In my cynical moments, and in a comment lower down, I suggested that the move to Salesforce and Workday was prompted because of the donations given to Whitman by the CEOs of both organizations. Of course, that could be stretching it, but it just seems like such an odd announcement for her to make. I could easily see Salesforce being the ones excited to advertise that size of company switching their CRM, but HP?

I just hope that these miracle savings will go in to restructuring in a good way, and not in to more corporate jets and executive bonuses.

Its been said, but I'll reiterate.

Salesforce is not an IT tool, it is a Customer Management tool. The whole point of using Salesforce is to make your sales and customer service people more efficient so you can do more with what you have or do the same with fewer people.

Workday is the same thing, only it replaces any internal HR databases with its own SaaS solution in order to allow your HR people to manage more people, or in order to manage the same number of people with fewer HR people.

At the end of the day, both of these projects are about outsourcing internal functions, possibly to save money, possibly because Dave Duffield and Marc Benioff the CEOs of Workday and Salesforce respectively were big contributors to Meg's failed gubernatorial campaign.

I'm cynical, especially when it comes to the continued flushing of HP down the toilet.

Whitman's claim is so much bullshit. Its her standard claim for any situation and she's throwing around Salesforce and Workday as if they will actually solve issues. What she really means is that she's outsourcing a bunch of internal support people in addition to the external support.

Workday is mostly a SaaS product, as is Salesforce.

So, expect more HP layoffs, and not much more.

It seems sort of silly, but you would be amazed how much a well laid-out set of conduits for network cable will make your life simpler now, and in the future.

Service loop in the cables near their destination is also a must.

Other than that, invest in some good cable management for your racks, and if you can, try to ensure that your server/telco room has an A/C system on a different circuit from the rest of the A/C. If you have the budget, a dedicated climate control system would be great too.

Also, don't forget power. Try to make sure you've got a UPS with some room for growth on its own circuit (a dedicated 480 3-phase if you can get it). If you don't have the budget there, then at least a TVSS (transient voltage surge suppressor) or power conditioner.

If you're talking about gravitic attraction between two bodies, you *could* be 3 kg of attraction away from something.

Miles? Pffft, I want to know the distance in smoots!

Its cool man. Somewhere, right now, someone is posting 'your' when they mean 'you're', suggesting that pi is exactly 3, and quoting Newton's laws about orbital bodies when clearly they need to be referring to Kepler.

Yet, there are so few of us and so many of them.

The weight reduction from the helium replacing the air will be negligible. The reduced mass comes from being able to use lighter platters and arms.

D'oh, I meant insulated cryo cylinder.

Gas replacements were my second favorite service behind replacing the radiation source in PET scanners. For the gas, you get to look really important dragging around your case of Victorian-era looking tools and large gas cylinder, while the radiation source meant you had a great excusing for working in shorts and a t-shirt.

Truly, there needs to be a nail-biting, gut-wrenching, crazy-go-nuts crawler chase scene in a movie one day.

Well, gun in a relative frame. I guess "They have to advance the throttle level faster and to a higher setting..." just doesn't have the same ring.

It would have to be on a hell of an incline. The friction between the tracks and the suspension is enormous. I've ridden the thing a couple of times and they really have to gun the throttles to get everything rolling. After that, they throttle down just a bit to maintain a nice even pace.

Of course it is, but that doesn't mean it is accurate.

Coelacahths can probably thank that "unremarkable to humans" trait for a lot. The global Nautilus population has declined so rapidly due to fishing and slow breeding and growth cycles that I wouldn't be surprised if they pass in to extinction in the next 100 years or so.

While there are conservation programs in the works, they aren't working with a cute cuddly animal, so funding is sparse to non-existent and a huge portion of the human population in areas where the Nautilus is still somewhat common don't give much of a shit about conservation when a nautilus shell means the difference between feeding your family or going hungry.