So I guess the word cloud has replaced cluster to give old technology a fresh new look. Gotta love marketing.
And since when did the term netbook come to describe low power computing hardware? There have been mini-ITX boards with low power CPU's long before the term netbook was in use. Just more marketing bullshit, repackage existing tech with a shiny new name and sell it.
I still don't see how it will become more dirty. The clean coal idea is to reduce harmful flue gas emissions. Flue gas and fly ash are two separate things mixed together. Fly ash is particulate matter that was carried off the burning coal bed in the boiler by the hot flue gasses. Fly ash cant get any more dirty and will be just as dirty as the bottom ash. Gaseous emissions are the current problem that needs to be fixed. Clean the flue gas up and we are one step closer to clean coal. The only thing that should be exiting the flue is CO2. Then to get even cleaner we need to capture and somehow store the CO2 to further reduce emissions. Maybe we are misunderstanding each other?
So the components of flue gas are: Fly ash - scrubbed out by water mist and disposed of or recycled. sulfur oxides - cause acid rain, majorly harmful gas that needs to be removed. Nitrogen oxides - principal cause of smog and harmful. Controlled by limiting oxygen during combustion. carbon monoxide - caused by incomplete combustion and harmful. Again controlled through better combustion. Carbon dioxide - harmless to us in the atmosphere but is the primary cause of global warming. Needs to be captured and somehow stored or processed. Some processing ideas have special farms next to the power station that will use plants and other CO2 absorbing life to break down the CO2 into oxygen.
Once the above problems are addressed coal can be clean. The idea is to stop the nasty stuff from ever making it out of the stack.
Clean coal is pretty much analogous to "edible shit". I really would like to know where you got the clean coal = dirtier fly ash from. The whole idea behind clean coal is to have close to zero fly ash exiting the stacks and as little NOx and other oxides as possible through better boiler combustion and steam treatment of flue gases. Also carbon capturing is also a big part too.
Fly ash isn't a big problem as it is scrubbed out of the stacks using water. For years it has been used as a component in Portland cement, this is how the cinder block got its name. From the Wikipedia article on fly ash, 43 percent is recycled though it does contain some nasty stuff. Most of it is used for cement aggregate or land fill (not land fill as in refuse).
I see now, many others have pointed this out so it makes perfect sense. It has also jogged my memory a bit too. I remember seeing a special on TV a number of years ago talking about the kidnapping problem in Mexico. I believe they said Mexico City was the kidnapping capital of the world. That scare led to many wealthy people (frequently targeted) to hire security and drive armored vehicles. Less wealthy people would have plastic film applied to their car windows to prevent shattering during a car jacking/kidnapping attempt.
This problem was also bought to light in the remake of the film Man on Fire.
It looks like it has now got to the point that everyone is so scared even an empty threat will scare them into paying. Everyone was so terrified during the surge of actual kidnappings that after a while the bad guys figured out that they didn't even have to kidnap anyone. Just fire off a simple "I have your ________ send me money" and you might get some cash. That's pretty fucked up that it has gotten to that point. But how will this stop anyone? SMS messages can be sent pretty damn easily and anonymously. Hell a friend once pulled a prank on me using the sprint internet SMS sender. Sprint has/had a web page where you enter the recipient number and message and then enter ANY number as the sender. You wont get a reply but you can easily send anonymously. I am sure there are many other sites that can do the same.
I cant understand what this will solve for the Mexican Government. Does this have anything to do with all the violent crime linked to the Mexican drug trade? Do they really think sending a CURP via SMS is a secure and infallible method? Good luck to them.
Oh and here is a possible theory: The USA could use this system to track illegals who might have bought their cell phones into the US. Doesent sound all that plausable but hey its a theory.
This is what really gets me: "Users are charged $1 per GB over their limit".
It is generous compared to other caps that charge per MB or KB. But why not just cut the user off instead of charging for the overage? It might piss some people off but give them the option to be cut off and sent to a cpative portal that says:
"sorry but you have exceeded your monthly download cap. If you would like to continue using the internet please click the link below and agree to a $1 per GB fee for additional usage until your next monthly billing period"
Maybe even include a link to a page allowing you to upgrade your cap. That would make sense and prevent overcharging for usage.
Caps are bull shit and this is precisely why I have avoided TW cable like the plague. Here in New York City its either Verizon, Covad/Speakeasy (very expensive) TW or Comcast if you live in certain parts of Brooklyn. I have had Verizon DSL since its debut and have happily used its measly 3Mbps service for years now. I look forward to 20/20 FIOS and hopefully they wont fuck us like the cable company's with caps. Wishful thinking but its the only alternative.
I believe the skipping is a limitation with X windows and not the Linux kernel. When you click to drag, the process that spawned the window is "paused" until you let go of it. This prevents X windows from going crazy trying to redraw the windows while moving which could cause problems. At least that what I read somewhere.
HA! You forgot about their Royal Doulton collection with hand painted periwinkles.
Re:Stolen Laptop, yes. Data, No.
on
Cellular Repo Man
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Most thefts aren't data thefts or other espionage related thefts. I would wager most notebook (and other electronic gadget) thefts are for profit thefts. A thief will swipe you laptop and try to hock it at a pawn shop or other crooked store that fronts stolen goods. Too many people start thinking "James Bond" without thinking in a more real world sense. Sure there are espionage related thefts but most electronic gadgetry thefts are by desperate individuals looking for fast cash. And those thieves are often junkies looking for a fix and will steal anything of value to get it.
Besides the article is talking about disabling notebooks that are subsidized by wireless broadband plans in which the customer stops paying for. Not stolen notebooks.
OGL, D3D etc. are API's just like CUDA and OpenCL. Physics engines as you know are software kits available to game developers to implement in their titles. You should be happy that already the industry is not about to get into the API fight you mentioned. Instead they are readying their software to not only work on their hardware but competitors hardware as well using a common API. Lets all be grateful Nvidia isn't trying to shove CUDA down everyone's throat. With PhysX implemented in OpenCL everyone wins. Nvidia gets to sell more licenses due to their engine working on a wider variety of hardware and gamers don't have to be limited in their hardware selection.
Nvidia moving toward OpenCL is a very good thing. Much better than moving to DirectX 11 GPGPU which limits their software to MS platforms.
Guys drives dies in Apple server hardware. Guy looks into buying retail drive for replacement. Guy asks forum members for advice and decides to call Apple Guy calls Apple wanting to know why their drives ar 4x+ the cost of retail Apple gives Guy song and dance about magical marketing BS Guy falls for BS and tells everyone else to follow magical marketing BS
Honestly what did he expect to learn by calling Apple? Call any manufacturer, tell them you want to use cheaper 3rd part parts instead of their overpriced parts and be prepared for a load of horse shit to flow from the phone. I worked in the IT department of my college for an elective credit way back when. The head IT guy almost never bought OEM stuff if their was a cheaper retail part that would do the job. He insisted its just a 3rd party part with company logo stuck on it sold at a 3-5x mark up. He would rather used the money he saved for better things like new equipment or upgrades. Never had any problems.
(10:37:00 AM) me: hi (10:37:00 AM) livewirex31 is now known as Livewirex31.
(10:37:09 AM) Livewirex31: hey there. are you from cl ? (10:37:22 AM) me: no, i never liked cl (10:37:35 AM) Livewirex31: oh alright sorry if i type a little slow my pc is being weird. 23/f here what are you up to? (10:37:52 AM) me: eating a baby (10:38:00 AM) Livewirex31: cool. im a little bored and i was just hangin out.. sorry i didnt send a pic by the way.
That's why they are painted with reflective silver paint. Though some choose not to do so either out of ignorance or monetary reasons. We had a shoddy contractor promise to paint a newly installed large roof after it had set for a week. They never came back to do so. Roofers charge big bucks and do the most slipshod work possible. Out of three roofers we used including one large "trusted" operation, all did a crap job and never wanted to hear about problems afterward.
Gigabyte has this feature, its called dual BIOS. One is writable, the other inaccessible. The idea is if you mess up a BIOS update the backup can safely boot strap the system and copy itself to the bad BIOS. Great idea if you ask me.
I do miss the days of removable BIOS chips though. If it was hosed you could order a replacement and swap it in.
Oh noes bad guys could turn something into a weapon, lets ban or regulate the hell out of it!
Jesus. You are actually afraid of someone making a bomb out of this? You really think someone is going to buy a ton of rocket motors and blow something up? Where do you live? I live in NYC and let me tell you the 9/11 attacks didn't scare me one bit. Neither did it scare my friend who was one block and saw the second plane hit and had to run for cover. WHY? because the chance of being killed or even hurt by a random bombing or attack is slim to none. I am more concerned of crazies out there who are willing to do bodily harm or gangbangers who will kill at the drop of a hat. Hell my house catching fire has me more worried then a random bombing attack. You have a better chance of dying in a car crash than any terrorist attack.
And Ammonium perchlorate is an oxidizer not explosive. If you read the OSHA page it clearly states: "It becomes an explosive when mixed with finely divided organic materials." There. See? It becomes explosive because anything that is mixed with it will burn so fast it actually explodes. Mixing it with a fuel such as powered aluminum or hell even shredded paper will yield an explosive compound. By itself it does not explode.
He is most likely venting his frustrations as a new user. If he were really bent of running Linux he would have done a bit of searching the net for software installation guides. If apt was so difficult for him to use how did he manage to install anything? Even Gentoo's emerge or the ports collection of BSD is easy to use once you learn the commands.
Even compiling from source is easy thanks to Apt../configure fail? Its usually because your missing a tool or library and 4 out of 5 times the name of the library is the name of the package. Missing libxyx? sudo apt-get install libxyz and then try./configure again. No problem. My first Linux system was a Debian box that I got running on an old P3 1ghz some years back. Sure I messed up the first few days. Running "rm -rf *" in you home directory is a very bad thing and I reinstalled but I was compiling from source in a matter of days with great results. Patience and searching for help is the best way to go and if you get stumped a forum can be of some further help.
The problem is he's not used to having a central software repository for installation. He is too used to clicking the the downloaded exe or msi installer. A central repository is much more convenient and to a degree a bit more trustworthy. Plus searching and installing from the command line is light years faster than using synaptic or the like.
I have an older mint condition Charvel a family friend gave to me years ago. I never learned to play but it would be fun if this game could somehow let me use my real guitar. I still would like to learn. I am sure it is possible to develop a box that houses a preamp and a USB A/D converter. Then implement a tone decoder in software to detect the notes so you don't have to mount anything on your guitar. What better way to learn than an interactive video game so you can learn the basics and then move on to playing the real thing.
Imagine trying to play Buckethead on this game. Awesome.
Parent is absolutely correct. I have a feeling our role in this world will reverse one day. Think of it like this:
We (the USA) were once an industrial powerhouse ripe with innovation and invention. We founded and drove forward allot of the technology we see today, everything from the automobile to the computer (not saying we invented it but we pushed it all forward). Fast forward and something began to happen. We lost our values and our priorities shifted. Adults, parents, children and young people were content in a rich nation and the value of education began to decline. Plenty of well paying industrial jobs were to be had and everyone was happy. Then companies began to realize manufacturing was a no or low talent job. They could be sent to less fortunate nations who were more then happy to let us setup shop and let the valuable American Dollars pour in. The easy jobs you could get with a high school diploma began to decline. And all the while immigrants came here for an education because the universities tech programs were empty because everyone was busy working in factories. Then as word got out more and more foreigners began to pour in looking for an education they did not have access to at home. Now their countries were depressed, partially impoverished nations. Their standard of living was well below ours. And they came over with their own culture and did not need ours. They ignored our dumbed down entertainment fueled society and happily earned their degrees. Meanwhile our own people were out busy partying trying to fit into a destructive status quo.
The dumbing down of the USA was our down fall and it is our own fault. Couple that with the exporting of menial jobs and you see the problem we face. People did not have the credentials to get better jobs and foreigners who were here filling our universities while we worked at factories started to fill those jobs for us. Now as the educated foreigners leave and take their knowledge home with them, their country benefits while we rot. Their standard of living will begin to rise as ours falls. All of the people developing our IP which was exported back to their country to be manufactured and then sent back is now lost. Then what? What are we exporting now? What is making the nation money? Nothing. So now what happens? That's right the factories open again. But this time the IP is coming from the countries who's people we educated here. Now we are the poor nation looking to produce for other rich nations. And as they grow fat and lazy as we did they will experience they same educational decline and our home grown smart people will flock to them seeking to fill the empty seats at universities. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Maybe I don't know what the fuck I am talking about but do you see the point I am trying to make? While we were content the rug was pulled out from under us and no one felt it. The fat cats here are still full of money and can (and already have) setup shop in those countries to resume IP production. They just milked us to death and moved on to other developing cash cows (aka developing nations). I am not angry at anyone person, not even the immigrants. After all we are a nation of immigrants. We were blinded by our fast paced entertainment laden culture to realize what was going on. But I bet who did know, those at the very top of the economic pyramid.
To me the most unsafe part of a solar system is the battery bank. That is where you need to be extra careful. A battery bank can summon up hundreds or thousands of amps instantly and produce hydrogen gas when charging.
Our shop teacher once taught us about battery banks and proper safety precautions. First off NEVER wear any metal jewelry such as chains, watches or rings when working with batteries (or just about anything dealing with lethal currents). Why? Well he told us a story of an electrician who was tightening the terminals on an industrial battery bank with a large wrench. He had his wedding band on which was touching the wrench and he slipped shorting the whole bank through the wrench and his ring. He pulled back a cauterized stump where his ring finger once was and look in horror as his finger was laying on top of the battery smoking. It was unable to be attached as the wedding band partially vaporized severing his finger. Another story tells of something similar but this time the battery exploded due to the hydrogen gas igniting from a spark. The worker was badly burned from the acid.
So to sum it up be careful with batteries, even if they tell you "oh gel cells are much more safe to work with" yea right. Wear gloves and remove all metal jewelry when working with the bank. Also be sure they are well vented and maintained.
Working the the mains wiring isn't that hard BUT you have to do it according to code to do it right. The NEC dictates proper wiring techniques to prevent electrocution and fires. Sometimes it is better to have an electrician do the wiring but you cam educate yourself a bit and do it right the first time. A good do-it-yourself wiring book should explain the code while giving you a visual guide to working on wiring. I replaced all the wiring in my grandmothers house and even replaced the panel box while the mains were alive. I had an electrician friend of the family come by to inspect my work and was impressed with the quality and neatness of the work.
Step 1: Acquire free Naval floating base. Step 2: Fill said base with servers, generators and networking gear. step 3: Profit!
Companies looking to build floating data centers could be the people to unload these things to. That or have your very own Sea World like base if you can anchor it in international waters. Properly cleaning them up would be the most cost prohibitive as I am sure they are filled with asbestos.
Slashdot Mirror
So I guess the word cloud has replaced cluster to give old technology a fresh new look. Gotta love marketing.
And since when did the term netbook come to describe low power computing hardware? There have been mini-ITX boards with low power CPU's long before the term netbook was in use. Just more marketing bullshit, repackage existing tech with a shiny new name and sell it.
I still don't see how it will become more dirty. The clean coal idea is to reduce harmful flue gas emissions. Flue gas and fly ash are two separate things mixed together. Fly ash is particulate matter that was carried off the burning coal bed in the boiler by the hot flue gasses. Fly ash cant get any more dirty and will be just as dirty as the bottom ash. Gaseous emissions are the current problem that needs to be fixed. Clean the flue gas up and we are one step closer to clean coal. The only thing that should be exiting the flue is CO2. Then to get even cleaner we need to capture and somehow store the CO2 to further reduce emissions. Maybe we are misunderstanding each other?
So the components of flue gas are:
Fly ash - scrubbed out by water mist and disposed of or recycled.
sulfur oxides - cause acid rain, majorly harmful gas that needs to be removed.
Nitrogen oxides - principal cause of smog and harmful. Controlled by limiting oxygen during combustion.
carbon monoxide - caused by incomplete combustion and harmful. Again controlled through better combustion.
Carbon dioxide - harmless to us in the atmosphere but is the primary cause of global warming. Needs to be captured and somehow stored or processed. Some processing ideas have special farms next to the power station that will use plants and other CO2 absorbing life to break down the CO2 into oxygen.
Once the above problems are addressed coal can be clean. The idea is to stop the nasty stuff from ever making it out of the stack.
That technology is full of hot air. That article reeks of vapor ware and bull shit.
Clean coal is pretty much analogous to "edible shit". I really would like to know where you got the clean coal = dirtier fly ash from. The whole idea behind clean coal is to have close to zero fly ash exiting the stacks and as little NOx and other oxides as possible through better boiler combustion and steam treatment of flue gases. Also carbon capturing is also a big part too.
Fly ash isn't a big problem as it is scrubbed out of the stacks using water. For years it has been used as a component in Portland cement, this is how the cinder block got its name. From the Wikipedia article on fly ash, 43 percent is recycled though it does contain some nasty stuff. Most of it is used for cement aggregate or land fill (not land fill as in refuse).
I see now, many others have pointed this out so it makes perfect sense. It has also jogged my memory a bit too. I remember seeing a special on TV a number of years ago talking about the kidnapping problem in Mexico. I believe they said Mexico City was the kidnapping capital of the world. That scare led to many wealthy people (frequently targeted) to hire security and drive armored vehicles. Less wealthy people would have plastic film applied to their car windows to prevent shattering during a car jacking/kidnapping attempt.
This problem was also bought to light in the remake of the film Man on Fire.
It looks like it has now got to the point that everyone is so scared even an empty threat will scare them into paying. Everyone was so terrified during the surge of actual kidnappings that after a while the bad guys figured out that they didn't even have to kidnap anyone. Just fire off a simple "I have your ________ send me money" and you might get some cash. That's pretty fucked up that it has gotten to that point. But how will this stop anyone? SMS messages can be sent pretty damn easily and anonymously. Hell a friend once pulled a prank on me using the sprint internet SMS sender. Sprint has/had a web page where you enter the recipient number and message and then enter ANY number as the sender. You wont get a reply but you can easily send anonymously. I am sure there are many other sites that can do the same.
I cant understand what this will solve for the Mexican Government. Does this have anything to do with all the violent crime linked to the Mexican drug trade? Do they really think sending a CURP via SMS is a secure and infallible method? Good luck to them.
Oh and here is a possible theory: The USA could use this system to track illegals who might have bought their cell phones into the US. Doesent sound all that plausable but hey its a theory.
Don't forget about their Beer!
This is what really gets me: "Users are charged $1 per GB over their limit".
It is generous compared to other caps that charge per MB or KB. But why not just cut the user off instead of charging for the overage? It might piss some people off but give them the option to be cut off and sent to a cpative portal that says:
"sorry but you have exceeded your monthly download cap. If you would like to continue using the internet please click the link below and agree to a $1 per GB fee for additional usage until your next monthly billing period"
Maybe even include a link to a page allowing you to upgrade your cap. That would make sense and prevent overcharging for usage.
Caps are bull shit and this is precisely why I have avoided TW cable like the plague. Here in New York City its either Verizon, Covad/Speakeasy (very expensive) TW or Comcast if you live in certain parts of Brooklyn. I have had Verizon DSL since its debut and have happily used its measly 3Mbps service for years now. I look forward to 20/20 FIOS and hopefully they wont fuck us like the cable company's with caps. Wishful thinking but its the only alternative.
I believe the skipping is a limitation with X windows and not the Linux kernel. When you click to drag, the process that spawned the window is "paused" until you let go of it. This prevents X windows from going crazy trying to redraw the windows while moving which could cause problems. At least that what I read somewhere.
HA! You forgot about their Royal Doulton collection with hand painted periwinkles.
Most thefts aren't data thefts or other espionage related thefts. I would wager most notebook (and other electronic gadget) thefts are for profit thefts. A thief will swipe you laptop and try to hock it at a pawn shop or other crooked store that fronts stolen goods. Too many people start thinking "James Bond" without thinking in a more real world sense. Sure there are espionage related thefts but most electronic gadgetry thefts are by desperate individuals looking for fast cash. And those thieves are often junkies looking for a fix and will steal anything of value to get it.
Besides the article is talking about disabling notebooks that are subsidized by wireless broadband plans in which the customer stops paying for. Not stolen notebooks.
OGL, D3D etc. are API's just like CUDA and OpenCL. Physics engines as you know are software kits available to game developers to implement in their titles. You should be happy that already the industry is not about to get into the API fight you mentioned. Instead they are readying their software to not only work on their hardware but competitors hardware as well using a common API. Lets all be grateful Nvidia isn't trying to shove CUDA down everyone's throat. With PhysX implemented in OpenCL everyone wins. Nvidia gets to sell more licenses due to their engine working on a wider variety of hardware and gamers don't have to be limited in their hardware selection.
Nvidia moving toward OpenCL is a very good thing. Much better than moving to DirectX 11 GPGPU which limits their software to MS platforms.
Guys drives dies in Apple server hardware.
Guy looks into buying retail drive for replacement.
Guy asks forum members for advice and decides to call Apple
Guy calls Apple wanting to know why their drives ar 4x+ the cost of retail
Apple gives Guy song and dance about magical marketing BS
Guy falls for BS and tells everyone else to follow magical marketing BS
Honestly what did he expect to learn by calling Apple? Call any manufacturer, tell them you want to use cheaper 3rd part parts instead of their overpriced parts and be prepared for a load of horse shit to flow from the phone. I worked in the IT department of my college for an elective credit way back when. The head IT guy almost never bought OEM stuff if their was a cheaper retail part that would do the job. He insisted its just a 3rd party part with company logo stuck on it sold at a 3-5x mark up. He would rather used the money he saved for better things like new equipment or upgrades. Never had any problems.
(10:37:00 AM) me: hi
(10:37:00 AM) livewirex31 is now known as Livewirex31.
(10:37:09 AM) Livewirex31: hey there. are you from cl ?
(10:37:22 AM) me: no, i never liked cl
(10:37:35 AM) Livewirex31: oh alright sorry if i type a little slow my pc is being weird. 23/f here what are you up to?
(10:37:52 AM) me: eating a baby
(10:38:00 AM) Livewirex31: cool. im a little bored and i was just hangin out.. sorry i didnt send a pic by the way.
FAIL
Just try sniffing my keystrokes! I use the on screen keyboard.
That's why they are painted with reflective silver paint. Though some choose not to do so either out of ignorance or monetary reasons. We had a shoddy contractor promise to paint a newly installed large roof after it had set for a week. They never came back to do so. Roofers charge big bucks and do the most slipshod work possible. Out of three roofers we used including one large "trusted" operation, all did a crap job and never wanted to hear about problems afterward.
or 16 bays for GeForce/Radeon cards with 16 bays for memory, each. That game will bog down a GTX280 on super high.
100% agreed.
Gigabyte has this feature, its called dual BIOS. One is writable, the other inaccessible. The idea is if you mess up a BIOS update the backup can safely boot strap the system and copy itself to the bad BIOS. Great idea if you ask me.
I do miss the days of removable BIOS chips though. If it was hosed you could order a replacement and swap it in.
Oh noes bad guys could turn something into a weapon, lets ban or regulate the hell out of it!
Jesus. You are actually afraid of someone making a bomb out of this? You really think someone is going to buy a ton of rocket motors and blow something up? Where do you live? I live in NYC and let me tell you the 9/11 attacks didn't scare me one bit. Neither did it scare my friend who was one block and saw the second plane hit and had to run for cover. WHY? because the chance of being killed or even hurt by a random bombing or attack is slim to none. I am more concerned of crazies out there who are willing to do bodily harm or gangbangers who will kill at the drop of a hat. Hell my house catching fire has me more worried then a random bombing attack. You have a better chance of dying in a car crash than any terrorist attack.
And Ammonium perchlorate is an oxidizer not explosive. If you read the OSHA page it clearly states: "It becomes an explosive when mixed with finely divided organic materials." There. See? It becomes explosive because anything that is mixed with it will burn so fast it actually explodes. Mixing it with a fuel such as powered aluminum or hell even shredded paper will yield an explosive compound. By itself it does not explode.
He is most likely venting his frustrations as a new user. If he were really bent of running Linux he would have done a bit of searching the net for software installation guides. If apt was so difficult for him to use how did he manage to install anything? Even Gentoo's emerge or the ports collection of BSD is easy to use once you learn the commands.
Even compiling from source is easy thanks to Apt. ./configure fail? Its usually because your missing a tool or library and 4 out of 5 times the name of the library is the name of the package. Missing libxyx? sudo apt-get install libxyz and then try ./configure again. No problem. My first Linux system was a Debian box that I got running on an old P3 1ghz some years back. Sure I messed up the first few days. Running "rm -rf *" in you home directory is a very bad thing and I reinstalled but I was compiling from source in a matter of days with great results. Patience and searching for help is the best way to go and if you get stumped a forum can be of some further help.
The problem is he's not used to having a central software repository for installation. He is too used to clicking the the downloaded exe or msi installer. A central repository is much more convenient and to a degree a bit more trustworthy. Plus searching and installing from the command line is light years faster than using synaptic or the like.
Okay wait, where do I go with my guy fox mask and looooooooooooong cat banner again?
I have an older mint condition Charvel a family friend gave to me years ago. I never learned to play but it would be fun if this game could somehow let me use my real guitar. I still would like to learn. I am sure it is possible to develop a box that houses a preamp and a USB A/D converter. Then implement a tone decoder in software to detect the notes so you don't have to mount anything on your guitar. What better way to learn than an interactive video game so you can learn the basics and then move on to playing the real thing.
Imagine trying to play Buckethead on this game. Awesome.
Parent is absolutely correct. I have a feeling our role in this world will reverse one day. Think of it like this:
We (the USA) were once an industrial powerhouse ripe with innovation and invention. We founded and drove forward allot of the technology we see today, everything from the automobile to the computer (not saying we invented it but we pushed it all forward). Fast forward and something began to happen. We lost our values and our priorities shifted. Adults, parents, children and young people were content in a rich nation and the value of education began to decline. Plenty of well paying industrial jobs were to be had and everyone was happy. Then companies began to realize manufacturing was a no or low talent job. They could be sent to less fortunate nations who were more then happy to let us setup shop and let the valuable American Dollars pour in. The easy jobs you could get with a high school diploma began to decline. And all the while immigrants came here for an education because the universities tech programs were empty because everyone was busy working in factories. Then as word got out more and more foreigners began to pour in looking for an education they did not have access to at home. Now their countries were depressed, partially impoverished nations. Their standard of living was well below ours. And they came over with their own culture and did not need ours. They ignored our dumbed down entertainment fueled society and happily earned their degrees. Meanwhile our own people were out busy partying trying to fit into a destructive status quo.
The dumbing down of the USA was our down fall and it is our own fault. Couple that with the exporting of menial jobs and you see the problem we face. People did not have the credentials to get better jobs and foreigners who were here filling our universities while we worked at factories started to fill those jobs for us. Now as the educated foreigners leave and take their knowledge home with them, their country benefits while we rot. Their standard of living will begin to rise as ours falls. All of the people developing our IP which was exported back to their country to be manufactured and then sent back is now lost. Then what? What are we exporting now? What is making the nation money? Nothing. So now what happens? That's right the factories open again. But this time the IP is coming from the countries who's people we educated here. Now we are the poor nation looking to produce for other rich nations. And as they grow fat and lazy as we did they will experience they same educational decline and our home grown smart people will flock to them seeking to fill the empty seats at universities. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Maybe I don't know what the fuck I am talking about but do you see the point I am trying to make? While we were content the rug was pulled out from under us and no one felt it. The fat cats here are still full of money and can (and already have) setup shop in those countries to resume IP production. They just milked us to death and moved on to other developing cash cows (aka developing nations). I am not angry at anyone person, not even the immigrants. After all we are a nation of immigrants. We were blinded by our fast paced entertainment laden culture to realize what was going on. But I bet who did know, those at the very top of the economic pyramid.
To me the most unsafe part of a solar system is the battery bank. That is where you need to be extra careful. A battery bank can summon up hundreds or thousands of amps instantly and produce hydrogen gas when charging.
Our shop teacher once taught us about battery banks and proper safety precautions. First off NEVER wear any metal jewelry such as chains, watches or rings when working with batteries (or just about anything dealing with lethal currents). Why? Well he told us a story of an electrician who was tightening the terminals on an industrial battery bank with a large wrench. He had his wedding band on which was touching the wrench and he slipped shorting the whole bank through the wrench and his ring. He pulled back a cauterized stump where his ring finger once was and look in horror as his finger was laying on top of the battery smoking. It was unable to be attached as the wedding band partially vaporized severing his finger. Another story tells of something similar but this time the battery exploded due to the hydrogen gas igniting from a spark. The worker was badly burned from the acid.
So to sum it up be careful with batteries, even if they tell you "oh gel cells are much more safe to work with" yea right. Wear gloves and remove all metal jewelry when working with the bank. Also be sure they are well vented and maintained.
Working the the mains wiring isn't that hard BUT you have to do it according to code to do it right. The NEC dictates proper wiring techniques to prevent electrocution and fires. Sometimes it is better to have an electrician do the wiring but you cam educate yourself a bit and do it right the first time. A good do-it-yourself wiring book should explain the code while giving you a visual guide to working on wiring. I replaced all the wiring in my grandmothers house and even replaced the panel box while the mains were alive. I had an electrician friend of the family come by to inspect my work and was impressed with the quality and neatness of the work.
Step 1: Acquire free Naval floating base.
Step 2: Fill said base with servers, generators and networking gear.
step 3: Profit!
Companies looking to build floating data centers could be the people to unload these things to. That or have your very own Sea World like base if you can anchor it in international waters. Properly cleaning them up would be the most cost prohibitive as I am sure they are filled with asbestos.