Oxygen generators were determined to be the cause of ValuJet Flight 592 crash in the Everglades. They are still permitted in the cargo hold.
The stupid irony of all these regulations is the lack of scrutiny that goes into air cargo/mail screening. Why the heck can you mail something that you can't check in your luggage?! Can I please win the lottery and buy a private jet? I'm getting sick of this crap...
But the pace of uptake is challenged with Video, since there is no legal means to move your DVDs to your iPod, or an easy way to copy broadcast TV shows from your Mac to your iPod. If Apple includes an effective TV tuner with their next generation of computers, maybe some of this will change.
Until Apple does it and makes it simple, the mass market for unencumbered video won't exist. Not that there are any technical barriers, just that things aren't easy yet.
Water-cooled server racks. Only way to stay sane if the rack is in your space, and it makes sense economically too. Rittal has a petty good solution, but it needs either a raised floor or plinth. Put patch panels on the wall. Separate workbench from desk.
I've seen the aftermath of someone manually paralleling a generator. They waited until the sync lights were their brightest to close the breaker... which is 180 degrees out of phase (you want to do it when the lights are off-- no voltage difference). The generator pulled off its vibration isolators and flipped on its end. Stayed inside the building, but you could see the damage to the louvers.
We weren't allowed to take any pictures, and googling generally yields results on utility-grade units which are a bit more solid construction and have better protections to prevent more than twisting the shaft and control rod damage.
The OP's intent was likely to say that frequency is fixed through grid interconnection (total capacity much larger than any one generator), and a generator can load or unload based on how far it leads or lags the fixed supply. Pretty sure "swapping phases" will cause a few problems with rotational inertia-- the generator would try and spin the opposite direction.
Most non-compete agreements are an HR issue more than a real management initiative. Having been on both sides of the argument, up close and personal, I have to say that I prefer California's interpretation. At-will employment and non-compete agreements have no place together.
Now, if an employer and employee have the expectation that it is a lifetime engagement and not something terminated at the whim of a quarterly profit projection, a non-compete agreement is much more logical. Not a whole lot of individuals or companies are in this position today.
We're also talking about distributing copyrighted material, not possessing it. Statutory damages for downloading copyrighted material would only be $1 per track. This is high but a fine of a few hundred dollars per song wouldn't have been out of line here.
No, that's actually the problem. There is no proof of distribution, only proof of possession.
However, the limits on statutory damages should be much higher than 3x, since each person sharing parts of the file enable the system overall to work-- while only one person might download the song in entirety, it is plausible that 10-20 people downloaded parts of the song, making the person sharing songs a party to all the 10-20 cases.
Ditto on the USB crash. Hung up my tethered cell phone, closed the cover, and unplugged my phone. Only kernel panic in a month or so.
Plenty of things I don't really like, but not a bad upgrade.
Re:If you can't store it, you can't count on it
on
Google Goes Green
·
· Score: 1
Check out Sodium-Sulfur Batteries. They are being deployed today for peaking applications, and are extremely energy efficient.
Their down-side is that they operate at very high temperature, so they do not serve as a long-term energy storage device, but this works perfectly well for time-shifting power supply and demand on a daily basis for either solar/wind or peak-shaving applications.
The reason a "data center in a box" sounds so attractive is that the amortization schedules are different for IT equipment and buildings. If building infrastructure can last its advertised 25-30 year life then a tilt-up or factory assembled type of building structure is more cost-effective than containerized data centers architecturally.
Where I was going to try and make my billions (one can dream) is by building the box as an IT unit or member of a larger virtual grid. Provide significantly extra capacity within the box, use very basic computers like a Google solution (a mobo with a hard drive and some duct tape), direct cool everything with water-cooled heat sinks and external dry coolers, and never let anyone inside.
After there are enough hardware failures, pick the container up, bring it to the re-conditioning factory, and repair and upgrade components.
The ultimate challenge is to be able to virtualize everything to the point where you can plug another box into the grid to load balance and cover failure.
The bottom line is that without sealed boxes, I don't think you can make a solid economic case for a broad base of users. It will just end up as a "o'shit, we don't have enough space to deploy those next 20 racks that are sitting on the loading dock" solution. Based on APC's sales history with the Data Center on Demand (zero sales in five years, twice the cost/rack when actually deployed as a traditional solution), I think we are still a long way to go.
That said, Sun really did a good job with their design. It serves their target market quite well, and is pretty robust. The fact that it doesn't have internal chillers or UPSs is a little odd to me, but logical enough from a marketing perspective.
Still curious if anybody will build out something with it as a major part of the solution though. The military builds a lot inside aircraft hangars, and this type of approach can work very well for them, but the Fortune 50 are much more challenged to really make it work. They have invested too much money into centralization of IT infrastructure to shift back to highly de-centralized architectures... Oh wait, since when has that mattered?
Yeah... and I ride my bike to work year-round in about the least bicycle-friendly city in the US from a pathway perspective. I might not have to fight the weather, but LA drivers and traffic on a bike is painful!
Actually, some data centers are using 380VDC direct to servers 110/220VAC input. It is a little more efficient for power supplies that have a front-end DC voltage around that point. EPA and LBNL worked on a project for it as well.
It's safe as long as you don't go into the steam tunnels! My school was always having problems with steam lines rupturing and taking out the power and data lines installed in the tunnels.
DC power is actually slightly less efficient than three phase power (15% less) than three phase AC. HVDC is viable because it is easier to bump up the voltage with only two conductors to isolate than three.
We looked at using LIN for thermal storage and peak shaving. Benefit is that it is much more compact, but sizing an evaporator large enough for sustained gas flow was a problem. Even using heat recovery off an evaporator can be tricky without nearly 100% glycol.
The other challenge is thermal shock to the processors...
The problem is assuming all threats are the same. The means and objectives in penetrating a missile silo are fundamentally different than for a data center. A guard with a gun isn't going to stop the "evil packet."
Not exactly. An architect's duty to the state is to ensure that the building provides at least the code-minimum egress, accessibility, and fire resistive requirements. That's pretty much it.
Structural engineers make it stand as defined by building codes. Mechanical engineers ensure proper ventilation and plumbing requirements are met. Electrical engineers manage fire hazards associated with electrical installations and ensure adequate lighting.
As for roof leaks, and the ensuing problems that they cause, it is hard work to eliminate them, even in a simple box. While architectural details for waterproofing are often... challenged... by building complexity.
The only famous architect I ever worked with for any duration was terrible at space planning. Functional detailing was even worse. That's about what you expect... the engineers at that point have an obligation to step up and make things work.
If you want function, hire an HOK, SOM, or a Gensler. If you want a sculpture, hire a Gehry, Jahn, or Botta.
Disney Center is nothing special, but the Guggenheim Bilbao which it bears some resemblance to is a truly beautiful building architecturally, and reasonably functional as a museum.
When you hire Gehry, you know what you are getting.
As for all the people focused on purely functionality, it is important for the buildings on a university campus to help create an image of the institution-- these things help bring in endowment money, as well as assist in recruiting students.
From my college life, the one building built out of purely utilitarian desires, Wescoe Hall, was an awful place. Very functional, but nothing else. It's important to mix function and a little whimsy into a building.
That said, it's also important to understand the key program requirements and ensure that they are met...
NO. Architecture is "work for hire." The architect can maintain copyright on the drawings and plans, and they might even have elements in the structure trademarked. They cannot prevent an owner from changing a building, but they can prevent the owner from saying it is a _ building when making changes.
You are right on FLW in that he did not design for function as much as his mentor, Louis Sullivan who coined the phrase "Form Follows Function." FLW did a great job of creating fantastic spaces (with lots of roof leaks), but they were not built for the occupants.
Most of the Savvis or 365 Main data centers use Kevlar embedded in the drywall, but there is always a weak link somewhere. Concrete block, fully reinforced, isn't a whole lot better, but is about 3x the cost.
The problem isn't really the lack of a man-trap, but lack of multiple zones of security or appropriate security measures. All facilities are prone to some level of an inside job, and only a few would really have the information required to prosecute after the fact.
If there is only one guard and no offside monitoring, you are counting on luck.
As for the military knowing what the he'll they are doing, just because they treat their data centers like missile silos doesn't mean the protection is adequate or appropriate for the risks involved.
That was my first reaction when I heard about this research, but the more I thought about it, the more I recalled the exceptions and the maturing cycle of Gen X.
Kids coming out of college (in the US) are on average very immature. The lower half of that category always under-represents the group as a whole. The whole "Slacker" image was part of why people thought that way. In practice though, people worked hard, long hours, and for a pittance, in the hopes of a future reward.
The primary criticism today is that their inflation-adjusted salary expectations are inconsistent with the net changes in profit per employee over the same period. In other words, their salary cannot be supported by their billing rate.
Secondary to that... look at enrollment and career expectations of college students. So many want to go into Business or Law (or Dentistry or...) where the financial payback is fast, rather than the result of a "5-year plan."
For the most part, we'll have to see how things change in the next 5-10 years, but so far I haven't seen the same enterprising mentality today that I saw 10 years ago with 20-somethings. Most of that might have been destroyed in the dot com and dot bomb periods, but we will see...
USENET.COM should be considered a common carrier (like a telco) rather than an ISP. They provide access to a service provided by others only, and do not provide additional value in the process. They charge a fee for this access.
Why doesn't the MAFIAA just sue all the telcos-- without them, nobody would be able to download unauthorized copies of their material!?
I'm sure USENET.COM will lose the battle, but it is really sick that this is the case.
Slashdot Mirror
Oxygen generators were determined to be the cause of ValuJet Flight 592 crash in the Everglades. They are still permitted in the cargo hold.
The stupid irony of all these regulations is the lack of scrutiny that goes into air cargo/mail screening. Why the heck can you mail something that you can't check in your luggage?! Can I please win the lottery and buy a private jet? I'm getting sick of this crap...
But the pace of uptake is challenged with Video, since there is no legal means to move your DVDs to your iPod, or an easy way to copy broadcast TV shows from your Mac to your iPod. If Apple includes an effective TV tuner with their next generation of computers, maybe some of this will change.
Until Apple does it and makes it simple, the mass market for unencumbered video won't exist. Not that there are any technical barriers, just that things aren't easy yet.
Water-cooled server racks. Only way to stay sane if the rack is in your space, and it makes sense economically too. Rittal has a petty good solution, but it needs either a raised floor or plinth. Put patch panels on the wall. Separate workbench from desk.
I've seen the aftermath of someone manually paralleling a generator. They waited until the sync lights were their brightest to close the breaker... which is 180 degrees out of phase (you want to do it when the lights are off-- no voltage difference). The generator pulled off its vibration isolators and flipped on its end. Stayed inside the building, but you could see the damage to the louvers.
We weren't allowed to take any pictures, and googling generally yields results on utility-grade units which are a bit more solid construction and have better protections to prevent more than twisting the shaft and control rod damage.
The OP's intent was likely to say that frequency is fixed through grid interconnection (total capacity much larger than any one generator), and a generator can load or unload based on how far it leads or lags the fixed supply. Pretty sure "swapping phases" will cause a few problems with rotational inertia-- the generator would try and spin the opposite direction.
They have Ballistic Mosquitoes in Thailand-- they are the ones that carry Dengue Fever.
They are about the size of a 747, and you can clearly see their tail numbers. Well, almost.
(Aedes aegypti)
Most non-compete agreements are an HR issue more than a real management initiative. Having been on both sides of the argument, up close and personal, I have to say that I prefer California's interpretation. At-will employment and non-compete agreements have no place together.
Now, if an employer and employee have the expectation that it is a lifetime engagement and not something terminated at the whim of a quarterly profit projection, a non-compete agreement is much more logical. Not a whole lot of individuals or companies are in this position today.
No, that's actually the problem. There is no proof of distribution, only proof of possession.
However, the limits on statutory damages should be much higher than 3x, since each person sharing parts of the file enable the system overall to work-- while only one person might download the song in entirety, it is plausible that 10-20 people downloaded parts of the song, making the person sharing songs a party to all the 10-20 cases.
But 3,000x?! The numbers just don't make sense.
Ditto on the USB crash. Hung up my tethered cell phone, closed the cover, and unplugged my phone. Only kernel panic in a month or so.
Plenty of things I don't really like, but not a bad upgrade.
Check out Sodium-Sulfur Batteries. They are being deployed today for peaking applications, and are extremely energy efficient.
Their down-side is that they operate at very high temperature, so they do not serve as a long-term energy storage device, but this works perfectly well for time-shifting power supply and demand on a daily basis for either solar/wind or peak-shaving applications.
S&C has had one operational for over a year.
The reason a "data center in a box" sounds so attractive is that the amortization schedules are different for IT equipment and buildings. If building infrastructure can last its advertised 25-30 year life then a tilt-up or factory assembled type of building structure is more cost-effective than containerized data centers architecturally.
Where I was going to try and make my billions (one can dream) is by building the box as an IT unit or member of a larger virtual grid. Provide significantly extra capacity within the box, use very basic computers like a Google solution (a mobo with a hard drive and some duct tape), direct cool everything with water-cooled heat sinks and external dry coolers, and never let anyone inside.
After there are enough hardware failures, pick the container up, bring it to the re-conditioning factory, and repair and upgrade components.
The ultimate challenge is to be able to virtualize everything to the point where you can plug another box into the grid to load balance and cover failure.
The bottom line is that without sealed boxes, I don't think you can make a solid economic case for a broad base of users. It will just end up as a "o'shit, we don't have enough space to deploy those next 20 racks that are sitting on the loading dock" solution. Based on APC's sales history with the Data Center on Demand (zero sales in five years, twice the cost/rack when actually deployed as a traditional solution), I think we are still a long way to go.
That said, Sun really did a good job with their design. It serves their target market quite well, and is pretty robust. The fact that it doesn't have internal chillers or UPSs is a little odd to me, but logical enough from a marketing perspective.
Still curious if anybody will build out something with it as a major part of the solution though. The military builds a lot inside aircraft hangars, and this type of approach can work very well for them, but the Fortune 50 are much more challenged to really make it work. They have invested too much money into centralization of IT infrastructure to shift back to highly de-centralized architectures... Oh wait, since when has that mattered?
Yeah... and I ride my bike to work year-round in about the least bicycle-friendly city in the US from a pathway perspective. I might not have to fight the weather, but LA drivers and traffic on a bike is painful!
Actually, some data centers are using 380VDC direct to servers 110/220VAC input. It is a little more efficient for power supplies that have a front-end DC voltage around that point. EPA and LBNL worked on a project for it as well.
It's safe as long as you don't go into the steam tunnels! My school was always having problems with steam lines rupturing and taking out the power and data lines installed in the tunnels.
DC power is actually slightly less efficient than three phase power (15% less) than three phase AC. HVDC is viable because it is easier to bump up the voltage with only two conductors to isolate than three.
We looked at using LIN for thermal storage and peak shaving. Benefit is that it is much more compact, but sizing an evaporator large enough for sustained gas flow was a problem. Even using heat recovery off an evaporator can be tricky without nearly 100% glycol.
The other challenge is thermal shock to the processors...
The problem is assuming all threats are the same. The means and objectives in penetrating a missile silo are fundamentally different than for a data center. A guard with a gun isn't going to stop the "evil packet."
Not exactly. An architect's duty to the state is to ensure that the building provides at least the code-minimum egress, accessibility, and fire resistive requirements. That's pretty much it.
Structural engineers make it stand as defined by building codes. Mechanical engineers ensure proper ventilation and plumbing requirements are met. Electrical engineers manage fire hazards associated with electrical installations and ensure adequate lighting.
As for roof leaks, and the ensuing problems that they cause, it is hard work to eliminate them, even in a simple box. While architectural details for waterproofing are often... challenged... by building complexity.
The only famous architect I ever worked with for any duration was terrible at space planning. Functional detailing was even worse. That's about what you expect... the engineers at that point have an obligation to step up and make things work.
If you want function, hire an HOK, SOM, or a Gensler. If you want a sculpture, hire a Gehry, Jahn, or Botta.
Disney Center is nothing special, but the Guggenheim Bilbao which it bears some resemblance to is a truly beautiful building architecturally, and reasonably functional as a museum.
When you hire Gehry, you know what you are getting.
As for all the people focused on purely functionality, it is important for the buildings on a university campus to help create an image of the institution-- these things help bring in endowment money, as well as assist in recruiting students.
From my college life, the one building built out of purely utilitarian desires, Wescoe Hall, was an awful place. Very functional, but nothing else. It's important to mix function and a little whimsy into a building.
That said, it's also important to understand the key program requirements and ensure that they are met...
NO. Architecture is "work for hire." The architect can maintain copyright on the drawings and plans, and they might even have elements in the structure trademarked. They cannot prevent an owner from changing a building, but they can prevent the owner from saying it is a _ building when making changes.
You are right on FLW in that he did not design for function as much as his mentor, Louis Sullivan who coined the phrase "Form Follows Function." FLW did a great job of creating fantastic spaces (with lots of roof leaks), but they were not built for the occupants.
Most of the Savvis or 365 Main data centers use Kevlar embedded in the drywall, but there is always a weak link somewhere. Concrete block, fully reinforced, isn't a whole lot better, but is about 3x the cost.
The problem isn't really the lack of a man-trap, but lack of multiple zones of security or appropriate security measures. All facilities are prone to some level of an inside job, and only a few would really have the information required to prosecute after the fact.
If there is only one guard and no offside monitoring, you are counting on luck.
As for the military knowing what the he'll they are doing, just because they treat their data centers like missile silos doesn't mean the protection is adequate or appropriate for the risks involved.
Beats Thailand... 1 Mb advertised... 32kb delivered...
That was my first reaction when I heard about this research, but the more I thought about it, the more I recalled the exceptions and the maturing cycle of Gen X.
Kids coming out of college (in the US) are on average very immature. The lower half of that category always under-represents the group as a whole. The whole "Slacker" image was part of why people thought that way. In practice though, people worked hard, long hours, and for a pittance, in the hopes of a future reward.
The primary criticism today is that their inflation-adjusted salary expectations are inconsistent with the net changes in profit per employee over the same period. In other words, their salary cannot be supported by their billing rate.
Secondary to that... look at enrollment and career expectations of college students. So many want to go into Business or Law (or Dentistry or...) where the financial payback is fast, rather than the result of a "5-year plan."
For the most part, we'll have to see how things change in the next 5-10 years, but so far I haven't seen the same enterprising mentality today that I saw 10 years ago with 20-somethings. Most of that might have been destroyed in the dot com and dot bomb periods, but we will see...
USENET.COM should be considered a common carrier (like a telco) rather than an ISP. They provide access to a service provided by others only, and do not provide additional value in the process. They charge a fee for this access.
Why doesn't the MAFIAA just sue all the telcos-- without them, nobody would be able to download unauthorized copies of their material!?
I'm sure USENET.COM will lose the battle, but it is really sick that this is the case.