Posts by Stoneshop

Re: Isn't restore 101

Why aren't the different components not integrated?

Hysterical raisins, for a large part. Security comes into play too: systems that have outside connections in whatever form are not allowed to even communicate with the main clusters directly, let alone have processes running on those clusters. And there is stuff like data conversion systems supplied by third parties, hardware and software, therefore not integrated as as matter of fact.

Furthermore, you don't have your monitoring system integrated with whatever you're monitoring, do you? Or your storage management system integrated with the systems you're providing storage to?

Re: yes the Uranium is being used as metabolic fuel for the bacteria.

"Another example of evolution in action."

Yes, but in which direction?

Nuclear powered bacteria.

If these had been discovered in the 1950s, when people expected everything to become powered by atomic energy ...

It is based on the false premise that police lives somehow matter more than the lives of the rest of us.

As such I agree with you, but as police and first responders have a certain responsibility towards the safety and wellbeing of the community (putting aside the question of whether that responsibility is always carried out correctly), they should be able to expect the community taking responsibility for them being able to perform their duties.

And I don't think 'Blue Alerts' are the right way to express that responsibility.

Re: Coal stocks fell today

Hmm, sounds like socialism, didn't think that was popular in the US.

That would be if the guvmint was to be paying unemployment benefits. Instead, Bombastic Bob is claiming he'll dump the bill on a private person he dislikes, and probably will go on to sue[0] him if he refuses to pay.

[0] increasing employment for landsharks in the process.

Re: If ad slinging

Tell me the truth, give me the numbers, be honest about your motives. Thats all I ask of politicians.

You want a pony to go with that?

and the wallet is too empty to buy a replacement

Five quid buys you a BT headset receiver that you can plug a wired headphone into. Available at your favourite Chinese Tat Bazaar.

Re: Comment from a Times article.

Unfortunately, computers in these data centres are used to being up and running for lengthy periods of time.

True.

That means, when you restart them, components like memory chips and network cards fail.

Nonsense; only if you power-cycle them Just rebooting without power cycling doesn't matter to memory or network cards. Processors and fans may be working closer to full load while booting compared to average load, and with it the PSUs will be working harder, but your standard data centre gear can cope with that.

Compounding this, if you start all the systems at once, the power drain is immense and you may end up with not enough power going to the computers

Switching PSUs have the habit of drawing more current from the mains as the voltage drops. Which will cause the voltage to drop even more, etc., until they blow a fuse or a circuit breaker trips. But as this lightens the load on the entire feed, it's really quite hard to get a DC to go down this way.

- this can also cause components to fail. It takes quite a long time to identify all the hardware that failed and replace it.

Any operational monitoring tool will immediately call out the systems that it can't connect to; the harder part will be getting the hardware jocks to replace/fix all affected gear.

Re: Probably got their own staff to install the back up generators

Isn't the refilling done by the tanker driver who delivers the stuff?

As the Germans say 'Jein' (contraction of yes and no): first someone[0], having been notified by Facilities that the tank is running low, has to call the supplier for delivery, then with the tanker arriving someone[1] has to unlock[2] the gate/hatch/trap door to the tank neck.

[0] from Finance, or Contract Manglement[3]

[1] from Security[3]

[2] you don't really want someone peeing down the filler neck, or dropping sand or sugar in.

[3] in extremely enlightened cases these responsibilities will have been delegated to Facilities as well.

Scream-tracing

A little over a decade ago I was contracting with a large software supplier/bodyshop[0] that was closing down one of their branch offices. Which involved moving most of the systems in that office (let's call it 'E') to the one where I was orking (let's call it 'N'). After some culling and rearranging about 53 racks had to be moved from E to N, but initially N had only space for 18. So we had a look around to see what could be culled from N. This promised to be quite worthwhile, because the floor was littered with gear for customer projects that had long been delivered, patched, upgraded, patched some more and declared finished. With the project teams long disbanded, reassigned to other projects, split off into separate ventures and members having left the company or even this earthly plane. Documentation was either stored in a filing cabinet in a disused lavatory, or buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. So I called a meeting of all department heads that might have some equipment in use on the floor in N, handed them a document template and a pile of stick-on envelopes[1], and the notice that any system not labeled two weeks from that date would be subject to gravitationally motivated impact tests in the car park.

Of course we did not do so right away after those two weeks, instead simply unplugging any network cabling[2] from those systems. And one sub-department came and wailed bitterly that they could not access their test rig, explaining that their lack of labeling was because of the department they were part of not passing on the meeting request. We then reconnected their gear, and there was much rejoicing.

(this action netted twelve racks of orphan systems that nevertheless had been running, consuming power and cooling, for several years)

[0] they clearly had insufficient bodies available with the skills required for their own operations.

[1] none of this faffing about with a shared database, which would have taken weeks to set up, deploy, get everyone to add their data (for which they probably would have needed to visit the computer room floor), after which we would have needed to match that data with the systems ourselves anyway.

[2] deemed safer than powering off; quite a few systems were expected to suffer Spontaneous Loss of Magic Smoke in case they needed to be powered back on.

Re: 6MB

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-juno-mission-to-remain-in-current-orbit-at-jupiter

"NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter, which has been in orbit around the gas giant since July 4, 2016, will remain in its current 53-day orbit for the remainder of the mission."

They'd know which cashpoint I visited

Your bank knows, Google can only infer your visit from your Android collecting location data and the time you spend near an ATM.

And if you're in Europe, your bank is in for some unpleasant regulatory action if they even think of using this info unless it's directly related to their own business.