NTSB investigators reported the cause of the crash as 'Controlled reboot into terrain".

Man, if only we could afford to use 64 bit values for things. I realize that transistors are simply too expensive right now; but perhaps, in the future, the miracles of science will make this possible...

I certainly have no useful information to add to the speculation about cause; but that is what would worry me. Having to reboot a system every 284 days or less is a nuisance; but not a terribly big one(especially since the system is connected to a giant mass of moving parts governed by comparatively strict regulations concerning maintenance, so it probably gets taken to the shop fairly frequently anyway). However, if there is some value incrementing its way up that eventually causes the system to crash; I'd want to be very sure that there is absolutely nothing else that might modify that value in a way that causes it to grow faster than expected.

Cue the "If they'd chosen Windows, it would be impossible for this bug to occur" jokes...

Those have mostly been unfair since the NT-derived era; but, in the spirit of the joke, there was a bug in win95 and 98 that would cause the system to crash after 49.7 days of uptime. It remained undiscovered for years.

"Really short mission" technology, while it simplifies many problems quite considerably, is pretty limiting...

I don't control the purse strings in this case, unfortunately. Though, if you have any particular favorites(relatively small scale, rack-level stuff, for the most part), I'd be delighted to try to put a bug in the ear of anyone who does. Please, do tell.

Anyone with some legal experience able to clarify this? Given that grooveshark wasn't...exactly...apologetic about their strategy(nor has it changed all that much), my assumption is that the sudden shift to grovelling-apology-mode has much more to do with losing than it does with any change of heart.

Do courts give grovelling apologies enough weight that this 'contrition' is a logical strategy to try to reduce any awards of damages? Are such apologies sometimes added as conditions of a settlement, presumably so that the victor can grind the vanquished further into the dirt? Is there some other advantage to issuing one?

The specs allege "92% round-trip efficiency". I'm not sure how much weasel wording goes into that figure; but if it isn't a lie-for-all-but-legal-purposes, that could easily fall within the peak/off-peak price changes in many markets.

According to the spec sheet, the battery bank itself is a 400VDC unit and does not include an AC inverter(though a locally appropriate inverter, if not already available from a solar install or the like, would presumably be something you'd include in the project if you wished to install one). You are limited by the peak draw that the battery pack allows; but you can do absolutely whatever you feel like, subject to local codes and keeping your insurance, with the output. Unless you live in some really, really, freaky location where inverters that match your grid's flavor of power simply aren't on the market, it should be pretty trivial to spec an inverter suitable to the location.

Also, unless you are in an area without gas service, or in a house built with 100% electric heat, winter tends to be somewhat favorable to electrical demand. Lighting requirements go up, since the days are shorter; but contemporary lighting efficiency has increased by leaps and bounds of late(and anyone buying a Tesla battery pack is probably already running LED lights, or willing to consider it); and the cold reduces air conditioning demand to effectively zero, while heating is often accomplished substantially by on-site combustion heaters, which impose negligible electrical load(typically a trickle to keep the thermostats and other regulatory electronics up; but that's peanuts compared to AC load).

An area with proper winter would make outdoor installs problematic(Li-ion is better than most; but batteries still don't do any better for being below freezing); but otherwise the situation isn't so bad. If anything, places with brutal summers are probably the harder case, since AC is absolutely voracious in its demand, and almost always electrical, and the modest increase in available solar power doesn't necessarily negate the substantial increase in cooling requirements.

I don't know of any FBI-specific issues with DNA work; but various crime labs have had issues with atrociously sloppy practices that tend to go unchallenged, or overtly hidden, for some years. The big FBI story is definitely the "yeah, we basically didn't do a single hair analysis right for two decades; also hair analysis in general is probably bullshit" issue.

In general, DNA-based techniques have the advantage that they are actually 'science', as originally developed by scientists looking for useful research tools and facing some possibility of falsification, embarassing retractions, etc. It requires some skill, and considerable attention to good standards of cleanliness, bench technique, etc.(especially if PCR is involved; that technique is practically black magic it's so good at picking up otherwise impossible to detect DNA; but it is equally good at amplifying your accidental contamination of the sample by a few orders of magnitude)

Much of the rest of forensic 'science', is little better than polygraphs and phrenology. 'Bite mark analysis', in particular, is a tragicomedy.

The consumer version bears a disconcerting resemblance to a coffin for a particularly obese child; but I'm liking the looks of the rack-based unit.

This might have something to do with a recent spate of obnoxious fights with some of our APC UPSes and their surprisingly touchy and death-prone lead acid battery modules. Even when the UPSes themselves arent' dropping dead, swapping out SLA modules every 2-3 years, at best, gets real old, real fast.

He is probably the most effective example in reasonably contemporary history. Which isn't terribly impressive given that most people couldn't actually tell you what he was for or against, his activities had no visible effect on any federal activity he was against, and he ended up getting executed, and his main assistant sent to ADX Florence to rot more or less without controversy.

Also (like most people who want to get some asymmetric warfare done) he didn't bother with the abject futility of a gun battle against superior forces, and opted for explosives and stealth instead.

Definitely the best example available; but not...exactly...a striking demonstration of effectiveness.

People do enjoy saying that; but that doesn't seem to change the more or less total absence of any repressive measures, activities, or persons being literally shot down. Maybe whoever pinged a few rounds off the NSA's windows deserves some credit for effort; but he's pretty lonely. Hell, the last person to even unnerve the DC area was probably the beltway sniper, and he was some shithead gunning for his ex wife or something. Seriously guys, let's see some blood of patriots and tyrants, or the admission that guns are a fun hobby; but spare us the empty chest-beating nonsense.

I just can't believe that an agency that (voluntarily, no less) works out of a headquarters named in J Edgar Hoober's 'honor' would have some ideas about encryption that are anything other than technologically cutting edge and fourth amendment compliant. They should probably just stick to doing their...special...brand of forensic science and leave policy to people who don't goose-step to the short bus every morning.