As another poster said, the rats are not "eating" your cables. They are chewing on them.
Why? Because they are there and likely in the rat's way.
Where is the rat going to? To and from his food source and his home. Also, possibly on the hunt for another rat. Rats often follow scent trails left by other rats.
Living things need three things to survive: Food, water and a place to live. They also need to procreate but procreation is dependent on the first three.
You can't get rid of the place to live. Rats, I hear, can chew through quarter inch steel given time. Bottom line, you are going to have a hard time keeping them out if they want in.
So, starve em and dehydrate em.
Assertions: The cat thing is not going to work for a datacenter... trust me on this one.
Poison inside the building and traps outside along the walls will usually get those attempting to get in. Poison should be put close to any sources of water, inside the building, that cannot be done away with. Poisons, obviously, should NEVER be used where children are.
Find the rat runs and place traps along the path. Channel the rats over the traps using obstacles. Rats can smell you on the traps so... don't be discouraged if they avoid the traps. If you have a fresh dead rat, rub the trap with the rat to get it's smell on the trap.
Putting food in the traps merely draws more rats.
Here's an idea to quickly catch rats that already have a beach head in your building: Using a large laundry bucket and a little sweet cracker. Put the sweet cracker in the bottom of the empty bucket and provide a way for them to get up to the edge of the bucket from the outside. Only the treat should be IN the bucket. Came back later and find a rat that can't jump out. Scratch one rat. Wash rinse repeat. I've never discovered a more reliable mousetrap.
1. Polar Bears should plan accordingly. 2. Sell your land in low lying areas. 3. New destination for Cruise Ships. 4. Nowhere for polar transit airliners to crash land. 5. The Northwest Passage is now open for business! 6. Arctic Fishing is a real possibility. 7. Eocene Climate coming to a biosphere near you!
I loved those old dual Apple ][ floppy disks. They were so fast. Compared to the clunky Floppy drives used by TRSDOS/TRS-80 and later the Commodore Vic/64s (bleah) the Apple disks were computing NIRVANA in 1981.
Was almost like having a couple mini-hard drives.
There's a reason Apple hardware is great. Apples are designed and built well.
Question: Have you EVER seen a bad Apple motherboard? I'm sure they exist but I've never seen one.
Re:They have a gas analyser, but...
on
Water Ice On Mars
·
· Score: 1
Omestes said: "fuel is the means for energy storage. "
Precisely! FUEL is a means of energy storage. Therefore, water is not fuel. It is spent fuel. Hydrogen is the fuel that is used to store the energy. Electrolysis process takes energy in the form of electricity and uses it to separate the H2O into H2 and O2 thereby storing the energy.
The energy is reclaimed when the Hydrogen is once again oxidized be it with an ICE or a Fuel Cell.
Gas IS a fuel. The hydrocarbons in gas or diesel fuel were produced from cellulose and other sugars long ago. The hydrocarbons contain varying amounts of Hydrogen and Carbons (and other trace elements) which, upon exposure to O2 and a catalyst such as a spark or intense heat and pressure, can be induced to release the stored energy in the same way as pure H2. The gas produces many molecules: CO, CO2, NO2, NO3 H2O etc... All these are Oxygen compounds and formed by combustion or recombination.
Bottom Line: WATER IS NOT FUEL. It is spent H2 fuel.
Maxo-Texas said: "Alaska could probably handle being drilled for oil and not show any real signs 40 years later."
Possibly true give or take a few decades. However, it will have the Modified by Man(tm) stamp on it for much much longer.
Take, for instance, those poisonous pools/lakes that used to be strip mines. Given time, they will likely be pristine once more... given lots and lots of time.
I dunno, I hear drilling in the ANWR and I think Exxon Valdez and oily ducks.
Myth said: "Oil companies have leases all over America to drill for oil. They are currently only using 20 percent of these leases."
I agree. I remember back in the 80's after the Oil Boom, there was many a domestic sweet crude well capped due to low prices on the oil market. I'll bet some of those wells are due to be uncapped in the near future if they haven't been already.
There is a possible additional source in the Barnett Shale in Texas. The offshore sites could be increasingly utilized.
Also, Canada has that oil bearing sand they've been talking about. Extracting that oil is becoming economically feasible.
I'm not too keen on the ANWR drilling idea. We've already despoiled just about every pristine and beautiful place on earth... something needs to be preserved.
Bottom Line: There's oil to be had here without sending the wealth overseas.
It's time for a change though... I'm looking forward to additional advances in Fuel Cell and Solar Technology and other efficient ways to convert energy.
High oil prices, while tough on the buck, just might be the incentive we need to better explore alternatives. It's a bitter pill.
It would be nice if there was a favorable reaction to high fuel prices such as some manufacturing coming back home.
We can only hope that the trend continues.
Re:They have a gas analyser, but...
on
Water Ice On Mars
·
· Score: 1
Why do people continue to say that water is a source of fuel? Water is NOT fuel. Water is burned/oxidized hydrogen.
Water can be separated, by adding in energy, into it's constituent H and O2 components. The energy can be stored in this fashion to be released again later and hopefully efficiently. Fuel cells are currently one of the most efficient ways of reclaiming this stored energy - though expensive.
Water is no more fuel than is C02 is.
As for tokamak reactors, I hope one day that fusion power will be feasible.
Re:This is a dumb question, but...
on
Water Ice On Mars
·
· Score: 2, Informative
If I understand correctly, the water is blowing away.. just not as crystals. It is blowing away as discreet water molecules much like evaporation. The crystals gain energy from the sun and a little from the impact of the atmospheric gases and then the water molecules lift from the crystal lattice and suspend in the atmospheric gas matrix.
If you visualize everything as tiny versions of the colored balls in a child's play pit, you will notice that each type of ball (atom) has a different weight and tends to stratify. With enough energy added to the ball, it will then de-stratify and lift into the active matrix of the atmosphere.
This B Fuller sure sounds like an interesting character. It seems that he was an idea man that was not fully informed of physics. Wonder what he might have done had he finished his studies at college?
Try using a skylight. i.e. a hole or plexi-glass covered hole in the ceiling. Then, cover the rest of the shed's roof with solar panels to generate DC for charging 12V deep cycle lead acid batteries. Then use 12V droplight at night.
>Do you think I did wrong in not reporting the guy?
Politics can be a sticky business. You've found him out and might "know too much". If he has more power in the company than you, you should have some insurance. It wont keep your kiester out of the fire but it will take him down with you.
The position, politically, you've been put in is not an easy one. If you report people, you might get the reputation as a stool pidgeon of sorts or a snitch. On the other hand, if you let it slide then the offender might try to slide more past you in the future.
Hopefully, he is the kind of person with a grain of integrity and has learned his lesson. If so, then you should have an ally. Only you can make the judgment call on that one.
Personally, I think you did the Right Thing(tm) in giving the guy an out. Sun-Tsu and all that. Just CYA.
fm5 said: "So he has to turn it over to the IT department, which then charges his department $100 or more for the service. That's approaching the total value of the laptop if its been around for any length of time."
How much is the man's reputation worth? And, the company's time and investment in his training. Not to mention litigation costs.
> To suggest that everyone should make content for you to consume for no money
I have no real problem with this. I'll pay for my programming. After all, paying is what makes producers want to continue producing.
What I do have a problem with, though, is programmed obsolescence; when they change something apparently for the purpose of making you buy a new device to get what you had with the old device. Especially when there is no perceived benefit to the user.
When your TV is implemented in firmware and they change the software - it requires new hardware. Solution? Hook a computer up to the "Monitor" and use it as a TV. Software changes... download the newest codec, decryption modules and certificates.
damn_registrars said: "Anyone else find it ironic that this story about runaway development projects came right after the story on the release of wine 1.0?"
I wouldn't consider Wine itself to be a runaway project; actually, the runaway project is the system it's trying to be compatible with.:P
You gotta give the Wine guys props. They've pulled a proverbial rabbit out of a hat.
Chris Burke said: "It's fair to say that on average women have less strength and less mass, and therefore the physics wins out. That's what your friend's self defense class advice is based upon, and it is sound advice. But your general statement that a woman can't beat a man unless she's ridiculously strong, or the man is drunk, is silly and wrong."
I agree. Strength and Mass are important as you say. But do not forget the command and control - The Brain. It is the brain, and not strength/mass, that rules the world - otherwise, the Gorillas would be outside the cage and we'd be in it.
Women have some obvious advantages: flexibility, agility, and just as good (some may argue better) of a brain as a man. My ex-wife had reflexes like lightning. I remember a time when she got in an argument with my brother. I was keeping an eye on the situation mind you. All of a sudden, his head moved a bit and he asked her if she just hit him... she had - swift as lighting like the strike of a rattlesnake. I barely saw her arm move.
You fight with your mind primarily - strength and mass are just two tools that are not infallible. The man who underestimates a woman is a fool.
Slashdot Mirror
As another poster said, the rats are not "eating" your cables. They are chewing on them.
Why? Because they are there and likely in the rat's way.
Where is the rat going to? To and from his food source and his home. Also, possibly on the hunt for another rat. Rats often follow scent trails left by other rats.
Living things need three things to survive:
Food, water and a place to live.
They also need to procreate but procreation is dependent on the first three.
You can't get rid of the place to live. Rats, I hear, can chew through quarter inch steel given time. Bottom line, you are going to have a hard time keeping them out if they want in.
So, starve em and dehydrate em.
Assertions:
The cat thing is not going to work for a datacenter... trust me on this one.
Poison inside the building and traps outside along the walls will usually get those attempting to get in. Poison should be put close to any sources of water, inside the building, that cannot be done away with. Poisons, obviously, should NEVER be used where children are.
Find the rat runs and place traps along the path. Channel the rats over the traps using obstacles. Rats can smell you on the traps so... don't be discouraged if they avoid the traps. If you have a fresh dead rat, rub the trap with the rat to get it's smell on the trap.
Putting food in the traps merely draws more rats.
Here's an idea to quickly catch rats that already have a beach head in your building:
Using a large laundry bucket and a little sweet cracker. Put the sweet cracker in the bottom of the empty bucket and provide a way for them to get up to the edge of the bucket from the outside. Only the treat should be IN the bucket. Came back later and find a rat that can't jump out. Scratch one rat. Wash rinse repeat. I've never discovered a more reliable mousetrap.
RATS!
JSBiff said:
"A ten year cooling period proves that the globe cooled for 10 years."
Ok, so the implication is that the globe cooled over a 10 year period. However, the Arctic Polar Icecap has pretty much been steadily melting.
I would compare such a condition with my ice-cold glass of coke. As the ice melts, it absorbs heat.
My five minute hypothesis...
Ceiynt said:
"The first man reached the north pole in what, the early 1900's?!"
Back then you could walk; looks like today you'll be swimming.
"There are ancient Roman port towns that are over 1 mile from the current shore line."
Silting up and earthquakes.
1. Polar Bears should plan accordingly.
2. Sell your land in low lying areas.
3. New destination for Cruise Ships.
4. Nowhere for polar transit airliners to crash land.
5. The Northwest Passage is now open for business!
6. Arctic Fishing is a real possibility.
7. Eocene Climate coming to a biosphere near you!
This is +5 Funny if I ever saw one. :)
Developers indeed.
Help Help!
Bully for the fonts RedHat.
Very interesting (spelled it right that time) AC post.
I loved those old dual Apple ][ floppy disks. They were so fast. Compared to the clunky Floppy drives used by TRSDOS/TRS-80 and later the Commodore Vic/64s (bleah) the Apple disks were computing NIRVANA in 1981.
Was almost like having a couple mini-hard drives.
There's a reason Apple hardware is great. Apples are designed and built well.
Question: Have you EVER seen a bad Apple motherboard? I'm sure they exist but I've never seen one.
Omestes said:
"fuel is the means for energy storage. "
Precisely! FUEL is a means of energy storage. Therefore, water is not fuel. It is spent fuel. Hydrogen is the fuel that is used to store the energy. Electrolysis process takes energy in the form of electricity and uses it to separate the H2O into H2 and O2 thereby storing the energy.
The energy is reclaimed when the Hydrogen is once again oxidized be it with an ICE or a Fuel Cell.
Gas IS a fuel. The hydrocarbons in gas or diesel fuel were produced from cellulose and other sugars long ago. The hydrocarbons contain varying amounts of Hydrogen and Carbons (and other trace elements) which, upon exposure to O2 and a catalyst such as a spark or intense heat and pressure, can be induced to release the stored energy in the same way as pure H2. The gas produces many molecules: CO, CO2, NO2, NO3 H2O etc... All these are Oxygen compounds and formed by combustion or recombination.
Bottom Line:
WATER IS NOT FUEL. It is spent H2 fuel.
Maxo-Texas said:
"Alaska could probably handle being drilled for oil and not show any real signs 40 years later."
Possibly true give or take a few decades. However, it will have the Modified by Man(tm) stamp on it for much much longer.
Take, for instance, those poisonous pools/lakes that used to be strip mines. Given time, they will likely be pristine once more... given lots and lots of time.
I dunno, I hear drilling in the ANWR and I think Exxon Valdez and oily ducks.
YMMV
Myth said:
"Oil companies have leases all over America to drill for oil. They are currently only using 20 percent of these leases."
I agree. I remember back in the 80's after the Oil Boom, there was many a domestic sweet crude well capped due to low prices on the oil market. I'll bet some of those wells are due to be uncapped in the near future if they haven't been already.
There is a possible additional source in the Barnett Shale in Texas. The offshore sites could be increasingly utilized.
Also, Canada has that oil bearing sand they've been talking about. Extracting that oil is becoming economically feasible.
I'm not too keen on the ANWR drilling idea. We've already despoiled just about every pristine and beautiful place on earth... something needs to be preserved.
Bottom Line: There's oil to be had here without sending the wealth overseas.
It's time for a change though... I'm looking forward to additional advances in Fuel Cell and Solar Technology and other efficient ways to convert energy.
High oil prices, while tough on the buck, just might be the incentive we need to better explore alternatives. It's a bitter pill.
It would be nice if there was a favorable reaction to high fuel prices such as some manufacturing coming back home.
We can only hope that the trend continues.
Why do people continue to say that water is a source of fuel? Water is NOT fuel. Water is burned/oxidized hydrogen.
Water can be separated, by adding in energy, into it's constituent H and O2 components. The energy can be stored in this fashion to be released again later and hopefully efficiently. Fuel cells are currently one of the most efficient ways of reclaiming this stored energy - though expensive.
Water is no more fuel than is C02 is.
As for tokamak reactors, I hope one day that fusion power will be feasible.
If I understand correctly, the water is blowing away.. just not as crystals. It is blowing away as discreet water molecules much like evaporation. The crystals gain energy from the sun and a little from the impact of the atmospheric gases and then the water molecules lift from the crystal lattice and suspend in the atmospheric gas matrix.
If you visualize everything as tiny versions of the colored balls in a child's play pit, you will notice that each type of ball (atom) has a different weight and tends to stratify. With enough energy added to the ball, it will then de-stratify and lift into the active matrix of the atmosphere.
He did say duck didn't he?
This B Fuller sure sounds like an interesting character. It seems that he was an idea man that was not fully informed of physics. Wonder what he might have done had he finished his studies at college?
Man, that was one unlucky elephant. I guess Edison was trying to prove how dangerous AC was. See? Look! It can even kill an elephant.
Well,
Power = Volts X Amps. AC Power is measured in Root Mean Square approx = 0.707 of total AC amplitude.
So, let's see. Using DC with a 2000W device would be:
A = P/V = 2000 / 12 = 166+ Amps. Doh! As the AC said, Amps tend to melt wires.
BTW, IWAEFAW (I was an electrician for a while.)
Bill said:
"Even better, just run as much stuff on dc as possible."
Edison would be proud of you!
Try using a skylight. i.e. a hole or plexi-glass covered hole in the ceiling. Then, cover the rest of the shed's roof with solar panels to generate DC for charging 12V deep cycle lead acid batteries. Then use 12V droplight at night.
>Do you think I did wrong in not reporting the guy?
Politics can be a sticky business. You've found him out and might "know too much". If he has more power in the company than you, you should have some insurance. It wont keep your kiester out of the fire but it will take him down with you.
The position, politically, you've been put in is not an easy one. If you report people, you might get the reputation as a stool pidgeon of sorts or a snitch. On the other hand, if you let it slide then the offender might try to slide more past you in the future.
Hopefully, he is the kind of person with a grain of integrity and has learned his lesson. If so, then you should have an ally. Only you can make the judgment call on that one.
Personally, I think you did the Right Thing(tm) in giving the guy an out. Sun-Tsu and all that. Just CYA.
fm5 said:
"So he has to turn it over to the IT department, which then charges his department $100 or more for the service. That's approaching the total value of the laptop if its been around for any length of time."
How much is the man's reputation worth? And, the company's time and investment in his training. Not to mention litigation costs.
> To suggest that everyone should make content for you to consume for no money
I have no real problem with this. I'll pay for my programming. After all, paying is what makes producers want to continue producing.
What I do have a problem with, though, is programmed obsolescence; when they change something apparently for the purpose of making you buy a new device to get what you had with the old device. Especially when there is no perceived benefit to the user.
When your TV is implemented in firmware and they change the software - it requires new hardware. Solution? Hook a computer up to the "Monitor" and use it as a TV. Software changes... download the newest codec, decryption modules and certificates.
> So it is *trying* to be a runaway project
Hence, the 15 years.
damn_registrars said:
:P
"Anyone else find it ironic that this story about runaway development projects came right after the story on the release of wine 1.0?"
I wouldn't consider Wine itself to be a runaway project; actually, the runaway project is the system it's trying to be compatible with.
You gotta give the Wine guys props. They've pulled a proverbial rabbit out of a hat.
Chris Burke said:
"It's fair to say that on average women have less strength and less mass, and therefore the physics wins out. That's what your friend's self defense class advice is based upon, and it is sound advice. But your general statement that a woman can't beat a man unless she's ridiculously strong, or the man is drunk, is silly and wrong."
I agree. Strength and Mass are important as you say. But do not forget the command and control - The Brain. It is the brain, and not strength/mass, that rules the world - otherwise, the Gorillas would be outside the cage and we'd be in it.
Women have some obvious advantages: flexibility, agility, and just as good (some may argue better) of a brain as a man. My ex-wife had reflexes like lightning. I remember a time when she got in an argument with my brother. I was keeping an eye on the situation mind you. All of a sudden, his head moved a bit and he asked her if she just hit him... she had - swift as lighting like the strike of a rattlesnake. I barely saw her arm move.
You fight with your mind primarily - strength and mass are just two tools that are not infallible. The man who underestimates a woman is a fool.
Codifex