Really ? We've had repeated Extinction Events over the last million years ? Because we have had at LEAST 4 major abrupt climate changes in the last million years alone, associated with continental glaciation retreats. And speaking of continental glaciations ( because we're STILL in an Ice Age. ..), we're due for another Real Soon Now*, in geologic terms. . . .
(* Real Soon Now, meaning anytime in the next 10000 years or so. ..)
There ARE decent videoconferencing solutions. But they're hella expensive. They put one in on a site I once worked at: 1.2 million for a relatively small room. But in action, it really WAS like they were across the table from you. . .
Let's posit, for a moment, that you had millions of dollars, and notice that a major, but not world-ending apocalypse was coming.
Me ? I'd buy a farm in a remote area, with decent climate and a good water supply. Hunting and fishing areas would be a bonus, but if we actually had some sort of apocalypse, the woods would be hunted bare, and the lakes and rivers drained of catchable fish.
A sufficient variety of breeding stock for food animals (various poultry, cows, perhaps sheep, goats, and rabbits) and work animals (donkeys, horses, dogs, cats)
I'd have a few extra large-pre-fabricated buildings, one as a warehouse, another set up as a comprehensive workshop (with several generations of powered and unpowered tools for wood, metals, and perhaps stone), with sufficient power to run them. Perhaps even a smithy, if a local ore source was available, or a supply of scrap metal nearby.
And a large dead-tree library of useful books. . .
And I'd have a GROUP of people, not just a one-family survival plan. Ideally, a number of small family-scale farms, centered around the warehouses and workshops.
. . . . is people not KNOWING you have one. Because if people KNOW you have one, then everyone who does know (and everyone THEY have told) will want in.
And then BOWLING ALLEYS and GARAGES ?? These people want to survive an apocalypse. . ..and they want to garage their Lamborghini ?? Additionally, looking at the floor-plan in the "Hollywood Reporter", and comparing it to offered bunkers by the providers mentioned in the article, there are no shelters that even CLOSELY resemble what the article presents as a design. As noted elsewhere in the comments, there is a lot of speculation and outright rumor-mongering in the article. . .
. ..or the power plants that generate electricity to charge the Electric cars.
And, of course, the toxic waste streams from rare metal mining and refining, and semiconductor manufacture for solar cells.
***EVERYTHING*** pollutes to one degree or another. The trick is, optimizing the maximum yield/minimum pollution level. And it is not an easy problem to solve.
Actually, someone has had clearances since the early 1980s. Agreed, the DOCUMENTATION parts are simple, and mostly automated for US Cits.
The Logistics issues are the actual footwork involved in the background investigation. The more people you have to talk to who are NOT in the US, the harder and more costly it becomes.
And document searches overseas can be difficult, especially if language issues are involved. Not a lot of OPM investigators who read, for example, documents in "pinyin" Chinese. . .
. . . hint: most are Federal "three-letter-agancies". Which means, to get hired, you not only need the skills, but the ability to obtain a high-level security clearance.
That means, first, US Citizenship, and preferably by birth, just because of the logistics of a clearance investigation. Secondly, the more ties of blood one has to people in non-US countries, the harder it is to get the required clearance. . ..and third, depending on background and origin of those blood ties, some nations (China comes to mind) are far more problematic than others. . .
Now, for metals, on an industrial level, recycling can make sense, steel also makes particular sense, in sufficient quantity.
For consumer recycling, things are hard to recycle ON PURPOSE. Just like they're impossible to repair: giving the consumer no option than to go out and buy a new one.
I'm showing my age, but I can still remember when there were vacuum tube testers in most hardware stores: you'd pull a tube you suspected was bad, test it, and if it WAS bad, you'd buy a replacement from the rack built underneath the tube tester.
The entire consumer industrial base is designed around obsolescence and replacement, rather than repair and/or upgrade. . .
And on a macro scale, it's a bit odd to judge planetary data on merely human timescales. Technically, we're still in an Ice Age, and are merely between continental glacial advances.
Funny, **I** started over AT 28. I gave up flying bombers for the USAF, and started over. Ended up doing Radar Engineering. And 6 years later, started over again as a Sysadmin and Windows Engineer. And then shifted again to being a full-time Security Geek, about 10 years ago.
Somebody explain to me, just when words, of and by themselves. became objectionable and people started claiming trauma for just SEEING them ?
The Internet was SUPPOSED to bring free and unlimited communications and information to all. Instead, it's becoming a psychological minefield with individually-set DMZs.
. ..they haven't outsourced the college administrators first. Given the massive administrative overhead of most colleges nowadays, that would save some serious coin. . .
Agreed. I've worked at places that kept five nines of availability. By "normal" IT standards, it was massively overbuilt: multiple sets of gear, clustered in failover mode, with a separate redundant setup elsewhere in the data center, on an entirely different power feed. . . (as I recall, we had at LEAST 4 independent power feeds)..
We also had cabinets full of spare parts, entire full pieces of gear on the shelf, and an entire library of config files on the TFTP server. Plus duplicated on a laptop that lived in one of the cabinets. Took a LOT of labor and gear, and was not cheap,
And we constantly had to explain the man-hour and spares costs to the suits . .
"Disclaimer of Liabilities - Limitation" Page 16, states that (condensed) : all liability shall not exceed the price paid for the software, or of the price of the product which includes the software.
And to use the equipment and Cisco software, you agree to the terms of service.
Slashdot Mirror
Really ? We've had repeated Extinction Events over the last million years ? Because we have had at LEAST 4 major abrupt climate changes in the last million years alone, associated with continental glaciation retreats. And speaking of continental glaciations ( because we're STILL in an Ice Age. . .), we're due for another Real Soon Now*, in geologic terms. . . .
(* Real Soon Now, meaning anytime in the next 10000 years or so. . .)
There ARE decent videoconferencing solutions. But they're hella expensive. They put one in on a site I once worked at: 1.2 million for a relatively small room. But in action, it really WAS like they were across the table from you. . .
30 minute chunks? Some of us have to account for time on a given project in 6-minute chunks.
There is a special place in the Special Hell for the guy who wrote Deltek. . . .
. . . . I had a Marketplace Seller who sent me a request for Feedback for 8 consecutive days.
I gave them feedback: One Star, titled "Adequate Item, but seller spams for feedback"
Amazon sent me a nastygram saying my review wasn't "helpful". . .
Have not left a review for a Marketplace item since, , ,
Let's posit, for a moment, that you had millions of dollars, and notice that a major, but not world-ending apocalypse was coming.
Me ? I'd buy a farm in a remote area, with decent climate and a good water supply. Hunting and fishing areas would be a bonus, but if we actually had some sort of apocalypse, the woods would be hunted bare, and the lakes and rivers drained of catchable fish.
A sufficient variety of breeding stock for food animals (various poultry, cows, perhaps sheep, goats, and rabbits) and work animals (donkeys, horses, dogs, cats)
I'd have a few extra large-pre-fabricated buildings, one as a warehouse, another set up as a comprehensive workshop (with several generations of powered and unpowered tools for wood, metals, and perhaps stone), with sufficient power to run them. Perhaps even a smithy, if a local ore source was available, or a supply of scrap metal nearby.
And a large dead-tree library of useful books. . .
And I'd have a GROUP of people, not just a one-family survival plan. Ideally, a number of small family-scale farms, centered around the warehouses and workshops.
This should be obvious, but isn't, I suspect. . .
. . . . is people not KNOWING you have one. Because if people KNOW you have one, then everyone who does know (and everyone THEY have told) will want in.
The old Twilight Zone episode "The Shelter" is instructive, on this point.
And then BOWLING ALLEYS and GARAGES ?? These people want to survive an apocalypse. . . .and they want to garage their Lamborghini ?? Additionally, looking at the floor-plan in the "Hollywood Reporter", and comparing it to offered bunkers by the providers mentioned in the article, there are no shelters that even CLOSELY resemble what the article presents as a design. As noted elsewhere in the comments, there is a lot of speculation and outright rumor-mongering in the article. . .
Slow news day on /. . . .
. . . and of course, it depends what time of year you do the measurements.
Example: Spring in the Mid-Atlantic, where the tree pollen is so thick that you can SEE the yellow layers on cars and windows.
Or late summer, when the ragweed pollen is flying.
Not ALL particulates are pollution.
. . .or the power plants that generate electricity to charge the Electric cars.
And, of course, the toxic waste streams from rare metal mining and refining, and semiconductor manufacture for solar cells.
***EVERYTHING*** pollutes to one degree or another. The trick is, optimizing the maximum yield/minimum pollution level. And it is not an easy problem to solve.
. . . .is what is the drone's top speed, measured in Furlongs per Fortnight ?? (grin)
Actually, someone has had clearances since the early 1980s. Agreed, the DOCUMENTATION parts are simple, and mostly automated for US Cits.
The Logistics issues are the actual footwork involved in the background investigation. The more people you have to talk to who are NOT in the US, the harder and more costly it becomes.
And document searches overseas can be difficult, especially if language issues are involved. Not a lot of OPM investigators who read, for example, documents in "pinyin" Chinese. . .
. . . hint: most are Federal "three-letter-agancies". Which means, to get hired, you not only need the skills, but the ability to obtain a high-level security clearance.
That means, first, US Citizenship, and preferably by birth, just because of the logistics of a clearance investigation. Secondly, the more ties of blood one has to people in non-US countries, the harder it is to get the required clearance. . . .and third, depending on background and origin of those blood ties, some nations (China comes to mind) are far more problematic than others. . .
Scott us up, Beamie!
. . . . just isn't there for most ***CONSUMER*** materials. other than Aluminum cans. Or to quote Penn and Teller:
Recycling is. . . bullshit
Now, for metals, on an industrial level, recycling can make sense, steel also makes particular sense, in sufficient quantity.
For consumer recycling, things are hard to recycle ON PURPOSE. Just like they're impossible to repair: giving the consumer no option than to go out and buy a new one.
I'm showing my age, but I can still remember when there were vacuum tube testers in most hardware stores: you'd pull a tube you suspected was bad, test it, and if it WAS bad, you'd buy a replacement from the rack built underneath the tube tester.
The entire consumer industrial base is designed around obsolescence and replacement, rather than repair and/or upgrade. . .
" . . .vunce rockets go up, who cares where they come down,
'That's not my department', says Werner Von Braun. . . . "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Hey, glasses seem to work as an effective disguise for Clark Kent. . .
. . .oh, nevermind. . .
That contention would be at odds with reports of a possible coming "Little Ice Age" due to the current Maunder-type sunspot minimum.
It is also at odds with reports of no global warming since the late 1990's.
And on a macro scale, it's a bit odd to judge planetary data on merely human timescales. Technically, we're still in an Ice Age, and are merely between continental glacial advances.
Oh, and BTW, I didn't have a Comp Sci degree: my bachelor's was in Geophysics. . .
Funny, **I** started over AT 28. I gave up flying bombers for the USAF, and started over. Ended up doing Radar Engineering. And 6 years later, started over again as a Sysadmin and Windows Engineer. And then shifted again to being a full-time Security Geek, about 10 years ago.
Easy ? No. Doable ? Yes.
. . . at no extra charge.
Somebody explain to me, just when words, of and by themselves. became objectionable and people started claiming trauma for just SEEING them ?
The Internet was SUPPOSED to bring free and unlimited communications and information to all. Instead, it's becoming a psychological minefield with individually-set DMZs.
The Sweet Meteor of Death can't come soon enough. . .
. . .they haven't outsourced the college administrators first. Given the massive administrative overhead of most colleges nowadays, that would save some serious coin. . .
Agreed. I've worked at places that kept five nines of availability. By "normal" IT standards, it was massively overbuilt: multiple sets of gear, clustered in failover mode, with a separate redundant setup elsewhere in the data center, on an entirely different power feed. . . (as I recall, we had at LEAST 4 independent power feeds)..
We also had cabinets full of spare parts, entire full pieces of gear on the shelf, and an entire library of config files on the TFTP server. Plus duplicated on a laptop that lived in one of the cabinets. Took a LOT of labor and gear, and was not cheap,
And we constantly had to explain the man-hour and spares costs to the suits . .
"Disclaimer of Liabilities - Limitation" Page 16, states that (condensed) : all liability shall not exceed the price paid for the software, or of the price of the product which includes the software.
And to use the equipment and Cisco software, you agree to the terms of service.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/t...
So, at best, they can recover the costs of the switches involved. . .
You mean when he was using the Triluminary ?
RIP Slashdot
Slashdot died years ago. This is the Slashdot Zombie Post Apocalypse. . .
Turn in your nerd card. Classic SF Reference. . Or consult the Jargon File
Seriously, if you don't understand something, look it up. . .