Oh, I never said that emergency services wouldn't get the message, or that somehow their communications would be totally blown away. Emergency communications are mostly based on handheld radios, not cellphones, and an emergency would be responded to through whatever security command center they've set up, not 911 dispatch. But in a panic situation, you can't expect everyone in the crowd to realize that. They'll still make calls.
Even those who keep their heads about them will probably be uploading pictures, blogging, tweeting, calling their family, or whatever else, and generally consuming (or trying to consume) massive amounts of bandwidth.
My concern is what if something bad were to happen during the inauguration, and suddenly a million people whip out their cellphones all start calling 911, their family, news organizations, and generally broadcast an emergency to the world all at the same time.
Anyone want to watch one of those expensive cell-towers on a truck burst into flames?
A forensics expert claims that wiping your hard drives with just one pass already makes it next to impossible to recover the data with an electron microscope.
I have also heard that increasing the power increases the strength of internal reflections in a room or building. It's like trying to shout louder in an echo chamber - you won't be able to make yourself understood.
When you notice that the bottles have thawed (no longer any visible ice), you can put them outside to freeze up again.
In the grander scheme of things, it is often good to stuff your fridge as full of stuff as you can - any stuff. A full interior resists changes in temperature much more than an empty interior. As a result, the compressor works less often in order to maintain the internal temperature. As a practical matter, it is better for the efficiency and long-term life of the compressor if it isn't clicking on every 5 minutes. Much better would be for it to run for twice as long, but half as often.
As to whether it takes more energy (proportional to the mass of stuff in the fridge, for instance), I haven't done the math recently to find out. It involves a few coupled equations: heat flow related to the temperature difference inside to outside, change in temperature related to heat flux and the amount of stuff in the fridge, and how much work the compressor has to do to remove heat and maintain a stable temperature. My suspicion is that it actually works out to an equal amount of energy, regardless of how much the fridge is full, but I can't swear to that.
The way I see it is to look at the equation relating to how much heat is entering the fridge. The notation is different in thermodynamics, but for a simplified model, it is analogous to Ohm's Law: V=I*R. V here is the temperature difference inside to outside, I is the amount of heat flowing into the fridge, and R is the resistance created by the insulation. Rewritten, it's I = V / R. The heat that flows into the fridge is the heat that must be removed by the compressor. The compressor usually cycles on when the temperature inside gets too high, then cycles off when it gets cold enough. However, if we think of a continuous process, rather than a cycled process, the compressor needs to remove as much heat over time as enters the fridge. Compressor work equals heat flux.
The key thing is that there is no mention of thermal mass (or, in electrical terms, capacitance) in this equation. That is why I think it doesn't matter how full the fridge is
So, if it's the same amount of energy over time (work) to keep the fridge cold no matter how much stuff is in it, then it is best for the compressor to cycle as infrequently as possible for long life.
I have sometimes thought of a small geothermal system for a fridge/freezer. It would cycle some liquid coolant through a pipe grid buried outside, which could then be used as a heat sink for the fridge's compressor. You could even have two sets of pipes - a shallow set above the frost line for capturing the maximum cold in the winter, and a deeper set to capture the more stable 50F deeper underground.
For what it's worth, it isn't exactly the case that running the fridge inside the house during the winter is a total waste. The heat that is drawn from the fridge's interior is dumped into the kitchen, as is the electromechanical work expended by the compressor/condenser to move that heat around. So you are offsetting natural gas (or fuel oil, or wood - whatever heats your house) with electricity.
A greater problem is running the fridge during the summer, because you don't want that heat dumped into the kitchen. If your home has AC, you are using that AC to shuttle the heat removed from the fridge to the outside. A heat pump that allows the compressor/condenser to be cooled with 50-degree liquid from outside rather than 80-degree air inside seems a good way to go.
The main trick is checking how much additional electricity would be needed to cycle the fluid around - for a small installation, you might not actually come out ahead.
So the utility companies would have to offer a rebate in electricity prices for households who participate
I don't think you'd have difficulty getting utility companies to chip in for a rebate program - they like the idea of smoothing out peak demand. In some locations you can already have the utility company install a remote switch on your home AC unit, which they can turn off during peak hours of the day. Some units have a local override, if you think you really need that AC.
There's little to be gained by smoothing out the energy usage of individual locations, even rather large locations.
I think there'd be some value to it even for a large individual location. At the very least, you could reduce the amount of electricity you use during peak hours of the day (large commercial customers are charged for electricity in part by the time of day). You could also use it to coordinate your electricity usage so that you don't have all the compressors turning on at once, which reduces your own peak current draw and puts less stress on the building infrastructure.
Another measure that works well this time of year (in northern climes, anyway). Fill old bottles with tap water (plastic soda or water bottles works well). Don't fill them all the way, perhaps about 80%, then squeeze out the air and cap them.
Set them outside overnight and allow them to freeze. Place them in the fridge and viola! you've just added some really cold mass to your fridge. When the bottles have thawed, set them back outside to freeze. This is like an old-fashioned ice box, and will reduce the amount that the fridge needs to work to keep the interior cold.
I suggest using small bottles, = 1 L, so that they freeze and thaw more quickly, and so that the amount of ice in the fridge can be adjusted as food is added and removed from the fridge.
I question the wisdom of relying on a third party website to generate passwords for you. At least they are using ssl but how do you know they aren't keeping those passwords? How do you know they are generating them with real entropy?
If you are worried about it, but still don't want (or for some reason, can't) generate a random character string locally, you could always have the website generate several passwords, then combine them yourself in some random way. For instance, you could swap blocks from each string, or reverse the order of one of them and XOR the characters together.
One doesn't need to drag political hypocrisy into this. It's not an Obama idea or a McCain idea. To say that Obama is copying McCain's ideas is about as correct as saying Al Gore invented the internet. Using electronic medical records to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care deliver, not to mention making billing simpler, faster, and more transparent, is an idea that's been around decades. I think I even remember Bill Clinton pitching something like this in an early state-of-the-union address.
The problems of privacy were there back then - if anything, they're worse now in a more-connected world. They still need to be solved. Just because Obama has touched it doesn't make it turn to gold, I think most everyone could agree on that.
Can you link to specific instances - a slashdot article or comments to same - where McCain was bashed for his EMR plans?
There's a long list of things that can substantially save money and pay for themselves that people and businesses do not avail themselves to, simply because they can't come up with the upfront costs.
A big problem in implementing this so far is that the savings are largely for insurers and administrators, whereas the costs are largely borne by providers. An existing solo or small group practice isn't going to shell out $100,000 for an electronic medical record system just to save Medicare and the local HMO money, certainly not when it's bound to be incompatible with everyone else's EMR.
In the case of hospitals or multi-site health systems networks, the savings can work out in their favor. But the scale of the system needed, the capital costs, and the headaches and possible liabilities to get it up and running are daunting.
Skylon will be able to repay its development costs, meet its servicing and operating costs and make profits for its operators whilst being an order of magnitude cheaper to customers than current space transportation systems.
Can I trust my payload and/or investment dollars to a company that uses "whilst" on their site?
Usefulness or necessity aside, the main reason that USB is angling for higher speeds is that there's money to be made there, and they want to be the ones to make it.
One other problem Firewire had in becoming widespread was that it required a more beefy, dedicated chip. As far as I understand it, Firewire is implemented mostly in the chip, cutting out the CPU, and creates a more-or-less guaranteed bandwidth. This is why it was popular with camcorders - you could always be sure that you could transfer video in realtime. Same for high-end sound equipment.
USB, on the other hand, while it has its own controller chip, is moderated largely by the CPU and memory bus. If the computer is under heavy load, the USB throughput suffers. Peripheral devices are at the mercy of the host to control things. This is fine for things like mice and keyboards, which transfer relatively little data semi-asynchronously. You don't need such a robust high speed bus for such lightweight peripherals. But for hard drives and other devices, USB has some catching up to do.
Royalties aside, the Firewire chipset that could implement a high-speed bus robustly cost more than the more lightweight USB controller. In the particular case of the iPod, a portable device, having the Firewire controller eventually took more board space than Apple was willing to provide. While every computer had a mouse and keyboard, not every computer was made with the ability for connecting external drives. So there, too, the economics played in USB's favor.
If you do decide to go nuclear on your old drive, take it apart and salvage some parts first. The magnets used in the voice coil (which positions the read arm over the platters) are pretty strong and handy to have. The motor for the platters is compact and powerful and very smooth.
If you are satisfied to just wipe the drive, but not destroy it, and you have no further use for it, may I suggest making wind chimes from the platters.
If you want to go the nuclear option, they demonstrated some favorites: mangling the platters in a vice, dremel or hand grinder, propane or cutting torch, melting it in thermite, etc.
A hospital I worked for once, when decommissioning old computers, would take the hard drive over to a drill press and put a couple holes through it. Nowadays I think they've bought a drive shredder.
For some of the larger schools, you're looking at 2,000 kids, and you want a minimum of four to six good photos of each kid. 2,000 times 4 is 8,000 photos.
I don't know about you, but I was stuck with the one and only picture the indifferent photographer took. I was stuck with it for four years.
For something like ID cards, it isn't necessary to capture a 12-megapixel image in RAW mode. The output on the ID card will probably end up measuring only a few hundred pixels per side anyway.
While at work it may be acceptable to take a phone call at any time, such things usually aren't welcome by teachers.
If only there was some way, when the recipient is busy or not able to answer the phone, for the caller to leave a short message to be listened to later...
If you had read the article all the way through, you'd know that Xcel energy is doing this as well. They have a demo installation for creating and storing hydrogen from excess wind and solar, which they then burn in turbines to recover the energy later.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, I never said that emergency services wouldn't get the message, or that somehow their communications would be totally blown away. Emergency communications are mostly based on handheld radios, not cellphones, and an emergency would be responded to through whatever security command center they've set up, not 911 dispatch. But in a panic situation, you can't expect everyone in the crowd to realize that. They'll still make calls.
Even those who keep their heads about them will probably be uploading pictures, blogging, tweeting, calling their family, or whatever else, and generally consuming (or trying to consume) massive amounts of bandwidth.
My concern is what if something bad were to happen during the inauguration, and suddenly a million people whip out their cellphones all start calling 911, their family, news organizations, and generally broadcast an emergency to the world all at the same time.
Anyone want to watch one of those expensive cell-towers on a truck burst into flames?
The thermite isn't necessary for wiping out your data, it's just there because it's freakin' AWESOME!
[pulls tinfoil hat tighter over head]
Sure, that's just what they want you to think.
I have also heard that increasing the power increases the strength of internal reflections in a room or building. It's like trying to shout louder in an echo chamber - you won't be able to make yourself understood.
When you notice that the bottles have thawed (no longer any visible ice), you can put them outside to freeze up again.
In the grander scheme of things, it is often good to stuff your fridge as full of stuff as you can - any stuff. A full interior resists changes in temperature much more than an empty interior. As a result, the compressor works less often in order to maintain the internal temperature. As a practical matter, it is better for the efficiency and long-term life of the compressor if it isn't clicking on every 5 minutes. Much better would be for it to run for twice as long, but half as often.
As to whether it takes more energy (proportional to the mass of stuff in the fridge, for instance), I haven't done the math recently to find out. It involves a few coupled equations: heat flow related to the temperature difference inside to outside, change in temperature related to heat flux and the amount of stuff in the fridge, and how much work the compressor has to do to remove heat and maintain a stable temperature. My suspicion is that it actually works out to an equal amount of energy, regardless of how much the fridge is full, but I can't swear to that.
The way I see it is to look at the equation relating to how much heat is entering the fridge. The notation is different in thermodynamics, but for a simplified model, it is analogous to Ohm's Law: V=I*R. V here is the temperature difference inside to outside, I is the amount of heat flowing into the fridge, and R is the resistance created by the insulation. Rewritten, it's I = V / R. The heat that flows into the fridge is the heat that must be removed by the compressor. The compressor usually cycles on when the temperature inside gets too high, then cycles off when it gets cold enough. However, if we think of a continuous process, rather than a cycled process, the compressor needs to remove as much heat over time as enters the fridge. Compressor work equals heat flux.
The key thing is that there is no mention of thermal mass (or, in electrical terms, capacitance) in this equation. That is why I think it doesn't matter how full the fridge is
So, if it's the same amount of energy over time (work) to keep the fridge cold no matter how much stuff is in it, then it is best for the compressor to cycle as infrequently as possible for long life.
I have sometimes thought of a small geothermal system for a fridge/freezer. It would cycle some liquid coolant through a pipe grid buried outside, which could then be used as a heat sink for the fridge's compressor. You could even have two sets of pipes - a shallow set above the frost line for capturing the maximum cold in the winter, and a deeper set to capture the more stable 50F deeper underground.
For what it's worth, it isn't exactly the case that running the fridge inside the house during the winter is a total waste. The heat that is drawn from the fridge's interior is dumped into the kitchen, as is the electromechanical work expended by the compressor/condenser to move that heat around. So you are offsetting natural gas (or fuel oil, or wood - whatever heats your house) with electricity.
A greater problem is running the fridge during the summer, because you don't want that heat dumped into the kitchen. If your home has AC, you are using that AC to shuttle the heat removed from the fridge to the outside. A heat pump that allows the compressor/condenser to be cooled with 50-degree liquid from outside rather than 80-degree air inside seems a good way to go.
The main trick is checking how much additional electricity would be needed to cycle the fluid around - for a small installation, you might not actually come out ahead.
I don't think you'd have difficulty getting utility companies to chip in for a rebate program - they like the idea of smoothing out peak demand. In some locations you can already have the utility company install a remote switch on your home AC unit, which they can turn off during peak hours of the day. Some units have a local override, if you think you really need that AC.
In return, they reduce your rate.
I think there'd be some value to it even for a large individual location. At the very least, you could reduce the amount of electricity you use during peak hours of the day (large commercial customers are charged for electricity in part by the time of day). You could also use it to coordinate your electricity usage so that you don't have all the compressors turning on at once, which reduces your own peak current draw and puts less stress on the building infrastructure.
Another measure that works well this time of year (in northern climes, anyway). Fill old bottles with tap water (plastic soda or water bottles works well). Don't fill them all the way, perhaps about 80%, then squeeze out the air and cap them.
Set them outside overnight and allow them to freeze. Place them in the fridge and viola! you've just added some really cold mass to your fridge. When the bottles have thawed, set them back outside to freeze. This is like an old-fashioned ice box, and will reduce the amount that the fridge needs to work to keep the interior cold.
I suggest using small bottles, = 1 L, so that they freeze and thaw more quickly, and so that the amount of ice in the fridge can be adjusted as food is added and removed from the fridge.
Or 7am. How else will I eat my Cheerios?
If you are worried about it, but still don't want (or for some reason, can't) generate a random character string locally, you could always have the website generate several passwords, then combine them yourself in some random way. For instance, you could swap blocks from each string, or reverse the order of one of them and XOR the characters together.
Ah, but as the RIAA would have us believe, making available is indeed a crime.
One doesn't need to drag political hypocrisy into this. It's not an Obama idea or a McCain idea. To say that Obama is copying McCain's ideas is about as correct as saying Al Gore invented the internet. Using electronic medical records to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care deliver, not to mention making billing simpler, faster, and more transparent, is an idea that's been around decades. I think I even remember Bill Clinton pitching something like this in an early state-of-the-union address.
The problems of privacy were there back then - if anything, they're worse now in a more-connected world. They still need to be solved. Just because Obama has touched it doesn't make it turn to gold, I think most everyone could agree on that.
Can you link to specific instances - a slashdot article or comments to same - where McCain was bashed for his EMR plans?
There's a long list of things that can substantially save money and pay for themselves that people and businesses do not avail themselves to, simply because they can't come up with the upfront costs.
A big problem in implementing this so far is that the savings are largely for insurers and administrators, whereas the costs are largely borne by providers. An existing solo or small group practice isn't going to shell out $100,000 for an electronic medical record system just to save Medicare and the local HMO money, certainly not when it's bound to be incompatible with everyone else's EMR.
In the case of hospitals or multi-site health systems networks, the savings can work out in their favor. But the scale of the system needed, the capital costs, and the headaches and possible liabilities to get it up and running are daunting.
Can I trust my payload and/or investment dollars to a company that uses "whilst" on their site?
Usefulness or necessity aside, the main reason that USB is angling for higher speeds is that there's money to be made there, and they want to be the ones to make it.
One other problem Firewire had in becoming widespread was that it required a more beefy, dedicated chip. As far as I understand it, Firewire is implemented mostly in the chip, cutting out the CPU, and creates a more-or-less guaranteed bandwidth. This is why it was popular with camcorders - you could always be sure that you could transfer video in realtime. Same for high-end sound equipment.
USB, on the other hand, while it has its own controller chip, is moderated largely by the CPU and memory bus. If the computer is under heavy load, the USB throughput suffers. Peripheral devices are at the mercy of the host to control things. This is fine for things like mice and keyboards, which transfer relatively little data semi-asynchronously. You don't need such a robust high speed bus for such lightweight peripherals. But for hard drives and other devices, USB has some catching up to do.
Royalties aside, the Firewire chipset that could implement a high-speed bus robustly cost more than the more lightweight USB controller. In the particular case of the iPod, a portable device, having the Firewire controller eventually took more board space than Apple was willing to provide. While every computer had a mouse and keyboard, not every computer was made with the ability for connecting external drives. So there, too, the economics played in USB's favor.
If you do decide to go nuclear on your old drive, take it apart and salvage some parts first. The magnets used in the voice coil (which positions the read arm over the platters) are pretty strong and handy to have. The motor for the platters is compact and powerful and very smooth.
If you are satisfied to just wipe the drive, but not destroy it, and you have no further use for it, may I suggest making wind chimes from the platters.
Revision3's Systm show had an episode that suggested some ways for destroying a hard drive yourself. They took the position that using a program like Boot'nNuke, which overwrites data 1-N times at your choosing, is sufficient to sanitize data without destroying the drive.
If you want to go the nuclear option, they demonstrated some favorites: mangling the platters in a vice, dremel or hand grinder, propane or cutting torch, melting it in thermite, etc.
A hospital I worked for once, when decommissioning old computers, would take the hard drive over to a drill press and put a couple holes through it. Nowadays I think they've bought a drive shredder.
I don't know about you, but I was stuck with the one and only picture the indifferent photographer took. I was stuck with it for four years.
For something like ID cards, it isn't necessary to capture a 12-megapixel image in RAW mode. The output on the ID card will probably end up measuring only a few hundred pixels per side anyway.
There are fine-tip sharpies available that are, aside from the ink, little different from felt-tip pens.
If only there was some way, when the recipient is busy or not able to answer the phone, for the caller to leave a short message to be listened to later...
If you had read the article all the way through, you'd know that Xcel energy is doing this as well. They have a demo installation for creating and storing hydrogen from excess wind and solar, which they then burn in turbines to recover the energy later.
Believe me when I say that the Dakotas and western Minnesota are no place to build a dam.