You missed the point: there is a first time for everything, and a span of time before the first such time. If something can happen, it doesn't mean it has, and if something hasn't happened it doesn't mean it can't.
Unfortunately for your joke, Formula One has a "one" in it for a reason...it is a division of the Formula racing series, in which there is F1, F2, and F3.
I think the point you are trying to make is that the ICE STORM was more destructive than this. This is not an ice storm, this is straight power outtage.
You said yourself, "Granted, it affected no more than 500,000, some of whom got power back in a few days, but it was far more disruptive than a overnight or even a weekend blackout." To me that says that the disruption had more to do with the inability to transport oneself. I was there too, yes.
Repeat after me, "lower or lowest does not mean LOW". Lower and lowest are relative, especially so since you just said "one of the lowest prices in Europe". Resources in Europe are not nearly as cheap as in North America. The cost may be hidden sure, but taxes are high.
Italy, Spain and Greece are also a lot smaller geographically than the US and Canada.
EU has managed NOT to have the issues, yes. Not YET. We didn't have this problem for 30 years either. Thursday morning we could have said "we don't have these problems" and we would be just as correct as you are.
Did you not read what I said? Quebec uses DC for long-distance transmission, because it is more efficient than AC at extremely long distances. The Quebec DC line is so long that a solar flare induced several million volts across it.
AC at 10,000 V is not safe. DC is easy to transmit over long distances now, because power electronics are used to boost the voltage (a la switching power supplies).
If the problem was the overburdened grid, the same thing would NOT happen with DC: as a matter of fact, it is proven it DIDN't happen. Quebec uses HVDC transmission lines. The HVDC lines created a buffer zone that isolated Quebec from the frequency- and load-related problems that shut down the AC grid last week. With DC you don't have reactive power reflected back into the lines, and you don't have to deal with leading and lagging current. Load increases, current rises and voltage drops. Load decreases, current drops and voltage rises. You can use ultracapacitors, flow batteries, or hydroelectric reserves to store the energy when the load decreases. You don't have DC generators disconnecting from the network because of frequency problems, etc etc etc
I think the parent was more concerned that all that money was spent and there WAS a problem...last thursday! The Y2K fix wasn't just to fix date handling, it was to make sure that if there WERE any date-related outtages, it wouldn't shut the entire grid down. And BOOM here we are, an outtage and the entire NE grid goes down.
yep, the gigantic equivalent of switching power supplies.
not only is it more efficient, but abrupt changes in loads can be absorbed easily by *electrolytic* capacitors, and different equipment can be designed to engage and disengage at predetermined voltage levels based on their critical value to the system
What I don't get is that if DC is so distance-limited, why does quebec use it to run 500 miles or more from their remote Churchill Dam project south to the US.
I'm not an arm chair scientist. As a matter of fact you have been blatantly CORRECT the whole time.
The temperature coefficient of pure copper is ~ +0.39/degree centrigrade [celsius/kelvin] (which I have in memory)
Just wanted to see how long it took for you to call a 60-year-old a "young punk":D Didn't happen, but it's always fun.
The compounded losses of the domino effect are the same or higher than a direct line from Africa to NYC. You can't get something out of nothing...the power has to travel through a long path that attenuates power linearly, no matter which way you look at it.
DC is more efficient than AC for extremely long distances. Quebec's long-distance distribution system is DC, and it is the most modern in the world thanks to the big ice storm. As a matter of fact, the news is that Quebec was not affected by the blackout in any respect: the DC system buffers loads changes quite effetively. AC has huge power-reflection problems that will cook generators when a load disappears.
It's actually quite easy to store electricity...hydroelectric dams use extra power when there is low demand to pump water back into the reservoir. It may not be as efficient as a capacitor or a battery storing DC, but it sure is large-scale.
DC power distribution sucks eh? How come Quebec which has the most advanced power distribution system in the world is installing DC lines? DC lines are the very reason Quebec has ZERO carryover from the blackout in the rest of the northeast. DC systems have no problem dealing with abrupt load changes: although generators may be loaded down and the voltage may drop too low, it is the end system that disconnects, not the generator. If the voltage goes too high, the generators simply slow down. There is no power-reflection like an AC system, and no frequency benchmark that kicks generators off if they get too far out.
The only problem the Quebec DC system had was a few years ago when the James Bay line got hit with a solar flare and there was a HUGE overvoltage problem that knocked power out for a bit.
As the SIZE of the wire goes up, the resistance goes DOWN. As the LENGTH of the wire goes up, so does the resistance.
As the wire heats up, resistance goes DOWN. That's how the cascade effect breaks down resistors that can't dissipate power quickly enough...they let more current through, increasing the temp.
I do agree with you on the local power though.
Where I get my ideas from? Telecommuncations class in Control Engineering.
Beyond a certain point inverse-squared gets more efficient than linear. Try drawing a downward-sloping graph (linear equivalent) and an inverse-squared curve (airwave equivalent) on the same graph. At a critical point, the linear curve will drop below the 1/r^2 curve and soon after reach the zero point. The inverse curve will never reach the zero point. Ever wonder why we can see stars so clearly even though they are so far away? Because one you get really far away, even an extra trillion kilometers does not even get close to halving the light energy. At extremely long distances, attenuation of a radial transmission become trivial.
As a matter of fact, RF (300 kHz) sent 100 km over copper cable will be reduced by ~600 dB, as compared to ~100 dB over airwaves. Deal with it.
Actually for long distances (>100km) and MF, airborne transmission is MUCH more efficient than wired transmission. Considering that copper cable (unshielded) has an attenutation of 6dB/km (300 kHz) whereas radial transmission has 6dB of attentuation for every doubling of distance, beyond a certain critical distance, to double the distance is MUCH longer than an additional km for cable (for the same attentuation). Now, change the airborne transmission system to a point-point dish system and the attenuation drops even further.
XP Firewall does zippo, honestly. If you are hit before you put the firewall up and you don't realize it, blaster will open up a port and start distributing. XP firewall does NOT block outgoing connections AT ALL. Also it will not block incoming 135 connections. Portscan yourself sometime with it activated. Remember, it may not actually crash your computer so you could throw the firewall up, patch the exploit, and still broadcast blaster to the rest of the world without realizing it. The removal tool is a MUST.
Why did he bother switching the boards? If they were the same model and batch, there is no way of telling the difference. They don't record serial numbers on the receipt normally, just part number. He could have just taken the broken drive back and pretended it was the new one. No need to risk damaging the second drive while he was at it.
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I'll bite, because the sarcasm (if any, I'm not sure) is too subtle...
Field Programmable Gate Array mounted on a PCI card. Why do I sense criticism?
You missed the point: there is a first time for everything, and a span of time before the first such time. If something can happen, it doesn't mean it has, and if something hasn't happened it doesn't mean it can't.
Unfortunately for your joke, Formula One has a "one" in it for a reason...it is a division of the Formula racing series, in which there is F1, F2, and F3.
I think the point you are trying to make is that the ICE STORM was more destructive than this. This is not an ice storm, this is straight power outtage. You said yourself, "Granted, it affected no more than 500,000, some of whom got power back in a few days, but it was far more disruptive than a overnight or even a weekend blackout." To me that says that the disruption had more to do with the inability to transport oneself. I was there too, yes.
Repeat after me, "lower or lowest does not mean LOW". Lower and lowest are relative, especially so since you just said "one of the lowest prices in Europe". Resources in Europe are not nearly as cheap as in North America. The cost may be hidden sure, but taxes are high.
Italy, Spain and Greece are also a lot smaller geographically than the US and Canada.
EU has managed NOT to have the issues, yes. Not YET. We didn't have this problem for 30 years either. Thursday morning we could have said "we don't have these problems" and we would be just as correct as you are.
Did you not read what I said? Quebec uses DC for long-distance transmission, because it is more efficient than AC at extremely long distances. The Quebec DC line is so long that a solar flare induced several million volts across it.
AC at 10,000 V is not safe. DC is easy to transmit over long distances now, because power electronics are used to boost the voltage (a la switching power supplies). If the problem was the overburdened grid, the same thing would NOT happen with DC: as a matter of fact, it is proven it DIDN't happen. Quebec uses HVDC transmission lines. The HVDC lines created a buffer zone that isolated Quebec from the frequency- and load-related problems that shut down the AC grid last week. With DC you don't have reactive power reflected back into the lines, and you don't have to deal with leading and lagging current. Load increases, current rises and voltage drops. Load decreases, current drops and voltage rises. You can use ultracapacitors, flow batteries, or hydroelectric reserves to store the energy when the load decreases. You don't have DC generators disconnecting from the network because of frequency problems, etc etc etc
I think the parent was more concerned that all that money was spent and there WAS a problem...last thursday! The Y2K fix wasn't just to fix date handling, it was to make sure that if there WERE any date-related outtages, it wouldn't shut the entire grid down. And BOOM here we are, an outtage and the entire NE grid goes down.
yep, the gigantic equivalent of switching power supplies.
not only is it more efficient, but abrupt changes in loads can be absorbed easily by *electrolytic* capacitors, and different equipment can be designed to engage and disengage at predetermined voltage levels based on their critical value to the system
What I don't get is that if DC is so distance-limited, why does quebec use it to run 500 miles or more from their remote Churchill Dam project south to the US.
Added you too I actually *AM* a young punk! Double-baited! :D and ya you are still right
I'm not an arm chair scientist. As a matter of fact you have been blatantly CORRECT the whole time. The temperature coefficient of pure copper is ~ +0.39/degree centrigrade [celsius/kelvin] (which I have in memory) Just wanted to see how long it took for you to call a 60-year-old a "young punk" :D Didn't happen, but it's always fun.
Quebec didn't lose power because they use HVDC which isn't affected so much by power reflections.
The compounded losses of the domino effect are the same or higher than a direct line from Africa to NYC. You can't get something out of nothing...the power has to travel through a long path that attenuates power linearly, no matter which way you look at it.
Check out the cascade effect sometime. Wire gets less resistive as it heats up. Try the same experiment on a metal-film resistor sometime.
DC is more efficient than AC for extremely long distances. Quebec's long-distance distribution system is DC, and it is the most modern in the world thanks to the big ice storm. As a matter of fact, the news is that Quebec was not affected by the blackout in any respect: the DC system buffers loads changes quite effetively. AC has huge power-reflection problems that will cook generators when a load disappears.
It's actually quite easy to store electricity...hydroelectric dams use extra power when there is low demand to pump water back into the reservoir. It may not be as efficient as a capacitor or a battery storing DC, but it sure is large-scale.
DC power distribution sucks eh? How come Quebec which has the most advanced power distribution system in the world is installing DC lines? DC lines are the very reason Quebec has ZERO carryover from the blackout in the rest of the northeast. DC systems have no problem dealing with abrupt load changes: although generators may be loaded down and the voltage may drop too low, it is the end system that disconnects, not the generator. If the voltage goes too high, the generators simply slow down. There is no power-reflection like an AC system, and no frequency benchmark that kicks generators off if they get too far out. The only problem the Quebec DC system had was a few years ago when the James Bay line got hit with a solar flare and there was a HUGE overvoltage problem that knocked power out for a bit.
As the SIZE of the wire goes up, the resistance goes DOWN. As the LENGTH of the wire goes up, so does the resistance. As the wire heats up, resistance goes DOWN. That's how the cascade effect breaks down resistors that can't dissipate power quickly enough...they let more current through, increasing the temp. I do agree with you on the local power though.
Where I get my ideas from? Telecommuncations class in Control Engineering. Beyond a certain point inverse-squared gets more efficient than linear. Try drawing a downward-sloping graph (linear equivalent) and an inverse-squared curve (airwave equivalent) on the same graph. At a critical point, the linear curve will drop below the 1/r^2 curve and soon after reach the zero point. The inverse curve will never reach the zero point. Ever wonder why we can see stars so clearly even though they are so far away? Because one you get really far away, even an extra trillion kilometers does not even get close to halving the light energy. At extremely long distances, attenuation of a radial transmission become trivial. As a matter of fact, RF (300 kHz) sent 100 km over copper cable will be reduced by ~600 dB, as compared to ~100 dB over airwaves. Deal with it.
Actually for long distances (>100km) and MF, airborne transmission is MUCH more efficient than wired transmission. Considering that copper cable (unshielded) has an attenutation of 6dB/km (300 kHz) whereas radial transmission has 6dB of attentuation for every doubling of distance, beyond a certain critical distance, to double the distance is MUCH longer than an additional km for cable (for the same attentuation). Now, change the airborne transmission system to a point-point dish system and the attenuation drops even further.
XP Firewall does zippo, honestly. If you are hit before you put the firewall up and you don't realize it, blaster will open up a port and start distributing. XP firewall does NOT block outgoing connections AT ALL. Also it will not block incoming 135 connections. Portscan yourself sometime with it activated. Remember, it may not actually crash your computer so you could throw the firewall up, patch the exploit, and still broadcast blaster to the rest of the world without realizing it. The removal tool is a MUST.
I somehow doubt that the X-BOX even HAS the RPC DCOM service to exploit.
Why did he bother switching the boards? If they were the same model and batch, there is no way of telling the difference. They don't record serial numbers on the receipt normally, just part number. He could have just taken the broken drive back and pretended it was the new one. No need to risk damaging the second drive while he was at it.