Ahh, Slashdot, where anything Microsoft is thought of as a piece of shit. Mailtrust (formerly Webmail.us) has hundreds of thousands users using their mail product. The backend? Linux running mail daemons and their storage system. The front end? Windows Server 2008.
Get over yourself. Use the right tool for the job.
If you have a fairly "dumb" system where you're running a webapp across an array of web servers, and you have one DB server, adding the complexity to save power is probably not worth it. If you're Google, Amazon, etc. and your power bill every year is bigger than the real estate bill for some medium sized companies, than you probably should be integrating power efficiency architecture into your process somewhere.
What this means is someone needs to architect an intelligent loading system. Ideally, it would manage the load on your base load servers (that are on all the time), and when those servers reach 85-95% of capacity (numbers from my ass) other servers should be brought out of low power/sleep mode to start serving.
Of course, if you use Amazon EC2, this is all moot, as they can shift load around to have their cluster run at peak efficiency.
Amazon has an email address you can send PDF files to and get back files in the Kindle format. You can than upload said files to the Kindle over USB. Works like a champ for all the PDFs I use (specification documents, open source software documentation, etc).
I didn't think questioning when you couldn't afford food anymore due to the cost of fuel was hyperbole. It was an honest question. I've asked a large amount of people lately what the most they would pay for gas would be, as well as when their fuel budget would start eating into their food budget. The answers are not comforting.
To an extent, the current runup in oil is due to speculators dumping cash into oil because the dollar keeps dropping in value. But demand from China and India is currently picking up very quickly. Currently , China consumes more raw materials than the US except one product: oil. As soon as they overtake our oil consumption, there is little you can do to hold down the price of oil in the US.
I'm not looking at Doomsday or anything like that. I'm just saying that at some point, gas will be so expensive you will either a) Walk everywhere b) Bicycle everywhere or C) suck it up and pay $50-80K for an electric car, amortizing the loan over 20-30 years like a house (as the only parts that will need to be swapped will be the motor and the battery).
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=29293775-85f9-4007-817c-bd65a1060dda
ASF notes that "...Back in 1950, the total accident rate was 46.68 accidents per 100,000 flight hours (the 100,000-hour measure being the statistical standard); the fatal accident rate was 5.17 per 100,000 flight hours. Today, both those numbers have plunged dramatically--7.05 and 1.26 per 100,000 hours, respectively. Those represent 85-percent and 76-percent drops. Fifty years ago, newspapers and accident reports were replete with stories of fatal buzzing accidents, hundreds of fatal forays by VFR-only pilots into instrument weather, and scads of fatal stall-spin accidents. These sorts of accidents still plague us now, but what a difference 50 years has made."
I'm fairly certain I'm reading it right =) Let me explain why it's cheaper to offer more of something at lower rates. It's similar to Sam's Club/Costco, as well as huge purchasers of anything. You buy in bulk, you save due to large-scale efficiencies. With regards to my utility, once I've paid for my first X kwH, they've recouped their costs with regards to delivering that power to me. The next block of khW (or gallons of water, or therms, pick your resource) doesn't need to have the initial cost of delivery built in, so the utility can continue to make their margin off of the additional resource sale.
Some of us need broadband at home for work purposes (sysadmins, network admins, etc), so if you have it already, it's not a huge deal. You case differs though if your only need for broadband is recreational/entertainment and not for work purposes.
The number of general aviation accidents was down slightly (2 percent) for the fourth quarter. In year-to-date comparisons, general aviation accidents saw an increase as compared to 2006 figures (6 percent).
General Aviation Accidents
According to the FAA, there were a total of 315 general aviation accidents in the fourth quarter of 2007 (down 2 percent from 2006). This figure is the lowest total for the fourth quarter. Accidents for the past several months showed a continued improvement of the GA safety record. Year-end comparisons show a 6-percent increase in general aviation accidents (1,607 in 2007 vs. 1,518 in 2006).
Just drop the cable and pick up BSG from iTunes or The Pirate Bay. TPG usually has it a couple hours after it airs, and in HD no less, or so I'm told =)
If you live close enough to a fiber exchange, you can get bandwidth from Cogent or Hurriance Electric for close to $1000/month for 100Mbps. Yes, that's a lot for just one person. But if you can split it among 10 people or so, that's not too bad for no cap on usage.
Feel lucky. Almost ISPs now have clauses in their contract that allows them to terminate service on a whim, and there is no law that requires them to provide you with service.
Excellent point. Most people aren't aware that because of the sweep size and speed of the latest generation of wind turbines, much fewer birds are killed due to impacts.
Just wait until coal companies have to tack a carbon tax onto each kwH they sell (similar to the decommissioning fee tacked onto each kwH for nuclear power plants). Wind/solar become more competitive as that occurs.
Slashdot Mirror
They're waiting for an idea that could actually drive a business, not a strawman for Slashdot.
http://www.oneworldhealth.org/
Yes, I donate. Yes, I still have some hope for the world. YMMV.
Get over yourself. Use the right tool for the job.
Unless you're running a hugely complex ASP.net application, in which case, it doesn't work so well.
If you have a fairly "dumb" system where you're running a webapp across an array of web servers, and you have one DB server, adding the complexity to save power is probably not worth it. If you're Google, Amazon, etc. and your power bill every year is bigger than the real estate bill for some medium sized companies, than you probably should be integrating power efficiency architecture into your process somewhere.
Of course, if you use Amazon EC2, this is all moot, as they can shift load around to have their cluster run at peak efficiency.
Wow. Looks like Ebay/Skype picked the wrong piece of code to pilfer.
Amazon has an email address you can send PDF files to and get back files in the Kindle format. You can than upload said files to the Kindle over USB. Works like a champ for all the PDFs I use (specification documents, open source software documentation, etc).
Link?
To an extent, the current runup in oil is due to speculators dumping cash into oil because the dollar keeps dropping in value. But demand from China and India is currently picking up very quickly. Currently , China consumes more raw materials than the US except one product: oil. As soon as they overtake our oil consumption, there is little you can do to hold down the price of oil in the US.
I'm not looking at Doomsday or anything like that. I'm just saying that at some point, gas will be so expensive you will either a) Walk everywhere b) Bicycle everywhere or C) suck it up and pay $50-80K for an electric car, amortizing the loan over 20-30 years like a house (as the only parts that will need to be swapped will be the motor and the battery).
At what point would you stop buying gas? $5/gallon? $8/gallon? At what point would you forgo food to buy gas?
Emphasis mine.
Monthly Customer Charge 8.85
First 20 Therms 20 @ $0.1473 2.95
21 - 50 Therms 30 @ $0.0579 1.74
Over 50 Therms 28.07 @ $0.0519 1.46
I'm fairly certain I'm reading it right =) Let me explain why it's cheaper to offer more of something at lower rates. It's similar to Sam's Club/Costco, as well as huge purchasers of anything. You buy in bulk, you save due to large-scale efficiencies. With regards to my utility, once I've paid for my first X kwH, they've recouped their costs with regards to delivering that power to me. The next block of khW (or gallons of water, or therms, pick your resource) doesn't need to have the initial cost of delivery built in, so the utility can continue to make their margin off of the additional resource sale.
Some of us need broadband at home for work purposes (sysadmins, network admins, etc), so if you have it already, it's not a huge deal. You case differs though if your only need for broadband is recreational/entertainment and not for work purposes.
http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/trend.html
Fourth quarter, 2007The number of general aviation accidents was down slightly (2 percent) for the fourth quarter. In year-to-date comparisons, general aviation accidents saw an increase as compared to 2006 figures (6 percent).
General Aviation Accidents
According to the FAA, there were a total of 315 general aviation accidents in the fourth quarter of 2007 (down 2 percent from 2006). This figure is the lowest total for the fourth quarter. Accidents for the past several months showed a continued improvement of the GA safety record. Year-end comparisons show a 6-percent increase in general aviation accidents (1,607 in 2007 vs. 1,518 in 2006).
Just drop the cable and pick up BSG from iTunes or The Pirate Bay. TPG usually has it a couple hours after it airs, and in HD no less, or so I'm told =)
I think I'd enjoy "Iron Tractor" if sufficiently intoxicated.
If you live close enough to a fiber exchange, you can get bandwidth from Cogent or Hurriance Electric for close to $1000/month for 100Mbps. Yes, that's a lot for just one person. But if you can split it among 10 people or so, that's not too bad for no cap on usage.
Feel lucky. Almost ISPs now have clauses in their contract that allows them to terminate service on a whim, and there is no law that requires them to provide you with service.
True. But for my electricity, water, and natural gas, the cost per unit drops as I use more.*
*I verified this with my online statements before posting
1) Remove CO2 from atmosphere, and make money my charging carbon credit exchanges for retiring the CO2 credits.
2) Help colonize Mars.
3) Profit.
Building, transporting, and maintaining solar/wind/hydro/etc. isn't exactly carbon neutral either.
Excellent point. Most people aren't aware that because of the sweep size and speed of the latest generation of wind turbines, much fewer birds are killed due to impacts.
Just wait until coal companies have to tack a carbon tax onto each kwH they sell (similar to the decommissioning fee tacked onto each kwH for nuclear power plants). Wind/solar become more competitive as that occurs.