I just moved into a house with circa 1960 wiring. All my gear is in one room. When I found out the outlets weren't even grounded I refused to plug anything in. Had an electrician come in and run a new wire from the breaker panel, and told him this was for computer gear (didn't make any difference). Yes I only have 15A for the entire room, but I do try to not turn on everything at once. In addition to that, other stuff I've done:
- Everything is run through a pair of 1KVA APCC UPS's
- If I need more outlets (I can hear the cringing) I have an APCC power strip plugged into the UPS (more or less just for the heavy-guage wire). This is primarilly for "wall worts" (hub, firewall, PAD cradle, etc.)
- All monitors are LCD
- Inkjet printer, no laser printer
- Anything w/an AC motor (air cleaner, vacuum cleaner, etc.) is either pluggin in the hall or run when everything else is off.
- Try to get devices that can be powered off the USB or Firewire hub or off the computers themselves rather than have yet another power connection
Despite this, I'm sure I'm "pushing it" with regard to the load on the circuit.
I can't stand MS's marketing machine or the company's philosophy, period. But, my 'religious' convictions aside, I go with the solution that makes sense. To me, MS was the best solution for what I wanted to do for a long time (software development, games, surfing, etc.) It seems whenever I tried an alternative (Mac, Linux, BeOS) it was great stuff, but fell down somewhere (usually documentation, compatibility or available applications/drivers).
This is changing. MS has a tendency to ram 10K features down your throat and then convince you this is what you need to be productive. When people take a superficial analysis, it looks like MS has the best solution. But when you start USING their solution, its not all its cracked up to be. Two cases in point:
I used a Palm as my PDA of choice for about 3 years. I admit I was seduced by the iPaq after what I felt was only marginal progrerss by Palm over that 3 year span. Oh man. Seven months of hell. Freezing, battery problems, sluggish, monster footprint... the list goes on. I never EVER used anything like the Media Player or Terminal services. Ergh. So I sold it and got a Tungsten T with the proceeds. It took all of 10 minutes to adapt to a device that, while may appear to have lesser specs, has an order of magnitude better usability. Thanks Palm.
Second (and perhaps most amusing to me) is that I'm typing this on the 1Ghz PowerBook G4 I bought 4 hours ago (I still can't believe I did that). I was playing with an Apple in a store that just opened in PA and couldn't put the thing down. So for the first time since my IIgs (which I still use) I bought a new Apple. Awesome. I'm eyeing up a desktop Apple for the middle of next year.
As an aside, I do Java development. I use Eclipse daily as my IDE of choice, and JBOSS as my app server of choice. ANT has no equal. These tools are solid, friendly, and stable. They work.
So I guess obstacles up to this point were usability, applications and documentation. Ok, and games:) I'll pay $300 for something that works over $150 for a feature-bloated piece of crud. That's just common sense (if there is such a thing). I don't move away from MS because of spite, but because there's something better. Real choice. Feels good.
I recently had an exterminator flush out a bee hive that was growing in my attic. He said its a good thing they were yellowjackets because honeybees are on (or nearly on) the endangered species list. (And as such would have required a beekeeper to harvest them instead of him killing them). Seems odd to use a dwindling (useful) species for something that would seem to hurry them along the path of extinction.
One word on DRM and restricting use of multimedia
on
DRM: How To Boil A Frog
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Divx
A few more words... You can read a book written hundreds of years ago, and listen to a record pressed decades ago, because they used simple, open technologies. My single biggest grip about any sort of protection mechanism (aside from inconvenience to me) is that the technologies are so short-lived. If DRM does catch on, how long do you think companies are going to keep the activation mechanisms around? If they want to protect their investment by building mechanisms to prevent illegal copying, they better hang onto them to protect *my* investment so I can listen to my DRM-protected music 40 years from now.
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I just moved into a house with circa 1960 wiring. All my gear is in one room. When I found out the outlets weren't even grounded I refused to plug anything in. Had an electrician come in and run a new wire from the breaker panel, and told him this was for computer gear (didn't make any difference). Yes I only have 15A for the entire room, but I do try to not turn on everything at once. In addition to that, other stuff I've done: - Everything is run through a pair of 1KVA APCC UPS's - If I need more outlets (I can hear the cringing) I have an APCC power strip plugged into the UPS (more or less just for the heavy-guage wire). This is primarilly for "wall worts" (hub, firewall, PAD cradle, etc.) - All monitors are LCD - Inkjet printer, no laser printer - Anything w/an AC motor (air cleaner, vacuum cleaner, etc.) is either pluggin in the hall or run when everything else is off. - Try to get devices that can be powered off the USB or Firewire hub or off the computers themselves rather than have yet another power connection Despite this, I'm sure I'm "pushing it" with regard to the load on the circuit.
I can't stand MS's marketing machine or the company's philosophy, period. But, my 'religious' convictions aside, I go with the solution that makes sense. To me, MS was the best solution for what I wanted to do for a long time (software development, games, surfing, etc.) It seems whenever I tried an alternative (Mac, Linux, BeOS) it was great stuff, but fell down somewhere (usually documentation, compatibility or available applications/drivers).
:) I'll pay $300 for something that works over $150 for a feature-bloated piece of crud. That's just common sense (if there is such a thing). I don't move away from MS because of spite, but because there's something better. Real choice. Feels good.
This is changing. MS has a tendency to ram 10K features down your throat and then convince you this is what you need to be productive. When people take a superficial analysis, it looks like MS has the best solution. But when you start USING their solution, its not all its cracked up to be. Two cases in point:
I used a Palm as my PDA of choice for about 3 years. I admit I was seduced by the iPaq after what I felt was only marginal progrerss by Palm over that 3 year span. Oh man. Seven months of hell. Freezing, battery problems, sluggish, monster footprint... the list goes on. I never EVER used anything like the Media Player or Terminal services. Ergh. So I sold it and got a Tungsten T with the proceeds. It took all of 10 minutes to adapt to a device that, while may appear to have lesser specs, has an order of magnitude better usability. Thanks Palm.
Second (and perhaps most amusing to me) is that I'm typing this on the 1Ghz PowerBook G4 I bought 4 hours ago (I still can't believe I did that). I was playing with an Apple in a store that just opened in PA and couldn't put the thing down. So for the first time since my IIgs (which I still use) I bought a new Apple. Awesome. I'm eyeing up a desktop Apple for the middle of next year.
As an aside, I do Java development. I use Eclipse daily as my IDE of choice, and JBOSS as my app server of choice. ANT has no equal. These tools are solid, friendly, and stable. They work.
So I guess obstacles up to this point were usability, applications and documentation. Ok, and games
I recently had an exterminator flush out a bee hive that was growing in my attic. He said its a good thing they were yellowjackets because honeybees are on (or nearly on) the endangered species list. (And as such would have required a beekeeper to harvest them instead of him killing them). Seems odd to use a dwindling (useful) species for something that would seem to hurry them along the path of extinction.
Divx A few more words... You can read a book written hundreds of years ago, and listen to a record pressed decades ago, because they used simple, open technologies. My single biggest grip about any sort of protection mechanism (aside from inconvenience to me) is that the technologies are so short-lived. If DRM does catch on, how long do you think companies are going to keep the activation mechanisms around? If they want to protect their investment by building mechanisms to prevent illegal copying, they better hang onto them to protect *my* investment so I can listen to my DRM-protected music 40 years from now.