RAID actually IS a valid solution to combat the problem of failing drives, even when the technology in those drives is a moving target. Ariel densities have gone up, meaning tolerances have to be tighter, which makes it harder to build a reliable drive than it was some time ago, and that trend will only continue to increase. RAID 5 specifically might not be the best solution for today's needs, but RAID 6 is a step in the right direction. And to call RAID 6 a bandaid is hardly fair. There is no storage methodology that you could put in place now that could be guaranteed valid 10 years from now. Besides, 1+0 is gaining popularity and there are extensions beyond that. RAID 1+0 in particular is much quicker in rebuild time than raid 5/6. You give up half your disk space to redundancy, but you take comparatively little performance hit during rebuilds and it's very fast in the day-to-day. Granted, in worst case scenario you are no more redundant than you would be with RAID 5 (i.e., you lost both disks in the same mirror before it could be rebuilt on a hot spare), but in the best case scenario you could lose up to half your disks and keep chugging along.
I drive a jetta tdi in the USA. oddly enough, I have a lot more trouble finding diesel fuel in the town where I live than I do on road trips. I can be out in the middle of nowheresville and as long as the filling station is near the interstate they will most likely have diesel fuel. This makes sense I guess, considering that all 18 wheelers are diesel and they have to fill up somewhere. but downtown in any major or even medium sized metropolis, not so much. still, it's no big deal for me, I know where the diesel stations are near my home and near work, and when taking trips it has yet to be a problem. I even have loaded a diesel station POI database into my garmin, which has come in handy more than once.
I have had a '09 VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen since last November and absolutely love it. It has 140HP, which is not mind blowing, but the real story is the torque. 0-60, while respectable for a station wagon (~8.5 secs) won't raise eyebrows, but it's very capable when merging on the on-ramp or when accelerating out of a curve. While nobody will mistake it for a sports car, It's actually a lot of fun. Besides that, it's incredibly efficient. There simply isn't a gasoline powered vehicle that is anywhere near this much fun that gets anywhere this kind of mileage. It's far from gutless. This car basically flies in the face of each and every diesel stereotype: It's nearly odorless at the exhaust, no black smoke EVER. It's actually cleaner burning than many gasoline engines. It starts easily in the cold, to the point where it doesn't even need an engine block warmer. My old ford powerstroke was terrible in this regard. It's also very very quiet, barely any louder than a gasoline engine. It's very tough to tell that this is a diesel at all, other than the TDI badge at the rear and the rare visits to the pump. I'm only hoping that the positive diesel stereotypes still prove true, namely reliability. There are mercedes diesels out there with well over 1 million miles on them.
Oh, and supposedly the BMW 335d diesel is out of the world fun, haven't had a chance to test drive one.
You have a point, but you can't deny that certain people will regard anything that apple sells as superior, whether or not it actually is (take the cube for instance). People that are Mac fans are typically Mac zealots and think that anything made by anyone else is total crap. The ipod line is currently trendy as all hell and rarely does anything anyone else makez get the attention it deserves. Yes, they're cute. Yes, they're friendly. Yes, they revolutioned the portable mp3 player market and sent everyone else back to the drawing boards. But take for instance reviews of the iaudio x5 vs. the ipod photo and you'll see what I mean. there is definitely a media bias towards apple mp3 players. that being said, this little booger looks cool as hell.
Okay, there are a lot of assumptions you're making in here. Since when does music have to be dancable to be good? And that "polished" sound you speak of often times has little to do with the musicians, but more with the producers and engineers at the recording studio. Have you been out to the clubs to see bands in your area? I can almost guarantee there is at least one band around with the talent and motivation required to make it big. Does that mean they'll make it? Probably not. The odds aren't in their favor.
It takes a good deal of money to produce a good demo CD, and many small bands can't afford to spend a lot. Some of the most amazing bands I've ever seen live, bands you'll probably never hear of, have crappy demo's that sound like they were recorded on a 4 track in a basement somewhere. And guess what? They often are! But I would much rather see a band that can do it live in a club than a band that's the product of techno wizardry and industry people.
There are a number of mainstream acts these days that either lipsynch live or probably should. The "polish" you hear in the studio is often completely manufactured. Often times the songs are written by other people. There is a growing trend towards "ghost writing", where a songwriter will sell a song to an artist and their name never makes it on the album credits.
As for "the music just isn't there", there are a lot of bands that just don't have a market. They're playing music that just isn't selling at the time, at least not on a broad scale. This isn't to say they aren't great for what they're doing. I've seen groups here in town that blow the mind and have you wondering why the hell they're not on every station in the country. But their sound isn't the current flavor of the week.
Even some of the good bands that do manage to get signed don't get the big promotion budgets. Sure they're on a major label but maybe the companies don't see their material as a top 40 hit. Many signed artists never get to have a single in national rotation. Case in point, Gabe Dixon's ( http://www.gabedixonband.com/ ) "On A Rolling Ball" is probably the best CD you've never heard.
Don't be lazy. If you really are a music fan, get out to the clubs. Get to know your local scene. Sure you'll probably see at least ten crappy bands to the one good one. But the good bands are out there, and there just aren't enough record deals for all of them.
Oh, and if you want to check out a band with a demo that sounds, well, not free from defect and no warranty expressed or implied etc etc, go to:
Slashdot Mirror
RAID actually IS a valid solution to combat the problem of failing drives, even when the technology in those drives is a moving target. Ariel densities have gone up, meaning tolerances have to be tighter, which makes it harder to build a reliable drive than it was some time ago, and that trend will only continue to increase. RAID 5 specifically might not be the best solution for today's needs, but RAID 6 is a step in the right direction. And to call RAID 6 a bandaid is hardly fair. There is no storage methodology that you could put in place now that could be guaranteed valid 10 years from now. Besides, 1+0 is gaining popularity and there are extensions beyond that. RAID 1+0 in particular is much quicker in rebuild time than raid 5/6. You give up half your disk space to redundancy, but you take comparatively little performance hit during rebuilds and it's very fast in the day-to-day. Granted, in worst case scenario you are no more redundant than you would be with RAID 5 (i.e., you lost both disks in the same mirror before it could be rebuilt on a hot spare), but in the best case scenario you could lose up to half your disks and keep chugging along.
I drive a jetta tdi in the USA. oddly enough, I have a lot more trouble finding diesel fuel in the town where I live than I do on road trips. I can be out in the middle of nowheresville and as long as the filling station is near the interstate they will most likely have diesel fuel. This makes sense I guess, considering that all 18 wheelers are diesel and they have to fill up somewhere. but downtown in any major or even medium sized metropolis, not so much. still, it's no big deal for me, I know where the diesel stations are near my home and near work, and when taking trips it has yet to be a problem. I even have loaded a diesel station POI database into my garmin, which has come in handy more than once.
I have had a '09 VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen since last November and absolutely love it. It has 140HP, which is not mind blowing, but the real story is the torque. 0-60, while respectable for a station wagon (~8.5 secs) won't raise eyebrows, but it's very capable when merging on the on-ramp or when accelerating out of a curve. While nobody will mistake it for a sports car, It's actually a lot of fun. Besides that, it's incredibly efficient. There simply isn't a gasoline powered vehicle that is anywhere near this much fun that gets anywhere this kind of mileage. It's far from gutless. This car basically flies in the face of each and every diesel stereotype: It's nearly odorless at the exhaust, no black smoke EVER. It's actually cleaner burning than many gasoline engines. It starts easily in the cold, to the point where it doesn't even need an engine block warmer. My old ford powerstroke was terrible in this regard. It's also very very quiet, barely any louder than a gasoline engine. It's very tough to tell that this is a diesel at all, other than the TDI badge at the rear and the rare visits to the pump. I'm only hoping that the positive diesel stereotypes still prove true, namely reliability. There are mercedes diesels out there with well over 1 million miles on them. Oh, and supposedly the BMW 335d diesel is out of the world fun, haven't had a chance to test drive one.
iaudio x5 has these features and is neither poor in build quality nor do those features lack in any way.
You have a point, but you can't deny that certain people will regard anything that apple sells as superior, whether or not it actually is (take the cube for instance). People that are Mac fans are typically Mac zealots and think that anything made by anyone else is total crap. The ipod line is currently trendy as all hell and rarely does anything anyone else makez get the attention it deserves. Yes, they're cute. Yes, they're friendly. Yes, they revolutioned the portable mp3 player market and sent everyone else back to the drawing boards. But take for instance reviews of the iaudio x5 vs. the ipod photo and you'll see what I mean. there is definitely a media bias towards apple mp3 players. that being said, this little booger looks cool as hell.
Okay, there are a lot of assumptions you're making in here. Since when does music have to be dancable to be good? And that "polished" sound you speak of often times has little to do with the musicians, but more with the producers and engineers at the recording studio. Have you been out to the clubs to see bands in your area? I can almost guarantee there is at least one band around with the talent and motivation required to make it big. Does that mean they'll make it? Probably not. The odds aren't in their favor.
.
:)
It takes a good deal of money to produce a good demo CD, and many small bands can't afford to spend a lot. Some of the most amazing bands I've ever seen live, bands you'll probably never hear of, have crappy demo's that sound like they were recorded on a 4 track in a basement somewhere. And guess what? They often are! But I would much rather see a band that can do it live in a club than a band that's the product of techno wizardry and industry people.
There are a number of mainstream acts these days that either lipsynch live or probably should. The "polish" you hear in the studio is often completely manufactured. Often times the songs are written by other people. There is a growing trend towards "ghost writing", where a songwriter will sell a song to an artist and their name never makes it on the album credits.
As for "the music just isn't there", there are a lot of bands that just don't have a market. They're playing music that just isn't selling at the time, at least not on a broad scale. This isn't to say they aren't great for what they're doing. I've seen groups here in town that blow the mind and have you wondering why the hell they're not on every station in the country. But their sound isn't the current flavor of the week.
Even some of the good bands that do manage to get signed don't get the big promotion budgets. Sure they're on a major label but maybe the companies don't see their material as a top 40 hit. Many signed artists never get to have a single in national rotation. Case in point, Gabe Dixon's ( http://www.gabedixonband.com/ ) "On A Rolling Ball" is probably the best CD you've never heard
Don't be lazy. If you really are a music fan, get out to the clubs. Get to know your local scene. Sure you'll probably see at least ten crappy bands to the one good one. But the good bands are out there, and there just aren't enough record deals for all of them.
Oh, and if you want to check out a band with a demo that sounds, well, not free from defect and no warranty expressed or implied etc etc, go to:
http://lovetheloft.com/
Better yet, check us out live sometime, hehe