...or better yet, a dedicated workstation class machine, which could simply be an alternate boot image on your only machine, which if properly configured and network isolated does not require connectivity to the net, nor sources of potential infection, so updates are non-critical, and you can even uninstall your AV software allowing you more CPU cycles for rendering...
Or, if you're doing massive work like that, you set it to "notify only"...or better yet, do your rendinging on a OS designed for workloads like that (aka Unix).
Just because they're not using the auto-update patent technology in a currently marketed piece of kit does NOT mean Apple is not actively developing that technology into upcoming products. OS X for Intel was in development for nearly 7 years before we saw it on the market.
Did you READ this patent? It's game changing for every OS and device on the market! The ability to insert new code in place of existing RUNNING code WITHOUT interrupting the app of the user!?!?! Would YOU give that patent away for free???
Many companies gave patents into the pool for this technology, INCLUDING APPLE, but this PARTICULAR technology they are refusing to give away free. Other companies in the pool have ALSO enforced such rights. Apple is not alone in refusing to allow a particular patent to be royaly free for the use by W3C.
This particular patent, though technically software, is a VERY unique, and complicated, logical method of auto-update. It's a whole series of complex steps and algorithms to support one piece of code replacing ITSELF without user interruption, program interruption, or visual notifications.
Here's a question for you: How do you compile a new compiler from within your own compiler overwriting said compiler without interupting the compiling process? Have you seen this trick done before? I have not. This is a HUGE patent that will eventually apply to every OS on the market. There's NO WAY apple's giving this away free for something as novel as W3C which does not explicity require such a technology...
Actually, per the back inside cover in the new DnD 4e books, and per the DnDi website, you're supposed to get a free PDF copy when you buy the hardcover, plus as a subscriber (this part of the service isn't active yet) all the people in your registered game group (who themselves do NOT have to subscribe) can have free online access to ALL the PDF copies anyone in your group owns. They're calling it virtual game table. We're hoping it's up and running this fall. So far, only the character generator is up and running if you're a subscriber.
WoTC doesn't want you to have ONLY the PDF. They want at least 1 person in your group to have a hard copy, then all of you can share the PDFs. I agree with this kind of sharing system as it 1) controls distribution, 2) allows simple gaming over a virtual table (not all players have to come in person to play!), and 3) still gives me access to the PDF to copy/paste material into planned adventures, plus 4) I still get to have a shiny hardcover, which is usually easier to search than an electronic copy anyway.
If you play, you should pay. As a group, 6 or 7 of you should be able to afford a few books collectively, and everyone chip in $1 a month towards the online server (once the virtual game table it's running, I don't recomend it right now. Wonko's 4e character generator, although just a spreadsheet, is superior to DnDi's character generator in many ways.)
Your failure to back up your downloaded software is not their problem...
If you break/scratch your physical copy, would they have any responsibility? Why should they waste the bandwidth without charging you?
If you want a better piece of software though, talk to Wonko... Excel 2007 active spreadsheet and database for DnD4e. includes everything! (about 30 days behind release schedule). It can be found at enworld, rpgsheets.com, and a few other places. I'd link, but I'm blocked from that here at the office... Google for "Wonko 4e" Current version is something like 1.47.h.2.
Oh, and you don't have to "resubscribe" if you are still a subscriber... You CAN redownload it while still a member. The software is not FREE, it's leased while under contract... If youre not paying monthly, you're not supposed to use it (though they're nice enough not to lock it on you if you're not paying) It's SAAS... just offline.
Yes, exactly. Apple had this patent already. The W3C royalty free licence includes the NEW, currenlty unpatented technologies being rolled into the standard. Any company that has an existing patent that W3C tries to leverge a technology protected by has the right to notify the W3C and let them know they're infringing, and then decide wether or not to licence that technology to the group.
Apple may very well want this technology to be a part of W3C, but if they don't want it to also become available royalty free to everyone else, then it has to be LICENCED by the W3C and appropriate fees must be paid to Apple. This does not mean that the W3C technologies would include Royalties, just that the group members designing it would have to pay Apple for that piece of the technology in the form of a one-time fee, or they'll have to design around it...
Actually, it does notify you by placing a "rebooting in x seconds" warning on the screen. Its also clearly interrupting the program in question. Even the basic updates that don't require a reboot sometimes reset the desktop, close windows, or at the very least, notify the user. Not a single MS update is completely transparent to the user.
First off, lets focus on one thing, if your company is already at a size, complexity, or business need of having backup data electronically replicated offsite (whether this is a true hotsite you're replicating to, or just a method for not rotating tapes through your front door every day), then we're not talking about USB drive data protection schemes here...
OK now, the offsite system should NOT be an administrator access node of your existing backup solution. It should receive replicated data sets and have the ability to operate as a DR server to recover them, but it should be controlled remotely from YOUR site, and should not be able to initiate backups, restores, or make operations changes to another site's DR servers. This is handled by wither firewall rules or user structures.
Second, Physical access at the DR site needs to be as or more strict than at your primary site. If you don;t own the building (or host services through someone like SunGuard) they should have your units in locked racks. Insist that anyone with access has passed Government C2 or higher clearance, and DO NOT give ANYONE outside your organization passwords to those systems.
Next, If the system allows, the user accounts at the hot site should not be the same at any of your other sites.
Next, You STILL NEED TO ARCHIVE DATA, preferably monthly at worst, weekly may be needed depending on your data set size. Replicated systems can corrupt data, and replicated date sets typically only contain your current data set (no rollback copies). Generally, if your replication system is handling moving data automatically, you can leave your local DR copies in your building in a secure area. Daily backups should be archived to local disks so if you have a DR server failue you still have something to recover from (recovery over the WAN is usually not an option). If you have a fire or disasterous event, your offsite systems is your #1 backup, last month/week's archive is your #2.
I've spent a lot of time working with multiple DR companies, and I've supported medium and enterprise class businesses alike (my current employer has 12 mainframes, a couple hundred AIX servers, and over 2000 x86/64 boxes. DR is a BIG thing around here!) Once you enter enterprise class, we're not typically talking "backups" as you know them, more SAN replication and disk write journaling. Recovering 400TB from backups simply isn't an option in a 24-48 hour recovery model! However, if you've got less than 50TB, you can VERY REASONABLY build a great solution out of DPUs (Data Protection Units) made by Unitrends (unitrends.com). They're totally tapeless systems, can share jobs between multiple units at multiple sites, have secure packet level replication technology, and can use 256bit real time encryption as 8GB/minute (per chassis!) with up to 7 concurrent jobs running (per chassis!). a 50TB environment would use 4-8 DPUs (usually departmentalized) conencted to a SAN, and another 1-2 units offsite to handle replication and DR recovery. They also support P2V and V2P recovery and dissimilar recovery. Fully integrated BareMetal backup (they actually invented and patented that one!), and support for 40 operating systems in one multi-site seamless DR solution. You should REALLY look into them. For small sites (less than 1TB data) you can get into one of these units for around $15K with all the bells and whistles (another 10K for replication). There are NO PER CLIENT OR PER AGENT LICENSING FEES, it's ALL inclusive, the only thing you license is storage. Oh, their Data Vault unit can handle up to 40 sites, and each site can be run by a different company with different accounts, and their data can be logically seperated on the vault making it impossible for one customer to interfere with another's data, you can even lock the vault operator out of the solution. This has been validated by the DOD as a secure solution...
I've got close to 1,600 x64 and x86 servers here, about 350 Power series chassis with AIX, and 12 full on host mainframes. I can tell you this: Even xSeries daisy chaned X64 3850 or 3950 chassis with 16x6 core Xeon processors does not hold a candle to the performance I can get out of an AIX chassis for the same dollar. (And Windows won't recognize more than 8 processors without going to the rediculously expensive datacenter edition).
For certain applications, SPARK is VERY powerful. Sure, for running an ordinary OS, a PIII can sometimes out perform it, but put it into a Beowulf cluster? Wow.
I've got a 6 year old AIX box here that puts out more transactions per second under oracle than a hot of the shelf new 16 core server that today cost more than that AIX chassis did 6 years ago.
It all depends on what you're using the CPU for. X64 is very inflexible.
I can't think of too many things I CAN'T assemble in my garrage for significantly cheaper than buying a complete unit. Computers, car repair, kitchen cabinets, pretty much anything that can be purchased as a set of parts is cheaper than buying an assembled unit. Why?
- No labor included in price - No warranty included in price - Individual parts sold seperately are usually overstock or minor "defects" - Many parts sold online are parts no longer actively being produced - Assembled systems are stoced only for sale, parts are stocked for multiple reasons, meaning more efficient warehousing... - typically, no middle man. the vendor you buy a widget from is usually the 3rd or 4th company in line, parts can be acquired direct or through a flooring company, eliminating at least 1 tier of markup.
Now, that said, it's obvious that some parts, especially commonly replaced wear parts, are highly profitable. Some items actually cost more to build from parts. In the case of solar panels, a lot of the components aside from the cells are very common items that can be found for deep discounts. (Wires, boarder metal, backing, etc). If the cells are readily availible, it;s not terribly complicated to assemble.
What I'd like to see is: 1: How does his home made panel compare to one manufactured with the same cells 2: How many more cells/panels did he need to get full coverage (100% aggregate 24 hour power) vs professional panels, and does a typical roof have enough room to handle that? 2: Over 15-20 years, what will he expect in maintanance and repair costs that would normally have been warantied 3: Over 20 years, what's the actual difference in cost (factoring in comparative performance) 4: What tax valuation was he granted and how much did his home value increase due the adding home made panels vs produced panels? 5: How many house did he put into this? 6: was he able to roll the cost under a mortgage of equity loan like I could do with a local reseller?
Just saving the cash up front, even if you considder the labor a non-issue (or even rewarding), does not mean this is a good idea. It actually has to show 20 year savings as well. He may have saved on the panel cost, but he can't save on the electrical panels, the inverters, and the other components required to make solar panels actually work. I'd like to know how that factored into his cost. Did he also hire an electrician or has he a certified electrical contractor that could wire his own house (most of us are NOT, and would incurr substantial installation fees).
With Sun out of the picture, and their patents in IBMs hands, the Risk processor markey will turn upside down in IBMs favor. With such a dramatic overpricing, that's going to raise eyebrows with several government agencies.
Do i think they have a case to prevent the merger? No, not really, but I'm sure they'll try hard to FIND a reson (at the expense and dire insisitance of any remaining competition).
I don't get that functionality for free, I pay every month for it. The hardware was there one way or the other since some functions of that hardware were enabled initially. Yes, on some competitors devices that functionality worked out of the box, but very few phones have wifi, bluetooth, full web, and a good medai player. No other media player offered that at the time. Paying $10 every 8-12 months is not a bad deal at all to add dramatic (over 100 new feature) upgrades, especially when new hardware level features can be enabled without me having to replace the device.
Sure, the device cost a bit more up front for the early adopters, but basically it's the iPhone folks paying for the development and the iPod folks reaping the benefits. I'd much rather pay extra for a device with a 3-5 year lifespan than buy a new Zune every 18 months... (and the zune Sux by comparrison).
No, in that case, it was a genuine major version upgrade fee... $10 to go from 1.0 to 2.0. Not bad... LOTS of new featrues added.
Don't bitch, you can't even upgrade Windows Mobile at any price, nor Blackberry's OS, and the free Zune 1st get update that added features only added what they originally promised but failed to deliver...
I'd FULLY support this here. I'm in SC, one of the cheaper states in the country to live in....but my insurance rates normalized for cost of living are the 2nd highest in the country!!! Why? Approxamately 12% of our drives are uninsured, and 25% are underinsured. That means 25% of my insurance premiums are covering THEIR accidents, and the lost revenues of the insurer for not collecting their premiums...
Also, with drunk driving penalties weak at best. One of my Wife's cousins was convicted 3 times with a DUI, once after a crash resulting in my brother--in-law (who was in another car her cousin hit) almost getting killed, and he never spend more than a weekend in prison, paid about $2K (total across all 3 convictions) in fines, and on the 3rd offence received a suspended licence for only 6 months. (he drove every day anyway). The 3rd offence was about a year ago, he's now insured again for less than $2K annually. Almost a guarantee he'll do it again. (On the 4th offence he'll get 2-6 months in prison and a 1 year suspension, that's it).
Forget red light cameras, just set up cameras on random roads all over town, connect them to a system that looks up insurance information (In SC, insurers are required by law to notify the DMV if an insured driver looses or canceles their insurance, so it's easy). Once they're flagged, just send a cop to their house to fine them and take their license plate off the car. No licence plate? pull them over on sight...
Funny thing is, in this state, the punishments for driving without insurance (aka driving without a license) are actually worse than getting a DUI... I'm ALL FOR cracking down on the cheapskates who won't pay. And I'll be damned if every person I';ve met thus far who didn't have insurance, and who bitched about the cost, dindn't have a big screen TV, game stations, and a $200 a month mobile phone bill.... F*'em all
Your firmware updates for your PS3 did not enable hardware that existed already but that you could not use. Now, if Sony included a Blu-Ray player originally, but sold the device advertising only "DVD playback", then later, with a magic firmware upgrade announced "all PS3s in the field with this update can now play Blu-Ray HD disks!", then they'd fall under GAAP and have to charge you for the upgrade....
Won't happen. That's not an API that's a media protocol. Copying of data is not a supported option in the iPhone platform, only streaming. This is the only method that can prevent you from moving data between multiple iPhones, or using unapproved apps without unlicking...
They're supporting devices that transmit control protocols to Apple supported APIs only. Things like contorlling a speaker, or receiving input from a device (possibly adding GPS to a iPod Touch), but not for moving data, open computing, running apps that are not installed, or accessing physical files.
It;s not Apple's fault, it's a federal law. They've been over this EVERY TIME with the iPod Touch (and with the Macs that post-release added Wireless N support).
You see, since revenue is collected by AT&T and Apple monthly, adding new features can be subsidized across calendar years. With point-of-sale purchases, enabling unadvertised features in a future calendar year offsets the depreciation of the cost of development, so in order to legally offset that cost into a new calenday year, there must be a transaction in that calendar year.
This is a simple explanation of this tax phenomenon, but it is in fact something Apple can not work around. It's not a new piece of software, it's the enabling of previously unaccessible hardware features now enabled. It;s like upgrading without buying parts. They MUST legally collect taxes on that transaction and their accounting people need to offset costs into current and previous calendar years.
Since the iPhone is a subscription service, they have a revenue stream to tap and aovid the issue.
Also remember, the iPhone is subsidized, the iPod is not. AT&T is footing the bill of the software upgrade to make the devices more attractive...
Since the charging cable comes free with the phone, I actually quite prefer the universal port to having a USB connector plus a seperate video connector (remember, you can run video to a TV WITHOUT an intermediary PC...)
Storage support would be nice, but I can get a 8GB USB stick for a fraction of adding 8GB to an iPhone... I also loan my USB's to people, something I'm certainly not going to do with my iPhone... plus, having to lug a cable anough is much more cumbersome than a USB stick, and I'm certainly not going to WiFi enable my USB drive...
Video recording would be nice, but the camera sucks so bad it's not really worth back porting the softwsre on the current generation. Wait for the 4G model.
tethering suport. Agreed. Would be a plus. How much would I use it? not at all if it was more than $10/month. I have no need for it in my area (wifi exists anywhere I typically bother to stop, and i rarely have need for it other than long stops or what I can already accomplich on the phone.)
Multitasking? Nope. Background apps yes, copy/past via clipbard betwrrn apps, yes. Letting them chew on my battery in the background? no.
MMS. Only if it's free, otherwise, I'm sticking to e-mail. What they really need is to partner with AT&T so incoming MMS are decoded and sent to my inbox instead of sending me a text message with a web site link and a complex password I have to write down to type in later.
Critical things to me: none of the above... 1) Unlock bluetooth... I want A2DP support (play through car stereo in STEREO without using FM friggin crap transmitters. Also external GPS integration. (use an existing GPS to control calls, play music, access address book, etc, also allow the GPS to use the data connection to get traffic data if capable.) 2) Voice Dial. Hello? 3) Turn by Turn GPS. REAL GPS, not google maps. I'm taking road sign indications, lane navigation, auto route planning, voice propmt, perspective angle, everything. Also, GPS needs to be able to be interrupted by other apps and alerts, plus also run in background and continue to speak directions even if not on the screen otherwise it's useless. Up to $49 a year to buy access to online maps is completely acceptible. (real time maps and traffic would be better than a downloaded map file, if I don't get real time data it's not worth it) 4) background alerts. Nuff said 5) UNIFIED INBOX!!!! 6) Remote directory search (Exchange public address books/domain user search) 7) support to create meetings and invite others, including tracking responses. Also support to accept meetings from others. Platform independent support using iCal and vCal files both. Also, LET ME USE COLORS ON THE CALENDAR, the same colors I already set in my mail clients!!!
H2 from AL is not an answer. AL is not in infinite supply. Anyt methods for converting the drgraded (oxidized or corroded) AL into re-usable AL takes more energy than simple electronlysis.
Here's a real issue for you: What do you do with the H2? You can't pipeline it without loosing a ton of it to leaks, you can't store it in tanks for long periods, it requires extreme pressure, cold, or both to store in high quanitity. It takes 8 hours to refill your car (to go 150 miles) due to the need to offset heat generated pressurizing the tank. It's DANGEROUS to drive a car with it, possibly more so to park it in a garage (gasoline leaks in puddles and is difficult to ignite, H2 fills rooms and explodes on the slightest spark). I could go on, but suffice to say, H2 is not only too dangerous, it's too expensive, too difficult, and requires too much new infrastructure.
So what's the answer? DotyEnergy.com seems to have a VERY well thought out solution: They've coined it WindFuels. Basically, use wind (unlimited) power to drive electrolysis to make H2. Due to the efficiency allowed making direct DC energy from wind towers vs making perfect 60Hz grid power, wind towers could put off 30-40% more energy at a lower cost than grid power. instead of storing, shipping, and using the H2 in cars, they convert it through RTFS (a chemical process used since WWII) to make any type of hydrocarbon you want.
Waste coal or sequesterd CO2 goes in, H2 in, a bit of water (most of which is recyled in the process) and out comes any fuel or lubricant you could want. (and also some O2, which is a great byproduct). It's clean and safe, comperable at $50-60 per barrel to oil, can be made anywhere there is sufficient power (water, wave, wind, solar, etc), can't be controlled by a sinlge large company (a 75 MW plant can produce fuel for an entire large city, and costs in the tens of millions, not billions like nuclear), and mostly it runs on waste products and free energy (including off-peak overgeneration from the grid).
Check out DotyEnergy.com. They not only have general public and scientific descriptions of the entire process, but for a small amount of money they'll give you a complete copy of their research and design, and have made it availible for scruitiny from economists and scientists alike. They also have lots of data on ALL the competing options, and why they're not options.
This is not some "dream" based on vaporware. This is a complete end-to-end solution based on CURRENTLY AVAILIBLE technology. RTFS is proven, wind power is proven, most of their research has been in the heat exchanger technologies and other advancements that simple make this process more efficient than in past decades. They have a lab-scale system running now, and have plans ready to build a small scale (5MW) facility to prove the technology can be even more effienent at large scales. 5 years or less and this will be a proven, licencible technology. Check it out....no, I don't work for this firm, nor have i been paid in any way for my comments. Check out dotyenergy.com for details.
There is! Inside the modem itself, and Verizon support will connect you to that web page on request if you can't run their little Wizard. This is a throwback to when they charged extra for "home network setup" or when they billed $5 extra per additional PC set up. It's not required anymore, and the modem can make this configuration, but providing a wizard setup disk is easier than instructions to set your IP and use a web browser to connect to a device to configure this all manually.
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...or better yet, a dedicated workstation class machine, which could simply be an alternate boot image on your only machine, which if properly configured and network isolated does not require connectivity to the net, nor sources of potential infection, so updates are non-critical, and you can even uninstall your AV software allowing you more CPU cycles for rendering...
Or, if you're doing massive work like that, you set it to "notify only" ...or better yet, do your rendinging on a OS designed for workloads like that (aka Unix).
Just because they're not using the auto-update patent technology in a currently marketed piece of kit does NOT mean Apple is not actively developing that technology into upcoming products. OS X for Intel was in development for nearly 7 years before we saw it on the market.
Did you READ this patent? It's game changing for every OS and device on the market! The ability to insert new code in place of existing RUNNING code WITHOUT interrupting the app of the user!?!?! Would YOU give that patent away for free???
Many companies gave patents into the pool for this technology, INCLUDING APPLE, but this PARTICULAR technology they are refusing to give away free. Other companies in the pool have ALSO enforced such rights. Apple is not alone in refusing to allow a particular patent to be royaly free for the use by W3C.
This particular patent, though technically software, is a VERY unique, and complicated, logical method of auto-update. It's a whole series of complex steps and algorithms to support one piece of code replacing ITSELF without user interruption, program interruption, or visual notifications.
Here's a question for you: How do you compile a new compiler from within your own compiler overwriting said compiler without interupting the compiling process? Have you seen this trick done before? I have not. This is a HUGE patent that will eventually apply to every OS on the market. There's NO WAY apple's giving this away free for something as novel as W3C which does not explicity require such a technology...
Actually, per the back inside cover in the new DnD 4e books, and per the DnDi website, you're supposed to get a free PDF copy when you buy the hardcover, plus as a subscriber (this part of the service isn't active yet) all the people in your registered game group (who themselves do NOT have to subscribe) can have free online access to ALL the PDF copies anyone in your group owns. They're calling it virtual game table. We're hoping it's up and running this fall. So far, only the character generator is up and running if you're a subscriber.
WoTC doesn't want you to have ONLY the PDF. They want at least 1 person in your group to have a hard copy, then all of you can share the PDFs. I agree with this kind of sharing system as it 1) controls distribution, 2) allows simple gaming over a virtual table (not all players have to come in person to play!), and 3) still gives me access to the PDF to copy/paste material into planned adventures, plus 4) I still get to have a shiny hardcover, which is usually easier to search than an electronic copy anyway.
If you play, you should pay. As a group, 6 or 7 of you should be able to afford a few books collectively, and everyone chip in $1 a month towards the online server (once the virtual game table it's running, I don't recomend it right now. Wonko's 4e character generator, although just a spreadsheet, is superior to DnDi's character generator in many ways.)
Your failure to back up your downloaded software is not their problem...
If you break/scratch your physical copy, would they have any responsibility? Why should they waste the bandwidth without charging you?
If you want a better piece of software though, talk to Wonko... Excel 2007 active spreadsheet and database for DnD4e. includes everything! (about 30 days behind release schedule). It can be found at enworld, rpgsheets.com, and a few other places. I'd link, but I'm blocked from that here at the office... Google for "Wonko 4e" Current version is something like 1.47.h.2.
Oh, and you don't have to "resubscribe" if you are still a subscriber... You CAN redownload it while still a member. The software is not FREE, it's leased while under contract... If youre not paying monthly, you're not supposed to use it (though they're nice enough not to lock it on you if you're not paying) It's SAAS... just offline.
Yes, exactly. Apple had this patent already. The W3C royalty free licence includes the NEW, currenlty unpatented technologies being rolled into the standard. Any company that has an existing patent that W3C tries to leverge a technology protected by has the right to notify the W3C and let them know they're infringing, and then decide wether or not to licence that technology to the group.
Apple may very well want this technology to be a part of W3C, but if they don't want it to also become available royalty free to everyone else, then it has to be LICENCED by the W3C and appropriate fees must be paid to Apple. This does not mean that the W3C technologies would include Royalties, just that the group members designing it would have to pay Apple for that piece of the technology in the form of a one-time fee, or they'll have to design around it...
Actually, it does notify you by placing a "rebooting in x seconds" warning on the screen. Its also clearly interrupting the program in question. Even the basic updates that don't require a reboot sometimes reset the desktop, close windows, or at the very least, notify the user. Not a single MS update is completely transparent to the user.
First off, lets focus on one thing, if your company is already at a size, complexity, or business need of having backup data electronically replicated offsite (whether this is a true hotsite you're replicating to, or just a method for not rotating tapes through your front door every day), then we're not talking about USB drive data protection schemes here...
OK now, the offsite system should NOT be an administrator access node of your existing backup solution. It should receive replicated data sets and have the ability to operate as a DR server to recover them, but it should be controlled remotely from YOUR site, and should not be able to initiate backups, restores, or make operations changes to another site's DR servers. This is handled by wither firewall rules or user structures.
Second, Physical access at the DR site needs to be as or more strict than at your primary site. If you don;t own the building (or host services through someone like SunGuard) they should have your units in locked racks. Insist that anyone with access has passed Government C2 or higher clearance, and DO NOT give ANYONE outside your organization passwords to those systems.
Next, If the system allows, the user accounts at the hot site should not be the same at any of your other sites.
Next, You STILL NEED TO ARCHIVE DATA, preferably monthly at worst, weekly may be needed depending on your data set size. Replicated systems can corrupt data, and replicated date sets typically only contain your current data set (no rollback copies). Generally, if your replication system is handling moving data automatically, you can leave your local DR copies in your building in a secure area. Daily backups should be archived to local disks so if you have a DR server failue you still have something to recover from (recovery over the WAN is usually not an option). If you have a fire or disasterous event, your offsite systems is your #1 backup, last month/week's archive is your #2.
I've spent a lot of time working with multiple DR companies, and I've supported medium and enterprise class businesses alike (my current employer has 12 mainframes, a couple hundred AIX servers, and over 2000 x86/64 boxes. DR is a BIG thing around here!) Once you enter enterprise class, we're not typically talking "backups" as you know them, more SAN replication and disk write journaling. Recovering 400TB from backups simply isn't an option in a 24-48 hour recovery model! However, if you've got less than 50TB, you can VERY REASONABLY build a great solution out of DPUs (Data Protection Units) made by Unitrends (unitrends.com). They're totally tapeless systems, can share jobs between multiple units at multiple sites, have secure packet level replication technology, and can use 256bit real time encryption as 8GB/minute (per chassis!) with up to 7 concurrent jobs running (per chassis!). a 50TB environment would use 4-8 DPUs (usually departmentalized) conencted to a SAN, and another 1-2 units offsite to handle replication and DR recovery. They also support P2V and V2P recovery and dissimilar recovery. Fully integrated BareMetal backup (they actually invented and patented that one!), and support for 40 operating systems in one multi-site seamless DR solution. You should REALLY look into them. For small sites (less than 1TB data) you can get into one of these units for around $15K with all the bells and whistles (another 10K for replication). There are NO PER CLIENT OR PER AGENT LICENSING FEES, it's ALL inclusive, the only thing you license is storage. Oh, their Data Vault unit can handle up to 40 sites, and each site can be run by a different company with different accounts, and their data can be logically seperated on the vault making it impossible for one customer to interfere with another's data, you can even lock the vault operator out of the solution. This has been validated by the DOD as a secure solution...
I've got close to 1,600 x64 and x86 servers here, about 350 Power series chassis with AIX, and 12 full on host mainframes. I can tell you this: Even xSeries daisy chaned X64 3850 or 3950 chassis with 16x6 core Xeon processors does not hold a candle to the performance I can get out of an AIX chassis for the same dollar. (And Windows won't recognize more than 8 processors without going to the rediculously expensive datacenter edition).
For certain applications, SPARK is VERY powerful. Sure, for running an ordinary OS, a PIII can sometimes out perform it, but put it into a Beowulf cluster? Wow.
I've got a 6 year old AIX box here that puts out more transactions per second under oracle than a hot of the shelf new 16 core server that today cost more than that AIX chassis did 6 years ago.
It all depends on what you're using the CPU for. X64 is very inflexible.
I can't think of too many things I CAN'T assemble in my garrage for significantly cheaper than buying a complete unit. Computers, car repair, kitchen cabinets, pretty much anything that can be purchased as a set of parts is cheaper than buying an assembled unit. Why?
- No labor included in price
- No warranty included in price
- Individual parts sold seperately are usually overstock or minor "defects"
- Many parts sold online are parts no longer actively being produced
- Assembled systems are stoced only for sale, parts are stocked for multiple reasons, meaning more efficient warehousing...
- typically, no middle man. the vendor you buy a widget from is usually the 3rd or 4th company in line, parts can be acquired direct or through a flooring company, eliminating at least 1 tier of markup.
Now, that said, it's obvious that some parts, especially commonly replaced wear parts, are highly profitable. Some items actually cost more to build from parts. In the case of solar panels, a lot of the components aside from the cells are very common items that can be found for deep discounts. (Wires, boarder metal, backing, etc). If the cells are readily availible, it;s not terribly complicated to assemble.
What I'd like to see is:
1: How does his home made panel compare to one manufactured with the same cells
2: How many more cells/panels did he need to get full coverage (100% aggregate 24 hour power) vs professional panels, and does a typical roof have enough room to handle that?
2: Over 15-20 years, what will he expect in maintanance and repair costs that would normally have been warantied
3: Over 20 years, what's the actual difference in cost (factoring in comparative performance)
4: What tax valuation was he granted and how much did his home value increase due the adding home made panels vs produced panels?
5: How many house did he put into this?
6: was he able to roll the cost under a mortgage of equity loan like I could do with a local reseller?
Just saving the cash up front, even if you considder the labor a non-issue (or even rewarding), does not mean this is a good idea. It actually has to show 20 year savings as well. He may have saved on the panel cost, but he can't save on the electrical panels, the inverters, and the other components required to make solar panels actually work. I'd like to know how that factored into his cost. Did he also hire an electrician or has he a certified electrical contractor that could wire his own house (most of us are NOT, and would incurr substantial installation fees).
With Sun out of the picture, and their patents in IBMs hands, the Risk processor markey will turn upside down in IBMs favor. With such a dramatic overpricing, that's going to raise eyebrows with several government agencies.
Do i think they have a case to prevent the merger? No, not really, but I'm sure they'll try hard to FIND a reson (at the expense and dire insisitance of any remaining competition).
I don't get that functionality for free, I pay every month for it. The hardware was there one way or the other since some functions of that hardware were enabled initially. Yes, on some competitors devices that functionality worked out of the box, but very few phones have wifi, bluetooth, full web, and a good medai player. No other media player offered that at the time. Paying $10 every 8-12 months is not a bad deal at all to add dramatic (over 100 new feature) upgrades, especially when new hardware level features can be enabled without me having to replace the device.
Sure, the device cost a bit more up front for the early adopters, but basically it's the iPhone folks paying for the development and the iPod folks reaping the benefits. I'd much rather pay extra for a device with a 3-5 year lifespan than buy a new Zune every 18 months... (and the zune Sux by comparrison).
No, in that case, it was a genuine major version upgrade fee... $10 to go from 1.0 to 2.0. Not bad... LOTS of new featrues added.
Don't bitch, you can't even upgrade Windows Mobile at any price, nor Blackberry's OS, and the free Zune 1st get update that added features only added what they originally promised but failed to deliver...
I'd FULLY support this here. I'm in SC, one of the cheaper states in the country to live in. ...but my insurance rates normalized for cost of living are the 2nd highest in the country!!! Why? Approxamately 12% of our drives are uninsured, and 25% are underinsured. That means 25% of my insurance premiums are covering THEIR accidents, and the lost revenues of the insurer for not collecting their premiums...
Also, with drunk driving penalties weak at best. One of my Wife's cousins was convicted 3 times with a DUI, once after a crash resulting in my brother--in-law (who was in another car her cousin hit) almost getting killed, and he never spend more than a weekend in prison, paid about $2K (total across all 3 convictions) in fines, and on the 3rd offence received a suspended licence for only 6 months. (he drove every day anyway). The 3rd offence was about a year ago, he's now insured again for less than $2K annually. Almost a guarantee he'll do it again. (On the 4th offence he'll get 2-6 months in prison and a 1 year suspension, that's it).
Forget red light cameras, just set up cameras on random roads all over town, connect them to a system that looks up insurance information (In SC, insurers are required by law to notify the DMV if an insured driver looses or canceles their insurance, so it's easy). Once they're flagged, just send a cop to their house to fine them and take their license plate off the car. No licence plate? pull them over on sight...
Funny thing is, in this state, the punishments for driving without insurance (aka driving without a license) are actually worse than getting a DUI... I'm ALL FOR cracking down on the cheapskates who won't pay. And I'll be damned if every person I';ve met thus far who didn't have insurance, and who bitched about the cost, dindn't have a big screen TV, game stations, and a $200 a month mobile phone bill....
F*'em all
You have the right to travel on it, but noone said we can't prevent you from DRIVING YOURSELF. We provide busses...
It's completely valid to the IRS and the SEC, the governing bodies over apple's finances in the country their headquarters is located in...
Your firmware updates for your PS3 did not enable hardware that existed already but that you could not use. Now, if Sony included a Blu-Ray player originally, but sold the device advertising only "DVD playback", then later, with a magic firmware upgrade announced "all PS3s in the field with this update can now play Blu-Ray HD disks!", then they'd fall under GAAP and have to charge you for the upgrade....
Won't happen. That's not an API that's a media protocol. Copying of data is not a supported option in the iPhone platform, only streaming. This is the only method that can prevent you from moving data between multiple iPhones, or using unapproved apps without unlicking...
They're supporting devices that transmit control protocols to Apple supported APIs only. Things like contorlling a speaker, or receiving input from a device (possibly adding GPS to a iPod Touch), but not for moving data, open computing, running apps that are not installed, or accessing physical files.
Patches to not enabler hardware features in most cases.
In the case of the Wireless N post-sale activation on the MacBooks a couple of years ago, apple DID charge $4.99 to get that patch update!
It;s not Apple's fault, it's a federal law. They've been over this EVERY TIME with the iPod Touch (and with the Macs that post-release added Wireless N support).
You see, since revenue is collected by AT&T and Apple monthly, adding new features can be subsidized across calendar years. With point-of-sale purchases, enabling unadvertised features in a future calendar year offsets the depreciation of the cost of development, so in order to legally offset that cost into a new calenday year, there must be a transaction in that calendar year.
This is a simple explanation of this tax phenomenon, but it is in fact something Apple can not work around. It's not a new piece of software, it's the enabling of previously unaccessible hardware features now enabled. It;s like upgrading without buying parts. They MUST legally collect taxes on that transaction and their accounting people need to offset costs into current and previous calendar years.
Since the iPhone is a subscription service, they have a revenue stream to tap and aovid the issue.
Also remember, the iPhone is subsidized, the iPod is not. AT&T is footing the bill of the software upgrade to make the devices more attractive...
No HID Bluetooth API, sorry, no keyboards...
Since the charging cable comes free with the phone, I actually quite prefer the universal port to having a USB connector plus a seperate video connector (remember, you can run video to a TV WITHOUT an intermediary PC...)
Storage support would be nice, but I can get a 8GB USB stick for a fraction of adding 8GB to an iPhone... I also loan my USB's to people, something I'm certainly not going to do with my iPhone... plus, having to lug a cable anough is much more cumbersome than a USB stick, and I'm certainly not going to WiFi enable my USB drive...
Video recording would be nice, but the camera sucks so bad it's not really worth back porting the softwsre on the current generation. Wait for the 4G model.
tethering suport. Agreed. Would be a plus. How much would I use it? not at all if it was more than $10/month. I have no need for it in my area (wifi exists anywhere I typically bother to stop, and i rarely have need for it other than long stops or what I can already accomplich on the phone.)
Multitasking? Nope. Background apps yes, copy/past via clipbard betwrrn apps, yes. Letting them chew on my battery in the background? no.
MMS. Only if it's free, otherwise, I'm sticking to e-mail. What they really need is to partner with AT&T so incoming MMS are decoded and sent to my inbox instead of sending me a text message with a web site link and a complex password I have to write down to type in later.
Critical things to me: none of the above...
1) Unlock bluetooth... I want A2DP support (play through car stereo in STEREO without using FM friggin crap transmitters. Also external GPS integration. (use an existing GPS to control calls, play music, access address book, etc, also allow the GPS to use the data connection to get traffic data if capable.)
2) Voice Dial. Hello?
3) Turn by Turn GPS. REAL GPS, not google maps. I'm taking road sign indications, lane navigation, auto route planning, voice propmt, perspective angle, everything. Also, GPS needs to be able to be interrupted by other apps and alerts, plus also run in background and continue to speak directions even if not on the screen otherwise it's useless. Up to $49 a year to buy access to online maps is completely acceptible. (real time maps and traffic would be better than a downloaded map file, if I don't get real time data it's not worth it)
4) background alerts. Nuff said
5) UNIFIED INBOX!!!!
6) Remote directory search (Exchange public address books/domain user search)
7) support to create meetings and invite others, including tracking responses. Also support to accept meetings from others. Platform independent support using iCal and vCal files both. Also, LET ME USE COLORS ON THE CALENDAR, the same colors I already set in my mail clients!!!
H2 from AL is not an answer. AL is not in infinite supply. Anyt methods for converting the drgraded (oxidized or corroded) AL into re-usable AL takes more energy than simple electronlysis.
Here's a real issue for you: What do you do with the H2? You can't pipeline it without loosing a ton of it to leaks, you can't store it in tanks for long periods, it requires extreme pressure, cold, or both to store in high quanitity. It takes 8 hours to refill your car (to go 150 miles) due to the need to offset heat generated pressurizing the tank. It's DANGEROUS to drive a car with it, possibly more so to park it in a garage (gasoline leaks in puddles and is difficult to ignite, H2 fills rooms and explodes on the slightest spark). I could go on, but suffice to say, H2 is not only too dangerous, it's too expensive, too difficult, and requires too much new infrastructure.
So what's the answer? DotyEnergy.com seems to have a VERY well thought out solution: They've coined it WindFuels. Basically, use wind (unlimited) power to drive electrolysis to make H2. Due to the efficiency allowed making direct DC energy from wind towers vs making perfect 60Hz grid power, wind towers could put off 30-40% more energy at a lower cost than grid power. instead of storing, shipping, and using the H2 in cars, they convert it through RTFS (a chemical process used since WWII) to make any type of hydrocarbon you want.
Waste coal or sequesterd CO2 goes in, H2 in, a bit of water (most of which is recyled in the process) and out comes any fuel or lubricant you could want. (and also some O2, which is a great byproduct). It's clean and safe, comperable at $50-60 per barrel to oil, can be made anywhere there is sufficient power (water, wave, wind, solar, etc), can't be controlled by a sinlge large company (a 75 MW plant can produce fuel for an entire large city, and costs in the tens of millions, not billions like nuclear), and mostly it runs on waste products and free energy (including off-peak overgeneration from the grid).
Check out DotyEnergy.com. They not only have general public and scientific descriptions of the entire process, but for a small amount of money they'll give you a complete copy of their research and design, and have made it availible for scruitiny from economists and scientists alike. They also have lots of data on ALL the competing options, and why they're not options.
This is not some "dream" based on vaporware. This is a complete end-to-end solution based on CURRENTLY AVAILIBLE technology. RTFS is proven, wind power is proven, most of their research has been in the heat exchanger technologies and other advancements that simple make this process more efficient than in past decades. They have a lab-scale system running now, and have plans ready to build a small scale (5MW) facility to prove the technology can be even more effienent at large scales. 5 years or less and this will be a proven, licencible technology. Check it out. ...no, I don't work for this firm, nor have i been paid in any way for my comments. Check out dotyenergy.com for details.
There is! Inside the modem itself, and Verizon support will connect you to that web page on request if you can't run their little Wizard. This is a throwback to when they charged extra for "home network setup" or when they billed $5 extra per additional PC set up. It's not required anymore, and the modem can make this configuration, but providing a wizard setup disk is easier than instructions to set your IP and use a web browser to connect to a device to configure this all manually.