Bonneville Power Administration shut down its nuclear plant for refueling and their coal plant was shut down because it was unnecessary and still had excess power to export -- 100% from renewables so please, please don't post stupidly about "baseline" power.
Since that is obviously an uninformed opinion, I will post about baseline power.
BPA operates 31 hydroelectric power plants in the Pacific Northwest which supply about 1/3 of the electric power in the region. They also operate around 3/4 of the high-voltage transmission lines in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, western Montana and small parts of eastern Montana, California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
Regardless of why they shutdown their nuclear and coal plants, this means there is significantly more power generation demand than what BPA can provide. Since BPA's power is hydro, it does supply baseline power. But at only 1/3 of the region's power needs, that is not enough baseline power for the region. Since BPA operates most of the high voltage lines, they deliver (but do not generate) most of the power in the region. They are delivering power from a mixture of coal, natural gas, and renewable sources. These other renewables do not provide baseline power like BPA's hydro does, because they only work when the sun shines or the wind blows.
Hyrdo does serve as a baseline renewable power source, but we aren't going to be seeing any more of that. Environmental concerns have not only halted nuclear power, but also construction of new dams. Until we get an efficient and environmentally sound way to store wind and solar power, renewables will always be limited to providing just a fraction of our power.
And Windows 8 ARM might as well be dead on arrival given that it can't run x86 apps.
Although I suppose Windows 8 on a tablet might be a compelling hardware design, ARM is actually targeting the Windows server market. So the whole x86 thing might be less of an issue there.
But once you are a successful company, the troll tax also serves to inhibit startup competitors. There's only one thing corporations hate worse than competition. And that's new competition. Unfortunately the ones who would benefit the most from real patent reform are small independent entrepreneurs and the public at large, and they are unorganized.
Why? The current gas tax _is_ a mileage tax. If we added a mileage tax and also kept the gas tax, that would of course be boneheaded and detrimental. Also, if we switched to a mileage tax in the next 10 years, it would be premature. But we'll have to keep our eyes on what fuel cars use. If cost effective electric or hydrogen cars make it on the road in significant numbers, we'll have to switch to a mileage tax. Otherwise those people won't be paying any tax to maintain the roads.
Just because we don't need to switch now, doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking into it. I don't understand the paranoia around this issue.
This fact frustrates me to no end. It sure seems like executing an algorithm "on a computer" or "over the internet", in the eyes of the patent office, makes something patentable. Maybe 30 years ago that was true, but today we think differently. Today we try to do everything on the a computer and over the internet. A particular implementation should be patentable, but the blanket patents being issued are too broad.
Does the Amazon one click patent specify an exact configuration of databases, network protocols, network traffic, and server software? If not, it sounds to me to be the same as an old school credit account at a store. I often think of it being like the digital version of an open tab at the bar. An open tab "on the internet" does not sound patentable to me.
Texting and cell phones are a big enough distraction as is. Kids are expert time wasters, and the internet is largely a gigantic waste of time. (Like for me right now:) There are plenty of ways for kids to have fun and socialize while at school without also having unlimited internet. When I was in school I actually, god forbid, talked, with my mouth! That said, it is a technically pointless limitation. With internet access on smartphones, it doesn't matter what the school blocks.
I personally would build a Faraday cage into a school if I built it. Exclude the gym, cafeteria, and possibly a few other spots. There's always the land line in an emergency. Today's kids are connected 24/7, they need to learn sometime how to live off-line.
Time to get off our collective butts. Emails, Letters, and phone calls! Keep it short, sweet, clean, well reasoned, and SIMPLE. Remember their attention span isn't all that long. Here's my letter I just fired off to my senators and congressman.
Senator/Congress(man/woman) --------,
Please support net-neutrality.
When Cisco and cable/phone companies say "innovation" it is not my idea of innovation. Cisco means rather than competing with cheap, commodity hardware they can sell expensive traffic shaping hardware. The cable/phone companies mean rather than expanding their networks, they can reap more profit from the existing network. That may be an innovative way of generating profit, but it's not bringing innovative technology and services to the consumer.
Net-neutrality will protect truly innovative startup businesses like NetFlicks and Vonage from unfair and anti-competitive tatics by the cable/phone companies. Please support net-neutrality.
You should check Consumer Reports. The Little Giant line of ladders have good quality, but they are way over priced. CR rates several other competitive ladders as having even better quality at half the price. You might try a Werner or Gorilla ladder instead, or check out CR for details.
I'm a Mac owner, but until this broadcast flag thing happened I was contemplating building a Windows Vista based Media Center to connect to my LCD. I'd rather put a MacMini there, but there's no commercial Blu-Ray support yet.
So now how do I build a full featured alternative? The requirements I'm trying to fulfill are:
1) Play Blu-Ray movies 2) Stream Movies and Music from iTunes on my Mac (including some FairPlay encrypted ones unfortunately.) 3) Watch internet TV (Lost on ABC.com) 4) DVR
Windows was the only platform I've found that can do both #1 & #2. Mac's don't support #1. PS3's can only stream unencrypted stuff from iTunes, and they don't do #4 as far as I know. And now Windows has a crippled #4. Suck!
You could think of a GPU as in idiot savant. But in reality they don't have to be even that specialized. It's probably more like a brilliant person that is great at their specialty, but can't coordinate their clothes or give directions.
Yes you are correct. To fully justify my statement I should have pointed out the following. Schools have done this type of punishment forever, whether due to Facbeook evidence or otherwise. There will be court cases to be sure. The fact that Facebook provided the evidence will be immaterial, and the punishments will stand. Thus, schools' right to do this will be once again confirmed by the only body that matters, the court.
I was getting at the fact that schools' right to enforce their codes of conduct has really not been challenged except in specific exceptions where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy or freedom of speech. I don't think a picture on published on Facebook would be considered private by any reasonable person. It's sort of like putting a picture in the yearbook.
In general however, if a school (or any organization for that matter) lacks a code of conduct, you have a strong case saying you didn't violate any policy that the administration is authorized to enforce. In this case the school is a member of the MN State High School League, which has policies these kids violated.
Correction. The school has no obligation to punish students for non-school related activities.
Most schools I know of have codes of conduct which prohibit such behavior, whether in a school function or not. At a minimum that code of conduct typically states something like "you shall obey the law at all times".
I've worked for small and large companies. In the small companies your statement holds true. In large corporations my experience, is the IT department's job is to minimize the amount of work they have to do, period. I realize that is the fault of executive management. They don't realize that IT's job is first and formost as an enabler, with cost reduction as a secondary goal. Seems some execs just qualify IT as an expense to be cut, with little to no value. Unfortunately after a couple of years of that attitude, all the good talent leaves and you are left exactly with that. An IT department with little to no value. Now based on the self-fullfilling prophecy of the execs, you can justify cutting their budget again.
Maybe centralized corporate IT departments are just too far removed from their customers. In two large corporations I've worked for, we needed unix/linux systems for engineering work. The central IT organizations in both of these companies were 'Windows shops'. Never mind that Windows was not an option. We ended up with local Unix IT departments funded and managed more closely to the end users. I actually can contact these guys with a direct phone call or IM, instead of waiting on hold for 30 min to end up at some random support person. The faceless corporate IT department is left as a backup that handles infrastructure issues, which they do seem to do a decent job of.
Agreed. Isn't the allure of an iPod the entire integrated experience, iPod/iTunes/iTMS? iTunes is the very heart of that, so if you don't want to use iTunes, why would you use an iPod?
Sensational Mac loving journalism get's the hits as usual, so the article is to be expected. But, there still is a nugget that would be interesting to explore.
What does it mean that Apple's retail sales are growing so fast? Have purchases shifted online so much that this doesn't reflect any marketshare growth at all? Or is there real marketshare growth? Remeber Apple's share is small, so they could double their share for a few years and still be lagging Windows by a lot.
I'd like to see a study that ignores how people buy their computers, but looks at whose buying them. This report makes me speculate that Apple's share of home users may be growing at a very healthy rate. Which would be very much in line with their core strategy. Is their corporate share growing, steady, or shrinking? We can't even speculate based on this data.
VPN to the office and use a terminal server of some sort. M$ Remote Desktop, Citrix, VNC, Go-Global, etc.
I work primarily on Linux boxes at work, but connect to them remotely using Go-Global from my windows laptop, or use VNC from my Mac at home. No sensitive customer data on my hard drive, no sensitive employer data on my hard drive, continually backed up at the office, and persistent sessions so I never worry about saving before the battery dies.
Laptop hard drives are for music, movies, some presentations and spreadsheets that need to travel, and a cache of your email so you can catch up on emails offline on the plane. Keep your valuable data at the office, and encrypt your hard drive regardless. Ideally buy a hard drive with hardware based encryption.
Apple owes me nothing. But as a customer, I'm saying that I'm not going to put up with this bullshit. If you didn't buy one, then you are not a customer. That I can understand. The angry tone which seems like you take personal offense that they don't offer your dream product though, I don't.
The comparison is not bogus, the author explicitly stated he was comparing Macs to brand name PCs. Home built PCs being cheaper doesn't disprove his assertion. Your same home built PC is cheaper than brand name PCs too.
He also states that if your needed specs fall outside of what Apple offers, you will get a better deal on a PC. Needing to build it yourself definitely falls outside of Apple's offerings. However, if you need to buy a mid-high end brand name box, then his point is valid. And he clearly states this criteria in the article.
He does not have to be wrong about Apple vs. Dell, for you to be right about DIY vs. Dell.
Short-sighted is to give a guy who probably has no idea what his effort was worth 24 hours to come up with a price, and then not at least try to negotiate. He shoots in the dark a $50k price. For a year of work that has been that effective as it has, that's a bargain compared to how much ineffective money is spent on political TV ads.
Then instead of providing a counter offer, they simply accuse him of profitering and proceed to hijack the site from him. That is short sited anyway you look at. They are doing this because they thought he's an individual nobody. What could he possibly do to retaliate (read "typical big guy squish little guy think"). And now they are getting bad press because of it (read "short-sighted"). He's already sustained his loss (MySpace page was hijacked) which won't change his life really. They are only now going to begin to discover the loss to there credibility, which could potentially be very damaging. (Well, for the few people that are naive enough to give any credibitlity to any candidate.)
Slashdot Mirror
Unless Elton John is their target market, these things are doomed.
Bonneville Power Administration shut down its nuclear plant for refueling and their coal plant was shut down because it was unnecessary and still had excess power to export -- 100% from renewables so please, please don't post stupidly about "baseline" power.
Since that is obviously an uninformed opinion, I will post about baseline power.
BPA operates 31 hydroelectric power plants in the Pacific Northwest which supply about 1/3 of the electric power in the region. They also operate around 3/4 of the high-voltage transmission lines in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, western Montana and small parts of eastern Montana, California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
Source: http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/about_BPA/Facts/FactDocs/BPA_Facts_2009.pdf
Regardless of why they shutdown their nuclear and coal plants, this means there is significantly more power generation demand than what BPA can provide. Since BPA's power is hydro, it does supply baseline power. But at only 1/3 of the region's power needs, that is not enough baseline power for the region. Since BPA operates most of the high voltage lines, they deliver (but do not generate) most of the power in the region. They are delivering power from a mixture of coal, natural gas, and renewable sources. These other renewables do not provide baseline power like BPA's hydro does, because they only work when the sun shines or the wind blows.
Hyrdo does serve as a baseline renewable power source, but we aren't going to be seeing any more of that. Environmental concerns have not only halted nuclear power, but also construction of new dams. Until we get an efficient and environmentally sound way to store wind and solar power, renewables will always be limited to providing just a fraction of our power.
And Windows 8 ARM might as well be dead on arrival given that it can't run x86 apps.
Although I suppose Windows 8 on a tablet might be a compelling hardware design, ARM is actually targeting the Windows server market. So the whole x86 thing might be less of an issue there.
But once you are a successful company, the troll tax also serves to inhibit startup competitors. There's only one thing corporations hate worse than competition. And that's new competition. Unfortunately the ones who would benefit the most from real patent reform are small independent entrepreneurs and the public at large, and they are unorganized.
Why? The current gas tax _is_ a mileage tax. If we added a mileage tax and also kept the gas tax, that would of course be boneheaded and detrimental. Also, if we switched to a mileage tax in the next 10 years, it would be premature. But we'll have to keep our eyes on what fuel cars use. If cost effective electric or hydrogen cars make it on the road in significant numbers, we'll have to switch to a mileage tax. Otherwise those people won't be paying any tax to maintain the roads.
Just because we don't need to switch now, doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking into it. I don't understand the paranoia around this issue.
This fact frustrates me to no end. It sure seems like executing an algorithm "on a computer" or "over the internet", in the eyes of the patent office, makes something patentable. Maybe 30 years ago that was true, but today we think differently. Today we try to do everything on the a computer and over the internet. A particular implementation should be patentable, but the blanket patents being issued are too broad. Does the Amazon one click patent specify an exact configuration of databases, network protocols, network traffic, and server software? If not, it sounds to me to be the same as an old school credit account at a store. I often think of it being like the digital version of an open tab at the bar. An open tab "on the internet" does not sound patentable to me.
Someone call the Onion they missed the scoop!
Texting and cell phones are a big enough distraction as is. Kids are expert time wasters, and the internet is largely a gigantic waste of time. (Like for me right now:) There are plenty of ways for kids to have fun and socialize while at school without also having unlimited internet. When I was in school I actually, god forbid, talked, with my mouth! That said, it is a technically pointless limitation. With internet access on smartphones, it doesn't matter what the school blocks.
I personally would build a Faraday cage into a school if I built it. Exclude the gym, cafeteria, and possibly a few other spots. There's always the land line in an emergency. Today's kids are connected 24/7, they need to learn sometime how to live off-line.
You would also probably refuse a cure for cancer if it was invented by Microsoft.
Time to get off our collective butts. Emails, Letters, and phone calls! Keep it short, sweet, clean, well reasoned, and SIMPLE. Remember their attention span isn't all that long. Here's my letter I just fired off to my senators and congressman.
Senator/Congress(man/woman) --------,
Please support net-neutrality.
When Cisco and cable/phone companies say "innovation" it is not my idea of innovation. Cisco means rather than competing with cheap, commodity hardware they can sell expensive traffic shaping hardware. The cable/phone companies mean rather than expanding their networks, they can reap more profit from the existing network. That may be an innovative way of generating profit, but it's not bringing innovative technology and services to the consumer.
Net-neutrality will protect truly innovative startup businesses like NetFlicks and Vonage from unfair and anti-competitive tatics by the cable/phone companies. Please support net-neutrality.
Sincerely,
----------
Or the Sun.
You should check Consumer Reports. The Little Giant line of ladders have good quality, but they are way over priced. CR rates several other competitive ladders as having even better quality at half the price. You might try a Werner or Gorilla ladder instead, or check out CR for details.
Except it still won't play commercial Blu-Ray movies!
I'm a Mac owner, but until this broadcast flag thing happened I was contemplating building a Windows Vista based Media Center to connect to my LCD. I'd rather put a MacMini there, but there's no commercial Blu-Ray support yet.
So now how do I build a full featured alternative? The requirements I'm trying to fulfill are:
1) Play Blu-Ray movies
2) Stream Movies and Music from iTunes on my Mac (including some FairPlay encrypted ones unfortunately.)
3) Watch internet TV (Lost on ABC.com)
4) DVR
Windows was the only platform I've found that can do both #1 & #2. Mac's don't support #1. PS3's can only stream unencrypted stuff from iTunes, and they don't do #4 as far as I know. And now Windows has a crippled #4. Suck!
You could think of a GPU as in idiot savant. But in reality they don't have to be even that specialized. It's probably more like a brilliant person that is great at their specialty, but can't coordinate their clothes or give directions.
Yes you are correct. To fully justify my statement I should have pointed out the following. Schools have done this type of punishment forever, whether due to Facbeook evidence or otherwise. There will be court cases to be sure. The fact that Facebook provided the evidence will be immaterial, and the punishments will stand. Thus, schools' right to do this will be once again confirmed by the only body that matters, the court.
I was getting at the fact that schools' right to enforce their codes of conduct has really not been challenged except in specific exceptions where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy or freedom of speech. I don't think a picture on published on Facebook would be considered private by any reasonable person. It's sort of like putting a picture in the yearbook.
In general however, if a school (or any organization for that matter) lacks a code of conduct, you have a strong case saying you didn't violate any policy that the administration is authorized to enforce. In this case the school is a member of the MN State High School League, which has policies these kids violated.
Correction. The school has no obligation to punish students for non-school related activities.
Most schools I know of have codes of conduct which prohibit such behavior, whether in a school function or not. At a minimum that code of conduct typically states something like "you shall obey the law at all times".
So, obligation no, right yes.
I've worked for small and large companies. In the small companies your statement holds true. In large corporations my experience, is the IT department's job is to minimize the amount of work they have to do, period. I realize that is the fault of executive management. They don't realize that IT's job is first and formost as an enabler, with cost reduction as a secondary goal. Seems some execs just qualify IT as an expense to be cut, with little to no value. Unfortunately after a couple of years of that attitude, all the good talent leaves and you are left exactly with that. An IT department with little to no value. Now based on the self-fullfilling prophecy of the execs, you can justify cutting their budget again.
Maybe centralized corporate IT departments are just too far removed from their customers. In two large corporations I've worked for, we needed unix/linux systems for engineering work. The central IT organizations in both of these companies were 'Windows shops'. Never mind that Windows was not an option. We ended up with local Unix IT departments funded and managed more closely to the end users. I actually can contact these guys with a direct phone call or IM, instead of waiting on hold for 30 min to end up at some random support person. The faceless corporate IT department is left as a backup that handles infrastructure issues, which they do seem to do a decent job of.
Agreed. Isn't the allure of an iPod the entire integrated experience, iPod/iTunes/iTMS? iTunes is the very heart of that, so if you don't want to use iTunes, why would you use an iPod?
Sensational Mac loving journalism get's the hits as usual, so the article is to be expected. But, there still is a nugget that would be interesting to explore.
What does it mean that Apple's retail sales are growing so fast? Have purchases shifted online so much that this doesn't reflect any marketshare growth at all? Or is there real marketshare growth? Remeber Apple's share is small, so they could double their share for a few years and still be lagging Windows by a lot.
I'd like to see a study that ignores how people buy their computers, but looks at whose buying them. This report makes me speculate that Apple's share of home users may be growing at a very healthy rate. Which would be very much in line with their core strategy. Is their corporate share growing, steady, or shrinking? We can't even speculate based on this data.
Seagate does sell a drive with hardware based encryption, but "modern disk drives" is an exageration.
/ momentus/momentus_5400_fde.2/
r yption.html
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops
From what I've found, only Seagate and one company I've never heard of offer drives with hardware based encryption.
http://www.full-disk-encryption.net/Full_Disc_Enc
Of course, you can always go the route of a host controller that has hardware based encryption, and then you don't have to trust the drive at all.
VPN to the office and use a terminal server of some sort. M$ Remote Desktop, Citrix, VNC, Go-Global, etc.
I work primarily on Linux boxes at work, but connect to them remotely using Go-Global from my windows laptop, or use VNC from my Mac at home. No sensitive customer data on my hard drive, no sensitive employer data on my hard drive, continually backed up at the office, and persistent sessions so I never worry about saving before the battery dies.
Laptop hard drives are for music, movies, some presentations and spreadsheets that need to travel, and a cache of your email so you can catch up on emails offline on the plane. Keep your valuable data at the office, and encrypt your hard drive regardless. Ideally buy a hard drive with hardware based encryption.
The comparison is not bogus, the author explicitly stated he was comparing Macs to brand name PCs. Home built PCs being cheaper doesn't disprove his assertion. Your same home built PC is cheaper than brand name PCs too.
He also states that if your needed specs fall outside of what Apple offers, you will get a better deal on a PC. Needing to build it yourself definitely falls outside of Apple's offerings. However, if you need to buy a mid-high end brand name box, then his point is valid. And he clearly states this criteria in the article.
He does not have to be wrong about Apple vs. Dell, for you to be right about DIY vs. Dell.
Short-sighted is to give a guy who probably has no idea what his effort was worth 24 hours to come up with a price, and then not at least try to negotiate. He shoots in the dark a $50k price. For a year of work that has been that effective as it has, that's a bargain compared to how much ineffective money is spent on political TV ads.
Then instead of providing a counter offer, they simply accuse him of profitering and proceed to hijack the site from him. That is short sited anyway you look at. They are doing this because they thought he's an individual nobody. What could he possibly do to retaliate (read "typical big guy squish little guy think"). And now they are getting bad press because of it (read "short-sighted"). He's already sustained his loss (MySpace page was hijacked) which won't change his life really. They are only now going to begin to discover the loss to there credibility, which could potentially be very damaging. (Well, for the few people that are naive enough to give any credibitlity to any candidate.)