They could have published the assembly code, but then you'd have to have a compiler and know how to use it.
Back in the day, some of the Spectrum magazines published assembly code and I remember being somewhat baffled as to what exactly to do with it, until I received the guidance of a grey-beard at the local computer club who gave me a simple assembler that had been given away on a cover tape. The closest I had come until then (aged about 11 or 12) was poking the ASCII for the assembly source code into memory and attempting to run that (needless to say, that didn't really give the results I was after!). I was only one stage away, though, as in the ASCII charts in the back of the manual, there were additional columns for the Z80 mnemonics, so eventually I may have tried manual assembly of my own accord!
Perhaps I'd have grokked assembly quicker if the Spectrum had a built-in assembler, like the BBC did...
Yup, you see this all the time with devices that have the capability to have their firmware updated in the field; often they don't work properly until one or two firmware releases have been applied.
In fact, given how field-updateable firmware is often implemented, this also adds a new failure condition - trashed firmware. I lost a DVD ROM drive when a rogue piece of software accidentally knocked out 1 bit in 16 of the firmware (judging by the new name it had for itself during the BIOS POST, anyway!). If devices are going to be field-updateable, there should be a jumper that must be set by the user to allow the device to be programmed.
Either use a VGA card that has composite and/or S-Video outputs that are supported by X, or build a VGA-to-RGB-SCART adaptor if your TV has that as an input option. I guess you might be able to adapt the circuit for displays with RGB component inputs too.
You can make your life a lot easier by using the Fedora Myth(TV)ology FAQ, or, as another poster suggested, Knoppmyth. Personally, I've been using RH since 1996, so I felt much more comfortable using the former approach, and my MythTV box has now been running for about a year. It's a puny Celeron 1.7G with an equally puny 64MB nVidia graphics card, 512MB of RAM (256MB would probably have been enough), 2 Hauppauge Nova-T DVB-T tuners and a 300GB HDD. About the only seriously geeky thing I did was build a VGA-to-RGB-SCART adaptor because I loathe composite and S-Video output.
As a result, I started running badblocks in write-test mode on my new ATA discs before putting them into service so as to attempt to reclaim that relative advantage
Good thinking, I've been doing the same lately after a couple painful failures. It really hurts under USB.:(
Yes, raw PATA speeds are ~50-60MB/s, the best I've managed via USB 2.0 is ~25-30MB/s, with the same disc rehoused in a caddy using a Prolific PATA-to-USB bridge chipset, plugged into an Intel USB controller (NEC was slower, IIRC).
Also, another advantage of running badblocks in write-test mode before using the drive is that hopefully any marginal or failed blocks will be remapped before they contain useful data. I've never seen that happen, and to be honest, I'd now be inclined to reject a drive that did so as D<ead|amaged>OA.
perhaps there's an opportunity for a brand to get an increased reputation for itself in reliability by researching ways of protecting drives against knocks and bumps?
Like Seagate's SeaShell packaging, you mean? Perhaps this is why Seagate is the only manufacturer who still warranties all their drives for at least five years?
As I understand it, the kernel of truth in those claims is that the testing/sampling rate on the SCSI assembly line is higher.
This paper from Seagate claims that SCSI drives are individually tested, whilst (S)ATA discs are only batch tested. As a result, I started running badblocks in write-test mode on my new ATA discs before putting them into service so as to attempt to reclaim that relative advantage. I also suspect that SCSI drives have a larger pool of reserved blocks for remapping failed blocks, which would go some way to explaining their funny sizes.
As for RAID, I'm biased towards software RAID because most hardware RAID cards seem to have either poor performance or poor reliability. Also I'm biased towards RAID1 and RAID10.
Sure I have to bet on Linus and gang not screwing up software RAID, but for software if the kernel passes decent "infant mortality" tests it's likely to keep working till at least the next kernel patch;).
Unfortunately, Linux's software RAID drops the block device out of the array if it encounters a read error. So you hot-add that drive back into the array and start rebuilding, then the other block device encounters a read error too and gets dropped. Nice failure condition!
As I understand it, at least one RAID implementation in at least one of the BSDs takes a different approach; upon encountering a read error, it tries to get that block from the rest of the array and immediately attempts to copy it to the block device that generated the read error. Only if this fails is that device dropped from the array. This strikes me as a much safer approach. I've also seen syslogs indicating that BSD makes use of advisory status reports from drives (is this a SCSI-only feature?) to notice when the drive had problems reading a block, and immediately refresh it for similar reasons.
a) Hard drives are a non-repairable system, for all intents and purposes. Therefore, there *is* no repair. MTTF is the only useful metric. b) MTBF = MTTF + the time to repair. Assuming that's zero, then for any useful failure engineering, hard drive MTBF = hard drive MTTF.
You're ignoring soft errors and read errors. These can usually be corrected by rewriting the block(s) in question (doing so either replaces the corrupt soft error with a good data, or forces the drive to remap the block). This should result in MTBF being significantly less than MTTF, since the drive would only get replaced on write errors (indicating some sort of catastrophic mechanical or media problem, or the exhaustion of the reserve of spare blocks) or obvious physical failure (failing to spin up, grinding, etc).
[...]the legal system in this country presumes innocence until proof of guilt, so why should an innocent citizen be treated as though they are a piece of livestock or a sex offender? Heck, nominally, the monarch is the head of state, and yet this plan from her current government will compel the queen to carry an ID card!
Maybe the simplest view then would be that a person who has an ID card just... has an ID card. Which allows them to identify themselves if needed. If you want to feel treated as a criminal -or a cow- because of this, go ahead. Didn't you ever stop and think that maybe other people already thought about this and came out with better answers than "we want to see everyone while they sleep, we are evil"?
Sure. ID cards may be the way things are done in other countries, especially those with legal systems derived from the Napoleonic code, but it's not the way we do things here and nor do I want it to be. Under English law, the general principle is that anything that is not specifically prohibited is permitted. As a result, we are entitled not to have to prove ourselves innocent unless we've committed some crime that results in that entitlement being taken away.
Besides, the card is theatre and the least of my worries. It's the NIR that I'm concerned about. I don't think any of the states that currently have ID cards have anything like the intrusive NIR that's included in these plans.
2) I believe paying the equivalent of 20 euro over 5 or 10 years is acceptable
Assuming that individuals pay their fair share of the cost of the UK ID card/National Identity Register (NIR) scheme, we're looking at a bill of at least 180 Euro every 5 to 10 years. Maybe even as much as 600 Euro.
3) Huge databases with your data are already available to the government (driver's licenses, SSNs, credit/debit cards, TV taxes, medical insurance, etc. Pick yours).
These databases do not currently have a common key for each citizen and so these disparate databases cannot currently be reliably joined (obviously, fuzzy joins based on surname and address might be possible for many citizens, though). The NIR will introduce one.
5) Most countries under Roman right-derived laws haven't experienced economical collapse due to ID cards, their people aren't hounded like criminals, and the cards themselves are very useful for voting purposes and the like. I've personally traveled to the UK twice using my ID card (Italy), this meant I didn't have to renew my passport at an extra cost.
I've no objection to people opting into the ID/NIR scheme for their convenience, as long as legislation is passed requiring that all public and private sector institutions must accept alternative forms of ID. I can see situations where individuals may find it personally convenient to have an ID card and entry on the NIR. But the legal system in this country presumes innocence until proof of guilt, so why should an innocent citizen be treated as though they are a piece of livestock or a sex offender? Heck, nominally, the monarch is the head of state, and yet this plan from her current government will compel the queen to carry an ID card!
Any insurance company? I have renters insurance. If a hurricane wipes out my CD collection, it's a claim just like if a hurricane destroys my TV, or my book collection.
If you're relying upon that, you might like to double-check your policy. All my (admittedly UK) contents policies have specifically excluded CDs, CD-Roms, DVDs, video tapes, cassette tapes and so on.
"Peak oil" is a red herring. As long as there is "energy", we can produce "fuel" (even gasoline, if necessary) that will run in vehicles. [...] It's not cheap, but it's there, and not at civilization-destroying prices.
Peak oil isn't about running out of energy (or even running out of oil), it's about energy-expensive things we take for granted now becoming more economically expensive; possibly prohibitively so (e.g. centralized distribution of food, petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, import of fresh food supplies during winter). Humanity and our civilization certainly can adapt, but it will require adjustment and investment.
The only reason for Russia's current wealth and weight is the High Oil Price. When it goes down again (and it will), Russia will be hurting again.
...unless the controversial theory of abiotic oil production is wrong, and we are at, or close to, the peak of global oil production. If we are, then oil and gas prices will trend upwards for the forseeable. Meanwhile, Russia has been using the profits to pay off the international debts built up by the former USSR. I'd say Russia will be in an extremely good position in the coming century or two.
I consider myself to be a 'misguided greeny' too, but my approach is to repair stuff myself when possible. These days, due to high levels of integration and surface-mount manufacturing, that pretty much amounts to replacing internal fuses, electrolytic capacitors, and the odd power amplifier and socket (or else it's damn near impossible to do with hobbyist tools).
So far, I've repaired a 9 year old VCR whose SMPSU had died due to failed capacitors (about £3 in parts, and an hour of my time), a cheap 10/100 switch (failed capacitors - about £1 and 30 minutes of my time) and a TV (internal fuse, about £2 for 10, and 30 minutes of my time).
If I'd taken these faults to a 'professional' though, I would have expected to pay upwards of £30 per repair, simply on labour charges (I regard it as 'fun' when I repair stuff myself, before armchair economists ask me to consider the cost of my time!) which simply isn't economic when you can buy a new VCR for £70, a switch for £7 and a TV for £100.
Buy drives with the longest warranty period you can find. At the moment this is Seagate (5 years on all drives) or Western Digital (3 years on their 'Special Edition' models). Buy from a local vendor or one that you know to use sensible packaging for shipping (in the UK, dabs.com and insight.com pack sensibly, at least).
Make sure the case they're installed in is adequately ventilated. Use
smartctl -a/dev/hdx
to check the operating temperature of the drives periodically, if your drives provide this attribute.
Run
badblocks -w
(write test) on them as a soak test and to try and get the drives past the 'infant mortality' stage of the bathtub curve. According to a Seagate white paper this is one of the significant differences between SCSI and ATA drives (SCSI drives are individually tested, ATA drives are batch-tested).
Run S.M.A.R.T. tests on the drives regularly (i.e. from smartd if you're running Linux) and monitor the reports.
Don't worry too much about periodic read errors; just identify the affected blocks and force a write to them in order to get the drive firmware to remap any failed blocks. Note that write errors should be treated as fatal (though S.M.A.R.T. monitoring should pick this up as a failure long before this is a problem!)
Replace the drives at about 2-3 years old and upgrade. Keep the discs around as scratch discs as they've probably still got plenty of life left in them, even if you don't feel like trusting them with important data.
I have discs that are 13 years old and which are still running. Only that one and one from 1995 have any issues whatsoever - stiction in both cases.
I think this is the single largest problem keeping Linux out of the mainstream. The distros have sort of been playing the Highlander game, thinking that the last one left standing would become the standard, but that doesn't seem to be the way things are panning out.
I don't think I've ever expected that to happen. If you remember the 'Good, Fast, Cheap; pick any two' saying, it seems to me that each of the major distros are picking slightly different blend of those three attributes and finding an audience for them. Of course, the attributes get slightly redefined:
Good: Reliable, Stable, Predictable
Fast: Responsive to upstream changes
Cheap: Cheap to administer, with something approaching a bounded upper limit
Using these definitions, RHEL is Good and Cheap (CentOS being slightly Cheaper for some/many roles at the expense of not being quite as Fast, Debian moreso, and Ubuntu Faster and not quite as Cheap as Debian), SuSE is Fast and Cheap (Mandriva Faster still, and maybe not quite so Cheap), FC is Fast and Good, and so on.
The top 3 (or 5.. ok maybe 20) distros need to get together on this if they want to see Linux reach it's full potential.
I'd say that it's an issue of setting expectations correctly; in Windows-land, you wouldn't expect to run Office 2000 on Windows for Workgroups, similarly non-technical users probably shouldn't expect to run the latest-and-greatest upstream packages on their distro until they're packaged in a later version. Treat upstream and unintegrated packages as technology previews.
According to some Dutch speakers at 22C3, the Netherlands is experiencing the same sort of centralised authoritarian shift as most other western countries, especially in light of the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh. In fact, this particularly worrying as the Netherlands is frequently seen as a barometer for traditional small-l liberal values. The speakers at 22C3 suggested that it was better to stand and fight for freedom in your own country, rather than bailing out at early signs of oppression, as unless the authoritarians experience resistance, they, they methods and policies will be copied by other states. And by that time, there will be even fewer like-minded international friends to help freedom-lovers with their fight (cf. Niemöller's famouse quotation). Also, if you know you have a viable escape plan, it makes one less inclined to fight vigorously. Finally, as a 'foreigner' in an adopted country, you'll have even less influence if you need to fight authoritarianism in your new country.
The fact that I couldn't become a citizen and I can't speak the language stops me.
From what I've heard, if it's discovered that you speak English, it's hard to get the Dutch to speak Dutch with you. Still, it's polite to be able to speak at least some of the local language before you go, especially if you're planning on settling.
Personally, as a Brit, I'm planning on staying to fight the authoritarians. But, if needs must, then New Zealand is plan A (if I have plenty of time to plan, and move, and I have no family ties), the Republic of Ireland is plan B (particularly if I need to stay in contact with family, at some risk to myself) and Germany otherwise.
My primary criteria have been a) a fairly firm understanding of essential freedoms (Makes me very dubious about Russia, China especially) b) a certain distance from US foreign policy (rules out Canada, Australia) c) a decent tech industry (rules out Italy, France, Spain) d) English-speaking, or a language I think I can learn fairly easily (rules out Scandinavian states, Russia a bit more, China, Japan) e) a cold-to-temperate climate (rules out India). No offence intended to any nationals and residents of the countries I've mentioned, but if I'm going to go to the trouble of leaving my homeland, I want to make sure I'm not doing the same again a couple of years down the line, even if that fear is based on a somewhat distorted outsiders' view of how things are in those countries.
I've always been a critic of the premium that one has to pay to get an Apple. So when I saw this article, I was quick to go configure a Dell and point out just how much one can save over the Apple tax.
But it was 25 percent *more*
Apple have been competitive for quite some time now; I compared my Toshiba Satellite 3000-214 with a PPC PowerBook that a friend bought about the same time in 2002, and the PB was objectively equivalent or better in all ways (unless you wanted to run Windows or other x86-only software).
So for the English out there, who does this law really apply to? I've been to London a few times and enjoy a good pub lunch, without drinking - am I still going to be printed in that case?
Probably not, unless you happen to pick a pub which is notorious for alcohol-fuelled violence in the evenings. Usually, such establishments have a negative correlation with serving decent food and beer, so I doubt either of us will be personally affected by this, at least initially. Definitely something to keep an eye on, though.
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Back in the day, some of the Spectrum magazines published assembly code and I remember being somewhat baffled as to what exactly to do with it, until I received the guidance of a grey-beard at the local computer club who gave me a simple assembler that had been given away on a cover tape. The closest I had come until then (aged about 11 or 12) was poking the ASCII for the assembly source code into memory and attempting to run that (needless to say, that didn't really give the results I was after!). I was only one stage away, though, as in the ASCII charts in the back of the manual, there were additional columns for the Z80 mnemonics, so eventually I may have tried manual assembly of my own accord!
Perhaps I'd have grokked assembly quicker if the Spectrum had a built-in assembler, like the BBC did...
In fact, given how field-updateable firmware is often implemented, this also adds a new failure condition - trashed firmware. I lost a DVD ROM drive when a rogue piece of software accidentally knocked out 1 bit in 16 of the firmware (judging by the new name it had for itself during the BIOS POST, anyway!). If devices are going to be field-updateable, there should be a jumper that must be set by the user to allow the device to be programmed.
Either use a VGA card that has composite and/or S-Video outputs that are supported by X, or build a VGA-to-RGB-SCART adaptor if your TV has that as an input option. I guess you might be able to adapt the circuit for displays with RGB component inputs too.
You can make your life a lot easier by using the Fedora Myth(TV)ology FAQ, or, as another poster suggested, Knoppmyth. Personally, I've been using RH since 1996, so I felt much more comfortable using the former approach, and my MythTV box has now been running for about a year. It's a puny Celeron 1.7G with an equally puny 64MB nVidia graphics card, 512MB of RAM (256MB would probably have been enough), 2 Hauppauge Nova-T DVB-T tuners and a 300GB HDD. About the only seriously geeky thing I did was build a VGA-to-RGB-SCART adaptor because I loathe composite and S-Video output.
Good thinking, I've been doing the same lately after a couple painful failures. It really hurts under USB. :(
Yes, raw PATA speeds are ~50-60MB/s, the best I've managed via USB 2.0 is ~25-30MB/s, with the same disc rehoused in a caddy using a Prolific PATA-to-USB bridge chipset, plugged into an Intel USB controller (NEC was slower, IIRC).
Also, another advantage of running badblocks in write-test mode before using the drive is that hopefully any marginal or failed blocks will be remapped before they contain useful data. I've never seen that happen, and to be honest, I'd now be inclined to reject a drive that did so as D<ead|amaged>OA.
Like Seagate's SeaShell packaging, you mean? Perhaps this is why Seagate is the only manufacturer who still warranties all their drives for at least five years?
This paper from Seagate claims that SCSI drives are individually tested, whilst (S)ATA discs are only batch tested. As a result, I started running badblocks in write-test mode on my new ATA discs before putting them into service so as to attempt to reclaim that relative advantage. I also suspect that SCSI drives have a larger pool of reserved blocks for remapping failed blocks, which would go some way to explaining their funny sizes.
Sure I have to bet on Linus and gang not screwing up software RAID, but for software if the kernel passes decent "infant mortality" tests it's likely to keep working till at least the next kernel patch ;).
Unfortunately, Linux's software RAID drops the block device out of the array if it encounters a read error. So you hot-add that drive back into the array and start rebuilding, then the other block device encounters a read error too and gets dropped. Nice failure condition!
As I understand it, at least one RAID implementation in at least one of the BSDs takes a different approach; upon encountering a read error, it tries to get that block from the rest of the array and immediately attempts to copy it to the block device that generated the read error. Only if this fails is that device dropped from the array. This strikes me as a much safer approach. I've also seen syslogs indicating that BSD makes use of advisory status reports from drives (is this a SCSI-only feature?) to notice when the drive had problems reading a block, and immediately refresh it for similar reasons.
You're ignoring soft errors and read errors. These can usually be corrected by rewriting the block(s) in question (doing so either replaces the corrupt soft error with a good data, or forces the drive to remap the block). This should result in MTBF being significantly less than MTTF, since the drive would only get replaced on write errors (indicating some sort of catastrophic mechanical or media problem, or the exhaustion of the reserve of spare blocks) or obvious physical failure (failing to spin up, grinding, etc).
Maybe the simplest view then would be that a person who has an ID card just... has an ID card. Which allows them to identify themselves if needed. If you want to feel treated as a criminal -or a cow- because of this, go ahead. Didn't you ever stop and think that maybe other people already thought about this and came out with better answers than "we want to see everyone while they sleep, we are evil"?
Sure. ID cards may be the way things are done in other countries, especially those with legal systems derived from the Napoleonic code, but it's not the way we do things here and nor do I want it to be. Under English law, the general principle is that anything that is not specifically prohibited is permitted. As a result, we are entitled not to have to prove ourselves innocent unless we've committed some crime that results in that entitlement being taken away.
Besides, the card is theatre and the least of my worries. It's the NIR that I'm concerned about. I don't think any of the states that currently have ID cards have anything like the intrusive NIR that's included in these plans.
Assuming that individuals pay their fair share of the cost of the UK ID card/National Identity Register (NIR) scheme, we're looking at a bill of at least 180 Euro every 5 to 10 years. Maybe even as much as 600 Euro.
3) Huge databases with your data are already available to the government (driver's licenses, SSNs, credit/debit cards, TV taxes, medical insurance, etc. Pick yours).
These databases do not currently have a common key for each citizen and so these disparate databases cannot currently be reliably joined (obviously, fuzzy joins based on surname and address might be possible for many citizens, though). The NIR will introduce one.
5) Most countries under Roman right-derived laws haven't experienced economical collapse due to ID cards, their people aren't hounded like criminals, and the cards themselves are very useful for voting purposes and the like. I've personally traveled to the UK twice using my ID card (Italy), this meant I didn't have to renew my passport at an extra cost.
I've no objection to people opting into the ID/NIR scheme for their convenience, as long as legislation is passed requiring that all public and private sector institutions must accept alternative forms of ID. I can see situations where individuals may find it personally convenient to have an ID card and entry on the NIR. But the legal system in this country presumes innocence until proof of guilt, so why should an innocent citizen be treated as though they are a piece of livestock or a sex offender? Heck, nominally, the monarch is the head of state, and yet this plan from her current government will compel the queen to carry an ID card!
Any insurance company? I have renters insurance. If a hurricane wipes out my CD collection, it's a claim just like if a hurricane destroys my TV, or my book collection.
If you're relying upon that, you might like to double-check your policy. All my (admittedly UK) contents policies have specifically excluded CDs, CD-Roms, DVDs, video tapes, cassette tapes and so on.
I doubt it, seeing as Russia has been diligently using the recently-increased profits from fossil fuels to pay off national debts all over the place.
Peak oil isn't about running out of energy (or even running out of oil), it's about energy-expensive things we take for granted now becoming more economically expensive; possibly prohibitively so (e.g. centralized distribution of food, petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, import of fresh food supplies during winter). Humanity and our civilization certainly can adapt, but it will require adjustment and investment.
Or this one from Steve Vai.
So far, I've repaired a 9 year old VCR whose SMPSU had died due to failed capacitors (about £3 in parts, and an hour of my time), a cheap 10/100 switch (failed capacitors - about £1 and 30 minutes of my time) and a TV (internal fuse, about £2 for 10, and 30 minutes of my time).
If I'd taken these faults to a 'professional' though, I would have expected to pay upwards of £30 per repair, simply on labour charges (I regard it as 'fun' when I repair stuff myself, before armchair economists ask me to consider the cost of my time!) which simply isn't economic when you can buy a new VCR for £70, a switch for £7 and a TV for £100.
I have discs that are 13 years old and which are still running. Only that one and one from 1995 have any issues whatsoever - stiction in both cases.
I don't think I've ever expected that to happen. If you remember the 'Good, Fast, Cheap; pick any two' saying, it seems to me that each of the major distros are picking slightly different blend of those three attributes and finding an audience for them. Of course, the attributes get slightly redefined:
Using these definitions, RHEL is Good and Cheap (CentOS being slightly Cheaper for some/many roles at the expense of not being quite as Fast, Debian moreso, and Ubuntu Faster and not quite as Cheap as Debian), SuSE is Fast and Cheap (Mandriva Faster still, and maybe not quite so Cheap), FC is Fast and Good, and so on.
The top 3 (or 5.. ok maybe 20) distros need to get together on this if they want to see Linux reach it's full potential.
I'd say that it's an issue of setting expectations correctly; in Windows-land, you wouldn't expect to run Office 2000 on Windows for Workgroups, similarly non-technical users probably shouldn't expect to run the latest-and-greatest upstream packages on their distro until they're packaged in a later version. Treat upstream and unintegrated packages as technology previews.
But I do wonder, simply given its geographical proximity, how long it can remain uninfluenced by US policies (e.g. the case of Maher Arar).
According to some Dutch speakers at 22C3, the Netherlands is experiencing the same sort of centralised authoritarian shift as most other western countries, especially in light of the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh. In fact, this particularly worrying as the Netherlands is frequently seen as a barometer for traditional small-l liberal values. The speakers at 22C3 suggested that it was better to stand and fight for freedom in your own country, rather than bailing out at early signs of oppression, as unless the authoritarians experience resistance, they, they methods and policies will be copied by other states. And by that time, there will be even fewer like-minded international friends to help freedom-lovers with their fight (cf. Niemöller's famouse quotation). Also, if you know you have a viable escape plan, it makes one less inclined to fight vigorously. Finally, as a 'foreigner' in an adopted country, you'll have even less influence if you need to fight authoritarianism in your new country.
The fact that I couldn't become a citizen and I can't speak the language stops me.
From what I've heard, if it's discovered that you speak English, it's hard to get the Dutch to speak Dutch with you. Still, it's polite to be able to speak at least some of the local language before you go, especially if you're planning on settling.
Personally, as a Brit, I'm planning on staying to fight the authoritarians. But, if needs must, then New Zealand is plan A (if I have plenty of time to plan, and move, and I have no family ties), the Republic of Ireland is plan B (particularly if I need to stay in contact with family, at some risk to myself) and Germany otherwise.
My primary criteria have been a) a fairly firm understanding of essential freedoms (Makes me very dubious about Russia, China especially) b) a certain distance from US foreign policy (rules out Canada, Australia) c) a decent tech industry (rules out Italy, France, Spain) d) English-speaking, or a language I think I can learn fairly easily (rules out Scandinavian states, Russia a bit more, China, Japan) e) a cold-to-temperate climate (rules out India). No offence intended to any nationals and residents of the countries I've mentioned, but if I'm going to go to the trouble of leaving my homeland, I want to make sure I'm not doing the same again a couple of years down the line, even if that fear is based on a somewhat distorted outsiders' view of how things are in those countries.
If this is a big problem, why not maintain a local cache of the updates?
I'm sure they've been around a while; I'm pretty sure 100GB was around when I upgraded my notebook from a 20GB drive to 60GB last year.
Heck, 80GB 1.8" (i.e. HDD MP3 player) drives are (almost?) available to buy off-the-page.
But it was 25 percent *more*
Apple have been competitive for quite some time now; I compared my Toshiba Satellite 3000-214 with a PPC PowerBook that a friend bought about the same time in 2002, and the PB was objectively equivalent or better in all ways (unless you wanted to run Windows or other x86-only software).
Probably not, unless you happen to pick a pub which is notorious for alcohol-fuelled violence in the evenings. Usually, such establishments have a negative correlation with serving decent food and beer, so I doubt either of us will be personally affected by this, at least initially. Definitely something to keep an eye on, though.