Don't forget that there is a lot of music out there in the world, all of it paid for through music service companies like Muzak, TV shows/commercials (watch reruns on Nick@Nite and notice the lack of music), radios playing, etc. I'm always amazed by how quiet it is when I go for a hike in the woods, and how jarring it is when I go back to society.
I'm sure the total saturation of the environment is a contributing factor, and it is almost all the fault of the big music companies' greedy nature.
Most of the problem is centered around Motorola and SA spreading FUD in the industry about signal theft. Instead of using standard encryption techniques (like your bank and just about every secure web site), they put together a system that is just about as closed as you can get. Then the.gov comes in and says they have to open it up. Rather than scrap the existing system and use something that will be secure and open to other manufacturers, they continue to try to adapt their encryption to the new rules, without letting too much information out there, hoping to avoid the hacking that went on in the satellite industry.
The other big problem is that the cable billing systems were never intended to deal with customer purchased equipment that requires authorization, and most of that code was hacked on at the last minute and doesn't work very well. The customer service people have minimal training on the system (they are there to provide customer service, not enter data), so they end up making a lot of mistakes. The billing systems make it much harder than necessary, and the screwy way cablecards interface makes it much more difficult.
Finally, the cablecard spec is still only 1 way. The real spec will be the 2.0/ocap system, but there still seems to be some work to do. This will allow 2 way services to be implemented but there is a lot of back office stuff that needs to be addressed, some of which has never been tried outside of a lab. The 1.0 cablecard slot is not compatible with the 2.0 cards (it is not a firmware upgrade).
It is going to require a lot of training and attitude change from the entire industry. In the long run, if the industry adopts the standard and actually uses the features available to them, it will be a great system. Imagine picking up a set top at Best Buy, taking it home, entering you WiFi key and getting on your home gateway. Your set top will autoprovision with services based on your subnet, and will share data with any other set tops in your home network. All this stuff is possible today, but will require a lot of rethinking by the cable companies. Motorola showed off the DVRs that share data, and Cisco/Scientific Atlanta has the home networking tech.
If they were within 20 miles of each other, I'd look at the other ones nearby and find out who installed them. Maybe the contractor needs a little more training, maybe they got a bad batch of batteries.
It is likely they were installed by the same group of people (person?), and if they (he) didn't know what he was doing, it may very well happen again. It is also likely the batteries were all part of the same batch.
That's a nice, easy way to wire a campus wide network. The tech has been here for a while, the toughest part was designing a cleanout cover that wouldn't leak and allow for access without taking the network down to use it. They use industrial strength R/C cars to run pullstrings through the pipes.
However, the problem they can't solve is that in the US, the town water authority would be in direct competition with a private company, a big no-no. The existing players would raise hell if it were tried in a community on more than a point to point basis (and even that would get a lot of attention). I would imagine similar outrage in the UK. However, since it is a campus network they can basically do whatever they want.
Actually, most of that will go to licensing deals with rappers and other criminals. They'll only have enough money left over to dig up all those ET carts from the landfill and repackage them.
That it was a story about life in 1984 NYC? I love that stuff... Boom boxes, walkmen, 3 channels of analog TV (well, maybe a few more in New York), mainframe computers. Those were the days!
Sorry, most of that cost is for stars and directors. AKA above the line budget.
The line defines the people who work for scale and the people who can demand a high price due to their unique characteristics (has to do with boob size and rugged good looks, but mostly due to their agent).
Yea, someone who works nearby posted that the power was on and off all day. Hope they find out and release the cause of the failure. Might be an interesting read.
I really doubt they were ever full. Diesel fuel goes bad after a few months. Unless SF has really, really crappy power*, the generators don't do much more than idle once a week for 20 minutes or so. The giant tanks are only there for the marketing department. And maybe for the employees to top off their tanks.
*I live out in the middle of nowhere and I get a power failure exceeding 5 minutes about once per year. The longest I've had at my current location was just over 2 hours.
Well, you test and test and test, and when something finally happens, nothing. Stuff happens.
Brownouts sometimes fail to trigger generators, even though they should. If only one phase goes down, depending on the design, it may not trip (and would cause a somewhat random outage, like some drunk shutting down racks).
If the generator runs on diesel, they usually only plan for a few hours of backup. If they didn't recalculate the generator runtime as they added equipment, the load may have caused the fuel consumption to go up higher than anticipated. Is it hot in SF today? Air handlers may be straining to keep the place cool, or maybe the generator got running too hot.
Often times, as equipment is added, the load gets out of balance between phases. It is usually a good idea to keep the load as even as possible, but in a high traffic data center, I would imagine there would be a lot of stuff moving in and out, expanding and contracting, and it may become hard to keep track of the loads across phases. A good facilities manager should be able to tell you the current load off the top of his head, but too often these details get left out.
This is just stuff I've seen in cable TV headends over the years. Granted, this facility should have a power manager/engineer on staff, but so often the power is one of the first things to get cut from the budget.
You're right, and don't forget that Verizon Wireless, which (depending on who you talk to) is the largest carrier in the US, puts custom software on their phones (BREW) that is the same as, but not compatible with, Java. That means no Google maps, no stand-alone Gmail, no Google home page, etc. The main reason VZW does this is to extort money from providers (just like non-net neutrality). Google is just hoping to keep their mobile business model.
Most, if not all, modern military airframes are heavily dependent on P-Code GPS systems, to the point that a pilot's satchel containing maps and mission data is now just a hard drive that plugs into the console. They all are able to tie into the joint tactical radio system (JTRS), which is a major communications backbone that is able to send position data, IM, and voice to tactical displays anywhere in the world, and more importantly, to troops in the theatre. Amazing stuff. Too bad it has to be used for such a lousy reason.
Hopefully some of this tech will continue to trickle out to the civilian world. I live in an area with a lot of back country skiers who would love to have access to something that would make it easy to rescue them from an avalanche, or hikers lost on a trial could be guided to the trailhead. Yes, much of this is possible now, but there is no real standard, and it costs a lot of money (not that the milspec stuff is cheap).
Well, cable is not going to sit around waiting for the ax to fall. DOCSIS 3.0 is ratified, products are going to be introduced next year (this fall in some markets), and will be very competitive with fiber to the home when it comes to speed.
And the phone companies aren't going to be waiting, either. All the RBOCS are planning FTTH, or at least FTTC (fiber to the curb), and Verizon WILL go national with their fiber network at some point (although it could be years before it gets to your house).
Sadly, we'll also see BPL sometime down the road. I say sadly because it will cause major interference in the short wave bands just when the SW broadcasters are starting to play with DRM (digital radio mondaile, not the other kind), and the FCC dropped the code requirement for HAM operators. Of course, BPL is not anywhere near as fast as the other options, but it has the benefit of being potentially available to just about every house in the US.
The wireless guys won't go without a major fight, and I'm sure they'll agree to anything the FCC wants. Just wait until after the auction to see all these new unlocked devices in the store. Does anyone really think Qualcomm will introduce a device that Verizon doesn't want on it's network?
Sugar is subsidized in the US. Apparently the sugar lobby is very strong. Must have something to do with sugar cane fields in Hawaii or something.
Of course, the increasing cost of corn may start to equalize things. But from a manufacturing standpoint, HFCS is much better, since it is a liquid. The funny thing is, I remember my grandmother talking about the sacrifices she had to make during WWII. One of them was having to use Kayro Syrup instead of sugar. I guess we must have lost the war....
Word is that Brazil/Rio actually had a little bit of a campaign to get the Christ the Redeemer statue on the list... Getting school children to vote, advertising, etc.
When I saw the leading "wonders" I passed. My vote would have been any of the great cities of the world. London, being a huge interconnected mass of telecom, roads, trains, and sewers. Amazing!
Also not on the list:
1) US interstate highway system - when else in history could you travel non stop from the Atlantic to the Pacific without hardship? 2) Europe's train system (and specifically the TGV and Eurotunnel) 3) 3 Gorges dam
You get the idea. What will still be here 1000 years from now? Ruins of public works projects, not statues.
"Over 40% of the total household income of 2 earner families goes towards taxes. "
Boo Hoo. Until they file their return. Deductions for children, mortgage interest, health savings accounts, etc. can really add up. Why do you think people refinance every few years?
The problem is that satellites have a limited amount of fuel on board. They got lucky and didn't have to move it as much as the designers thought, so they are on borrowed time. The fact is, most satellites fail due to loss of fuel, not due to dead electronics.
Also, it is REQUIRED by international law that you have enough fuel onboard to de-orbit your satellite before you run out (basically to clean up after yourself). If they are on borrowed time, it may be that they are betting they can get it out of orbit with less fuel. Of course, the US government is no longer part of the international world, so I guess that doesn't matter.
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Did you know that for only $1.25 million you can feed a family of lawyers for a year? Please help us feed the lawyers. Give what you can.
Don't forget that there is a lot of music out there in the world, all of it paid for through music service companies like Muzak, TV shows/commercials (watch reruns on Nick@Nite and notice the lack of music), radios playing, etc. I'm always amazed by how quiet it is when I go for a hike in the woods, and how jarring it is when I go back to society.
I'm sure the total saturation of the environment is a contributing factor, and it is almost all the fault of the big music companies' greedy nature.
It took me years to write it
They were the best years of my life
But if you're gonna have a hit
you gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05.
Too much power by the A&R guys, the producers and the stuffed shirts in the biz.
Already been done:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701087/
Most of the problem is centered around Motorola and SA spreading FUD in the industry about signal theft. Instead of using standard encryption techniques (like your bank and just about every secure web site), they put together a system that is just about as closed as you can get. Then the .gov comes in and says they have to open it up. Rather than scrap the existing system and use something that will be secure and open to other manufacturers, they continue to try to adapt their encryption to the new rules, without letting too much information out there, hoping to avoid the hacking that went on in the satellite industry.
The other big problem is that the cable billing systems were never intended to deal with customer purchased equipment that requires authorization, and most of that code was hacked on at the last minute and doesn't work very well. The customer service people have minimal training on the system (they are there to provide customer service, not enter data), so they end up making a lot of mistakes. The billing systems make it much harder than necessary, and the screwy way cablecards interface makes it much more difficult.
Finally, the cablecard spec is still only 1 way. The real spec will be the 2.0/ocap system, but there still seems to be some work to do. This will allow 2 way services to be implemented but there is a lot of back office stuff that needs to be addressed, some of which has never been tried outside of a lab. The 1.0 cablecard slot is not compatible with the 2.0 cards (it is not a firmware upgrade).
It is going to require a lot of training and attitude change from the entire industry. In the long run, if the industry adopts the standard and actually uses the features available to them, it will be a great system. Imagine picking up a set top at Best Buy, taking it home, entering you WiFi key and getting on your home gateway. Your set top will autoprovision with services based on your subnet, and will share data with any other set tops in your home network. All this stuff is possible today, but will require a lot of rethinking by the cable companies. Motorola showed off the DVRs that share data, and Cisco/Scientific Atlanta has the home networking tech.
Then, they throw stones - that is, they realized they can use an object as a weapon.
Poo has been used by the monkeys as a weapon for centuries.
If they were within 20 miles of each other, I'd look at the other ones nearby and find out who installed them. Maybe the contractor needs a little more training, maybe they got a bad batch of batteries.
It is likely they were installed by the same group of people (person?), and if they (he) didn't know what he was doing, it may very well happen again. It is also likely the batteries were all part of the same batch.
And you might end up with a little problem.
k thepilot202/print.html
http://www.askthepilot.com/upsfire.html
Story that explains the picture:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/09/22/as
Granted, Smith is a pilot, not an engineer, but he gives a somewhat good explanation of thermal runaway.
That's a nice, easy way to wire a campus wide network. The tech has been here for a while, the toughest part was designing a cleanout cover that wouldn't leak and allow for access without taking the network down to use it. They use industrial strength R/C cars to run pullstrings through the pipes.
However, the problem they can't solve is that in the US, the town water authority would be in direct competition with a private company, a big no-no. The existing players would raise hell if it were tried in a community on more than a point to point basis (and even that would get a lot of attention). I would imagine similar outrage in the UK. However, since it is a campus network they can basically do whatever they want.
Many places already do weld the manhole covers down, to prevent theft and damage:
T PAGE/708090875&LID=002
http://www.telegram.com/article/20070809/002-FRON
Actually, most of that will go to licensing deals with rappers and other criminals. They'll only have enough money left over to dig up all those ET carts from the landfill and repackage them.
That it was a story about life in 1984 NYC? I love that stuff... Boom boxes, walkmen, 3 channels of analog TV (well, maybe a few more in New York), mainframe computers. Those were the days!
Sorry, most of that cost is for stars and directors. AKA above the line budget.
The line defines the people who work for scale and the people who can demand a high price due to their unique characteristics (has to do with boob size and rugged good looks, but mostly due to their agent).
Raised the bar on telemetry and space communications. Advanced long distance television transmission.
Improved efficiency of fuel cells. Even though development didn't continue
Mylar film. Used as insulation to keep long distance runners warm and emergency shelter for forest fighters.
One of the first users of Velcro.
Space pen. Even though it wasn't designed with NASA funding. Made a good Seinfeld episode.
Yea, someone who works nearby posted that the power was on and off all day. Hope they find out and release the cause of the failure. Might be an interesting read.
I really doubt they were ever full. Diesel fuel goes bad after a few months. Unless SF has really, really crappy power*, the generators don't do much more than idle once a week for 20 minutes or so. The giant tanks are only there for the marketing department. And maybe for the employees to top off their tanks.
*I live out in the middle of nowhere and I get a power failure exceeding 5 minutes about once per year. The longest I've had at my current location was just over 2 hours.
Well, you test and test and test, and when something finally happens, nothing. Stuff happens.
Brownouts sometimes fail to trigger generators, even though they should. If only one phase goes down, depending on the design, it may not trip (and would cause a somewhat random outage, like some drunk shutting down racks).
If the generator runs on diesel, they usually only plan for a few hours of backup. If they didn't recalculate the generator runtime as they added equipment, the load may have caused the fuel consumption to go up higher than anticipated. Is it hot in SF today? Air handlers may be straining to keep the place cool, or maybe the generator got running too hot.
Often times, as equipment is added, the load gets out of balance between phases. It is usually a good idea to keep the load as even as possible, but in a high traffic data center, I would imagine there would be a lot of stuff moving in and out, expanding and contracting, and it may become hard to keep track of the loads across phases. A good facilities manager should be able to tell you the current load off the top of his head, but too often these details get left out.
This is just stuff I've seen in cable TV headends over the years. Granted, this facility should have a power manager/engineer on staff, but so often the power is one of the first things to get cut from the budget.
You're right, and don't forget that Verizon Wireless, which (depending on who you talk to) is the largest carrier in the US, puts custom software on their phones (BREW) that is the same as, but not compatible with, Java. That means no Google maps, no stand-alone Gmail, no Google home page, etc. The main reason VZW does this is to extort money from providers (just like non-net neutrality). Google is just hoping to keep their mobile business model.
Most, if not all, modern military airframes are heavily dependent on P-Code GPS systems, to the point that a pilot's satchel containing maps and mission data is now just a hard drive that plugs into the console. They all are able to tie into the joint tactical radio system (JTRS), which is a major communications backbone that is able to send position data, IM, and voice to tactical displays anywhere in the world, and more importantly, to troops in the theatre. Amazing stuff. Too bad it has to be used for such a lousy reason.
Hopefully some of this tech will continue to trickle out to the civilian world. I live in an area with a lot of back country skiers who would love to have access to something that would make it easy to rescue them from an avalanche, or hikers lost on a trial could be guided to the trailhead. Yes, much of this is possible now, but there is no real standard, and it costs a lot of money (not that the milspec stuff is cheap).
Well, cable is not going to sit around waiting for the ax to fall. DOCSIS 3.0 is ratified, products are going to be introduced next year (this fall in some markets), and will be very competitive with fiber to the home when it comes to speed.
And the phone companies aren't going to be waiting, either. All the RBOCS are planning FTTH, or at least FTTC (fiber to the curb), and Verizon WILL go national with their fiber network at some point (although it could be years before it gets to your house).
Sadly, we'll also see BPL sometime down the road. I say sadly because it will cause major interference in the short wave bands just when the SW broadcasters are starting to play with DRM (digital radio mondaile, not the other kind), and the FCC dropped the code requirement for HAM operators. Of course, BPL is not anywhere near as fast as the other options, but it has the benefit of being potentially available to just about every house in the US.
The wireless guys won't go without a major fight, and I'm sure they'll agree to anything the FCC wants. Just wait until after the auction to see all these new unlocked devices in the store. Does anyone really think Qualcomm will introduce a device that Verizon doesn't want on it's network?
Sugar is subsidized in the US. Apparently the sugar lobby is very strong. Must have something to do with sugar cane fields in Hawaii or something.
Of course, the increasing cost of corn may start to equalize things. But from a manufacturing standpoint, HFCS is much better, since it is a liquid. The funny thing is, I remember my grandmother talking about the sacrifices she had to make during WWII. One of them was having to use Kayro Syrup instead of sugar. I guess we must have lost the war....
Word is that Brazil/Rio actually had a little bit of a campaign to get the Christ the Redeemer statue on the list... Getting school children to vote, advertising, etc.
When I saw the leading "wonders" I passed. My vote would have been any of the great cities of the world. London, being a huge interconnected mass of telecom, roads, trains, and sewers. Amazing!
Also not on the list:
1) US interstate highway system - when else in history could you travel non stop from the Atlantic to the Pacific without hardship?
2) Europe's train system (and specifically the TGV and Eurotunnel)
3) 3 Gorges dam
You get the idea. What will still be here 1000 years from now? Ruins of public works projects, not statues.
Atari was all over the place, too.
Must be the band...
"Over 40% of the total household income of 2 earner families goes towards taxes. "
Boo Hoo. Until they file their return. Deductions for children, mortgage interest, health savings accounts, etc. can really add up. Why do you think people refinance every few years?
The problem is that satellites have a limited amount of fuel on board. They got lucky and didn't have to move it as much as the designers thought, so they are on borrowed time. The fact is, most satellites fail due to loss of fuel, not due to dead electronics.
Also, it is REQUIRED by international law that you have enough fuel onboard to de-orbit your satellite before you run out (basically to clean up after yourself). If they are on borrowed time, it may be that they are betting they can get it out of orbit with less fuel. Of course, the US government is no longer part of the international world, so I guess that doesn't matter.