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Comment Re: The answer has been clear (Score 1) 390

So, how do you change ISPs but keep your IPs? For example in a failover situation.

Currently the company I work for has its own AS and a /23 of IPv4, that can get announced trough one or both ISPs that we use (in case one goes down). If one ISP goes down the traffic goes trough another quite quickly. How do you do this with IPv6?

Comment Re:Probably best (Score 1) 649

Terrible mileage

Well, that results in paying more for the fuel, right? Most likely not as much as a single trip to the dealer with a new car though.
My car, for example, has been modified to run on LPG - it uses slightly more of it, but since the LPG costs less than half of what gasoline costs, the car approaches much newer cars in terms of Euros/100km.

If you're willing to put up with all that because you're just such a gearhead, why not just build your own car from the ground up?

I'm not that good with mechanics (can't even weld) , however, I want to keep a single car for a very long time. It is easier to do so with an old car that is easier to repair without going to the "authorized service" - there's a lot of things I can repair myself and any competent mechanic an repair the rest.

The authorized services overcharge by orders of magnitude. Once a "check engine" light came on in my mother's Nissan Primera P12, he dealer told her that the timing chain has to be replaced, but then it would be cheaper to replace the whole engine (~1600EUR). A mechanic (that I sometimes go to) plugged in his PC and said that it's just the crankshaft position sensor that has failed and if the timing chain was loose then the car would rattle like a bag of nails. Cost of repair - 160EUR for the sensor, 16EUR for replacement.

Comment Re:I think one of my locals already has (Score 1) 293

Yes, cassette tapes. I have a lot of them and see no reason not to use them. Copying the music to a digital format would take a lot of time and not really provide any benefits. On the other hand, recording from a record (I have a lot of those too, I also borrow and copy records sometimes) to tape is more convenient than recording to a PC, though MD is pretty convenient too. However, recording a MD I need to manually mark the tracks, while recording to a tape I just need to listen or any problems (I have a couple of three head decks, so I can monitor while recording). This is because a tape "remembers" where it was stopped, but none of my MD recorders can do that if the MD is removed.

Yes, you can still buy blank tapes, most of them are low quality, but some companies still make higher quality cassettes. Also you can buy NOS tapes on ebay and such.

If you really do not think you will ever use your NOS Type 4 tapes, I suggest you try selling them. Some tapes (especially type 4) can go for quite a lot of money.

Comment Re:posting from 1986? (Score 1) 293

I do not use an iphone or similar, especially in a car.

To me, a tape or a MD has one big advantage - it can easily be ejected and a new one can be put in. When I am driving, I want to look at the road, not a display on the player. I can easily choose a tape (I can hold it between me and the windshield and read the label without looking away from the road) and put it in the player (without looking).

The tape (or MD) holds enough music to not need replacing very often, but also not too much as to get boring (most of the time, I do not want to listen to 3 albums of the same artist in a row, no matter how much I like the artist).

I also have quite a few tapes already, so tapes are convenient or me (more convenient than recording them to a computer, then creating the mp3 files would be). Tapes are also convenient when recording from an analog source (like a record - I have a lot of them too). When I want to listen to music that I downloaded, then MDs are more convenient (since I can transfer the music from a PC quickly).

Comment Re:I think one of my locals already has (Score 1) 293

The sound quality of FM radio is not that great, especially due to the very high compression. A record, tape or a CD has much higher quality.

However, I like to listen to radio at work - the quality is good enough for background and I do not have to constantly change records or tapes. Also, the compression helps to keep the volume down. I also do not have to constantly decide what to play now - just tune to a station I like and leave it be. Also, when driving short distances, I listen to radio - I grab some tapes or MDs when I am driving further.

Comment Re:Cars from the 80s sucked (Score 1) 192

My car is German (Mercedes W123). It has much more than 160000km (the exact number is unknown as the speedometer was replaced a couple of times and nobody bothered to set the new odometer to the same number). While the car has problems with rust now (33 years after manufacture), you also have to know that it spent 19 years in my country where road salt is used in winter. A mechanic told me that he has seen 10 year old cars that more rusty than mine. Engine overhaul has not been done (yet) but the engine runs fine and does not burn oil. Even if it has been used for the past 10 years primarily with LPG (a fuel that burns a bit differently than gasoline).

I wonder if a 2015 car will be in as good shape in year 2048. It looks to me that modern cars are much more complex and less robust that they won't last as long.

For somewhat higher fuel consumption and body rust I get the ability to repair most things on my car myself, no need to call a mechanic and wait a few days until he can service my car (for most stuff anyway). Also, since the car is less complex than modern cars, there are less parts to fail.

Comment Re:Varies. (Score 1) 142

The average speed for my connection is somewhat lower than the advertized. I reach the 500Mbps upload usually, except weekday evenings and weekend days where it is limited to about 80Mbps if the traffic goes to other countries. If I send data to some host in Lithuania I get the full 500Mbps.

Really not a bad deal for 23EUR/month (and no caps, I upload about 60TB/month).

Comment Re:Electric Cars (Score 1) 365

None of which was available before (and even now it's not that good). On the other hand, you do not need any special equipment to fill a gas tank - a bucket and a funnel is enough. Also, if I run out of gas a few km away from a station, I can go there, buy a small can of gas, bring it back to my car, pour it into the tank and then drive to the station to fill the rest of the tank. Good luck doing that with electricity.

Comment Re:Electric Cars (Score 1) 365

Yes, however, only now electric cars can compete with internal combustion ones on range and power because of battery technology. Take a Tesla car and replace its batteries with lead-acid ones - you will either get less capacity (for the same waight) or more weight (for the same capacity). Now replace the modern motor controller with a rheostat and you will get much lower efficiency.

That car would not be able to compete with internal combustion cars because of the gasoline's much giher energy density. Even if a gasline engine is inefficient, you can have a bigger gas tank. The batteries in a Tesla weigh 540kg and provide 85kWh of energy. Or about the energy that is contained in about 6.6kg of gasoline (about 9.5L). So, for the same weight gasoline has 80 times more energy (even more if you compare it to lead acid batteries). Modern electric cars compensate for that by having much higher efficiency, but that was not the case 150 years ago.

Comment Re:Lifespan (Score 1) 229

As a last ditch effort audio engineers have been heating up tape in an oven, to backup the audio to disk. This destroys the tape.

That is necessary only for some tapes. Other tapes, even older (I have one from 1951, the tape itself is paper, not acetate or polyester) work fine. The problem is that some companies used an unstable binder to glue the oxide (and the back coating) to the tape. That binder over time absorbs moisture and becomes sticky goo. It takes about 10 years for this to happen, that's why the problem was not noticed earlier. Still, after the problem was notices, the manufacturers changed the binder to another chemical that remains stable.

Baking dries out the binder so the tape works properly for some time, then becomes sticky again.

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