CSR: Thank you for calling [company] technical support, my name is "Bob", and how may I service you this fine morning.
Customer: What?
CSR: Good morning, and how can I be helping you.
Customer: Morning? It's 9pm. Where the hell are you?
CSR: We are in... uhhh... New Jersey.
Customer: I'm in New York, and it's 9pm here.
CSR: Oh, I am begging of your forgiveness for my incorrectness in that statement, we are in the other New Jersey.
Customer: What?
CSR: We are in New Jersey, India.
Customer: {sigh} Ok, I'm having a problem with my some-computer 5100.
CSR: I am very sorry that you are having discomfort with your "some-computer 500", how may I help you resolve this issue.
Customer: No, a some-computer 5100, not a 500.
CSR: Oh, I am begging your forgiveness [balls up some paper by the handset] there must be line noise. So you have 50 some-computer 100 that are not working. I will have to transfer you to large business support, please hold [hold music]
Customer: WAIT!!
Ok, that sounds funny and all, but I swear I've had so many variations of that call, ONLY with off-shore call centers. It's not a matter that they're in India, it's that the people I always end up get have poor training, terrible phone skills, and an equal American in the position should be fired. Since the companies farm out the work to the cheapest places, they're hiring the cheapest employees too. Now, the American call centers seem to be reserved for the highest level technical folks, who have years of experience, and know what they're doing. It's just a nice added advantage that they speak English well.:)
If I wanted your motorcycle, I'd bring a couple friends, and throw it in the back of a pickup truck, to be rekeyed later.
If I wanted into your house, I'd kick in the door, or go through a window.
If I wanted into your shed, I'd put a pry bar through the padlock and twist.
It's a good thing I don't want these things.:)
Really, I've helped people get around things they've locked accidentally.
One was a door with a "security" lock (one extra pin). They closed it, and couldn't reopen it, because no one had the key. That took me 5 minutes with a lockpick set.
Once the CEO of a company I worked for needed a document on his desk. He was very insistent he needed it immediately. We told him the door was locked, and he had the only key. We then asked for permission to get in by alternative means. His only response was "don't break anything" I had one of the guys stand on a chair and lift a drop ceiling panel out, so he could climb over the wall. It took about 45 seconds.
We had a a life or death emergency at my house, and someone was in the locked room. The fastest method was required to open the door. A swift kick just beside the doorknob, and the door opened, without me missing a step running into the room.
I don't know how many times when I was a kid, someone would get home before their parents, and couldn't get into their own house because they forgot their keys. I'd usually be in, in less than 5 minutes. There's always a window or door that isn't locked, or doesn't latch well.
The same applies here. You have 100 employees with access to do something (like in this case play with twitter accounts). If every one of them isn't secured well (good passwords, good password protection policies, good security measures) it doesn't matter how great one is, someone will walk in through the easier method.
I was moving some servers, and no one knew the password to one of them. I couldn't log in to set the new IP. I asked politely, and then rebooted into single user to change it. I didn't need the password, I had physical access.
I was in the same situation. I've done IT work for longer than most people here have been able to read.:) When I got laid off, I did two things. I filed for unemployment, just in case I couldn't get a job, and then I went job hunting. The unemployment forms in my state take a couple hours, and a good bit of research. How much did I make at that job two years ago? What is their current contact information? Oh shit, the company moved out of country, but I still have to list someone who can verify I worked there. What's their current mailing address? A contact? A phone? I haven't talked to them in almost two years, why should I know this? Even the office phone number was on speed dial... on my work cell phone that I turned in on my last day there.
After I got done the unemployment paperwork, which the unemployment office actually recommended doing online versus one of their branch offices which just has a terminal to do it online, I then went job hunting. I called every contact I could think of. I checked all the job boards. I went to interviews at crappy places. One of the best was with a scientologist run company. I never "interviewed". They had me take their pseudo-psych profiling test to see if I was worthy. When I researched the test they gave me, I'm sure I scored in the "don't ever contact this person, he will be subversive" range.:) It took a few weeks to get another job. I'm not a McDonalds level employee. I'm close to a C-level tech person (CIO/CTO, depending on the size of the company). While contacts may be begging me to come over and work for them while I'm employed, that window of opportunity isn't always still available the day I need new work.
I collected two checks from unemployment, and that was it. $250/week, the ceiling for unemployment in my state. It wasn't much, but it insured I could put gas in the car and feed the family until I got my next job.
Just because I just got laid off, should I disconnect all my services (power, water, phone, internet), and sell my computers? Hell no. The next job is coming soon, and I *NEED* those. Without them, I wouldn't have landed my next job. I found them on a job board. I applied online. I spent 8 hours a day browsing what was available, and matching them up to my skills. Well, some days I spent at head-hunter offices, with no real advancement. "Oh, we can place you immediately, we'll call you tomorrow". They'd all, say that they sent my resume to some company at a vague loation, and then never hear back. My resume, although glowing, was just one in a stack of 100 that they sent to each place. Head-hunters used to be great. Now they're trying to make a buck too. Hopefully they can get one of those 100 hired, so they make their commission.
I thought the head-hunters had forgotten about me, until I got a flurry of "offers" in a few weeks ago. I actually read them (I'm working, so I'd usually ignore them). They were all for the same job. Everyone was so hopeful to be able to make that deal. It's really sad out there right now.
I say keep what you have, for as long as you can. My "home office" now consists of one PC and a laptop, because I'm no longer living in my nice house, with lots of room for my whole setup (which has since been sold or given away). I'm hopeful that the economy will get better, because if it doesn't, I'm almost tempted to beg to join the Army. Sure, I'll get shot at for 15% of my old pay, but it'll pay better than McDonalds, even though I'll run the risk of getting killed daily. When it gets bad enough, McD won't be any safer. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you haven't eaten in a week, bringing a gun (the last valuable you own) into McD to rob the place for food and cash on hand doesn't sound all that bad.
When casual computer users ask "What video card should I get", I tell them to go to the store and spend about $100. It won't be the latest, greatest hardware, but it'll be what was great about 6 months ago. In the end, most people surf the net more than they game anyways, so they could get away with the cheapest "new" video card that they can get their hands on. I wouldn't recommend that anyone go get a 1Mb Trident card or something, but anything in the stores is relatively recent.:)
A good firearm can be worth 10% or more than the purchase value in a year.
I purchased an "affordable".45 (name brand, just not hugely expensive) several years ago for $300. Last time I checked, in good/used condition it is worth about $500.
I picked up another one, of a better brand name for about $600 about 3 years ago. Now it's worth about $800.
I built out some very nice computers for myself over the years. They each cost about $2,000, using very good parts. I'd be lucky if I could sell any of them for $100 now. Computers never hold their value. If you try to resell the same computer 6 months later, it's obsolete. That's not an investment, that's a consumable product that will never have a good resale value.
You're giving me flashbacks of the "good old days", when memory was outrageously expensive, and there was a program to let you use some of that extra video memory for the system. Some kids, who could afford systems with (oh my gosh) 4Mb RAM, would use 2Mb for a ramdrive to run the game in, since it was so much faster than their 20Mb hard drive, and the rest would be used for the game itself.
I know we can still do silly things like that in Linux, but I don't know what's available for Windows users. I've only had a few requests to make ramdrives, even in Linux. One was for a temporary database, so it could work faster than the drives would allow.:)
I had to dial the number, and then set the handset into the acoustic coupler. I still don't believe in all this wireless stuff. If I can't see the wire, I don't believe it's connected! How do I know I'm talking to the other person on the end of the wire, and not an impersonator. If my wife were to call me and ask for a gallon of milk, who's to say it's not a KGB agent trying to lure me to kill me and destroy our American way of life. You know those damned reds are out to take over the world.
Excuse me while I tighten my tin foil hat, and check the seals on my backyard fallout shelter. You can never be too prepared.
It's a GMC RTS bus. The generator was in the compartment over the engine, which had previously held the air conditioning equipment. That's entirely outside of the passenger area. The panel which had been the air return had been replaced with 3/4" plywood and insulation, and sealed air tight. So no, no breathing problems.:)
Burn the furniture. When that runs out, burn the neighbor's furniture. As far as that goes, a good house bonfire does wonders for keeping warm, even if only for a little while. Your neighbors may not appreciate it, especially if they're home.:)
It depends on what tank you put with it.:) I don't see a spec for the tank on either the Home Depot site, nor the Guardian site. It does indicate that it runs on LP or natural gas. I would guess the assumption is that you can use it with your local supply, assuming you're in an area that you can get gas.
I have a neighbor a few miles away that has natural gas at his house. Now, I don't know if that's affected if the power to the area goes out.
A 20 pound tank, like you'd use for your BBQ, is approximately 4.1 gallons, or about 2.4 hours.
A 250 gallon tank would last you for about 6 days.
A 500 gallon tank would last you for about 12 days.
According to These reports you'll be paying about $3 to $4 per gallon. This will vary by your location, current market value, etc, etc. If you were to need to run a week on propane, because of... well, whatever... It will consume approximately 280 gallons of fuel, and cost you pretty close to $1,000.
Now, if you fill the tank once, and only need a few hours here and there, then it's not a big deal. Just have it topped off every so often. How important is your power to you though? Can you get away without a computer, and camping around the fireplace? It's probably cheaper.:) The kids will make noise without the TV and PS3/Xbox360/GameThing(tm). Can you survive? Maybe they'll have to communicate. If they get too noisy, throw them out in the snow. They'll shut up just to be able to stay inside.:)
Rather than digging down, you can build up a small hill for the same effect.
I bought two generators in the last few years. One was a Coleman 5500 watt, and one was a generic Chinese made 5500 watt from Walmart.
I put the Coleman in my RV, as a temporary power source for air conditioning for a drive. Bad idea. It was so loud, even though the RV is 40' long, I couldn't talk over the sound of it. Driving, it sounded like a Harley was parked beside me. That lasted for about.. umm.. 5 miles.:)
The Chinese one had what looks like a small car muffler on it. It's only about half as loud.
Besides the noise level is the reliability of the generators. Both sat for the same period, about a year. Neither one would start. The Chinese generator's spark plug was oil fouled. I cleaned it, and it started right up. The Coleman has some mystery carburetor problem. It still won't start. I suspect even after cleaning the carb, I must have not gotten all the passages cleared.
But, back to your idea... A hole will get full of water, bugs, or whatever. It may get filled by small children falling into it accidentally. A built up hole would be a better choice. Pick your spot, put down a firm foundation for the generator (a few bricks in the ground would do), put together sides around it with say lattice and screen. A few feet of 2" PVC at the bottom would be a good idea to get rid of any rain water that soaks in. Backfill dirt around it to make a small hill. A piece of plywood (preferably secured somehow) would be a good idea to keep things from falling in when you don't want them to (again, kids, water, stray animals, etc). It would be a good idea to be able to secure it open, yet covered. so if it's raining or snowing (depending on your environment), that won't get all over your nice generator that you've protected so well.
It'll also make for a nice bunker when the revolution comes to your neighborhood.:) Just watch out for incendiary rounds near the fuel tank. Well, for that matter, near yourself too.:)
Ahhh, the cold truth. There are some sick people out there, that can take a posting about educating a child, and helping them expand their minds, and make in into a sick sexual reference.
Thank you for reinforcing my faith (or lack of it) in humanity. If/when bad things happen, it will be people like you that will be the downfall of humanity, not the salvation of it. Do the world a favor, make your best efforts now to achieve a Darwin Award.
Years ago, I caught my girlfriend's daughter passing ciphered messages between her and friends. I wasn't trying to punish her, but I wanted to educate her. I explained how they're easily crackable. She wasn't even using letters. They were all symbols of all different kinds. Some were similar to runes. Others simple shapes and variations. It was good for a kid.:)
I told her what she was doing right, and what she was doing wrong. She said I couldn't crack her message. I asked if there was anything I shouldn't see in it, and she said it was ok. I'm nosy, but I'm not so impolite to look at her private notes. I then walked her through cracking her own message.
I would hope that the FBI could give us something a little harder than a basic cipher. zzz. boring. At least the daughter's cipher was entertaining.:)
Several years ago, I was driving across the country from Florida to California. I was only a couple days behind a hurricane that had made a mess. No, it was way before Katrina.
Every hotel along I-10 for hundreds of miles had utility trucks from all over the place. I usually drive at night to avoid traffic, and I know these guys need to at least get a little bit of sleep. I know the utility guys get sent out from all over the place to fix problems induced by bad storms. It never really hit me that it wasn't just a few hundred sent, but an entire army. I would stop at hotels, and they would tell me that they were completely booked up because of the utility guys. Not just their hotel, but every hotel in the city. "Try the next town, 50 miles down the road." It's not like they were hogging the rooms, they were stuffed in. One guy per bed, and a guy or two on the floor. This is our civilian army, that keeps things working after a disaster.
Unfortunately, all the general public knows is "they don't have my power on yet.", even though it is an army working hard to repair everything. People like instant gratification. They think it should be a light switch fix (hit the switch, it works).
It's a job I wouldn't want. High voltages, dangerous weather, and long hours.
I had a similar problem in the comments area of my site. It was all fun and games, until one day I checked, and there were something like 1000 spams for every real message.
I wrote my own system to deal with it. It's not very hard, assuming you know how your site works (of course you do, right?)
I ended up making two blacklists. One was for words and phrases. The spammers tend to post (and repost, and repost) the same crap. My blacklist rules had some simple regular expressions that I could run queries with. Like, "%http://%spamsite%" and "%v%gra%". You get the idea. The second list was IP's that were known spammers.
At the time, I allowed both anonymous comments, and comments from logged in users. I eventually did away with the anonymous comments, as they were a headache. This was the best cure.
So, when my script ran (once a minute), if it matched a message, it would delete the message, and append the IP to the IP blacklist. If it was posted by a user account, the user account got suspended, so they could no longer log in, nor post.
After it's detection and cleanup run, it then ran back over the IP list, and pruned out every post by that IP. Sometimes they'll do practice runs saying silly things like "nice site". I thought they were real user complements at first, until I saw the same posting verbatim coming from the same IP to multiple news stories, and then that IP would start spamming later.
Some people will argue that the IP cleanup run was not nice, polite, or even fair. People use proxies. Sure, they do. We got a lot of abuse from anonymous proxies, and no real messages from them. The spammers didn't seem to like to use AOL.
When I implemented this, I posted a very brief description of what I was starting ("We're starting advanced anti-spam protection"), with an apology for real messages that were deleted. I never received one complaint about real comments disappearing.
How brutally you do it is really up to you. I built my method by manually doing it for a while, and then letting the script do it on it's own. Occasionally, I would have to go in and add new words and/or site names to the words blacklist.
I noticed the spammers hit more common software more often. It's worth it for them to make automated systems to abuse a piece of software that's deployed on tens of thousands of sites. When I rewrote my site from scratch, then abuses dropped down to 0 for a long time. Now, they manually submit "news" items which are just ads for their own sites. It appears to be manual, and since we won't run them as news stories (our editorial staff decides what does or doesn't show up as news, and if it needs to be edited first), they give up pretty quickly.
That was posted here.:) I'm too lazy to find the link, but I know it was only a few months ago.
Hey, with any business, the price tag is never what the cost is. The market dictates what the price will be. If people are willing to pay $100 for a bag of cheezie poofs, they will charge that much. If the price drops below the cost, unless there's a way to recover it through other means, the product will be dropped.
In the past, I ran a fairly large network. If everything was fine, we could receive almost no text messages. If, say the uplink to a facility went down, we could get text messages for every server and service in that location. Our monitoring didn't have dependencies configured into it, so the simple fact that the monitoring server could not reach those other servers was cause for a page. It would have seemed like a good idea to let a single page go out saying "this uplink is down", but it brings the sense of urgency to it when you get 100 pages. It also makes it apparent when you're with someone and say "There's a big problem, I have to go", rather than saying it to one page and they wonder if you're just blowing them off.
Some months, I would get maybe four pages throughout the month. Some months, it may thousands. The providers loved me. In all that time, I never SENT a text message, so they were all incoming. We always paid more for the plans that allowed for at least 3,000 text messages. Our message was always very short, not just for the sake of a text message, but so it would fit on the screen well. They would read something like:
"www1 HTTP DOWN for 5 minutes"
"www1 HTTP STILL DOWN for 35 minutes"
"www1 HTTP back UP after 46 minutes"
"NYC1 ICMP DOWN for 5 minutes"
"NYC1 ICMP back up after 8 minutes"
You get the idea. Lots of short concise messages.
We even had to shop around with various providers to determine who's service was fastest. A 15 minute delay, which in the case of a high profit site is huge. I love the blackberry network for this. My delay has been anywhere from 5 minutes to 3+ hours. When I'm on the road, and there is essential timed information that needs to be shared, I have people mail me at gmail, and check it from the phone. That actually comes in as expected.:)
It's nice that they want to make a profit. I'm surprised they don't try to squeeze every dime out of it, and charge for the "air time" required when the tower and phone talk to each other too.
I don't think most people will really understand what you mean.
When Free Internet Press (http://freeinternetpress.com) started, I used Slashcode. It ran fine on one server, after I got all the damned mod_perl stuff working for it. That was all fine and dandy, until we were picked up by Yahoo! News and Google News as a news source. If we showed up on the front of either one (Google News is the heaviest), the site would be down within about a minute or two.
I had to grow it to 3 dedicated servers. Two web servers, and one database server. That worked, but even still when it got hit, it was slow.
It didn't take me too long to grow tired of Slashcode. It wasn't only the performance issues, but making serious changes became a nightmare. I switched to PHPNuke for a while, which did much better as far as handling surges in traffic, but grew tired of their security problems. The site was exploited twice. The first time it required a cleanup and software upgrade. The second time, I gave up on it, and rewrote the site from scratch.
With my own code, I had basic functionality working in two days, and all the normal features working not too long after that. I'm a good coder, so there have been no problems with exploits. I validate all my inputs, and the coding style is much simpler so it's much easier to work with. I even have good caching code, so it should be safe from the Slashdot effect. For those who want the code, sorry, it's not available.
Really, needing 3 dedicated servers was a lot for a small site. Now that it's bigger, it runs safely from two (a web and a database server). I could consolidate to one, but I don't need to. I could also grow it to as many servers as necessary without any real headaches.
Even still, I wouldn't want to run it on a $5/mo hosting account. Sure, my site would be fine, but what happens if one of the hundreds or thousands of other sites on that same server are too heavy? Then my site will be slow.
Bandwidth usually isn't a big concern for a mostly text based site, unless you're trying really hard.:)
It does help though, if you can do a little decoration on your work.:)
I prefer to have someone come back over my work, and make it pretty, than me doing it. When I do web stuff, I make it work, and work right. Then the graphics folks can make it look good.
At very least, I can mangle a few images into the site, so it's something at least half presentable, and I make sure I say at least a few times during the presentation "And the graphics folks will come back through and make this look nice.":)
This is a neat idea, but wouldn't it be more practical to have made it as a USB device?
It should be a simple enough matter to make one. The hard part is the software. I don't suppose this is open sourced, is it?
A field tech with a laptop and USB device could test samples of thousands of people. This phone method appears very kludgy. A properly configured setup would easily be able to tie in with a centralized database to not only evaluate the samples, but provide statistical information on the spread or current infected areas. The field tech would already be aware of what problems may exist in the area, and then he'd simply be finding out who needs isolation and treatment.
If they open sourced the software, I could (in theory) run to the store today, modify a camera with an LED and filter, and test anyone who wanted to give a sample. It would go from "I got to the doctor once a year for a physical" to "I do my own bloodwork at home, and go as soon as there is a problem."
Slashdot Mirror
[in a heavy Indian accent]
CSR: Thank you for calling [company] technical support, my name is "Bob", and how may I service you this fine morning.
Customer: What?
CSR: Good morning, and how can I be helping you.
Customer: Morning? It's 9pm. Where the hell are you?
CSR: We are in ... uhhh ... New Jersey.
Customer: I'm in New York, and it's 9pm here.
CSR: Oh, I am begging of your forgiveness for my incorrectness in that statement, we are in the other New Jersey.
Customer: What?
CSR: We are in New Jersey, India.
Customer: {sigh} Ok, I'm having a problem with my some-computer 5100.
CSR: I am very sorry that you are having discomfort with your "some-computer 500", how may I help you resolve this issue.
Customer: No, a some-computer 5100, not a 500.
CSR: Oh, I am begging your forgiveness [balls up some paper by the handset] there must be line noise. So you have 50 some-computer 100 that are not working. I will have to transfer you to large business support, please hold [hold music]
Customer: WAIT!!
Ok, that sounds funny and all, but I swear I've had so many variations of that call, ONLY with off-shore call centers. It's not a matter that they're in India, it's that the people I always end up get have poor training, terrible phone skills, and an equal American in the position should be fired. Since the companies farm out the work to the cheapest places, they're hiring the cheapest employees too. Now, the American call centers seem to be reserved for the highest level technical folks, who have years of experience, and know what they're doing. It's just a nice added advantage that they speak English well. :)
Locks are for honest people.
If I wanted your motorcycle, I'd bring a couple friends, and throw it in the back of a pickup truck, to be rekeyed later.
If I wanted into your house, I'd kick in the door, or go through a window.
If I wanted into your shed, I'd put a pry bar through the padlock and twist.
It's a good thing I don't want these things. :)
Really, I've helped people get around things they've locked accidentally.
One was a door with a "security" lock (one extra pin). They closed it, and couldn't reopen it, because no one had the key. That took me 5 minutes with a lockpick set.
Once the CEO of a company I worked for needed a document on his desk. He was very insistent he needed it immediately. We told him the door was locked, and he had the only key. We then asked for permission to get in by alternative means. His only response was "don't break anything" I had one of the guys stand on a chair and lift a drop ceiling panel out, so he could climb over the wall. It took about 45 seconds.
We had a a life or death emergency at my house, and someone was in the locked room. The fastest method was required to open the door. A swift kick just beside the doorknob, and the door opened, without me missing a step running into the room.
I don't know how many times when I was a kid, someone would get home before their parents, and couldn't get into their own house because they forgot their keys. I'd usually be in, in less than 5 minutes. There's always a window or door that isn't locked, or doesn't latch well.
The same applies here. You have 100 employees with access to do something (like in this case play with twitter accounts). If every one of them isn't secured well (good passwords, good password protection policies, good security measures) it doesn't matter how great one is, someone will walk in through the easier method.
I was moving some servers, and no one knew the password to one of them. I couldn't log in to set the new IP. I asked politely, and then rebooted into single user to change it. I didn't need the password, I had physical access.
I don't think people quite get it.
I was in the same situation. I've done IT work for longer than most people here have been able to read. :) When I got laid off, I did two things. I filed for unemployment, just in case I couldn't get a job, and then I went job hunting. The unemployment forms in my state take a couple hours, and a good bit of research. How much did I make at that job two years ago? What is their current contact information? Oh shit, the company moved out of country, but I still have to list someone who can verify I worked there. What's their current mailing address? A contact? A phone? I haven't talked to them in almost two years, why should I know this? Even the office phone number was on speed dial ... on my work cell phone that I turned in on my last day there.
After I got done the unemployment paperwork, which the unemployment office actually recommended doing online versus one of their branch offices which just has a terminal to do it online, I then went job hunting. I called every contact I could think of. I checked all the job boards. I went to interviews at crappy places. One of the best was with a scientologist run company. I never "interviewed". They had me take their pseudo-psych profiling test to see if I was worthy. When I researched the test they gave me, I'm sure I scored in the "don't ever contact this person, he will be subversive" range. :) It took a few weeks to get another job. I'm not a McDonalds level employee. I'm close to a C-level tech person (CIO/CTO, depending on the size of the company). While contacts may be begging me to come over and work for them while I'm employed, that window of opportunity isn't always still available the day I need new work.
I collected two checks from unemployment, and that was it. $250/week, the ceiling for unemployment in my state. It wasn't much, but it insured I could put gas in the car and feed the family until I got my next job.
Just because I just got laid off, should I disconnect all my services (power, water, phone, internet), and sell my computers? Hell no. The next job is coming soon, and I *NEED* those. Without them, I wouldn't have landed my next job. I found them on a job board. I applied online. I spent 8 hours a day browsing what was available, and matching them up to my skills. Well, some days I spent at head-hunter offices, with no real advancement. "Oh, we can place you immediately, we'll call you tomorrow". They'd all, say that they sent my resume to some company at a vague loation, and then never hear back. My resume, although glowing, was just one in a stack of 100 that they sent to each place. Head-hunters used to be great. Now they're trying to make a buck too. Hopefully they can get one of those 100 hired, so they make their commission.
I thought the head-hunters had forgotten about me, until I got a flurry of "offers" in a few weeks ago. I actually read them (I'm working, so I'd usually ignore them). They were all for the same job. Everyone was so hopeful to be able to make that deal. It's really sad out there right now.
I say keep what you have, for as long as you can. My "home office" now consists of one PC and a laptop, because I'm no longer living in my nice house, with lots of room for my whole setup (which has since been sold or given away). I'm hopeful that the economy will get better, because if it doesn't, I'm almost tempted to beg to join the Army. Sure, I'll get shot at for 15% of my old pay, but it'll pay better than McDonalds, even though I'll run the risk of getting killed daily. When it gets bad enough, McD won't be any safer. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you haven't eaten in a week, bringing a gun (the last valuable you own) into McD to rob the place for food and cash on hand doesn't sound all that bad.
With a .45, I could get almost anything I wanted almost instantly. But, I'm a good guy, not a bad guy, so it's strictly for defensive purposes.
When casual computer users ask "What video card should I get", I tell them to go to the store and spend about $100. It won't be the latest, greatest hardware, but it'll be what was great about 6 months ago. In the end, most people surf the net more than they game anyways, so they could get away with the cheapest "new" video card that they can get their hands on. I wouldn't recommend that anyone go get a 1Mb Trident card or something, but anything in the stores is relatively recent. :)
A good firearm can be worth 10% or more than the purchase value in a year.
I purchased an "affordable" .45 (name brand, just not hugely expensive) several years ago for $300. Last time I checked, in good/used condition it is worth about $500.
I picked up another one, of a better brand name for about $600 about 3 years ago. Now it's worth about $800.
I built out some very nice computers for myself over the years. They each cost about $2,000, using very good parts. I'd be lucky if I could sell any of them for $100 now. Computers never hold their value. If you try to resell the same computer 6 months later, it's obsolete. That's not an investment, that's a consumable product that will never have a good resale value.
You're giving me flashbacks of the "good old days", when memory was outrageously expensive, and there was a program to let you use some of that extra video memory for the system. Some kids, who could afford systems with (oh my gosh) 4Mb RAM, would use 2Mb for a ramdrive to run the game in, since it was so much faster than their 20Mb hard drive, and the rest would be used for the game itself.
I know we can still do silly things like that in Linux, but I don't know what's available for Windows users. I've only had a few requests to make ramdrives, even in Linux. One was for a temporary database, so it could work faster than the drives would allow. :)
But she said I was the only one for her.. {sigh} I'll have to start playing "pool boy" for a less "active" lonely house wife. :)
Yours had a phone jack?
I had to dial the number, and then set the handset into the acoustic coupler. I still don't believe in all this wireless stuff. If I can't see the wire, I don't believe it's connected! How do I know I'm talking to the other person on the end of the wire, and not an impersonator. If my wife were to call me and ask for a gallon of milk, who's to say it's not a KGB agent trying to lure me to kill me and destroy our American way of life. You know those damned reds are out to take over the world.
Excuse me while I tighten my tin foil hat, and check the seals on my backyard fallout shelter. You can never be too prepared.
It's a GMC RTS bus. The generator was in the compartment over the engine, which had previously held the air conditioning equipment. That's entirely outside of the passenger area. The panel which had been the air return had been replaced with 3/4" plywood and insulation, and sealed air tight. So no, no breathing problems. :)
Hehe, you thought you were the neighbor who's house was being liberated for heat? :)
Burn the furniture. When that runs out, burn the neighbor's furniture. As far as that goes, a good house bonfire does wonders for keeping warm, even if only for a little while. Your neighbors may not appreciate it, especially if they're home. :)
And, I guess, it gives you an opportunity to bury the bodies rather easily, than to go through all the trouble of transporting them first. :)
It depends on what tank you put with it. :) I don't see a spec for the tank on either the Home Depot site, nor the Guardian site. It does indicate that it runs on LP or natural gas. I would guess the assumption is that you can use it with your local supply, assuming you're in an area that you can get gas.
I have a neighbor a few miles away that has natural gas at his house. Now, I don't know if that's affected if the power to the area goes out.
The indicated fuel consumption at full load is:
Natural Gas - 139 cubic feet/hr
LP - 68 cubic feet/hr (1.68 gal/hr)
A 20 pound tank, like you'd use for your BBQ, is approximately 4.1 gallons, or about 2.4 hours.
A 250 gallon tank would last you for about 6 days.
A 500 gallon tank would last you for about 12 days.
According to These reports you'll be paying about $3 to $4 per gallon. This will vary by your location, current market value, etc, etc. If you were to need to run a week on propane, because of ... well, whatever ... It will consume approximately 280 gallons of fuel, and cost you pretty close to $1,000.
Now, if you fill the tank once, and only need a few hours here and there, then it's not a big deal. Just have it topped off every so often. How important is your power to you though? Can you get away without a computer, and camping around the fireplace? It's probably cheaper. :) The kids will make noise without the TV and PS3/Xbox360/GameThing(tm). Can you survive? Maybe they'll have to communicate. If they get too noisy, throw them out in the snow. They'll shut up just to be able to stay inside. :)
Rather than digging down, you can build up a small hill for the same effect.
I bought two generators in the last few years. One was a Coleman 5500 watt, and one was a generic Chinese made 5500 watt from Walmart.
I put the Coleman in my RV, as a temporary power source for air conditioning for a drive. Bad idea. It was so loud, even though the RV is 40' long, I couldn't talk over the sound of it. Driving, it sounded like a Harley was parked beside me. That lasted for about .. umm .. 5 miles. :)
The Chinese one had what looks like a small car muffler on it. It's only about half as loud.
Besides the noise level is the reliability of the generators. Both sat for the same period, about a year. Neither one would start. The Chinese generator's spark plug was oil fouled. I cleaned it, and it started right up. The Coleman has some mystery carburetor problem. It still won't start. I suspect even after cleaning the carb, I must have not gotten all the passages cleared.
But, back to your idea... A hole will get full of water, bugs, or whatever. It may get filled by small children falling into it accidentally. A built up hole would be a better choice. Pick your spot, put down a firm foundation for the generator (a few bricks in the ground would do), put together sides around it with say lattice and screen. A few feet of 2" PVC at the bottom would be a good idea to get rid of any rain water that soaks in. Backfill dirt around it to make a small hill. A piece of plywood (preferably secured somehow) would be a good idea to keep things from falling in when you don't want them to (again, kids, water, stray animals, etc). It would be a good idea to be able to secure it open, yet covered. so if it's raining or snowing (depending on your environment), that won't get all over your nice generator that you've protected so well.
It'll also make for a nice bunker when the revolution comes to your neighborhood. :) Just watch out for incendiary rounds near the fuel tank. Well, for that matter, near yourself too. :)
Every time I hear the name "Zune", for some reason I look around for sandworms.
Ahhh, the cold truth. There are some sick people out there, that can take a posting about educating a child, and helping them expand their minds, and make in into a sick sexual reference.
Thank you for reinforcing my faith (or lack of it) in humanity. If/when bad things happen, it will be people like you that will be the downfall of humanity, not the salvation of it. Do the world a favor, make your best efforts now to achieve a Darwin Award.
Years ago, I caught my girlfriend's daughter passing ciphered messages between her and friends. I wasn't trying to punish her, but I wanted to educate her. I explained how they're easily crackable. She wasn't even using letters. They were all symbols of all different kinds. Some were similar to runes. Others simple shapes and variations. It was good for a kid. :)
I told her what she was doing right, and what she was doing wrong. She said I couldn't crack her message. I asked if there was anything I shouldn't see in it, and she said it was ok. I'm nosy, but I'm not so impolite to look at her private notes. I then walked her through cracking her own message.
I would hope that the FBI could give us something a little harder than a basic cipher. zzz. boring. At least the daughter's cipher was entertaining. :)
Several years ago, I was driving across the country from Florida to California. I was only a couple days behind a hurricane that had made a mess. No, it was way before Katrina.
Every hotel along I-10 for hundreds of miles had utility trucks from all over the place. I usually drive at night to avoid traffic, and I know these guys need to at least get a little bit of sleep. I know the utility guys get sent out from all over the place to fix problems induced by bad storms. It never really hit me that it wasn't just a few hundred sent, but an entire army. I would stop at hotels, and they would tell me that they were completely booked up because of the utility guys. Not just their hotel, but every hotel in the city. "Try the next town, 50 miles down the road." It's not like they were hogging the rooms, they were stuffed in. One guy per bed, and a guy or two on the floor. This is our civilian army, that keeps things working after a disaster.
Unfortunately, all the general public knows is "they don't have my power on yet.", even though it is an army working hard to repair everything. People like instant gratification. They think it should be a light switch fix (hit the switch, it works).
It's a job I wouldn't want. High voltages, dangerous weather, and long hours.
I had a similar problem in the comments area of my site. It was all fun and games, until one day I checked, and there were something like 1000 spams for every real message.
I wrote my own system to deal with it. It's not very hard, assuming you know how your site works (of course you do, right?)
I ended up making two blacklists. One was for words and phrases. The spammers tend to post (and repost, and repost) the same crap. My blacklist rules had some simple regular expressions that I could run queries with. Like, "%http://%spamsite%" and "%v%gra%". You get the idea. The second list was IP's that were known spammers.
At the time, I allowed both anonymous comments, and comments from logged in users. I eventually did away with the anonymous comments, as they were a headache. This was the best cure.
So, when my script ran (once a minute), if it matched a message, it would delete the message, and append the IP to the IP blacklist. If it was posted by a user account, the user account got suspended, so they could no longer log in, nor post.
After it's detection and cleanup run, it then ran back over the IP list, and pruned out every post by that IP. Sometimes they'll do practice runs saying silly things like "nice site". I thought they were real user complements at first, until I saw the same posting verbatim coming from the same IP to multiple news stories, and then that IP would start spamming later.
Some people will argue that the IP cleanup run was not nice, polite, or even fair. People use proxies. Sure, they do. We got a lot of abuse from anonymous proxies, and no real messages from them. The spammers didn't seem to like to use AOL.
When I implemented this, I posted a very brief description of what I was starting ("We're starting advanced anti-spam protection"), with an apology for real messages that were deleted. I never received one complaint about real comments disappearing.
How brutally you do it is really up to you. I built my method by manually doing it for a while, and then letting the script do it on it's own. Occasionally, I would have to go in and add new words and/or site names to the words blacklist.
I noticed the spammers hit more common software more often. It's worth it for them to make automated systems to abuse a piece of software that's deployed on tens of thousands of sites. When I rewrote my site from scratch, then abuses dropped down to 0 for a long time. Now, they manually submit "news" items which are just ads for their own sites. It appears to be manual, and since we won't run them as news stories (our editorial staff decides what does or doesn't show up as news, and if it needs to be edited first), they give up pretty quickly.
That was posted here. :) I'm too lazy to find the link, but I know it was only a few months ago.
Hey, with any business, the price tag is never what the cost is. The market dictates what the price will be. If people are willing to pay $100 for a bag of cheezie poofs, they will charge that much. If the price drops below the cost, unless there's a way to recover it through other means, the product will be dropped.
In the past, I ran a fairly large network. If everything was fine, we could receive almost no text messages. If, say the uplink to a facility went down, we could get text messages for every server and service in that location. Our monitoring didn't have dependencies configured into it, so the simple fact that the monitoring server could not reach those other servers was cause for a page. It would have seemed like a good idea to let a single page go out saying "this uplink is down", but it brings the sense of urgency to it when you get 100 pages. It also makes it apparent when you're with someone and say "There's a big problem, I have to go", rather than saying it to one page and they wonder if you're just blowing them off.
Some months, I would get maybe four pages throughout the month. Some months, it may thousands. The providers loved me. In all that time, I never SENT a text message, so they were all incoming. We always paid more for the plans that allowed for at least 3,000 text messages. Our message was always very short, not just for the sake of a text message, but so it would fit on the screen well. They would read something like:
"www1 HTTP DOWN for 5 minutes"
"www1 HTTP STILL DOWN for 35 minutes"
"www1 HTTP back UP after 46 minutes"
"NYC1 ICMP DOWN for 5 minutes"
"NYC1 ICMP back up after 8 minutes"
You get the idea. Lots of short concise messages.
We even had to shop around with various providers to determine who's service was fastest. A 15 minute delay, which in the case of a high profit site is huge. I love the blackberry network for this. My delay has been anywhere from 5 minutes to 3+ hours. When I'm on the road, and there is essential timed information that needs to be shared, I have people mail me at gmail, and check it from the phone. That actually comes in as expected. :)
It's nice that they want to make a profit. I'm surprised they don't try to squeeze every dime out of it, and charge for the "air time" required when the tower and phone talk to each other too.
I don't think most people will really understand what you mean.
When Free Internet Press (http://freeinternetpress.com) started, I used Slashcode. It ran fine on one server, after I got all the damned mod_perl stuff working for it. That was all fine and dandy, until we were picked up by Yahoo! News and Google News as a news source. If we showed up on the front of either one (Google News is the heaviest), the site would be down within about a minute or two.
I had to grow it to 3 dedicated servers. Two web servers, and one database server. That worked, but even still when it got hit, it was slow.
It didn't take me too long to grow tired of Slashcode. It wasn't only the performance issues, but making serious changes became a nightmare. I switched to PHPNuke for a while, which did much better as far as handling surges in traffic, but grew tired of their security problems. The site was exploited twice. The first time it required a cleanup and software upgrade. The second time, I gave up on it, and rewrote the site from scratch.
With my own code, I had basic functionality working in two days, and all the normal features working not too long after that. I'm a good coder, so there have been no problems with exploits. I validate all my inputs, and the coding style is much simpler so it's much easier to work with. I even have good caching code, so it should be safe from the Slashdot effect. For those who want the code, sorry, it's not available.
Really, needing 3 dedicated servers was a lot for a small site. Now that it's bigger, it runs safely from two (a web and a database server). I could consolidate to one, but I don't need to. I could also grow it to as many servers as necessary without any real headaches.
Even still, I wouldn't want to run it on a $5/mo hosting account. Sure, my site would be fine, but what happens if one of the hundreds or thousands of other sites on that same server are too heavy? Then my site will be slow.
Bandwidth usually isn't a big concern for a mostly text based site, unless you're trying really hard. :)
It does help though, if you can do a little decoration on your work. :)
I prefer to have someone come back over my work, and make it pretty, than me doing it. When I do web stuff, I make it work, and work right. Then the graphics folks can make it look good.
At very least, I can mangle a few images into the site, so it's something at least half presentable, and I make sure I say at least a few times during the presentation "And the graphics folks will come back through and make this look nice." :)
This is a neat idea, but wouldn't it be more practical to have made it as a USB device?
It should be a simple enough matter to make one. The hard part is the software. I don't suppose this is open sourced, is it?
A field tech with a laptop and USB device could test samples of thousands of people. This phone method appears very kludgy. A properly configured setup would easily be able to tie in with a centralized database to not only evaluate the samples, but provide statistical information on the spread or current infected areas. The field tech would already be aware of what problems may exist in the area, and then he'd simply be finding out who needs isolation and treatment.
If they open sourced the software, I could (in theory) run to the store today, modify a camera with an LED and filter, and test anyone who wanted to give a sample. It would go from "I got to the doctor once a year for a physical" to "I do my own bloodwork at home, and go as soon as there is a problem."