My favorite computer magazine once tested an ordinary USB flash drive and it still worked after 16 million write cycles on the same file. Since they are using Intel SATA-SSD at SDSC I'm assuming that those drives are SLC, which last ~10x longer than (cheaper) multi-cell drives.

But even if drives start to fail they'll just replace them like they do with any other supercomputer setup, so it's more a cost factor than a problem.

What about Communigate? While not exactly free, it seems to be a decent replacement of Exchange. It also works with iCal and Korganizer.

I'll test it next week for my start-up. Won't even cost us anything since there is a community version which allows up to 5 users.

There is just one thing that interests me about those stores: According to the leaked ppts they are actually considering to have private birthday parties there. I'd like to know who would actually pay for celebrating in a MS store and what the program for that would look like.

I just can't think of any way which doesn't result in utter embarrassment for everyone involved.

Your example is a little off base. 1857 inhabitants/km vs 20696 inhabitants (sorry for the kms, but it wouldn't look much better in miles).

Nevertheless I agree that small cities can have proper public transport. I guess that there are many cultural and history related reasons why public transport isn't a priority in the US. And since it doesn't work well most people don't consider it - it's a chicken-egg problem...

I absolutely agree.

This reminds me of a conversation I once had with some guy at a (rather geeky) birthday party. I asked him about the SLI setup he bought two month ago. He told me that he'll replace it soon because "there are random frame drops when I play a recent game and watch a DVD on the other screen". He was really serious about this. I pretended to be interested for another 3 minutes and left him alone before my urge to punch him in the face became overwhelming ;)

So in other words: I believe that there will be a market for such cards as long as there are enough clueless people who earn enough money to barely afford them. In my experience this target group is pretty immune to arguments - there is no reason to assume that they'll ever wise up...

Of course the primary coolant loop becomes radioactive. Same applies to the reactor itself.

But I see a big difference between parts which are in direct contact and "the plant". I'm no expert in this, but my guess is that less than 5% of the structure is nuclear waste. Your statement was implying that we have to burry the entire plant. This is not the case unless we are talking about Chernobyl.

The plant itself shouldn't be radioactive at all. Maybe you are talking about the fuel?

BTW: I just visited a VVER-type plant, which was never finished. It takes ages to tear it down (they are working on it since around '95), but all the metal and debris is worth more than the destruction costs. I've put some pictures online here and here in case anyone is interested. I even made some pictures of the core-area, but I haven't scanned them yet (it was way too dark for my digital camera).

Maybe the reason for this is that the 2D surface with the bump map resembles the look of water we expect in a game. I also thought it looked better, but it's not really possible to judge this based on a screenshot, because when it comes to water it's all about the movement.

the superlative would be "worst". You are describing the comparative form. That's the advantage of being a non-native speaker: You learn it from scratch. Don't ask me grammar questions about my mother tongue :D

Given the size of this system it's understandable that they didn't want to bother non technical readers with 8.85×10^-16 rad/s or 8.45×10^-15 RPM (both taken from this table, which is probably outdated).

From a non-scientific point of view (especially with the life-span we have) it doesn't matter much if our sun is going into one direction or rotating around the galaxy.

IIRC the ratio between women and men affected by breast cancer is 100:1. So it makes a big difference.

However, those statistics are about breast cancer in general. Maybe someone with a medical background can enlighten us about the specific ratio of BRCA1.

I totally agree. Thinking of it a city on the south pole could offer just as much attraction as Dubai (provided with the same wealth). Luxury hotels are all the same around the globe, so why stay in one which is located in a city which features an uncomfortable environment and very few non-artificial points of interest.

I could be wrong in believing that the hype around Dubai will vanish in the near future. Las Vegas for example is still doing well ;)

It is understandable that the Emirate of Dubai wants to diversify its economy. In the long run they will be better off with oil-related industries like logistics and especially shipping and aviation. After all they have the only natural harbor in the Persian Gulf area and the location is perfect for an intercontinental hub. And when oil becomes scarce Dubai might be one of the few still being able to fuel all these planes and ships...

At least those pento blades don't consume a whooping 289 W while you use them. Somehow most previews don't even mention power consumption. The author of the article linked above actually states about this card, that it "properly balances GPU performance and power efficiency". By that logic everything which does not start to burn is power efficient...

So when the Charles County Sheriff's Office wanted to mount a major drug sting, they moved the "Welcome to Charles County" sign back a hundred feet or so, and would arrange deals just across the border. We put away a lot of bad people for a long time. Brilliant.

I think nobody would have a problem with such a trick. But in my eyes it's not related because the laws and jurisdiction is the same in Charles County and the county they thought to be in*. They get charged for the very same crime - the attitude of the judge does not (formally) play a role.

It's a totally different story when the FBI tricks someone to enter the US and he gets charged for crimes not committed on US soil - especially when the person is from a country having a extradition treaty with the US (Germany is one of them). In this case extradition is not even necessary because Valve can sue in Germany just like any European company. Even US porn companies sue individuals in the EU for pirating their "movies" so it can't be that hard ;)

In my opinion the possible consequences of a crime should be well defined. If you deal with dope in Singapore and get the death penalty it's tragic, but consequential - it's well known that Singapore has some of the strictest laws regarding drugs and we can't tell a sovereign country how they punish crimes committed within their borders. Imagine the outrage if Singapore sent out invitations to the Dutch. I know that would be surreal, but it would follow the same reasoning.

*Feel free to correct me on this - maybe you are talking about the counties which belong to Virginia and I don't know much about drug laws in the states of the US.