I came in here to say the same thing. I made my own propane kiln for a few hundred bucks. It runs off propane and quickly gets sheet metal up into the orange/yellow. My thermocouple has told me temps in the 1800-1900F range. That'll fix up your hard drive quick. Disclaimer: Probably would put off all kinds of toxic fumes if you try, so I can't recommend trying this. If you do though please go outside in the open and never in an enclosed space.
Another good idea might be to leave the drive in a solution of muriatic acid for a couple of days. I know some smiths use a muriatic acid (think swimming pool supply store) solution to de-rust parts before work. If it strips rust off, that would peel the platters clean of information since the information is stored in a layer of iron oxide.
At least this time it will be Microsoft fighting for Microsoft's point of view, and not having a sock puppet like SCO/McBride doing their dirty work for them.
Dude if I had a Mac Mini laying about I'd certainly be using that for my basement server. But I'm not. I'm using a crappy P3 550MHz eMachine. That has grinding fans and hard drives you can hear from across the room. I'd imagine it pulls as much juice as a 100W light bulb at least.
But you're right - I should slap a meter on that puppy and get some real numbers before getting happy about my savings.
I have no mod points at the moment but yeah, brilliant post. That's it exactly.
I'm going to be buying a beagleboard here soon to start the household transformation. I have a x86 server I run in my basement that I'm going to replace. It will instead be a beagleboard. It'll drop from about 100w to maybe 6w or so.
Here's the math on the savings:
.1kw *.09 dollars/kwh * (24 * 365) hours = $78.84 dollars to run my x86 server for a year.
.006kw *.09 dollars/kwh * (24 * 365) hours = $4.73 dollars to run my ARM server for a year
So switching to ARM saves me $74.11 every year. A beagleboard XM costs about $150 at Digikey. So it pays for itself in two years, then saves me about 75 bucks a year every year.
And it does provide a new and more terrifying insight into exactly how a carcinogen might work. If the cell membranes aren't the bulwarks we thought they were it certainly explains how a cancer causing agent might get in to do its dirty work.
And the winner for worst advice ever given goes to...you!
Right...nobody ever gets busted for anything on the internet ever. It's a safe haven! You can do what you want here with no chance of repercussions. The RIAA doesn't exist, the Feds don't troll chat rooms looking for pedophiles, cops don't check Facebook pages and bust parties. These are all rumors.
Hey, as much as I'd like to hear what happened at the interview - an NDA is an NDA. They have you sign them for a reason. And it takes only one lawyer to ruin your whole entire life.
We use gravitational lensing to find these planets. Smaller planets are harder to find. Less gravity, less lensing.
So it's not surprising to find the bigger stuff first. I'm sure there are plenty of other planets with wimpy earth like size and gravity waiting to be found.
That was the procedure in Iraq. Listen for anything broadcasting on GPS frequencies and hit with laser targeted bombs. Once they were quiet move back to GPS.
Not currently an option for North Korea at the moment, so turning around and flying off is probably a good call.
You hire a patent lawyer if you have something that is worth patenting. That is, something you intend to make money from. If lawyer cost > revenue from patent, you have a crappy invention, so why patent it? Patents are about protecting marketability. If your idea isn't marketable, why bother?
Also from the new bill:
NOVELTY; PRIOR ART.—A person shall be entitled to a patent unless— ‘‘(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention;
So all you have to do is do as Shachar suggests. File your provisional and then print it somewhere public. I would imagine a classified ad in a newspaper would suffice. That neatly meets "described in a printed publication" and only sets you back a few bucks. BigCorp won't be able to yoink your invention out from under you.
That's a great idea for a fix. Seriously, no sarcasm - I like it. I think that would work.
Only problem I see is that you'd still be asking companies to take a gigantic loss. And the market would still have some serious spasms on the announcement. And people with money tend to view things quarter-by-quarter. They don't really think long term.
How do they respond? They purchase Motorola Mobility, for $12.5 billion. Suddenly, bang! They have a gigantic war chest of mobile patents. Now the situation changes. Now it's like the guy who goes to see the dentist, sits down in the chair, and when the doctor comes in with the drill he grabs the doc by the balls and says "Let's not hurt each other." Suddenly these heavy hitters have something to fear.
Now the other side of the coin.
Google just plunked down $12.5B to defend itself from software patents. That's how much it was worth to them. Sure, they get Motorola Mobility as well in the deal. But we all know why they made the purchase. For the patents. Cheaper than going to the courts. How much of that 12.5 do you think the patents were valued at? How much did Google stand to lose fighting Android? Same number pretty much. Probably more than 5 billion. Probably less than 10.
Now imagine if software patents were suddenly made invalid. That is a LOT of money to suddenly go *poof*. And that's just one instance. Think of every tech company that has a patent war chest. How much value they place on it. How much money they make in licensing. Motorola Mobility just was purchased because of their patent "wealth".
If that all suddenly goes away it'll wreak havoc in the tech sector. All patent holding companies will have to be revalued. Expect companies to lose 20%, 30%...50%... What do you think that'll do for jobs in the tech sector? Your job?
I freaking hate software patents, but now that they're here and companies lean so heavily on them for valuation...it's going to be a rough day when they go away. Going to be a *lot* of unhappy stock holders and a lot of lost jobs.
It's a book by Smedley Butler, two time recipient of the Medal of Honor. This is an excerpt from a speech he delivered:
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
He also predicted Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. He's a man worth listening to. Personally the situation with China terrifies me.
I agree with you. In the long term abolishing software patents would stimulate economic growth. But you're going to have one hell of a bumpy ride getting there. In the short term it would be pretty disastrous.
I'd like to see software patents go away. But just know that there will be a cost. It'll be a real nightmare at first. A lot of techies are going to suddenly be unemployed.
Not on this scale. This would make the housing bubble look like a hiccup. Each company maintains a "war chest" of abusive patents. Motorola Mobile just got bought out at 63% higher than market value. at a sale price of $12.5 billion. And almost entirely for their patent portfolio to keep Android alive and viable. We all know that's the reason, even if Google is hedging the purchase in marketspeak.
Now imagine you're a shareholder.
Suddenly, the company you've invested in jumps for 63% over market value due to their patent portfolio. Then along comes a new ruling and it is essentially worthless. Up 63%, then suddenly zero.
See the problem yet?
If not, multiply that across the board. Imagine every single software company you know going through the same. Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, HP, Google...imagine all of them going through this. Their market caps being suddenly reduced by 20% to 80% or so. The war chest is suddenly useless.
Think of what that would do to the economy. Think of what that would do to your career.
Gives me the screaming heebie jeebies. I freaking *hate* software patents, but now that they are part of the calculation of the worth of your company - beware! If they go away we're all in some seriously deep shit.
I'm not trying to misunderstand you - honest. I just don't see what your standard would fix. Code portability isn't really a huge problem on ARM. I do a lot of Windows CE work. And 99% of the code that runs on one platform will run on another. The base Microsoft binaries linked during a sysgen do not change from platform to platform, regardless of many design choices. Just select ARMV4I and you're good to go.
Sure, you could make a standard that says "This is what an ARM tablet is." Microsoft has already got one. If you want the Windows sticker on your new gadget there is a laundry list of things you have to meet. At least X number of touchscreen samples per second, X amount of hours before the battery drains when you're idle, etc. But if you don't follow these standards, CE will still run. You just won't get the fancy MS sticker when you ship.
Again, I'm just wondering what problem a standard would fix.
Well yeah you can find x86 a few other places. I was working on a grocery store scale that was x86. But the thing was from an architecture point of view a PC in a funny box with a scale on top. Standard Linux distros worked on it unmodified. I tested that personally. The thing ran Ubuntu without a hitch.
And yeah you probably would expect to find 386 in traffic lights. Traffic lights are older than ARM chips, so you'd expect that.
But there should still be a standard for common uses - even just covering smartphones, tablets and netbooks would be a major improvement over the current chaos.
What standard would you propose? What standard could cover a CPU that you find in everything from routers to car dashboards? ARM is meant to be adaptable to corner cases. How would you fence that without hindering development?
Google gets hit with a few patent lawsuits over Android, so it responds with the $12.5B buyout of Motorola Mobility. And everyone knows why they did it. Patents. They have to make a proactive move to protect Android. So, how much of that value is in their patent portfolio? Now imagine that value suddenly going *poof* in a puff of logic. Now multiply that across every software company you know.
The effect would be devastating.
I wish it were possible, but I just don't think anything is going to come along and just suddenly devalue software patents. Too much value is tied up there to simply vanish.
The reason why x86 is so unified is because they're all in PCs. You only have the one form factor to shoot at. So of course the CPUs will be highly similar.
ARM fills a different niche. You see ARM chips in tablets, phones, industrial control, routers...all over the place. Of course ARM chips will vary more wildly. They're trying to hit more targets. And those targets have unique and tightly defined parameters. That will put them at odds with other designs.
I mean hell, if the x86 has it all figured out so well, then why isn't your cellphone using one?
Sure if you see a random Wifi spot with a spooky name, I would agree with you. But you're missing part of the story. Just before the kid got busted is when the Wifi spot showed up. It wasn't there before. Suddenly the spooky Wifi spot shows up and right after that the kid gets busted.
So if it is a coincidence that a neighbor named his Wifi spot something spooky to keep the kids out, then it's one heck of a coincidence.
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I came in here to say the same thing. I made my own propane kiln for a few hundred bucks. It runs off propane and quickly gets sheet metal up into the orange/yellow. My thermocouple has told me temps in the 1800-1900F range. That'll fix up your hard drive quick. Disclaimer: Probably would put off all kinds of toxic fumes if you try, so I can't recommend trying this. If you do though please go outside in the open and never in an enclosed space.
Another good idea might be to leave the drive in a solution of muriatic acid for a couple of days. I know some smiths use a muriatic acid (think swimming pool supply store) solution to de-rust parts before work. If it strips rust off, that would peel the platters clean of information since the information is stored in a layer of iron oxide.
At least this time it will be Microsoft fighting for Microsoft's point of view, and not having a sock puppet like SCO/McBride doing their dirty work for them.
It's on the internet - it must be true!
BTW everyone - the link AC posted is to a guy who is trying to cure cancer with baking powder because he thinks it's a fungus.
Dude if I had a Mac Mini laying about I'd certainly be using that for my basement server. But I'm not. I'm using a crappy P3 550MHz eMachine. That has grinding fans and hard drives you can hear from across the room. I'd imagine it pulls as much juice as a 100W light bulb at least.
But you're right - I should slap a meter on that puppy and get some real numbers before getting happy about my savings.
I have no mod points at the moment but yeah, brilliant post. That's it exactly.
I'm going to be buying a beagleboard here soon to start the household transformation. I have a x86 server I run in my basement that I'm going to replace. It will instead be a beagleboard. It'll drop from about 100w to maybe 6w or so.
Here's the math on the savings:
.1kw * .09 dollars/kwh * (24 * 365) hours = $78.84 dollars to run my x86 server for a year.
.006kw * .09 dollars/kwh * (24 * 365) hours = $4.73 dollars to run my ARM server for a year
So switching to ARM saves me $74.11 every year. A beagleboard XM costs about $150 at Digikey. So it pays for itself in two years, then saves me about 75 bucks a year every year.
And it does provide a new and more terrifying insight into exactly how a carcinogen might work. If the cell membranes aren't the bulwarks we thought they were it certainly explains how a cancer causing agent might get in to do its dirty work.
And the winner for worst advice ever given goes to...you!
Right...nobody ever gets busted for anything on the internet ever. It's a safe haven! You can do what you want here with no chance of repercussions. The RIAA doesn't exist, the Feds don't troll chat rooms looking for pedophiles, cops don't check Facebook pages and bust parties. These are all rumors.
Hey, as much as I'd like to hear what happened at the interview - an NDA is an NDA. They have you sign them for a reason. And it takes only one lawyer to ruin your whole entire life.
As soon as you write an application that absolutely requires it.
We use gravitational lensing to find these planets. Smaller planets are harder to find. Less gravity, less lensing.
So it's not surprising to find the bigger stuff first. I'm sure there are plenty of other planets with wimpy earth like size and gravity waiting to be found.
That was the procedure in Iraq. Listen for anything broadcasting on GPS frequencies and hit with laser targeted bombs. Once they were quiet move back to GPS.
Not currently an option for North Korea at the moment, so turning around and flying off is probably a good call.
If you're old enough, you get the joke.
You hire a patent lawyer if you have something that is worth patenting. That is, something you intend to make money from. If lawyer cost > revenue from patent, you have a crappy invention, so why patent it? Patents are about protecting marketability. If your idea isn't marketable, why bother?
Also from the new bill:
NOVELTY; PRIOR ART.—A person shall be entitled to a patent unless— ‘‘(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention;
So all you have to do is do as Shachar suggests. File your provisional and then print it somewhere public. I would imagine a classified ad in a newspaper would suffice. That neatly meets "described in a printed publication" and only sets you back a few bucks. BigCorp won't be able to yoink your invention out from under you.
IANAL, and welcome corrections if I'm wrong.
That's a great idea for a fix. Seriously, no sarcasm - I like it. I think that would work.
Only problem I see is that you'd still be asking companies to take a gigantic loss. And the market would still have some serious spasms on the announcement. And people with money tend to view things quarter-by-quarter. They don't really think long term.
The reason now is "in for a penny, in for a pound." How much of a software company's worth is the value of their patent portfolio?
Let's look at Google, and their project Android. Android was recently attacked by a series of patent infringement suits. These guys, Oracle, a few others.
How do they respond? They purchase Motorola Mobility, for $12.5 billion. Suddenly, bang! They have a gigantic war chest of mobile patents. Now the situation changes. Now it's like the guy who goes to see the dentist, sits down in the chair, and when the doctor comes in with the drill he grabs the doc by the balls and says "Let's not hurt each other." Suddenly these heavy hitters have something to fear.
Now the other side of the coin.
Google just plunked down $12.5B to defend itself from software patents. That's how much it was worth to them. Sure, they get Motorola Mobility as well in the deal. But we all know why they made the purchase. For the patents. Cheaper than going to the courts. How much of that 12.5 do you think the patents were valued at? How much did Google stand to lose fighting Android? Same number pretty much. Probably more than 5 billion. Probably less than 10.
Now imagine if software patents were suddenly made invalid. That is a LOT of money to suddenly go *poof*. And that's just one instance. Think of every tech company that has a patent war chest. How much value they place on it. How much money they make in licensing. Motorola Mobility just was purchased because of their patent "wealth".
If that all suddenly goes away it'll wreak havoc in the tech sector. All patent holding companies will have to be revalued. Expect companies to lose 20%, 30%...50%... What do you think that'll do for jobs in the tech sector? Your job?
I freaking hate software patents, but now that they're here and companies lean so heavily on them for valuation...it's going to be a rough day when they go away. Going to be a *lot* of unhappy stock holders and a lot of lost jobs.
A war between the US and China would pretty much negate the US having to pay back all that debt, right? It would be a quick way to balance the books.
Read this.
It's a book by Smedley Butler, two time recipient of the Medal of Honor. This is an excerpt from a speech he delivered:
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
He also predicted Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. He's a man worth listening to. Personally the situation with China terrifies me.
If you take down our infrastructure, it will be much harder - if not impossible - for us to pay back all of that money we've borrowed.
Just saying, you know. It would be a shame to have to default on those loans. A real shame.
So knock it off. Understand?
CHRISTIAN, n.
One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor.
Do this.
Release the jailbreak yourself. Better yet, make a Linux distro and dev package for it. Bonus points if you make an X server for the graphics chip.
I agree with you. In the long term abolishing software patents would stimulate economic growth. But you're going to have one hell of a bumpy ride getting there. In the short term it would be pretty disastrous.
I'd like to see software patents go away. But just know that there will be a cost. It'll be a real nightmare at first. A lot of techies are going to suddenly be unemployed.
Not on this scale. This would make the housing bubble look like a hiccup. Each company maintains a "war chest" of abusive patents. Motorola Mobile just got bought out at 63% higher than market value. at a sale price of $12.5 billion. And almost entirely for their patent portfolio to keep Android alive and viable. We all know that's the reason, even if Google is hedging the purchase in marketspeak.
Now imagine you're a shareholder.
Suddenly, the company you've invested in jumps for 63% over market value due to their patent portfolio. Then along comes a new ruling and it is essentially worthless. Up 63%, then suddenly zero.
See the problem yet?
If not, multiply that across the board. Imagine every single software company you know going through the same. Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, HP, Google...imagine all of them going through this. Their market caps being suddenly reduced by 20% to 80% or so. The war chest is suddenly useless.
Think of what that would do to the economy. Think of what that would do to your career.
Gives me the screaming heebie jeebies. I freaking *hate* software patents, but now that they are part of the calculation of the worth of your company - beware! If they go away we're all in some seriously deep shit.
I'm not trying to misunderstand you - honest. I just don't see what your standard would fix. Code portability isn't really a huge problem on ARM. I do a lot of Windows CE work. And 99% of the code that runs on one platform will run on another. The base Microsoft binaries linked during a sysgen do not change from platform to platform, regardless of many design choices. Just select ARMV4I and you're good to go.
Sure, you could make a standard that says "This is what an ARM tablet is." Microsoft has already got one. If you want the Windows sticker on your new gadget there is a laundry list of things you have to meet. At least X number of touchscreen samples per second, X amount of hours before the battery drains when you're idle, etc. But if you don't follow these standards, CE will still run. You just won't get the fancy MS sticker when you ship.
Again, I'm just wondering what problem a standard would fix.
Well yeah you can find x86 a few other places. I was working on a grocery store scale that was x86. But the thing was from an architecture point of view a PC in a funny box with a scale on top. Standard Linux distros worked on it unmodified. I tested that personally. The thing ran Ubuntu without a hitch.
And yeah you probably would expect to find 386 in traffic lights. Traffic lights are older than ARM chips, so you'd expect that.
But there should still be a standard for common uses - even just covering smartphones, tablets and netbooks would be a major improvement over the current chaos.
What standard would you propose? What standard could cover a CPU that you find in everything from routers to car dashboards? ARM is meant to be adaptable to corner cases. How would you fence that without hindering development?
Hurrah for the great idea, but anything that shuts down software patents would cripple the economy.
Here, read this.
Google gets hit with a few patent lawsuits over Android, so it responds with the $12.5B buyout of Motorola Mobility. And everyone knows why they did it. Patents. They have to make a proactive move to protect Android. So, how much of that value is in their patent portfolio? Now imagine that value suddenly going *poof* in a puff of logic. Now multiply that across every software company you know.
The effect would be devastating.
I wish it were possible, but I just don't think anything is going to come along and just suddenly devalue software patents. Too much value is tied up there to simply vanish.
The reason why x86 is so unified is because they're all in PCs. You only have the one form factor to shoot at. So of course the CPUs will be highly similar.
ARM fills a different niche. You see ARM chips in tablets, phones, industrial control, routers...all over the place. Of course ARM chips will vary more wildly. They're trying to hit more targets. And those targets have unique and tightly defined parameters. That will put them at odds with other designs.
I mean hell, if the x86 has it all figured out so well, then why isn't your cellphone using one?
Sure if you see a random Wifi spot with a spooky name, I would agree with you. But you're missing part of the story. Just before the kid got busted is when the Wifi spot showed up. It wasn't there before. Suddenly the spooky Wifi spot shows up and right after that the kid gets busted.
So if it is a coincidence that a neighbor named his Wifi spot something spooky to keep the kids out, then it's one heck of a coincidence.