Okay, I drew the equivalence betweeen breathability and flammability myself. There is perhaps a positive (and monotonic) correlation but it appears that they are claiming it is non-linear since the decrease in O2 is balanced by an increase in N2, something that does not happen at altitude (they stay in roughly the same proportion).
1. The most critical element to a fire isn't just the ratio of oxygen in the air but the *flow* of air to the flame. And in a server room EVERY BOX HAS A FAN FEEDING AIR TO EVERY COMPONENT. So long as the air is exhasuted from the cabinet as fast as the fire uses it up, it will keep burning until the fuel is used up.
2. I don't buy the 6000 ft thing. There is an 8000 ft tall mountain range nearby that catches fire every 8-10 years and darned if it doesn't just keep burning right on uphill, not stopping in the least at 6000 ft.
3. I personally have seen open campfires, from plain old wood and kindling, above 10000 ft.
4. Server rooms don't catch fire that often, and having smoke detectors and a sprinker system are proven (though messy) solutions. Halon (or whatever replaced it recently for ozone layer preservation puposes) can often put out the fire while the rest of the room keeps humming along doing whatever the servers need to do.
5. An oxygen deprived fire is slow and smoldering. It is exactly the kind of fire that will heat up nearby components to near ignition point then flash over when oxygen is supplied (e.g. geek opens server room door) and which is hard to spot while it's ramping up. A nice healthy blaze will make itself known (smoke, heat, visible flame) sooner and is actually safer.
6. There are some extra costs the article doesn't mention: typical drywall and studs + drop ceiling is not exactly air-tight. So you'll have to do some construction work to keep all that oxygen out and to avoid dropping the O2 levels in nearby inhabited spaces.
7. The machinery required to remove O2 is itself composed of mechanical and electrical components and requires power to operate, and further it has to vent the O2 someplace...this O2 rich exhaust has to be carefully managed or it will create and extreme fire hazard all by itself.
I think a lot of us are so used to video game action and other intense activities that driving in typical commuter traffic is just kind of frustrating. You end up fiddling with your iPod or texting or shaving or on the cell phone doing deals just because the commute is "dead time" that you feel like you need to fill in with something entertaining or productive.
>> couldn't they equip a Mazda 3 with a 1 litre 130 HP motor using >> that same technology, and wouldn't that car get a lot better gas >> mileage yet have perfectly workable levels of acceleration?
Small displacement, high output engines usually are unappealing to consumers since they produce their high power only at high rpms. The frequent downshifting and high noise levels that ensue are unpleasant for the average commuter.
But hybrids are a good approach since the electric motors can fill in at low rpm and allow the main motor to be small while overall maintaining a torque curve that resembles that of a larger gasoline-only engine.
(My personal preference would be V-8 engines in the 2-3 liter range. These are small enough to be efficient, and the V-8 configuration can rev up to high rpms w/o as much noise and vibration as a 4 or V-6. The valley of the V-8 is a good spot for a small supercharger btw. And V-8's can use cylinder deactivation to reduce pumping losses at highway speeds.)
small turbine engines are relatively low efficiency. they have very good power density but a lot of heat just goes out the back rather than turning the wheels. check this out:
>> So how about a direct-injection, turbo-charged, >> atkinson cycle hybrid and combine the best of all technologies?
You left out diesel and two-stroke!
Seriously, a direct injection two-stroke turbo diesel running intermittently at optimal RPM in a serial hybrid might get north of 75mpg in a typical family sedan. The NOx and particulate emissions are very hard to mitigate though so most manufacturers have chosen not to go down this route.
Sales tax proceeds from all those $3K to $5K plasma and LCD screens over the years have probably already recouped the transition costs for analog to digital.
The weird thing is that the sales tax goes to the state not the feds, so it's nets out as a giant shift of funds from fed to the states.
Perhaps a better point I could have made is that large, heavy components like transmission, driveshaft, differential, exhaust, radiator, suspension, and frame will not be able to decrease in weight to complement the lighter engine (well, the frame a little bit). These items have to be sized to accomodate a certain amount of torque, power, or heat and a small but powerful engine is no less of a burden than a 30% larger but same-power engine.
In contrast, making the body lighter (e.g. aluminum as you suggest) reduces the stress on multiple other major components and they can be downsized to match fairly easily, improving mpg proportionately.
There really isn't a shortage of power in modern car engines. What we need is efficiency, and not mere volumetric efficiency at that. The article implies that a smaller engine would be more efficient since it could be lighter, but even if knock is controlled, it will have to be a very stout block with either heavy components (rpm limiting) or expensive titanium components. Knock isn't the only thing that wears/damages a high performance engine. Heat (and heat cycling), friction, and lubrication all have to be carefully managed.
In my limited experience, fuzzy VGA has always been caused by cheap cables or a cheap KVM in the middle. You want the kind with a choke on the end near the monitor (that 3/4 inch cylindrical thing) and the cable itself should 1/4 diameter, any less and it doesn't have room for proper shielding. Final thing is to keep the length down. 1m if possible, never more than 2m. If you have a KVM, try connecting your monitor w/o it and if the improvement is noticeable get a better KVM.
As others have said, calibrate the LCD with the proper test pattern, make sure you are running at native resolution, also check lighting and glare conditions...this lets you turn down the brightness a bit and reduces eye strain, another source of blurriness.
>> There isn't really any energy saving between incandescent and CF in a heated home
that's only true if the home is heated with electrical resistance heating.
but for any other energy source (fossil fuels, heat pump, geothermal)...incandescent lamps heat less efficiently, so the net efficiency of the house goes down.
>> Sun's David Douglas, VP Eco Responsibility, estimates that the >> cost of running computers (power use) will exceed the cost of >> buying computers in about 5 years
i think if you're running linux/intel it's already the case. maybe the cost of sun's hardware is so high that the problem is still 5 years out for them.
more to the point energy-wise, people using those servers (for on-line shopping, telecommuting, etc) are saving tons of enegy by not driving to the store, the mall, or the office to accomplish everything.
Seeds don't just grow in sterile dirt. You need the little microbes, worms, fungi, and whatnot to complete the nitrogen cycle. Plus bees to pollenate any flowering species (fruit trees).
I've found that C handles tree-based problems quite well if you do a little manual tail-recursion-elimination optimization. Hoisting a few statements up from the next level of recursion can sometimes make a huge difference. At the very least, it usually closes the gap enough that profiling, compiler choice, and -O9 lets C pull ahead a bit.
Not to be trite, but the very name of the format is a hindrance to adoption. The pronunciation is not immediately obvious, it's hard to spell correctly unless you stare at it for a while, and it doesn't seem to be related to audio, music, compression, or any other earthly topic.
Okay, sure they probably gave it a weird name on purpose, but maybe it's just time to not be weird any more.
Businesses that choose to develop closed-source software seem to also choose to ship code prematurely, to over-provision with extra features, to decide on features for marketing rather than security or quality reasons, and generally compromise the product in multiple ways. In that light, closed source isn't itself the security problem, it's just an indicator that there probably are other problems lurking.
>> Tell that to those pre-menopausal bitches whose feet are always >> cold. I built a brand spanking new lab facility in Pomona, and >> within 1 week there were space heaters under the cubicles.
The main problem is that humans were designed to be *moving around* during the daytime. Sticking the "bitches" in cubicles in the first place is the root of the problem.
Also, you want women to be warm enough so that they wear revealing clothing.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, I drew the equivalence betweeen breathability and flammability myself. There is perhaps a positive (and monotonic) correlation but it appears that they are claiming it is non-linear since the decrease in O2 is balanced by an increase in N2, something that does not happen at altitude (they stay in roughly the same proportion).
I think it is wrong because:
1. The most critical element to a fire isn't just the ratio of oxygen in the air but the *flow* of air to the flame. And in a server room EVERY BOX HAS A FAN FEEDING AIR TO EVERY COMPONENT. So long as the air is exhasuted from the cabinet as fast as the fire uses it up, it will keep burning until the fuel is used up.
2. I don't buy the 6000 ft thing. There is an 8000 ft tall mountain range nearby that catches fire every 8-10 years and darned if it doesn't just keep burning right on uphill, not stopping in the least at 6000 ft.
3. I personally have seen open campfires, from plain old wood and kindling, above 10000 ft.
4. Server rooms don't catch fire that often, and having smoke detectors and a sprinker system are proven (though messy) solutions. Halon (or whatever replaced it recently for ozone layer preservation puposes) can often put out the fire while the rest of the room keeps humming along doing whatever the servers need to do.
5. An oxygen deprived fire is slow and smoldering. It is exactly the kind of fire that will heat up nearby components to near ignition point then flash over when oxygen is supplied (e.g. geek opens server room door) and which is hard to spot while it's ramping up. A nice healthy blaze will make itself known (smoke, heat, visible flame) sooner and is actually safer.
6. There are some extra costs the article doesn't mention: typical drywall and studs + drop ceiling is not exactly air-tight. So you'll have to do some construction work to keep all that oxygen out and to avoid dropping the O2 levels in nearby inhabited spaces.
7. The machinery required to remove O2 is itself composed of mechanical and electrical components and requires power to operate, and further it has to vent the O2 someplace...this O2 rich exhaust has to be carefully managed or it will create and extreme fire hazard all by itself.
These are great.d =3&cid=43&sid=114
http://www.intermatic.com/?action=prod&pid=203&di
Battery backup, lots of memory for on-off events, you can differentiate M-F, 15A through the relay, manual override, and not that expensive.
Land of Eng? WTF is an Eng?
I think a lot of us are so used to video game action and other intense activities that driving in typical commuter traffic is just kind of frustrating. You end up fiddling with your iPod or texting or shaving or on the cell phone doing deals just because the commute is "dead time" that you feel like you need to fill in with something entertaining or productive.
>> couldn't they equip a Mazda 3 with a 1 litre 130 HP motor using
>> that same technology, and wouldn't that car get a lot better gas
>> mileage yet have perfectly workable levels of acceleration?
Small displacement, high output engines usually are unappealing to consumers since they produce their high power only at high rpms. The frequent downshifting and high noise levels that ensue are unpleasant for the average commuter.
But hybrids are a good approach since the electric motors can fill in at low rpm and allow the main motor to be small while overall maintaining a torque curve that resembles that of a larger gasoline-only engine.
(My personal preference would be V-8 engines in the 2-3 liter range. These are small enough to be efficient, and the V-8 configuration can rev up to high rpms w/o as much noise and vibration as a 4 or V-6. The valley of the V-8 is a good spot for a small supercharger btw. And V-8's can use cylinder deactivation to reduce pumping losses at highway speeds.)
small turbine engines are relatively low efficiency. they have very good power density but a lot of heat just goes out the back rather than turning the wheels. check this out:
_ locomotive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Turbine_Car
i like the part where it runs on almost any fuel available, including vegetable oil, without any modification.
anyway, it doesn't seem like good starting point for a hybrid car, but it was used in locomotives for a while:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine-electric
>> So how about a direct-injection, turbo-charged,
>> atkinson cycle hybrid and combine the best of all technologies?
You left out diesel and two-stroke!
Seriously, a direct injection two-stroke turbo diesel running intermittently at optimal RPM in a serial hybrid might get north of 75mpg in a typical family sedan. The NOx and particulate emissions are very hard to mitigate though so most manufacturers have chosen not to go down this route.
Sales tax proceeds from all those $3K to $5K plasma and LCD screens over the years have probably already recouped the transition costs for analog to digital.
The weird thing is that the sales tax goes to the state not the feds, so it's nets out as a giant shift of funds from fed to the states.
Perhaps a better point I could have made is that large, heavy components like transmission, driveshaft, differential, exhaust, radiator, suspension, and frame will not be able to decrease in weight to complement the lighter engine (well, the frame a little bit). These items have to be sized to accomodate a certain amount of torque, power, or heat and a small but powerful engine is no less of a burden than a 30% larger but same-power engine.
In contrast, making the body lighter (e.g. aluminum as you suggest) reduces the stress on multiple other major components and they can be downsized to match fairly easily, improving mpg proportionately.
There really isn't a shortage of power in modern car engines. What we need is efficiency, and not mere volumetric efficiency at that. The article implies that a smaller engine would be more efficient since it could be lighter, but even if knock is controlled, it will have to be a very stout block with either heavy components (rpm limiting) or expensive titanium components. Knock isn't the only thing that wears/damages a high performance engine. Heat (and heat cycling), friction, and lubrication all have to be carefully managed.
>> Why are so many "body builder" types so dumb then?
The governor of the state of California would like to have a word with you.
>> During those 5 years they can work the snot out of the immigrants
>> with out fear of them going else where.
And look at what they've accomplished:
...is an issue too.
In my limited experience, fuzzy VGA has always been caused by cheap cables or a cheap KVM in the middle. You want the kind with a choke on the end near the monitor (that 3/4 inch cylindrical thing) and the cable itself should 1/4 diameter, any less and it doesn't have room for proper shielding. Final thing is to keep the length down. 1m if possible, never more than 2m. If you have a KVM, try connecting your monitor w/o it and if the improvement is noticeable get a better KVM.
As others have said, calibrate the LCD with the proper test pattern, make sure you are running at native resolution, also check lighting and glare conditions...this lets you turn down the brightness a bit and reduces eye strain, another source of blurriness.
>> There isn't really any energy saving between incandescent and CF in a heated home
that's only true if the home is heated with electrical resistance heating.
but for any other energy source (fossil fuels, heat pump, geothermal)...incandescent lamps heat less efficiently, so the net efficiency of the house goes down.
>> | Cisco doesn't want money
>>
>> Cisco is a corporation. For anyone to make such a statement
>> about a corporation is patently ridiculous.
There exist non-profit corporations
Your conclusion is correct in this case, but it does not apply tautologically to all corporations.
>> Sun's David Douglas, VP Eco Responsibility, estimates that the
>> cost of running computers (power use) will exceed the cost of
>> buying computers in about 5 years
i think if you're running linux/intel it's already the case.
maybe the cost of sun's hardware is so high that the problem is still 5 years out for them.
more to the point energy-wise, people using those servers (for on-line shopping, telecommuting, etc) are saving tons of enegy by not driving to the store, the mall, or the office to accomplish everything.
>> On average, illegal immigrants kill 25 American citizens every day.
So you're saying we should let in 25 immigrants each day to replace them.
http://www.theregister.com/2007/01/30/lily_white_a nd_not_loving_it/
Seeds don't just grow in sterile dirt. You need the little microbes, worms, fungi, and whatnot to complete the nitrogen cycle. Plus bees to pollenate any flowering species (fruit trees).
I've found that C handles tree-based problems quite well if you do a little manual tail-recursion-elimination optimization. Hoisting a few statements up from the next level of recursion can sometimes make a huge difference. At the very least, it usually closes the gap enough that profiling, compiler choice, and -O9 lets C pull ahead a bit.
Not to be trite, but the very name of the format is a hindrance to adoption. The pronunciation is not immediately obvious, it's hard to spell correctly unless you stare at it for a while, and it doesn't seem to be related to audio, music, compression, or any other earthly topic.
Okay, sure they probably gave it a weird name on purpose, but maybe it's just time to not be weird any more.
Businesses that choose to develop closed-source software seem to also choose to ship code prematurely, to over-provision with extra features, to decide on features for marketing rather than security or quality reasons, and generally compromise the product in multiple ways. In that light, closed source isn't itself the security problem, it's just an indicator that there probably are other problems lurking.
>> Tell that to those pre-menopausal bitches whose feet are always
>> cold. I built a brand spanking new lab facility in Pomona, and
>> within 1 week there were space heaters under the cubicles.
The main problem is that humans were designed to be *moving around* during the daytime. Sticking the "bitches" in cubicles in the first place is the root of the problem.
Also, you want women to be warm enough so that they wear revealing clothing.