Please appreciate the uptime goals for an electrical utility. They are at about two or three nines, max. Usually, downtown/financial districts try to go for three or four nines with spot network systems.
This means that you will have about 8 hours without electricity per year.
The outage (and even an ensuing cascade failure) is not outside the operating parameters. The kicker is just the time required to restore power once you trip a circuit. There isn't much you can do to improve that; systems are designed to isolate faults and prevent major damage to the system rather than minimize the time to restore.
If your needs are beyond three nines, get a diesel generator off the grid. That's reality.
A completely seperate issue is the overall capacity of the grid. This problem is about NIMBYs rather than money... and it will not be solved easily. Simple solution is massively de-centralized generation. Better solution is diverse generation and greater spinning reserve, to compensate for the capacity of the transmission lines.
I would argue that better tools are a word processor/spreadsheet and scissors. The word processor is for you to write a description of the various functions and relationships for your space. If you really want to get fancy, use Visio to create a diagram to depict the relationships of the spaces, views, emotions, whatever.
The scissors are for you to cut out pictures of things you like.
Then take all this crap to an architect, and talk to them. Show them what you have come up with so far. Pay them for a couple days' work to make some pretty pictures for you to understand their concept, and repeat.
That said, I'm an architectural engineer. Emphasis on the engineer. I understand pictures well; I use CAD on a daily basis, and have for many years. I am good with coordinate systems. When I want to understand how to design something that I don't have experience with, the first phase is research, then you try and put your idea in a "real" form. If your idea has significant 3D "issues", paper alone can be difficult to "solve" the problem. It isn't any easier in CAD, but at least you can have the computer keep you honest between plan, section, and axonometric view.
The parent is correct in his assertation that 3D CAD isn't really ready for prime time... at least in the construction industry. But, it does make a good starting point for helping people visualize how things work. (It still blows my mind that some people can't read a plan, but if you insert height data and give them an axonometric projection they "get" it perfectly!)
Rolling friction would be drastically increased, which would improve braking as the parent stated, but would KILL fuel efficiency.
Consider trains: Steel on steel to minimize rolling friction; dump sand on the tracks when you need to stop, and increase the friction. Trains are optimized for operating conditions, not the end conditions.
The upshot however is that you could have the same net friction by reducing the width of the tires. Of course, you could only stop per specs on the special pavement, but that's just a detail...
No, paying your credit card off every month in full and on time won't do anything for your credit rating. Your credit rating will only improve if they think they can make money extending you credit: having you pay interest on an outstanding debt.
Quick summary: if you have "unlimited" bandwidth and static pages, it is easy to survive a slashdotting.
I can imagine that a little Via machine with a 10/T connection can survive a slashdotting... if all you do is serve text pages. Each image you serve cuts down that ability linearly.
When you link to a database... the math gets much harder! If your link is saturated, and you have to maintain more connections at a time, you are out of luck.
at some level you just have to trust your employees
Well, that's not how banks work. Every action is logged; this might not stop someone from breaking in, but it will tell you exactly who did, when, and what actions they took, so they can be reversed.
Since consumer data isn't cash directly, it was not treated with the same level of security.
To the 95% of Americans who are in this database, the cost of identity theft is quite high. This comes in the direct form of dealing with someone using your identity, and the indirect cost of the reconcilliation of the bad charges to other people.
Since the system is so reliant on very basic information (social security number, address, date of birth, mother's maiden name...), sources where all this data is kept in one place are at great risk, and should be dealt with more appropriately.
Netware has its places. NT still can't do things that are important for file and print servers. It just works.
If the core benefits of NetWare existed on a Linux platform, nothing would keep companies from jumping at it. The truth is that many of these things (SALVAGE being my favorite) aren't as mature in any of the competitors yet.
People keep NetWare boxes for a LONG time. That alone is a good reason to maintain their own kernel... it makes it comfortable for when that time does come around to upgrade every 6-10 years.
For business, just insist on high-speed internet access to the room. Hilton Garden Inns and Mariott Spring Hill Suites both have or promise this feature for free in most locations already, and are rolling it out to others in time. Plenty of other hotels are offering it for $10/night, which isn't too bad for a $100 hotel room, especially if it winds up as part of your room charge for expense reports.
I haven't had any problems with VPNs; it seems like their only "security" is for access control and monitoring.
All of the phones that have been removed had to go somewhere. Just buy them off the phone company outright. Buy enough extras that you have spare parts. Without the telco's overhead, it is apparently easy to make a profit on them.
the city's bureaucracy imposed such expensive remodeling requirements on the buildings that the shelter plans were scrapped....What is the price of safety? The city is required to enforce their codes evenly for all. Maybe they should have a reduced level of safety for buildings that don't want to meet all the criteria, and just force them to put big skull-and-cross warning signs on all the doors?
Of course, I would be much less likely to defend the record labels suffocating fair use, so I understand the argument. The point is, all laws should be fair to all people, and enforced appropriately.
But, as a company spending money on developing a product, they are not guaranteed the right to re-distribute that product under the terms of the GPL, if the GPL is not held up.
This would make things like Tivo tricky in some areas, where they have modified the Kernel, and packaged it in their hardware.
Accessible from anywhere must also include when there is no network access! There has to be a means to synchronize a client to the server so you can still work behind a firewall, on a plane, or in the woods. Web access is a supplemental means to connect to e-mail. It fails miserably as a primary means, however.
My complaint with Outlook/Exchange is simple: It does not support large data stores, nor does it do an efficient job of caching locally. The layout and integration is better than anything else I have worked with.
Although shared directories can be created, administering them as public folders has high overhead compared with how all other data is stored. I work on a "project" basis, and all correspondence for a project must be archived together. I can't believe that I am actually told to save my e-mails into discreet files on our Netware box! If it isn't stored as a.msg, it looses the attachments... and if it is, there is no way to search for messages.
In reality, it isn't a true groupware application... at least as far as our needs are concerned.
It's funny... I could easily move our company over to Linux or OS X if a viable alternative to AutoCAD was available on those platforms.
I haven't been able to find anything about Bently porting MicroStation to either platform... is there something?
About six years ago, Autodesk partnered up with MS... and I think Bently had to do the same more recently. For us to be able to look at an alternative on a corporate basis, we need an option.
I am starting to have more faith in the fact that non-engineering people could be shifted over easily enough... looking at our help system queues, it looks like justification could be made to switch...
Talking to Verizon folks, they seem to think that in 5-10 years, it will just be them and AT&T left. They are fairly aggressive at expanding markets... especially since they have a lot of cash around.
On the car example, one of the major points of car ads is to reinforce the purchase satisfaction... avoiding buyers remourse and encouraging referrals.
As for consumables, it is rare that you buy a lifetime supply in one go... they are working on the next purchase already.
I'm curious what the "shame" factor is... how many people stop using a product because of the advertisements. I have to guess that among "normal" people, it is almost zero...
People fail to realize that any ad that someone watches is an effective ad. "click-through" is an ineffective measure of selling a brand, which is what most network ads really are.
Skipping a commercial because you saw it is the same as skipping it because it is stupid. If you made a conscious decision to skip it, (after seeing a fraction of a second), that is effective in its own way.
The advertisers are in a different market than the geeks...
You are partially right. There are FCC limits on what broadcasters (radio at least) can do. By "tricking" the instruments, they can have a louder sounding ad, without actually higher dBA levels.
Forget the exact details, but you should be able to goodle for it.
Further made erroneous by me watching something on Tivo and reading a catalog or magazine at the same time. I get into the magazine, forget about the show, and after about three spots I realize there's a commercial playing, and then I FF to the show again.
As far as the advertisers are concerned, even if it was in the background, it's a good spot. It's just like the radio mass market... lower the threshold to making people change the station. You don't want songs people really get into, you just want things that will fit in the background with the ads. The objective is to make things bearable enough that you don't change the channel... or fast forward.
The interesting thing from the article is the fact that things people watch religiously (sitcoms or whatever) have very poor ad penetration... so they are better canidates for sponsorship and reduced ad spots. (These are specifically the shows that the networks have kept upping the advertising time on!)
I used to be afraid of better targeted ads (like many/.'ers), but now... it might make the whole thing more bearable. Too much advertising reduces the threshold for fast forwarding...
With Suunto, I expect a lot more than a glorified pager. I'm not so sure about SPOT, but I can't wait until some of the technology that goes into a device like this makes it into their other wristwatch computers (diving, sailing, etc.).
As for subscription services... it's ok, as long as you get value from it. Most electronic gadgets are better off with their initial sale than a monthly subscription because once the gee-wiz factor wears off, people realize they can live without it, and avoid spending the extra money each month.
Slashdot Mirror
Please appreciate the uptime goals for an electrical utility. They are at about two or three nines, max. Usually, downtown/financial districts try to go for three or four nines with spot network systems.
This means that you will have about 8 hours without electricity per year.
The outage (and even an ensuing cascade failure) is not outside the operating parameters. The kicker is just the time required to restore power once you trip a circuit. There isn't much you can do to improve that; systems are designed to isolate faults and prevent major damage to the system rather than minimize the time to restore.
If your needs are beyond three nines, get a diesel generator off the grid. That's reality.
A completely seperate issue is the overall capacity of the grid. This problem is about NIMBYs rather than money... and it will not be solved easily. Simple solution is massively de-centralized generation. Better solution is diverse generation and greater spinning reserve, to compensate for the capacity of the transmission lines.
I would argue that better tools are a word processor/spreadsheet and scissors. The word processor is for you to write a description of the various functions and relationships for your space. If you really want to get fancy, use Visio to create a diagram to depict the relationships of the spaces, views, emotions, whatever.
The scissors are for you to cut out pictures of things you like.
Then take all this crap to an architect, and talk to them. Show them what you have come up with so far. Pay them for a couple days' work to make some pretty pictures for you to understand their concept, and repeat.
That said, I'm an architectural engineer. Emphasis on the engineer. I understand pictures well; I use CAD on a daily basis, and have for many years. I am good with coordinate systems. When I want to understand how to design something that I don't have experience with, the first phase is research, then you try and put your idea in a "real" form. If your idea has significant 3D "issues", paper alone can be difficult to "solve" the problem. It isn't any easier in CAD, but at least you can have the computer keep you honest between plan, section, and axonometric view.
The parent is correct in his assertation that 3D CAD isn't really ready for prime time... at least in the construction industry. But, it does make a good starting point for helping people visualize how things work. (It still blows my mind that some people can't read a plan, but if you insert height data and give them an axonometric projection they "get" it perfectly!)
Rolling friction would be drastically increased, which would improve braking as the parent stated, but would KILL fuel efficiency.
Consider trains: Steel on steel to minimize rolling friction; dump sand on the tracks when you need to stop, and increase the friction. Trains are optimized for operating conditions, not the end conditions.
The upshot however is that you could have the same net friction by reducing the width of the tires. Of course, you could only stop per specs on the special pavement, but that's just a detail...
No, paying your credit card off every month in full and on time won't do anything for your credit rating. Your credit rating will only improve if they think they can make money extending you credit: having you pay interest on an outstanding debt.
Quick summary: if you have "unlimited" bandwidth and static pages, it is easy to survive a slashdotting.
I can imagine that a little Via machine with a 10/T connection can survive a slashdotting... if all you do is serve text pages. Each image you serve cuts down that ability linearly.
When you link to a database... the math gets much harder! If your link is saturated, and you have to maintain more connections at a time, you are out of luck.
Yes, but if you own one box of Open Linux, you can license all the systems you want that are installed from those disks.
Logically, you could take the source and patch up up and away without violating the license under which it was originally purchased.
at some level you just have to trust your employees
Well, that's not how banks work. Every action is logged; this might not stop someone from breaking in, but it will tell you exactly who did, when, and what actions they took, so they can be reversed.
Since consumer data isn't cash directly, it was not treated with the same level of security.
To the 95% of Americans who are in this database, the cost of identity theft is quite high. This comes in the direct form of dealing with someone using your identity, and the indirect cost of the reconcilliation of the bad charges to other people.
Since the system is so reliant on very basic information (social security number, address, date of birth, mother's maiden name...), sources where all this data is kept in one place are at great risk, and should be dealt with more appropriately.
Netware has its places. NT still can't do things that are important for file and print servers. It just works.
If the core benefits of NetWare existed on a Linux platform, nothing would keep companies from jumping at it. The truth is that many of these things (SALVAGE being my favorite) aren't as mature in any of the competitors yet.
People keep NetWare boxes for a LONG time. That alone is a good reason to maintain their own kernel... it makes it comfortable for when that time does come around to upgrade every 6-10 years.
Here is SCO's response to the action...
Pathetic press release...
For business, just insist on high-speed internet access to the room. Hilton Garden Inns and Mariott Spring Hill Suites both have or promise this feature for free in most locations already, and are rolling it out to others in time. Plenty of other hotels are offering it for $10/night, which isn't too bad for a $100 hotel room, especially if it winds up as part of your room charge for expense reports.
I haven't had any problems with VPNs; it seems like their only "security" is for access control and monitoring.
All of the phones that have been removed had to go somewhere. Just buy them off the phone company outright. Buy enough extras that you have spare parts. Without the telco's overhead, it is apparently easy to make a profit on them.
the city's bureaucracy imposed such expensive remodeling requirements on the buildings that the shelter plans were scrapped. ...What is the price of safety? The city is required to enforce their codes evenly for all. Maybe they should have a reduced level of safety for buildings that don't want to meet all the criteria, and just force them to put big skull-and-cross warning signs on all the doors?
Of course, I would be much less likely to defend the record labels suffocating fair use, so I understand the argument. The point is, all laws should be fair to all people, and enforced appropriately.
But, as a company spending money on developing a product, they are not guaranteed the right to re-distribute that product under the terms of the GPL, if the GPL is not held up.
This would make things like Tivo tricky in some areas, where they have modified the Kernel, and packaged it in their hardware.
The relative humidity in the fridge is higher for a given level of moisture, but the real concern with electronics is condensing humidity.
At a lower temperature (say 35F), it is unlikely that any point on the AP would be cooler than the air temperature, so condensation is not likely.
Accessible from anywhere must also include when there is no network access! There has to be a means to synchronize a client to the server so you can still work behind a firewall, on a plane, or in the woods. Web access is a supplemental means to connect to e-mail. It fails miserably as a primary means, however.
My complaint with Outlook/Exchange is simple: It does not support large data stores, nor does it do an efficient job of caching locally. The layout and integration is better than anything else I have worked with.
.msg, it looses the attachments... and if it is, there is no way to search for messages.
Although shared directories can be created, administering them as public folders has high overhead compared with how all other data is stored. I work on a "project" basis, and all correspondence for a project must be archived together. I can't believe that I am actually told to save my e-mails into discreet files on our Netware box! If it isn't stored as a
In reality, it isn't a true groupware application... at least as far as our needs are concerned.
It's funny... I could easily move our company over to Linux or OS X if a viable alternative to AutoCAD was available on those platforms.
I haven't been able to find anything about Bently porting MicroStation to either platform... is there something?
About six years ago, Autodesk partnered up with MS... and I think Bently had to do the same more recently. For us to be able to look at an alternative on a corporate basis, we need an option.
I am starting to have more faith in the fact that non-engineering people could be shifted over easily enough... looking at our help system queues, it looks like justification could be made to switch...
Talking to Verizon folks, they seem to think that in 5-10 years, it will just be them and AT&T left. They are fairly aggressive at expanding markets... especially since they have a lot of cash around.
On the car example, one of the major points of car ads is to reinforce the purchase satisfaction... avoiding buyers remourse and encouraging referrals.
As for consumables, it is rare that you buy a lifetime supply in one go... they are working on the next purchase already.
I'm curious what the "shame" factor is... how many people stop using a product because of the advertisements. I have to guess that among "normal" people, it is almost zero...
...aah, so then we go for the "ants in the pants" disguise!
People fail to realize that any ad that someone watches is an effective ad. "click-through" is an ineffective measure of selling a brand, which is what most network ads really are.
Skipping a commercial because you saw it is the same as skipping it because it is stupid. If you made a conscious decision to skip it, (after seeing a fraction of a second), that is effective in its own way.
The advertisers are in a different market than the geeks...
You are partially right. There are FCC limits on what broadcasters (radio at least) can do. By "tricking" the instruments, they can have a louder sounding ad, without actually higher dBA levels.
Forget the exact details, but you should be able to goodle for it.
As far as the advertisers are concerned, even if it was in the background, it's a good spot. It's just like the radio mass market... lower the threshold to making people change the station. You don't want songs people really get into, you just want things that will fit in the background with the ads. The objective is to make things bearable enough that you don't change the channel... or fast forward.
The interesting thing from the article is the fact that things people watch religiously (sitcoms or whatever) have very poor ad penetration... so they are better canidates for sponsorship and reduced ad spots. (These are specifically the shows that the networks have kept upping the advertising time on!)
I used to be afraid of better targeted ads (like many
2H2+O2=2H2O. O2 from Atmosphere, H2 from storage.
If you can patent that, then maybe the joke is worth it.
With Suunto, I expect a lot more than a glorified pager. I'm not so sure about SPOT, but I can't wait until some of the technology that goes into a device like this makes it into their other wristwatch computers (diving, sailing, etc.).
As for subscription services... it's ok, as long as you get value from it. Most electronic gadgets are better off with their initial sale than a monthly subscription because once the gee-wiz factor wears off, people realize they can live without it, and avoid spending the extra money each month.