"A reasonable Sun machine costs a lot less than employing one of these
people for a year."
Initially, your explanation seemed to me to have credibility. Then I
realized that a Sun server is not perfectly reliable, either. Fault-tolerant
software is necessary even when using very expensive hardware. Also,
"consumer-grade" hardware is usually very reliable.
So, the comparison is not between consumer-grade hardware +
fault-tolerant software versus server-grade hardware without fault-tolerant
software. The comparison is between the reliability of consumer-grade hardware
with fault-tolerant software versus server-grade hardware with fault-tolerant
software.
The biggest cause of failure is bad contacts. The second
biggest cause of failure is power supply failure. There are chemicals that
help solve the problem with bad contacts. It is easy to arrange fault-tolerant
power supplies.
"Ever try to develop fault-tolerant software? Think millions of dollars just to begin."
That doesn't seem correct to me. It is possible to send every transaction to four places, using two ISPs. Each transaction would cause the calculation of an SHA-1 return code. A computer with a return code that doesn't agree is not working correctly.
"Data Mining and Business Intelligence doesn't need huge powerhouses
anymore."
My theory about why has Sun Microsystems not done particularly well in the
last few years is that the highly reliable hardware Sun
Microsystems sells is no longer popular because it is far cheaper to use
consumer-grade hardware with software that is fault-tolerant. The excellent
2008 book Planet Google describes Google's experiences on page 54:
"For about $278,000 in 2003, [Google] could assemble a rack with 176
microprocessors, 176 gigabytes of memory, and 7 terabytes of disk space. This
compared favorably to a $758,000 server sold by the manufacturer of a
well-known brand, which had only eight multiprocessors, one-third the memory,
and about the same amount of disk space."
But why would Oracle buy Sun? Possibly because there are difficulties in making
Oracle database products work with the new consumer-grade hardware with fault-tolerant technology.
It helps to understand that AT&T is actually the old SBC. The AT&T name was sold to SBC. My understanding from talking with former SBC customers
is that the SBC trademark had little value because the company was so
abusive. So, the SBC managers decided to use another name.
Those interested in how that happened can watch Stephen Colbert explain in a 1 minute 14 second
video: The New AT&T. If that video is not available, try this one, but that requires watching a commercial.
No need to overwrite your data, which would show hard drive activity, and which would have no effect, since police always work on copies. TrueCrypt provides a hidden volume. The TrueCrypt hidden volume is not detectable.
"I would also like to know how the authorities could possibly tell a properly encrypted file from one that only contains random data and consequently how they could prove that a filesystem is, in fact, encrypted."
In every country, lawmakers with no technical knowledge whatsoever are writing extremely ignorant laws about technical issues. In fact, the UK law makes no sense.
There is more than one URL: Adobe's Flash settings widget. You have settings_manager03.html. Adobe has been recommending settings_manager07.html.
The Flash updating tool is very buggy. It may update only your installation of Opera, instead of Opera and Firefox. If you have multiple installations of Opera, it will update only one of them.
In Windows, it is necessary to use the Replace.exe command to replace all instances of flashplayer.xpt, NPSWF32.dll, and NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe. The latest version of the files is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash after updating one installation of one browser.
It is interesting that portable Firefox and Thunderbird are not really completely portable. You cannot run two copies installed in two different locations. They still are tied to the Windows way of doing things and the Windows user name.
"Do you actually use it on a regular basis, and what for?"
AutoHotkey has its own folding editor: SciTE4AutoHotkey. The file must have an.AHK extension to show syntax
highlighting. So, when editing Autohotkey's automatically loaded configuration
file, an.INI file, temporarily change the file name extension from.INI to.AHK.
AutoHotkey's programmer, Chris Mallett, is impressively serious about delivering high-quality code. He is joined by several people who do thorough testing. For example, here is a problem with doing RegEx replacements in Chinese: BUG RegexReplace -- When disposing chinese.
The science of user interface design is still in its infancy. AutoHotkey makes things easier by helping you re-define the interface. For example, Firefox's bookmarking is primitive, so I use Autohotkey to make it more usable for me.
Here are a few simple examples from my AutoHotkey.INI file, which is 1607
lines long. Lines that begin with a semi-colon are comments:
; ; AutoHotkey.ini AutoHotkey script, starts automatically. ; ; # Win (Windows Key) ; ! Alt ; ^ Control ; + Shift ; & An ampersand may be used between any two keys or mouse buttons ; to combine them into a custom hotkey. See Help for details. ; < Use the left key of the pair. ; e.g. <!a is the same as !a except that only the left Alt key ; will trigger it. ; This feature is not supported on Windows 95/98/ME. ; > Use the right key of the pair. ; This feature is not supported on Windows 95/98/ME. ; ; Send command keys: ; In a hotkey definition, ^K is control-k, lower case, and ^+K is control-K, upper case. ; As a parameter of the Send command, however, ^k is control-k, lower case, and ^K is control-K, upper case. ; ; Keyboard shortcuts available in Windows XP: ; (Don't re-define Windows XP keyboard shortcuts.) ; http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301583 ; ; __________ ; ; ; The examples below are activated with Control-Shift: ; ; ; HTML Italics ; Type the characters <I>""</I> and then position the cursor left 5 characters. ; See below for HTML Link characters. ^+I::Sendinput, <I>""</I>{Left 5} ; ; ; Run the "Change Case" program ^+K::Run "C:\Program Files\ChangeCase\ChngCase.exe" ; ; ; HTML Link ^+L::Sendinput, <A HREF= "" TARGET="_blank" ></A>{Left 23} ; ; ; Run the Michaelis Portuguese Dictionary ^+M::Run "C:\DTS\WDIC\WDIC.EXE" ; ;
AutoHotkey is a necessity. Open Source, free, but unfortunately no Linux version. Automates keystrokes. Very professionally maintained. The programming language is quirky.
AutoIt makes programs that do automatic installations for examples.
Yes, it's a better deal than I said. However, there are others who are skeptical. Someone posted a link to an opinion by Fake Steve Jobs: R.I.P., Yahoo.
You know the old acronym, BING: But... It's Not Google!
Quoting: "Microsoft will pay Yahoo $50 million a year for three years..."
How does that fit? Yahoo rejected an offer of $44.6 Billion, but accepts "$50 million a year"?
I'm guessing that if they had just Googled it, they would have found information that indicates the idea is foolish. I'm not saying I know how the idea is foolish, I'm only saying that it seems to me that something is wrong somewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Atoms are mostly empty space. The photo is of the electric field caused by the electrons.
This photo is better. The article says it is a 20-hour time exposure. The photo was available through a Reddit story yesterday.
"A reasonable Sun machine costs a lot less than employing one of these people for a year."
Initially, your explanation seemed to me to have credibility. Then I realized that a Sun server is not perfectly reliable, either. Fault-tolerant software is necessary even when using very expensive hardware. Also, "consumer-grade" hardware is usually very reliable.
So, the comparison is not between consumer-grade hardware + fault-tolerant software versus server-grade hardware without fault-tolerant software. The comparison is between the reliability of consumer-grade hardware with fault-tolerant software versus server-grade hardware with fault-tolerant software.
The biggest cause of failure is bad contacts. The second biggest cause of failure is power supply failure. There are chemicals that help solve the problem with bad contacts. It is easy to arrange fault-tolerant power supplies.
"Ever try to develop fault-tolerant software? Think millions of dollars just to begin."
That doesn't seem correct to me. It is possible to send every transaction to four places, using two ISPs. Each transaction would cause the calculation of an SHA-1 return code. A computer with a return code that doesn't agree is not working correctly.
"Data Mining and Business Intelligence doesn't need huge powerhouses anymore."
My theory about why has Sun Microsystems not done particularly well in the last few years is that the highly reliable hardware Sun Microsystems sells is no longer popular because it is far cheaper to use consumer-grade hardware with software that is fault-tolerant. The excellent 2008 book Planet Google describes Google's experiences on page 54: "For about $278,000 in 2003, [Google] could assemble a rack with 176 microprocessors, 176 gigabytes of memory, and 7 terabytes of disk space. This compared favorably to a $758,000 server sold by the manufacturer of a well-known brand, which had only eight multiprocessors, one-third the memory, and about the same amount of disk space."
But why would Oracle buy Sun? Possibly because there are difficulties in making Oracle database products work with the new consumer-grade hardware with fault-tolerant technology.
The story as I understand it:
Business model: Arrange the free distribution of other people's intellectual property.
Company name: Don't hide the business model. Call it "Pirate" Bay.
Operation: Facilitate the distribution of pirated software, for years.
Income: Sell advertising to companies that are not concerned about the business model. Make $3,000,000 U.S. per year.
Arrange a sale of the company: Sale of what?
The story today: The Swedish government investigates possible illegal activity by the buyer.
The discussion today: We're discussing possible illegal activity by the buyer.
It helps to understand that AT&T is actually the old SBC. The AT&T name was sold to SBC. My understanding from talking with former SBC customers is that the SBC trademark had little value because the company was so abusive. So, the SBC managers decided to use another name.
Those interested in how that happened can watch Stephen Colbert explain in a 1 minute 14 second video: The New AT&T. If that video is not available, try this one, but that requires watching a commercial.
You are showing how confusing is the Lulu web site. Three people have tried, and three people have gotten different prices from the site.
I got the $72 from a calculation on a Lulu web page.
I find the Lulu web site confusing. Thanks for the information.
Look at the comments above:
Lulu is expensive [lulu.com], in my opinion. For a 300-page hardbound book, 1000 copies: "Manufacturing cost: $72,000.00 Per unit cost: $72.00".
Gorham Printing quote [gorhamprinting.com], 300 pages, 1,000 copies, paperback: "Your Price: $5,130.00 ($5.13 per book)".
Gorham Printing quote, 300 pages, 1,000 copies, paperback: "Your Price: $5,130.00 ($5.13 per book)".
Anyone have experience with book printers?
The "self-publishers" I found in a Google search all seem to take advantage of the desire of authors to see a paper copy of their book.
Wow! Lulu is expensive, in my opinion. For a 300-page hardbound book, 1000 copies: "Manufacturing cost: $72,000.00 Per unit cost: $72.00".
Consider the effect of that, which is to cause people to have even less confidence in Adobe.
No need to overwrite your data, which would show hard drive activity, and which would have no effect, since police always work on copies. TrueCrypt provides a hidden volume. The TrueCrypt hidden volume is not detectable.
"I would also like to know how the authorities could possibly tell a properly encrypted file from one that only contains random data and consequently how they could prove that a filesystem is, in fact, encrypted."
In every country, lawmakers with no technical knowledge whatsoever are writing extremely ignorant laws about technical issues. In fact, the UK law makes no sense.
There is more than one URL: Adobe's Flash settings widget. You have settings_manager03.html. Adobe has been recommending settings_manager07.html.
The Flash updating tool is very buggy. It may update only your installation of Opera, instead of Opera and Firefox. If you have multiple installations of Opera, it will update only one of them.
In Windows, it is necessary to use the Replace.exe command to replace all instances of flashplayer.xpt, NPSWF32.dll, and NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe. The latest version of the files is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash after updating one installation of one browser.
FreeMind idea mapping software is excellent.
It is interesting that portable Firefox and Thunderbird are not really completely portable. You cannot run two copies installed in two different locations. They still are tied to the Windows way of doing things and the Windows user name.
Mozilla Backup, MozBackup is very important free open-source software.
Backup your Firefox settings and add-ons, and restore them to another computer.
Metapad is fast for everything, in my experience.
I like Metapad's Edit/ Block/ Unwrap Lines/ command. I like "Hit Escape to quit."
AutoHotkey has its own folding editor: SciTE4AutoHotkey. The file must have an
AutoHotkey's programmer, Chris Mallett, is impressively serious about delivering high-quality code. He is joined by several people who do thorough testing. For example, here is a problem with doing RegEx replacements in Chinese: BUG RegexReplace -- When disposing chinese.
The science of user interface design is still in its infancy. AutoHotkey makes things easier by helping you re-define the interface. For example, Firefox's bookmarking is primitive, so I use Autohotkey to make it more usable for me.
Here are a few simple examples from my AutoHotkey
Metapad editor is now open source. All other quick editors are worse, in my experience.
AutoHotkey is a necessity. Open Source, free, but unfortunately no Linux version. Automates keystrokes. Very professionally maintained. The programming language is quirky.
AutoIt makes programs that do automatic installations for examples.
Both can imitate keystrokes and mouse movements.
Forgot to say that CD Burner XP records CDs and DVDs.
CD Burner XP: Partly open source (see the link), free, and better than Roxio and Nero, in my opinion.
Yes, it's a better deal than I said. However, there are others who are skeptical. Someone posted a link to an opinion by Fake Steve Jobs: R.I.P., Yahoo.
You know the old acronym, BING: But... It's Not Google!
Quoting: "Microsoft will pay Yahoo $50 million a year for three years..."
How does that fit? Yahoo rejected an offer of $44.6 Billion, but accepts "$50 million a year"?
I'm guessing that if they had just Googled it, they would have found information that indicates the idea is foolish. I'm not saying I know how the idea is foolish, I'm only saying that it seems to me that something is wrong somewhere.