There is another factor to consider in this. Chernobyl used a design whereby a lack of water caused a positive feedback loop in the reactor to cause it to get even hotter. U.S. and most other designs use a negative feedback loop
Much worse than that (which comes from a very US-centric view of nuclear reactor design) is that the control rods had neutron reflectors on both ends (i.e. graphite moderator which provides more thermal neutrons for the chain reaction) and that they had to be "driven" mechanically (against water/steam pressure) into the reactor to subdue the reaction vs. sane designs where gravity would have done the job.
Water schmater. Gas-cooled reactors can be very safe. Chernobyl was an horrendous design combining the worst of both worlds (light water coolant and a graphite moderator!!!?!). Incompetent, uneducated operators, an arrogant, superstitious manager, safety systems that could be (and were) vetoed, basically a criminally bad design being operated by nicompoops.
In my experience, nothing beats working at a fair pace focusing on your paid work during your contracted hours, getting it done, going home and having a life.
Those that stay the extra hours are the ones chatting all the time, always doing personal stuff etc.
There's nothing heroic about putting in lots of unpaid overtime. Occasionally the job requires it. If your management requires it as a matter of course, and if they are piling ever increasing and unreasonable amounts of work on you get out, for your health, your sanity and your longer term prosperity. It means the company is in the grip of a crisis, or heading for one (since that sort of thing is unsustainable).
Getting a new job is easier said than done, and can take many months. I left a clueless and abusive employer last year. It took 5 months from writing my CV to handing in my resignation. It was a heck of a struggle. I won. They didn't break me, I got a better job closer to home for more pay, and what's more they apologised when I handed in my notice.
Be in control of your destiny. In the short term, you may have to struggle. Keep your eye on the ball and think about what _you_ want, and go out and get it.
Back in the day (1988-1990) all of the groovy new RISC workstations (SPARC, MIPS, ARM) (and some non-RISC ones like Amiga and ST) used to ship with 4MB of RAM and 120MB hard disks for running their respective flavours of UNIX.
That was proper multi-user, protected memory, networking and the X-Window system. And there was still enough RAM left over to run emacs.
That's just it. Everyone is goofing off playing with 3D games and reading about celebrities in the "newspapers."
And don't get me started on those reboot-hungry PeeCee things, each one a thousand times the power of all the computers in the world in 1969, with dancing dogs and paper clips, flaky networks, the intarweb with viruses, and Minesweeper.
People made their own entertainment in them days, like space rockets.
Just after graduating from University, I ended up back in Aberdeen, Scotland, living with my parents while I was looking for a career to start. I took a couple of short-term contracting jobs.
The first one was working with an IT company that had been kind enough to employ me during my summer holidays while I was a student. I worked hard, and they kept asking me back.
I was sent out to a client's site to do a PeeCee/hardware audit that two previous employees had failed to complete, and the customer was angry.
I finished it single handed in about 3 weeks, and saved the company's reputation. I was taken into their head of IT's office and personally thanked in front of my own boss.
However, one day whilst out on site I was hammering data into MS Access (which had a habit of crashing every half hour or so) and I'd been sitting there for a long time updating record after record after record.
My eyes were sore, I was thirsty, I was angry with Access, and I turned around and looked out the window to refocus my eyes.
No sooner had my head turned, but the PHB in my office, a young lady of true Scottish stock (just like me) boomed, "GET ON WITH YOUR WORK!"
Scotland sucks. I left in 1996. We have a saying, "If you're enjoying your work, you're not working hard enough."
Mr Ballmer is doing a grand enough job of destroying Microsoft in the long term. It's the next 5 years that could be difficult for the rest of us. Some of us have to work for PHBs to earn a living, and yes, I have taken my ball and gone home so to speak when the PHB gets too stupid.
Microsoft has traditionally always made sure that companies selling computers either only offer Windows or offer other operating systems that are substantially more expensive than Windows.
For example, I used to buy servers and workstations from Dell for developing an operating systems which shall remain nameless. They wouldn't sell me machines without an OS "for piracy reasons" despite the fact we (at the time) were running our own OS and Linux. The price quotes with Linux instead of Windows were significantly more expensive. The Dell salesdroid said that "Linux is more expensive than Windows." I pointed out that this was just their agreement with Microsoft and that MS was not at liberty to make such conditions. He would have none of it, but gave me an enormous discount on Windows, which we never used.
Microsoft had already been found guilty of running an illegal monopoly and the associated extortion in the USA.
Look at what happened to Dell's recent attempt to sell Linux machines.
I am very surprised that Lenovo is doing this. There must be something else going on behind the scenes.
I can assure you that Microsoft is behind it. They are up to something.
If as many people got sued for using pirated software as got sued by the RIAA/MPAA etc. for alleged copyright infringement of music and video, Open Source and Free Software would become very popular over night.
Big software companies will never do this since they know that the grass roots user base, who often "borrows" software from work and friends are vital to keeping interest in their products.
How many home users have ever been sued for having a non-legitimate copy of Windows, Office or Photoshop?
Bait-and-switch, softening their anti-Free Software image, making claims regarding "giving permission" for SuSE/Novell customers to use the Microsoft intellectual property allegedly infringed by Linux, the implications for Linux in general, selling more Microsoft software to SuSE Linux shops.
Mark my words, I was right about itanium and I'll be right about this too. The deal is fishy.
I care about Microsoft trying to subvert Linux. I couldn't care less about the money per se, but I worry about the lies and FUD they're putting before the PHBs of this world. And the implied legal threats.
A 12 inch/30cm optical disk could store a lot of data if it were digital (as opposed to the old analogue laserdiscs). You could get superior sound quality, video and the fancy packaging with cover art, liner notes etc.
Strange, that, how when Microsoft officially blesses a Linux distribution by investing in it and making all sorts of ridiculous patent/IP claims, a major PC manufacturer brings out a line of laptops with MS Linux. You can bet that Microsoft is making exactly the same amount of money on each Linux "sale" as each Windows sale, or maybe more.
Microsoft was actually pretty serious about NT on the Alpha, MIPS, and PPC for a long while. The problem was that nobody else was.
That's right. All of those platforms already had far superior operating systems. PeeCee users, on the other hand, effectively only had DOS and 16-bit Windows, so NT looked like a godsend.
Slashdot Mirror
There is another factor to consider in this. Chernobyl used a design whereby a lack of water caused a positive feedback loop in the reactor to cause it to get even hotter. U.S. and most other designs use a negative feedback loop
Much worse than that (which comes from a very US-centric view of nuclear reactor design) is that the control rods had neutron reflectors on both ends (i.e. graphite moderator which provides more thermal neutrons for the chain reaction) and that they had to be "driven" mechanically (against water/steam pressure) into the reactor to subdue the reaction vs. sane designs where gravity would have done the job.
Water schmater. Gas-cooled reactors can be very safe. Chernobyl was an horrendous design combining the worst of both worlds (light water coolant and a graphite moderator!!!?!). Incompetent, uneducated operators, an arrogant, superstitious manager, safety systems that could be (and were) vetoed, basically a criminally bad design being operated by nicompoops.
Crikey, a pyramid (albeit a triangular one). That settles it, then. It must be a runway for flying saucers from Vega :-)
In my experience, nothing beats working at a fair pace focusing on your paid work during your contracted hours, getting it done, going home and having a life.
Those that stay the extra hours are the ones chatting all the time, always doing personal stuff etc.
There's nothing heroic about putting in lots of unpaid overtime. Occasionally the job requires it. If your management requires it as a matter of course, and if they are piling ever increasing and unreasonable amounts of work on you get out, for your health, your sanity and your longer term prosperity. It means the company is in the grip of a crisis, or heading for one (since that sort of thing is unsustainable).
Getting a new job is easier said than done, and can take many months. I left a clueless and abusive employer last year. It took 5 months from writing my CV to handing in my resignation. It was a heck of a struggle. I won. They didn't break me, I got a better job closer to home for more pay, and what's more they apologised when I handed in my notice.
Be in control of your destiny. In the short term, you may have to struggle. Keep your eye on the ball and think about what _you_ want, and go out and get it.
Every year, Sun makes a large company purchase, lays of a few thousand staff and gets a tax discount.
Back in the day (1988-1990) all of the groovy new RISC workstations (SPARC, MIPS, ARM) (and some non-RISC ones like Amiga and ST) used to ship with 4MB of RAM and 120MB hard disks for running their respective flavours of UNIX.
That was proper multi-user, protected memory, networking and the X-Window system. And there was still enough RAM left over to run emacs.
OK, the last bit was an exaggeration...
With today's engineering tech - CFD software, advanced materials science, VR simulation, rapid prototyping technology
That's just it. Everyone is goofing off playing with 3D games and reading about celebrities in the "newspapers."
And don't get me started on those reboot-hungry PeeCee things, each one a thousand times the power of all the computers in the world in 1969, with dancing dogs and paper clips, flaky networks, the intarweb with viruses, and Minesweeper.
People made their own entertainment in them days, like space rockets.
Do you have any datasets to back up this claim?
I'm old and grumpy now. I don't need no stinking data. Get off my lawn!
This is a Bad Idea. Too much of the world now depends on Google. And people are running to Google, willing to give their data and identity.
/me shakes walking stick and creeps back into cave.
Just after graduating from University, I ended up back in Aberdeen, Scotland, living with my parents while I was looking for a career to start. I took a couple of short-term contracting jobs.
The first one was working with an IT company that had been kind enough to employ me during my summer holidays while I was a student. I worked hard, and they kept asking me back.
I was sent out to a client's site to do a PeeCee/hardware audit that two previous employees had failed to complete, and the customer was angry.
I finished it single handed in about 3 weeks, and saved the company's reputation. I was taken into their head of IT's office and personally thanked in front of my own boss.
However, one day whilst out on site I was hammering data into MS Access (which had a habit of crashing every half hour or so) and I'd been sitting there for a long time updating record after record after record.
My eyes were sore, I was thirsty, I was angry with Access, and I turned around and looked out the window to refocus my eyes.
No sooner had my head turned, but the PHB in my office, a young lady of true Scottish stock (just like me) boomed, "GET ON WITH YOUR WORK!"
Scotland sucks. I left in 1996. We have a saying, "If you're enjoying your work, you're not working hard enough."
It says that a quad core processor gets 16.9 frames at 256x256 resolution.
Wolfenstein 3D on a 386SX/16 at 320x256x8 :-)
Sixty five tons of American pride!
Better divide that by about 6.
Add me to your list of nut-jobs and bookmark this thread. Come back to it in 6 months, a year and then 2 years.
Then we'll see what the deal really was about.
Mr Ballmer is doing a grand enough job of destroying Microsoft in the long term. It's the next 5 years that could be difficult for the rest of us. Some of us have to work for PHBs to earn a living, and yes, I have taken my ball and gone home so to speak when the PHB gets too stupid.
Microsoft has traditionally always made sure that companies selling computers either only offer Windows or offer other operating systems that are substantially more expensive than Windows.
For example, I used to buy servers and workstations from Dell for developing an operating systems which shall remain nameless. They wouldn't sell me machines without an OS "for piracy reasons" despite the fact we (at the time) were running our own OS and Linux. The price quotes with Linux instead of Windows were significantly more expensive. The Dell salesdroid said that "Linux is more expensive than Windows." I pointed out that this was just their agreement with Microsoft and that MS was not at liberty to make such conditions. He would have none of it, but gave me an enormous discount on Windows, which we never used.
Microsoft had already been found guilty of running an illegal monopoly and the associated extortion in the USA.
Look at what happened to Dell's recent attempt to sell Linux machines.
I am very surprised that Lenovo is doing this. There must be something else going on behind the scenes.
I can assure you that Microsoft is behind it. They are up to something.
If as many people got sued for using pirated software as got sued by the RIAA/MPAA etc. for alleged copyright infringement of music and video, Open Source and Free Software would become very popular over night.
Big software companies will never do this since they know that the grass roots user base, who often "borrows" software from work and friends are vital to keeping interest in their products.
How many home users have ever been sued for having a non-legitimate copy of Windows, Office or Photoshop?
Bait-and-switch, softening their anti-Free Software image, making claims regarding "giving permission" for SuSE/Novell customers to use the Microsoft intellectual property allegedly infringed by Linux, the implications for Linux in general, selling more Microsoft software to SuSE Linux shops.
Mark my words, I was right about itanium and I'll be right about this too. The deal is fishy.
I care about Microsoft trying to subvert Linux. I couldn't care less about the money per se, but I worry about the lies and FUD they're putting before the PHBs of this world. And the implied legal threats.
A 12 inch/30cm optical disk could store a lot of data if it were digital (as opposed to the old analogue laserdiscs). You could get superior sound quality, video and the fancy packaging with cover art, liner notes etc.
Do I spy a marketing opportunity?
Have you ever bought machines from Dell? Microsoft had them all sewn up too.
Argh! I ate sheep phlegm! :-(
Lenovo have decided to offer ...
...the distro that Microsoft backs.
Strange, that, how when Microsoft officially blesses a Linux distribution by investing in it and making all sorts of ridiculous patent/IP claims, a major PC manufacturer brings out a line of laptops with MS Linux. You can bet that Microsoft is making exactly the same amount of money on each Linux "sale" as each Windows sale, or maybe more.
Microsoft was actually pretty serious about NT on the Alpha, MIPS, and PPC for a long while. The problem was that nobody else was.
That's right. All of those platforms already had far superior operating systems. PeeCee users, on the other hand, effectively only had DOS and 16-bit Windows, so NT looked like a godsend.
The ZX81's keyboard knocks your Spectrum's into a cocked hat, old chap.
No mod points today.