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On Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:33:21 +0000, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> ...yeah, shopping online tends to be cheaper. Quality is another matter,
> of course.
Buy from reputable dealers, and quality isn't an issue. I've bought PCs
and components from local shops who then wouldn't stand behind their
products (a power supply that was defective literally burned the
insulation off the wires and the retailer wouldn't make it right), and
I've had online shops that replaced products that weren't up to spec (had
a cable company that replaced a defective *and* incorrectly shipped
svideo cable to me - and they didn't bother having me send the wrong
cable back to them).
I've never had bad luck buying from someone like Newegg, buy.com, or
Costco online.
Jim
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Orchid XP v8 schrieb:
> Now, the *properly designed* products allow you to select some other
> destination with no ill effects. But all those other programs? Some of
> them won't let you choose at all. Others will let you choose, but never
> the less fail if you choose somewhere different. (WTF?)
Not seen many such ailments any time recently.
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Orchid XP v8 schrieb:
>> I occasionally hear a fighter jet come overhead and then hear my
>> garage door opening.
>
> Wait - your garage door can open by itself?
>
> Man, if we want to open ours, we have to use *muscle power*. ;-)
Hey, that's the U.S. of A. - they don't use muscle power for /anything/,
unless they happen to be football pros...
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clipka wrote:
> Stefan Viljoen schrieb:
>
>> Read a while ago that the RAF had to pay compensation to almost a hundred
>> car owners - one of their air-defense "steerable-array" radars went
>> haywire and scanned over a road - they burned out almost every vehicle's
>> ignition and fuel injection microprocessors with the radar beam!
>
> Ouch!
>
> That reminds me of the tale told by an old acquaintance of mine, who had
> served on some air-defense radar installation, of how they'd keep an
> older fellow soldier at bay when he got all enraged and charging for the
> hilltop bunker they were sitting in.
>
> You know, the old guy had a pacemaker... so pace he did make when he saw
> those radar antennae slowly closing in on his direction...
Hahahaha! This is the best one I've heard in a long time. :)
Don't come near us, or we'll zap you! :0
--
Stefan Viljoen
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clipka wrote:
> Stefan Viljoen schrieb:
>
>> I've seen this phenomenon on older drives. Had a HDD in a system here
>> that was left on for years, probably been turned off 20 or 30 times in
>> its useful life. The fortieth or forty-fifth time the server was turned
>> off, the HDD died - after running reliably (while not being turned off,
>> ever) for 5 or 6 years. Ok, old hardware and an old drive, but just goes
>> to show. Keep 'em spinning is better than spin-up / spin-down on a daily
>> basis.
>
> To me that rather makes a case that running a HDD 24-7 nonstop (probably
> at high workload) may instead just increase the risk of
> death-by-power-cycle.
>
> Otherwise you'd wonder how office computers, being powered on and off 5
> or 6 days per week, could possibly last even two months. Yet they're
> usually good for about 5 to 10 years (though they'll be long outdated by
> then).
Hmm, yes, but I've often wondered if there -really- is a difference between
"desktop hardware" and "server hardware" - and that maybe they are designed
for different MTBF? I. e. a "server grade" HDD will last longer if not
regularly turned on and off, while a "desktop grade" HDD will die quicker
if never turned off?
--
Stefan Viljoen
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clipka wrote:
> Stefan Viljoen schrieb:
>
>> *brrr* - I shiver at the thought of a mobile HDD as a backup device...
>>
>> How do you feel about the statement that the fact that if a drive is
>> mobile, inherently it will never last as long as a "traditional"
>> statically mounted drive that just sites in a cradle internally in a
>> climate controlled server rack / box?
>
> Sure, a server rack in a proper server room is probably the safest place
> for a HDD to live in.
>
> But I don't think a good external case is any more dangerous to HDD
> health than your average office ATX tower, that gets its thermal shocks
> day by day when switched on, and some accidental (or sometimes
> deliberate) kicks by its user now and then.
I mentioned this because a fellow company we once did business with lost a
year's worth of designs and stuff when the MD (!) dropped their external
HDD accidentally onto a concrete floor... and then the primary HDD the data
had been on quit on the same day.
"Backup" = "two or more physically separate places, preferably on a
different type of media entirely" :)
--
Stefan Viljoen
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clipka wrote:
> Stefan Viljoen schrieb:
>>
>> In the olden days on the Apple ][ with CP/M I had three - the
>> grandfather, father and son (and holy ghost! :) - I still remember the
>> stomach churning dread of those horribly loud floppy drives grinding and
>> grinding and then "BDOS ERROR" on the monochrome green-screen... Those
>> were the days!
>
> That reminds me of those Iomega "jaz" drives that were all the rage 10
> years ago. We had two or three "pools" (12 computers each) equipped with
> those where I was studying back then, which were intended for the
> Multimedia students to store their many hundreds of Megs on.
>
> They seemed pretty fancy stuff - until it turned out that they could
> contract a contagious disease, some hardware defect that would cause
> them to screw up the storage media in just the right way to ruin the
> next drive they'd be put into in just the same way...
Sounds a LOT like the "son of Jaz" QIC-like tape drive I once had. I think
it was called an Iomega Ditto Dash or something. Great storage per tape...
IF it worked. I think I wrote five tapes successfully with that before it
quit. Was the greatest waste of money on technology I ever had the
misfortune to spend.
--
Stefan Viljoen
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Darren New wrote:
> Stefan Viljoen wrote:
>> Read a while ago that the RAF had to pay compensation to almost a hundred
>> car owners - one of their air-defense "steerable-array" radars went
>> haywire and scanned over a road - they burned out almost every vehicle's
>> ignition and fuel injection microprocessors with the radar beam!
>
> I occasionally hear a fighter jet come overhead and then hear my garage
> door
> opening. Happens about five times a year. I live near Mirimar (aka "Top
> Gun"), so we get fighter jets overhead pretty regularly. Many times a day
> where I was working across the road.
Makes sense. As far as I know the US military is one of THE most prolific
users of the EM spectrum in the world. He's probably got his radar on or in
a specific mode - I've read that the "ground tracking" mode on the Hughes /
Westinghouse (?) "APG" sets US Navy F-18s (among others) use tend to do
this. Apparently the F-22 (or is it the F-35?) have a "burn 'em down" mode
on their radars - they are powerful enough to fry the electronics in an
enemy plane with a single sweep, instead of shooting it down with a
missile.
I remember when Victor Belenko defected with his MiG in the 80's, USAF
engineers were amazed to find that it used valves for its radar and
electronics (valveotronics), instead of transistors. After they had
finished beating themselves on the chest with their pride in American
advancement and technology, some wise soul pointed out that the MiG would
keep flying after being through the EMP of a nuclear explosion, AND its
radar would be working - while USAF F-16s and F-15s would be falling like
leaves because their digital flight controls would be melted, and their
radars would be dead.
--
Stefan Viljoen
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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> I occasionally hear a fighter jet come overhead and then hear my garage
>> door opening.
>
> Wait - your garage door can open by itself?
>
> Man, if we want to open ours, we have to use *muscle power*. ;-)
>
> Top Gun, indeed.
Haha jet-operated garage doors.
--
Stefan Viljoen
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Darren New wrote:
> Stefan Viljoen wrote:
>> *brrr* - I shiver at the thought of a mobile HDD as a backup device...
>
> Why? If you have two copies, then crashing one doesn't affect the other.
If you use a single one? Then again, single IS NOT a backup...!
>> How do you feel about the statement that the fact that if a drive is
>> mobile, inherently it will never last as long as a "traditional"
>> statically mounted drive that just sites in a cradle internally in a
>> climate controlled server rack / box?
>
> Depends. Does the building with the servers in it burn down?
I meant more in the sense that you might drop a portable drive. Sure, they
are supposed to be designed specifically to survive that, but still. The
incident I'm thinking about I referred to in my other post, a simple fumble
and the portable drive lands on a concrete floor...
> How long do you need it to last?
Tee hee! I'm a typical user - it must last forever and never, ever crash,
and it must cost nothing. No heck, I want the company who made it to pay me
to use it...!
--
Stefan Viljoen
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