Yea, that's one such product. I held out hope* that with SSD's hitting the consumer level soon, that we'd have a wider range of products to pick from within that niche. I guess we're not there yet since (like you say) RAM isn't cheap enough to edge out flash.
(* Along with the incredibly vain hope that this would be "the year of open hardware" that might make recycling free-schwag thumbdrives a worthwhile prospect)
I guess you have figured out by now, that waiting for 6 more months twiddling your thumbs might get you there cheaper.
I had a feeling it was going to be like that, but I figured: hey, I'm not the smartest guy around here, so let's ask! F or $420 USD (conversion rate of 1.4 dollars per Euro - I think), I could do better with a Compact-Flash IDE adapter and some nice CF chips and still have some cash left over. Granted, the performance wouldn't be quite the same, but it would work.
I know that Gigabyte has/had a PCI based solution for battery-backed RAM that started at about $140 USD (w/o RAM). I was hoping that my Google-fu was simply weak and that I simply wasn't seeing the competition in this niche. Now it looks like SSD came along in time to kill it.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a thoughtful reply.
There's a few things to consdier. For starters, the article is a form of product PR so there's probably some details left out here.
My guess is that they're estimating based on a carbon-composite frame (cheap and light), soon-to-be-developed lightweight motors and no batteries. Manufacturers do this crap all the time, especially in the auto industry. It seems that MPG estimates always move after those darn EPA regulations are taken into consideration.
As far as the batteries go, you could have an autonomous support vehicle, like a small four-wheeled robot that carries your power supply for you (A "gonk droid" of sorts). Such a vehicle could also be your farm tractor; you'd just have a limited operating radius rather than full freedom. In either case you'd be tethered, but the exoskeleton itself would stay lightweight.
Downside is, you'd really need an OS that could 'tag' writes as volaitile/io priority/standard data, and some smarts built into the drive itself to take advantage of the tags.
I'm not an OS-driver developer, but that's nothing a custom filesystem driver for bsd/linux couldn't handle in some shape or form. You could probably base it off of file use patterns (allow for a 'learning' period before it gets smart) and have it do all that automatically without need for a specialized API or changes to how the OS works. Sprinkle a little etc/conf magic on it and you're good to go.:)
Plus one big advantage with MP3 over even CD... YOU CAN'T SCRATCH AN MP3.
To be fair, I have had a crosslinked-filesystem error once that intersected with my mp3 directory. I guess the streaming properties of mp3 file are robust enough to steamroll right over this kind of data error. Winamp just kept playing the data stream as the music jumped from song to song all within the same 'file'.
Granted, that's not a scratch per-se. But it is one of several problems one can encounter with mp3 storage.
Well, stars do 'consume' lighter elements only to convert them into heavy (less fusable) elements that are basically waste as far as that process goes. As it happens, planets are made up of these heavy elements, so yea, that's acutally pretty accurate.
...at the time it was about what you could expect from keyboards in general.
The 2" height for the keyboard actually was ergonomic for the time, as it was in line with the habits of typists. Back then, mechanical typewriters were still quite common. The amount of pressure required to punch any given key was quite high, so you are supposed to type with your wrists off the desk in order to get enough leverage. Electric typewriters were built that also followed suit, even though there was no need to develop so much leverage. The good 'ol C64 was simply following the crowd.
Today you can get by with typing with the pads of your fingers instead of needing to punch down with your fingertips. The result has been a trend in "low profile" keyboards that are easier to use.
FWIW, the C128 featured a more low profile design than it's predecessor, reflecting how computer keyboards changed how we typed in the 1980's.
As for the extra symbols and keys - You needed those. The C64 was aimed at programmers as much as end-users hence the design decisions, but finding one for the unfamiliar could be quite a chore (e.g. where the F--- is "WHT"). Plus some games put "Run Stop/Restore" to good use.
However, the cursor keys were an abomination. An inverted "T" on that keyboard would have been very nice indeed. Even the #1 worst pick from this list (The PC Jr.) had for distinct cursor keys.
There are really not ANY benefits to running a data center on a ship that I can think of other than the ability to use pirate lingo.
Mister Smith, secure them backup tapes; I won't be havin' me data slidin' about on deck. Mister Taylor, re-run those CAT-5 cables and make it quick. There'll be no tangled rigging, or loose arrrr-J45's on my ship. Mister Martin, ye be throwin' them Cisco routers overboard, and invite their mangy sales crew over for a good plank walkin' - they be too slow for the likes o' me.
Mister Jones, if it weren't for them lying, theiving scoundrels at the I-arrr-S, I'd have no deal with the likes of ye accountin' folks. Apparently, the lot of 'em don't understand the meanin' of "parlay". But enough of me rambin' - just make sure ye decimal points be just, or I be keelhaulin' the lot of ya.
And as for the rest of ye lilly-livered scalawags, there'll be no drinkin', boozin', torrent-n' or World o' Warrrrcraft until after businessin' hours.
I read the article and completely missed this little nugget:
Using cargo ships allows for flexibility and the ability to expand based on the availability of ships and port space, rather than real estate.
This is a really novel concept, but I'm still left scratching my head. Why the hell would you actually want to do this?
As far as I can tell, this company is banking on the cost of maintaining a whole ship to somehow be less expensive than paying rent on office space for a conventional data center. Are real-estate prices are really out of touch with reality in port cities? Does anyone have any idea as to where the cost benefit is here? Are data services really worth that much, or is this just sheer novelty (e.g. Snow Crash fans)?
The part that set off my crap detector is that wouldn't we have this kind of in-port utilization on cargo ships already if this was somehow cheaper than renting downtown?
That man was something to behold. Don't forget that he sweat like crazy, all over the food he was preparing, and had a nearly perfect record. Coincidence?
no <insert creepy japanese delicacy here> battle
This was the reason to watch. Battle Natto comes to mind. Battle monkfish, was another one - looks like something you'd throw back even if you were starving.
That's a shame. The original series had such a lovable, over-the-top, quirkyness that is lacking in it's american counterpart. Not to mention that the "secret ingredient" was, more often than not, some random and unappetizing thing that a fisherman found in his net that morning.
To bring ICA up to that level we need "battle road-kill" or somesuch, with the chairman ruminating in his study about the role roast possum had in the formation of our great country.
I don't think anyone has bothered to consider the retrospective view of the industry that is currently suing people from behind the RIAA. Thank you. I didn't think about how vinyl wears out - I never owned enough LP's for long enough to really notice. However, I have had plenty of tapes get munched and snapped by cheap walkmen and in-car decks. Ironically, this was *exactly* the reason why I made mix tapes: because the medium itself was too fragile and replacements were costly.
There's another factor involved that I feel is a major one: non-mainstream and underground music. These days, it's not uncommon to know of at least one band that you like that isn't backed by one of the big five labels (e.g. Jonathan Coulton). Thanks to the internet, advertisment, promtion and distribution are all very efficient and very cheap for the would-be rockstar - services that used to be jealously controlled by major labels. Since the genie is now out of the bottle, RIAA labels now have to share the industry they built with thousands of unknowns that don't even come up on the (Billboard) radar. As a result, their sales plummet and their analists are left scratching their heads as to why - piracy is just a scapegoat.
This is either the longest and most researched Flaimbait ever to appear on SlashDot, or I just blew. Your. Freaking. Mind.
Not particularily mind blowing, but interesting nonetheless. For the record, this yank *does* care, but he knows that there's little he can do until he's diagnosed with it (if ever). It is alarming that there's not more awareness being generated, and I would hope that this kind of info is merely being funneled directly to the doctor's office instead of the post office.
At some point some microbe or another is going to wind up on top thanks to all the selective pressure that medicine generates. I suppose we should feel lucky that this bug takes the top slot, instead of something nastier like plague. It also follows that treatment is difficult and expensive, since it's the cheap-and-easy stuff that bred this bug in the first place - this also explains the statistics.
Now what really piqued my interest was the note on the Wikipedia page about Phage Therapy being a possible alternative to antibiotics.
Perhaps the oddest thing about the article is the reference to a percentage of Morocco's land-mass for use as a solar concentrator. Granted, it's geographic location and weather probably make it ideal for solar-thermal power production. Still, we wouldn't need quite that level of efficiency if the plant were placed closer to where the demand for power is at it's highest.
Just taking a look at pictures of Solar Two (now C.A.C.T.U.S.) one can easily see this kind of tech being built *over* existing structures. Anyone who has cruised google maps has noticed how completely disused rooftops are. Plus-sized Shopping malls, and their adjacent parking lots come to mind:
...a hollow formulaic plot with over the top characters that will basicly keep you occupied, but ultimately unsatisfied and wishing you'd done something else with your day.
MTV already has this part down with little more than selective casting for its various incarnations of The Real World.
Slashdot Mirror
Yea, that's one such product. I held out hope* that with SSD's hitting the consumer level soon, that we'd have a wider range of products to pick from within that niche. I guess we're not there yet since (like you say) RAM isn't cheap enough to edge out flash.
(* Along with the incredibly vain hope that this would be "the year of open hardware" that might make recycling free-schwag thumbdrives a worthwhile prospect)
I had a feeling it was going to be like that, but I figured: hey, I'm not the smartest guy around here, so let's ask! F or $420 USD (conversion rate of 1.4 dollars per Euro - I think), I could do better with a Compact-Flash IDE adapter and some nice CF chips and still have some cash left over. Granted, the performance wouldn't be quite the same, but it would work.
I know that Gigabyte has/had a PCI based solution for battery-backed RAM that started at about $140 USD (w/o RAM). I was hoping that my Google-fu was simply weak and that I simply wasn't seeing the competition in this niche. Now it looks like SSD came along in time to kill it.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a thoughtful reply.
There's a few things to consdier. For starters, the article is a form of product PR so there's probably some details left out here.
My guess is that they're estimating based on a carbon-composite frame (cheap and light), soon-to-be-developed lightweight motors and no batteries. Manufacturers do this crap all the time, especially in the auto industry. It seems that MPG estimates always move after those darn EPA regulations are taken into consideration.
As far as the batteries go, you could have an autonomous support vehicle, like a small four-wheeled robot that carries your power supply for you (A "gonk droid" of sorts). Such a vehicle could also be your farm tractor; you'd just have a limited operating radius rather than full freedom. In either case you'd be tethered, but the exoskeleton itself would stay lightweight.
Thanks for the info, but I found that article to be impenetrable. So I went surfing for a more remedial explaination:
A decent explaination about how these things work.
http://www.tky.3web.ne.jp/~usrmotor/English/html/principlesandStructure.html
NASA JPL image of a robot arm assembly using a ultrasonic rotor (should help with visualizing what TFA is about)
http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/tasks/taskImage.cfm?TaskID=140&tdaID=800006&Image=319
NASA JPL article with a good illustration of the "travelling wave" phenomenon that makes these work.
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/images_videos/iv_pages/Yosi_Ultrasonic_Motor1.html
SSD is expensive right now. Is there any kind of DIY solution for battery-backed RAM out there? How about hacking one together?
I'm not an OS-driver developer, but that's nothing a custom filesystem driver for bsd/linux couldn't handle in some shape or form. You could probably base it off of file use patterns (allow for a 'learning' period before it gets smart) and have it do all that automatically without need for a specialized API or changes to how the OS works. Sprinkle a little etc/conf magic on it and you're good to go.
Well, then isn't is "Frowdwick"?
To be fair, I have had a crosslinked-filesystem error once that intersected with my mp3 directory. I guess the streaming properties of mp3 file are robust enough to steamroll right over this kind of data error. Winamp just kept playing the data stream as the music jumped from song to song all within the same 'file'.
Granted, that's not a scratch per-se. But it is one of several problems one can encounter with mp3 storage.
Well, stars do 'consume' lighter elements only to convert them into heavy (less fusable) elements that are basically waste as far as that process goes. As it happens, planets are made up of these heavy elements, so yea, that's acutally pretty accurate.
Also, with the emphasis on ECMA script and animation, it'll raise standards and compliance for games.
Allez Cuisine!
...at the time it was about what you could expect from keyboards in general.
The 2" height for the keyboard actually was ergonomic for the time, as it was in line with the habits of typists. Back then, mechanical typewriters were still quite common. The amount of pressure required to punch any given key was quite high, so you are supposed to type with your wrists off the desk in order to get enough leverage. Electric typewriters were built that also followed suit, even though there was no need to develop so much leverage. The good 'ol C64 was simply following the crowd.
Today you can get by with typing with the pads of your fingers instead of needing to punch down with your fingertips. The result has been a trend in "low profile" keyboards that are easier to use.
Then: IBM Archives - Typing Posture
Now: Proper Posture & Ergonomic Tips
FWIW, the C128 featured a more low profile design than it's predecessor, reflecting how computer keyboards changed how we typed in the 1980's.
As for the extra symbols and keys - You needed those. The C64 was aimed at programmers as much as end-users hence the design decisions, but finding one for the unfamiliar could be quite a chore (e.g. where the F--- is "WHT"). Plus some games put "Run Stop/Restore" to good use.
However, the cursor keys were an abomination. An inverted "T" on that keyboard would have been very nice indeed. Even the #1 worst pick from this list (The PC Jr.) had for distinct cursor keys.
Mister Smith, secure them backup tapes; I won't be havin' me data slidin' about on deck. Mister Taylor, re-run those CAT-5 cables and make it quick. There'll be no tangled rigging, or loose arrrr-J45's on my ship. Mister Martin, ye be throwin' them Cisco routers overboard, and invite their mangy sales crew over for a good plank walkin' - they be too slow for the likes o' me.
Mister Jones, if it weren't for them lying, theiving scoundrels at the I-arrr-S, I'd have no deal with the likes of ye accountin' folks. Apparently, the lot of 'em don't understand the meanin' of "parlay". But enough of me rambin' - just make sure ye decimal points be just, or I be keelhaulin' the lot of ya.
And as for the rest of ye lilly-livered scalawags, there'll be no drinkin', boozin', torrent-n' or World o' Warrrrcraft until after businessin' hours.
Arrr Meetin' be o-journ'd.
This is a really novel concept, but I'm still left scratching my head. Why the hell would you actually want to do this?
As far as I can tell, this company is banking on the cost of maintaining a whole ship to somehow be less expensive than paying rent on office space for a conventional data center. Are real-estate prices are really out of touch with reality in port cities? Does anyone have any idea as to where the cost benefit is here? Are data services really worth that much, or is this just sheer novelty (e.g. Snow Crash fans)?
The part that set off my crap detector is that wouldn't we have this kind of in-port utilization on cargo ships already if this was somehow cheaper than renting downtown?
At that inter-galactic distances it could take them forever to download anything substantial. Better send them a link to a torrent instead.
That man was something to behold. Don't forget that he sweat like crazy, all over the food he was preparing, and had a nearly perfect record. Coincidence?
This was the reason to watch. Battle Natto comes to mind. Battle monkfish, was another one - looks like something you'd throw back even if you were starving.
That's a shame. The original series had such a lovable, over-the-top, quirkyness that is lacking in it's american counterpart. Not to mention that the "secret ingredient" was, more often than not, some random and unappetizing thing that a fisherman found in his net that morning.
To bring ICA up to that level we need "battle road-kill" or somesuch, with the chairman ruminating in his study about the role roast possum had in the formation of our great country.
As long as it has a "don't break your arm" bonus driving stage, I'm in!
I wish I had mod points so I could mod this up.
I don't think anyone has bothered to consider the retrospective view of the industry that is currently suing people from behind the RIAA. Thank you. I didn't think about how vinyl wears out - I never owned enough LP's for long enough to really notice. However, I have had plenty of tapes get munched and snapped by cheap walkmen and in-car decks. Ironically, this was *exactly* the reason why I made mix tapes: because the medium itself was too fragile and replacements were costly.
There's another factor involved that I feel is a major one: non-mainstream and underground music. These days, it's not uncommon to know of at least one band that you like that isn't backed by one of the big five labels (e.g. Jonathan Coulton). Thanks to the internet, advertisment, promtion and distribution are all very efficient and very cheap for the would-be rockstar - services that used to be jealously controlled by major labels. Since the genie is now out of the bottle, RIAA labels now have to share the industry they built with thousands of unknowns that don't even come up on the (Billboard) radar. As a result, their sales plummet and their analists are left scratching their heads as to why - piracy is just a scapegoat.
Geez. The least you could do is actually tell the uninformed masses what MRSA is:
:)
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(from the wash-your-damn-hands dept.)
This is either the longest and most researched Flaimbait ever to appear on SlashDot, or I just blew. Your. Freaking. Mind.
Not particularily mind blowing, but interesting nonetheless. For the record, this yank *does* care, but he knows that there's little he can do until he's diagnosed with it (if ever). It is alarming that there's not more awareness being generated, and I would hope that this kind of info is merely being funneled directly to the doctor's office instead of the post office.
At some point some microbe or another is going to wind up on top thanks to all the selective pressure that medicine generates. I suppose we should feel lucky that this bug takes the top slot, instead of something nastier like plague. It also follows that treatment is difficult and expensive, since it's the cheap-and-easy stuff that bred this bug in the first place - this also explains the statistics.
Now what really piqued my interest was the note on the Wikipedia page about Phage Therapy being a possible alternative to antibiotics.
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
Perhaps the oddest thing about the article is the reference to a percentage of Morocco's land-mass for use as a solar concentrator. Granted, it's geographic location and weather probably make it ideal for solar-thermal power production. Still, we wouldn't need quite that level of efficiency if the plant were placed closer to where the demand for power is at it's highest.
Just taking a look at pictures of Solar Two (now C.A.C.T.U.S.) one can easily see this kind of tech being built *over* existing structures. Anyone who has cruised google maps has noticed how completely disused rooftops are. Plus-sized Shopping malls, and their adjacent parking lots come to mind:
Solar Two (thanks to John Sokol above for URL)
Potomac Mills Mall (VA) Zoom out for the surrounding satellite shopping malls.
King of Prussia Mall (PA) According to Wikipedia, this is the 14th largest mall in the world.
Hey, it can happen. That's where MTV networks shines: re-invention to suit an ever-changing audience.
I just can't wait to see what level of surrealism will be required by the generation that was weened on Spongebob Squarepants.
I can practically hear the collective "whooosh" of this joke flying over the heads of so many that replied to your post.
At least the mods got it.
+1 Pithy Meta-Humor
...a hollow formulaic plot with over the top characters that will basicly keep you occupied, but ultimately unsatisfied and wishing you'd done something else with your day.
MTV already has this part down with little more than selective casting for its various incarnations of The Real World.