ChrisKnight – Page 57 – The Wacky World of Chris Knight

2007/06/07

Irony, it’s not just for breakfast…

Feds to Suspend Border Passport Rule
By MATTHEW LEE and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writers
Thursday, June 7, 2007

(06-07) 21:59 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) —

The Bush administration is poised to suspend a major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport rules.

A proposal, expected to be announced Friday, will temporarily waive a requirement that U.S. citizens have passports to fly to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, provided the traveler can prove he or she has already applied for a passport, officials said Thursday.

I disagree with 95% of the new laws and regulations that are supposedly designed to thwart potential terrorist acts. I also feel that if a law/regulation passed with that intention can be suspended because it is too much of an inconvenience than the politicians who promoted it must not feel it was that important either. If we trade liberty for security we are fools; but if we trade liberty and security for convenience then we are roadkill on the highway called ‘Survival of the Fittest’.

-Chris Knight

2007/06/06

RAID aware, buyer beware…

So, I was on the NewEgg site looking for external hard drive enclosures… For my mom’s new computer; yeah, um, not for me… And I found what looked like a nifty dual-drive external enclosure that has FireWire 800. It has built in RAID, which I will not be using; but I figured I would see if they had a manual on-line so I could make absolutely sure I could use the enclosure as a dual-drive no-RAID. What I found on the manufacturer’s site convinced me that I don’t want to buy their enclosure, because I can’t trust the company:

3500MGB-RAID Galaxy Series
Specifications
When it comes to raw power there is nothing to beat the dual-bay 3500 Metal Gear Box Raid. The 3500MGB-Raid is built strong and rugged, offering more than enough capacity to store all your digital media files. Not only that, the 3500MGB-Raid can also back up and secure all of your data thanks to RAID protection. Great performance, great protection and great looks â€“ only in the 3500MGB-Raid.

Twice in the ‘specifications’ they mention the protections this device offers as a
result of its RAID technology: “the 3500MGB-Raid can also back up and secure all of your data thanks to RAID protection” and “Great performance, great protection“.

The only problem is that this device does not offer any RAID levels that provide any level of data protection! In fact, since it only supports two different modes of RAID-0, this enclosure actually increases the chance of data lost due to a drive failure. (With RAID-0 striping a single drive failure wipes out the entire array.)

They can not say that their enclosure offers any level of protection unless it provides at least RAID-1 (mirroring). And yet, they do. Which is horribly misleading and (I hope) down-right illegal under US truth in advertising laws. I can’t do business with a company that misleads its customers so blatantly.

I’ve written their sales folks, but I will be extremely surprised if I hear back.

-Chris Knight

2007/06/06

Hiding the problem with smoke and mirrors…

Solar shield could be quick fix for global warming – earth – 05 June 2007 – New Scientist Environment
* 15:35 05 June 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
* Catherine Brahic

A solar shield that reflects some of the Sun’s radiation back into space would cool the climate within a decade and could be a quick-fix solution to climate change, researchers say.

Because of their rapid effect, however, they should be deployed only as a last resort when “dangerous” climate change is imminent, they warn.

Solar shields are not a new idea – such “geoengineering” schemes to artificially cool the Earth’s climate are receiving growing interest, and include proposals to inject reflective aerosols into the stratosphere, deploying space-based solar reflectors and large-scale cloud seeding.

The shields are inspired by the cooling effects of large volcanic eruptions that blast sulphate particles into the stratosphere. There, the particles reflect part of the Sun’s radiation back into space, reducing the amount of heat that reaches the atmosphere, and so dampening the greenhouse effect.

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines cooled Earth by a few tenths of a degree for several decades.

While this idea is leaps and bounds better than venting our atmosphere into space… It does have two critical flaws:

It does nothing to help that the rising CO2 levels are causing our ocean water to become more acidic, which is killing off coral reefs.
In fact, the solar shield could reduce the amount of light making it to plants, adversely affecting their ability to bind Carbon from CO2 in the atmosphere. This would only aggravate the problems we already have.

Hey, try these on for size… Close the SUV loophole in the emissions laws! Consume less! Take public transportation more! Require office buildings to turn their computers, as well as their lights, off at night! There are a thousand little things that individuals and businesses can do that are easier, and make more sense, than hiding the planet behind a set of mirrors.

-Chris Knight