Are most of these expensive destruction methods just overkill, or am I under estimating desperate hackers?
Almost everyone would basically have to rely on what the drive controller says is on the drive. A single pass of zeros would stop 99.999% of the people out there. For those that are more sophiscated than that, a single random pass would stop 99% of them. Recovering the data off of a drive that's been through DBAN or similar would be impossible.
Thermite is nothing exotic, basically a mixture of powdered aluminum and iron oxide (aka rust). You'll also need something hot to start the reaction, like some magnesium metal which burns pretty hot. It's not hard to make, though you may want to avoid buying all the ingredients at the same place.
It's more like they won't sell you fuel unless you also bought car from them, and then they'll put the fuel in the tank for you. If you have a car that you bought from someone else, they will not sell the fuel to you. Now, this would be understandable if you had a diesel car and they only sold gasoline, but the truth of the matter is that they still won't sell you the fuel even if you had a gasoline car.
And much of the time, if you do a bit of digging, the real reason why this is happening is because the advent of high-quality digital imaging has now made it possible for amateurs to create artistically compelling images that compete with the "official" landmark images that are for sale. Why buy a poster or print if you can shoot your own? It's just another piece of security theater and illegal restriction under the guise of "protecting us from terror." That is something to be worried about.
Does that really make sense? It's not like recording music here, where the tools have improved dramatically over the past 10-15 years or so. I can take my 30 year-old SLR with its 30 year-old lens and create poster quality images that are of equivalent quality (some might say better) to the digital cameras of today. And back when my camera was new, it was considered a lower-end model too.
I don't think it has to do with digital cameras so much - they're just taking away our rights because they figure they can get away with it.
You could try 078-05-1120. The story behind that one is that a company back in the 1940's wanted to make a mock-up Social Security card to show how they would fit in the wallets they sold, and that's the number they printed on the card. For years it has been a common fake SSN that people have used. The number is well known by the SSA and it is not going to be assigned to anyone, the only problem might is that businesses may also flag it too.
I've seen some new HP's that appear to be using BTX too. I say 'appear' because I haven't checked closely to see if they really follow the standard, or are just some propriety thing that adopted many of the BTX characteristics.
If you actually knew what you're talking about, you would know that Intel's numbers are not the worst-case scenarios. It says so right on the processor data sheets. Instead, they "reflect Intel's recommended design point", whatever that is. If you don't believe me, go look for yourself:
Basically Intel relies on their CPU throttling to keep the CPU from overheating under the worst case conditions, or from people installing CPU coolers that exceed their recommendations.
And what if your IC-based car has the transmission crap out at 10 years?
In theory, the Volt's electric drivetrain should be really reliable and require almost no maintance, and the Volt's gasoline engine which only has to run occasionally and at a constant speed should likewise last a long time and require little maintaince*. On the other hand, the IC-based car, all other things being equal, will require more maintance and will probably require more repairs over the same time period.
Besides, if the Volt's gasoline engine is good enough to charge the battery while on the freeway, then even if the battery is completely shot the car should still be drivable and therefore not worthless.
*Not that I would be surprised if GM managed to screw this up
Actually, the Metro wasn't terrible. It's actually was a re-badged Suzuki, and is still in production (though not sold in North America any more). The big problem with them is that people treated them like they were disposable so they didn't last. They are certainly better than their replacement, which is the Korean-made Aveo.
Though if you want a small car from the big three, Ford is supposedly bringing the Festiva back to the US.
Why? The Polo is a small, light car, it should be fine with a small engine. People forget how much less powerful the cars from yesteryear are. The base model Pontiac 6000 used to come with a 90HP engine, and that car certainly weights more than a VW Polo.
If you floor it, the car may temporarly shut off the A/C so more power goes to the wheels. However, this isn't really a hybrid thing, many small cars will also do the same thing .
You have to remember when it comes to used cars that someone got rid of that car for a reason, and for a cheap car it's probably because it has issues. The best thing to do is to get an off-lease car that's 3-5 years old. You can usually get 7-12 reliable years out of them, at which point you'll know the car well enough that you can tell when things are starting to go downhill and it's time to sell it to some other sucker and get another.
When was this? Tuition increases have been in the double digit percentages every year at a lot of schools. I don't doubt you could do it 10 years ago, or maybe even 5, but with the exception of some community colleges I don't think there are many places where you can take a full semester of credit for $2000 (before scholarships) anymore.
I've found people like that like the idea they have a choice. With the US system, they could choose to not have the health insurance and thus not have to pay for it. With a nationalized health care system they are forced to pay in. A lot of these people aren't really thinking rationally - for them health insurance is a necessity, but they would rather pay a higher price with a theoritical choice to opt-out instead of being forced to pay for something they would buy anyway.
Then there are the ones who really do go without the health insurance, and don't want to be forced to pay for it. They are taking their chances (so they claim), but I seriously doubt any of them would not seek medical help if something expensive came up that they knew they couldn't afford.
I think he's talking about features like virtualization. Trying to figure out what CPU's in Intel's lineup had virtualization can be confusing. Some of the Core 2's have it, and some don't. Some of the ones that do are slower, older chips that weren't even high end when they came out, where as some of the latest quad-cores do not. You can't even count on the model number, as some of the chips equipped with that feature have model numbers smaller than those that don't. The Pentium Dual Core, IIRC, lack it, whereas some of (but not all) of the Atom chips do. It's a mess, and as far as I can tell there is no good reason for this.
AMD is better in some regards, where all but the Semprons on the the AM2+ and later sockets have it, including the cheap single-core Athlon LE's.
Why don't you try schedule A of the 1040 long. I clearly offers the same deductions that are availible to business.
I just looked it up in case it changed, and nope, still can only deduct uniforms that are not suitable for ordinary wear. Also things like hard hats and safety glasses.
The thread is about corporations verses private right?
Exactly. If I had my own business and was incorporated, if I needed business attire as part of running my business, I could have my business buy it and get a tax write-off*. But if I'm employed by someone else, and this requires me to buy business attire if I want to stay employed, I don't get the same write-off.
*Okay, to be honest I'm not sure if this is how the system is supposed to work, but I know people who do this and the IRS doesn't question it.
I don't know where you pulled that out of, but it's not true. Business attire is generally not eligible for a tax write-off, the only exception is a uniform that you would not normally wear outside of work (like for a nurse or a mechanic). But you can't write off things like suits, sportcoats, and polo shirts.
Once you take into the account the energy and environmental costs of building the new replacement vehicles and scrapping the old vehicles, I seriously doubt that this program did anything to help the environment. Actually, with all the improved green vehicles in the works, like the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, better hybrids, etc., it would have been better to have waited a couple of years to replace that still running old Ford Explorer, rather than replacing it now with a mid 20's MPG car like a Focus.
As for the economy, the CARS program is a disaster. It really surprises me that everyone seems to forget that everyone is paying for this with our taxpayer dollars. It's really nothing more than a transfer of money from other sectors to the automotive sector, which has had enough bailouts as far as I'm concerned. And in the meantime, we're destroying real wealth in the form of the perfectly good vehicles we are scrapping. It may look good now as it has caused a short-term flurry of economic activity, but it's not sustainable, doesn't solve any of the fundamental problems in the automotive sector, and we have yet to pay for it.
Quite simply, the union workers are going to get screwed no matter what, whether it's now or later. The billions of taxpayer dollars pumped into GM and Chrysler were not a solution - it changed nothing and is only delaying the inevitable. It sounds cruel, but I would prefer we cut our losses now and move on.
If the device is CE certified (most cell phones are, unless it's a model they don't plan on selling in Europe), the device needs to withstand an environmental test, part of which (IIRC) two days spent in an environmental chamber where the temp is held at 40C and 95% humidity. The device doesn't need to be powered on while in the chamber, but once removed from the chamber it still needs to operate. Such conditions would surely turn the sticker red - I wonder if these companies are able to get away with this kind of stuff in the EU?
Not quite - for some reason Honda decided to use the Acura name in Hong Kong too. Not sure why it's North America plus one other city, but that's the way they did it.
And how does a place like Sweden deny the right to life, liberty, and property? It's not like Soviet Russia or China here, since they could move elsewhere at any time. Living under the system is a choice on their part.
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Almost everyone would basically have to rely on what the drive controller says is on the drive. A single pass of zeros would stop 99.999% of the people out there. For those that are more sophiscated than that, a single random pass would stop 99% of them. Recovering the data off of a drive that's been through DBAN or similar would be impossible.
Thermite is nothing exotic, basically a mixture of powdered aluminum and iron oxide (aka rust). You'll also need something hot to start the reaction, like some magnesium metal which burns pretty hot. It's not hard to make, though you may want to avoid buying all the ingredients at the same place.
It's more like they won't sell you fuel unless you also bought car from them, and then they'll put the fuel in the tank for you. If you have a car that you bought from someone else, they will not sell the fuel to you. Now, this would be understandable if you had a diesel car and they only sold gasoline, but the truth of the matter is that they still won't sell you the fuel even if you had a gasoline car.
Does that really make sense? It's not like recording music here, where the tools have improved dramatically over the past 10-15 years or so. I can take my 30 year-old SLR with its 30 year-old lens and create poster quality images that are of equivalent quality (some might say better) to the digital cameras of today. And back when my camera was new, it was considered a lower-end model too.
I don't think it has to do with digital cameras so much - they're just taking away our rights because they figure they can get away with it.
You could try 078-05-1120. The story behind that one is that a company back in the 1940's wanted to make a mock-up Social Security card to show how they would fit in the wallets they sold, and that's the number they printed on the card. For years it has been a common fake SSN that people have used. The number is well known by the SSA and it is not going to be assigned to anyone, the only problem might is that businesses may also flag it too.
I've seen some new HP's that appear to be using BTX too. I say 'appear' because I haven't checked closely to see if they really follow the standard, or are just some propriety thing that adopted many of the BTX characteristics.
If you actually knew what you're talking about, you would know that Intel's numbers are not the worst-case scenarios. It says so right on the processor data sheets. Instead, they "reflect Intel's recommended design point", whatever that is. If you don't believe me, go look for yourself:
http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/29864312.pdf (Random P4 datasheet, look at the footnote at the top of page 70)
Basically Intel relies on their CPU throttling to keep the CPU from overheating under the worst case conditions, or from people installing CPU coolers that exceed their recommendations.
And what if your IC-based car has the transmission crap out at 10 years?
In theory, the Volt's electric drivetrain should be really reliable and require almost no maintance, and the Volt's gasoline engine which only has to run occasionally and at a constant speed should likewise last a long time and require little maintaince*. On the other hand, the IC-based car, all other things being equal, will require more maintance and will probably require more repairs over the same time period.
Besides, if the Volt's gasoline engine is good enough to charge the battery while on the freeway, then even if the battery is completely shot the car should still be drivable and therefore not worthless.
*Not that I would be surprised if GM managed to screw this up
Actually, the Metro wasn't terrible. It's actually was a re-badged Suzuki, and is still in production (though not sold in North America any more). The big problem with them is that people treated them like they were disposable so they didn't last. They are certainly better than their replacement, which is the Korean-made Aveo.
Though if you want a small car from the big three, Ford is supposedly bringing the Festiva back to the US.
Why? The Polo is a small, light car, it should be fine with a small engine. People forget how much less powerful the cars from yesteryear are. The base model Pontiac 6000 used to come with a 90HP engine, and that car certainly weights more than a VW Polo.
If you floor it, the car may temporarly shut off the A/C so more power goes to the wheels. However, this isn't really a hybrid thing, many small cars will also do the same thing .
You have to remember when it comes to used cars that someone got rid of that car for a reason, and for a cheap car it's probably because it has issues. The best thing to do is to get an off-lease car that's 3-5 years old. You can usually get 7-12 reliable years out of them, at which point you'll know the car well enough that you can tell when things are starting to go downhill and it's time to sell it to some other sucker and get another.
When was this? Tuition increases have been in the double digit percentages every year at a lot of schools. I don't doubt you could do it 10 years ago, or maybe even 5, but with the exception of some community colleges I don't think there are many places where you can take a full semester of credit for $2000 (before scholarships) anymore.
I've found people like that like the idea they have a choice. With the US system, they could choose to not have the health insurance and thus not have to pay for it. With a nationalized health care system they are forced to pay in. A lot of these people aren't really thinking rationally - for them health insurance is a necessity, but they would rather pay a higher price with a theoritical choice to opt-out instead of being forced to pay for something they would buy anyway.
Then there are the ones who really do go without the health insurance, and don't want to be forced to pay for it. They are taking their chances (so they claim), but I seriously doubt any of them would not seek medical help if something expensive came up that they knew they couldn't afford.
I think he's talking about features like virtualization. Trying to figure out what CPU's in Intel's lineup had virtualization can be confusing. Some of the Core 2's have it, and some don't. Some of the ones that do are slower, older chips that weren't even high end when they came out, where as some of the latest quad-cores do not. You can't even count on the model number, as some of the chips equipped with that feature have model numbers smaller than those that don't. The Pentium Dual Core, IIRC, lack it, whereas some of (but not all) of the Atom chips do. It's a mess, and as far as I can tell there is no good reason for this.
AMD is better in some regards, where all but the Semprons on the the AM2+ and later sockets have it, including the cheap single-core Athlon LE's.
I just looked it up in case it changed, and nope, still can only deduct uniforms that are not suitable for ordinary wear. Also things like hard hats and safety glasses.
Exactly. If I had my own business and was incorporated, if I needed business attire as part of running my business, I could have my business buy it and get a tax write-off*. But if I'm employed by someone else, and this requires me to buy business attire if I want to stay employed, I don't get the same write-off.
*Okay, to be honest I'm not sure if this is how the system is supposed to work, but I know people who do this and the IRS doesn't question it.
I don't know where you pulled that out of, but it's not true. Business attire is generally not eligible for a tax write-off, the only exception is a uniform that you would not normally wear outside of work (like for a nurse or a mechanic). But you can't write off things like suits, sportcoats, and polo shirts.
I would hope this would mean they go out of business, but instead the government would just bail them out, again.
Try writing off the mileage from commuting to and from work, or the business attire you have to wear to work, and see how far that goes with the IRS.
Once you take into the account the energy and environmental costs of building the new replacement vehicles and scrapping the old vehicles, I seriously doubt that this program did anything to help the environment. Actually, with all the improved green vehicles in the works, like the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, better hybrids, etc., it would have been better to have waited a couple of years to replace that still running old Ford Explorer, rather than replacing it now with a mid 20's MPG car like a Focus.
As for the economy, the CARS program is a disaster. It really surprises me that everyone seems to forget that everyone is paying for this with our taxpayer dollars. It's really nothing more than a transfer of money from other sectors to the automotive sector, which has had enough bailouts as far as I'm concerned. And in the meantime, we're destroying real wealth in the form of the perfectly good vehicles we are scrapping. It may look good now as it has caused a short-term flurry of economic activity, but it's not sustainable, doesn't solve any of the fundamental problems in the automotive sector, and we have yet to pay for it.
Quite simply, the union workers are going to get screwed no matter what, whether it's now or later. The billions of taxpayer dollars pumped into GM and Chrysler were not a solution - it changed nothing and is only delaying the inevitable. It sounds cruel, but I would prefer we cut our losses now and move on.
If the device is CE certified (most cell phones are, unless it's a model they don't plan on selling in Europe), the device needs to withstand an environmental test, part of which (IIRC) two days spent in an environmental chamber where the temp is held at 40C and 95% humidity. The device doesn't need to be powered on while in the chamber, but once removed from the chamber it still needs to operate. Such conditions would surely turn the sticker red - I wonder if these companies are able to get away with this kind of stuff in the EU?
Instead they use POS nVidia graphics chips?
Not quite - for some reason Honda decided to use the Acura name in Hong Kong too. Not sure why it's North America plus one other city, but that's the way they did it.
And how does a place like Sweden deny the right to life, liberty, and property? It's not like Soviet Russia or China here, since they could move elsewhere at any time. Living under the system is a choice on their part.