For your use, copying large files, ZFS would be ideal because with copy on write no data would move and in theory you could "copy" a 300GB file instantly. Only when you start making changes to the data would there be need to move data to/from the disk drives. In your Case ZFS on a server is ideal.
Where SAN is needed is if you have many users of the data. Let's say you have a dozen people who need to access these files on a dozen computers. Or 100 users on 100 computers. This is where SAM is needed and where the single server using 1000BaseT falls apart. The PCI (or whatever other kind of) bus on the server becomes the bottle neck.
ZFS will do some things the others file systems can't. First off it is "copy on write" and keeps a complete backwards version history so if a file is damaged, deleted or you just need to back out a change to a word processing document you can do that. Also ZFS moves both volume managment and raid into the file system. You can add and remove physical drives without stopping the system. And of course it is huge. A 128 bit file system can't ever be filled. (yes "never" do the math) It's also fast and maintains end to end checksum. Sun really has raised the bar here. That said this is not what a typical home user with only a hand full of disk drives and users needs.
Back to the question. Can it replace a SAN. Depends on the required performance. If you have 25 or 30 video edit workstations or a corporation with 5,000 desk tops it's hard to see how one Solaris server is going to work. You need something that can a lot of IO bandwidth.
"life could be able to live at thousands of degrees hot. You just don't know."
Several good reasons...
1) We assume anything complex enough to be called "life" is made of some kind of complex molecules. In general complex molecules break down into simpler components at high temperatures. I think it is safe to assume the laws of chemistry are the same everywhere.
2) We observe that life here is based on common chemicals found everywhere in space. Life everywhere is likely based on "what's around" and the same stuff seems to be everywhere
3) Water is a really "special" chemical. My first chemistry teacher told us not to think of of it as "H2O" but as "H-OH". HOH is the only thing that can be both an acid and base. It's a good guess that liquid water is required for any kind of biological chemistry to take place. I could imagine some kind of life that makes it's own liquid water from ice or vapor but there are limits.
4) if one is placing a bet, you'd go with what is most likely.
"...And I've never done so, but I heard their returns process is Cthulhu-level pain.""
No, on the contrary Fry's has the best return policy of anyone. The other day I returned a Part I bought 3 weeks before, no receipt. They keep a record of every sale and can look it up. They will take anything back for up to 30 days for any reason. How many other places do a refund on demand with no receipt? The problem is the returns desk is slow and there is always a line but the store's policy is very good. I've known people to take advantage of this and buy (say) six video cards fully intending to take five of them back. A great way to evaluate video cards or whatever.
They did have to stop letting people return big screen TVs and video cameras because to many people were returning the TVs after the big football games and the camera after their vacation. but other than that it "30 dyas no questions return for refund"
Before you think I'm pushing the store-- I hate going in there. They never have what I want, the people are idiots the line at the checkout is slow and the parking lot is way to small
"I have no idea why they need to be in a database of any sort."
Apple has built this into Mac OS X and it let them do some eat stuff. For example "smart folders". With these I can make a folder and all the bookmarks move themselves into the correct folder. It enables a feature like where you just say "bookmark this" and then the broswer follows a set of rules you've defined and the bookmark finds its way into the correct folder(s).
And then what if you wanted to merge two sets of bookmarks or if a group of people were doing some web based research and wanted to build a combined bookmark database.
Or if a large organization, like a company with 10,000 emplyees had a big intranet with internal documents and wanted to maintain an index by letting anyone add his own keywords and links to a big bookmark database.
So, what this does is enable new uses, maybe it does the current job better. wh knows but I think the idea is to enable new things.
So it seems you can go into any good marine hardware store and buy some of their "way expensive" rope and it would make good body armor. Seriously. The materials and the quality grades needed for high end sailing line and vest turns out to be the same. Not surprizing people are willing to pay for whatever it takes to either stop a bullet ot win a race.
If the lawyers said that then I'd fire who ever write thier paycheck. Some exect hired idiot lawers and it's the exec's fault for letting such idiots run loose and control company policy.
I agree in theory most (90% or more) software is custom written for internal use by some company. But in most cases it make not sense to open source this stuff. Foe example I wrote a Linux device driver for a custom one-off hardware. I did GPL the driver but who would want it? I knew everyone who owned tha hardware by first name. Now I'm working on something to process telemetry from space lift boosters. Again a rather linmited market. There is only one user. Most custom written software is this way. That is why it is custom written. Open Source only makes sense for general purpose software that might see a wide use, by "wide" I mean at least a 100 or so users other wise there is no change that any of the users will contribute changes back.
Scientific calculators in India cost around 600RS(15$). How come a child laptop cost 10$.
$15 is the retail cost of the calculator and include profit for the retailers and the people who build the calculator and the truck drivers who move it around several times before it got to the store. The $10 computer is to be sold with no mark-up or profit and they are to be delivered in bulk.
I don't think they are "stealing" energy from the cars, not if the turbines are on the sides of the road. That wind has already left the highway and will not by interacting with the cars That wind energy would have just gone into friction and moving small objects around. They are just going to use what would have gone to waste. Now if only they could recover the energy that is wasted in the car's radiator. Seems a waste to burd gas and use it run a water pump, heat the water and run a fan to blow air to cool the water but that what gas engines do. What it comes down to is cost. If the turbine costs $100,000 and makes $15 worth the power a year it's a stupid investment. But with the cost of energy raising more and more sources of energy that were not cost effective will now break even. But I doubt this is a break even deal.
Why ask silly questions like "Does it store many copies of each file?" It's "COW" Copy on Write. What's next "When was the war of 1812?" "How many beers in a six-pack?" The South Pacific is the Southern part of which ocean?"
The answer of course is that ext2cow copies the part that is changes or "written".
All the talk about Apple delaying Leopard because of the iPhone assume The Apple statement was telling the truth. My bet is that the real reason for the delay is bugs in Leopard that are taking longer than expected to kill. Notice that all of the developer releases of Leopard have a long list of known issues. Apple needs time to work these off and of course any big company loads people between departments. But Apple can't say publically "Leopard is broken and it will take us until October to fix it/" That simply sounds bad.
It's reasonable to fine them if they violate the law. But then the law allows then to run the light if they have some reason to do so. So the best thing would be to fine tune the law so they can still run the lights if they need to. But I'd say to fine them 10X more if they are simply using their status as police to break a law.
"open Source" is not a factor here. No one would write open source software that takes advantage of hardware that no one owns. It you are witting software that is to runs one 100+ core machine you are likely getting paid by the people who own the huge room full of equipment.
Last I checked they were running software to compute aerodynamic loads on space lift boosters on the cluster. It's one of those jobs that just runs for days and weeks even on racks of dual CPU linux boxes. It was an optimization search type job that a fluid dynamics simulation in the inner loop.
Lots of people do stuff like this. At work I work on a kind of compiler for a parallel machine
Would be usless to put this kind of code out on the web as Open Source
What a stupid review. he watches a "standard definition" video than complains that it looks "almost as bad as standard definition" and then blaim the Apple hardware. The trouble, if it is trouble, is wit the source. It's like looking at and old VHS tape and complaining that it looks like an old VHS tape.
The root cause of this is that the Apple iTunes store sells only standard definition video. Watch something else.
No, the real root cause of this is a writer looking for a topical, sensational headline. I'm sure he is not so stupid. He's just trying to earn a buck and editors suck up topical, sensational headlines. No the editors are not stupid either. They know it's crap but they know that this kind of crap sells. The root cause is the stupid readers who are suckered in by the headline
1) Buy little closed up boxes from big cartels 2) Hire minum wage teen ages to run cash register 3) Hope people buy from you and not the store
just like your just down the block.
Of course you are going broke? You are selling closed boxes that you add no value to. You are not different from from the store owners who sells cans of Pesi and Coke.
What you need to do is add value. Give me a reason to come into your store and not just go to Anazon.com Some Ideas
Have real, true experts on the floor. People who know music. They can talk to customers and find then stuff they don't already know about.
Why not offer to load up a customer's iPod for him if he buys something
Build a studio in the back and record un-signed local bands and build exclusive product. Become a "label" Bring you portable studio to bars and clubs and record live.
The prices need to come down. A CD should sell for under $10
Make you product on demand -- burd the disks at the register or offer to load up
If you continue to sell the same stuff I can buy anyplace with no added value I will go to Amazon where I save Money, gas, and time. So give me something I can ONLY get in your store
What happened to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) It has become a commonly used device for professional level audio recording. It neve caught on with consumers because they liked CDs better and consumers by definition don't make recordings. I think now that we have computers hard drives may have beaten out DAT but for a long time and maybe even still todat DAT is a common standard
When they say "of all time" then they need to include stuff like "clothing". That was a great invention it allows people to live in place where they otherwise could not and not die by freezing in winter or of sunburn in the summer. Right after that comes "fire". Fire lets us eat things we other wise could not and so survive in more places. "language was a useful invention too. Lets us communicate ideas. Because of language one smart person can help many and we can pass on experience to later generations. Together I think clothing, fire and language beat out Lotus 123 for a spot on the top 10.
OK so you want more recent stuff. Like automobiles. The car has changed the way we all live. What about the Jet airliner? It's changed the way we think of the world. Cell phones too. Electric power needs a place on the "all time best" list too.
Think about it this way: Which would you rather loose. Give up your spread sheet software, or have to walk naked to work in the snow because there was never a car or clothing invented.
"The kind of car that can get 100 mpg is going to be: 1. light = unsafe unless made of expensive materials 2. fuel efficient = excessively low acceleration and/or low top speed 3. aerodynamic = low to the ground = drives don't see you"
It does not need to be that way. One example is the KR2 airplane. It used the 4 cylinder air cooled Volkswagen engine for power and used about as much gas per hour as a car did but in that hour would travel three times as far, so in effect it got 3X the gas mileage. Why? Well the shape of an airplane is not at all like a car. The main reason the KR2 has lower air resistamce then a car is that it is NOT low to the ground and air can flow UNDER the airplane. The trick I think is designing a car such that all the air does not need to flow over the top but can around all sides evenly, like an airplane
As for light weight beibng unsafe. Another airplane story. I know of a case where a guy due to engine failure on take off flew a single seal propeller aircraft through a house, his the backyeard fence and then the next house and then walked away from the wreck. The cockpit was designed for a 12G impact. That's enough to black out the pilot and crash bones with the harness. Same with race cars. Weve seen then flip end over end in the air and the drive still OK. These are both using light weight structures. The problem is COST. The cheapest way to make it save is to simple add mass. Heck steel is $0.60 per pound. It's cheap. But you could add an aluminum alloy roll cage that would protect the driver from things like flying through a house otr landing upside down at high speeds, basically if the structure does not deform and the driver is secured inside he can take a horrific beating.
Also, for higher acceleration you don't need a big gas engine. What you do is recover the energy lost in braking. You can brake at a rate that will cause the tires to almost loose traction. If you play back the energy lost to maximum performance braking you can accelerate as a rate that will almost "burn rubber"
Likely the car that wins will have four electric motors, one in each wheel and it will have a very low-loss way to store electric power. capacitors? super conducting magnets? Battery? who knows. It will use the gas engine to add power as required to the storage system.
The key will be complete regenerative brakes with very low loss storage and I think they will have to find a way to recover ALL the energy from the fuel Possibly not an internal combustion piston engine. Maybe a boiler type system that heats a refrigerant to run a sterling cycle engine? Current gas engines waste heat, they suck up cool air, heat it and exaust the hot air out the tail pipe. Heating air is a big waste. A boiler has the ability to suck al the heat out of the combusted gas.
An 100 watt HF transmitter (HF is from 3.0 to 30.0 Mhz) has world wide range. You can send a signal all the way around the world at those frequencies becaue the ionosphere bounds the waves back to Earth and the Earth bounces them back up. These HF waves will travel trough things like walls, trees and people.
On the other hand a 100 watt light bulb radiates the same power but it's waves go only in a stight line and can be stopped by a piece of cardboard.
It turns out the wave with frequency between HF and light have properties between HF and light. For example VHF and UHF (used for over the air TV, fire and police radios and so on) these waves travel in a mostly straight line but can be bend somewhat, some times.
Once you get to microwaves they act even more like light. They need a line of sight and are easy to block.
These terraherz waves would act even more like light then microwaves. They are almost infrared and so act almost like infrared So even if you could build it this would be useless for many applications. Possibly it would open up NEW applications such as extreme high speed communications between objects that are almost touching each other but not wifi that covers an area or goes through solid objects.
You are exactly right. All we have to do is look at the very early days of radio, before the invention of the vacuum tube. They used spark gap transmitters that splattered over the entire RF spectrum. If worked just fine when you could count the number of transmitters in range with the thumbs on one hand.
My electric tooth brush is water proof and does not have a power socket It couples magnetically the a charger with a coil of wire. This is how all cell phones should work.
"Wouldn't you take a performance hit for running two desktops, in essence?"
KDE would not use any services provided by the "first" desktop. It's not a layered setup. KDE would replace explorer, not sit on top of it.
Why use this on Windows? (1) You just might like it, or (2) so all your computers have the same "look and feel". or (3) You are building a turn key system to ship out to a customer and want fine control of the user interface.
Te purpose of VM is to consolidate servers. The reason yu'd want to consolidate is that you find you are running 4 physical boxes and each one is running at about 1/10 of full capacity. So you say "cool I can loose three boxes and cut managmant and electrical power by 3/4. On the otyher hand if you find you need more performance you buy more boxes and "load balance" them
Also everyone knows you loose some performance running VM but if you need to run OS "A" guest or OS "B" host this is the only way. If you need to run Solaris on Solaris there are faster and better ways (zones) and same with Linux (zen)
The whole point of VM in a data center is to put "extra" cycles to better use, you would never use if if "cycles" were in short supply.
Slashdot Mirror
For your use, copying large files, ZFS would be ideal because with copy on write no data would move and in theory you could "copy" a 300GB file instantly. Only when you start making changes to the data would there be need to move data to/from the disk drives. In your Case ZFS on a server is ideal.
Where SAN is needed is if you have many users of the data. Let's say you have a dozen people who need to access these files on a dozen computers. Or 100 users on 100 computers. This is where SAM is needed and where the single server using 1000BaseT falls apart. The PCI (or whatever other kind of) bus on the server becomes the bottle neck.
ZFS will do some things the others file systems can't. First off it is "copy on write" and keeps a complete backwards version history so if a file is damaged, deleted or you just need to back out a change to a word processing document you can do that. Also ZFS moves both volume managment and raid into the file system. You can add and remove physical drives without stopping the system. And of course it is huge. A 128 bit file system can't ever be filled. (yes "never" do the math) It's also fast and maintains end to end checksum. Sun really has raised the bar here. That said this is not what a typical home user with only a hand full of disk drives and users needs.
Back to the question. Can it replace a SAN. Depends on the required performance. If you have 25 or 30 video edit workstations or a corporation with 5,000 desk tops it's hard to see how one Solaris server is going to work. You need something that can a lot of IO bandwidth.
"life could be able to live at thousands of degrees hot. You just don't know."
Several good reasons...
1) We assume anything complex enough to be called "life" is made
of some kind of complex molecules. In general complex molecules
break down into simpler components at high temperatures. I think it is safe to assume the laws of chemistry are the same everywhere.
2) We observe that life here is based on common chemicals found everywhere in space. Life everywhere is likely based on "what's
around" and the same stuff seems to be everywhere
3) Water is a really "special" chemical. My first chemistry teacher told us not to think of of it as "H2O" but as "H-OH". HOH is the only thing that can be both an acid and base. It's a good guess that liquid water is required for any kind of biological chemistry to take place. I could imagine some kind of life that makes it's own liquid water from ice or vapor but there are limits.
4) if one is placing a bet, you'd go with what is most likely.
"...And I've never done so, but I heard their returns process is Cthulhu-level pain.""
No, on the contrary Fry's has the best return policy of anyone. The other day I returned a Part I bought 3 weeks before, no receipt. They keep a record of every sale and can look it up. They will take anything back for up to 30 days for any reason. How many other places do a refund on demand with no receipt? The problem is the returns desk is slow and there is always a line but the store's policy is very good. I've known people to take advantage of this and buy (say) six video cards fully intending to take five of them back. A great way to evaluate video cards or whatever.
They did have to stop letting people return big screen TVs and video cameras because to many people were returning the TVs after the big football games and the camera after their vacation. but other than that it "30 dyas no questions return for refund"
Before you think I'm pushing the store-- I hate going in there. They never have what I want, the people are idiots the line at the checkout is slow and the parking lot is way to small
"I have no idea why they need to be in a database of any sort."
Apple has built this into Mac OS X and it let them do some eat stuff. For example "smart folders". With these I can make a folder and all the bookmarks move themselves into the correct folder. It enables a feature like where you just say "bookmark this" and then the broswer follows a set of rules you've defined and the bookmark finds its way into the correct folder(s).
And then what if you wanted to merge two sets of bookmarks or if a group of people were doing some web based research and wanted to build a combined bookmark database.
Or if a large organization, like a company with 10,000 emplyees had a big intranet with internal documents and wanted to maintain an index by letting anyone add his own keywords and links to a big bookmark database.
So, what this does is enable new uses, maybe it does the current job better. wh knows but I think the idea is to enable new things.
So it seems you can go into any good marine hardware store and buy some of their "way expensive" rope and it would make good body armor. Seriously. The materials and the quality grades needed for high end sailing line and vest turns out to be the same. Not surprizing people are willing to pay for whatever it takes to either stop a bullet ot win a race.
If the lawyers said that then I'd fire who ever write thier paycheck. Some exect hired idiot lawers and it's the exec's fault for letting such idiots run loose and control company policy.
I agree in theory most (90% or more) software is custom written for internal use by some company. But in most cases it make not sense to open source this stuff. Foe example I wrote a Linux device driver for a custom one-off hardware. I did GPL the driver but who would want it? I knew everyone who owned tha hardware by first name. Now I'm working on something to process telemetry from space lift boosters. Again a rather linmited market. There is only one user. Most custom written software is this way. That is why it is custom written. Open Source only makes sense for general purpose software that might see a wide use, by "wide" I mean at least a 100 or so users other wise there is no change that any of the users will contribute changes back.
Scientific calculators in India cost around 600RS(15$). How come a child laptop cost 10$.
$15 is the retail cost of the calculator and include profit for the retailers and the people who build the calculator and the truck drivers who move it around several times before it got to the store. The $10 computer is to be sold with no mark-up or profit and they are to be delivered in bulk.
I don't think they are "stealing" energy from the cars, not if the turbines are on the sides of the road. That wind has already left the highway and will not by interacting with the cars That wind energy would have just gone into friction and moving small objects around. They are just going to use what would have gone to waste. Now if only they could recover the energy that is wasted in the car's radiator. Seems a waste to burd gas and use it run a water pump, heat the water and run a fan to blow air to cool the water but that what gas engines do. What it comes down to is cost. If the turbine costs $100,000 and makes $15 worth the power a year it's a stupid investment. But with the cost of energy raising more and more sources of energy that were not cost effective will now break even. But I doubt this is a break even deal.
Why ask silly questions like "Does it store many copies of each file?" It's "COW" Copy on Write. What's next "When was the war of 1812?" "How many beers in a six-pack?" The South Pacific is the Southern part of which ocean?"
The answer of course is that ext2cow copies the part that is changes or "written".
There are more Open Sourse hardware projects than just this one example. Here is another that may have a slightly wider potential user base....
http://hpsdr.org/
All the talk about Apple delaying Leopard because of the iPhone assume The Apple statement was telling the truth. My bet is that the real reason for the delay is bugs in Leopard that are taking longer than expected to kill. Notice that all of the developer releases of Leopard have a long list of known issues. Apple needs time to work these off and of course any big company loads people between departments. But Apple can't say publically "Leopard is broken and it will take us until October to fix it/" That simply sounds bad.
It's reasonable to fine them if they violate the law. But then the law allows then to run the light if they have some reason to do so. So the best thing would be to fine tune the law so they can still run the lights if they need to. But I'd say to fine them 10X more if they are simply using their status as police to break a law.
"open Source" is not a factor here. No one would write open source software that takes advantage of hardware that no one owns. It you are witting software that is to runs one 100+ core machine you are likely getting paid by the people who own the huge room full of equipment.
Last I checked they were running software to compute aerodynamic loads on space lift boosters on the cluster. It's one of those jobs that just runs for days and weeks even on racks of dual CPU linux boxes. It was an optimization search type job that a fluid dynamics simulation in the inner loop.
Lots of people do stuff like this. At work I work on a kind of compiler for a parallel machine
Would be usless to put this kind of code out on the web as Open Source
What a stupid review. he watches a "standard definition" video than complains that it looks "almost as bad as standard definition" and then blaim the Apple hardware. The trouble, if it is trouble, is wit the source. It's like looking at and old VHS tape and complaining that it looks like an old VHS tape.
The root cause of this is that the Apple iTunes store sells only standard definition video. Watch something else.
No, the real root cause of this is a writer looking for a topical, sensational headline. I'm sure he is not so stupid. He's just trying to earn a buck and editors suck up topical, sensational headlines. No the editors are not stupid either. They know it's crap but they know that this kind of crap sells. The root cause is the stupid readers who are suckered in by the headline
To Mr. record store owner,
This is what you business model looks like.
1) Buy little closed up boxes from big cartels
2) Hire minum wage teen ages to run cash register
3) Hope people buy from you and not the store
just like your just down the block.
Of course you are going broke? You are selling
closed boxes that you add no value to. You are
not different from from the store owners who
sells cans of Pesi and Coke.
What you need to do is add value. Give me a
reason to come into your store and not just
go to Anazon.com Some Ideas
Have real, true experts on the floor. People who
know music. They can talk to customers and
find then stuff they don't already know about.
Why not offer to load up a customer's iPod for
him if he buys something
Build a studio in the back and record un-signed local
bands and build exclusive product. Become
a "label" Bring you portable studio to bars and
clubs and record live.
The prices need to come down. A CD should
sell for under $10
Make you product on demand -- burd the disks
at the register or offer to load up
If you continue to sell the same stuff I can buy
anyplace with no added value I will go to Amazon
where I save Money, gas, and time. So give me
something I can ONLY get in your store
What happened to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) It has become a commonly used device for professional level audio recording. It neve caught on with consumers because they liked CDs better and consumers by definition don't make recordings. I think now that we have computers hard drives may have beaten out DAT but for a long time and maybe even still todat DAT is a common standard
When they say "of all time" then they need to include stuff like "clothing". That was a great invention it allows people to live in place where they otherwise could not and not die by freezing in winter or of sunburn in the summer. Right after that comes "fire". Fire lets us eat things we other wise could not and so survive in more places. "language was a useful invention too. Lets us communicate ideas. Because of language one smart person can help many and we can pass on experience to later generations. Together I think clothing, fire and language beat out Lotus 123 for a spot on the top 10.
OK so you want more recent stuff. Like automobiles. The car has changed the way we all live. What about the Jet airliner? It's changed the way we think of the world. Cell phones too. Electric power needs a place on the "all time best" list too.
Think about it this way: Which would you rather loose. Give up your spread sheet software, or have to walk naked to work in the snow because there was never a car or clothing invented.
"The kind of car that can get 100 mpg is going to be:
1. light = unsafe unless made of expensive materials
2. fuel efficient = excessively low acceleration and/or low top speed
3. aerodynamic = low to the ground = drives don't see you"
It does not need to be that way. One example is the KR2 airplane. It used the 4 cylinder air cooled Volkswagen engine for power and used about as much gas per hour as a car did but in that hour would travel three times as far, so in effect it got 3X the gas mileage. Why? Well the shape of an airplane is not at all like a car. The main reason the KR2 has lower air resistamce then a car is that it is NOT low to the ground and air can flow UNDER the airplane. The trick I think is designing a car such that all the air does not need to flow over the top but can around all sides evenly, like an airplane
As for light weight beibng unsafe. Another airplane story. I know of a case where a guy due to engine failure on take off flew a single seal propeller aircraft through a house, his the backyeard fence and then the next house and then walked away from the wreck. The cockpit was designed for a 12G impact. That's enough to black out the pilot and crash bones with the harness. Same with race cars. Weve seen then flip end over end in the air and the drive still OK. These are both using light weight structures. The problem is COST. The cheapest way to make it save is to simple add mass. Heck steel is $0.60 per pound. It's cheap. But you could add an aluminum alloy roll cage that would protect the driver from things like flying through a house otr landing upside down at high speeds, basically if the structure does not deform and the driver is secured inside he can take a horrific beating.
Also, for higher acceleration you don't need a big gas engine. What you do is recover the energy lost in braking. You can brake at a rate that will cause the tires to almost loose traction. If you play back the energy lost to maximum performance braking you can accelerate as a rate that will almost "burn rubber"
Likely the car that wins will have four electric motors, one in each wheel and it will have a very low-loss way to store electric power. capacitors? super conducting magnets? Battery? who knows. It will use the gas engine to add power as required to the storage system.
The key will be complete regenerative brakes with very low loss storage and I think they will have to find a way to recover ALL the energy from the fuel Possibly not an internal combustion piston engine. Maybe a boiler type system that heats a refrigerant to run a sterling cycle engine? Current gas engines waste heat, they suck up cool air, heat it and exaust the hot air out the tail pipe. Heating air is a big waste. A boiler has the ability to suck al the heat out of the combusted gas.
Some very basics....
An 100 watt HF transmitter (HF is from 3.0 to 30.0 Mhz) has world wide range. You can send a signal all the way around the world at those frequencies becaue the ionosphere bounds the waves back to Earth and the Earth bounces them back up. These HF waves will travel trough things like walls, trees and people.
On the other hand a 100 watt light bulb radiates the same power but it's waves go only in a stight line and can be stopped by a piece of cardboard.
It turns out the wave with frequency between HF and light have properties between HF and light. For example VHF and UHF (used for over the air TV, fire and police radios and so on) these waves travel in a mostly straight line but can be bend somewhat, some times.
Once you get to microwaves they act even more like light. They need a line of sight and are easy to block.
These terraherz waves would act even more like light then microwaves. They are almost infrared and so act almost like infrared So even if you could build it this would be useless for many applications. Possibly it would open up NEW applications such as extreme high speed communications between objects that are almost touching each other but not wifi that covers an area or goes through solid objects.
You are exactly right. All we have to do is look at the very early days of radio, before the invention of the vacuum tube. They used spark gap transmitters that splattered over the entire RF spectrum. If worked just fine when you could count the number of transmitters in range with the thumbs on one hand.
My electric tooth brush is water proof and does not have a power socket It couples magnetically the a charger with a coil of wire. This is how all cell phones should work.
"Wouldn't you take a performance hit for running two desktops, in essence?"
KDE would not use any services provided by the "first" desktop. It's not a layered setup. KDE would replace explorer, not sit on top of it.
Why use this on Windows? (1) You just might like it, or (2) so all your computers have the same "look and feel". or (3) You are building a turn key system to ship out to a customer and want fine control of the user interface.
Te purpose of VM is to consolidate servers. The reason yu'd want to consolidate is that you find you are running 4 physical boxes and each one is running at about 1/10 of full capacity. So you say "cool I can loose three boxes and cut managmant and electrical power by 3/4. On the otyher hand if you find you need more performance you buy more boxes and "load balance" them
Also everyone knows you loose some performance running VM but if you need to run OS "A" guest or OS "B" host this is the only way. If you need to run Solaris on Solaris there are faster and better ways (zones) and same with Linux (zen)
The whole point of VM in a data center is to put "extra" cycles to better use, you would never use if if "cycles" were in short supply.