Yes, on my T-mobile phone that came with my unlimited contract, everything went through their proxies, including SSL connections to my email etc... Their certificate was installed in the phone so I didn't know. It was only when I tethered it to my PC and tried to connect to my email provider did it tell me that the certificate wasn't valid.
Once I found that out it was a quick visit and flash to cyanogenmod, and now nothing goes through the proxies.I was not comfortable with everything goind through their proxies, and couldn't be sure what else was going through it.
Their phones definitely are set up to proxy as much as possible, most likely to save their bandwidth costs.
I think people in Europe have a far different attitude to driving than in the US. It might be because for most of us in cities, we don't actually need them for commuting, leaving us to just enjoy the pleasure of driving.
Also our roads are far nicer, especially out in the country. Rarely do we have boring straight freeways for miles, or simple geometric blocks in cities. There is always something to keep you interested.
Honestly, I sometimes think Europeans actually like cars and driving more than the US, despite the whole cultural idea of the US being "land of the car" etc....
Italy for example, I swear that is not a road network as much as it is a racetrack that just happens to be used by normal traffic. The way they built them seems to be in such a way as for you to enjoy driving down it. Loved driving round Italy, will have to do it again soon....
Not to mention that (e.g. zipcar) has the problem of always being out when you need it most. For example, unless you have a car for each person who needs one (if you did, you'd have the same problem with congestion as if everyone had their own car anyway). you'll have a situation where there is a sunny bank holiday weekend, and all the zipcars are taken.
It works if you need a car occasionally, but for those times when everyone wants a car at the same time, it will fall flat on its face. I've seen this happen a few times in the UK, especially when we had a 4 day bank holiday. Friend couldn't get a zipcar to save her life, even all the rentals were taken. Good thing I had my car so could give her a lift.
Automatic cars would have the same problem really, as far as I can see...
That would freak the hell out of me. I'd hate to know I was hurtling down at 50mph in a 2 ton hunk of metal with no human control over it. Last thing I could imagine being comfortable in.
I wonder how people would react to that concept. Perhaps in the US it is different, but I know a lot of people (myself included) that would rather take the higher risk of accidents in the knowledge that they are the ones in control, rather than putting their lives solely into the hands of a computer program.
Then again, people here seem to actually know how to drive, at least compared to some of the horror stories I've heard here on Slashdot about drivers in the US. Probably doesn't help that you guys drive those humongous cars either, they are so large that in parts of Europe things like the Chevy Suburban are classed as a medium truck, rather than a car (you need to take extra tests to get a truck exemption added to your license before you can drive it), yet apparently this is normal "runaround" in the US?
Not to mention that its not a particularly fun car to drive. I had the privilege of driving one once (US import). The transmission was soo sluggish and braking required loads of forethought if you want to do it safely, because quite frankly the brakes sucked. Or rather, they were good, but not many brakes can stop 3 tons of steel quickly.
The only upside is that I could probably have a head on collision with any normal car out there and come out without a scratch, but that isn't really worth it all.
Lol, One of the most fun places to drive in my experience:D
Although, after driving there I fully understand why every street corner seems to have a bodyshop/garage for minor dents. I particularly like how they honk their horn as they approach junctions. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Due to the narrow roads and high walls, it is very hard to see people round corners, so they alert the presence if they are driving past. I wish people in the UK would do that sometimes. Makes for noisier traffic, but less chance of collisions at certain junctions.
They are overall very good drivers, a bit crazy, but good.
Up until the entire system collapses due to the weight of unproductive people living on benefits and taking out massive credit to fund their shopping, sky satellite and ultra-big-inch TV's.
Yes, those of us who went and did the "hard" stuff like science etc... instead of partying at Uni, etc... ended up being more employable; but as things seem to go, those who can't get a job (only so many places that need "film studies" people) end up on benefits, and my taxes go up to sustain them.
Fundamentally we end up subsidising them and their lifestyles. So I didn't party at Uni so I could get a good degree, so I can get a good job, so I can get taxed heavily, so they can have enough money continue to party after Uni.
I'm sure you can see why this will not work out in the medium-long term, we're already seeing it with the credit crunch and its current economic crises.
huh... I have a problem. I wrote it all out for you, but I've hit a limit on Slashdots posting. If you'd really like to hear my views, give me an email address and I can send it to you:)
Mind telling me where you live? I really could do with my own place:) Reasonable prices and a commute that only takes 1hour? Sounds too good to be true! In the UK it seems that all the lucrative tech work is in London, so I have to live here and put up with London prices.
I'm currently renting on the outskirts of zone2/bordering zone 3, and this area is still too expensive for me. The affordable places I looked at were further out, and I was really worried about commute times and cost. I don't want to spend most of my time stuck in the tube.
I've heard lovely things about Vancouver, and I know people who moved there permanently and have settled down (who keep going on about how wonderful it and Canada are), but alas, it is a bit too far for me. My family and friends are in Europe, and UK is far enough from them as is:)
My main beefs are the prices, the thousands of little laws, the tend for the government to want to micromanage every bit of your life, and the weather. Apart from that London is a cool place to live, you get to meet people from all around the world here, which I think is awesome. Haven't seen much of the rest of England, but I've heard it is very nice, if a bit racist in some ares.
Where on earth are you living? The last thing I'd say about the UK is that the salaries/rates are commensurate with property prices. More like being completely off the chart.... In fact that is the main reason I'm thinking of leaving (Despite earning almost twice more than average people my age, I can't even buy a tiny flat with my salary, everyone I know is still living with parents, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future).
I guess if you're living up north, or out of a city. That is the only way the above makes any sense, in the same vein though, surely living out in the sticks in Canada would be more commensurate with your salary?
International law only works if backed up by threats of punishment if you don't comply. It works well for bullying small non-nuclear nations. When you have a huge army, nukes, and an appearance of "just crazy enough to push the red button" nobody will stop you from being a pest.
International law does not seem to apply to any state powerful enough (i.e. nuclear armed, and/or large conventional forces), as proved many times by the US (and probably others, but I can't think of any examples off the top of my head), and they are considered rational actors that will only use nukes as a last resort.
Hell, NK has shelled islands belonging to the South, and is believed to have been behind the sinking of a South Korean Navy Vessel. Lives have been lost due to this, both of which constitute acts of war, yet nobody responded.
I think jamming GPS is rather low on the "pest" scale, so I don't think anything major will be done about it (regardless of whether there is a law on the books against it).
Very true, I live in one of those places where the government can give you 100% of the tuition if you're below a set income.
It works because our education establishments are non-profits, usually registered as charities (state owned schools are non-profit by nature, but you can open your own private non-profit school if you want). There is no profit motive, so there is no drive to milk the system for money, therefore we don't have runaway costs.
People don't work at at these places to make boatloads of money, they do it for education/research/furthering knowledge/etc... If they wanted to make money, they could do that in all sorts of private companies that exist.
Agreed whole-heartedly! First language I learnt when I came to Linux, and the one that I always come back to if I want to program for fun, or need a quick script/mockup (it is however also good for proper, large software projects). Hugely flexible and fast to develop in, with nice C bindings if you need to do some specialist stuff.
There is a nice rectangular hole in the middle, where the centre speaker would go (optional extra). In my case that is an empty cavity, and would make an excellent place for a LCD screen.
At the moment I'm debating whether to make it a touch screen or not, but if I do make it touch sensitive, it would be rarely used (only instead of a keyboard, e.g. if I want to type in an address), due to my original post w.r.t distractions, and because I don't like fingerprints on the screen:)
The place I was thinking of putting the buttons is on the centre console, between the gear stick and the armest. That is currently being used by the ashtray (which I never use, as I don't smoke), seen here on the left: Centre console.
I built an in-car PC for a friend ages ago, and found that a simple usb numpad (12 buttons in 4x4 arrangement) was more that enough to fulfill all the functions we needed, including having some dedicated buttons for music/movie control, so you could switch tracks e.g. even when you were on the GPS map. As it was just in front of the armrest, when you rested your arm your fingers were right on the keys, for easy access while cruising, seemed to work pretty well for years.
However I don't have the space for a 4x4 grid there, so need to trim down the button count, or find a better interface. I tried the BMW iDrive system when it first came out, but I didn't really like it, doing simple tasks required you to remember patterns (e.g. Shift left, rotate twice, shift right, then up, then rotate left, etc...).
Once again I found myself having to look at the screen in order to make sure what I was doing was correct. Ideally I'd want an interface that is limited enough so that the basics, such as track/app switching and volume control, can be done without me needing to look at the buttons or the screen.
Not an easy goal, eh?;) Also, even if I found an in-car system that I was happy with, how could I interface it with my own hardware and software? Most of these parts aren't exactly easy to come by for the hobbyist:)
Oh, good to hear it:) I'm planning on building a PC into my car eventually (once I iron out all the other problems with it), and I figured it would have both a touchscreen and some tactile buttons on the centre console.
Have you used any of these systems? I'd really be interested to see how modern cars dealt with this problem and what button interfaces they used, might get some ideas from them:D
Until recently, I had no touchscreens in my car, but once I got my new shiny smartphone, it had a rather cool "Car mode", where it made all the buttons large and easy to press, etc...
However nice it was in theory, I found that once I mounted it on my dash, it became a right PITA to operate while driving. While complex things (like setting up the maps) would make sense to stop at the side and fiddle with, other things (like setting the volume, or switching playlists/songs) shouldn't.
The biggest annoyance was the fact that operating the touchscreen required me to look at it, even for simple things like the volume control or music switching. I could operate all the major functions of my old car radio without even looking at it, it was well laid out, and buttons were different shapes and sizes, really easy to learn.
I really think touchscreens are not ready for car use just yet, at least until they develop some overlay that can change its tactile feedback. Anything that requires you to look at it to operate should have no place in the dashboard IMO (if it was mounted only on the passenger side out of reach of the driver, that would be good as well, but then I suspect some people would just lean over while hurtling down the motorway).
I don't know, I feel this will just increase the number of accidents due to people looking at the screen in order to find the song they want, or to tweet or something else... and as someone who has to share the roads with them, it is somewhat of a worry....:/
How would that work without full time editors? Back when Slashdot was a tiny site running on a single box in the corner, it was possible for a few friends to keep the thing ticking over. As it grew they had to find more and more ways of scaling it, including eventually becoming full time employees and selling the site (with declining quality as constantly noted by people).
If, however, we built a "Slashdot 2" site (and what would we call it?) we'd get the full force of current Slashdot visitors. We'd go from 0 to large-scale hosting needs very damn quickly. I don't know about you, but in this economy my firm is running me ragged knowing I have not many job options. I don't have the time nor the money kicking around to support Slashdots massive hosting needs.
I feel we'd not get the benefit of growing slowly and naturally, and I'm not sure we'd be able to support running the site if it rose to the current hosting needs. What do you think?
Nope, the drinking water comes directly from the mains tap. The tank holds water that either goes to the boiler for heating, or the toilet/bathroom.
All places here are built like that by law, you never drink water from the tank, because they tend to be open top (so all sorts of dust/dirt/stuff can fall into them) and because having still room temperature bodies of water can attract all sorts of nasty things/microbes/etc...
I should have clarified that I guess, I just presumed it was like this everywhere:)
Plus it would help if there was an alternative that was as good a place for conversation with nerds from many ages and skills, with a decent moderation system (for all its flaws) and a site design that doesn't make want to rip my eyes out.
Actually... yes I did. The only space I have in my flat is a cupboard which is just next to the water tank and boiler, separated by a thin piece of plasterboard. Initially I was not keen on having my servers so close to water, but the builders stuck the main electricity distribution point there, so I guess it is safe (plus I don't really have a choice, this is the only free space I got in this tiny place).
Anyway, I drilled a hole, and pushed through two 10mm pipes, connected one to a submersible aquarium pump, and connected the other ends to a watercooled server. Works really damn well actually, the tank is huge, something like 50L, and I use water faster than it heats up even when fully pegged, so the server is usually at or below ambient temps.
It also has the benefit that I did not have to worry about drilling ventilation holes, sticking noisy fans, etc... It just works, and well.
I do sometimes think that, instead of piping the water straight to a server, have it pumped to a large radiator (like an old car radiator). Then have fans circulate the cold air around the server cupboard. This should allow me to make use of non-watercooled servers, but still not need to cut out vents, etc...
Gives me the best of both worlds, because I think piping multiple servers into a water loop would be a pain (Especially if you need to disconnect one for repair/removal.
Not to mention you make crazy profit selling the gas after you frack it out and before the real estate becomes valuable.... you know, that may well be the goal now that I think about it...:/ Seems like a win win for them!
That could be interesting, I wonder if the information is open (I've been here long enough to know not to RTFA), because I know the reprap guys have been trying to find a way of printing conductive parts, primarily so they can make the first steps to printing circuits.
Thanks for that! So if you can shift into Neutral, or slam on the brakes if all else fails to stop the car, how come we hear about these events coming from the US?
I mean, it obviously is happening so much that it warrants all the media attention, and a modification to all cars to stop this occurring, it must be happening pretty damn often with major loss of life and limb to be such a big deal. What is going on?
Wow... strike those cars off the list of potential future ownership. I don't like the idea that I can't kill the power to the engine directly, with no computers in the way. Hold for 3-10 seconds? Really? I remember having to do that with my tower PC, I'd hate to have to do that while avoiding hitting anything in a runaway car (I'd probably need both hards to keep the car under control at that kind of speed).
The shifter thing, that sounds like an actual design flaw though. Although, if you miss neutral, what do you go into? Shifting it back into Drive should be obvious (as the car accelerates again), shifting into reverse will not work (any half decent transmission would not let you shift into reverse if the car is moving foward), so where does it go?
Yeah seriously, synchromesh gearboxes pretty much removed the requirement for heel-and-toe, and that was what, from the 50's onwards?
It can still be useful when downshifting during racing (which is why some sports cars have the pedals really close together, to make this easier) but you should not need to do this in the course of normal driving.
Apologies, turns out the comments on the BBC article are full of people who had runaway car problems in the UK, so must be common in Europe as well. Oh, and to clarify, when I meant turn the key "part way" I meant to the accessory position, where things are still powered on, but no ignition. This would stop the steering lock engaging.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, on my T-mobile phone that came with my unlimited contract, everything went through their proxies, including SSL connections to my email etc... Their certificate was installed in the phone so I didn't know. It was only when I tethered it to my PC and tried to connect to my email provider did it tell me that the certificate wasn't valid.
Once I found that out it was a quick visit and flash to cyanogenmod, and now nothing goes through the proxies.I was not comfortable with everything goind through their proxies, and couldn't be sure what else was going through it.
Their phones definitely are set up to proxy as much as possible, most likely to save their bandwidth costs.
I think people in Europe have a far different attitude to driving than in the US. It might be because for most of us in cities, we don't actually need them for commuting, leaving us to just enjoy the pleasure of driving.
Also our roads are far nicer, especially out in the country. Rarely do we have boring straight freeways for miles, or simple geometric blocks in cities. There is always something to keep you interested.
Honestly, I sometimes think Europeans actually like cars and driving more than the US, despite the whole cultural idea of the US being "land of the car" etc....
Italy for example, I swear that is not a road network as much as it is a racetrack that just happens to be used by normal traffic. The way they built them seems to be in such a way as for you to enjoy driving down it. Loved driving round Italy, will have to do it again soon....
Not to mention that (e.g. zipcar) has the problem of always being out when you need it most. For example, unless you have a car for each person who needs one (if you did, you'd have the same problem with congestion as if everyone had their own car anyway). you'll have a situation where there is a sunny bank holiday weekend, and all the zipcars are taken.
It works if you need a car occasionally, but for those times when everyone wants a car at the same time, it will fall flat on its face. I've seen this happen a few times in the UK, especially when we had a 4 day bank holiday. Friend couldn't get a zipcar to save her life, even all the rentals were taken. Good thing I had my car so could give her a lift.
Automatic cars would have the same problem really, as far as I can see...
That would freak the hell out of me. I'd hate to know I was hurtling down at 50mph in a 2 ton hunk of metal with no human control over it. Last thing I could imagine being comfortable in.
I wonder how people would react to that concept. Perhaps in the US it is different, but I know a lot of people (myself included) that would rather take the higher risk of accidents in the knowledge that they are the ones in control, rather than putting their lives solely into the hands of a computer program.
Then again, people here seem to actually know how to drive, at least compared to some of the horror stories I've heard here on Slashdot about drivers in the US. Probably doesn't help that you guys drive those humongous cars either, they are so large that in parts of Europe things like the Chevy Suburban are classed as a medium truck, rather than a car (you need to take extra tests to get a truck exemption added to your license before you can drive it), yet apparently this is normal "runaround" in the US?
Not to mention that its not a particularly fun car to drive. I had the privilege of driving one once (US import). The transmission was soo sluggish and braking required loads of forethought if you want to do it safely, because quite frankly the brakes sucked. Or rather, they were good, but not many brakes can stop 3 tons of steel quickly.
The only upside is that I could probably have a head on collision with any normal car out there and come out without a scratch, but that isn't really worth it all.
Lol, One of the most fun places to drive in my experience :D
Although, after driving there I fully understand why every street corner seems to have a bodyshop/garage for minor dents. I particularly like how they honk their horn as they approach junctions. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Due to the narrow roads and high walls, it is very hard to see people round corners, so they alert the presence if they are driving past. I wish people in the UK would do that sometimes. Makes for noisier traffic, but less chance of collisions at certain junctions.
They are overall very good drivers, a bit crazy, but good.
Up until the entire system collapses due to the weight of unproductive people living on benefits and taking out massive credit to fund their shopping, sky satellite and ultra-big-inch TV's.
Yes, those of us who went and did the "hard" stuff like science etc... instead of partying at Uni, etc... ended up being more employable; but as things seem to go, those who can't get a job (only so many places that need "film studies" people) end up on benefits, and my taxes go up to sustain them.
Fundamentally we end up subsidising them and their lifestyles. So I didn't party at Uni so I could get a good degree, so I can get a good job, so I can get taxed heavily, so they can have enough money continue to party after Uni.
I'm sure you can see why this will not work out in the medium-long term, we're already seeing it with the credit crunch and its current economic crises.
huh... I have a problem. I wrote it all out for you, but I've hit a limit on Slashdots posting. If you'd really like to hear my views, give me an email address and I can send it to you :)
Mind telling me where you live? I really could do with my own place :) Reasonable prices and a commute that only takes 1hour? Sounds too good to be true! In the UK it seems that all the lucrative tech work is in London, so I have to live here and put up with London prices.
I'm currently renting on the outskirts of zone2/bordering zone 3, and this area is still too expensive for me. The affordable places I looked at were further out, and I was really worried about commute times and cost. I don't want to spend most of my time stuck in the tube.
I've heard lovely things about Vancouver, and I know people who moved there permanently and have settled down (who keep going on about how wonderful it and Canada are), but alas, it is a bit too far for me. My family and friends are in Europe, and UK is far enough from them as is :)
My main beefs are the prices, the thousands of little laws, the tend for the government to want to micromanage every bit of your life, and the weather. Apart from that London is a cool place to live, you get to meet people from all around the world here, which I think is awesome. Haven't seen much of the rest of England, but I've heard it is very nice, if a bit racist in some ares.
Where on earth are you living? The last thing I'd say about the UK is that the salaries/rates are commensurate with property prices. More like being completely off the chart.... In fact that is the main reason I'm thinking of leaving (Despite earning almost twice more than average people my age, I can't even buy a tiny flat with my salary, everyone I know is still living with parents, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future).
I guess if you're living up north, or out of a city. That is the only way the above makes any sense, in the same vein though, surely living out in the sticks in Canada would be more commensurate with your salary?
International law only works if backed up by threats of punishment if you don't comply. It works well for bullying small non-nuclear nations. When you have a huge army, nukes, and an appearance of "just crazy enough to push the red button" nobody will stop you from being a pest.
International law does not seem to apply to any state powerful enough (i.e. nuclear armed, and/or large conventional forces), as proved many times by the US (and probably others, but I can't think of any examples off the top of my head), and they are considered rational actors that will only use nukes as a last resort.
Hell, NK has shelled islands belonging to the South, and is believed to have been behind the sinking of a South Korean Navy Vessel. Lives have been lost due to this, both of which constitute acts of war, yet nobody responded.
I think jamming GPS is rather low on the "pest" scale, so I don't think anything major will be done about it (regardless of whether there is a law on the books against it).
Very true, I live in one of those places where the government can give you 100% of the tuition if you're below a set income.
It works because our education establishments are non-profits, usually registered as charities (state owned schools are non-profit by nature, but you can open your own private non-profit school if you want). There is no profit motive, so there is no drive to milk the system for money, therefore we don't have runaway costs.
People don't work at at these places to make boatloads of money, they do it for education/research/furthering knowledge/etc... If they wanted to make money, they could do that in all sorts of private companies that exist.
Agreed whole-heartedly! First language I learnt when I came to Linux, and the one that I always come back to if I want to program for fun, or need a quick script/mockup (it is however also good for proper, large software projects). Hugely flexible and fast to develop in, with nice C bindings if you need to do some specialist stuff.
Oh cool! :D
No, I intend to have no buttons on the dashboard. My DB looks like this: http://c767170.r70.cf2.rackcdn.com/R20924.jpg
There is a nice rectangular hole in the middle, where the centre speaker would go (optional extra). In my case that is an empty cavity, and would make an excellent place for a LCD screen.
At the moment I'm debating whether to make it a touch screen or not, but if I do make it touch sensitive, it would be rarely used (only instead of a keyboard, e.g. if I want to type in an address), due to my original post w.r.t distractions, and because I don't like fingerprints on the screen :)
The place I was thinking of putting the buttons is on the centre console, between the gear stick and the armest. That is currently being used by the ashtray (which I never use, as I don't smoke), seen here on the left: Centre console.
I built an in-car PC for a friend ages ago, and found that a simple usb numpad (12 buttons in 4x4 arrangement) was more that enough to fulfill all the functions we needed, including having some dedicated buttons for music/movie control, so you could switch tracks e.g. even when you were on the GPS map. As it was just in front of the armrest, when you rested your arm your fingers were right on the keys, for easy access while cruising, seemed to work pretty well for years.
However I don't have the space for a 4x4 grid there, so need to trim down the button count, or find a better interface. I tried the BMW iDrive system when it first came out, but I didn't really like it, doing simple tasks required you to remember patterns (e.g. Shift left, rotate twice, shift right, then up, then rotate left, etc...).
Once again I found myself having to look at the screen in order to make sure what I was doing was correct. Ideally I'd want an interface that is limited enough so that the basics, such as track/app switching and volume control, can be done without me needing to look at the buttons or the screen.
Not an easy goal, eh? ;) Also, even if I found an in-car system that I was happy with, how could I interface it with my own hardware and software? Most of these parts aren't exactly easy to come by for the hobbyist :)
Oh, good to hear it :) I'm planning on building a PC into my car eventually (once I iron out all the other problems with it), and I figured it would have both a touchscreen and some tactile buttons on the centre console.
Have you used any of these systems? I'd really be interested to see how modern cars dealt with this problem and what button interfaces they used, might get some ideas from them :D
...enabled in car systems?
Until recently, I had no touchscreens in my car, but once I got my new shiny smartphone, it had a rather cool "Car mode", where it made all the buttons large and easy to press, etc...
However nice it was in theory, I found that once I mounted it on my dash, it became a right PITA to operate while driving. While complex things (like setting up the maps) would make sense to stop at the side and fiddle with, other things (like setting the volume, or switching playlists/songs) shouldn't.
The biggest annoyance was the fact that operating the touchscreen required me to look at it, even for simple things like the volume control or music switching. I could operate all the major functions of my old car radio without even looking at it, it was well laid out, and buttons were different shapes and sizes, really easy to learn.
I really think touchscreens are not ready for car use just yet, at least until they develop some overlay that can change its tactile feedback. Anything that requires you to look at it to operate should have no place in the dashboard IMO (if it was mounted only on the passenger side out of reach of the driver, that would be good as well, but then I suspect some people would just lean over while hurtling down the motorway).
I don't know, I feel this will just increase the number of accidents due to people looking at the screen in order to find the song they want, or to tweet or something else... and as someone who has to share the roads with them, it is somewhat of a worry.... :/
How would that work without full time editors? Back when Slashdot was a tiny site running on a single box in the corner, it was possible for a few friends to keep the thing ticking over. As it grew they had to find more and more ways of scaling it, including eventually becoming full time employees and selling the site (with declining quality as constantly noted by people).
If, however, we built a "Slashdot 2" site (and what would we call it?) we'd get the full force of current Slashdot visitors. We'd go from 0 to large-scale hosting needs very damn quickly. I don't know about you, but in this economy my firm is running me ragged knowing I have not many job options. I don't have the time nor the money kicking around to support Slashdots massive hosting needs.
I feel we'd not get the benefit of growing slowly and naturally, and I'm not sure we'd be able to support running the site if it rose to the current hosting needs. What do you think?
Nope, the drinking water comes directly from the mains tap. The tank holds water that either goes to the boiler for heating, or the toilet/bathroom.
All places here are built like that by law, you never drink water from the tank, because they tend to be open top (so all sorts of dust/dirt/stuff can fall into them) and because having still room temperature bodies of water can attract all sorts of nasty things/microbes/etc...
I should have clarified that I guess, I just presumed it was like this everywhere :)
Plus it would help if there was an alternative that was as good a place for conversation with nerds from many ages and skills, with a decent moderation system (for all its flaws) and a site design that doesn't make want to rip my eyes out.
Anything out there?
Actually... yes I did. The only space I have in my flat is a cupboard which is just next to the water tank and boiler, separated by a thin piece of plasterboard. Initially I was not keen on having my servers so close to water, but the builders stuck the main electricity distribution point there, so I guess it is safe (plus I don't really have a choice, this is the only free space I got in this tiny place).
Anyway, I drilled a hole, and pushed through two 10mm pipes, connected one to a submersible aquarium pump, and connected the other ends to a watercooled server. Works really damn well actually, the tank is huge, something like 50L, and I use water faster than it heats up even when fully pegged, so the server is usually at or below ambient temps.
It also has the benefit that I did not have to worry about drilling ventilation holes, sticking noisy fans, etc... It just works, and well.
I do sometimes think that, instead of piping the water straight to a server, have it pumped to a large radiator (like an old car radiator). Then have fans circulate the cold air around the server cupboard. This should allow me to make use of non-watercooled servers, but still not need to cut out vents, etc...
Gives me the best of both worlds, because I think piping multiple servers into a water loop would be a pain (Especially if you need to disconnect one for repair/removal.
Not to mention you make crazy profit selling the gas after you frack it out and before the real estate becomes valuable.... you know, that may well be the goal now that I think about it... :/ Seems like a win win for them!
That could be interesting, I wonder if the information is open (I've been here long enough to know not to RTFA), because I know the reprap guys have been trying to find a way of printing conductive parts, primarily so they can make the first steps to printing circuits.
Thanks for that! So if you can shift into Neutral, or slam on the brakes if all else fails to stop the car, how come we hear about these events coming from the US?
I mean, it obviously is happening so much that it warrants all the media attention, and a modification to all cars to stop this occurring, it must be happening pretty damn often with major loss of life and limb to be such a big deal. What is going on?
Wow... strike those cars off the list of potential future ownership. I don't like the idea that I can't kill the power to the engine directly, with no computers in the way. Hold for 3-10 seconds? Really? I remember having to do that with my tower PC, I'd hate to have to do that while avoiding hitting anything in a runaway car (I'd probably need both hards to keep the car under control at that kind of speed).
The shifter thing, that sounds like an actual design flaw though. Although, if you miss neutral, what do you go into? Shifting it back into Drive should be obvious (as the car accelerates again), shifting into reverse will not work (any half decent transmission would not let you shift into reverse if the car is moving foward), so where does it go?
Yeah seriously, synchromesh gearboxes pretty much removed the requirement for heel-and-toe, and that was what, from the 50's onwards?
It can still be useful when downshifting during racing (which is why some sports cars have the pedals really close together, to make this easier) but you should not need to do this in the course of normal driving.
Apologies, turns out the comments on the BBC article are full of people who had runaway car problems in the UK, so must be common in Europe as well. Oh, and to clarify, when I meant turn the key "part way" I meant to the accessory position, where things are still powered on, but no ignition. This would stop the steering lock engaging.