Be careful bragging about AIX, it's not at the head of the UNIX class. Solaris 10 kicks AIX butt in features and performance. Solaris10 is also Open Source and runs on X86 boxes all the way to E20K 72CPU machines. AIX is not free, Solaris 10 and Linux are free to users (maintenance is extra, unless you chose to get it via the LUGs or other sources)
Linux is a very good choice for a Small/Medium Business environment and even for some desktops. Right now Linux does not scale really well once you get past about 16 CPUs.
This is a bad comparison. The AMD X64 chips are running 2.6 or 2.8GHz and they compare it to a 2.0 GHz Intel chip. To get the Intel chip to perform as well as a 2.8 Ghz AMD they are going to need to hit about 3.5Ghz. They try to compensate that speed dif with a bigger cache, which helps if you get high cache hits, but miss the cache and you take a big performance hit. You have to watch benchmark tests that are referenced as some of them fit 100% into cache and you get great results, real world apps don't often work that way. Intel will be jacking up the speed on this chip in less than a year. when they do, I'll guarantee you that even at 65nm they will run just as hot if not hotter than the AMDs. Unless this is a fundamental new design, Intel gets compute power by increasing clock speeds, AMD designs smarter chips. When AMD goes to the 65nm chips it'll leap back in front in an fair test.
Hmm..wasn't this kinda the plot line from that old sci-fi movie called the Andromeda Strain..probe brings back some dust, lands in the desert but causes a disease that kills everyone..Somehow in the end they save the world but I can't recall the full plot..Guess I'll have to check IMDB.com
When you have dealt with the Saudis, UAE, Dubai, and Quatar on mutlimillion dollar deals as I have, then you can talk. They want the USA only when it is to thier benefit, if it is our idea then things stall. They really value thier independance until trouble happens. I have traveled with these folks in the USA and we have talked about "issues" such as Religion, Israel and the like. They flatly told me you cannot say such things about Israel or Allah (religion) in our nation, you would get in lots of trouble and your business would suffer greatly. IMO, the best ones to deal with are in the UAE as they are quite modern but it can still be very tricky unless you know the right people.
Usually you have to get a seperate judgement to attach property to pay the lein. And just where in the world would Sony have property in BackSideofNowhere, Texas?
You are so ignorant it's amazing about so many topics. You obviously don't know history or geo-poltics worth a dam.
I have done business in the Middle East and have friends from that region. The nations of the Middle East want American dollars, technology and business interests. If it makes them a buck they don't give rat's ass what your religous beliefs are, but if you EVER say anything negative about THEIR beliefs or contradict something they say about YOUR beliefs you are gone. Your business will dry up in a heartbeat. Business over there is "thier way or the highway" and "ethics smethics". You get tight with the right guy (The Sheik) by making the right promises and you get great results (of course you have to hire HIS people, not the best qualified ones), don't do/say the right things and you'll never see a dollar of profit.
Many of the most radical Islam groups DO hate Freedom, MTV and Christians...go read the passages in the Koran about "infidels". Right now Eastern Europe is safe but maybe not for long. I guess you forgot about the war in Bosnia between Christians and Muslims, the 20+ year war in Lebanon between Moslems and Christians.
I won't even go into your idiocy about free speech. You really SHOULD be on the Watch list, you sound a lot like some of the OKC terrorists in many ways.
Correct, contracts have to be entered into bilaterally not unilaterally. It is a matter for the State as it is then Fraud to execute a contract not agreed to by both parties. Criminal prosecution IS the domain of the State.
If the GP poster can think of a civil tort that was committed by Sony the sue them. Find a good lawyer who will get 40% of what you win and go for it. Or you could go to small claims court. If you win, just how do you think you will enforce the penalty?
SO next the Netherlands taxes Breathing?;) Seriously, ever though about a tax on stupid politicians? If very much against new taxes just so the Gov't can spend more but a tax on stupid politicians I would support strongly. Come to think of it add stupid drivers to that list.
That's not uncommon for Churches. The one I am talking about is a private non-church food bank, it's a legit charity for IRS purposes and serves the whole county.
I think some teams tried that but since dry ice is really frozen C02 there was the question of how to vent the C02 as it sublimated. There is not a lot of clean air inside a race car so you don't want to add C02 to that. I think they now use a small A/C unit driven off the driveshaft, or just run a stronger battery and use the extra amps for the A/C unit.
Does "noise" have a characteristic that could be used against it? A signal should be pretty darn steady (with maybe a tick of freq shift due to atmospheric effects) but shouldn't noise be "Random". Could one generate "reverse noise" and attempt to further reduce the noise w/o affecting the signal. Or are the signals too intertwined with the noise?
Decent sidearm? IIRC, officers can chose the old standby.45 cal as well as the 9mm. Niether one is a slouch of a firearm.
The.223 (5.56mmm) round was used in the M-16 to keep the recoil low and prevent the muzzle walking up and wasting ammo shot over the head of the target. With the invention of body armor the 223 round isn't going to do any damage unless it is a lucky shot.
Too bad they can't use the captured AK's, those are all 7.63mm, and look at all the free ammo just lying around all over the world.
That statement pertains to citizens of the USA who are suspected terrorists, not just your ordinary citizen or ordinary criminal. And by the way, The Constitution does NOT apply to foreign citizens or to terrorists. The Geneva Convention also does not protect terrorists. As far as Constitutional guarantees to protect the Homeland, the Constitution gives the President the power to wage war, it empowers him to protect the nation (in fact he swears to this). It has also been held the acts ARE Constitutional. The use of Presidental power in such ways dates back to at least Abraham Lincoln who used it during the Civil War (but he had very low tech means). Other presidents of BOTH parties have used it as well. Try again, liberal.
What's old is new again!
NASA had it in the 60's. NASCAR drivers had it in the 70's and 80's. It was called the Cool Suit. It ran water in hoses via a small pump thru a cooler full of ice and then thru a vest like garment worn by the driver. Later on they added a fan which blew cool air into the helmet to keep the head cool. Worked great but the extra weight of the ice/water was not very nice. And some of the earlier systems did need ice added if it was really really hot. Temps inside a race car can run 135 and up and for 3-4 hours during a race.
I know that NASA can filter out a fraction of a milliwatt signal out of the background noise of the entire universe as well as the noise from the electronic spectrum in the atmosphere. NSA does amazing things too. Of course it's not done in realtime, but with advanced electronics and DSPs it shoud be soon. I know Am Radio covers alot of bands but if you have one you want to pick up, you should be able to design a bandpass (notch) filter to pass only the signal. Maybe this type of gear is out of budget for most amateurs. I understand Shannon's theorem, but I don't know the characteristics of the signals and noise to see how much the noise would affect the signal. Has anyone done this math?
Name the sources (NOT mass media outlets and not the orgs themselves) that say Greenpeace and PETA are being investigated on an ONGOING basis. GP and PETA have been known to perform unlawful acts in support of thier agendas. Some would even call eco-terrorism some of the acts Greenpeace has done. PETA- People Eating Tasty Animals- seems pretty harmless;)
600K in the USA? Licensed operators? That seems high. Maybe that many licenses but not that many active. Broadband interfernece filters..they exist, I've worked on enough Gov't comm projects to know they do. Some are classified or patented but they exist.
I agree with the marginal (profitable) technology. I really don't see the ROI for the power companies. TXU has made some dumb moves in the past.
I've never had my life saved by Amateur Radio. If you are talking Storm Spotters and the like, yes they are valuable but they are equipped with comms that operate above the freqs that are inteferred with. Emergency repsonders operate in a dedicated range
Bike lanes and leisure time is due to Government regulation. In some cities there are no bike lanes. It all depends on what the majority of the citizens pressure the Gov't to fund. I suggest your group starts lobbying hard. In the USA, unless there is some over=riding public interest, majority rules. 600K is not a trival number for a interest group, so get busy getting the situation fixed verus just complaining on the Internet! Once this gets "established" you are going to have a much harder time getting rid of it!
The US no longer builds nuclear weapons. They actually are dismantling some. Sandia does a lot of SIMULATIONS of such weapons. I'm sure they have materials around to gather data for the simulations but they don't make bombs anymore. When the bombs were made, most were made at a facility outside Amarillo, TX.
Well, ARRL isn't exactly an un-biased source! Milliwatts can certainly mask another milliwatt signal but if Amateur radio is the only thing affected I don't see it as that big a deal. Plus there ARE alogrithms/filters to pick up a weak signal out of interference in the same band. There may be a few 1000's of Hams nationwide. They know alot about radio but I've also known them to interfere with other systems with overpowered equipment. Basically, Commerce takes precendence over hobbies. I really doubt that Texas Power Lines are going to hose up worldwide communications. The FCC is a LOT smarter than that. The regulations can change..didn't the ARRL submit comments to the FCC rules telling them the interference bands were wrong?
Any sort of electro-magnetic field decreases as the square of the distance, so to interfere with wireless devices the wireless transmitter must be darn close to these High Voltage lines or the signal must be several 100's of watts to propogate more than a few meters from the line.
Last time I looked in rural areas, these High Voltage lines were not close to anything but perhaps a few farmhouses and were strung 100+ feet off the ground. I don't expect TXU would run this service in the city, unless via buried cable where shielding would eliminate interference.
Whatever the technology, it has already been rolled out in Cincinatti, OH (see http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/st ories/DN-txu_19bus.ART.State.Edition3.bf6a1c.html)
Anyone heard any complaints from that market? I know my Internet wireless uses signals that are up in the Ghz band so I don't expect any problems. The whole problem, best I can tell, is from Amateur Radio Operators ()who as I read the rules are protected (if they are licensed). So I see a LOT of bitching about nothing. I don't see this intefering with any vital communications such as Police, Fire and others who normally use bands above this (155mhz and 800Mhz are common). Some HF aircraft freqs are in this range but most are in the 130's range. So why the big fuss?
Mod parent DOWN as he only tells you HALF the truth. I, unlike most other/.ers went over to Wikipedia and READ the WHOLE article referenced. Here is what he DIDN'T tell you... New FCC rules require BPL systems to be capable of remotely notching out frequencies on which interference occurs, and of shutting down remotely if necessary to resolve the interference. BPL systems operating within FCC Part 15 emissions limits may still interfere with wireless radio communications and are required to resolve interference problems. A few early trials have been shut down, though whether it was in response to complaints is debatable.
Recently, Motorola has announced a new Low Voltage Access BPL system that has a reduced potential for interference over the Amperion Inc. and Current Technologies LLC systems. The American Radio Relay League was invited by Motorola to participate with these tests, and even installed the Motorola system at their headquarters. Preliminary results were very positive with regard to interference...so after reading that it seems the parent was crying FOUL over nothing. I have wireless Internet here in Rural N. Texas (in fact there are several options) and also have TXU power in the area. We've seen no problems.
Unless TXU gets really fast and really cheap they aren't going to displace Cable & DSL except where those are not available, which seems to be a shrinking area. . TXU knows nothing about running an ISP, so hopefully they outsourced it to some firm that does.
I have a close friend who works on the Board of our food bank here in N. Texas. She says give MONEY. As they can buy food for around 17 cents/pound in bulk from the mfgs and/or the Regional Food Bank. I can't think of anything in the Grocery store you can buy at that price. The list you provided is good, but add in Infant Formula/Baby Food, Powdered Milk, Hot Cereals (Oatmeal, Grits, Cream of Wheat), Salt/Pepper, Sugar, Condiments. Frozen Meats (such as those on-sale frozen Turkeys) are also good as they can feed a family for a week with one of those!
I think you are making this up, or else were an ignorant troop. Humvees ARE amored, just not to the level of surviving an IED made of 155mm rounds. They were meant to protect from small arms fire. Uparmored ones are being produced are in in country, just not as much as we would like. Not much except an Abrams is going to survive some of those IEDs.
The unmanned recon planes (such as Predators) exist and are in use. They are painted to blend in almost perfectly with the sky, so you DON'T see them. They are not used too often as they cost a LOT of $$$ and we lose them ever so often (too often). Good recon can be had from other sources, HUMINT is often the best but is hard to get.
Gov't contractors are NOT corrupt. Try working for one. There are incredible hurdles you have to jump thru to make certain all is above-board. And guess what, that costs money! When you have a whole staff of people doing Ethics Training that gets expensive, and each year every employee has to be re-trained to meet some stupid DOD mandate. Like someone forgets thier ethics each year and has to relearn them. The guys/gals in DC approve all the contracts, so if you think you are getting overcharged talk to them. They negotiate the deals and contractors rarely get the price they ask, often they get a lot less.
No,the best setup is RAID 5 + 0. But that takes lots of drives. Mirrored is great but you give up 50% of your usable space. On your home system that's not so bad, but when you have 100's of disks in a large SAN that idea gets expensive quick! I've never seen a RAID 5 that couldn't be recovered IF only 1 drive went bad.
You would be surprised at how popular small disks are (73GBs are quite common) as they give excellent performance. Talk to any Oracle DBA that has a large DB and they will tell you they prefer a lot of small disks to lesser big disks (like 300GB).
"You know even commercial airliners have engines with combustions inside that are so hot that if they touched the sides of the engine, it would melt right through it."
Not True at all, jet engines have a combustion chamber where the fuel burns, temps can be close to 1200K (2700 F), Titanium which is commonly used in Jet Engines and other high temp applications has a melting point at 1941K (3000 F). The afterburners on military jets are even hotter and the don't melt the afterburner components which IIRC are made of Inconel.
The rules are because Jet Engines are actually quite finicky and delicate. It takes a lot to make one of them operate efficiently and for long periods. When they fail they tend to do nasty things like throw compressor blades thru the fuselage and into people. Not a nice thing..
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Be careful bragging about AIX, it's not at the head of the UNIX class. Solaris 10 kicks AIX butt in features and performance. Solaris10 is also Open Source and runs on X86 boxes all the way to E20K 72CPU machines. AIX is not free, Solaris 10 and Linux are free to users (maintenance is extra, unless you chose to get it via the LUGs or other sources) Linux is a very good choice for a Small/Medium Business environment and even for some desktops. Right now Linux does not scale really well once you get past about 16 CPUs.
This is a bad comparison. The AMD X64 chips are running 2.6 or 2.8GHz and they compare it to a 2.0 GHz Intel chip. To get the Intel chip to perform as well as a 2.8 Ghz AMD they are going to need to hit about 3.5Ghz. They try to compensate that speed dif with a bigger cache, which helps if you get high cache hits, but miss the cache and you take a big performance hit. You have to watch benchmark tests that are referenced as some of them fit 100% into cache and you get great results, real world apps don't often work that way. Intel will be jacking up the speed on this chip in less than a year. when they do, I'll guarantee you that even at 65nm they will run just as hot if not hotter than the AMDs. Unless this is a fundamental new design, Intel gets compute power by increasing clock speeds, AMD designs smarter chips. When AMD goes to the 65nm chips it'll leap back in front in an fair test.
Hmm..wasn't this kinda the plot line from that old sci-fi movie called the Andromeda Strain..probe brings back some dust, lands in the desert but causes a disease that kills everyone..Somehow in the end they save the world but I can't recall the full plot..Guess I'll have to check IMDB.com
When you have dealt with the Saudis, UAE, Dubai, and Quatar on mutlimillion dollar deals as I have, then you can talk. They want the USA only when it is to thier benefit, if it is our idea then things stall. They really value thier independance until trouble happens. I have traveled with these folks in the USA and we have talked about "issues" such as Religion, Israel and the like. They flatly told me you cannot say such things about Israel or Allah (religion) in our nation, you would get in lots of trouble and your business would suffer greatly. IMO, the best ones to deal with are in the UAE as they are quite modern but it can still be very tricky unless you know the right people.
Usually you have to get a seperate judgement to attach property to pay the lein. And just where in the world would Sony have property in BackSideofNowhere, Texas?
You are so ignorant it's amazing about so many topics. You obviously don't know history or geo-poltics worth a dam. I have done business in the Middle East and have friends from that region. The nations of the Middle East want American dollars, technology and business interests. If it makes them a buck they don't give rat's ass what your religous beliefs are, but if you EVER say anything negative about THEIR beliefs or contradict something they say about YOUR beliefs you are gone. Your business will dry up in a heartbeat. Business over there is "thier way or the highway" and "ethics smethics". You get tight with the right guy (The Sheik) by making the right promises and you get great results (of course you have to hire HIS people, not the best qualified ones), don't do/say the right things and you'll never see a dollar of profit. Many of the most radical Islam groups DO hate Freedom, MTV and Christians...go read the passages in the Koran about "infidels". Right now Eastern Europe is safe but maybe not for long. I guess you forgot about the war in Bosnia between Christians and Muslims, the 20+ year war in Lebanon between Moslems and Christians. I won't even go into your idiocy about free speech. You really SHOULD be on the Watch list, you sound a lot like some of the OKC terrorists in many ways.
Correct, contracts have to be entered into bilaterally not unilaterally. It is a matter for the State as it is then Fraud to execute a contract not agreed to by both parties. Criminal prosecution IS the domain of the State. If the GP poster can think of a civil tort that was committed by Sony the sue them. Find a good lawyer who will get 40% of what you win and go for it. Or you could go to small claims court. If you win, just how do you think you will enforce the penalty?
SO next the Netherlands taxes Breathing? ;) Seriously, ever though about a tax on stupid politicians? If very much against new taxes just so the Gov't can spend more but a tax on stupid politicians I would support strongly. Come to think of it add stupid drivers to that list.
That's not uncommon for Churches. The one I am talking about is a private non-church food bank, it's a legit charity for IRS purposes and serves the whole county.
I think some teams tried that but since dry ice is really frozen C02 there was the question of how to vent the C02 as it sublimated. There is not a lot of clean air inside a race car so you don't want to add C02 to that. I think they now use a small A/C unit driven off the driveshaft, or just run a stronger battery and use the extra amps for the A/C unit.
Does "noise" have a characteristic that could be used against it? A signal should be pretty darn steady (with maybe a tick of freq shift due to atmospheric effects) but shouldn't noise be "Random". Could one generate "reverse noise" and attempt to further reduce the noise w/o affecting the signal. Or are the signals too intertwined with the noise?
Decent sidearm? IIRC, officers can chose the old standby.45 cal as well as the 9mm. Niether one is a slouch of a firearm. The .223 (5.56mmm) round was used in the M-16 to keep the recoil low and prevent the muzzle walking up and wasting ammo shot over the head of the target. With the invention of body armor the 223 round isn't going to do any damage unless it is a lucky shot.
Too bad they can't use the captured AK's, those are all 7.63mm, and look at all the free ammo just lying around all over the world.
That statement pertains to citizens of the USA who are suspected terrorists, not just your ordinary citizen or ordinary criminal. And by the way, The Constitution does NOT apply to foreign citizens or to terrorists. The Geneva Convention also does not protect terrorists. As far as Constitutional guarantees to protect the Homeland, the Constitution gives the President the power to wage war, it empowers him to protect the nation (in fact he swears to this). It has also been held the acts ARE Constitutional. The use of Presidental power in such ways dates back to at least Abraham Lincoln who used it during the Civil War (but he had very low tech means). Other presidents of BOTH parties have used it as well. Try again, liberal.
What's old is new again! NASA had it in the 60's. NASCAR drivers had it in the 70's and 80's. It was called the Cool Suit. It ran water in hoses via a small pump thru a cooler full of ice and then thru a vest like garment worn by the driver. Later on they added a fan which blew cool air into the helmet to keep the head cool. Worked great but the extra weight of the ice/water was not very nice. And some of the earlier systems did need ice added if it was really really hot. Temps inside a race car can run 135 and up and for 3-4 hours during a race.
I know that NASA can filter out a fraction of a milliwatt signal out of the background noise of the entire universe as well as the noise from the electronic spectrum in the atmosphere. NSA does amazing things too. Of course it's not done in realtime, but with advanced electronics and DSPs it shoud be soon. I know Am Radio covers alot of bands but if you have one you want to pick up, you should be able to design a bandpass (notch) filter to pass only the signal. Maybe this type of gear is out of budget for most amateurs. I understand Shannon's theorem, but I don't know the characteristics of the signals and noise to see how much the noise would affect the signal. Has anyone done this math?
Name the sources (NOT mass media outlets and not the orgs themselves) that say Greenpeace and PETA are being investigated on an ONGOING basis. GP and PETA have been known to perform unlawful acts in support of thier agendas. Some would even call eco-terrorism some of the acts Greenpeace has done. PETA- People Eating Tasty Animals- seems pretty harmless ;)
600K in the USA? Licensed operators? That seems high. Maybe that many licenses but not that many active. Broadband interfernece filters..they exist, I've worked on enough Gov't comm projects to know they do. Some are classified or patented but they exist. I agree with the marginal (profitable) technology. I really don't see the ROI for the power companies. TXU has made some dumb moves in the past. I've never had my life saved by Amateur Radio. If you are talking Storm Spotters and the like, yes they are valuable but they are equipped with comms that operate above the freqs that are inteferred with. Emergency repsonders operate in a dedicated range Bike lanes and leisure time is due to Government regulation. In some cities there are no bike lanes. It all depends on what the majority of the citizens pressure the Gov't to fund. I suggest your group starts lobbying hard. In the USA, unless there is some over=riding public interest, majority rules. 600K is not a trival number for a interest group, so get busy getting the situation fixed verus just complaining on the Internet! Once this gets "established" you are going to have a much harder time getting rid of it!
The US no longer builds nuclear weapons. They actually are dismantling some. Sandia does a lot of SIMULATIONS of such weapons. I'm sure they have materials around to gather data for the simulations but they don't make bombs anymore. When the bombs were made, most were made at a facility outside Amarillo, TX.
Well, ARRL isn't exactly an un-biased source! Milliwatts can certainly mask another milliwatt signal but if Amateur radio is the only thing affected I don't see it as that big a deal. Plus there ARE alogrithms/filters to pick up a weak signal out of interference in the same band. There may be a few 1000's of Hams nationwide. They know alot about radio but I've also known them to interfere with other systems with overpowered equipment. Basically, Commerce takes precendence over hobbies. I really doubt that Texas Power Lines are going to hose up worldwide communications. The FCC is a LOT smarter than that. The regulations can change..didn't the ARRL submit comments to the FCC rules telling them the interference bands were wrong?
Any sort of electro-magnetic field decreases as the square of the distance, so to interfere with wireless devices the wireless transmitter must be darn close to these High Voltage lines or the signal must be several 100's of watts to propogate more than a few meters from the line. Last time I looked in rural areas, these High Voltage lines were not close to anything but perhaps a few farmhouses and were strung 100+ feet off the ground. I don't expect TXU would run this service in the city, unless via buried cable where shielding would eliminate interference. Whatever the technology, it has already been rolled out in Cincinatti, OH (see http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/st ories/DN-txu_19bus.ART.State.Edition3.bf6a1c.html)
Anyone heard any complaints from that market? I know my Internet wireless uses signals that are up in the Ghz band so I don't expect any problems. The whole problem, best I can tell, is from Amateur Radio Operators ()who as I read the rules are protected (if they are licensed). So I see a LOT of bitching about nothing. I don't see this intefering with any vital communications such as Police, Fire and others who normally use bands above this (155mhz and 800Mhz are common). Some HF aircraft freqs are in this range but most are in the 130's range. So why the big fuss?
Mod parent DOWN as he only tells you HALF the truth. I, unlike most other /.ers went over to Wikipedia and READ the WHOLE article referenced. Here is what he DIDN'T tell you...
..so after reading that it seems the parent was crying FOUL over nothing. I have wireless Internet here in Rural N. Texas (in fact there are several options) and also have TXU power in the area. We've seen no problems.
New FCC rules require BPL systems to be capable of remotely notching out frequencies on which interference occurs, and of shutting down remotely if necessary to resolve the interference. BPL systems operating within FCC Part 15 emissions limits may still interfere with wireless radio communications and are required to resolve interference problems. A few early trials have been shut down, though whether it was in response to complaints is debatable.
Recently, Motorola has announced a new Low Voltage Access BPL system that has a reduced potential for interference over the Amperion Inc. and Current Technologies LLC systems. The American Radio Relay League was invited by Motorola to participate with these tests, and even installed the Motorola system at their headquarters. Preliminary results were very positive with regard to interference.
Unless TXU gets really fast and really cheap they aren't going to displace Cable & DSL except where those are not available, which seems to be a shrinking area. . TXU knows nothing about running an ISP, so hopefully they outsourced it to some firm that does.
I have a close friend who works on the Board of our food bank here in N. Texas. She says give MONEY. As they can buy food for around 17 cents/pound in bulk from the mfgs and/or the Regional Food Bank. I can't think of anything in the Grocery store you can buy at that price. The list you provided is good, but add in Infant Formula/Baby Food, Powdered Milk, Hot Cereals (Oatmeal, Grits, Cream of Wheat), Salt/Pepper, Sugar, Condiments. Frozen Meats (such as those on-sale frozen Turkeys) are also good as they can feed a family for a week with one of those!
I think you are making this up, or else were an ignorant troop. Humvees ARE amored, just not to the level of surviving an IED made of 155mm rounds. They were meant to protect from small arms fire. Uparmored ones are being produced are in in country, just not as much as we would like. Not much except an Abrams is going to survive some of those IEDs.
The unmanned recon planes (such as Predators) exist and are in use. They are painted to blend in almost perfectly with the sky, so you DON'T see them. They are not used too often as they cost a LOT of $$$ and we lose them ever so often (too often). Good recon can be had from other sources, HUMINT is often the best but is hard to get.
Gov't contractors are NOT corrupt. Try working for one. There are incredible hurdles you have to jump thru to make certain all is above-board. And guess what, that costs money! When you have a whole staff of people doing Ethics Training that gets expensive, and each year every employee has to be re-trained to meet some stupid DOD mandate. Like someone forgets thier ethics each year and has to relearn them. The guys/gals in DC approve all the contracts, so if you think you are getting overcharged talk to them. They negotiate the deals and contractors rarely get the price they ask, often they get a lot less.
No,the best setup is RAID 5 + 0. But that takes lots of drives. Mirrored is great but you give up 50% of your usable space. On your home system that's not so bad, but when you have 100's of disks in a large SAN that idea gets expensive quick! I've never seen a RAID 5 that couldn't be recovered IF only 1 drive went bad.
You would be surprised at how popular small disks are (73GBs are quite common) as they give excellent performance. Talk to any Oracle DBA that has a large DB and they will tell you they prefer a lot of small disks to lesser big disks (like 300GB).
"You know even commercial airliners have engines with combustions inside that are so hot that if they touched the sides of the engine, it would melt right through it." Not True at all, jet engines have a combustion chamber where the fuel burns, temps can be close to 1200K (2700 F), Titanium which is commonly used in Jet Engines and other high temp applications has a melting point at 1941K (3000 F). The afterburners on military jets are even hotter and the don't melt the afterburner components which IIRC are made of Inconel. The rules are because Jet Engines are actually quite finicky and delicate. It takes a lot to make one of them operate efficiently and for long periods. When they fail they tend to do nasty things like throw compressor blades thru the fuselage and into people. Not a nice thing..