Go Real RAID Hardware if you are serious about RAID. I have used several RAID variants. I started with a Software RAID5 in one of the Linux flavors with 8x250GB IDE drives. I moved to a Highpoint hardware RAID card that ran solidly for about 8 years (12 channel, running two separate RAID5's 4-drive and 8-drive). I work through upgrading the Arrays. That RAID card still runs, but a couple years ago I switch to an ASR-51644, this gives me 16 ports internal. I have spent the last month with some problems on the RAID card, but I just got a replacement on ebay (less than $50) and once I plugged the drives in it knew that they belonged to a RAID5 (8x4TB) and a RAID6 (8x3TB).

On my workstation I have used a variety of FRAID and Software RAID, but that has primarily been for convenience, a little extra speed, and cost (the server arrays above have been the first level of backup). I don't hate software RAID, but it does not seem to be as reliable or nearly as fast as a true HW RAID card.

I replaced drives throughout the life of the array (two 3TB drives since the first of this year). It is time to upgrade the array again, once one drive goes down from a batch they all start to reach the end of their life. Hardware RAID card will rebuild your array in 4-12 hours, software 2-4 times as long.

The bandwidth of HW RAID is so awesome. My cards are old, but they easily saturate gigabit network and if I am doing transfers from within the arrays 3x that can be achieved with the 8x drive arrays. I am sure the newer $$$$ cards will perform even better.

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The Rankled Engineer

The best normalizing statistic for this is the number of deaths per million miles driven (there are variants: per vehicle, per person). But this number has (for the most part) steadily declined in the last hundred years of US automobile history.

Graph

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The Rankled Engineer

Same Here; but I wish it were that simple.

While I don't personally buy from Amazon; I recognize that other entities whom I do business with purchase things (or host websites) from Amazon, and while I am removed from the process I am still feeding into that machine. I do what I can, though, I have been duped by other marketplaces on websites that I typically trust (like Newegg). Order something from a seller and it shows up in Amazon packaging. Very frustrating.

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The Rankled Engineer

I contend that a more even way to determine the significant height of a mountain is to measure from the top of the mountain to the lowest surrounding point (once the slop starts to point upward you are now looking at another object/mountain). This would make Mauna Kea the tallest mountain.

It does not seem appropriate to award additional height to a mountain that sits on top of a highly elevated continental plate, just like we would not say that buildings in Denver, CO are taller than Burj Khalifa simply because there roofs sit 5000+ feet above sea level.

Everest can remain as the highest point on the surface of the earth, but I think we should re-evaluate height of mountains and not base it simply on elevation above sea level.
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It would actually be a reduction of 812:1; given that the ratio between the area of two circles is ratio bewteen their diameters squared.

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MGB

Back in 2003 or 2004 I ordered a product from Amazon and they shipped the wrong version of the product (CD instead of DVD installation). There was no phone number listed on their website and the return process did not have an option for "sent the incorrect product". I could not get a response from their customer service and was charge $5 to return the item. I have not been back to Amazon since. Newegg has worked for me. When I search for products I rarely see things that I would buy on Amazon for more then a few dollars cheaper then I can get from other sources.

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MGB

up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-start

I once house-sat for a wealthy family in my parents' neighborhood. One of their bathrooms was all mirrors: Every vertical surface was a mirror.

"Hey, this is cool, I thought."

Yeah, then I used the bathroom once and realized that wherever I looked I got a eyefull of myself. I used the other bathroom the rest of the week.

Government work should be public domain and PHD thesis I think are required to be.

That's news to me. My PhD dissertation is copyright by me, although I granted my university and my country's national library the right to distribute it.

One of my colleagues saw his dissertation popup on a fee-based site. He couldn't do anything about it because, technically, his degree-granting institution (University of Kentucky) owned the work and they sold the distribution to the site.

So when I passed my defense and formatted my document, I included a (CC)-By-SA notice on the second page.

Mod parent WAY up.

The first thing I thought when I looked at the graphs, what service plan are these people on. Most I know have the cheapest package they can find with connection speed upper bound at 1.5-5mbs. At those speeds the throughput Netflix is reporting look pretty good. I have a 20mbs connection (from an ISP not listed in the report) and over the summer I routinely streamed MLB.com (@ 8mbs), the wife would have a Netflix movie on her laptop, and the kids watching some show from Netflix as well. Aggregate bandwidth requirements were roughly 15mbs.

It fits: you get what you pay for, though I don't defend the prices or lack of sustained rate one typically finds with ISP's. I just found that good hardware, a decent home network configuration, and staying away from the cheapest bottom rung plan tend to go a long way.>/p>

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So who is hotter? Ali or Ali's Sister?

Them: "I can't believe you didn't like [big movie]!"
Us: "Um, didn't you fall asleep in 2001?"
Them: "Yeah."

Sry. Portal has been mentioned.

My what a short memory we have.

If you haven't played through Portal with the commentary, you haven't grasp half the greatness of that game.

DKCR could take some lessons on "introducing slowly." There are too many segments where trial and death are the only way to figure out how to pass a level. When I first came upon a giant-hippo-on-a-stick, I actually stopped to think about WTF I was supposed to do. There is no indication that you can bounce on it, there is no warning that doing so will lower the hippo, etc.

The level designers also seem to have spent a lot of time planning pitfalls so the only way to pass many levels is rote memorization. That may be classic, but it's not fun.

The spider hoard race is a rare exception.

I had that same idea when I was an undergrad (in the USA). The course outcome should be important, and if I can gain the skills/knowledge without attending, then why require me to attend? When I started teaching underclassmen as a grad student, I even instituted an attendance-optional policy.

But then I became a professor and had the luxury of teaching small upper-level and graduate courses. My belief that the instructor was not the source of all knowledge was reinforced, but so was the understanding that *real* learning happened between students. When a student did not attend our discussions, they deprived us all of their point of view.

So, for large lectures, I agree with you. Use the Western Governors University model (sell assessment and certification/accreditation, not instruction). But for small, meaningful classes, I still require attendance.