First off, we're talking about a homebrew cyclotron built by an amateur (civil engineering is not the right specialty).
No we aren't. He has built his own, but apparently no one knew or cared. Now he wants a commercial one, and has found someone that will give him one.
"Albert Swank Jr - who runs an engineering firm from his house - built his first domestic cyclotron when he was 17. He now wants to upgrade to a meatier Scandiatronix MC16, donated by Johns Hopkins University."
On the other hand, that's not a popular view around here, because it has the audacity to suggest that my right not to be publicly attacked based on incorrect and misleading information might be more important than someone else's precious right to free speech under all circumstances ever, even if they're speaking hurtful untruths.
I guess I don't follow the popular view. Sure, people should be responsible for what they write. The problem could be the degree of responsibility. I have found things on the Internet that I wrote more than 10 years ago. At the time I wrote them, I had no expectation that they would be around this long. I didn't write them on the Internet, but they are indexed as part of usenet. I have at least one post attributed to me on usenet that I did not write. I replied to it, then someone replied to mine and attributed the original text to me. If someone takes offense to those, what should my liability be? BTW, Slashdot is indexed on Google.
The things that you write today have an unprecendented scope. Professional journalists are used to it, they have editors and legal departments. The rest of us are still learning about the power and liability of words that are published for the entire world. Everything you put on the Internet might as well be carved in stone. It's amazing it doesn't stifle discussions entirely, because it's nice to have the good things out there, but your mistakes are with you for the rest of your life.
I would hate to see channels that I enjoy fade away because other customers aren't willing to pay for them.
I think we'd see a lot of smaller channels disappear because they couldn't get on enough cable networks. The group of Discovery channels is a good example. If Discovery couldn't use the demand for their primary channel to leverage the providers into carrying their newer channels, we'd never see them. And even if they could get them carried, who would buy them? For example, with an a la carte system there was a time I wouldn't have paid for channels like the History channel. I never watched it, didn't know what kind of shows they offered, why would I pay for it. How do you launch a new channel if people don't find it channel surfing? We'd risk never getting any new channels like FoodTV, DIY, HGTV, TLC. Those I'm willing to watch on occasion, and would include, now that I know about them.
Because in many areas our power grids are already being utilized at their maximum capacity. Note the blackouts of the recent past. If the population moved en-mass to electric transportation, our power grids couldn't support it. With electric cars you have two choices, batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen you could move production closer to the source and spare the grid, but then pay for transportation. And the most economical solution is to produce it at the station, like Iceland is doing.
As far as biodiesel is concerned, it's reasonably affordable now. A year ago B20 was being sold at the same price as diesel, with current prices it should be even more attractive to produce. Granted, part of that price is subsidized (1 penny per percent of biodiesel), but realistically dino fuels are subsidized too, at a cost of about $100 billion a year. Assuming you aren't naive enough to think Iraq is about freedom.
I don't know american diesel prices but for most europeans vegetable oil will be cheaper as long as there are no taxes.
And there is the big catch, taxes. Fuels are heavily taxed. One document I read stated that in the US, diesel is taxed at roughly 50 cents a gallon (~25% in the midwest). Vegetable oil, OTOH, is taxed through normal sales tax which would be in the 7-8% range. And for comparision, it stated that European diesel taxes were; UK $4+/gal, Germany $3/gal, France $2.80/gal. (US dollars and gallons, retail price for diesel locally is currently $2.25-2.30 a gallon) I think that regardless of the source of the fuel, you're going to find that the taxes are going to be included.
The way I understand it, nuclear power and electric cars are the solution.
Nuclear power and electric cars are a solution, probably not the solution.
It actually seems quite close, aside from the infrastructure.
Infrustructure is a HUGE problem. How do you get electricity or hydrogen to where you need it? For the US anyway, you're talking about reworking the entire electrical grid. And we still don't have an acceptable way to dispose of the nuclear waste. I'm a proponent of both nuclear and hydrogen power. But we need to be realistic.
With biofuels you can use current infrastructure. And current vehicles can use it with little or no modifications. Probably the reason there is so much interest in biodiesel is that with a cost effective solution there, you could convert every train and semi in America. Go for the least disruptive method that targets a very large market. From there you can look at either diesel cars or ethanol as the next step.
That's not to say you can't use more than one solution, but I don't see electric/hydrogen cars being popular outside of larger cities any time soon.
No, what you are missing is that when other databases have an option to install in a non case sensitive manner, they are NOT CASE SENSITIVE. It doesn't matter what the spec says when you select an option that overrides the standard. If I remember correctly, Firebird is not case sensitive at all. At the very least, it is not that way by default because Interbase was not. MSSQL and MySQL both have options to turn off case sensitivity, and when you do they are NOT CASE SENSITIVE. That means 'table' is the same as 'TABLE' is the same as 'TaBlE'. The Postgres system I was using was represented as being configured to not be case sensitive, but in fact either the option does not exist or does not work. It has been a year or two, so I no longer remember the details of which it turned out to be. It was not possible to turn off this 'feature'. For compatibility reasons, I do NOT want case sensitivity. And Postgres' behavior is unsuitable for ANY project I have worked on in the last 10 years. Thus, I no longer attempt to use it. For the present, I have grudgingly been using MySQL where license cost is any issue, but will probably take another look at FlameRobin to see if it's mature enough to make Firebird an option.
Actually, from doing a quick search, it appears that Postgres does not have a case INsensitive mode of install. Which is probably what I ended up learning before, and that the installs that I had were mis-represented. For the projects that I work on, case sensitivity causes considerable compatibility issues or makes using Postgres entirely impossible. Whether that is per standard or not, it is a fact of business.
PostgreSQL treats the following identifiers as equivalent: "foo", Foo, FOO, foo
This wasn't my experience.
If you want case sensitive identifiers, double quote them as the standard states.
This is the problem, I did NOT want case sensitive operations. According to the documentation I had, the systems that I was working with were not configured to be case sensitive. If I configure a system to be case INsensitive when I install it, I want it to be case INsensitive. That doesn't mean lower case the SQL and then to a case sensitive compare with the schema and data. Which is the behavior I experienced.
Can you elaborate on the case sensitivity issue? As far as I can tell the only way PostgreSQL deviates from the standard is by folding to lower case rather than upper case because, well, lower case looks more readable.
Sure. Postgres (at least in v7) configured to not be case sensitive will lower case the SQL, but not the schema or data. It does the most annoying thing any software can do, it assumes it has to correct the users imput, and chooses wrong.
Suppose you want your table named CustPackingSlipJour instead of CUSTPACKINGSLIPJOUR (or custpackingslipjour in Postgres' case) because it's easier for the developers to read. If you do a Select * from CustPackingSlipJour on MSSQL, Firebird, or MySQL you will get a result set containing all the rows of the table. Because when you tell them to be case insensitive they are. With Postgres you will not unless you change your query to Select * from "CustPackingSlipJour".
I tried it on a couple different versions on Windows and Linux, was told that was just the way it worked, and moved on.
Geeks churn, most normal-people don't. ( this referring to the frequency of replacing one's machines )
Well, I just replied to another message comparing home built PCs to classic cars, so I won't go into all the falacies again. Briefly, most of the suggestions here are for bleeding edge equipment that someone who waits 'several years' between upgrades doesn't need. Putting in an AMD64 is not a cost effective solution because it extend life to dollars ratio doesn't work. It's about $175 for the cheapest MB/CPU combo. And he's certainly not a gamer with a machine that old, so a $50 video card is going to be sufficient, which means PCI is as acceptable as PCIe, and would probably make for a cheaper motherboard.
The suggestions from the home built crew here are going to put the cost of the machine well over $1000. My upgraded Dell was around $500 (and no MS tax). A year ago I bought a 2.8g P4 with 512m and NVidia video. If he wants to built from scratch, that fine. But there are affordable alternatives out there that don't require memorizing acronyms and hardware compatibilities. And came with a year of support from Dell Business. I'll replace it after three years, my mom would get a decade (or more) of use out of it. But the most demanding thing her system does it remain compatible with AOL.
An oversize UPS is an investment I wish all computer-users made, but I'm trying to be realistic:
Recommending a budget UPS is better than recommending surge suppressors. A surge suppressor will not protect you from brownouts. And they are more dangerous, and more common, than dangerous spikes. Where you're recommending a $75 surge suppressor (and in reality, they'll end up with a $10 Belkin), I recommend a $60 UPS like the APC BE500R.
I still don't think phone lines or cable are a big surge risk. I had my $700 USR Couriers on my BBS for a decade with no problem. If there had been a surge the Courier's optical isolation would have saved my PC, but would have died in the process. Thankfully, never happened. I've been on RoadRunner for about 7 years with no problems. My sister lost some equipment during an ice storm, but it's not apparent whether it was caused by a power spike on the cable (power lines falling on cable lines) or simply spikes/brownouts on the AC. And by installing a router, not only are you protecting yourself from the real danger of the Internet, it will most likely take any spike that made it past the the ISP's premise equipment. (remember, many own the equipment on both ends of the circuit. And a lightning strike on their line would take out a whole neighborhood of cable modems)
As for case sensitivity.... What on earth do you mean it doesn't do silly things with case sensitivity? PostgreSQL is almost standards-compliant here by default (except that case is folded to lower rather than upper for unquoted identifiers) while MySQL is anything but that.
Postgres converts the SQL to lower case, but not the schema or data, and then does a case sensitive compare. For example, I have an application that accesses a table called CustPackingSlipJour. I suppose we could change it to CUSTPACKINGSLIPJOUR, but that's just abusive to the people who have to read it.
MSSQL, Firebird, MySQL will all do a Select * from CustPackingSlipJour. Postgres assumes that what I gave it is wrong, and lower cases everything UNLESS I put it in quotes. I would prefer that it assumed I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted it to be case INsensitive when I installed it.
Would you consider suggesting to a guy who drives around a hand-built classic car to just replace the whole thing with a Corolla once it breaks down?
Oh goody, Slashdot analogies. Unfortunately, the only similarity is 'hand-built'. If you're truly 'building' a classic car, you are using parts that are decades old. That do the same job as current parts, try that with a computer. My '67 326ci Pontiac Firebird could use the same fuel as my '02 4.3l, albeit with a fuel additive. And unlike my computers will appreciate over the years. Ok, you meant built, not restored, so lets look at psuedo-classic cars, like a Cobra kit car. Again, whether you use current parts or recycled parts, that car will still perform it's tasks 10 years from now, as long as we have fuel to put in it. And possibly appreciate in value too.
Another reasons these analogies don't work. Computers have a time limited life, regardless of whether you use them or not. If I built a brand new computer and put it in a box for 25 years, it's doubtful that it would have any value at all. Yet my '80 pinball machines would be worth ~$5000 each if they were New-In-Box. Much more than their original price, and actually, more than a New machine would cost now.
It's just a fact of life, computers are disposable.
I don't feel like I need to replace the entire box without a specific reason. Just the case (full tower antec, I forget which model right this second) could last me 5-10 years unless I feel a pressing need to get a smaller one.
My Antec is nice, and I paid around $150 for it with a power supply, but I doubt I'll put another motherboard in it. I no longer feel the need for huge workstation cases. If I built another server I'd put it in a rack (I actually have a rack server I built, but never turned on. It needs to have the traces of the motherboard filed so they can't touch the case) Whether or not the case is good for 10 years will probably depend on availability of power supplies. We're probably about due for a new style of power connectors, if they haven't changed already for the 64bit CPUs.
I don't care how good Dell's computers get, I'd still rather build my own.
And here is the real problem that you have. You're still in the 'build your own' phase. Once upon a time it was cheaper to do that. It no longer is. Now it's a means to get a specifically configured machine, which generally means bleeding edge high performance parts. And most of us don't need them. The requirements for the latest FPS gaming rig is way over the top for what most of us need.
That gets us down to what the rest of us look for; a good performing machine at a reasonable price. My current PC is about a year old. I paid $500 total for it, including 512m RAM and a mid range NVidia. Out of the 3 Dells that I own, I have called tech support 1 time. My first one had a suicidal LG CD Rom, and when Mandrake did it's CDRW test it died. It was replaced by Dell. I also have a 2 year old dual proc AMD that I build from parts. Everybody's favorite vendor, NewEgg, sent me a bad Tyan MB that smoked CPUs. Rather than ship everything back to them like I should have, I did the troubleshooting myself. As a result I had hassles with them about getting the defective parts replaced. I have extra equipment laying around that I bought for troubleshooting (IE. the MB/CPU in that almost complete rack server). I spent $1000 for the machine plus those extras. It took 3 months to get everything fixed and refunded. And the Dell has been a more reliable and quieter machine.
You guys go ahead and build your machines. I'll spend 1/2 the money now and in 3 years I'll spend the other half. Oh, and in case you want to discount my abilities to build machines, I built my own for over a decade. As well as those for family and friends. Several of those friends went on to jobs as PC technicians/consultants based on skills they developed working with me. Two of my dual proc boxes I built, two are Compaq Proliants that I got from eBay and upgraded to dual. I built machines, successfully, long enough to get burnt out of the process. I have the Seagate, WD, Maxtor, IBM HD war stories. Now it's about the $$$$ and home built generally loses for the average user.
IF one knows that one wants a machine that will run "new" release programs in 3 years, that means AMD64, rather than 32-bit ( compatibility-problems, as-in programs simply not running, have been found on the Intel implimentation of x86_64 )
That cuts down the field greatly.
It also cuts down the cash in your wallet greatly. Really, who cares what will run new release programs in 3 years. You're going to want a new machine by then anyway. Buy what it takes to run what you do now and the foreseeable future. Make sure it can take a small number of upgrades in the areas where you might push it's limits.
Don't build yourself a moneypit. If you aren't going to use the capacity now, the only thing you gain is bragging rights. And if I was inclined to brag, I'd rather brag about my bank account than my PC.
IF you're going to connect your machine to highspeed, then please make certain that your surge-suppressor is between your network-port of your machine, and the wall your highspeed connection comes-in through.
If you're going broadband, make sure you have a router. I don't know that a spike can't happen through cable or DSL, but in 7 years I've never seen it happen and your provider has much more expensive equipment than you do, so I would expect plenty of isolation. An oversize UPS would be a better use of the money.
I'd like my configuration to be easily upgradeable: as in no bloody hands working in the case, no 140$ 200W PSU, no propietary motherboard, no 6 dozen things to uninstall after a reload, etc.
Seriously, if you want a box that is friendly to work on, you should at least find a Dell you can open and look at. I have seen some nice cases over the years; Compaq Proliant 800s are nice to work in, I have a huge Antec tower for my dual Athlon, but my 400SCs that I bought from Dell are some of the nicest cases I've worked on. No tools required to open them, no thumbscrews to mess with. Cables are tied up nice and neat and the drives are on rails. I haven't checked, but the motherboards are supposed to be standard Intels. I can tell you it's a breeze to add memory. Probably the only drawback is you would have to go to Dell for power supplies. But I have one that has been running 24x7 for two years with no problems. If it makes it to next fall before I see a major failure, I'll just replace the whole box anyway. I don't feel like I'm invested in the machine and need to do upgrades to extend it's life.
Granted, the current 430SC isn't the deal (for use as a workstation) the 400SC was. All I had to do was spend $300 on the box, then bought a bunch of RAM and a new video card.
Another nice thing is the Dell is quiet enough I recently moved one to the living room. The Antec competes with the Compaqs on noise. IE. with either of them you'll be happier with them in another room.
MySQL's got three big great things going for it: raw disgusting speed, relative simplicity to set up and administer, and the whole dual-license thing.
From my perspective, MySQL has two things over Postgres. MySQLAdministrator and they don't do silly things with case sensitivity.
OTOH, they only have one advantage over Firebird, MySQLAdministrator. I keep hoping that the guys over at "Firebird - Relational Database for the New Millenium" will wake up and get some good tools out there. If FlameRobin ever matures, I'll wipe MySQL from my systems in a heartbeat.
What's not to like? The job of the database it to maintain data integrity. MySQL falls down in a number of ways. Who cares what license it has if your data isn't safe.
Speed has never been an issue for me, but then, I'm not trying to use my workstation from two generations ago as a database server.
I have a Mac mini as well, with 512m. It doesn't perform much, if any better. On top of that, when I was using it about 6 months ago, the Mac client had bugs that don't exist in the PC client.
I'll bet if you turned it down to 640x480 and set the detail to minimum it would improve too. But if you have to do that, why not play an older game. Or I suppose I could move my character to a lower population server, since I'm on one that was added the first week after rollout, but that would mean trying to convince everyone else I know that plays to switch too.
Low box spec requirements and cross-platform support for Mac users.
Low requirements? You obviously don't spend any time in Ironforge. I have thrown more than 10x the system at WoW as I did with Asheron's Call, and still see severe client side lag in IF. (2.8 P4, 512m, SATA HD, 64m video) The client needs to be a lot more intelligent about limiting character rendering as system load increases. (which, BTW, AC handled in a primitive way) I can't imagine what kind of system is going to be required for those epic battles they keep promising.
Hmmm, I have Netgear, USR, and Linksys wireless routers. I bought the Linksys for OpenWRT. I prefer the Netgear (MR314, now discontinued). And then I have also purchased about 50 WAP11s. And to date the only time I have cared what OS was supported was the single WRT54G that I bought for a special project.
These types of routers are generally for cost conscious SOHOs. If the VxWorks version is cheaper, that's what they will buy. Probably what Linksys should do is market the Vx version to the current market, and then the Linux version to people looking for things like VOIP or QOS support at a higher price. Then they could benefit from some of the work that OpenWRT is doing. But of course they have to be careful not to steal customers from their Cisco products.
It is harder to duplicate/create a RFID than a 2D barcode which you can print with any laser printer.
You do realize that the data in an RFID tag is simply encoded in there. Kind of like putting data on a thumb drive. The equipment is publically available. More so than color lasers where when they started being a problem with currency. Zebra has a nice one for about $1500, which is nothing to someone willing to counterfeit a passport.
The problem with technologies like RFIDs on passports is their adverse properties outweigh their benefits. Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing. Particularly when there are viable options that have those problems.
Not necessarily. You wouldn't tatoo your ATM PIN on your forehead if you kept forgetting it, would you?
This is a case of someone coming up with an idea that sounded cool. Silver bullet for citizen identification problems. But when people started pointing out the flaws, rather than looking for a better solution they dug in their heals. Bad guys can read it? oh, we'll make a special cover to block the signal. What about when it's open? oh, we'll encrypt the data. How will various Customs entities get the key? oh, we'll put an optical barcode on it with the key. Right here is where the clue should have beat them to death. If you're going to scan an optical barcode anyway, put all the data in an optical barcode. Instead we still have problems with unique numbers that can be used to track people and a RF target placed on US citizens.
Even better solution, smart card chip embedded in the cover of the passport. I'm assuming you Customs guys are still going to want me to place my passport into your hands. Its not like it's ever going to be a contactless exchange.
There is no problem with putting biometric information into a 2d barcode. A PDF417 barcode can hold 1100-1800 characters of data. Datamatrix can hold about 2000 characters. And there is no reason why there couldn't be more than one barcode in the passport. If I remember the sizes correctly, probably 3-4 barcodes per page.
RFIDs typically hold 2k (or less) data. And there is nothing special about RFID that will stop counterfeiting.
But hey, if it's good enough for Walmart.... Only terrorists need privacy. And that RFID will help them locate US hostages. (although probably only for the terrorists)
Of course, this among other issues is exactly why I have yet to buy or play a MMORPG.
Which is also why you have no concept of the way players feel about their characters. The type of games you prefer are the kind I play for a week or two, and then put back in the box to gather dust. There is no investment. You can't compare a saved game that took a few hours to a character that you have developed for a year.
Regardless of whether your presence in their virtual world should have value, it has been proven time and again that virtual property does have value.
Rarely do I give a second thought to changes in a MMORPG's TOS, because in most cases they don't affect me. I have no desire to cheat or exploit limitations in the game. But in this case they have basically said that it was too tough to secure their game, so they'll just scan your system for whatever they want. They are taking information that they are not entitled to because it's expedient.
When you compare what they have done, and what they could do, you run into some pretty scarey scenarios. For instance, if I was in charge of a business network, I would absolutely refuse to allow any computer with WoW installed to be connected to the network in any fashion. It's a small step from monitoring your system to monitoring your network because they need to stop 2nd computer hacks.
Alarm systems: simple alarm systems are installed along with a contract for monitoring where the hardware is subsidized similar to cell phone service. If the alarm company changed their TOS during your contract period they would be in breach and you could require them to provide the contracted services or make you whole. More expensive alarm systems are not tied to specific monitoring companies, and in fact would be of some value even without monitoring.
Cell phones: you have a contract with your provider. Again, a change of service is breach of contract. They won't change anything until your contract runs out, and rarely do they change then. They just put you on month-to-month under the same terms.
I'm not saying either of the above couldn't happen, but if they did you would have legal remedies. (that may or may not be practical)
And finally, WoW: I am not aware of ANY legal third party servers. Should someone be stupid enough to make one available, they should pay particular attention to the Bnetd case. Something about history repeating itself.
The difference being that Blizzard could change their TOS on your first login to their game server (which is after the game purchase and account activation), and you could be stuck with terms that are unacceptable to you and virtually no recourse. In fact, they most likely DO change TOS on your first login. I doubt they have done a manufacturing refresh on their retail product, so the TOS in the box does not match the TOS you will have to agree to after the update on your initial login.
I don't fear using my CC on the internet, I do it regularly. But having to replace a compromised card can be a pain. I have done it twice, the first was no big deal, I rarely used the card. All charges that were disputed were removed. In both cases new cards were issued. And in both cases all the online transaction history was wiped out because the new card was a new account. Transactions were tied to the card number, not the account owner. On the second card I spent a great deal of time 'fixing' automatic transactions so my monthly bills got paid. One card was VISA, one was MasterCard, although both banks offered either.
BTW, the first card was compromised offline, I used it for vacations, not online purchases. It had to be either a gas station or motel. The second was the result of our friends at Card Services. Things could have been even worse if either of them had been my primary card.
Slashdot Mirror
First off, we're talking about a homebrew cyclotron built by an amateur (civil engineering is not the right specialty).
No we aren't. He has built his own, but apparently no one knew or cared. Now he wants a commercial one, and has found someone that will give him one.
"Albert Swank Jr - who runs an engineering firm from his house - built his first domestic cyclotron when he was 17. He now wants to upgrade to a meatier Scandiatronix MC16, donated by Johns Hopkins University."
On the other hand, that's not a popular view around here, because it has the audacity to suggest that my right not to be publicly attacked based on incorrect and misleading information might be more important than someone else's precious right to free speech under all circumstances ever, even if they're speaking hurtful untruths.
I guess I don't follow the popular view. Sure, people should be responsible for what they write. The problem could be the degree of responsibility. I have found things on the Internet that I wrote more than 10 years ago. At the time I wrote them, I had no expectation that they would be around this long. I didn't write them on the Internet, but they are indexed as part of usenet. I have at least one post attributed to me on usenet that I did not write. I replied to it, then someone replied to mine and attributed the original text to me. If someone takes offense to those, what should my liability be? BTW, Slashdot is indexed on Google.
The things that you write today have an unprecendented scope. Professional journalists are used to it, they have editors and legal departments. The rest of us are still learning about the power and liability of words that are published for the entire world. Everything you put on the Internet might as well be carved in stone. It's amazing it doesn't stifle discussions entirely, because it's nice to have the good things out there, but your mistakes are with you for the rest of your life.
I would hate to see channels that I enjoy fade away because other customers aren't willing to pay for them.
I think we'd see a lot of smaller channels disappear because they couldn't get on enough cable networks. The group of Discovery channels is a good example. If Discovery couldn't use the demand for their primary channel to leverage the providers into carrying their newer channels, we'd never see them. And even if they could get them carried, who would buy them? For example, with an a la carte system there was a time I wouldn't have paid for channels like the History channel. I never watched it, didn't know what kind of shows they offered, why would I pay for it. How do you launch a new channel if people don't find it channel surfing? We'd risk never getting any new channels like FoodTV, DIY, HGTV, TLC. Those I'm willing to watch on occasion, and would include, now that I know about them.
Why? We use nuclear power already.
Because in many areas our power grids are already being utilized at their maximum capacity. Note the blackouts of the recent past. If the population moved en-mass to electric transportation, our power grids couldn't support it. With electric cars you have two choices, batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen you could move production closer to the source and spare the grid, but then pay for transportation. And the most economical solution is to produce it at the station, like Iceland is doing.
As far as biodiesel is concerned, it's reasonably affordable now. A year ago B20 was being sold at the same price as diesel, with current prices it should be even more attractive to produce. Granted, part of that price is subsidized (1 penny per percent of biodiesel), but realistically dino fuels are subsidized too, at a cost of about $100 billion a year. Assuming you aren't naive enough to think Iraq is about freedom.
I don't know american diesel prices but for most europeans vegetable oil will be cheaper as long as there are no taxes.
And there is the big catch, taxes. Fuels are heavily taxed. One document I read stated that in the US, diesel is taxed at roughly 50 cents a gallon (~25% in the midwest). Vegetable oil, OTOH, is taxed through normal sales tax which would be in the 7-8% range. And for comparision, it stated that European diesel taxes were; UK $4+/gal, Germany $3/gal, France $2.80/gal. (US dollars and gallons, retail price for diesel locally is currently $2.25-2.30 a gallon) I think that regardless of the source of the fuel, you're going to find that the taxes are going to be included.
The way I understand it, nuclear power and electric cars are the solution.
Nuclear power and electric cars are a solution, probably not the solution.
It actually seems quite close, aside from the infrastructure.
Infrustructure is a HUGE problem. How do you get electricity or hydrogen to where you need it? For the US anyway, you're talking about reworking the entire electrical grid. And we still don't have an acceptable way to dispose of the nuclear waste. I'm a proponent of both nuclear and hydrogen power. But we need to be realistic.
With biofuels you can use current infrastructure. And current vehicles can use it with little or no modifications. Probably the reason there is so much interest in biodiesel is that with a cost effective solution there, you could convert every train and semi in America. Go for the least disruptive method that targets a very large market. From there you can look at either diesel cars or ethanol as the next step.
That's not to say you can't use more than one solution, but I don't see electric/hydrogen cars being popular outside of larger cities any time soon.
No, what you are missing is that when other databases have an option to install in a non case sensitive manner, they are NOT CASE SENSITIVE. It doesn't matter what the spec says when you select an option that overrides the standard. If I remember correctly, Firebird is not case sensitive at all. At the very least, it is not that way by default because Interbase was not. MSSQL and MySQL both have options to turn off case sensitivity, and when you do they are NOT CASE SENSITIVE. That means 'table' is the same as 'TABLE' is the same as 'TaBlE'. The Postgres system I was using was represented as being configured to not be case sensitive, but in fact either the option does not exist or does not work. It has been a year or two, so I no longer remember the details of which it turned out to be. It was not possible to turn off this 'feature'. For compatibility reasons, I do NOT want case sensitivity. And Postgres' behavior is unsuitable for ANY project I have worked on in the last 10 years. Thus, I no longer attempt to use it. For the present, I have grudgingly been using MySQL where license cost is any issue, but will probably take another look at FlameRobin to see if it's mature enough to make Firebird an option.
Actually, from doing a quick search, it appears that Postgres does not have a case INsensitive mode of install. Which is probably what I ended up learning before, and that the installs that I had were mis-represented. For the projects that I work on, case sensitivity causes considerable compatibility issues or makes using Postgres entirely impossible. Whether that is per standard or not, it is a fact of business.
PostgreSQL treats the following identifiers as equivalent:
"foo", Foo, FOO, foo
This wasn't my experience.
If you want case sensitive identifiers, double quote them as the standard states.
This is the problem, I did NOT want case sensitive operations. According to the documentation I had, the systems that I was working with were not configured to be case sensitive. If I configure a system to be case INsensitive when I install it, I want it to be case INsensitive. That doesn't mean lower case the SQL and then to a case sensitive compare with the schema and data. Which is the behavior I experienced.
Can you elaborate on the case sensitivity issue? As far as I can tell the only way PostgreSQL deviates from the standard is by folding to lower case rather than upper case because, well, lower case looks more readable.
Sure. Postgres (at least in v7) configured to not be case sensitive will lower case the SQL, but not the schema or data. It does the most annoying thing any software can do, it assumes it has to correct the users imput, and chooses wrong.
Suppose you want your table named CustPackingSlipJour instead of CUSTPACKINGSLIPJOUR (or custpackingslipjour in Postgres' case) because it's easier for the developers to read. If you do a Select * from CustPackingSlipJour on MSSQL, Firebird, or MySQL you will get a result set containing all the rows of the table. Because when you tell them to be case insensitive they are. With Postgres you will not unless you change your query to Select * from "CustPackingSlipJour".
I tried it on a couple different versions on Windows and Linux, was told that was just the way it worked, and moved on.
Geeks churn, most normal-people don't.
( this referring to the frequency of replacing one's machines )
Well, I just replied to another message comparing home built PCs to classic cars, so I won't go into all the falacies again. Briefly, most of the suggestions here are for bleeding edge equipment that someone who waits 'several years' between upgrades doesn't need. Putting in an AMD64 is not a cost effective solution because it extend life to dollars ratio doesn't work. It's about $175 for the cheapest MB/CPU combo. And he's certainly not a gamer with a machine that old, so a $50 video card is going to be sufficient, which means PCI is as acceptable as PCIe, and would probably make for a cheaper motherboard.
The suggestions from the home built crew here are going to put the cost of the machine well over $1000. My upgraded Dell was around $500 (and no MS tax). A year ago I bought a 2.8g P4 with 512m and NVidia video. If he wants to built from scratch, that fine. But there are affordable alternatives out there that don't require memorizing acronyms and hardware compatibilities. And came with a year of support from Dell Business. I'll replace it after three years, my mom would get a decade (or more) of use out of it. But the most demanding thing her system does it remain compatible with AOL.
An oversize UPS is an investment I wish all computer-users made, but I'm trying to be realistic:
Recommending a budget UPS is better than recommending surge suppressors. A surge suppressor will not protect you from brownouts. And they are more dangerous, and more common, than dangerous spikes. Where you're recommending a $75 surge suppressor (and in reality, they'll end up with a $10 Belkin), I recommend a $60 UPS like the APC BE500R.
I still don't think phone lines or cable are a big surge risk. I had my $700 USR Couriers on my BBS for a decade with no problem. If there had been a surge the Courier's optical isolation would have saved my PC, but would have died in the process. Thankfully, never happened. I've been on RoadRunner for about 7 years with no problems. My sister lost some equipment during an ice storm, but it's not apparent whether it was caused by a power spike on the cable (power lines falling on cable lines) or simply spikes/brownouts on the AC. And by installing a router, not only are you protecting yourself from the real danger of the Internet, it will most likely take any spike that made it past the the ISP's premise equipment. (remember, many own the equipment on both ends of the circuit. And a lightning strike on their line would take out a whole neighborhood of cable modems)
As for case sensitivity.... What on earth do you mean it doesn't do silly things with case sensitivity? PostgreSQL is almost standards-compliant here by default (except that case is folded to lower rather than upper for unquoted identifiers) while MySQL is anything but that.
Postgres converts the SQL to lower case, but not the schema or data, and then does a case sensitive compare. For example, I have an application that accesses a table called CustPackingSlipJour. I suppose we could change it to CUSTPACKINGSLIPJOUR, but that's just abusive to the people who have to read it.
MSSQL, Firebird, MySQL will all do a Select * from CustPackingSlipJour. Postgres assumes that what I gave it is wrong, and lower cases everything UNLESS I put it in quotes. I would prefer that it assumed I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted it to be case INsensitive when I installed it.
Would you consider suggesting to a guy who drives around a hand-built classic car to just replace the whole thing with a Corolla once it breaks down?
Oh goody, Slashdot analogies. Unfortunately, the only similarity is 'hand-built'. If you're truly 'building' a classic car, you are using parts that are decades old. That do the same job as current parts, try that with a computer. My '67 326ci Pontiac Firebird could use the same fuel as my '02 4.3l, albeit with a fuel additive. And unlike my computers will appreciate over the years. Ok, you meant built, not restored, so lets look at psuedo-classic cars, like a Cobra kit car. Again, whether you use current parts or recycled parts, that car will still perform it's tasks 10 years from now, as long as we have fuel to put in it. And possibly appreciate in value too.
Another reasons these analogies don't work. Computers have a time limited life, regardless of whether you use them or not. If I built a brand new computer and put it in a box for 25 years, it's doubtful that it would have any value at all. Yet my '80 pinball machines would be worth ~$5000 each if they were New-In-Box. Much more than their original price, and actually, more than a New machine would cost now.
It's just a fact of life, computers are disposable.
I don't feel like I need to replace the entire box without a specific reason. Just the case (full tower antec, I forget which model right this second) could last me 5-10 years unless I feel a pressing need to get a smaller one.
My Antec is nice, and I paid around $150 for it with a power supply, but I doubt I'll put another motherboard in it. I no longer feel the need for huge workstation cases. If I built another server I'd put it in a rack (I actually have a rack server I built, but never turned on. It needs to have the traces of the motherboard filed so they can't touch the case) Whether or not the case is good for 10 years will probably depend on availability of power supplies. We're probably about due for a new style of power connectors, if they haven't changed already for the 64bit CPUs.
I don't care how good Dell's computers get, I'd still rather build my own.
And here is the real problem that you have. You're still in the 'build your own' phase. Once upon a time it was cheaper to do that. It no longer is. Now it's a means to get a specifically configured machine, which generally means bleeding edge high performance parts. And most of us don't need them. The requirements for the latest FPS gaming rig is way over the top for what most of us need.
That gets us down to what the rest of us look for; a good performing machine at a reasonable price. My current PC is about a year old. I paid $500 total for it, including 512m RAM and a mid range NVidia. Out of the 3 Dells that I own, I have called tech support 1 time. My first one had a suicidal LG CD Rom, and when Mandrake did it's CDRW test it died. It was replaced by Dell. I also have a 2 year old dual proc AMD that I build from parts. Everybody's favorite vendor, NewEgg, sent me a bad Tyan MB that smoked CPUs. Rather than ship everything back to them like I should have, I did the troubleshooting myself. As a result I had hassles with them about getting the defective parts replaced. I have extra equipment laying around that I bought for troubleshooting (IE. the MB/CPU in that almost complete rack server). I spent $1000 for the machine plus those extras. It took 3 months to get everything fixed and refunded. And the Dell has been a more reliable and quieter machine.
You guys go ahead and build your machines. I'll spend 1/2 the money now and in 3 years I'll spend the other half. Oh, and in case you want to discount my abilities to build machines, I built my own for over a decade. As well as those for family and friends. Several of those friends went on to jobs as PC technicians/consultants based on skills they developed working with me. Two of my dual proc boxes I built, two are Compaq Proliants that I got from eBay and upgraded to dual. I built machines, successfully, long enough to get burnt out of the process. I have the Seagate, WD, Maxtor, IBM HD war stories. Now it's about the $$$$ and home built generally loses for the average user.
IF one knows that one wants a machine that will run "new" release programs in 3 years, that means AMD64, rather than 32-bit
( compatibility-problems, as-in programs simply not running, have been found on the Intel implimentation of x86_64 )
That cuts down the field greatly.
It also cuts down the cash in your wallet greatly. Really, who cares what will run new release programs in 3 years. You're going to want a new machine by then anyway. Buy what it takes to run what you do now and the foreseeable future. Make sure it can take a small number of upgrades in the areas where you might push it's limits.
Don't build yourself a moneypit. If you aren't going to use the capacity now, the only thing you gain is bragging rights. And if I was inclined to brag, I'd rather brag about my bank account than my PC.
IF you're going to connect your machine to highspeed, then please make certain that your surge-suppressor is between your network-port of your machine, and the wall your highspeed connection comes-in through.
If you're going broadband, make sure you have a router. I don't know that a spike can't happen through cable or DSL, but in 7 years I've never seen it happen and your provider has much more expensive equipment than you do, so I would expect plenty of isolation. An oversize UPS would be a better use of the money.
I'd like my configuration to be easily upgradeable: as in no bloody hands working in the case, no 140$ 200W PSU, no propietary motherboard, no 6 dozen things to uninstall after a reload, etc.
Seriously, if you want a box that is friendly to work on, you should at least find a Dell you can open and look at. I have seen some nice cases over the years; Compaq Proliant 800s are nice to work in, I have a huge Antec tower for my dual Athlon, but my 400SCs that I bought from Dell are some of the nicest cases I've worked on. No tools required to open them, no thumbscrews to mess with. Cables are tied up nice and neat and the drives are on rails. I haven't checked, but the motherboards are supposed to be standard Intels. I can tell you it's a breeze to add memory. Probably the only drawback is you would have to go to Dell for power supplies. But I have one that has been running 24x7 for two years with no problems. If it makes it to next fall before I see a major failure, I'll just replace the whole box anyway. I don't feel like I'm invested in the machine and need to do upgrades to extend it's life.
Granted, the current 430SC isn't the deal (for use as a workstation) the 400SC was. All I had to do was spend $300 on the box, then bought a bunch of RAM and a new video card.
Another nice thing is the Dell is quiet enough I recently moved one to the living room. The Antec competes with the Compaqs on noise. IE. with either of them you'll be happier with them in another room.
MySQL's got three big great things going for it: raw disgusting speed, relative simplicity to set up and administer, and the whole dual-license thing.
From my perspective, MySQL has two things over Postgres. MySQLAdministrator and they don't do silly things with case sensitivity.
OTOH, they only have one advantage over Firebird, MySQLAdministrator. I keep hoping that the guys over at "Firebird - Relational Database for the New Millenium" will wake up and get some good tools out there. If FlameRobin ever matures, I'll wipe MySQL from my systems in a heartbeat.
What's not to like? The job of the database it to maintain data integrity. MySQL falls down in a number of ways. Who cares what license it has if your data isn't safe.
Speed has never been an issue for me, but then, I'm not trying to use my workstation from two generations ago as a database server.
I have a Mac mini as well, with 512m. It doesn't perform much, if any better. On top of that, when I was using it about 6 months ago, the Mac client had bugs that don't exist in the PC client.
I'll bet if you turned it down to 640x480 and set the detail to minimum it would improve too. But if you have to do that, why not play an older game. Or I suppose I could move my character to a lower population server, since I'm on one that was added the first week after rollout, but that would mean trying to convince everyone else I know that plays to switch too.
Low box spec requirements and cross-platform support for Mac users.
Low requirements? You obviously don't spend any time in Ironforge. I have thrown more than 10x the system at WoW as I did with Asheron's Call, and still see severe client side lag in IF. (2.8 P4, 512m, SATA HD, 64m video) The client needs to be a lot more intelligent about limiting character rendering as system load increases. (which, BTW, AC handled in a primitive way) I can't imagine what kind of system is going to be required for those epic battles they keep promising.
Hmmm, I have Netgear, USR, and Linksys wireless routers. I bought the Linksys for OpenWRT. I prefer the Netgear (MR314, now discontinued). And then I have also purchased about 50 WAP11s. And to date the only time I have cared what OS was supported was the single WRT54G that I bought for a special project.
These types of routers are generally for cost conscious SOHOs. If the VxWorks version is cheaper, that's what they will buy. Probably what Linksys should do is market the Vx version to the current market, and then the Linux version to people looking for things like VOIP or QOS support at a higher price. Then they could benefit from some of the work that OpenWRT is doing. But of course they have to be careful not to steal customers from their Cisco products.
And this is one of the few things I really like about my mac, once I figured out what it was doing. A very clean approach to adding/removing programs.
It is harder to duplicate/create a RFID than a 2D barcode which you can print with any laser printer.
You do realize that the data in an RFID tag is simply encoded in there. Kind of like putting data on a thumb drive. The equipment is publically available. More so than color lasers where when they started being a problem with currency. Zebra has a nice one for about $1500, which is nothing to someone willing to counterfeit a passport.
The problem with technologies like RFIDs on passports is their adverse properties outweigh their benefits. Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing. Particularly when there are viable options that have those problems.
Something is better than nothing.
Not necessarily. You wouldn't tatoo your ATM PIN on your forehead if you kept forgetting it, would you?
This is a case of someone coming up with an idea that sounded cool. Silver bullet for citizen identification problems. But when people started pointing out the flaws, rather than looking for a better solution they dug in their heals. Bad guys can read it? oh, we'll make a special cover to block the signal. What about when it's open? oh, we'll encrypt the data. How will various Customs entities get the key? oh, we'll put an optical barcode on it with the key. Right here is where the clue should have beat them to death. If you're going to scan an optical barcode anyway, put all the data in an optical barcode. Instead we still have problems with unique numbers that can be used to track people and a RF target placed on US citizens.
Even better solution, smart card chip embedded in the cover of the passport. I'm assuming you Customs guys are still going to want me to place my passport into your hands. Its not like it's ever going to be a contactless exchange.
There is no problem with putting biometric information into a 2d barcode. A PDF417 barcode can hold 1100-1800 characters of data. Datamatrix can hold about 2000 characters. And there is no reason why there couldn't be more than one barcode in the passport. If I remember the sizes correctly, probably 3-4 barcodes per page.
RFIDs typically hold 2k (or less) data. And there is nothing special about RFID that will stop counterfeiting.
But hey, if it's good enough for Walmart.... Only terrorists need privacy. And that RFID will help them locate US hostages. (although probably only for the terrorists)
Of course, this among other issues is exactly why I have yet to buy or play a MMORPG.
Which is also why you have no concept of the way players feel about their characters. The type of games you prefer are the kind I play for a week or two, and then put back in the box to gather dust. There is no investment. You can't compare a saved game that took a few hours to a character that you have developed for a year.
Regardless of whether your presence in their virtual world should have value, it has been proven time and again that virtual property does have value.
Rarely do I give a second thought to changes in a MMORPG's TOS, because in most cases they don't affect me. I have no desire to cheat or exploit limitations in the game. But in this case they have basically said that it was too tough to secure their game, so they'll just scan your system for whatever they want. They are taking information that they are not entitled to because it's expedient.
When you compare what they have done, and what they could do, you run into some pretty scarey scenarios. For instance, if I was in charge of a business network, I would absolutely refuse to allow any computer with WoW installed to be connected to the network in any fashion. It's a small step from monitoring your system to monitoring your network because they need to stop 2nd computer hacks.
Ok, more gray areas to make your point.
Alarm systems: simple alarm systems are installed along with a contract for monitoring where the hardware is subsidized similar to cell phone service. If the alarm company changed their TOS during your contract period they would be in breach and you could require them to provide the contracted services or make you whole. More expensive alarm systems are not tied to specific monitoring companies, and in fact would be of some value even without monitoring.
Cell phones: you have a contract with your provider. Again, a change of service is breach of contract. They won't change anything until your contract runs out, and rarely do they change then. They just put you on month-to-month under the same terms.
I'm not saying either of the above couldn't happen, but if they did you would have legal remedies. (that may or may not be practical)
And finally, WoW: I am not aware of ANY legal third party servers. Should someone be stupid enough to make one available, they should pay particular attention to the Bnetd case. Something about history repeating itself.
The difference being that Blizzard could change their TOS on your first login to their game server (which is after the game purchase and account activation), and you could be stuck with terms that are unacceptable to you and virtually no recourse. In fact, they most likely DO change TOS on your first login. I doubt they have done a manufacturing refresh on their retail product, so the TOS in the box does not match the TOS you will have to agree to after the update on your initial login.
I don't fear using my CC on the internet, I do it regularly. But having to replace a compromised card can be a pain. I have done it twice, the first was no big deal, I rarely used the card. All charges that were disputed were removed. In both cases new cards were issued. And in both cases all the online transaction history was wiped out because the new card was a new account. Transactions were tied to the card number, not the account owner. On the second card I spent a great deal of time 'fixing' automatic transactions so my monthly bills got paid. One card was VISA, one was MasterCard, although both banks offered either.
BTW, the first card was compromised offline, I used it for vacations, not online purchases. It had to be either a gas station or motel. The second was the result of our friends at Card Services. Things could have been even worse if either of them had been my primary card.