting is that auto scrappers are adapted to shred cars and sort metal from plastic, rubber and glass. I toss my dead appliances and dead computers in the cars I send to the crusher, and the recycler has no problem at all with that. The amount of plastic, etc, in a car dwarfs that in computers and monitors, and the materials are similar.
Slashdot Mirror
"There are plenty of 'poor and desperate' people in every country, what makes them any better than poor and desperate people elsewhere?"
Why should I sacrifice for them, too? To what specific end?
The abstract construct of "betterness" is not relevant to my situation. Resources and opportunity protected be exclusivity sustain my situation better then surrendering to an open border policy.
What would _I_ get from that? If you wish people to support a notion, demonstrating concrete benefits is better than the subjective constructs of "right, wrong, better, worse".
"There are also lots of rich people overseas who could benefit your country / town."
They are not being completely excluded, but filtering them helps me too. When the rich overwhelm a neighborhood (let's use northern New Jersey as an example) they drive out the less-prosperous. That is why I took advantage of the options in our protected society to move elsewhere.
If we had open borders, it is reasonable to excpect that we would be flooded, and my choices would be constrained by the population pressure.
Tell me what open borders will do for me, not what they might do. That is not good enough.
"On the surface it looks like a good idea, but it's absolutely ridiculous that a human shouldn't be able to freely roam the public spaces of their own planet!"
Explain that unsupported assertion, if you can.
Exclusivity prevents other humans from taking advantage of resources in my bit of planet, so why should I want to give that up? It is like the construct of property rights.
I want MY property which I worked for, and I have no reason to give it to you.
I want the benefits that go with MY countrymen restricting access to MY country, and have zero logical reason to want everyone else to have unfettered access to it. I would not benefit by an invasion of the poor and desperate.
If a tourist gets involved, they take the extra risk of being a foreigner going against a local. From what I read in the US, there is essentially no right to intervene with force if one is a civilian in the UK. If I'm over there and see a similar incident, I'd quietly leave. Why take an ass-beating and a trip to the slammer for being stupid?
Back home, I know there is strong support for lawful intervention, and if necessary I can use armed force. In the US, many police would like to see civilians shoot violent felons, and privately give tips on smart use of firearms.
"Actually, De Beers is terrified."
Good. I could give a damn about collecting sparkly rocks, but would love to have inexpensive diamond grinding, drilling, and sanding tools and abrasives.
It is their country, belonging to them, not me or you.
They do not, therefore, owe anyone else an opportunity to become a Dutch citizen or live there anymore than I owe someone else a bedroom in my house.
The choice the Dutch and the rest of Europe have is either to be flooded with immigrants from every place that is worse than Europe, or start hurting a few feelings and restrict immigration. Importing the poor, uneducated, and people who do not believe in the fundamental precepts behind ones own country makes no sense. so why should it be allowed?
"This is why you should encrypt your hard drive."
That is why I should have stuff that matters on encrypted on removable media like a CF card or USB key, and nothing of even potential interest on the hard disk.
The only loss when a laptop is confiscated or stolen should be....the laptop.
If you can boot from a live CD (or USB key), do that, use a virtual keyboard, and bypass whatever nasties lurk on the hard disk.
Live distros are so full-featured and convenient to work with that I carry at least one in my CD wallet whenever I travel. Aside from security issues, you can have your distro of choice everywhere, and if you prefer Windows there are some pretty nifty BartPE live CD options available.
Scanning five-year olds is merely a way to identify them. It does not mean they are regarded as Usama mini-Laden.
While there is no threat to a child posed by scanning their retinas, that info can be used to identify them should they be misplaced or borrowed without permission.
I also use a CF card in a PCMCIA adapter. No protrusion, no problem, and it cost about ten bucks.
They fit neatly into the laptop so they are protected better than a USB key.
While I have a PCMCIA adapter in my destop, I use a USB/CF adapter too.
For someone who needed a solution that wouldn't leave tracks, a "frugal install" to hard disk of a bootable CD image would allow any saved data to be kept to removable flash.
That is a consequence of diversity (dons flame suit) by which I do NOT mean that "some groups are bad people"
The US is not a melting pot, but is instead composed of many different groups.
That means that (except for unifying events like 9/11 that sell lots of bumper stickers) that we have no overall national consciousness nor do we identify with more than our chosen sub-group.
Crime (white-collar or no-collar) is committed by people who do not care about their victims.
American society is so extremely tolerant that there is not SOCIAL censure for anything but breaking extreme taboos like pedophilia. There being no expectation to care about each other (which would foster self-discipline and restraint), we don't.
The price of living in a society without self-discipline is imposed discipline. The public demand security they will not themselves work for, so they will gradually support a police state as the more convenient of two evils.
The military has been neglected and mismanaged since the Reagan administration ended. He rescued us from the Hollow Force era, and the military has been living on the results for too long. I've been in the USAF since '81 and have not seen it this bad.
It has been under continuous drawdown, procurement of new systems is not done with thought to economies of scale, and services like the Navy and AF are slashing personnel to pay for few and overpriced new systems.
It is, provably, a bipartisan clusterfuck.
"no worry got hw support but tell that to the one who want to use it that day."
Especially when the IT folks are being wiped out by the (in our case) USAF drawdown.
Economy hardware dies often, and there are fewer IM'ers to maintain systems and recover data.
"Well if you want military reliability you have to pay military prices" which are often cheaper over time.
We killed MANY consumer and business-grade lappies until some sections got smart and bought Panasonic and Itronix.
"What could they possibly gain by turning their manufacturing over to Dell?"
:P
(Looks over at pallet of dead GX270s headed to join MANY others at Defense Reutilization and Marketing.)
Military standard reliability?
Mike Sparks is no web designer, but is quite a bright guy and IMO the BattleBox concept is sound.
Having accumulated a couple of years in tent cities, I'd much prefer living in a container (that could have held gear and goods when deployed) instead of a rapidly deteriorating, smelly tent. Rather than having to build wooden walls and floors as is standard practice for tents, a container is turn-key ready. It is far more resistant to fire and weather, and can be turned into a stout bunker with sandbags, revetments, or conventional containers filled with sand.
The military already containerizes quite a bit of equipment, and could stand to containerize more. Much of the Army already deploys that way, even boxing/flatracking helicopters.
High Cubes are less common. I had to ask my supplier for them.
b oxes.htm
They are 9'6" tall and MUCH more desirable for a dwelling!
http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis/taz/h/high_cube.jpg
http://www.proboxinc.com/productsp.htm
Lotta pics and parts:
http://www.tandemloc.com/
BattleBox
http://www.geocities.com/strategicmaneuver/battle
Sea Box (food for thought)
http://www.seabox.com/id-2
Testify! :-)
I have two 40' High Cubes for shop buildings, a 20' and want more. I mounted the electric boxes using through-wall galvanized hardware and silicone sealer, with anti-seize on the threads "just in case". After being through Hurricane Hugo, and over the years seeing what fire does to workshops, I went ISO and will never go back to stick-built.
Very nice, but not nearly as hardened as a steel ISO box and has the drawback of being a trailer instead of a modular container.
Since you asked...
http://www.sfa.com/DPD/dpd-products-barebase.htm scroll down to the Containerized Latrine System.
"Real containers are 40' long"
e r_Info.asp
t dryvans.htm
Basic containers are the common 20' and 40', and the 45'. High Cubes give you more height, and extended versions can go longer.
http://www.seabox.com/id-2
http://www.tandemloc.com/0_securing/S_ISO_Contain
http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part1/45foo
Recycled shipping containers are great small buildings (adding power and light is easily done with a drill and a holesaw) but new containers are a better bet than modding old ones if you are producing a commercial structure.
:)
You want new hardware, gaskets, etc. and will need a custom steel floor instead of the hardwood in most containers. Sea Box and other US firms do all sorts of custom ISO boxes. Check out their site for examples.
As far as recycling containers into ordinary (but fire and storm-resistant) small buildings, there is a business opportunity for firms willing to mod them. A basic door, window, and ventilation kit would be easy to make.
They can be painted to blend with a neighborhood. Since I live in a semi-rural suburb, I painted the street side of mine in woodland camo, and the rest with reflective aluminum roof paint. They disappear behind my treeline quite nicely.
"If all else fails, make a stand that they lock into on the parking lot."
Instead of rackmount servers, why not rackmount containers? You can do exactly what you are suggesting with standard container handling fittings and basic welding equipment. The size and shape are such that any firm producing container trailers could easily make them, and they could allow a slid-in installation from a rollback or Landoll trailer. This would eliminate any need for a crane, and keep the boxes above potential flooding.
Here's how:
Back up your container to the rack so the bit of container that overhangs your rollback/Landoll has about two feet on the rack edge.
Run your winch to a snatch block at the other end of the rack, then winch the container in place. (Your rack rails will center and stop the container if properly designed.) Flip and secure the corner locks, and you are good to go.
"Sandbagging the roof would also make it more work to get it out."
Sandbags are labor-intensive, rot, and hold moisture.
If you want a protective roof, slice another container horizontally and fill with reinforced concrete. Might be best to put it on top first, then use a concrete pump.
"On the other hand, anyone with a semi-tractor and a cable cutter could steal your entire data center..."
Only if you are silly enough to leave it on the container hauler chassis.
Once on the ground, you'd need a rollback, a Landoll trailer, rough-terrain forklift, or a very large commercial wrecker and a flatbed.
20-footers can be placed with a common commercial rollback (they don't need to be delivered on a trailer), and if desired they can be locked to anchors on the ground. Just pot the anchors (containing standard lock fittings) in the ground, lower/slide the container on top of them, lock, then tack weld the locks. More secure than a conventional structure, and fitting a Lojak tracking box into the ISO would be easy enough.
There are many ways to use these 20' modules indoors and out. ISO container structures are versatile, easy to work with, and I encourage anyone needing a building or internal structure to check them out. There are many companies customizing ISOs for every use including modular homes.
A 20' ISO box is a nice small format that can fit INSIDE many conventional commercial buildings. The advantage of this is that it eliminates the need for a custom structure. You could populate a warehouse or similar building with these, then add more as needed. The are easily delivered by commercial rollback trucks (just call your local towing company) and are not difficult to place. They can be moved by forklift, or even fitted with casters. (Tandemloc make a wide variety of ISO handling equipment and their catalog has good pics of same.)
You could have quite a stout setup, including locking the containers to floor anchors. The is plenty of potential here for a quick-deploy, disaster-resistant (love those gasketed end doors!) facility.
I have a couple of 40' High Cube ( I recommend the extra height for work spaces) and a standard height 20'.
They are terrific small buildings.
"I have this vision of a giant, square hole being dug in the ground, the walls being covered with borg-like equipment, then dozens of cargo containers being stacked and slotted into place as if they were large battery cells. It will be, the DATA CENTER OF THE FUTURE... (echo echo echo echo"
If you pot the result in reinforced concrete, the boxes not only form the passages but provide an anti-spall liner and moisture barrier.
If it's the same one I'm thinking of, the maintenance,behavioral side-effects of malfunction, and 20% downtime argue for hydromechanical replacement.
We don't need to place those requirements on the auto industries because recycling cars has been a profitable business for as long as there have been wrecked and worn cars! Making the manufacturers take them back would be silly.
The auto recycling industry employs tens of thousands, serves millions, and is a vital part of the transportation ecosystem. With the rising price of scrap metal, used parts, scrap catalytic converters, etc. I'm delighted to buy and scrap all the cars I can get. Modern cars are so expensive to repair that fixing used cars depends on having plenty of organ donors.
What I find interesting is that auto scrappers are adapted to shred cars and sort metal from plastic, rubber and glass. I toss my dead appliances and dead computers in the cars I send to the crusher, and the recycler has no problem at all with that. The amount of plastic, etc, in a car dwarfs that in computers and monitors, and the materials are similar.