One of the top hits for my name is a page about banging lusty whores.... Not sure if I should be happy or upset about that one.

Yeah, I meant the other way around, nice catch.

Um, no, not really. While Seagate doesn't explain their caching strategy, my guess is that unlike things like bcache, which cache at the block level, the seagate probably caches at the logical file level, which would explain why it's Windows only, they only implemented their algorithm for NTFS. My guess is they broke with tradition and implemented a disk that is aware of the logical layout of the files on it, instead of one that simply manages blocks(with file metadata just being another one of those blocks)

File level caching has a lot of advantages, for starters there tend to be a lot fewer blocks than their are files, meaning that the overhead imposed by the caching algorithm is a lot lower(flashcache for instance uses 500 megs of memory per TB of storage IIRC). Furthermore, by caching at the file level you can apply heuristic rules like not caching movie or music files, where performance is very unlikely to be critical etc.

Of course this all comes at a cost, having the disk actually know about the logical layout of the file system does break a lot of conventions and introduces a large # of potential issues....Trying to upgrade the file system on one of these things is probably not very pretty.

Did you read the fucking comment, or just zoom in on a word and start mouthing off? The programs MUST go through a certification process that will catch most of the bugs, and the SHA-1 hash is to ensure that the code remains the same. So the benefit from creating casion-biased bugs is probably less than the potential cost of getting caught.... so yeah, when you hit that "reply" button in the future, actually read the fucking comment instead of just scanning for keywords, ok?

I doubt there are that many, largely because it would be pretty stupid to risk losing your license to operate a machine that, simply by the laws of probability, will almost make money. In the places where these things operate they usually have to undergo some pretty stringent testing to make sure the odds of winning are as close to "real" poker as possible. TFA even mentions them undergoing random spot inspections where they take a SHA-1 hash of the machine data and compare it with what is registered....

The rich benefit disproportionately from taxes, and thus should pay an amount proportionate to the benefit they get, which currently they do not do, they pay waaaaaaaay too little compared to what they are getting in return.

Then you haven't been very many places in Europe. There are lots of places in rural Bavaria where the closest store is over 10 km away and having a car(esp. in the winter) is basically a necessity. Now as a % it's must less than the US, but it's certainly not 0.

Well considering their coat of arms they are probably used to getting trolled....

Only Americans would hire people based on age, fashion, looks, basically anything but real skill. I'm glad I don't live in that hell-hole.

You are a complete moron who fails to understand human beings(here's a hint dumbshit, Europeans are even more formal than Americans). People judge eachother on age, fashion, and looks pretty much wherever there are people. But don't let the facts get in the way of your self-righteousness.

You've never seen The Simpsons?

Your plan has but one flaw, unfortunately now that Samuel L. Jackson has decided to become a silicon valley entrepreneur(kickyourmotherfuckingass.com), those poor snakes don't stand a chance.

Yes I know that I should have used the plural form of the verb since the subject was plural, but I intentionally used the exact same format as the original article to prove my point... You know this wacky thing called "communication". You should try it sometime.

Has "Has X peaked?" articles peaked?

Cost is only part of the equation though, you also have to factor in the impact any new construction will have on existing traffic. Infrastructure often becomes a victim of it's own success, these bridges aren't decaying because nobody uses them, they are decaying because they are being used all the time. Closing a bridge, even temporarily, will cause a massive amount of havoc so even if you had the funds, there is a huge disincentive to upgrade the infrastructure(usually until it's too late).

Unfortunately when it comes to physical infrastructure, redundancy is often just not possible.

Even then that might not necessarily prove anything(it might not even prove that the problem is in the US). They didn't post any tracking data(if they had any), so it's incredibly difficult to pinpoint exactly where the holdup was. For instance the hold-up could have been customs(Either on the German side or the US side), and shipping with a different carrier might mean that it goes through a different customs office which could skew the data. An interesting experiment, but their lack of rigor does not really lend a whole lot of creedance to their conclusion(and explicitly fingering USPS is certainly not warranted given the evidence they have presented).