Do people actually think that if the evil fossil fuel companies would just step out of the way then we'd be instantly blessed with unlimited renewable energy?

I work for an evil utility company that has a lot invested in the future of natural gas and even (eeek) coal. I personally spent a good chunk of time developing systems for gracefully integrating wind farm output into the grid. My evil corporate overlords have a visible slice of their annual revenue pie chart labeled "Wind Generation." Wind power isn't a threat to traditional generation in any way. And some folks throwing around the conspiracy theories haven't fully considered one fact: Those with both knowledge of the energy industry and plenty of extra capital to throw around have invested (and continue to invest) in wind when it makes sense. It's just that wind power can't come close to serving all the load reliably.

As someone whose livelihood depends on the status quo of the US grid, I worry a lot more about Bloom Boxes and their surrounding hype. If what I understand about that tech is true then it's a much bigger threat to my paycheck than wind farms. But if it ends up providing cheap reliable power then I'll be one of the first in line to buy one for my home.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't know a couple of things:

1. How are you generating this 2-3 TB of data?
2. Are you compressing it to its absolute minimum size?
3. Actually I don't know way more than a couple of things, but I digress.

Now, having spent most of the last year trying to determine the best method for storing huge amounts of data with limited space while retaining every important detail in a complex system that changes every few seconds --(deep breath)-- I can say that in OUR case, we found some very efficient ways to reduce the storage requirement at the front end instead of throwing money at the backend. Before I start rambling I will repeat the disclaimer regarding my total ignorance of your data situation, and your environment in general.

1. When you generate 2-3 TB of data per customer, what creates this data? Is there some type of progression or versioning in play (like a new value for a particular datapoint every millisecond or some such thing?) If so then whatever is creating the data may benefit from some type of delta checking before it saves data. Less data generated means less to compress. If you were to post a sample of what your uncompressed data values look like without revealing any sensitive information you may see replies with meaningful suggestions on how to change the data itself.

2. How exactly are you compressing the data? We've found that doing everything possible in step 1 above results in much less data meaning smaller source size and a smaller need for compression. But if whatever is compressing is dumb then you can turn a 500 GB archive into 1 TB which ends up costing you way more than rethinking step 1.

Again, I may be completely missing your point here and you may have already thought of these things many times over. Or you may be at the mercy of coders that don't care how much data they generate. But I think, lacking the answers to the above questions, no one here could give you the solutions that have the best bang for the buck.

Apple fanboys on Slashdot seem to be pretty reckless with their mod points. I posted a few anti-Apple comments in a Droid thread (and also posted some useful information at the same time) and now I have Bad Karma here. I guess I can post whatever I like now, since no one will end up reading it anyway. Have fun with your dead batteries and your closed app store you collective shits for brains! woohooo! Of course if someone mods THIS post as troll or off topic then it's well deserved. How far into the negative can Karma go anyway?

I would make a web page with many links placed close together. Have the same user try clicking the links in a certain order on both devices and record the accuracy. Repeat with multiple users.

BTW I am a Droid owner who has also used iPhone. I've made mistakes "clicking" on both devices but admittedly probably more on the droid. But the fact that the display looks so much better on the droid makes up for the occasional misclick.

Where are you doing your phone survey? I know 2 Amish guys who have G1s, a hermit in Bolivia with a HTC Eris, and 3 terrorists in Paris that all have matching Milestones. Seriously.

So what do you do when the battery inevitably starts lasting 1/2 day? Oh you just go get a quick easy cheap replacement here ? No that's too much trouble, you want the new iPhone 4GZ anyway don't you?

I held out forever with a Razr and no smartphone. It wasn't a money issue, work offered to buy me an iPhone a long time ago. The wife (and damn near everyone else I know) has an iPhone. I've used them but never liked them. And the rampant fanboyism drove the last nail in Apple's coffin for me. (Seriously, you people and your blind freakin' loyalty just make me want to puke right after I nut-kick you.) I bought a Droid the day it was released and I'm, (how do I say it?) satisfied. It has a few fairly annoying shortcomings, and to be honest if the Nexus One was (rumored to be) available on a decent carrier here in the US I'd be kicking myself for not waiting a little longer for a better hardware/design package with the Android OS. Granted I'm surely not in the majority here, but I am pretty impressed with Android so far. I don't see the Droid (or any device currently forthcoming) as an "iPhone killer" but it certainly filled a niche with weird folks like me. I'm just glad there is a choice now and more choices to come. And no I never saw WinMo or Palm as a valid choice, had horrid experiences with both of em. Never tried a Blackberry though, might have been tolerable.

I work in IT at an energy company whose systems are tightly integrated with "the grid" and I can testify that someone with the right knowledge (or even someone well versed in the art of social engineering) could wreak havoc on the power lines here in the U.S.

Seriously, is Apple paying PC World to publish incorrect information? Almost every article they've put out recently about the Droid phone is completely false. I got a Droid on Friday, signed up for the $30 data plan, and I've already synced it with Exchange and used it for tethering. I even started posting comments on PC World's site to try and correct some of their mistakes, but new articles keep popping up and It's not worth trying to keep up with their stupidity (or is it intentional misinformation?)

"China, for example, boasted a malware infection rate — as defined by the number of computers cleaned for each 1,000 executions of the MSRT — of just 6.7 per thousand, significantly below"

So yeah, they probably don't execute it much over there, but the metric seems to be sound. That said, in a country where you can probably find an unlicensed copy of Windows laying on the ground, the people that go to the trouble of getting a licensed copy probably aren't the type to visit porn sites and whatnot.

Gah, didn't you even read the summary? he's a guy with gigs at startup Milo and The Register, who you won't catch doing any recreational programming.

twoDigitIq says: "I don't have any free time. I'm always coding. I haven't had a day off in a fucking month." And again, nobody gives a shit when he says that.

I think it's funny that someone can just mention the word "Chiropractor" and without fail the word "Quack" or "Fraud" soon finds its way into in the conversational flow. Such hate for people who just do their best to make people feel better. I personally have only been to a Chiropractor once. It made me feel better for a day or two but it didn't cure anything. Personally I'd rather go get a deep tissue massage but that would probably will cost more than a visit to the chiropractor. So should we rant about all those evil dishonest masseuses out there and their evil bogus science? What usually happens during a "legitimate" doctor visit is that you complain about some symptom, the doctor picks some pharmaceutical that is designed to treat that symptom, scrawls its name on a slip of paper and sends you on your way. You take the magic pill and the symptom may subside but nothing has been cured. Quackery? Fraud? Of course! the whole "science" of medicine is worthy of our disdain.

I haven't used the VS help system since 6 either, but it's damn easy to just google it anyway.

Or you could just pry those keys off, like I've done on every keyboard I've ever owned