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Comment Re:Natural gas backup generator (Score 1) 695

Woah buddy; important point -- don't forget to de-rate your generator!

If you actually use even close to 80% of your 100A service, that 17kw Kohler running on natural gas is going to fry.

Most gas generators can be fueled with either LP or NG, but when you burn NG, your efficiency is diminished. In addition, utility companies like to keep the BTU content of their gas close to the minimum they are legally allowed, so it's good even to overestimate. Rule of thumb on this is around 15% total below the advertised rating or 5-10% lower than the official NG rating of the generator. For that 17kW Kholer that puts you at around 14kW that you can realistically produce out of that genset at peak.

Also keep in mind that for a number of other reasons, you're not going to be able to get peak power out of that generator for a while after it starts up, and most "standby" generators are not rated for peak power during continuous duty. There is also power factor to consider, as well as some other minor unfavorable types of things that the marketing numbers don't really include, so you really need to de-rate about 10% more to figure the nominal size load you can protect.

SO just being conservative on that Kholer (which you need to be when you are considering an EMERGENCY generator), you could reasonably ask it for 55A or so. That might be sufficient for a whole home without major electric appliances, but it's not going to deal with electric heaters, ovens, clothes dryers, etc. all that well. You'd need either a larger genset or to do some selective circuit protection using a sub-panel.

Comment Title misleading (Score 3, Insightful) 374

The title of this post is rather misleading. It implies VirtualBox can run a virtualized 64 bit machine on a 32 bit processor and VMWare cannot. Neither of these are true. It can now host a 64 bit guest VM when the host OS is 32 bits.

Support for 64 bit VM's under 32 bit host OS's has been standard in VMWare's entire line ever since they included 64 bit guest support. Even the service console through ESX 3.5 is a 32 bit VM (Though it's not really fair to call it the "Host" OS)

AFAIK, virtualizing 64 bit guests does still require Intel VT or AMD Pacifica support on the CPU regardless on all products that support 64 bit guests.

Comment Re:Tier 1 is about long-haul. (Score 1) 174

The other thing to consider is that these "Tier 1" companies who are also "Last Mile" access providers are huge businesses. It is irresponsible for the "Last Mile" division to rely solely on the "Tier 1" division for access for its customers. Sprint (the ISP that connects customer cellphones to the net) should have an alternative to routing through Sprint (the backbone provider).

I'm not sure whether or not to blame Sprint & Cogent (collectively) or their customers (collectively) for any trouble caused on Oct. 30. They were all getting exactly what they paid (or did not pay) for.

Caldera

Submission + - SCO says IBM hurt profits

AlanS2002 writes: "In its ongoing litigation against International Business Machines Corp., the SCO Group Inc. on Monday said IBM hurt SCO's relationship with several high-tech powerhouses, causing SCO's market share and revenues to plummet. In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball, an attorney for Lindon-based SCO said IBM "pressured" companies to cut off their relationships with SCO. And "the effect on SCO was devastating and it was immediate," Mark James said. IBM on Monday argued for summary judgment on the matters of unfair competition and business interference, but SCO contends that a jury trial is needed."
Biotech

Submission + - New Drugs Enhance Performance, Eliminate Sleep

docinthemachine writes: "New drugs in the eugeroic family are completing trials that offer improved memory, mood enhancement, improved alertness and cognitive powers without any of the nasty side effects and mass murder of speed and crank. They are a class of novel stimulants that produce long-lasting mental arousal. They are unique in producing hypervigilence and alertness without peripheral effects or addidition of usual stimulants. Strangely, they have minimal effect on sleep structure, and do not cause rebound hypersomnolence (crashing). Related are Ampakines that also cause memory enhancement (just a bit of abuse potential there). One of these — a drug code-named CX717 enabled sleep deprived rhesus monkeys to outperform rested normal monkeys on memory tasks. you can read details of the drugs and studies at http://docinthemachine.com/2007/03/09/eugeroic/"

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