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Comment Re:price still needs to come down! (Score 1) 228

I have to wonder why the cost is still so expensive. ...Most technology typically experiences a rapid drop in price long before the level of market acceptance we're seeing for SSD. ...

The fabs used to manufacture these devices cost billions of dollars, not counting the R&D, labor, materials, etc.; consequently the amortized, sunk, and fixed costs quickly add to the product price.

Comment Re:Use databases! (Score 1) 235

If you have something more complex than a flat file, then use relational databases. Even Access databases are better than a collection of text files.

That really depends on what your intended use for them is. I mean I don't know this particular fellow's situation for data collection or what tools he uses for reporting and visualization but perhaps, for him, it's a much better idea to store them in flat files. Me? I have been using flat files for all my data collection about local crime (see here, here, here, and here) for several reasons:

1. I script it all with awk/sed to scrape the data and then put it in a CSV for summary with PostgreSQL.

2. Yes, I could use PostgreSQL for it all but I like to easily see it in its raw format on another remote machine. I also like to use Excel to do ad-hoc pivots and this is the easiest way for me to do that.

3. I upload the data to Google Docs and use their gadgets to make charts for my dashboards and maps. If I were to store it solely in PostgreSQL I would have to make the CSV, pipe it into the PostgreSQL, convert it back out to CSV and then upload it. An additional step for nothing.

Hey, no method is perfect for everyone and every project is a little different and while it's hard for me, based on the information provided, to give this guy any help, automatically suggesting that he needs a relational database to do his data storage might be just a little shortsighted.

YMMV.

There, fixed that for 'ya.

Comment Re:ZFS comparison (Score 1) 269

Or you can run FreeBSD 8, which has ZFS and has had DTrace for a while now.

I know this is Slashdot, but have these Linux zealots ever tried FreeBSD? If they had, I bet there would be a ton less "dying" or "dead" jokes.

Sure, FreeBSD doesn't have the marketing, but it's got the features.

Okay, Linux fanbois, light me up.

Comment No ECC RAM! (Score 1) 204

From TFA's technical notes: "Unfortunately, the RAM had no ECC (Error Correcting Code), so random bit errors could not be corrected nor detected. Since the computation lasted more than 100 days, such errors were likely [12]."

Great we have all these digits, but they're mostly useless bits and their reliability is suspect.

Comment Re:You go IBM!!! (Score 1) 863

Are you kidding? Us finance types *need* Excel since OO doesn't hold a candle to the OLAP and Pivot tools Excel has. Don't get me wrong, I like and still use OO at home and it's fine for a receptionist, but not suitable for many departments in an organization (yet). In this case, moving to OO would be fragmenting and increasing the difficulty of supporting different office suites.

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