There's a fluid bearing effect holding the heads at optimum height.. Plus a lot of things - like plastics, and lubricants - tend to sublime under vacuum.
It's also even harder to contain than helium - and that's quite an achievement. Hydrogen is quite happy to leak through solid metal, given a bit of time. The atoms are so small, they fit *between* the atoms of a metal, and in the spaces between crystal grains.
Fluid interaction between spinning platter, gas and the heads creates an air bearing effect that holds the heads at a precisely determined (for a given linear velocity) height away from the disc. It's a stable system, so any slight vibration will be quickly compensated. Without a fluid filling, the heads would crash into the platter.
Even if the company can be trusted, still got to get the data through NSA-tapped pipes each way. NSA with their ability to easily coerce certificate signing by any of the US-based CAs, and a policy of getting companies to insert backdoors in products. And if they really want what's in the cloud, they can just have a deniable operative use the classic bribery or extortion techniques to get access.
24fps? Depends on content. It's too high for landscapes establishing shots, talking heads and presentations. Yet too low for high-action scenes and sports. It's a happy medium.
If you don't like it, try to get variable frame rate support more established. Then everyone is happy.
Having overfilled the bath and had the water end up in the kitchen below, it's not concrete. It's wood and warped, stained plasterboard which will eventually need fixing properly.
Never looked inside the walls of mine, but the roof is on a wooden frame and all the floors/ceilings are wooden boards on wooden frame. A fire may leave the walls standing, but the horizontal parts would burn.
A lot of those houses are built woth a timber frame, but a double-layer of bricks outside for weatherproofing, cosmetics and insulation. The wood is still there, just hidden. If you lift the floorboards or take a look in the loft you'll see it.
Only if you're in a suitably rural area. Urban areas have LOS issues, and even in the subburbs you can have issues with the homeowners association. It depends where you live, but some of them are very determined to keep everything looking pretty and consistant for the sake of property values and so have rules forbidding overly-visible antennas. It's rare, but there have been instances of them taking legal action against people for planting grass of the wrong shade of green.
But this is a retrofit thing. A lot of cities don't have split sewer and storm systems, because the sewers went in a century ago and is isn't practical to dig up half the city to replace them. London and Paris both have combined sewage and storm systems for that that reason. Paris solved the problem by installing massive underground cisterns to absorb the surge during a major storm.
2. Those ones aren't. But it's an obvious next step.
3. Anyone who wants to make a dirty bomb is going to have to make the best of whatever isotopes they can get. Medical isotopes are one potential source. Hospitals have them, hospitals can be robbed, or staff coerced by bribery or extortion.
4. Terrorists aim to inspire terror. That's what they do. A dirty bomb would actually do very little damage - but the 'OMG TERRORISTS NUKED LONDON' panic would cause far more disruption than any conventional bomb could hope to. Radiation scares people, even a little of it can create a panic. Look at Fukushima.
Ammonium nitrate. Common fertilizer. Weapon of choice for terrorists, as it is easily available in large quantities and can be easily processed into a form suitable for use as an explosive. Whenever you read about a car bomb, it was probably this stuff.
So every time you fertilize your garden and some rain falls, it'll set off the alarm.
People undergoing radiotherapy also excrete high enough levels of radiation to pose some hazard to other people. So their toilets will be detected as dirty bomb factories.
Actually, the British have two houses. The US system was modeled upon them. It's just that these days, people largely ignore the Lords and consider them a relic of the past - and they in turn are happy to sit quietly and rubber-stamp whatever the commons want, with an occasional exception like the fox-hunting ban. They know that their cushy, unelected jobs really are a relic - and if they start getting in the way, it could inspire a reform movement to kick them out.
As for our electoral system, most of the British people have no idea exactly how votes translate into prime minister selection.
I see the US problem as the celebrity president. The one big superstar who everyone loathes or worships, the single figure who is symbolically running everything, taking the blame and the credit for everything that happens. The president is just too big. While our Prime Minister is basically an office worker with a big title. If you want to make the US government work better, diminish the power and the status of the president. Stop having one man as the leader of the country, and stick him back in the intended role: Administrator, representative, occasional limit on the legislature's actions, and the man who has to call the shots on military matters when there isn't time to spend days in debate.
A meeting usually covers many topics, only some of which apply to most participants.
For example: The annual briefing at my workplace. I'm support staff at a school. Summary of results? No interest to me. I'm not a teacher. Health and safety briefing? This I need to know. Fire evacuation plans? Half of it I need, the other half matters only to the fire wardens, of which I am not one. The boss's boss's boss's boss's droneing motivational speech? I fell asleep last time.
It's the sweet-spot on price. The point beyond which component price starts rapidly increasing.
This is partly due to an economy of scale issue. A lot of HDTVs use that panel size - 1080P HDTV. That means they are manufactured in vast quantities, which pushes the per-unit cost down.
Slashdot Mirror
There's a fluid bearing effect holding the heads at optimum height.. Plus a lot of things - like plastics, and lubricants - tend to sublime under vacuum.
It's also even harder to contain than helium - and that's quite an achievement. Hydrogen is quite happy to leak through solid metal, given a bit of time. The atoms are so small, they fit *between* the atoms of a metal, and in the spaces between crystal grains.
They don't work in vacuum.
Fluid interaction between spinning platter, gas and the heads creates an air bearing effect that holds the heads at a precisely determined (for a given linear velocity) height away from the disc. It's a stable system, so any slight vibration will be quickly compensated. Without a fluid filling, the heads would crash into the platter.
Even if the company can be trusted, still got to get the data through NSA-tapped pipes each way. NSA with their ability to easily coerce certificate signing by any of the US-based CAs, and a policy of getting companies to insert backdoors in products. And if they really want what's in the cloud, they can just have a deniable operative use the classic bribery or extortion techniques to get access.
24fps? Depends on content. It's too high for landscapes establishing shots, talking heads and presentations. Yet too low for high-action scenes and sports. It's a happy medium.
If you don't like it, try to get variable frame rate support more established. Then everyone is happy.
The US population have a very simple standard.
politician.traitor = (politician.party != self.party);
Having overfilled the bath and had the water end up in the kitchen below, it's not concrete. It's wood and warped, stained plasterboard which will eventually need fixing properly.
Never looked inside the walls of mine, but the roof is on a wooden frame and all the floors/ceilings are wooden boards on wooden frame. A fire may leave the walls standing, but the horizontal parts would burn.
A lot of those houses are built woth a timber frame, but a double-layer of bricks outside for weatherproofing, cosmetics and insulation. The wood is still there, just hidden. If you lift the floorboards or take a look in the loft you'll see it.
That is what encryption is for. If the burgler steals the backup device, they get some sweet hardware - but without the keys, no useable data.
Only if you're in a suitably rural area. Urban areas have LOS issues, and even in the subburbs you can have issues with the homeowners association. It depends where you live, but some of them are very determined to keep everything looking pretty and consistant for the sake of property values and so have rules forbidding overly-visible antennas. It's rare, but there have been instances of them taking legal action against people for planting grass of the wrong shade of green.
Solving organic chemistry problems is one of those things supercomputers and massively distributed projects are set up for.
"in any modern city"
But this is a retrofit thing. A lot of cities don't have split sewer and storm systems, because the sewers went in a century ago and is isn't practical to dig up half the city to replace them. London and Paris both have combined sewage and storm systems for that that reason. Paris solved the problem by installing massive underground cisterns to absorb the surge during a major storm.
Too easily abuseable. You'd find politicians trying to revise the standards in ways that favor their own faction.
1. This columnist describes his wife undergoing radiotherepy. As a precaution, she is advised to avoid close proximity to other people. Not that the hazard is severe, it's just a precaution. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/31/something_for_the_weekend_electronic_skin/
2. Those ones aren't. But it's an obvious next step.
3. Anyone who wants to make a dirty bomb is going to have to make the best of whatever isotopes they can get. Medical isotopes are one potential source. Hospitals have them, hospitals can be robbed, or staff coerced by bribery or extortion.
4. Terrorists aim to inspire terror. That's what they do. A dirty bomb would actually do very little damage - but the 'OMG TERRORISTS NUKED LONDON' panic would cause far more disruption than any conventional bomb could hope to. Radiation scares people, even a little of it can create a panic. Look at Fukushima.
Cloud is not a technical term. It's a business term.
Ammonium nitrate. Common fertilizer. Weapon of choice for terrorists, as it is easily available in large quantities and can be easily processed into a form suitable for use as an explosive. Whenever you read about a car bomb, it was probably this stuff.
So every time you fertilize your garden and some rain falls, it'll set off the alarm.
People undergoing radiotherapy also excrete high enough levels of radiation to pose some hazard to other people. So their toilets will be detected as dirty bomb factories.
But rather than the title humbling the office, the office instead made the title grand.
Actually, the British have two houses. The US system was modeled upon them. It's just that these days, people largely ignore the Lords and consider them a relic of the past - and they in turn are happy to sit quietly and rubber-stamp whatever the commons want, with an occasional exception like the fox-hunting ban. They know that their cushy, unelected jobs really are a relic - and if they start getting in the way, it could inspire a reform movement to kick them out.
As for our electoral system, most of the British people have no idea exactly how votes translate into prime minister selection.
I see the US problem as the celebrity president. The one big superstar who everyone loathes or worships, the single figure who is symbolically running everything, taking the blame and the credit for everything that happens. The president is just too big. While our Prime Minister is basically an office worker with a big title. If you want to make the US government work better, diminish the power and the status of the president. Stop having one man as the leader of the country, and stick him back in the intended role: Administrator, representative, occasional limit on the legislature's actions, and the man who has to call the shots on military matters when there isn't time to spend days in debate.
A meeting usually covers many topics, only some of which apply to most participants.
For example: The annual briefing at my workplace. I'm support staff at a school.
Summary of results? No interest to me. I'm not a teacher.
Health and safety briefing? This I need to know.
Fire evacuation plans? Half of it I need, the other half matters only to the fire wardens, of which I am not one.
The boss's boss's boss's boss's droneing motivational speech? I fell asleep last time.
At a business meeting?
Then people can answer calls/check facebook/play minesweeper during meetings without being noticed.
It would buy you more time to hit SCRAM lever and flood the level with water.
It's the sweet-spot on price. The point beyond which component price starts rapidly increasing.
This is partly due to an economy of scale issue. A lot of HDTVs use that panel size - 1080P HDTV. That means they are manufactured in vast quantities, which pushes the per-unit cost down.
If that game gets much more complicated, it's going to need GPU acceleration.