Electricity rates are going up, making peak usage twice as expensive as off peak usage. I think that a lot of businesses could benefit from something like this if they could finance the upfront costs of batteries+ installation. While my understanding of our electrical systems is limited, it seems like batteries should have been part of our grid for exactly these reasons as well as emergencies etc. - it just seems like we have something that is always on, always outputting based on demand projections, so how do we make it smarter?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. But regardless of the MGS connection, this does sound like a grab for attention, and if it does work, where are we going to get a steady supply of healthy, undamaged, bodies? (Until we can print them that is)

... and it's not my kids stealing. They were playing Penguin Wings 2 and bought about $20 of stuff for their little characters. It was my fault for wanting to distract them, and I changed my settings so that my password is needed each time now. I don't thinl it's google responsibility to protect people from themselves, and a dev who made a fun game got $20 for their work. People just need to use common sense/chillax.

Thanks for the feedback guys, its great to get both sides.

To be fair, the $20K would add some features as well because of what MSSQL offers vs MYSQL. I just want to look at all options. And massive +1 for PERT :-)

To be fair, they are willing to do open source as well, they just recommended something that they are familiar with and I can't blame them for that, PostgreSQL is sounding better and better though.

Awesome thanks! I will have a look there too.

We are a non-profit, not a charity, so I know that we don't qualify for many programs. I will try MS though and see if they can help us. I know that many other vendors wouldn't give us a deal.

Currently it is PHP/mysql, and that is why I leaned that way originally.

Thanks for the insight, as I am neither a dev or a GIS guy. I will certainly pass on the Haversine formula info as well as your description.

Great, thanks for the offer~ I do like the idea of doing something that can be contributed back to the community as a whole.

Thanks for the awesome feedback, and its great to hear from someone from ESRI. I like the PostgreSQL option that is being outlined here, and if there is a strong community then that is even better.

Thanks for the +1 for mysql, it could save some headaches. My devs feel that they are up to the task of writing some functions, but they feel that MS does make it easier. In terms of the moral issues, I can't just stuff them, but I won't let them kill my budget either.

Awesome thanks for your insight. It's great to hear from someone who has applied this in a similar situation. I think PostgreSQL is definitely worth a detailed look.

Great, thank you. I certainly don't want to run, but I do want to balance ease and cost vs the qualitatives.