What the hell do you mean by RS-232?! While I can see some serial cabling, usually a little belden cable is all that you need (single twisted, unshielded pair).
The whole idea of structured cabling is to provide a single cable that will do as much as possible... just putting in a 9-conductor cable that can't do anything else is a waste.
While I agree that the story sounds contrived, if the installation jeapordized an inspection's passing, the contractor would have been well within his rights to do what was described.
Licensure isn't required, but you do need to have an agreement with the contractor to do work in the house before it is completed.
Some of the nicest things about concrete involve putting things inside it. Radiant heating and cooling is one of the most advantageous uses of such a mass.
Squares are good when you put things against walls. Curves work extremely well when things are brought away from the walls. The efficiency is reduced this way, but the "quality" of the space can be dramatically improved.
Much of the benefit would come from things that worked well in stone, but not in stud-wall construction (or even cast-in-place concrete). Vaults and Domes seem the most obvious choice.
The idea is cool for things that are extruded surfaces, but... how do you get any tinsile strength out of it? How do you put in vertical elements that are not concrete, but integrated into the structure? The site pre-casting idea is neat, but there isn't anything showing how it would stand up to seismic, or even strong wind loads. I know... work in progress.
It's actually very close to building with stone, only you use a liquid instead.
After four solid hours on the phone today with their technical support, spare yourself. They really are a mess. Cool... but a mess!
When can we get an "anything" software radio system-- 802.11x when it is around, 800/900MHZ as a last resort, and GSM as the norm? Coverage is really disappointing when you are outside the 25-40 top markets with everything. It would seem like the only way to provide coverage everywhere is for private networks with a vested interest in better coverage helping out.
This argument completely fails to appreciate the difference between the microdrive based units on the market today; the power consumption of the drive is insigificant since it only spins up once every half-hour or so.
When you move to video applications, the formula changes, since the data rate increases dramatically. It would take another innovation to make hard-drives viable in this market.
But... the storage size also needs to dramatically increase before EITHER option makes sense.
Please provide a link for a multi-protocol AT&T phone; as far as I know they don't have any... they discontinued that feature at least four months ago.
My new "upgraded" phone even lacks basic functions like the Abc (title text) capitalization! It's really crap, but unfortunately the GSM coverage is so bad that it won't work for my work.
Re:HVAC? No, In Floor Heat!
on
DIY HVAC
·
· Score: 1
Radiant heating's other benefit is that it doesn't take much energy to make the place feel warm.
Be careful with radiant cooling, though; condensation is a bit of a pain if you are trying to really cool a significant load.
Re:Here's some solutions to help lower the bill:
on
DIY HVAC
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Another option in high humidity locations is to just get a de-humidifier.
If you own your home, consider getting awnings, trees, or some other source of shade for your western exposure.
Also, try and create a cross-breeze through the house from the bottom of the "cold" side to the top of the warm side. Double-hung windows and attic fans are both good for this.
Zoning's benefit is that you don't over heat/cool areas that aren't occupied.
Re:Buy a new fridge, and other suggestions.
on
DIY HVAC
·
· Score: 1
You would expect about 70W if there is no power savings, and the CRT is off.
But, if you use your own bank exclusively, tracking down the fraud is possible. The video cameras could catch whomever recovers the memory stick. If you use multiple ATM's in different places, convincing someone to do the leg work would be much harder.
It is actually just a phase-transfer refrigerant, with a water-cooled heat exchanger remote to the unit. The unit picks up 2/3 of the rack load, under ideal conditions.
First, you are putting in lots of refrigerant into the room, especially at this kind of density. You are also relying on little fans in the XD-V units, that have no remote trouble alarms. You have extremely top-heavy cabinets which also make for reliability issues, unless everything is fully braced.
Then comes the real problem... the remaining heat that the XD unit can't cool still has to make its way back to the CRAC units, and now you have all kinds of obstructions to airflow....and, do you really want to have to re-configure your sprinkler piping when your rack layout changes?
All I'm saying is that the density begs for problems at this point. Relying on the XD units to provide cooling is not a good long-term solution.
Actually, the heat problem is a lot harder to deal with as you triple the density. They are looking at close to 12kW/rack, which pushes the envelope on what you can do with air.
For every five racks you need one computer A/C unit, without any redundancy. Anywhere you have a cable dam or piping, your ability to cool quickly goes to hell, even with a 24" raised floor.
I predict lots of problems with this upgrade... based on the marketing video they did with Apple. Just not set up to cool that kind of density.
Haven't seen the watch in person, but it looks like a good geek-model. Their wristwatch dive computers and sports watches are better than anything else out there!
It's important to understand several things when going into this type of meeting:
What is the real objective? Specifically... are they trying to cut back staff or unsuccessful projects? Or, is it an "enlightened" approach of trying to make best use of the company's resources?
How many layers up in the command structure are you talking to? Technical people are often better at discussing technical problems, rather than people problems.
What is your biggest issue, or what do you see as being the biggest opportunity that you can help the company with? If it is a negative issue, be careful in how you phrase it. NEVER make personal attacks.
...and when you have to say something bad, make sure there is enough backup for why THIS is the thing that must change.
Whenever possible, you should speak with the person you are going to attack beforehand about the issue. Then, you have an opportunity to spin the issue in both your favor: _ and I had a discussion last week about how we could work better together...
One of my favorite lines is that I work with a fantastic team, and I really value the different skills and capabilities that everybody brings to the table. I am thankful that (that bastard middle manager) is around so that I am able to offload some of the politics (or whatever), but [insert organizational issue here].
Actually, I don't imagine it would be THAT hard. Looking at where an e-mail address is harvested from could give you a useful corpus of ham words. It makes the e-mail database more complicated, but it also increases the chances of a higher success rate.
My prediction is that it will sell OK, but nowhere near spectacular, as once you make the decision to spend $250 for a mp3 player, you might as well add that extra $50 and get the regular iPod and the other 11 gigs of storage. ...which is exactly why they are introducing it! All of their pricing is designed around getting people to buy-up when they look at the value proposition. It makes it a lot easier for people to work with.
I think they would be fools not to bring the price down over time to compete better, but this isn't quite the time yet. There's money in dem hills!
But you don't have to kill every manufacturer to eliminate people willing to deal with you. Your bargaining clout is gone once people (eventually) catch on. As that starts to happen, they demand a higher percentage of the profits, messing up Dell's overall margin (even if only slightly).
There are plenty of people that would like to live in a different country, other than the US. There are great things here (economic opportunity is one), as well as government stability.
Personally, I'd take my pick of tropical islands. It's all about lifestyle decisions.
To summarize, in order for our labor forces here to compete with foreign outsourcing we would have to be willing to work at or below the labor rates in a third world country! WTF is good at all about this scenario? The last time I checked, the United States was not a third world country and you most certainly cannot buy goods and services, pay your rent, and in general live at third world rates.
No. There isn't uniform salary pressure, there is a balanced salary pressure. There has to be a reason to pay someone more money than another person.
Manufacturing was heavily offshored last century because many of the skills required to do the jobs were easily trained, and the economics work for it. Tasks that require a higher level of skill tend to be more difficult to offshore. Unfortunately, there is no incentive for a company to pay 10x salary to someone for sewing on a button in a factory. At the same time, the company has to understand the associated costs for their offshoring, impact to supply chain, quality control, geopolitical risk, etc.
From what I have seen in my field, there is a severe shortage of highly qualified people. This has led to people being able to work from home, setting up small offices close to the good people, etc. History tells me that there will be similar pressure to what happened to software, as long as my job is a commodity.
Unfortunately if you lack the skill set making your efforts a commodity, you will have to work harder and smarter to not get screwed by the changes in the economy.
The Henry Ford comment is often thrown around, regarding the fact that if you take jobs away from your customers, you won't have any more customers. The corollary to this is that to create new customers, you must give them jobs.
It isn't about finding cheaper rent, saving less, etc. It's about staying flexible. That flexibility comes at a huge personal cost. If it isn't worth that cost to you, innovate and find something where you don't need to sacrifice as much.
The biggest security screening issues come when you have only a single-direction flight with a given airline. Whenever I have an invoulentary re-route, I get that special little S. It's allocated by the airlines, so they don't give it to their better customers.
I know in the old days, a black dot on your passport would always get you screened when entering the US, but I'm sure there is an electronic equivalent of that today.
Everything is about image when it comes to profiling. Look lost and confused, you will attract more suspicion. Look stoned, and likewise.
The granparent's comment about TSA efficiency is spot-on. It is much better, especially if you fly a lot. The lines are much more predictable, "problem people" are quickly taken out of the critical path, and if you hit the highest level of airline loyalty, you get the special check-in lines.
I'm lucky in not flying tourist-heavy airlines much (Southwest, etc.), but the screening process is better now. The fact that it is more thorough is inmaterial. Although I am still pissed at the TSA and United for loosing my Leatherman Wave...
Slashdot Mirror
Return it if it doesn't meet your needs or expectations. Do it enough, and you have created an incentive for them to provide working demos again.
Depending on the location, PVC might cause problems. Wouldn't try it in San Francisco...
What the hell do you mean by RS-232?! While I can see some serial cabling, usually a little belden cable is all that you need (single twisted, unshielded pair).
The whole idea of structured cabling is to provide a single cable that will do as much as possible... just putting in a 9-conductor cable that can't do anything else is a waste.
While I agree that the story sounds contrived, if the installation jeapordized an inspection's passing, the contractor would have been well within his rights to do what was described.
Licensure isn't required, but you do need to have an agreement with the contractor to do work in the house before it is completed.
Some of the nicest things about concrete involve putting things inside it. Radiant heating and cooling is one of the most advantageous uses of such a mass.
Squares are good when you put things against walls. Curves work extremely well when things are brought away from the walls. The efficiency is reduced this way, but the "quality" of the space can be dramatically improved.
Much of the benefit would come from things that worked well in stone, but not in stud-wall construction (or even cast-in-place concrete). Vaults and Domes seem the most obvious choice.
The idea is cool for things that are extruded surfaces, but... how do you get any tinsile strength out of it? How do you put in vertical elements that are not concrete, but integrated into the structure? The site pre-casting idea is neat, but there isn't anything showing how it would stand up to seismic, or even strong wind loads. I know... work in progress.
It's actually very close to building with stone, only you use a liquid instead.
After four solid hours on the phone today with their technical support, spare yourself. They really are a mess. Cool... but a mess!
When can we get an "anything" software radio system-- 802.11x when it is around, 800/900MHZ as a last resort, and GSM as the norm? Coverage is really disappointing when you are outside the 25-40 top markets with everything. It would seem like the only way to provide coverage everywhere is for private networks with a vested interest in better coverage helping out.
This argument completely fails to appreciate the difference between the microdrive based units on the market today; the power consumption of the drive is insigificant since it only spins up once every half-hour or so.
When you move to video applications, the formula changes, since the data rate increases dramatically. It would take another innovation to make hard-drives viable in this market.
But... the storage size also needs to dramatically increase before EITHER option makes sense.
Please provide a link for a multi-protocol AT&T phone; as far as I know they don't have any... they discontinued that feature at least four months ago.
My new "upgraded" phone even lacks basic functions like the Abc (title text) capitalization! It's really crap, but unfortunately the GSM coverage is so bad that it won't work for my work.
Radiant heating's other benefit is that it doesn't take much energy to make the place feel warm.
Be careful with radiant cooling, though; condensation is a bit of a pain if you are trying to really cool a significant load.
Another option in high humidity locations is to just get a de-humidifier.
If you own your home, consider getting awnings, trees, or some other source of shade for your western exposure.
Also, try and create a cross-breeze through the house from the bottom of the "cold" side to the top of the warm side. Double-hung windows and attic fans are both good for this.
Zoning's benefit is that you don't over heat/cool areas that aren't occupied.
You would expect about 70W if there is no power savings, and the CRT is off.
You would be surprised at the number of journalists that read slashdot, and the frequency of references it gets in the popular press...
But, if you use your own bank exclusively, tracking down the fraud is possible. The video cameras could catch whomever recovers the memory stick. If you use multiple ATM's in different places, convincing someone to do the leg work would be much harder.
The Liebert XD units have their own problems.
...and, do you really want to have to re-configure your sprinkler piping when your rack layout changes?
It is actually just a phase-transfer refrigerant, with a water-cooled heat exchanger remote to the unit. The unit picks up 2/3 of the rack load, under ideal conditions.
First, you are putting in lots of refrigerant into the room, especially at this kind of density. You are also relying on little fans in the XD-V units, that have no remote trouble alarms. You have extremely top-heavy cabinets which also make for reliability issues, unless everything is fully braced.
Then comes the real problem... the remaining heat that the XD unit can't cool still has to make its way back to the CRAC units, and now you have all kinds of obstructions to airflow.
All I'm saying is that the density begs for problems at this point. Relying on the XD units to provide cooling is not a good long-term solution.
Actually, the heat problem is a lot harder to deal with as you triple the density. They are looking at close to 12kW/rack, which pushes the envelope on what you can do with air.
For every five racks you need one computer A/C unit, without any redundancy. Anywhere you have a cable dam or piping, your ability to cool quickly goes to hell, even with a 24" raised floor.
I predict lots of problems with this upgrade... based on the marketing video they did with Apple. Just not set up to cool that kind of density.
Haven't seen the watch in person, but it looks like a good geek-model. Their wristwatch dive computers and sports watches are better than anything else out there!
Suunto
What is the real objective? Specifically... are they trying to cut back staff or unsuccessful projects? Or, is it an "enlightened" approach of trying to make best use of the company's resources?
How many layers up in the command structure are you talking to? Technical people are often better at discussing technical problems, rather than people problems.
What is your biggest issue, or what do you see as being the biggest opportunity that you can help the company with? If it is a negative issue, be careful in how you phrase it. NEVER make personal attacks.
...and when you have to say something bad, make sure there is enough backup for why THIS is the thing that must change.
Whenever possible, you should speak with the person you are going to attack beforehand about the issue. Then, you have an opportunity to spin the issue in both your favor: _ and I had a discussion last week about how we could work better together...
One of my favorite lines is that I work with a fantastic team, and I really value the different skills and capabilities that everybody brings to the table. I am thankful that (that bastard middle manager) is around so that I am able to offload some of the politics (or whatever), but [insert organizational issue here].
Actually, I don't imagine it would be THAT hard. Looking at where an e-mail address is harvested from could give you a useful corpus of ham words. It makes the e-mail database more complicated, but it also increases the chances of a higher success rate.
My prediction is that it will sell OK, but nowhere near spectacular, as once you make the decision to spend $250 for a mp3 player, you might as well add that extra $50 and get the regular iPod and the other 11 gigs of storage. ...which is exactly why they are introducing it! All of their pricing is designed around getting people to buy-up when they look at the value proposition. It makes it a lot easier for people to work with.
I think they would be fools not to bring the price down over time to compete better, but this isn't quite the time yet. There's money in dem hills!
But you don't have to kill every manufacturer to eliminate people willing to deal with you. Your bargaining clout is gone once people (eventually) catch on. As that starts to happen, they demand a higher percentage of the profits, messing up Dell's overall margin (even if only slightly).
There are plenty of people that would like to live in a different country, other than the US. There are great things here (economic opportunity is one), as well as government stability.
Personally, I'd take my pick of tropical islands. It's all about lifestyle decisions.
To summarize, in order for our labor forces here to compete with foreign outsourcing we would have to be willing to work at or below the labor rates in a third world country! WTF is good at all about this scenario? The last time I checked, the United States was not a third world country and you most certainly cannot buy goods and services, pay your rent, and in general live at third world rates.
No. There isn't uniform salary pressure, there is a balanced salary pressure. There has to be a reason to pay someone more money than another person.
Manufacturing was heavily offshored last century because many of the skills required to do the jobs were easily trained, and the economics work for it. Tasks that require a higher level of skill tend to be more difficult to offshore. Unfortunately, there is no incentive for a company to pay 10x salary to someone for sewing on a button in a factory. At the same time, the company has to understand the associated costs for their offshoring, impact to supply chain, quality control, geopolitical risk, etc.
From what I have seen in my field, there is a severe shortage of highly qualified people. This has led to people being able to work from home, setting up small offices close to the good people, etc. History tells me that there will be similar pressure to what happened to software, as long as my job is a commodity.
Unfortunately if you lack the skill set making your efforts a commodity, you will have to work harder and smarter to not get screwed by the changes in the economy.
The Henry Ford comment is often thrown around, regarding the fact that if you take jobs away from your customers, you won't have any more customers. The corollary to this is that to create new customers, you must give them jobs.
It isn't about finding cheaper rent, saving less, etc. It's about staying flexible. That flexibility comes at a huge personal cost. If it isn't worth that cost to you, innovate and find something where you don't need to sacrifice as much.
The biggest security screening issues come when you have only a single-direction flight with a given airline. Whenever I have an invoulentary re-route, I get that special little S. It's allocated by the airlines, so they don't give it to their better customers.
I know in the old days, a black dot on your passport would always get you screened when entering the US, but I'm sure there is an electronic equivalent of that today.
Everything is about image when it comes to profiling. Look lost and confused, you will attract more suspicion. Look stoned, and likewise.
The granparent's comment about TSA efficiency is spot-on. It is much better, especially if you fly a lot. The lines are much more predictable, "problem people" are quickly taken out of the critical path, and if you hit the highest level of airline loyalty, you get the special check-in lines.
I'm lucky in not flying tourist-heavy airlines much (Southwest, etc.), but the screening process is better now. The fact that it is more thorough is inmaterial. Although I am still pissed at the TSA and United for loosing my Leatherman Wave...