This is one major reason that companies (even very large companies with "money to spare") are moving towards virtualization with incredible speed.

I'm not going to go digging for numbers right now, but the statistics show that something like 100 percent of Fortune 100 companies use virtualization, and perhaps 85-90% of Fortune 500 companies.

The larger virtualization solutions will actually take the servers that are idle, migrate them to another host machine, and power down/suspend the "extra" machine(s) that was/were being used during their core business hours.

Virtualization also allows for spikes in cpu/network, and then can take that power back when everyone goes home (a print server, an intranet web server, a domain controller, etc). So, physical machines actually DO get turned off when they aren't being taxed, and with more and more "software defined networking" the interconnects between systems can be scaled and moved also.

Now, I don't know how the big players are using this (e.g. Amazon, VMware, Rackspace, Google). I can't see inside their datacenters, but one would think that something like AWS would have a huge stake in saving power by turning off idle instances and moving VMs. Not only for the power savings from the server directly, but for the (approx) 30-40 percent more energy that it takes to cool the physical machines.

It's also worth noting that larger companies are putting their datacenters in areas with plentiful (cheap) power. Places like Washington state, with hydroelectric power and a cooler average ambient temperature, allow for a huge savings on power right off the bat. Add things like dynamic scaling of server and network hardware, lights-out datacenters, and better designed cooling systems (look at Microsoft's ideas), and there is a huge power savings across the board.

How much energy does the NYT use to print paper copies of the newspaper, distribute and deliver them, harvest the trees and process the paper? Now compare that with the energy that the online NYT uses. Which allows for more people to view the publication for less energy? I'm positive that it is the electronic version.

Of course! This makes perfect sense, especially when many new computers are shipping without optical drives!

The typo in "violets" for the op made me think of this classic Gilda Radner SNL skit:

Emily Littela: And in other news, there's too much violins on TV. There's too much violins on television. They should put the violins on at eleven after the kids are asleep.

Chevy Chase: Um, Emily, that's violence, not violins.

Emily Littela: Never mind.

Oh course you do realize that if he did think that it wasn't real, and was armed with any rifle, body armor does very little good.

There is an advantage to trying to do things civilly first. Papers, knocking, waiting for him to leave home, etc is actually in any police forces's best interest.

An ar-15 with 5.56mm green tip (mil surp) ammunition will destroy body armor and kevler helmets.

An ar-10 or M1A or ak style with 7.62 will make someone with body armor "extra dead"

Both can easily and legally hold 30-100 rounds per magazine in about 49 states (by civilians).

Actually, the skin is an organ.

I have both.

However it is not legal or justified to kill a car theif for taking your car (even if it is an expensive BMW). It is just property, and killing over it will give you 1) a huge lawyer bill that far exceeds your insurance deductible, and 2) about 15-30 years to think quietly about what you've done (in prison).

The only exception would be something like a carjacking, when your life and safety are physically threatened, and you're in immediate and grave danger (maybe the guy is going to kill you as soon as you get out - even if you "give" him the car - so you're justified in neutralizing the threat.)

This is for the US, and more specifically for states that I have lived in. Ymmv. Of course everyone reading about guns is thinking "yeah, that's "Murika" for ya..."

I will agree with this 100%. I have been in tech for about seven years, "formally". My bookshelf is full of technical titles, I have several "test" systems, and even my primary machine is full of "play" virtual machines.

I *actually* started learning tech when my father was able to get me a shell account on a university Solaris box when I was about eleven years old. I had a 2400 baud modem that I had figured out how to install on the family's 8088xt (@6 MHz). It was even (CGA) color!

I was lucky enough to have essentially zero formal tech/CS training for my entire educational career (which ended in graduate school). I had a typing class in middle school, and I did have part of a class that used LOGO in about 3rd grade. However, I did have an "education", writing, speech, math to calc II, and a hell of a lot of life sciences, chemistry, and physics (or what physics you can learn when you only go to calc II).

After grad school in a COMPLETELY unrelated topic, I easily landed a job as desktop support for a bank @ $25/hour (in 2005). After progressing up through the ranks, taking contracts, and learning and reading in my spare time, I'm over six figures in my current (W2, full time) position (at age 33), with substantial health, vacation, and stock benefits.

The kicker? Not only was my degree unrelated to computers or tech in every way, but I never actually graduated from any of my programs (nine years at four different schools).

I would really like to go back to school at some point to finish an engineering degree of some type (EE or ME), but after supporting engineers for the past two years (mostly Mech, Civil), I learned what they actually make (even with a PE), and it's about half of what I'd even consider.

Godaddy is down to me. I'm currently using public WiFi, so I can't speak about their infrastructure, but "Error 137 (net::ERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILED): Unknown Error" seems to sum it up.

The "K" of K&R is wrong.

"K" is Brian Kernighan. You know, the Brian Kernighan of "The C Programming Language" fame. He wrote a book or two. He's quite famous. Maybe you've heard of him.

Look it up.

The problem is that the decay would be exponential. If 50% of the users signed up for the paid subscription to "try it out", they would quickly notice that (about) HALF of their friends are now gone. So when time comes to renew the next month, those who lost a significant amount of friends (making the service useless) would quit.

Then, the remaining 30% would have less friends subscribed and would cancel the next month. When you're down to 10% of the original user base, what incentive is there to stay? You can talk to about 1 of your 10 "friends" on the service. That would be pointless.

I'm sure that it isn't the first time that this quote, or a variation has been uttered, but Mark's quote sounds an awful lot like the opening scenes of "Rounders"

Mike McDermott: "Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker."

(Thank you, IMDB)

Do we have different internets? Are you in another country?

Sthephen King's book is 9.99 on Kindle.

It's $13.59 in paperback (pre-shipping).

http://www.amazon.com/11-22-63-Stephen-King/dp/1451627297/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347037977&sr=1-3&keywords=stephen+king

I just typed in "50 Shades of Gray", and the Kindle version is $9.99 (no shipping). The print version is $9.57. So, you've got me by 42 cents before shipping, which still means that the Kindle version will be cheaper for 90% of amazon buyers (those with Amazon Prime are Excepted, although Amazon Prime allows for free Kindle lending, which could put the price at 0.00 for Kindle.)

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Grey-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B007J4T2G8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347036166&sr=8-2&keywords=50+shades+of+gray

I looked up "Stephen King". I went thought the first 20 or so novels, and there are exactly *two* that cost more on Kindle (vs paperback). Most are $8.99-9.99 total, and none are more than $2 more expensive on Kindle. At this price point, I really wouldn't care for one version over the other. They are going to crank out so many poor quality copies of these high-selling paperbacks that it eventually makes their printing costs very, very low.

I would be (and I am) much more concerned with the higher priced books, like the non-fiction tech guides that are not only printed with much better quality, but are over 1,000 (large) pages. Using the Unix must-have "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (4th Edition)" as an example (I happen to own both the paperback and kindle versions), it is $41.05 for the print version, although the price printed on the book is actually much higher. The Kindle version is $27.35. That thirteen dollar savings will cover the difference for at least six Stephen King titles - before shipping.

I just finished going through hundreds of titles for (Nonfiction, Technical) books that I would purchase or have purchased, and I could not find a SINGLE title that was more for the Kindle version, using the keywords "Linux, Java, Bash, Windows, OSX, Javascript, or algorithms". Some of the Kindle versions are less than the paperback versions by only a couple dollars, but there are several than are 30%-75% less than their dead tree counterparts.

With the types of books that I read, my kindle has paid for itself many times over, and I have no reason to buy another one, since my laptop, iPad, and Nexus 7 all can use either the free download or the web-based kindle reader. Just guessing, it has probably saved me anywhere from $700-$1500 on my current library of 110 titles.

I have owned a kindle for about a year and a half. I own over 110 ebooks (most are tech, but also some fiction, classics, etc).

I have *never* seen a printed book cost less than the kindle ebook of the same title. I essentially always buy the ebook over the dead tree version, and aside from instant access, the reason that I do so is because the kindle version is frequently 30% (or more) less cost than the physical version (before thinking about shipping costs). Where are all of these books that are more expensive for kindle than for the paper versions? (Hint: they don't seem to be O'reily, Cisco Press, Apress, SAMS, Sybex, or Microsoft Press.)