Granted, the numbers I provided were simplified but the result remains clear. Let's apply the 50% figure - we still come out with 3,302 duckets per square kilometer in the US vs 17,265 duckets per square kilometer in Japan. Further, having been to Japan and Korea there is still a lot of countryside, particularly in mountainous regions where you'll find little else except a temple here and there - miles away from anything else. So the 17,265 duckets would be a low number for populated areas in Japan, but I'll leave it be for now.
Even in cities, population density is consistently higher in Japan and Korea. This is less a result of all the land being used up, but rather cities tend to be located between mountains and other geographical features that limit the ground area a city can cover, so they have to build up rather than out. In the US, it's much cheaper to keep building out and out and out, spreading those duckets over a far greater land area whatever way you slice it.
You dismiss geography, but that's only part of it. The math doesn't have to do just with geography or number of subscribers, but a combination of the two:
United States:
302.44 million people / 9.16 million square kilometers = 33.02 people per square kilometer.
Japan:
127.76 million people / 0.37 million square kilometers = 345.30 people per square kilometer
That's a big difference. Now imagine an average monthly subscription price of 50 duckets.
United States: 1,651 duckets per square kilometer
Japan: 17,265 duckets per square kilometer
Imagine how those numbers might affect the quality of the infrastructure in the US vs Japan.
Even in populated areas, Japanese cities maintain a much higher average population density than US cities. Think of this in terms of duckets per area of land and you'll see an explanation for the current state of not only our cell network, but our public transit systems and more.
I'm a regular visitor to Japan and South Korea, two countries with some of the best mobile technology worldwide.
My experience with x10 is the same and I'm considering Insteon as well. I need something very reliable, and x10 does not seem to be progressing these days.
Instead of GLBT, use GBLT or a similar form (maybe even BLT-G if you're feeling gangsta).
Everyone loves BLTs (except maybe vegetarians, but they're gay).
I'm surprised I haven't seen this mentioned in the article or the forum so far, but it's a shortcoming I notice often in my day-to-day computer use.
No modern operating, in my experience, enables the user to click in more than one place at a time. I know, even those of us with multiple monitors rarely feel the need to grip and reposition two or more windows at a time, but what about gestures? Wouldn't it be nice to grip two edges or corners of a window and resize or rotate it?
To my knowledge, the only products that enable this type of interaction were made by FingerWorks [http://www.fingerworks.com/%5D, which is no longer in business.
Touched screens can be messy to look at, but multi-touch pads are a very good idea.
Isn't this the same site that told us Zalman was releasing a super-sized heatsink that would require five power supplies daisy-chained together to power it (well after April 1, mind you)? Someone needs to start screening these Hexus posts.
Put in a tape, hit record. It's simple and always works the same way.
Navigation is simple: backward or forward. No need for menus, etc.
No VHS +/- R/RW SL/DL formats to choose from - just VHS.
The only real downside as far as most consumers go is that a bad machine may eat a tape.
It was modded insightful for the same reason your post was left at one.
If the idea that everyone who votes should make their own decision (however "well-informed") is arrogant, then yes, I'm an arrogant, elitist son of a bitch.
All I'm saying is that individuals who vote a certain way ONLY because someone else tells them to with NO evaluation of their own are essentially acting as ballot stuffers, and should be regarded with only slightly less contempt than someone who sells their vote for money. Even if someone bases their decision on a choice between candidates' photos, at least it's THEIR choice.
This is similar to my idea regarding procreation. I've often suggested that it'd be great to have people's reproductive organs "deactivated" by default. In order to procreate, they'd have to have them "switched on" first.
What about the people that can't afford to support a kid but want to have one (or seven) anyway? Should they be allowed to have their reproductive organs switched on? Should there be a standard test or list of qualifications?
On one hand, it's something I'd like to see, but we invariably run into the problem of who creates the test. In the end, I think the idea of just having to have your reproductive organs activated (no test) to procreate would do a world of good, sipmly because it would mean a deliberate decision on the part of the parent.
Likewise, we'd run into the same problem here of who creates the test. I think the current system of having to register 30 days before an election is a good measure, since it means that everyone voting has at least had to think about it a leeeeetle bit (although this only counts once - voters should have to re-register for each election).
Another practical idea in this area (but one that will never happen thanks to our two party system) is to print only the names of candidates on the ballot, without identifying which party they belong to or whether or not they're the incumbent. If you don't know who the person is and where they stand on the issues, you can't just vote based on party.
I guess no one would vote for county clerk anymore...
I agree. This is essentially letting others get multiple votes through you, which is obviously unfair when phrased as such. My sister, for example, is wholly clueless when it comes to politics "I don't even pay attention to that stuff..."
But is she voting? Yes!
For who? Bush!
And why??? "I just vote for whoever Dad tells me to vote for."
I have a very similar setup, but I'm currently only using three hard drives. I'm running Mandrake 10 on an Athlon XP 2000 with three Western Digital 250GB drives. That gives me 500GB of usable space, which I'll probably upgrade to ~1TB (5 drives) in January.
So far I've had no problems. I have a UPS, but I've pulled the plug several times for testing purposes with no ill effects (I tested the setup for several weeks before putting real data on it). I think a big reason this setup works for me is that the server is never under much stress (serving 3-4 household PCs), and it's only used as a file server.
I use computers for everything. Work projects, personal projects, audio/video editing, etc. I never delete anything and would be devastated by a data significant data loss. So I use RAID5 with monthly backups (unfortunately backups are still important), and all important data is saved on the storage server.
I'd recommend against sticking 8 drives in a box. If you're set on using 8, you might want to consider putting a few in external enclosures. Make sure you keep cool air moving across them to avoid shortening the lifespan of your drives.
Currently, I'm only using about 250GB on my 500GB server, with most of the space being consumed by data from my audio/video projects. Unless you're actually going to use 1750GB of space, I suggest using five drives or so in the server while using the remaining three for backups. Also as was mentioned in a previous post, your system may not be beefy enough to handle an 8 drive RAID5 array.
Let us know what you end up doing.
I can think of any number of reasons why CS enrollment would drop:
CS = programming = coding away in a small cubicle with little social interaction (just the image - not always the reality)
Maybe they're after fields with a better job market or better pay? Or maybe they're just realizing that the Dot Com heydays aren't coming back any time soon.
This varies. Personally, I have 24GB of mp3s and access songs all across the board every day. The playlist I currently have loaded is shuffling 4700 songs from hundreds of different artists. There are some artists I rarely access, but I'd say I regularly access about 50% of my music collection. Between my wife's tastes and mine, we regularly access around 75% of it.
The same trend holds for my videos. I access files less rapidly, but have fewer files to access (around 150GB).
For my a/v projects, I do only use about 10% of my data at once. I leave old projects sitting right where they are, but when I do need to access one of them, I don't have to hunt for and load backups.
At any rate, the 10% thing doesn't apply to my situation. It all depends on what type of data you have, how you use it, and how many people use it.
The issue is convenience. My physical CD collection is now boxed up in the closet and my mp3s are located on my 1TB household storage server. I don't like having to change a CD every time I want to hear a certain song. I can't listen to all my music at once, but I can certainly add 2000 songs to a playlist and never have to swap a CD.
Likewise, it's great to be able to put video data on the server. No more changing VHS tapes or DVDs, and the files are readily available from my household computers and my TV (via Pinnacle ShowCenter - an appliance that pulls video files from the server and displays them on TV).
Again with data - it's great to be able to share pics, docs and music on PCs throughout the house. RAID-5 coupled with multi-system backup storage ensures that no data will be lost.
I also do video and sound editing, which also results in a lot of data. I'm only using about 400GB right now, but I have room to expand in the future. That's another great point - not having to worry about how much storage you have - it's virtually unlimited (until next year, anyway). All without burning, storing and organizing backup media.
I suppose the value of such a solution depends on a number of factors such as how much time you spend using computers, how valuable your data is to you, etc. I do just about EVERYTHING for fun and work on computers. If I were to lose all my music data, documents, project files, email, etc. I'd be set back a few years. You can always buy more drives, but personal data (to me, anyway) is priceless.
I know xServes and other prepackaged solutions can make sense in certain environments, but for home, $6000 is waaaaaay too much to spend for 1TB of storage.
Here's my setup:
5 x 250GB ATA hard drives in RAID-5 array ($800)
1 x 120GB system drive ($70)
3 x dual-channel IDE controller cards ($100)
Athlon XP 1800+ system w/512GB RAM and GB ethernet card ($300)
Mandrake Linux 10
That's 1TB of fault-tolerant storage for under $1500, the only sticking point being that you have to put it together yourself. Every hard drive has it's own IDE channel for speed and reliability, and the array can tolerate a drive failure and be rebuilt. Samba allows the server to communicate flawlessly with both linux and windows systems. I've been using this setup for several months and have experienced no issues. Many cases are made that can hold the six drives, though a few may have to go into the 5" slots normally reserved for CD drives and the like.
If you need more reliability, build another server with 4 x 250GB drives (no RAID) and set it to copy backup data nightly. Having your data in two separate boxes helps improve it's chances of survival in the event that physical damage occurs to one box (fire, theft, water, overheating, etc.) You already have fault-tolerant raid in the first box, so just go with 4 non-raid drives in the backup and you have a solution that would satisfy all but the most paranoid individuals.
I thought we already had a few decent smart laws that hold drivers accountable for people they hit, and for endangering the lives of others. Leave it to the courts to properly interpret and apply these laws.
Writing separate laws to cover each distinct situation or to prevent possible misuse of a person's resources is not necessary. Our law books should NOT be as thick as Bibles!
I have a car mount for my iPaq that's easily viewable from my driver's seat. I use it while driving to display large buttons to control my mp3 player. I COULD use it to display video. I COULD display video on the same screen my navigation system uses. And I COULD safely watch video from the driver's seat while parked and enjoying lunch, waiting on someone, etc.
Video screens viewable by the driver have legitimate uses, and we'll be seeing more and more video screens in cars, especially as they become more multi-purpose. However, watching movies while driving is just plain negligent.
Imagine being able to link into a global memory database and share memories with everyone in the world. Visit a new city and automatically know the best places to eat, etc. And with augmented reality, we could tag people and places with notes for others, which is both fun and scary.
I'd hate to think that everything you've ever done may end up as a matter of public record, but it'd be great to know if the cute girl you're interested in has cheated on previous partners before you ask her out.
Does anyone else see age as influencing the results? Project managers are typically older than Developers. Developers are typically older than project managers, etc. Coinidentally, the eldest group is the biggest classical group.
Age is just one of many factors not mentioned that make drawing any useful conclusions from the results very difficult.
This job market is tough - especially for someone trying to get started. My advice to you is to gain experience on your own, read user forums to benefit from the experience of others, and embellish your resume a bit.
I'm not advising anyone to tell any outright lies, but here's the basic idea: Find a job you know you could do well, stretch your experience (ex: start counting from the first day you opened a c++ book) if you're confident you have the equivalent level of proficiency. Create a few personal projects or get involved in some open source development and play up the importance of those projects and your role in them.
Essentially, a company has a job and wants someone who can do it. If you're confident you can do it, apply and tweak your resume to fit as best you can without any outright lies. Be creative. Do some follow-up calling, etc.
The other element is confidence. You have NOT been looking for work for 6 months! You've been taking time off for personal research, etc., and you're better qualified because of it. Interview them - ask them questions about the job and about the company, and research the company beforehand so you have some good questions to ask. You're NOT desperate for any job - this job interests you for a reason. You have plenty of other people interested in you, and they'd be damn lucky to acquire such talent.
Don't cross the line between being confident and being an ass, but don't underestimate the value of confidence (hint: this works with dating too).
Actually, I just built a 1TB fileserver for my home last month (I do a lot of video editing and need a secure place to store it). I'm using Mandrake Linux 10, but most any flavor will do as long as you have the raidtools installed. Also be sure to install Samba so you can map drives on both Windows and Linux systems.
One great thing about using Linux on the fileserver is that you can use software RAID. As the name implies, this requires no special controller cards (which is nice, since RAID 5 controllers typically run $200+). You also have the option of setting spare drives, which allows the array to begin rebuilding immediately in the event that one drive fails - the spare takes its place. Setup is easy - create a RAID, select what type you want, and then add drives to it and format.
I'm using a RAID 5 setup with 5 x 250GB drives giving me 4 x 250GB = approx. 1TB of storage space. As has been mentioned, using RAID 5 allows you to recover if one drive fails. The odds of more than one drive failing before you have a chance to rebuild the array are essentially the odds of your box being destroyed (tornado, fire, etc.).
Also previously mentioned, never attach more than one drive per IDE bus (assuming you're using IDE like I am). Doing so is irresponsible from a bandwidth standpoint as well as from a reliability standpoint, since a drive crash typically brings down the bus, and all drives on the bus with it (and as we all know by now, losing >1 drive is not survivable). Buy some cheap PCI IDE controllers, keeping in mind to ensure that they're dual channel if you plan on connecting >1 drive per controller.
Take some time and read this - it will tell you everything you need to know.
This seems more of a novelty function than something useful. I can see this technology having a few cool uses, but downloading media by tapping CDs and posters isn't it. Remember 5 years ago when "In the future, you'll be able to buy drinks by pointing your cell phone at a soda machine, or using your Java Ring!"
If I want to buy music digitally, why the crap would I want to put pants on and go to the mall? So I can tap my player against a CD and buy music the super-cool new way? I don't know about the rest of you, but for me a primary advantage of buying digital media is the fact that I don't have to go anywhere.
This could make for some hilarious ways to buy porn...
Though Koolio is pretty darn cool, I wouldn't want one around the office. I like having an excuse to get up and walk to the other end of the building now and then (getting my own coffee, thank you).
All we need now is a "Shtoolio" waste collection robot and I won't have any excuses to get up at all!
I agree. While this device may be bulky, it's only a matter of time before it becomes small enough that it can be implanted and not noticed. That means cheaper, more effective bodily diagnostics and, as you mentioned, the ability to detect patterns that warn of impending malfunction.
This is especially important for people who live or work alone, with no one around to summon help. Current medical technology can do quite a bit to help victims of heart attack, stroke, etc. IF the victim receives immediate care.
I'd be first in line for a small, implantable version. I'm only 23, but already concerned that something will happen when I'm off coding or sleeping and the good folks at Alcor will find me too late.
Slashdot Mirror
Granted, the numbers I provided were simplified but the result remains clear. Let's apply the 50% figure - we still come out with 3,302 duckets per square kilometer in the US vs 17,265 duckets per square kilometer in Japan. Further, having been to Japan and Korea there is still a lot of countryside, particularly in mountainous regions where you'll find little else except a temple here and there - miles away from anything else. So the 17,265 duckets would be a low number for populated areas in Japan, but I'll leave it be for now.
Even in cities, population density is consistently higher in Japan and Korea. This is less a result of all the land being used up, but rather cities tend to be located between mountains and other geographical features that limit the ground area a city can cover, so they have to build up rather than out. In the US, it's much cheaper to keep building out and out and out, spreading those duckets over a far greater land area whatever way you slice it.
You dismiss geography, but that's only part of it. The math doesn't have to do just with geography or number of subscribers, but a combination of the two: United States: 302.44 million people / 9.16 million square kilometers = 33.02 people per square kilometer. Japan: 127.76 million people / 0.37 million square kilometers = 345.30 people per square kilometer That's a big difference. Now imagine an average monthly subscription price of 50 duckets. United States: 1,651 duckets per square kilometer Japan: 17,265 duckets per square kilometer Imagine how those numbers might affect the quality of the infrastructure in the US vs Japan. Even in populated areas, Japanese cities maintain a much higher average population density than US cities. Think of this in terms of duckets per area of land and you'll see an explanation for the current state of not only our cell network, but our public transit systems and more. I'm a regular visitor to Japan and South Korea, two countries with some of the best mobile technology worldwide.
My experience with x10 is the same and I'm considering Insteon as well. I need something very reliable, and x10 does not seem to be progressing these days.
Instead of GLBT, use GBLT or a similar form (maybe even BLT-G if you're feeling gangsta). Everyone loves BLTs (except maybe vegetarians, but they're gay).
I'm surprised I haven't seen this mentioned in the article or the forum so far, but it's a shortcoming I notice often in my day-to-day computer use.
No modern operating, in my experience, enables the user to click in more than one place at a time. I know, even those of us with multiple monitors rarely feel the need to grip and reposition two or more windows at a time, but what about gestures? Wouldn't it be nice to grip two edges or corners of a window and resize or rotate it?
To my knowledge, the only products that enable this type of interaction were made by FingerWorks [http://www.fingerworks.com/%5D, which is no longer in business.
Touched screens can be messy to look at, but multi-touch pads are a very good idea.
Ack - sorry, my fault.
Isn't this the same site that told us Zalman was releasing a super-sized heatsink that would require five power supplies daisy-chained together to power it (well after April 1, mind you)? Someone needs to start screening these Hexus posts.
Put in a tape, hit record. It's simple and always works the same way. Navigation is simple: backward or forward. No need for menus, etc. No VHS +/- R/RW SL/DL formats to choose from - just VHS. The only real downside as far as most consumers go is that a bad machine may eat a tape.
Does anyone else remember a few years back when Quantum 3D was making voodoo banshee cards?
It was modded insightful for the same reason your post was left at one.
If the idea that everyone who votes should make their own decision (however "well-informed") is arrogant, then yes, I'm an arrogant, elitist son of a bitch.
All I'm saying is that individuals who vote a certain way ONLY because someone else tells them to with NO evaluation of their own are essentially acting as ballot stuffers, and should be regarded with only slightly less contempt than someone who sells their vote for money. Even if someone bases their decision on a choice between candidates' photos, at least it's THEIR choice.
Please think before you flame.
This is similar to my idea regarding procreation. I've often suggested that it'd be great to have people's reproductive organs "deactivated" by default. In order to procreate, they'd have to have them "switched on" first.
What about the people that can't afford to support a kid but want to have one (or seven) anyway? Should they be allowed to have their reproductive organs switched on? Should there be a standard test or list of qualifications?
On one hand, it's something I'd like to see, but we invariably run into the problem of who creates the test. In the end, I think the idea of just having to have your reproductive organs activated (no test) to procreate would do a world of good, sipmly because it would mean a deliberate decision on the part of the parent.
Likewise, we'd run into the same problem here of who creates the test. I think the current system of having to register 30 days before an election is a good measure, since it means that everyone voting has at least had to think about it a leeeeetle bit (although this only counts once - voters should have to re-register for each election).
Another practical idea in this area (but one that will never happen thanks to our two party system) is to print only the names of candidates on the ballot, without identifying which party they belong to or whether or not they're the incumbent. If you don't know who the person is and where they stand on the issues, you can't just vote based on party.
I guess no one would vote for county clerk anymore...
I agree. This is essentially letting others get multiple votes through you, which is obviously unfair when phrased as such. My sister, for example, is wholly clueless when it comes to politics "I don't even pay attention to that stuff..."
But is she voting? Yes!
For who? Bush!
And why??? "I just vote for whoever Dad tells me to vote for."
Sweet succulent Jesus save us all...
I have a very similar setup, but I'm currently only using three hard drives. I'm running Mandrake 10 on an Athlon XP 2000 with three Western Digital 250GB drives. That gives me 500GB of usable space, which I'll probably upgrade to ~1TB (5 drives) in January. So far I've had no problems. I have a UPS, but I've pulled the plug several times for testing purposes with no ill effects (I tested the setup for several weeks before putting real data on it). I think a big reason this setup works for me is that the server is never under much stress (serving 3-4 household PCs), and it's only used as a file server. I use computers for everything. Work projects, personal projects, audio/video editing, etc. I never delete anything and would be devastated by a data significant data loss. So I use RAID5 with monthly backups (unfortunately backups are still important), and all important data is saved on the storage server. I'd recommend against sticking 8 drives in a box. If you're set on using 8, you might want to consider putting a few in external enclosures. Make sure you keep cool air moving across them to avoid shortening the lifespan of your drives. Currently, I'm only using about 250GB on my 500GB server, with most of the space being consumed by data from my audio/video projects. Unless you're actually going to use 1750GB of space, I suggest using five drives or so in the server while using the remaining three for backups. Also as was mentioned in a previous post, your system may not be beefy enough to handle an 8 drive RAID5 array. Let us know what you end up doing.
I can think of any number of reasons why CS enrollment would drop:
CS = programming = coding away in a small cubicle with little social interaction (just the image - not always the reality)
Maybe they're after fields with a better job market or better pay? Or maybe they're just realizing that the Dot Com heydays aren't coming back any time soon.
This varies. Personally, I have 24GB of mp3s and access songs all across the board every day. The playlist I currently have loaded is shuffling 4700 songs from hundreds of different artists. There are some artists I rarely access, but I'd say I regularly access about 50% of my music collection. Between my wife's tastes and mine, we regularly access around 75% of it.
The same trend holds for my videos. I access files less rapidly, but have fewer files to access (around 150GB).
For my a/v projects, I do only use about 10% of my data at once. I leave old projects sitting right where they are, but when I do need to access one of them, I don't have to hunt for and load backups.
At any rate, the 10% thing doesn't apply to my situation. It all depends on what type of data you have, how you use it, and how many people use it.
The issue is convenience. My physical CD collection is now boxed up in the closet and my mp3s are located on my 1TB household storage server. I don't like having to change a CD every time I want to hear a certain song. I can't listen to all my music at once, but I can certainly add 2000 songs to a playlist and never have to swap a CD.
Likewise, it's great to be able to put video data on the server. No more changing VHS tapes or DVDs, and the files are readily available from my household computers and my TV (via Pinnacle ShowCenter - an appliance that pulls video files from the server and displays them on TV).
Again with data - it's great to be able to share pics, docs and music on PCs throughout the house. RAID-5 coupled with multi-system backup storage ensures that no data will be lost.
I also do video and sound editing, which also results in a lot of data. I'm only using about 400GB right now, but I have room to expand in the future. That's another great point - not having to worry about how much storage you have - it's virtually unlimited (until next year, anyway). All without burning, storing and organizing backup media.
I suppose the value of such a solution depends on a number of factors such as how much time you spend using computers, how valuable your data is to you, etc. I do just about EVERYTHING for fun and work on computers. If I were to lose all my music data, documents, project files, email, etc. I'd be set back a few years. You can always buy more drives, but personal data (to me, anyway) is priceless.
Here's my setup:
That's 1TB of fault-tolerant storage for under $1500, the only sticking point being that you have to put it together yourself. Every hard drive has it's own IDE channel for speed and reliability, and the array can tolerate a drive failure and be rebuilt. Samba allows the server to communicate flawlessly with both linux and windows systems. I've been using this setup for several months and have experienced no issues. Many cases are made that can hold the six drives, though a few may have to go into the 5" slots normally reserved for CD drives and the like.
If you need more reliability, build another server with 4 x 250GB drives (no RAID) and set it to copy backup data nightly. Having your data in two separate boxes helps improve it's chances of survival in the event that physical damage occurs to one box (fire, theft, water, overheating, etc.) You already have fault-tolerant raid in the first box, so just go with 4 non-raid drives in the backup and you have a solution that would satisfy all but the most paranoid individuals.
I thought we already had a few decent smart laws that hold drivers accountable for people they hit, and for endangering the lives of others. Leave it to the courts to properly interpret and apply these laws.
Writing separate laws to cover each distinct situation or to prevent possible misuse of a person's resources is not necessary. Our law books should NOT be as thick as Bibles!
I have a car mount for my iPaq that's easily viewable from my driver's seat. I use it while driving to display large buttons to control my mp3 player. I COULD use it to display video. I COULD display video on the same screen my navigation system uses. And I COULD safely watch video from the driver's seat while parked and enjoying lunch, waiting on someone, etc.
Video screens viewable by the driver have legitimate uses, and we'll be seeing more and more video screens in cars, especially as they become more multi-purpose. However, watching movies while driving is just plain negligent.
Imagine being able to link into a global memory database and share memories with everyone in the world. Visit a new city and automatically know the best places to eat, etc. And with augmented reality, we could tag people and places with notes for others, which is both fun and scary.
I'd hate to think that everything you've ever done may end up as a matter of public record, but it'd be great to know if the cute girl you're interested in has cheated on previous partners before you ask her out.
I can't wait to upgrade myself.
Does anyone else see age as influencing the results? Project managers are typically older than Developers. Developers are typically older than project managers, etc. Coinidentally, the eldest group is the biggest classical group.
Age is just one of many factors not mentioned that make drawing any useful conclusions from the results very difficult.
This job market is tough - especially for someone trying to get started. My advice to you is to gain experience on your own, read user forums to benefit from the experience of others, and embellish your resume a bit.
I'm not advising anyone to tell any outright lies, but here's the basic idea: Find a job you know you could do well, stretch your experience (ex: start counting from the first day you opened a c++ book) if you're confident you have the equivalent level of proficiency. Create a few personal projects or get involved in some open source development and play up the importance of those projects and your role in them.
Essentially, a company has a job and wants someone who can do it. If you're confident you can do it, apply and tweak your resume to fit as best you can without any outright lies. Be creative. Do some follow-up calling, etc.
The other element is confidence. You have NOT been looking for work for 6 months! You've been taking time off for personal research, etc., and you're better qualified because of it. Interview them - ask them questions about the job and about the company, and research the company beforehand so you have some good questions to ask. You're NOT desperate for any job - this job interests you for a reason. You have plenty of other people interested in you, and they'd be damn lucky to acquire such talent.
Don't cross the line between being confident and being an ass, but don't underestimate the value of confidence (hint: this works with dating too).
Actually, I just built a 1TB fileserver for my home last month (I do a lot of video editing and need a secure place to store it). I'm using Mandrake Linux 10, but most any flavor will do as long as you have the raidtools installed. Also be sure to install Samba so you can map drives on both Windows and Linux systems.
One great thing about using Linux on the fileserver is that you can use software RAID. As the name implies, this requires no special controller cards (which is nice, since RAID 5 controllers typically run $200+). You also have the option of setting spare drives, which allows the array to begin rebuilding immediately in the event that one drive fails - the spare takes its place. Setup is easy - create a RAID, select what type you want, and then add drives to it and format.
I'm using a RAID 5 setup with 5 x 250GB drives giving me 4 x 250GB = approx. 1TB of storage space. As has been mentioned, using RAID 5 allows you to recover if one drive fails. The odds of more than one drive failing before you have a chance to rebuild the array are essentially the odds of your box being destroyed (tornado, fire, etc.).
Also previously mentioned, never attach more than one drive per IDE bus (assuming you're using IDE like I am). Doing so is irresponsible from a bandwidth standpoint as well as from a reliability standpoint, since a drive crash typically brings down the bus, and all drives on the bus with it (and as we all know by now, losing >1 drive is not survivable). Buy some cheap PCI IDE controllers, keeping in mind to ensure that they're dual channel if you plan on connecting >1 drive per controller.
Take some time and read this - it will tell you everything you need to know.
This seems more of a novelty function than something useful. I can see this technology having a few cool uses, but downloading media by tapping CDs and posters isn't it. Remember 5 years ago when "In the future, you'll be able to buy drinks by pointing your cell phone at a soda machine, or using your Java Ring!"
If I want to buy music digitally, why the crap would I want to put pants on and go to the mall? So I can tap my player against a CD and buy music the super-cool new way? I don't know about the rest of you, but for me a primary advantage of buying digital media is the fact that I don't have to go anywhere.
This could make for some hilarious ways to buy porn...
Though Koolio is pretty darn cool, I wouldn't want one around the office. I like having an excuse to get up and walk to the other end of the building now and then (getting my own coffee, thank you).
All we need now is a "Shtoolio" waste collection robot and I won't have any excuses to get up at all!
I agree. While this device may be bulky, it's only a matter of time before it becomes small enough that it can be implanted and not noticed. That means cheaper, more effective bodily diagnostics and, as you mentioned, the ability to detect patterns that warn of impending malfunction.
This is especially important for people who live or work alone, with no one around to summon help. Current medical technology can do quite a bit to help victims of heart attack, stroke, etc. IF the victim receives immediate care.
I'd be first in line for a small, implantable version. I'm only 23, but already concerned that something will happen when I'm off coding or sleeping and the good folks at Alcor will find me too late.