Damn, and I've been using the Verizon PC5220 for about six month now on my Mac and have been very happy with it. Little did I know it didn't work well. Oh, well.
Seriously, it's not bad. There's a lot of latency on the network (ping times of 500 - 800 ms) so it's not ideal for ssh sessions, but I do it all the time anyway.
It's quite a bit faster than a 56k modem. And I find it works well even with a weak signal. And while Verizon may suck in many ways, they do have good network coverage.
Actually, the Harrier can't do a VTOL at full load. The max load for VTOL is only 3,062 kg. For a short take off (STO) the max permissable load is over 7,000 kg.
More details here: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/av-8.htm
The founder of what is now a very large software company I used to work for suggested this as the mission statement when they needed one before they went public:
"Whores for money."
Later on in the same company (after it went public) each department needed it's own mission statement. I worked in technical support at the time and our director suggested this:
Most cars have an "oil" light or gauge, but it's an oil pressure sensor, not an oil-level one (yes, there are exceptions). A low oil level is just on condition that may result in low oil pressure (and if you let your oil level get low enough to trigger the oil-pressure "idiot light" you're probably fucked anyway...)
I guess the point is that if people can't even understand the technology in their car how are they going to understand their home computer.
The insurance on my RV is less than that of my normal car.
Most of the RV makers have a campground next to the factory where you can stay while they work on your unit. Airstream does this and provides a waiting area with an Internet-connected computer for you during the day while they work on your RV. If they need more than one day they haul your unit back to the campground for you to stay in. Some RV dealers even do this.
Most of the class A RVs nowadays have residential-style AC units with heat pumps that reside in the "basement" below the floor and not up on top. They work just as well as any home AC system.
There are many, many people in the USA that live and work in their RVs -- it's a great lifestyle.
It may be hard for some folks here to believe, but a large number of systems out there are doing the most mundane things, and for one reason or another (budgets, it works, etc.) just aren't being upgraded.
For example, the other day I needed to take a load of construction debris (drywall, pressure treated wood, etc.) to the local dump. For this sort of stuff they weigh your truck on the way in and the way out to figure out how much to charge you.
It took awhile -- the scale computer was running Windows 95 but the scale software (which was recently upgraded during servicing and calibration) now requires XP. So the software kept crashing. The scale operator explained that the town wouldn't release funds to upgrade the computer. But the company under contract to service the scale requires the use of the new software.
And most of our electricity, of course, doesn't come from fossil fuels.
Really? Take a look at this chart and say that again. It looks like about 2/3 of the electricity generated in the US in 2004 was from fossil fuels (mostly coal).
Yes, you're probably thinking world-wide, but we are talking about a US car sold in the US. Still, even with places like France and Japan getting large amounts of power from nuke plants, it seems likely that the vast majority of the power generated in the world is coming from the burning of stored sunlight...
I have dozens of Dell PowerEdge servers and overall I've been very happy with them. The trick is to get someone on the phone. The deals you can get are amazing. For example; if you order the machines with a minimum amount of RAM and tell the sales person you're going to get the extra memory from someone like crucial.com they will match the price on the RAM.
And their warranty support is pretty good, too.
Alas, nothing is perfect -- I had one PowerEdge 2550 that just refused to run reliaibly. After having various components replaced it was essentially a new machine, yet it still locked up and randomly rebooted. I finally "fixed" it with an AR-15 and replaced it with a PowerEdge 2650 which has been fine.
Re:Why build more roads for long-haul transportati
on
The Super Superhighway
·
· Score: 1
Currently the railroads are just as clogged as the highways, if not more so.
On a recent trip through Nebraska it was interesting to see the Union Pacific's mainline clogged with trains nearly nose-to-tail and stacked up on sidings for hundreds of miles.
Some transportation experts think the continuing trend of railroad mergers hasn't helped the situation.
It sounds to me like you will do just fine with a dual Xeon Dell 2650 and 5 15k internal drives in RAID 5. Or if you're concerned about disk IO (and from the description of you app it doesn't sound like there's that much) do a RAID 10 with a hot spare. I don't think I'd bother with the external drive array -- you don't need the complexity.
Oh, you should be able to get this machine for half your budget -- don't order from the Dell website -- talk to a sales rep. You can get some very good deals on servers nowadays. Email me if you need a contact.
I fail to see why folks get so into this quake prediction stuff.
Heck, we can accurately predict at least a day out when and where a hurricane will hit, yet we still have people too stupid to get out of the way. An earthquake prediction won't even be that certain -- it's not like we're going to evacuate L.A. for the week a quake is predicted.
As far as long range planning -- that's easy. California has earthquakes, all the time. Don't build things that will fall down when the ground moves.
Never happened to mine. It's been dropped a few times and stepped on once or twice and it's bashed and bent and held together with duct tape, but it still works just fine.
""Windtunnel" PowerMac G4's"
I never understood the problem with these. The one I have is loud but it's no worse than your typical Dell PC.
"logic-board failures on iBooks"
Don't know about this one -- I never owned a iBook.
"failing lid-latches on Powerbooks"
Never had this problem on the 5 Powerbooks I have.
"cracks on the Cube"
Had two of these, one had small cosmetic cracks, the other didn't. Not a problem for me, but I can see how some folks would. Nice design, though; wish I still had 'em and didn't give 'em away.
"overheating 12" PowerBooks"
My wife has one of these -- she uses it all the time and hasn't had a problem with overheating. I don't think it gets any hotter than the 15" Powerbook I use everyday as my primary machine.
Now, I'm not saying these problems don't exist. But I personally own a lot of Macs (about 10 in current use around the house right now) of nearly every model and I've had very few of the problems folks complain about. YMMV.
It has vast third-party support, shoots 4:3 and 16:9 (although it is still a DV-format cam with the limitations that the 720x480 pixel resolution the standard requires), shoots in 60i, 30p and 24p, has XLR connectors, and will even take (with an adapter) Canon EOS lens from the still photography line in case you need something special like a super telephoto or a tilt-shift lens.
You really couldn't ask for more (except a lower price and native HDTV capabilities).
I can't believe I'm replying to this, but, well, this is a stupid way to work at taking pictures.
Heck, if you want to work this way just buy a video camera and yank the good frames out as stills.
Yes, lots of pros work this way but for different reasons; most can take a perfectly acceptable, well composed and sharp single picture when the need arises.
The key skill in photography isn't taking a bunch of pictures and throwing away 90% of them -- it's resisting to urge to push the shutter button when you know the resulting picture will suck.
Re:In the land of empty tanks
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
...being on a bicycle is ludicrously more efficient than any other form of transportation based on energy expended vs. miles traveled.
How about a sailboat? I seem to remember something about those being popular some time back...
Perhaps this fellow lives in an area such as I do where a truck like an Explorer is needed if you want to go to work after a 3-foot snowfall.
There are situations were folks buy an SUV or truck 'cause they have a real need for one. Not many, perhaps, but it does happen.
I don't know if this is the case here any more than I know if you're posting with a computer powered by coal-generated electricity that is adding to global warming and acid rain by pumping tons of CO2 and particulates into the atmosphere.
Make it yellow, put a ring of tire-tread rubber around the edges, price it at $5k with a battery life of 20-minutes and I bet you couldn't make 'em fast enough.
How true...I had one of the early Sony TiVOs and really liked that remote. It was a sad day when a lightning stike caused my Sony TiVO to burst into flames.
The replacement unit (a DirecTiVO) has this new remote, and while it's not bad I'm still trying to get use to it a year later.
My biggest problem is it's bilateral symmetry -- I often grab the remote to blast past a commercial and find I have the remote backward and I'm hitting the back button instead of the forward.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn, and I've been using the Verizon PC5220 for about six month now on my Mac and have been very happy with it. Little did I know it didn't work well. Oh, well.
Seriously, it's not bad. There's a lot of latency on the network (ping times of 500 - 800 ms) so it's not ideal for ssh sessions, but I do it all the time anyway.
It's quite a bit faster than a 56k modem. And I find it works well even with a weak signal. And while Verizon may suck in many ways, they do have good network coverage.
Actually, the Harrier can't do a VTOL at full load. The max load for VTOL is only 3,062 kg. For a short take off (STO) the max permissable load is over 7,000 kg.
More details here: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/av-8.htm
The founder of what is now a very large software company I used to work for suggested this as the mission statement when they needed one before they went public:
"Whores for money."
Later on in the same company (after it went public) each department needed it's own mission statement. I worked in technical support at the time and our director suggested this:
"Answer phone when ring."
None of us now work there.
Good point.
Most cars have an "oil" light or gauge, but it's an oil pressure sensor, not an oil-level one (yes, there are exceptions). A low oil level is just on condition that may result in low oil pressure (and if you let your oil level get low enough to trigger the oil-pressure "idiot light" you're probably fucked anyway...)
I guess the point is that if people can't even understand the technology in their car how are they going to understand their home computer.
The insurance on my RV is less than that of my normal car.
Most of the RV makers have a campground next to the factory where you can stay while they work on your unit. Airstream does this and provides a waiting area with an Internet-connected computer for you during the day while they work on your RV. If they need more than one day they haul your unit back to the campground for you to stay in. Some RV dealers even do this.
Most of the class A RVs nowadays have residential-style AC units with heat pumps that reside in the "basement" below the floor and not up on top. They work just as well as any home AC system.
There are many, many people in the USA that live and work in their RVs -- it's a great lifestyle.
It may be hard for some folks here to believe, but a large number of systems out there are doing the most mundane things, and for one reason or another (budgets, it works, etc.) just aren't being upgraded.
For example, the other day I needed to take a load of construction debris (drywall, pressure treated wood, etc.) to the local dump. For this sort of stuff they weigh your truck on the way in and the way out to figure out how much to charge you.
It took awhile -- the scale computer was running Windows 95 but the scale software (which was recently upgraded during servicing and calibration) now requires XP. So the software kept crashing. The scale operator explained that the town wouldn't release funds to upgrade the computer. But the company under contract to service the scale requires the use of the new software.
It just laughable...
Go here: http://www.bnl.gov/RHIC/disaster.htm
And most of our electricity, of course, doesn't come from fossil fuels.
Really? Take a look at this chart and say that again. It looks like about 2/3 of the electricity generated in the US in 2004 was from fossil fuels (mostly coal).
Yes, you're probably thinking world-wide, but we are talking about a US car sold in the US. Still, even with places like France and Japan getting large amounts of power from nuke plants, it seems likely that the vast majority of the power generated in the world is coming from the burning of stored sunlight...
Shouldn't be too long; Apple has $6.45B in cash -- more than most companies. And they have just a fraction of the market cap and revenue of MSFT.
If they don't screw up and current trends continue the future of Apple looks pretty good...
This is so true.
I have dozens of Dell PowerEdge servers and overall I've been very happy with them. The trick is to get someone on the phone. The deals you can get are amazing. For example; if you order the machines with a minimum amount of RAM and tell the sales person you're going to get the extra memory from someone like crucial.com they will match the price on the RAM.
And their warranty support is pretty good, too.
Alas, nothing is perfect -- I had one PowerEdge 2550 that just refused to run reliaibly. After having various components replaced it was essentially a new machine, yet it still locked up and randomly rebooted. I finally "fixed" it with an AR-15 and replaced it with a PowerEdge 2650 which has been fine.
Currently the railroads are just as clogged as the highways, if not more so.
On a recent trip through Nebraska it was interesting to see the Union Pacific's mainline clogged with trains nearly nose-to-tail and stacked up on sidings for hundreds of miles.
Some transportation experts think the continuing trend of railroad mergers hasn't helped the situation.
It sounds to me like you will do just fine with a dual Xeon Dell 2650 and 5 15k internal drives in RAID 5. Or if you're concerned about disk IO (and from the description of you app it doesn't sound like there's that much) do a RAID 10 with a hot spare. I don't think I'd bother with the external drive array -- you don't need the complexity.
Oh, you should be able to get this machine for half your budget -- don't order from the Dell website -- talk to a sales rep. You can get some very good deals on servers nowadays. Email me if you need a contact.
I fail to see why folks get so into this quake prediction stuff.
Heck, we can accurately predict at least a day out when and where a hurricane will hit, yet we still have people too stupid to get out of the way. An earthquake prediction won't even be that certain -- it's not like we're going to evacuate L.A. for the week a quake is predicted.
As far as long range planning -- that's easy. California has earthquakes, all the time. Don't build things that will fall down when the ground moves.
"chipping paint on Titanium Powerbooks"
Never happened to mine. It's been dropped a few times and stepped on once or twice and it's bashed and bent and held together with duct tape, but it still works just fine.
""Windtunnel" PowerMac G4's"
I never understood the problem with these. The one I have is loud but it's no worse than your typical Dell PC.
"logic-board failures on iBooks"
Don't know about this one -- I never owned a iBook.
"failing lid-latches on Powerbooks"
Never had this problem on the 5 Powerbooks I have.
"cracks on the Cube"
Had two of these, one had small cosmetic cracks, the other didn't. Not a problem for me, but I can see how some folks would. Nice design, though; wish I still had 'em and didn't give 'em away.
"overheating 12" PowerBooks"
My wife has one of these -- she uses it all the time and hasn't had a problem with overheating. I don't think it gets any hotter than the 15" Powerbook I use everyday as my primary machine.
Now, I'm not saying these problems don't exist. But I personally own a lot of Macs (about 10 in current use around the house right now) of nearly every model and I've had very few of the problems folks complain about. YMMV.
The audio commentary on that launch is so lame I cringe.
And the beginning of the full size video reminds me of something from Robocop.
Maybe NASA needs to source some talent from WWF or NASCAR for these events...
Yeah, too bad that Firewire thing never amounted to anything...
...you want the newly announced Canon XL2.
It has vast third-party support, shoots 4:3 and 16:9 (although it is still a DV-format cam with the limitations that the 720x480 pixel resolution the standard requires), shoots in 60i, 30p and 24p, has XLR connectors, and will even take (with an adapter) Canon EOS lens from the still photography line in case you need something special like a super telephoto or a tilt-shift lens.
You really couldn't ask for more (except a lower price and native HDTV capabilities).
I can't believe I'm replying to this, but, well, this is a stupid way to work at taking pictures.
Heck, if you want to work this way just buy a video camera and yank the good frames out as stills.
Yes, lots of pros work this way but for different reasons; most can take a perfectly acceptable, well composed and sharp single picture when the need arises.
The key skill in photography isn't taking a bunch of pictures and throwing away 90% of them -- it's resisting to urge to push the shutter button when you know the resulting picture will suck.
How about a sailboat? I seem to remember something about those being popular some time back...
You want a Tandy WP-2 or Radio Shack Model 100. Go here: http://www.8bit-micro.com/wp2wp3.htm
Perhaps this fellow lives in an area such as I do where a truck like an Explorer is needed if you want to go to work after a 3-foot snowfall.
There are situations were folks buy an SUV or truck 'cause they have a real need for one. Not many, perhaps, but it does happen.
I don't know if this is the case here any more than I know if you're posting with a computer powered by coal-generated electricity that is adding to global warming and acid rain by pumping tons of CO2 and particulates into the atmosphere.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Make it yellow, put a ring of tire-tread rubber around the edges, price it at $5k with a battery life of 20-minutes and I bet you couldn't make 'em fast enough.
How true...I had one of the early Sony TiVOs and really liked that remote. It was a sad day when a lightning stike caused my Sony TiVO to burst into flames.
The replacement unit (a DirecTiVO) has this new remote, and while it's not bad I'm still trying to get use to it a year later.
My biggest problem is it's bilateral symmetry -- I often grab the remote to blast past a commercial and find I have the remote backward and I'm hitting the back button instead of the forward.
I have no real point except to add another data point as to what the typical Slashdot visitor might be running.
The customer site of mine that got slashdotted, that of Edward Tufte, does attract a different set of folks than what would be the norm.
Later that month he got mentioned in USA Today and news.yahoo.com and those visits were much higher in IE/Windows than the slashdotting.
I site I administer got Slashdotted back in December. The story was posted on a Sunday.
Here's the platform summary for that day:
Windows: 65.17%
Macintosh: 16.10%
Linux: 15.99%
Here's the browser summary:
IE: 45.78%
Mozilla: 29.35%
Safari: 11.79%
Opera: 4.44%
The referals on that day were 92.92% Slashdot.