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  1. Re:Shouldn't even want to virtualise everything. on Ask Slashdot: Little Boxes Around the Edge of the Data Center? · · Score: 1

    Yes, you're pretty correct, there. I am not sure why these boards fail so quickly, or that they don't last over a few years, but they don't have the same build quality that real servers use. That's why I recommended something like an LP1000r in my previous post. Other than his choice of hardware, the poster of the grandfather of this message is correct: you shouldn't virtualize everything.

  2. un-cloud on Ask Slashdot: Little Boxes Around the Edge of the Data Center? · · Score: 1

    The use of discreet machines allows for a machine to be specialized for a task. Sometimes you just need fast number-crunchers for special types of numerical problems, and GPUs work well. Other times, tasks can be parallelized so a distributed computing model works well. For the accessory infrastructure of NTP, DNS, and forth, reliability is more important than CPU mips or memory bandwidth. Take the high-end servers of yesteryear, one that would have been put out to pasture, and use that for such things. Debian on an old HP LP1000r makes a nice DNS server. BUT make sure that things which actually wear out, such as hard drives, batteries and fans, have some redundancy. If a battery is used, replace it with a fresh one. Unless it has been in a well-filtered environment for its pervious lifem vaccum the insides and then apply some grease for the fan motor bearings (in that order, not the reverse) to keep the beast going for another ten years or longer.

    Install an OS which is well-proven and a version that will receive updates for a long time. For instance, if you are running Ubuntu used the LTS releases. Install only the software needed for the task, and simple remote administration and updating - you probably don't need a compiler, web server, etc. Keep up with critical security patches, automating the task if you can. rsyslog to a remote machine, just the messages that are important. Make sure that logs are rotated on the machine, so that the drive won't fill up.

    Create a maintenance calendar. login and check up on the system to be proactive about degradation issues - at least once a year, I'd say. Your server room should be filtered, but that doesn't mean it's not worth checking to see what the dust level is every few years. Make sure the machine is properly labeled and documented - so that no one comes along later and says "What's this old thing still doing here?", and unplugs it.

    Write 'Kilroy was here' and the date on the inside of the case, so that future generations will be amused when they come to clean out the dust in fifty years.

  3. MIT School of Charm on Ask Slashdot: Rectifying Nerd Arrogance? · · Score: 4, Funny

    After living for many years in Cambridge, I have become accustomed to this attitude. I want to make a T-shirt "I act like I am smarter than you because I am. I go to MIT".

  4. 40watt? not enough on DIY Laser Cutter Raises Capital, Concerns · · Score: 1

    You just can't do much very quickly with 40 watts. Besides monogramming or similar, it's just not fast enough when cutting anything more than paper. They talk aboit 5 inches per minute....really guys, you need something much bigger and faster.

  5. What if they are right? on Physicists Devise Test For Whether the Universe Is a Simulation · · Score: 4, Funny

    What will we do then? When will Zaphod eat the cake?

  6. Manchester on Ask Slashdot: What Distros Have You Used, In What Order? · · Score: 1

    MCC interim, then SLS, the Slackware. Stayed with Slackware for many years. Dicked around with BSD and RedHat, but then found Debian and have stayed wit that since, sorta. Went to Ubuntu for easy desktop installs, but then the recent versions have sucked so much that I went to Mint. But I am not satisfied that either, because of Gnome asshattery. I'll probably head back to Debian for the desktop, uniting my server and desktop choices.

    I'd say the state of Linux on the desktop is bad, mostly because of the way there has been GUI modification towards stupid users. I am not a stupid user. I want things to be where I expect to find them; where I got used them being.

    Speaking of which, they are screwing up on the command line as well. Big heavyweight app that is a catch-all to find out what package you need to install when the shell can't find what you've typed. Uh, often its a mistake...Just give me the standard error message and if I want to find the package, let apropos or something else handle it. And put stuff in my path. I shouldn't have to be root to get ifconfig in my path, if I just want to see what the status of the network interfaces are. Sure, I know I can't change the data as a mortal user, and I know I could just type the path, or modify my .profile or .bashrc. Stop making me have to.

    Give me back my nslookup while your at it. Sure, the app may have been buggy (all crap from ISC is), but I got used to it and didn't get used to dig. Give me something else named nslookup that works similarly. I am an old linux fart, yeah sure....but it gets the job done and I don't see any reason why there can't be some distribution that lets me operate in ways I am used to. I am not asking for Unix/32V or anything...just give me the Linux I got used to, circa 2001.

  7. Where is it then? on Beer Is Cheaper In the US Than Anywhere Else In the World · · Score: 2

    I have never been to a place in the US where beer is as cheap as it is in Germany. I am not saying that the cheap stuff is the best quality, but their cheap beer is better than the average US beer, by far.

  8. Workers rights on Riot Breaks Out At Foxconn · · Score: 0

    They rioted because they didn't get the free iPhone 5s they were promised.

  9. I call shenannigans, on How Internet Data Centers Waste Power · · Score: 1

    so, that would be like a million servers, maxing out their 300 watt power supplies for every second of every day? Hrm, sounds a bit unlikely. Well, okay, figure it consumes about just as much power to cool as the server consumes, since it is (in theory) not putting any chemicals into high chemical potential...well, yes, then there's the inefficiency of air conditioning, offset by the natural cooling by fans and heat sinks (of buildings, not servers). Still that's a lot of power. I know that cisco gear has no concern for one's electrical bill and that the old Sun servers did live up to their name in some ways by pumping out heat...but still....

    You know, there's this whole country Iceland with lots of cheap electric power and natural cooling, that doesn't consume any fossil fuels to produce it. Maybe we could put some servers there?

  10. Invest now!! SELL GOLD, BUY HELIUM! on Scientists Speak Out Against Wasting Helium In Balloons · · Score: 1

    I can see it now, the ads...yup, a precious gas instead of precious minerals. Keep a few dozen tanks in your backyard.

  11. Re:Life is supposed to get Better, not worse! on Scientists Speak Out Against Wasting Helium In Balloons · · Score: 0

    Israel is so bad that people flee to South Africa. So you know it has to be BAD.

    Yet, parts of the US are just as bad. I don't have the figures handy to cite, but for example take Quincy, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. It used to be the site of major shipyards. In 1965, a new 2 bedroom house in Quincy cost $22,000. The average income of a shipyard worker was $20,000 per year - so it would take 1.1 years wages to buy a house. Compare it to now, where the average costs of a house there is $400,000. and the per-capita income is $26,000. I know there is a somewhat apples-to-oranges, because household income is still around $47k. But, if you take the $47k figure and figure it is comparable to the $20k figure of 1965, it now takes 8.5 years salary to buy a house. The good news is that televisions used to be very expensive, but now they're practically FREE.

  12. Re:Life is supposed to get Better, not worse! on Scientists Speak Out Against Wasting Helium In Balloons · · Score: 1

    Yup, you're pretty much hit the nail on the head. So, we outsource/offshore manufacturing jobs to lower-wages countries. Actually, this happened in the US before jobs were shipping overseas. I recently saw a political advertisement from a Boston newspaper from 1958, talking about how high costs of doing business were forcing Massachusetts jobs to lower-cost states, and taking jobs with them. It was true - jobs were moving to California, Arizona, Texas, etc. where the labor and environmental laws were less strict, and the increasing decay caused by the cost of a government infrastructure which could no longer be supported by the tax base caused taxes to go up, putting more pressure on businesses to move, etc. Detroit suffered similarly, but to a greater degree. The UK suffered as well, in times before. British capital fled to where costs were lower, which was primarily the USA. This accelerated after WW2.

    It's not just costs, though, that business pursues overseas: it is new markets. This works only when the essence of value and control is kept by the originators. For instance, thee is not much US corporate capital interested in funding new Chinese factories for bamboo furniture. This is because there isn't any part of the production, sales, and use of bamboo furniture that requires US participation: no branding (trademark), no design innovations (copyright), or new inventions (patent). International Capitalism wants the world to be full of factories and consumers, with the capitalists, who own the intellectual property, getting a fraction of a percentage of each sale (well, they want more, but will often settle for much less). Merely having corporate capital invested in the factories is not enough - they want to make sure that competition in the producing country is eliminated, or at least greatly constrained (which intellectual property law accomplishes).

    This should make clear why the WIPO, RIAA, MPAA, patent trolls, Apple, etc are so powerful - because of the capital value of intellectual property. In my opinion, it's spinning out of control. The fundamental idea sounded good but lately this has caused great economic dislocation in the US, UK, and other places. There is little in the way of good manufacturing jobs - even if a company could hire good workers for little money, the infrastructure and supply chain for manufacturing has already moved away.

  13. Re:"Simple" Solution on Scientists Speak Out Against Wasting Helium In Balloons · · Score: 1

    Aneutronic fusion requires much higher temperatures that D-T or D-D (neutronic) fusion. There's also the possibility that more energy will be lost through brehmstrahlung radiation than generated in the fusion. This is worthy of research, but for practical, medium-term purposes, LFTR (fission) is the way to go. For short-term purposes, fracking is the way to go. For the very short-term purposes, I will just plug in to the 120VAC mains before the batteries on my laptop die.

  14. Re:I had Oxy after my Donor surgery on How Big Pharma Hooked America On Legal Heroin · · Score: 0

    You should have kept the pills around for emergencies.

  15. What are the alternatives? on How Big Pharma Hooked America On Legal Heroin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After being the victim of a serious accident, I was in an enormous amount of pain. Oxycodone was a real goddsend. Maybe it takes a soul-shattering amount of pain to really appreciate the value of this drug. Yes, there are lots of addicts - but far more people are addicted to nicotiene. These slams against 'big pharma' for the black market in this drug are counter-productive and quite maddening. Doctors are becoming afraid to prescribe painkillers because they'll be accused of being 'pill doctors', so many people who don't know they have to advocate for themselves in this situation have to suffer unnecessarily. Tip: if you get a prescription, get as many pills as you can. Save some for later, because you'll never know when the anti-drug lobby will cut off the supply.

    BTW this isn't news for nerds. Is this the new direction of Slashdot under new ownership? Rage-news in all categories, not just tech?

  16. No doubt Microsoft will bring AMD success, on AMD's Hondo Chip 'A Windows 8 Product' · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ,just as they have for Nokia.

  17. I have IPv4 space to spare. on RIPE Region Runs Out of IPv4 Addresses · · Score: 1

    If you have money, come talk to me, we'll make a deal. If you are a non-profit-org, you may attempt to show how worthwhile your cause is and why it needs a /24 or larger.

  18. $500? on Ask Slashdot: What's Your Take On Stand-Up Desks? · · Score: 1

    Take a trip to Target if you are short on money, or cruise craigslist or similar. $500 is a huge budget. Now, if you were talking $50, then I'd see some reason to seek help.

    This should not be a slashdot question.

  19. Re:cheaper plastic cases please. on Raspberry Pi Revision 2.0 Board Announced · · Score: 1

    4 pounds is too much for a hung of plastic. I see no reason why a case can't be 80p....in large quantities. Sure, you could make a case with a 3d printer but it wouldn't be cheap. injection-molding is still the least expensive per unit, but the mold has to be made. These molds can cost lots of money. So, someone needs to invest some money. Perhaps a kickstarter for it?

  20. UK 2.0 on Raspberry Pi Revision 2.0 Board Announced · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am happy that the Raspberri PI has updated the UK to version 2.0. UK v 1.x was getting long in the tooth.

  21. Re:Good ol' HAM radio? on Ask Slashdot: Ad-Hoc Wireless Mesh Network For Emergency Vehicles? · · Score: 2

    This is not appropriate for ham radio. Ham is supposed to be for amateurs and emergency comms only. Emergency comms as used by an auxiliary force. It is not to be used for commercial purposes, military purposes (even though tthe military acna overrid this and do whatever they want, it would be frowned upon), and not for police/fire/rescue. Seriously, the emergency services have enough equipment and bandwidth of their own, they shouldn't be trying to compete with all the signals on 2.4 ghz and the ham frequencies. They shouldn't be using crap equipment either.

    This should be obvious - emergency services communications need to be reliable - not the ad-hoc stuff life mesh and ham radio that works when the sunspots are in the right position. That means VHF and big heavy radios, high bandwidth gear, that has been proven reliable and yet costs a lot of money because of it. There are no rusted out old pickups being painted red and used as fire trucks. Same principle applies here.

  22. Not appropriate on Ask Slashdot: Ad-Hoc Wireless Mesh Network For Emergency Vehicles? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've been doing wifi mesh networks for over ten years. As much as people try, these just aren't reliable or secure enough to be used for such things as military and emergency services networks. Emergency services have more radio spectrum than they know what to do with, and access to lots of other resources. Use technology which is appropriate to these advantages, taking into account the demand for very high reliability.

  23. Re:Why Einstein? on How Long Do You Want To Live? · · Score: 1

    I threw Hubbard in there for a bit of humor. Funny, you were the only one that didn't seem to get it. Or maybe, my humor was so bad that everyone else ignored it.

  24. Re:Why Einstein? on How Long Do You Want To Live? · · Score: 1

    That's pretty much my point. I don't think a builder of great dams has much authority when it comes to dietary issues, I don't trust a priest to give me stock market tips, and I don't trust a physicist to give me moral guidance.

  25. Re:A friend's great-grandmother just turned 116. on How Long Do You Want To Live? · · Score: 1

    Well, yeah....kind of has to be, eh? It wasn't until after I posted this that I found out that her birthday was all over the news.