Well, a few months ago, I was working in the electricity biz in QLD, and I can assure you that they are not nearing their generation limits at the moment.
However, the power grid is very long and thin (just about everyone lives on or near the coast) and most of the existing generators are not all that conveniently close to the main demand centres, so they sometimes have problems shuffling the power about to get to where it's needed.
My guess is that this new station will help aleviate that problem.
for example, in the old days when the UK used pounds,shillings,pence they'd have needed some special functions in the spreadsheet to work with currency values.
And who knows what extra functions may be needed to support Hebrew, Tamil, Farsi..... ?
It wasn't a guess, it was a statement of company policy.
The manufacturers try to strike a balance between a high R&D investment (with rapid advances in technology) and keeping the technology in production long enough to generate a good return on that investment. Moores Law represents the 'sweet spot' that manufacturers had settled on.
While it's held quite well in recent decades, there's no guarantee it will continue to hold. If they hit a technological wall, or economic conditions cause a drop in investment, things could slow. If a major discovery is made, or an 'arms race' develops between the major players, things could speed up. IBM did this in the hard disk market, they cranked up their R&D effort, and for a while hard disks advanced more quickly than Moores Law would predict.
They're supposed to have enough capacity to cope with demand, even in hot weather, even with some of their plant out of commission.
That's the problem, they dont want to pay for equipment that's not being used most of the time. So they make the decision that it's cheaper to have blackouts than to pay for plant that gets used 3 or 4 days a year.
Simply get a feed from Washington with the latest excuse for still not finding any of the thousands and thousands of Weapons of Mass Destruction we know Saddam had.
I agree with pretty-much everything you said, except for There isn't anything or anyone to blame for this.
Until recently, I worked in the electricity biz, programming the control systems you mentioned, and I suspect the system failed in precisely the way you describe, but you haven't asked why it happened.
It happened because the system was running so close to capacity that when one component fails, the neighboring components are not able to take up the slack. This is very poor design, and in the good old days engineers built enough redundancy into the system to prevent it.
These days, of course, the bean-counters have far more control of the industry than the engineers, so they don't "waste" money on back-up systems, it's far cheaper (for the suppliers, not for their customers) to just let the system fail every now and then.
That's no way to run an essential service, and the politicians who allow it to happen need to be taken out behind the wood-shed and given an attitude re-alignment they'll never forget.
Yes, I know it's not just individuals who get TFNs.
The article I was referring to was based on tax office figures, and referred to individuals TFNs. There's just far too many of them than there should be. Last I heard, some tax office employees were looking at jail time for their part in one of the scams.
In my friends case, it was an annoyance, and possibly a few thousand dollars expense (it was still going on when I last saw her, so I don't know how it turned out).
In the current climate, just imagine trying to explain to the guards at Guantanamo that you were in NY when someone bought a truckload of fertilizer in your name in LA. Or that you know nothing about that rental car that someone paid for with your credit card details, and exploded outside a government building. Or those airline tickets someone bought on the internet.....
The problem with the current paranoia in law enforcement (esp in the US) is that if they have 'proof' you were at place X, and you claim you were at Y at the time, then that's going to be seen as further evidence of your guilt. And you'll be in a cell being denied access to a lawyer, your family, and anyone else who can back up your story.
Fake identity (either fabricated or stolen) is more common than most people think.
I don't have the figures to hand, but here in Australia, there are several million more tax file numbers (the equivalent to Socian Security Numbers in the USA, or NI numbers in the UK) than the census would lead you to expect. The 'extra' tax files are basically criminals laundering money, various tax frauds (the second job in a false name to avoid tax) etc.
Trust me, you don't want to have your identity stolen.
A USAian friend some years ago had no end of trouble with the taxman there. She lived in NY, someone in Montana was working in a gas station under her SSN. Guess who got the tax bill?
The IR seemed to believe she was commuting most of the way across the USA for a part time job at minimum wage, and were very persistent in chasing her for the money. Every attempt to reason with them was met with "but our records show..."
Now imagine that the identity thief is not some redneck low-life, but a cocaine smuggler, international terrorist, serial killer......
King James breaking away from Rome and starting the Anglican church
That would be Henry VIII.
James came later. While theoretically Protestant (there were rumours to the contrary) as a Scot, he probably wasn't C of E until he took the job in London.
Slashdot Mirror
1. No, you don't have to be English.
A great many Scots, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, etc have been knighted.
2. Some things weren't invented by Americans, the Web is one of them. Deal.
Boy, this is starting to smell of desperation.
Come on Dubya, face it.
There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction
So? Can you figure out how an intelligent robot could in theory
By being placed in control of an automated factory?
By ordering a boxful of components through e-bay and assembling them?
By downloading a copy of its software into another, similar computer?
By spreading itself as a 'virus' ?
Thank you for raising my own somewhat battered self-esteem several notches.
Thats the problem with Chinese space missions, as soon as one has landed, you want another.
But it's not all that bad. Considering how dumb people live shorter lives, this works out very nicely for natural selection. ...
Sadly, the stupid tend to breed younger, and more often.
So, after adjusting for all the things that make men die younger, mens life expectancy is the same as womens.
Stay tuned for the "Wealth Adjusted Poverty Index" which adjusts for the fact that poor people have less money than the rich.
The metre is defined in terms of the speed of light, so by definition c=299792458 m/s
Pretty pointless trying to measure it really.
Actuall, it's not dead,
it's just owned
Actually, it's more like 7.4%
1 GB = 2^30 = 1073741824 bytes
The one I like is the '4x' wireless cards, which (if you believe the fine print) actually provide about 20% improved throughput.
Silly me, I thought '4X' would mean 'four times as fast'.
Well, a few months ago, I was working in the electricity biz in QLD, and I can assure you that they are not nearing their generation limits at the moment.
However, the power grid is very long and thin (just about everyone lives on or near the coast) and most of the existing generators are not all that conveniently close to the main demand centres, so they sometimes have problems shuffling the power about to get to where it's needed.
My guess is that this new station will help aleviate that problem.
Your treasonous comments against Our Beloved President have been noted.
You are all under arrest.
We know who you are.
We know how to find you.
You cannot escape.
Turn yourselves in to the nearest FBI office, it'll go easier on you in the long run.
In trinary, there'd be no more hex digits, you'd have to chose betwween base 9, and base 27 representation of numbers.
After 20 years in the biz, my brain is hard-coded for hex, I'd have to retire.
The English stopped using pounds, shillings and pence in 1971.
Hence the phrase "in the old days"
It was just an example of the kind of change that might be needed to meet local conditions.
I'm guessing 'localization' functions.
..... ?
for example, in the old days when the UK used pounds,shillings,pence they'd have needed some special functions in the spreadsheet to work with currency values.
And who knows what extra functions may be needed to support Hebrew, Tamil, Farsi
It wasn't a guess, it was a statement of company policy.
The manufacturers try to strike a balance between a high R&D investment (with rapid advances in technology) and keeping the technology in production long enough to generate a good return on that investment. Moores Law represents the 'sweet spot' that manufacturers had settled on.
While it's held quite well in recent decades, there's no guarantee it will continue to hold. If they hit a technological wall, or economic conditions cause a drop in investment, things could slow. If a major discovery is made, or an 'arms race' develops between the major players, things could speed up. IBM did this in the hard disk market, they cranked up their R&D effort, and for a while hard disks advanced more quickly than Moores Law would predict.
Or have you writed it wrong?
We English speakers would tend to say 'shone'.
yes, because the Amercian built ones
(like at 3-mile island) have proven to be _so_ dependable !
They're the people who make the stuff.
Not running out is one of their responsibilities.
They're supposed to have enough capacity to cope with demand, even in hot weather, even with some of their plant out of commission.
That's the problem, they dont want to pay for equipment that's not being used most of the time. So they make the decision that it's cheaper to have blackouts than to pay for plant that gets used 3 or 4 days a year.
It's called WMDRND()
Simply get a feed from Washington with the latest excuse for still not finding any of the thousands and thousands of
Weapons of Mass Destruction we know Saddam had.
I agree with pretty-much everything you said, except for
There isn't anything or anyone to blame for this.
Until recently, I worked in the electricity biz, programming the control systems you mentioned, and I suspect the system failed in precisely the way you describe, but you haven't asked why it happened.
It happened because the system was running so close to capacity that when one component fails, the neighboring components are not able to take up the slack. This is very poor design, and in the good old days engineers built enough redundancy into the system to prevent it.
These days, of course, the bean-counters have far more control of the industry than the engineers, so they don't "waste" money on back-up systems, it's far cheaper (for the suppliers, not for their customers) to just let the system fail every now and then.
That's no way to run an essential service, and the politicians who allow it to happen need to be taken out behind the wood-shed and given an attitude re-alignment they'll never forget.
Yes, I know it's not just individuals who get TFNs.
The article I was referring to was based on tax office figures, and referred to individuals TFNs. There's just far too many of them than there should be. Last I heard, some tax office employees were looking at jail time for their part in one of the scams.
In my friends case, it was an annoyance, and possibly a few thousand dollars expense (it was still going on when I last saw her, so I don't know how it turned out).
In the current climate, just imagine trying to explain to the guards at Guantanamo that you were in NY when someone bought a truckload of fertilizer in your name in LA. Or that you know nothing about that rental car that someone paid for with your credit card details, and exploded outside a government building. Or those airline tickets someone bought on the internet.....
The problem with the current paranoia in law enforcement (esp in the US) is that if they have 'proof' you were at place X, and you claim you were at Y at the time, then that's going to be seen as further evidence of your guilt. And you'll be in a cell being denied access to a lawyer, your family, and anyone else who can back up your story.
Fake identity (either fabricated or stolen) is more common than most people think.
......
I don't have the figures to hand, but here in Australia, there are several million more tax file numbers (the equivalent to Socian Security Numbers in the USA, or NI numbers in the UK) than the census would lead you to expect. The 'extra' tax files are basically criminals laundering money, various tax frauds (the second job in a false name to avoid tax) etc.
Trust me, you don't want to have your identity stolen.
A USAian friend some years ago had no end of trouble with the taxman there. She lived in NY, someone in Montana was working in a gas station under her SSN. Guess who got the tax bill?
The IR seemed to believe she was commuting most of the way across the USA for a part time job at minimum wage, and were very persistent in chasing her for the money. Every attempt to reason with them was met with "but our records show..."
Now imagine that the identity thief is not some redneck low-life, but a cocaine smuggler, international terrorist, serial killer
King James breaking away from Rome and starting the Anglican church
That would be Henry VIII.
James came later. While theoretically Protestant (there were rumours to the contrary) as a Scot, he probably wasn't C of E until he took the job in London.