Homer, a handsome dude, walked into a sports bar around 9:58pm. He sat down next to a blonde at the bar and stared up at the TV. The 10:00 news was now on. The news crew was covering a story of a man on a ledge of a tall building preparing to jump.
The blonde looked at Homer and said, "Do you think he'll jump?"
Homer said, "You know, I bet he'll jump."
The blonde replied, "Well, I bet he won't."
Homer placed 20 dollars on the bar and said, "You're on!"
Just as the blonde placed her money on the bar, the guy did a swan dive off of the building, falling to his death. The blonde was very upset and handed her 20 dollars to Homer, saying, "Fair is fair. Here's your money."
Homer replied, "I can't take your money, I saw this earlier on the 5 o'clock news and knew he would jump."
The blonde replied, "I did too, but I didn't think he'd do it again"
Homer took the money.
________
Friday, September 29, 2006
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Tomorrow Tomorrow
Well, tomorrow, I get to take my car in for an estimate for a traffic accident that I was involved in last Thursday. Not at all my fault, so my insurance does not have to pay anything. Once everything is in order, I will probably have to wait to get the parts in for them to start fixing it. I hate the wait. It usually is not too long, still it is a bit of an inconvenience. It scared the crap outta me when the woman hit me. She swerved over into my lane, like she didn't even see me. I did not say too much, but I was polite when we pulled over. She was very young, looked to be in her early twenties, so I just remained in my car and waited for the cop to show up to take the report. He was a cute cop:).
Monday, September 25, 2006
Les Miserabe
Still miserable today with this cold. My eyes, which have been draining a ton along with my nose. Tis the season. I started taking something called azithromycin today which seems to help, because I am actually feeling better since I took the pills. If you are a diabetic, then a cold can sometimes do wonders for your bloodsugars(not in a good way). To change the subject a little, I don't think that I will hear from Dennis again. I think that he is still traveling alot these days, with the shows and the group he performs with. If I do hear from him, or I don't, it is no skin off my nose. Its not like I am waiting to hear from him LOL. Oh well, on to much needed sleep
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Today I feel miserable.
Sore throat. Congestion. Watery eyes. Drowsiness. Irritability. Sneezing. Chills.Yep, I have got it all. I believe that what I have is what is known as the common cold. YUCK. I believe that I contracted it sometime last week, because that is when I had a mild sore throat. I became sicker today at work, and was congested for most of the day. Can't call in sick tomorrow, as tomorrow is payday, and I work the payroll! Adding to my frustrations , I was involved in a minor traffic accident Friday and now I have got to hassle with an insurance company. We all know how much fun that is, HA!. Well, at least the accident was not my fault, and I did not get cited for anything. Right now, I am waiting for my binky to get done in the dryer, so after my shower I can wrap it around me to keep me warm. My mother has gone to Tyler , Texas to visit her Godmother who is in the hospital, and will be home tomorrow. I hope that she gets home ok.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Sad news:(
This is coming from my local newspaper. Very sad and depressing.: Second-grader liked soccer, library, brother
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
By Hal Lockard and Barbara Hollingsworth
The Capital-Journal
Noah Garey and his brother, Chandler, were discussing their reading homework and who was going to read to whom Tuesday night as they sat in their father's car at a stop light at S.E. 29th and West Edge Road.
They hadn't reached an agreement before tragedy struck from behind, sending Noah to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. He died Thursday at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.
Mark Garey said Friday that he and his sons were returning from Lake Shawnee, where Garey coached Chandler's soccer team practices twice a week. Noah, also a soccer player, attended the practices.
"He liked to play soccer, to play with his cars and he liked to be around his big brother," Mark said of Noah.
And that was why he tagged along on those cross-city excursions to Chandler's practices. It was a drive the three had made "a couple times a week" for a long time, Mark said.
Submitted
Noah Garey
Click here to check for reprint availability.Noah was born June 6, 1999, in Grand Junction, Colo. The family moved to Topeka six years ago. The children attended Indian Hills Elementary School, Noah, 7, in second grade and Chandler, 9, in third grade.
Mark said Noah enjoyed mathematics and going to the library, "and he liked being around his friends."
"We've heard from many of them already," the father said.
The accident Tuesday occurred at about dusk when a pickup truck struck the Garey car from behind, according to the Shawnee County Sheriff's Office. The wreck left the Garey's Geo Prizm crumpled alongside westbound S.E. 29th Street. Passers-by slowed to near stops, looking curiously at the wreckage while firefighters had to exert authority to keep traffic moving.
Mark recalled the moment, saying he sensed the gravity of Noah's injuries.
"I pulled him from the car. I knew what the injuries were," he said.
He said his wife, Heather, was doing "as well as can be expected," leaning on the strength of their Christian faith.
The Gareys are members of Light of the World Christian Center, and Noah had early in his life expressed interest in becoming a minister.
"He wanted to be a minister because he loved Jesus that much," Mark said.
News that a classmate had died was spread in a short statement Thursday afternoon at Indian Hills Elementary School.
"We have some sad news to share with you," began the statement that was to be read simultaneously in second- through sixth-grade classrooms throughout the 575-student building.
"It's like losing a part of your family," principal George Huckabee said in an interview Friday. "There were tears, and that's OK."
Letters also went home with students Thursday afternoon warning parents that their children might respond in different ways. They could become clingy, sad, angry and even feel guilty. Their heads might hurt and their stomachs might ache, the principal wrote.
Parents, he said, should reassure children that they are safe as are others important to them. They should help children understand that it is OK to be sad and have all sorts of feelings about Noah's death. And Huckabee urged parents to maintain normal routines and spend time with children.
A school counselor and psychologist were on hand to work with students Thursday and Friday. If more assistance is needed, the district can draw from its larger pool of school psychologists and counselors, said Martin Weishaar, communications coordinator for Auburn-Washburn Unified School District 437.
"It's a difficult time at the school," Weishaar said, passing along comments from Huckabee. "Of course, the family is in their thoughts. They are doing everything to maintain to keep things normal."
Information about services for Noah weren't available Friday.
A Noah Garey Memorial Fund has been established at Commerce Bank & Trust, 3035 S.W. Topeka Blvd., Topeka, Kan. 66611.
Barbara Hollingsworth can be
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
By Hal Lockard and Barbara Hollingsworth
The Capital-Journal
Noah Garey and his brother, Chandler, were discussing their reading homework and who was going to read to whom Tuesday night as they sat in their father's car at a stop light at S.E. 29th and West Edge Road.
They hadn't reached an agreement before tragedy struck from behind, sending Noah to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. He died Thursday at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.
Mark Garey said Friday that he and his sons were returning from Lake Shawnee, where Garey coached Chandler's soccer team practices twice a week. Noah, also a soccer player, attended the practices.
"He liked to play soccer, to play with his cars and he liked to be around his big brother," Mark said of Noah.
And that was why he tagged along on those cross-city excursions to Chandler's practices. It was a drive the three had made "a couple times a week" for a long time, Mark said.
Submitted
Noah Garey
Click here to check for reprint availability.Noah was born June 6, 1999, in Grand Junction, Colo. The family moved to Topeka six years ago. The children attended Indian Hills Elementary School, Noah, 7, in second grade and Chandler, 9, in third grade.
Mark said Noah enjoyed mathematics and going to the library, "and he liked being around his friends."
"We've heard from many of them already," the father said.
The accident Tuesday occurred at about dusk when a pickup truck struck the Garey car from behind, according to the Shawnee County Sheriff's Office. The wreck left the Garey's Geo Prizm crumpled alongside westbound S.E. 29th Street. Passers-by slowed to near stops, looking curiously at the wreckage while firefighters had to exert authority to keep traffic moving.
Mark recalled the moment, saying he sensed the gravity of Noah's injuries.
"I pulled him from the car. I knew what the injuries were," he said.
He said his wife, Heather, was doing "as well as can be expected," leaning on the strength of their Christian faith.
The Gareys are members of Light of the World Christian Center, and Noah had early in his life expressed interest in becoming a minister.
"He wanted to be a minister because he loved Jesus that much," Mark said.
News that a classmate had died was spread in a short statement Thursday afternoon at Indian Hills Elementary School.
"We have some sad news to share with you," began the statement that was to be read simultaneously in second- through sixth-grade classrooms throughout the 575-student building.
"It's like losing a part of your family," principal George Huckabee said in an interview Friday. "There were tears, and that's OK."
Letters also went home with students Thursday afternoon warning parents that their children might respond in different ways. They could become clingy, sad, angry and even feel guilty. Their heads might hurt and their stomachs might ache, the principal wrote.
Parents, he said, should reassure children that they are safe as are others important to them. They should help children understand that it is OK to be sad and have all sorts of feelings about Noah's death. And Huckabee urged parents to maintain normal routines and spend time with children.
A school counselor and psychologist were on hand to work with students Thursday and Friday. If more assistance is needed, the district can draw from its larger pool of school psychologists and counselors, said Martin Weishaar, communications coordinator for Auburn-Washburn Unified School District 437.
"It's a difficult time at the school," Weishaar said, passing along comments from Huckabee. "Of course, the family is in their thoughts. They are doing everything to maintain to keep things normal."
Information about services for Noah weren't available Friday.
A Noah Garey Memorial Fund has been established at Commerce Bank & Trust, 3035 S.W. Topeka Blvd., Topeka, Kan. 66611.
Barbara Hollingsworth can be
Friday, September 22, 2006
From wikipedia
Car accident
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Fender bender)
Jump to: navigation, search
The result of excessive speed, this cement truck rolls over into the front garden of a house. There were no injuries, but significant damage was caused.A car accident is a incident whereas an automobile either departs from regular pathway into a ditch, or collides with anything that causes damage to the automobile, including other automobiles, telephone poles, buildings, and trees. Sometimes a car accident may also refer to an automobile striking a human or animal. Car accidents — also called traffic collisions, auto accidents, road accidents, personal injury collisions, motor vehicle accidents, and (particularly by American radio traffic reporters) crashes — kill an estimated 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number (WHO, 2004). The term "accident" is considered an inappropriate word by some, as reliable sources estimate that upwards of 90% are the result of driver negligence. In the UK the Department of Transport publish road deaths in each type of car. These statistics are available as "Risk of injury measured by percentage of drivers injured in a two car injury accident."
These statistics show a ten to one ratio of in-vehicle accident deaths between the least safe and most safe models of car.
A vehicular collision in Yate, near Bristol, England, in July 2004. The car failed to stop when the truck stopped at a roundabout. The car's bonnet can be seen deep under the rear of the truck. There were no injuries.The statistics show that for popular, lightly built cars, occupants have a 6%-8% chance of death in a two car accident. (e.g. BMW 3 series 6%, Subaru Impreza 8%, Honda Accord 6%). Traditional "safety cars" such as the Volvos halve that chance (Volvo 700 4% incidence of death, Volvo 900 3%).
SUVs are better for their occupants in two-vehicle crashes than 'safety cars', with the Jeep Cherokee and Toyota Land Cruiser giving 2% incidence of occupant death in actual crashes. However, in multiple-vehicle crashes SUVs are probably between three (Bicycle Safety Almanac) and six (International Injury & Fatality Statistics) times more likely to kill the occupant of the other vehicle (car, cyclist, or pedestrian) than cars.
Overall the four best vehicles to be in are the Jaguar XJ series 1%, Mercedes-Benz S-Class / SEC 1%, Land Rover Defender 1% and Land Rover Discovery 1%.
Motorcyclist deaths within England and Wales stand at 53% of the annual road death statistics. Scooters/mopeds up to 50cc only account for 3% of those deaths. 2% of the scooter deaths were 16-19 year olds who had not taken CBT (Compulsory Basic Training). Studies show that the #1 cause of car accidents in North America is automobiles.
(Statistics taken from 2004/2005 DSA annual road deaths percentages)
Contents [hide]
1 First fatality
2 Responsibility of car manufacturers
3 Trends in collision statistics
4 Types of collisions
5 Legal consequences
6 Rubbernecking
7 Backup accidents
8 Collision prevention
9 See also
10 External links
[edit]
First fatality
The first fatality in a steam-driven vehicle may have been Mary Ward who on 31 August 1869 fell under a steam car in Ireland.
In the UK, the first person to die in a petrol-driven car collision was a pedestrian, Bridget Driscoll, in 1896. The first driver/passenger deaths occurred on 25 February 1899. A 6 HP Daimler, driven by 31-year-old engineer Edwin Sewell, crashed on Grove Hill, a steeply graded road on the northern slope of Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, now in north-west London. A rear wheel collapsed after breaking its rim and the car hit a sturdy brick wall. Sewell was killed immediately when he and his passenger, a Major Richer, were thrown from the vehicle. Richer died 3 days later in hospital. The spot is now marked with a commemorative plaque.
[edit]
Responsibility of car manufacturers
Car makers have been both accused of making cars that go too fast, and praised for the safety measures (such as ABS) found in new models.
A number of books have critically analysed the responsibility of car makers for safety. The most famous is probably Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, and more recently Keith Bradsher's High and Mighty: the dangerous rise of SUVs (in Europe subtitled the world's most dangerous vehicles and how they got that way) has discussed popular concerns with the rise in popularity of the SUV.
[edit]
Trends in collision statistics
Road toll figures show that car collision fatalities have declined since 1980, with most countries showing a reduction of roughly 50%. This drop appears to confirm the efficacy of safety measures introduced thereafter, assuming that driver behaviour has not changed significantly.
In the United States, fatalities have increased slightly from 40,716 in 1994 to 42,643 in 2003. However, in terms of fatalities per 100 million miles driven, the fatality rate has dropped 16% between 1995 and 2005. Injuries dropped 37% over the same period. (National Traffic Safety Administration, 2006)
It has been noted that road fatality trends closely follow the so-called "Smeed's law" (after RJ Smeed, its author), an empirical rule relating injury rates to the two-thirds power of car ownership levels. Others claim that road safety improvements, not Smeed's law, are the dominant cause of lives saved. An analysis by John Adams can be found here.
[edit]
Types of collisions
A rollover in Sydney, Australia on Christmas day, 2001.Car accidents fall into several major categories (whose names are self-explanatory):
Head-on collisions
Rear-end collisions
Side collisions
Rollovers
Single-vehicle collisions
Multi-vehicle collisions
Backup accidents
Level crossing accidents
Suicide
Collisions can occur with other automobiles, other vehicles such as bicycles or trucks, with pedestrians or large animals (such as moose), and with stationary structures or objects, such as trees or road signs.
The result of a side collision; most cars are not as structurally sound side-to-side as they are front-to-back and damage can be more severe to the vehicle and the occupant than at the same speed in a rear-end collision.In a collision between two cars, the occupants of a car with the lower mass will likely suffer the greater consequences. See: crash incompatibility.
[edit]
Legal consequences
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Fender bender)
Jump to: navigation, search
The result of excessive speed, this cement truck rolls over into the front garden of a house. There were no injuries, but significant damage was caused.A car accident is a incident whereas an automobile either departs from regular pathway into a ditch, or collides with anything that causes damage to the automobile, including other automobiles, telephone poles, buildings, and trees. Sometimes a car accident may also refer to an automobile striking a human or animal. Car accidents — also called traffic collisions, auto accidents, road accidents, personal injury collisions, motor vehicle accidents, and (particularly by American radio traffic reporters) crashes — kill an estimated 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number (WHO, 2004). The term "accident" is considered an inappropriate word by some, as reliable sources estimate that upwards of 90% are the result of driver negligence. In the UK the Department of Transport publish road deaths in each type of car. These statistics are available as "Risk of injury measured by percentage of drivers injured in a two car injury accident."
These statistics show a ten to one ratio of in-vehicle accident deaths between the least safe and most safe models of car.
A vehicular collision in Yate, near Bristol, England, in July 2004. The car failed to stop when the truck stopped at a roundabout. The car's bonnet can be seen deep under the rear of the truck. There were no injuries.The statistics show that for popular, lightly built cars, occupants have a 6%-8% chance of death in a two car accident. (e.g. BMW 3 series 6%, Subaru Impreza 8%, Honda Accord 6%). Traditional "safety cars" such as the Volvos halve that chance (Volvo 700 4% incidence of death, Volvo 900 3%).
SUVs are better for their occupants in two-vehicle crashes than 'safety cars', with the Jeep Cherokee and Toyota Land Cruiser giving 2% incidence of occupant death in actual crashes. However, in multiple-vehicle crashes SUVs are probably between three (Bicycle Safety Almanac) and six (International Injury & Fatality Statistics) times more likely to kill the occupant of the other vehicle (car, cyclist, or pedestrian) than cars.
Overall the four best vehicles to be in are the Jaguar XJ series 1%, Mercedes-Benz S-Class / SEC 1%, Land Rover Defender 1% and Land Rover Discovery 1%.
Motorcyclist deaths within England and Wales stand at 53% of the annual road death statistics. Scooters/mopeds up to 50cc only account for 3% of those deaths. 2% of the scooter deaths were 16-19 year olds who had not taken CBT (Compulsory Basic Training). Studies show that the #1 cause of car accidents in North America is automobiles.
(Statistics taken from 2004/2005 DSA annual road deaths percentages)
Contents [hide]
1 First fatality
2 Responsibility of car manufacturers
3 Trends in collision statistics
4 Types of collisions
5 Legal consequences
6 Rubbernecking
7 Backup accidents
8 Collision prevention
9 See also
10 External links
[edit]
First fatality
The first fatality in a steam-driven vehicle may have been Mary Ward who on 31 August 1869 fell under a steam car in Ireland.
In the UK, the first person to die in a petrol-driven car collision was a pedestrian, Bridget Driscoll, in 1896. The first driver/passenger deaths occurred on 25 February 1899. A 6 HP Daimler, driven by 31-year-old engineer Edwin Sewell, crashed on Grove Hill, a steeply graded road on the northern slope of Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, now in north-west London. A rear wheel collapsed after breaking its rim and the car hit a sturdy brick wall. Sewell was killed immediately when he and his passenger, a Major Richer, were thrown from the vehicle. Richer died 3 days later in hospital. The spot is now marked with a commemorative plaque.
[edit]
Responsibility of car manufacturers
Car makers have been both accused of making cars that go too fast, and praised for the safety measures (such as ABS) found in new models.
A number of books have critically analysed the responsibility of car makers for safety. The most famous is probably Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, and more recently Keith Bradsher's High and Mighty: the dangerous rise of SUVs (in Europe subtitled the world's most dangerous vehicles and how they got that way) has discussed popular concerns with the rise in popularity of the SUV.
[edit]
Trends in collision statistics
Road toll figures show that car collision fatalities have declined since 1980, with most countries showing a reduction of roughly 50%. This drop appears to confirm the efficacy of safety measures introduced thereafter, assuming that driver behaviour has not changed significantly.
In the United States, fatalities have increased slightly from 40,716 in 1994 to 42,643 in 2003. However, in terms of fatalities per 100 million miles driven, the fatality rate has dropped 16% between 1995 and 2005. Injuries dropped 37% over the same period. (National Traffic Safety Administration, 2006)
It has been noted that road fatality trends closely follow the so-called "Smeed's law" (after RJ Smeed, its author), an empirical rule relating injury rates to the two-thirds power of car ownership levels. Others claim that road safety improvements, not Smeed's law, are the dominant cause of lives saved. An analysis by John Adams can be found here.
[edit]
Types of collisions
A rollover in Sydney, Australia on Christmas day, 2001.Car accidents fall into several major categories (whose names are self-explanatory):
Head-on collisions
Rear-end collisions
Side collisions
Rollovers
Single-vehicle collisions
Multi-vehicle collisions
Backup accidents
Level crossing accidents
Suicide
Collisions can occur with other automobiles, other vehicles such as bicycles or trucks, with pedestrians or large animals (such as moose), and with stationary structures or objects, such as trees or road signs.
The result of a side collision; most cars are not as structurally sound side-to-side as they are front-to-back and damage can be more severe to the vehicle and the occupant than at the same speed in a rear-end collision.In a collision between two cars, the occupants of a car with the lower mass will likely suffer the greater consequences. See: crash incompatibility.
[edit]
Legal consequences
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Life is good 2
I am back. Have not heard from Dennis in a while. Kinda frustrating because I am feeling kinda horny LOL. Maybe tomorrow night I will try IMing him. Meanwhile I must sleep. Zucker was driving me crazy tonight with her little squeak toy. Now she is calm.I MUST sleep. Cannot miss tomorrow.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Thank You, Mr Simon
For writing and playing this song. Great childhood memories I have of my mother playing that song! Late In The Evening
The first thing I remember
I was lying in my bed
I couldn’t of been no more
Than one or two
I remember there’s a radio
Comin’ from the room next door
And my mother laughed
The way some ladies do
When it’s late in the evening
And the music’s seeping through
The next thing I remember
I am walking down the street
I’m feeling all right
I’m with my boys
I’m with my troops, yeah
And down along the avenue
Some guys were shootin’ pool
And I heard the sound of a cappella groups, yeah
Singing late in the evening
And all the girls out on the stoops, yeah
Then I learned to play some lead guitar
I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a “J”
And when I came back to the room
Everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and began to play
And it was late in the evening
And I blew that room away
The first thing I remember
When you came into my life
I said I’m gonna get that girl
No matter what I do
Well I guess I’d been in love before
And once or twice been on the floor
But I never loved no one
The way I loved you
And it was late in the evening
And all the music seeping through
The first thing I remember
I was lying in my bed
I couldn’t of been no more
Than one or two
I remember there’s a radio
Comin’ from the room next door
And my mother laughed
The way some ladies do
When it’s late in the evening
And the music’s seeping through
The next thing I remember
I am walking down the street
I’m feeling all right
I’m with my boys
I’m with my troops, yeah
And down along the avenue
Some guys were shootin’ pool
And I heard the sound of a cappella groups, yeah
Singing late in the evening
And all the girls out on the stoops, yeah
Then I learned to play some lead guitar
I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a “J”
And when I came back to the room
Everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and began to play
And it was late in the evening
And I blew that room away
The first thing I remember
When you came into my life
I said I’m gonna get that girl
No matter what I do
Well I guess I’d been in love before
And once or twice been on the floor
But I never loved no one
The way I loved you
And it was late in the evening
And all the music seeping through
Sunday, September 17, 2006
KState!
K-State Wildcats beat Marshall. Final score was 15(I think. I left just right when the final quarter had started because hey, it is a long assed walk back to the car)to Marshall's 7. It was a good game. I promised myself that I would go to one football game this year, and yesterday, I kept that promise. Yesterday after we got home, I was exhausted! I must have walked at least 3 miles. Ok, that may not be a lot for some, but it is a lot for my father and I! And today I am very RED. Why, you ask? Because yours truly, yes ME, forgot to bring sunscreen. Now I am paying for it. My neck is so red and splotchy now that it ain't funny!
Friday, September 15, 2006
Thanks, Mpoconnor7! You know who you are:)
There are a lot of people out there who think we can be everybody's friend, that if we sat down with Osama Bin Laden that we could understand them and they wouldn't want to harm us any more. They think everything can be solved with diplomacy, that the entire human race should be able to get along together like the humans do on Star Trek. I am not one of these people.
There are a lot of people out there who see a conspiracy everywhere they look, when things done work out the way the would like, it means it was part of a master plan to scheme and deceive. Gore or Kerry doesn't win the election, it must be a conspiracy because it was the will of the people that the Democrats win. 9/11 was tailor-made to these conspiracy theorists who think Bush just wants to take over the world's oil supply to satisfy his buddies in Texas, no matter how many millions of American lives it may cost. I am not one of these people.
There are alot of people out there who hate America because they somehow think it is so unfair that we are so technologically advanced and well fed and other parts of the world are not. It absolutely irritates these people in what we have accomplished in building this nation and everything in it from nothing in 230 years while places like the Middle East and Africa have had thousands of years to create a civilization and have failed to do so, and to these people it means that we must have exploited the rest of the world, and they are ashamed of our success. I am not one of these people.
There are a lot of people out there who believe the US should never go to war, and should scrap their military altogether. Even if we get attacked first, we should turn the other cheek and not fight back because our army is so much larger than the other sides army, and it would not be a fair fight because we have jets and missiles and tanks and they live in caves. They think that if we laid down our arms and abolished gun ownership in the US and recalled all the troops overseas and all our navy ships and planes from foreign lands that other nations would do the same and we could all live in happiness. I am not one of these people.
There are many people out there who live in a delusional fantasy-land where there should be no evil, and if there is evil out there, that the US is the source of said evil. I am not one of these people.
_________________
This is a reply to my post on a GB message board. My original post is the same as the entry I made before here. I thought that this was a great answer from the poster known as MPoconnor7! I did not get their permission to repost their answer here(Though I tried to) so I hope they don't mind. MP if you are reading this, just wanna say that I agree completely, this is what I wanted to say but you have stated it so much more eloquently than I could.
There are a lot of people out there who see a conspiracy everywhere they look, when things done work out the way the would like, it means it was part of a master plan to scheme and deceive. Gore or Kerry doesn't win the election, it must be a conspiracy because it was the will of the people that the Democrats win. 9/11 was tailor-made to these conspiracy theorists who think Bush just wants to take over the world's oil supply to satisfy his buddies in Texas, no matter how many millions of American lives it may cost. I am not one of these people.
There are alot of people out there who hate America because they somehow think it is so unfair that we are so technologically advanced and well fed and other parts of the world are not. It absolutely irritates these people in what we have accomplished in building this nation and everything in it from nothing in 230 years while places like the Middle East and Africa have had thousands of years to create a civilization and have failed to do so, and to these people it means that we must have exploited the rest of the world, and they are ashamed of our success. I am not one of these people.
There are a lot of people out there who believe the US should never go to war, and should scrap their military altogether. Even if we get attacked first, we should turn the other cheek and not fight back because our army is so much larger than the other sides army, and it would not be a fair fight because we have jets and missiles and tanks and they live in caves. They think that if we laid down our arms and abolished gun ownership in the US and recalled all the troops overseas and all our navy ships and planes from foreign lands that other nations would do the same and we could all live in happiness. I am not one of these people.
There are many people out there who live in a delusional fantasy-land where there should be no evil, and if there is evil out there, that the US is the source of said evil. I am not one of these people.
_________________
This is a reply to my post on a GB message board. My original post is the same as the entry I made before here. I thought that this was a great answer from the poster known as MPoconnor7! I did not get their permission to repost their answer here(Though I tried to) so I hope they don't mind. MP if you are reading this, just wanna say that I agree completely, this is what I wanted to say but you have stated it so much more eloquently than I could.
Am I the only one?
Am I the only one that is absolutely SICK of all the political infighting that is going on in America? For instance, everytime I read a Yahoo newsstory, and go down to reading the messages , some idiots always have to start bashing Bush or blaming the Liberals, Conservatives, etc. I think that our political infighting makes us look weak to Osama bin laden and his ilk, and only encourage him to attack us more. I have heard people say'Bring our troops home now' and I disagree with that statement. I say bring them home when they get the job done, and not a day sooner.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Love Ya Glenn! From Glenn Beck
I Feel Pretty
This week I had a strange realization—I wear make up a lot more often than I ever thought I would. Let me also say that wearing make up at all is a lot more often than I ever thought I would. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
See, at heart I’m a radio guy. I love being on the radio for a bunch of reasons, but one of my absolute favorites is that nobody can see me work. For years I wore all manner of torn, stained and ill-fitting garments…concert t-shirts, promotional baseball hats, and sweatpants with yards and yards of elastic to keep them snugly on my gelatinous torso. And nobody was the wiser. Heck, for all anybody knew, I could have been in a tuxedo or completely nude (though my lawyer has advised me not to tell that story…something about the sight of my belly having created a “hostile” environment).
But like I said, now I have a webcam chronicling my every extra pound and fashion-forward outfit, so those days are over. Plus, I also have a TV show where people are subjected to my appearance as well as my point of view, and whether or not you agree with my opinion you can’t say that I don’t try to look pretty for you. And part of that is wearing make up. Ladies (and the guy who tried to buy me a soda at the cafeteria yesterday), I don’t know how you do it. It’s like walking around with a thin layer of pudding on your face all day. Wait a minute—that would actually be kind of awesome. Let’s change that to walking around with a thin layer of peanut butter on your face. Wait—that’s still awesome. Suffice it to say it feels weird. Look, I appreciate the effort and my wife looks extra easy on the eyes when she’s all painted up, but it just feels so foreign to such a rugged, masculine guy like myself. But it’s the sacrifice I make for you.
Every afternoon I go down to a special room where these perfectly lovely women apply what seems like gallons of foundation to my face…with an airbrush. Yes, they need to spray paint my face in order to get the proper “coverage.” Then I walk around until it’s time to tape my show, all the while wearing more makeup than any three of my female staffers. Granted, it does even out my skin tone and make me less the excruciatingly white man than I am, but still—I’m wearing frickin’ make up for you people!
So, the next time you’re watching me on TV and you’re thinking about what a uninformed dork I sound like, take a moment to notice my healthy pink glow. And realize that I’m slathered with “Dusty Rose #47” especially for you. You’re welcome…
-glenn
This week I had a strange realization—I wear make up a lot more often than I ever thought I would. Let me also say that wearing make up at all is a lot more often than I ever thought I would. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
See, at heart I’m a radio guy. I love being on the radio for a bunch of reasons, but one of my absolute favorites is that nobody can see me work. For years I wore all manner of torn, stained and ill-fitting garments…concert t-shirts, promotional baseball hats, and sweatpants with yards and yards of elastic to keep them snugly on my gelatinous torso. And nobody was the wiser. Heck, for all anybody knew, I could have been in a tuxedo or completely nude (though my lawyer has advised me not to tell that story…something about the sight of my belly having created a “hostile” environment).
But like I said, now I have a webcam chronicling my every extra pound and fashion-forward outfit, so those days are over. Plus, I also have a TV show where people are subjected to my appearance as well as my point of view, and whether or not you agree with my opinion you can’t say that I don’t try to look pretty for you. And part of that is wearing make up. Ladies (and the guy who tried to buy me a soda at the cafeteria yesterday), I don’t know how you do it. It’s like walking around with a thin layer of pudding on your face all day. Wait a minute—that would actually be kind of awesome. Let’s change that to walking around with a thin layer of peanut butter on your face. Wait—that’s still awesome. Suffice it to say it feels weird. Look, I appreciate the effort and my wife looks extra easy on the eyes when she’s all painted up, but it just feels so foreign to such a rugged, masculine guy like myself. But it’s the sacrifice I make for you.
Every afternoon I go down to a special room where these perfectly lovely women apply what seems like gallons of foundation to my face…with an airbrush. Yes, they need to spray paint my face in order to get the proper “coverage.” Then I walk around until it’s time to tape my show, all the while wearing more makeup than any three of my female staffers. Granted, it does even out my skin tone and make me less the excruciatingly white man than I am, but still—I’m wearing frickin’ make up for you people!
So, the next time you’re watching me on TV and you’re thinking about what a uninformed dork I sound like, take a moment to notice my healthy pink glow. And realize that I’m slathered with “Dusty Rose #47” especially for you. You’re welcome…
-glenn
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
More from Yahoo! And since I love computers
The Hard Drive Turns 50 Melissa J. Perenson, PC World
Wed Sep 13, 3:00 AM ET
Today, the hard drive is found everywhere--from the PCs we use daily to MP3 players and memory keys so small you can toss them in your pocket and forget you're carrying around a hard drive. But when the hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956, it required a humongous housing and 50 24-inch platters to store 1/2400 as much data as can be fit on today's largest capacity 1-inch hard drives.
ADVERTISEMENT
Back then, the small team at IBM's San Jose-based lab was seeking a way to replace tape with a storage mechanism that allowed for more-efficient random access to data. The question was, how to bring random-access storage to business computing?
Enter the RAMAC, 1956
IBM's answer to this quandary was the Random Access Method of Accounting and Control, dubbed the RAMAC for expediency. The device's name is a direct reflection of the need for such capabilities in the enterprise. Led by project leader Rey Johnson, IBM's San Jose lab brought the RAMAC 305 to market.
Recalls Al Shugart, who worked as a field engineer at IBM before joining the RAMAC project and went on to later found Seagate Technology: "They were starting from scratch in the lab. The RAMAC was not just a disk drive, it was a whole system. Nobody had made disk drives before."
The approach IBM's engineers came up with represented a clean approach to random data access, notes Shugart: "The concept of the whole disk drive was random access." To achieve random access, the device would have to move its read/write heads around to different data tracks. "The easiest way to do that," he says, "was a stack of disks."
The integrated RAMAC was about two refrigerators in width and not quite as tall, and it literally weighed a ton. Its 50 24-inch platters were in a stack inside the unit, in an assembly that spun at 1200 revolutions per minute. The unit used two magnetic recording heads. The RAMAC could hold 5MB--about the storage that today is needed for one 5-minute MP3 encoded at 128 kilobits per second.
In order to read and write the data, the RAMAC heads moved across a series of circular tracks on each disk surface. Albert Hoagland, who helped build the first drive and is working to preserve the history of magnetic disk technology as executive director of the Magnetic Disk Heritage Center, elaborates: "A shaft ran the length of the disk stack, with a horizontal arm that moved in and out; that arm, which weighed three pounds, had to get to another track in less than a second."
"The disks' surfaces were covered with a paint that had magnetic properties--very similar to the paint used on the Golden Gate Bridge," says Bill Healy, senior vice president at Hitachi (which bought IBM's storage division in 2003). "They needed a disk with magnetic properties, so it would be magnetically susceptible to recording 1s and 0s; and they needed a read element, such as a disk head, to detect, read, and write that data," he explains.
The initial prototype, remembers Shugart, "was a relay machine, it wasn't even a vacuum tube machine. They ended up building 12 of them. From there on, we would design a system for production, including a disk drive. The production [version] was a vacuum tube machine, and I was in charge of designing the computer system for the vacuum tube machine."
Although the RAMAC shares only passing characteristics with today's hard drives, it is the drive that launched the industry. "The [technology] industry reinvented itself as the applications for the hard drive changed," says Healy. "In the fifties and sixties, these devices were made for large corporations, government--the enterprise. The 24-inch diameter platter reduced in size in time. As the devices got smaller over that time, they were mainly aimed at the enterprise environment," he continues. Disk capacity doubled every two years, a 40 percent compound growth rate.
Adds storage industry analyst Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates: "Many companies started to make hard drives for computers, because it was a relatively inexpensive, high-performance way to make mass storage."
From the late fifties to the early seventies, hard drives were largely used in mainframe computer systems, the kinds found in large corporations and government. The rise of personal computers in the late seventies and early eighties opened the door of opportunity for hard drives--and in turn dramatically influenced where computer technology could go. "With the introduction of hard disk drives," notes Coughlin, "you had large amounts of storage that were always attached to the computer, and that enabled personal computers to achieve the levels of success they had. A hard drive allowed you to create higher-performance computers with more features because you could have a richer operating system running off the hard drive."
Related Stories
Track milestones in hard drive history on "Timeline: 50 Years of Hard Drives."
Learn about the underlying technology in "How It Works: Hard Drives."
Read buying tips in "How to Buy a Hard Drive."
Fast Forward: 50 Years Later
The disk drive has come amazingly far since its introduction: "Today, on 2.5-inch platters we have 15,000 times the capacity of the original IBM RAMAC," says Seagate Technology Chief Operating Officer Dave Wickersham.
Wickersham notes that the advancement is startling when compared to the pace of other industries: "In the auto industry, to keep that same pace, they'd have gone from fitting five people in the car in 1956, to fitting 160,000 people in that car; or, from getting 25 miles per gallon to 62,500 miles per gallon."
Today we have drives that cover a range of sizes (the smallest is Toshiba's 0.85-inch drive, initially introduced in 2GB and 4GB capacities) and specialties. Vendors offer drives optimized for uses in servers, desktops, notebooks, digital video recorders, music players, and more; and you'll find hard drives in cars, planes, and a wealth of other commercial and military applications.
Prices have dropped dramatically. The RAMAC 305's cost per megabyte was approximately $10,000--that's about $70,000 in today's value. Today, a typical desktop hard drive can deliver that same megabyte for 3/100 of a cent.
Over time, the core recording technology--longitudinal magnetic recording--has remained the same, but the way drives are designed and built has changed. Coughlin reflects: "Heads have gone from the original metal cores, to harder ferrite cores, then to thin-film inductive heads; magneto-resistive heads; and then giant magneto-resistive heads. Now we're moving to tunneling magneto-resistive heads. They're now using complex nanotechnologies in magnetic recording heads."
The media has changed, too. "In the beginning, they used iron-oxide particles dispersed in a plastic binder; then they transitioned in the early eighties to the development of the initial thin-film disks," continues Coughlin. "By the nineties, thin film disks were the standard, and since then they've become more complex, with multiple layers of thin films performing different functions. At the same time, the heads are flying increasingly closer to the disk's surface," he explains. The closer the heads fly to the surface, the more data can be stored in a given area--and the drives have become quicker and more accurate. "Increasing electronic integration over the years has led to impressive improvements in head positioning in the detection and decoding of very small signals, and in the correction of errors," he says.
After 50 years of relying on longitudinal magnetic recording, the industry is shifting production to perpendicular magnetic recording. (For details on these technologies, read "How It Works: Hard Drives.") The technology was initially explored decades ago, but is only now being used in drive production. Toshiba was the first out the gate in 2005, with its 1.8-inch 40GB mobile hard drive. Seagate was next to the party, with the release of the first 2.5-inch 160GB notebook hard drive and the 3.5-inch 750GB hard drive earlier this year.
Wickersham elaborates: "From an areal density perspective, perpendicular has changed the industry. For a while, areal density was growing at north of 100 percent per year. Then that came down to 10 to 20 percent a year--demonstrating that longitudinal was out of gas. Perpendicular got us back to this 40 percent per year areal density growth; with it, you can quadruple your capacity every four years."
In our storage-hungry universe of digital downloads and digital photography, increased capacity is a good thing. "There's up to 60 percent per year growth in storage demand, for the next five years," continues Wickersham. "The demand for storage is greater than the ability to grow areal density," he says.
Hard Drives: Future Watch
Hard drives have been indispensable to our computer use for about the last 20 years. Today, hard drives are increasingly indispensable in other ways. "The whole lifestyle has changed--content is king, and we're carrying data wherever we go. The hard disk drive is the enabler of this," says Seagate's Wickersham. "We have 20 disk drives in our home--and there are four of us," he continues.
Hard drives are in everything from cell phones and digital audio players to set-top box video recorders. That trend will grow, according to industry experts--and provide a fertile new opportunity for the proliferation of high-capacity, hard drive-based storage.
Hitachi's Healy suggests that the beginning of what he thinks of as the "consumer era of hard drives" can be traced back to 1998, with the introduction of the 1-inch IBM Microdrive. At the time, it stored 340MB in a space just a bit thicker than a standard CompactFlash card.
"A tech-savvy home could easily generate 5 terabytes of cumulative data from 2002 to 2010," estimates Coughlin. He elaborates: "About half of that would be personal content and half of that would be commercial content. I'm projecting that by the next decade, as consumers become creators of content--a camera on your cell phone is just the beginning--the demand for storage will mushroom, and the line between what's commercial and what's personal will be blurred. Personal content will significantly overwhelm commercial content for the people who are comfortable with the technology--especially the younger generation."
Universally, industry experts expect the cost per gigabyte to continue to fall and capacity to continue its march onward and upward. Estimates Gartner Research Vice President John Monroe, by the end of 2006 you'll see 80GB to 160GB 3.5-inch drives sell for less than $50. By 2010, Monroe predicts that you'll pay that same price for 750GB to 1TB drives. The pace of areal density boosts, he notes, won't be quite as rapid as they have been in the past decade, but they will continue.
Wickersham outlines what he expects for 3.5-inch drives: "In 2005, for a three-platter drive, 500GB was standard. By 2009, that will be a 2TB drive. And if we continue for 2013, using Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording technology, we'll have 8TB drives." Wickersham throws out similar numbers for 1-inch drives: From a standard of 8GB in 2005, he expects we'll see 30GB in 2009, and 100GB in 2013.
We can also expect to see hybrid hard drives that integrate flash memory to take advantage of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system. In addition, server technologies such as faster rotational speeds and more robust design should trickle down into standard desktop drives--that's something, says Wickersham, "that's closer to [happening in] 2007 to 2013. I think it will be sooner than anyone realizes."
In the near term, one potential technology tweak could be a shift to using what's called long data block. In long data block, you'll move from 512 bytes to 4 kilobytes--a change that requires operating system support. This could boost a drive's capacity and efficiency during video streaming.
Looking ahead, other technologies that will help keep the areal density race on include patterned magnetic media and Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording, also known as HAMR.
Patterned magnetic media is a less random and more structured recording process in which the bits of info are akin to small islands of magnetic material.
In HAMR, the drive will have a heating element, perhaps even a laser, to heat tiny bits of information and change the state of the material, as the data is written; the changed state will allow data to be recorded. "It's quite an integration challenge, integrating a laser into the disk drive," says Wickersham.
As these future technologies show, magnetic disk recording has plenty of innovation ahead. "The technology can be re-engineered and reinvented and extended for at least another couple of decades," Hitachi's Healy enthuses. Engineering roadmaps extend another two decades, at this point--although the sharpest engineers can't completely anticipate where storage is going. Back in 1956, after all, a storage scientist's wildest dreams would not have foreseen the developments we take for granted today.
Melissa J. Perenson is a senior associate editor for
Wed Sep 13, 3:00 AM ET
Today, the hard drive is found everywhere--from the PCs we use daily to MP3 players and memory keys so small you can toss them in your pocket and forget you're carrying around a hard drive. But when the hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956, it required a humongous housing and 50 24-inch platters to store 1/2400 as much data as can be fit on today's largest capacity 1-inch hard drives.
ADVERTISEMENT
Back then, the small team at IBM's San Jose-based lab was seeking a way to replace tape with a storage mechanism that allowed for more-efficient random access to data. The question was, how to bring random-access storage to business computing?
Enter the RAMAC, 1956
IBM's answer to this quandary was the Random Access Method of Accounting and Control, dubbed the RAMAC for expediency. The device's name is a direct reflection of the need for such capabilities in the enterprise. Led by project leader Rey Johnson, IBM's San Jose lab brought the RAMAC 305 to market.
Recalls Al Shugart, who worked as a field engineer at IBM before joining the RAMAC project and went on to later found Seagate Technology: "They were starting from scratch in the lab. The RAMAC was not just a disk drive, it was a whole system. Nobody had made disk drives before."
The approach IBM's engineers came up with represented a clean approach to random data access, notes Shugart: "The concept of the whole disk drive was random access." To achieve random access, the device would have to move its read/write heads around to different data tracks. "The easiest way to do that," he says, "was a stack of disks."
The integrated RAMAC was about two refrigerators in width and not quite as tall, and it literally weighed a ton. Its 50 24-inch platters were in a stack inside the unit, in an assembly that spun at 1200 revolutions per minute. The unit used two magnetic recording heads. The RAMAC could hold 5MB--about the storage that today is needed for one 5-minute MP3 encoded at 128 kilobits per second.
In order to read and write the data, the RAMAC heads moved across a series of circular tracks on each disk surface. Albert Hoagland, who helped build the first drive and is working to preserve the history of magnetic disk technology as executive director of the Magnetic Disk Heritage Center, elaborates: "A shaft ran the length of the disk stack, with a horizontal arm that moved in and out; that arm, which weighed three pounds, had to get to another track in less than a second."
"The disks' surfaces were covered with a paint that had magnetic properties--very similar to the paint used on the Golden Gate Bridge," says Bill Healy, senior vice president at Hitachi (which bought IBM's storage division in 2003). "They needed a disk with magnetic properties, so it would be magnetically susceptible to recording 1s and 0s; and they needed a read element, such as a disk head, to detect, read, and write that data," he explains.
The initial prototype, remembers Shugart, "was a relay machine, it wasn't even a vacuum tube machine. They ended up building 12 of them. From there on, we would design a system for production, including a disk drive. The production [version] was a vacuum tube machine, and I was in charge of designing the computer system for the vacuum tube machine."
Although the RAMAC shares only passing characteristics with today's hard drives, it is the drive that launched the industry. "The [technology] industry reinvented itself as the applications for the hard drive changed," says Healy. "In the fifties and sixties, these devices were made for large corporations, government--the enterprise. The 24-inch diameter platter reduced in size in time. As the devices got smaller over that time, they were mainly aimed at the enterprise environment," he continues. Disk capacity doubled every two years, a 40 percent compound growth rate.
Adds storage industry analyst Tom Coughlin of Coughlin Associates: "Many companies started to make hard drives for computers, because it was a relatively inexpensive, high-performance way to make mass storage."
From the late fifties to the early seventies, hard drives were largely used in mainframe computer systems, the kinds found in large corporations and government. The rise of personal computers in the late seventies and early eighties opened the door of opportunity for hard drives--and in turn dramatically influenced where computer technology could go. "With the introduction of hard disk drives," notes Coughlin, "you had large amounts of storage that were always attached to the computer, and that enabled personal computers to achieve the levels of success they had. A hard drive allowed you to create higher-performance computers with more features because you could have a richer operating system running off the hard drive."
Related Stories
Track milestones in hard drive history on "Timeline: 50 Years of Hard Drives."
Learn about the underlying technology in "How It Works: Hard Drives."
Read buying tips in "How to Buy a Hard Drive."
Fast Forward: 50 Years Later
The disk drive has come amazingly far since its introduction: "Today, on 2.5-inch platters we have 15,000 times the capacity of the original IBM RAMAC," says Seagate Technology Chief Operating Officer Dave Wickersham.
Wickersham notes that the advancement is startling when compared to the pace of other industries: "In the auto industry, to keep that same pace, they'd have gone from fitting five people in the car in 1956, to fitting 160,000 people in that car; or, from getting 25 miles per gallon to 62,500 miles per gallon."
Today we have drives that cover a range of sizes (the smallest is Toshiba's 0.85-inch drive, initially introduced in 2GB and 4GB capacities) and specialties. Vendors offer drives optimized for uses in servers, desktops, notebooks, digital video recorders, music players, and more; and you'll find hard drives in cars, planes, and a wealth of other commercial and military applications.
Prices have dropped dramatically. The RAMAC 305's cost per megabyte was approximately $10,000--that's about $70,000 in today's value. Today, a typical desktop hard drive can deliver that same megabyte for 3/100 of a cent.
Over time, the core recording technology--longitudinal magnetic recording--has remained the same, but the way drives are designed and built has changed. Coughlin reflects: "Heads have gone from the original metal cores, to harder ferrite cores, then to thin-film inductive heads; magneto-resistive heads; and then giant magneto-resistive heads. Now we're moving to tunneling magneto-resistive heads. They're now using complex nanotechnologies in magnetic recording heads."
The media has changed, too. "In the beginning, they used iron-oxide particles dispersed in a plastic binder; then they transitioned in the early eighties to the development of the initial thin-film disks," continues Coughlin. "By the nineties, thin film disks were the standard, and since then they've become more complex, with multiple layers of thin films performing different functions. At the same time, the heads are flying increasingly closer to the disk's surface," he explains. The closer the heads fly to the surface, the more data can be stored in a given area--and the drives have become quicker and more accurate. "Increasing electronic integration over the years has led to impressive improvements in head positioning in the detection and decoding of very small signals, and in the correction of errors," he says.
After 50 years of relying on longitudinal magnetic recording, the industry is shifting production to perpendicular magnetic recording. (For details on these technologies, read "How It Works: Hard Drives.") The technology was initially explored decades ago, but is only now being used in drive production. Toshiba was the first out the gate in 2005, with its 1.8-inch 40GB mobile hard drive. Seagate was next to the party, with the release of the first 2.5-inch 160GB notebook hard drive and the 3.5-inch 750GB hard drive earlier this year.
Wickersham elaborates: "From an areal density perspective, perpendicular has changed the industry. For a while, areal density was growing at north of 100 percent per year. Then that came down to 10 to 20 percent a year--demonstrating that longitudinal was out of gas. Perpendicular got us back to this 40 percent per year areal density growth; with it, you can quadruple your capacity every four years."
In our storage-hungry universe of digital downloads and digital photography, increased capacity is a good thing. "There's up to 60 percent per year growth in storage demand, for the next five years," continues Wickersham. "The demand for storage is greater than the ability to grow areal density," he says.
Hard Drives: Future Watch
Hard drives have been indispensable to our computer use for about the last 20 years. Today, hard drives are increasingly indispensable in other ways. "The whole lifestyle has changed--content is king, and we're carrying data wherever we go. The hard disk drive is the enabler of this," says Seagate's Wickersham. "We have 20 disk drives in our home--and there are four of us," he continues.
Hard drives are in everything from cell phones and digital audio players to set-top box video recorders. That trend will grow, according to industry experts--and provide a fertile new opportunity for the proliferation of high-capacity, hard drive-based storage.
Hitachi's Healy suggests that the beginning of what he thinks of as the "consumer era of hard drives" can be traced back to 1998, with the introduction of the 1-inch IBM Microdrive. At the time, it stored 340MB in a space just a bit thicker than a standard CompactFlash card.
"A tech-savvy home could easily generate 5 terabytes of cumulative data from 2002 to 2010," estimates Coughlin. He elaborates: "About half of that would be personal content and half of that would be commercial content. I'm projecting that by the next decade, as consumers become creators of content--a camera on your cell phone is just the beginning--the demand for storage will mushroom, and the line between what's commercial and what's personal will be blurred. Personal content will significantly overwhelm commercial content for the people who are comfortable with the technology--especially the younger generation."
Universally, industry experts expect the cost per gigabyte to continue to fall and capacity to continue its march onward and upward. Estimates Gartner Research Vice President John Monroe, by the end of 2006 you'll see 80GB to 160GB 3.5-inch drives sell for less than $50. By 2010, Monroe predicts that you'll pay that same price for 750GB to 1TB drives. The pace of areal density boosts, he notes, won't be quite as rapid as they have been in the past decade, but they will continue.
Wickersham outlines what he expects for 3.5-inch drives: "In 2005, for a three-platter drive, 500GB was standard. By 2009, that will be a 2TB drive. And if we continue for 2013, using Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording technology, we'll have 8TB drives." Wickersham throws out similar numbers for 1-inch drives: From a standard of 8GB in 2005, he expects we'll see 30GB in 2009, and 100GB in 2013.
We can also expect to see hybrid hard drives that integrate flash memory to take advantage of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system. In addition, server technologies such as faster rotational speeds and more robust design should trickle down into standard desktop drives--that's something, says Wickersham, "that's closer to [happening in] 2007 to 2013. I think it will be sooner than anyone realizes."
In the near term, one potential technology tweak could be a shift to using what's called long data block. In long data block, you'll move from 512 bytes to 4 kilobytes--a change that requires operating system support. This could boost a drive's capacity and efficiency during video streaming.
Looking ahead, other technologies that will help keep the areal density race on include patterned magnetic media and Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording, also known as HAMR.
Patterned magnetic media is a less random and more structured recording process in which the bits of info are akin to small islands of magnetic material.
In HAMR, the drive will have a heating element, perhaps even a laser, to heat tiny bits of information and change the state of the material, as the data is written; the changed state will allow data to be recorded. "It's quite an integration challenge, integrating a laser into the disk drive," says Wickersham.
As these future technologies show, magnetic disk recording has plenty of innovation ahead. "The technology can be re-engineered and reinvented and extended for at least another couple of decades," Hitachi's Healy enthuses. Engineering roadmaps extend another two decades, at this point--although the sharpest engineers can't completely anticipate where storage is going. Back in 1956, after all, a storage scientist's wildest dreams would not have foreseen the developments we take for granted today.
Melissa J. Perenson is a senior associate editor for
Monday, September 11, 2006
September 11, 2006
Today is the 5th year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in NYC. What a horrible day that was. Do you remember where you were on those days? I remember I was at work, I remember thinking at first when the first plane hit'Oh this is such a terrible accident'. Then minutes later a second hit, and then I knew it was on purpose.I remember driving from one work spot to another, and both places had their televisions on. Everyone was in a tense, uneasy mood. I have never been to NYC, and I did not know anyone that was killed that day, but my heart goes out to hteir families and the rescue workers as well.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Don't know who wrote it
When the road gets dark
And you can no longer see
Just let me love throw a spark
And have a little faith in me
And when the tears you cry
Are all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try, baby
And have a little faith in me
So
Chorus:
Have a little faith in me (4 x)
When your secret heart
Cannot speak so easily
Come here darlin'
From a whisper start
Have a little faith in me
And when your back's against the wall
Just turn around and you will see
That I will catch, I will catch you when you fall baby
Have a little faith in me
So
- Chorus -
Well I've been loving you for such a long time baby
expecting nothing in return
just for you have a little faith in me
You see time, time is a friend
'cause for us there is no end
And all you gotta do is have a little bit faith in me
I said I will hold you up
Yeah I will hold you up
'cause your love will give me strenght enough
and have a little faith in me
Its a good song. Been around for a while, too
And you can no longer see
Just let me love throw a spark
And have a little faith in me
And when the tears you cry
Are all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try, baby
And have a little faith in me
So
Chorus:
Have a little faith in me (4 x)
When your secret heart
Cannot speak so easily
Come here darlin'
From a whisper start
Have a little faith in me
And when your back's against the wall
Just turn around and you will see
That I will catch, I will catch you when you fall baby
Have a little faith in me
So
- Chorus -
Well I've been loving you for such a long time baby
expecting nothing in return
just for you have a little faith in me
You see time, time is a friend
'cause for us there is no end
And all you gotta do is have a little bit faith in me
I said I will hold you up
Yeah I will hold you up
'cause your love will give me strenght enough
and have a little faith in me
Its a good song. Been around for a while, too
Friday, September 08, 2006
Borrowed from a joke site!
Jackass
In case your frustration level rises today, this is for everyone who occasionally has a really bad day when you just need to take it out on someone:
I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a telephone call that I had to make. I found the number and dialed it. A man answered nicely saying, "Hello?"
I politely said, "This is Patrick Hanifin and may I please speak to Robin Carter?" Suddenly the phone was slammed down on me! I couldn't believe that anyone could be that rude. I tracked down Robin's correct number and called her. She had transposed the last two digits.
After I hung up with Robin, I spotted the wrong number still laying on my desk. I decided to call it again. When the same person once more answered, I yelled, "You're a jackass!" and hung up. Next to his phone number I wrote the word "jackass" and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up. He would answer and I'd yell, "You're a jackass!" It always cheered me up.
Later in the year the phone company introduced caller ID. This was a real disappointment for me. I would have to stop calling the jackass. Then one day I had an idea. I dialed his number and heard his voice. "Hello?"
I made up a name. "Hi. This is the sales office of the telephone company and I'm just calling to see if you're familiar with our new caller ID program." He answered, "No!" and slammed down the receiver. I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're a jackass!"
The reason I'm taking the time to tell you this story is to show you how if there's ever anything bothering you, you can do something about it. Just dial 555-1212.
(Keep reading, it gets better.)
One day an old lady at the mall was really taking her time pulling out of her parking space. I didn't think she was ever going to leave. Finally, her car began to move ever so slowly and she began backing out. I backed up a little more to give her plenty of room. Great, I thought, she's finally leaving. All of a sudden this black Camero came flying up the parking aisle in the wrong direction and pulled into her space. I started honking my horn and yelling, "You can't do that, buddy! I was here first!"
The guy got out of his Camero completely ignoring me. He walked toward the mall as if he didn't even hear me. I thought to myself, this guy is a jackass. There sure are a lot of jackasses in this world. I noticed he had a "For Sale" sign in the back window of his car. I wrote down the number. Then I hunted for another place to park.
The next day I was at home sitting at my desk. I had just gotten off the phone after calling 555-1212 and yelling, "You're a jackass!" (It's really easy to call him now since I have his number on speed dial.) Then I noticed the phone number of the guy with the black Camaro and decided to call him too. After a couple of rings someone answered the phone. I asked, "Are you the man with the black Camaro for sale?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me where I can see it?"
"Yes, I live at 1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house and the car is parked right out front."
I asked, "What's your name?"
"My name is Don Hansen."
"When's a good time to catch you, Don?"
"I'm home in the evenings."
"Listen, Don, can I tell you something?"
"Sure."
"Don, you're a jackass!" And I slammed the phone down.
After I hung up I added Don's number to my speed dialer. Now I had two jackasses to call whenever I had a bad day. However this wasn't as much fun as it used to be. So I thought about it and came up with a solution.
First, I had my phone dial jackass #1. The man answered nicely and I yelled, "You're a jackass!" But I didn't hang up.
The jackass said, "Are you still there?"
I said, "Yeah."
He said, "Stop calling me."
I said, "No!"
He said, "What's your name, pal?"
I said, "Don Hansen."
He said, "Where do you live?"
"1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house and my black Camaro is parked out front."
"I'm coming over right now, Don. You'd better start saying your prayers."
"Yeah, like I'm really scared, Jackass!" And I hung up.
Then I called Jackass #2. He answered, "Hello."
I said, "Hello, jackass!"
He said, "If I ever find out who you are..."
"You'll what?"
"I'll kick your butt."
"Well, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now, jackass!"
And I hung up. Then I picked up the phone and called the police. I told them I was at 1802 West 34th Street and that I was going to kill my gay lover as soon as he got home. Another quick call to Channel 13 news about the gang war going down on West 34th Street. After that I climbed into my car and headed over to 34th Street to watch the whole thing. Glorious!
I watched two jackasses kicking the crap out of each other in front of 6 squad cars and a police helicopter I also taped it off the evening news!
In case your frustration level rises today, this is for everyone who occasionally has a really bad day when you just need to take it out on someone:
I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a telephone call that I had to make. I found the number and dialed it. A man answered nicely saying, "Hello?"
I politely said, "This is Patrick Hanifin and may I please speak to Robin Carter?" Suddenly the phone was slammed down on me! I couldn't believe that anyone could be that rude. I tracked down Robin's correct number and called her. She had transposed the last two digits.
After I hung up with Robin, I spotted the wrong number still laying on my desk. I decided to call it again. When the same person once more answered, I yelled, "You're a jackass!" and hung up. Next to his phone number I wrote the word "jackass" and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up. He would answer and I'd yell, "You're a jackass!" It always cheered me up.
Later in the year the phone company introduced caller ID. This was a real disappointment for me. I would have to stop calling the jackass. Then one day I had an idea. I dialed his number and heard his voice. "Hello?"
I made up a name. "Hi. This is the sales office of the telephone company and I'm just calling to see if you're familiar with our new caller ID program." He answered, "No!" and slammed down the receiver. I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're a jackass!"
The reason I'm taking the time to tell you this story is to show you how if there's ever anything bothering you, you can do something about it. Just dial 555-1212.
(Keep reading, it gets better.)
One day an old lady at the mall was really taking her time pulling out of her parking space. I didn't think she was ever going to leave. Finally, her car began to move ever so slowly and she began backing out. I backed up a little more to give her plenty of room. Great, I thought, she's finally leaving. All of a sudden this black Camero came flying up the parking aisle in the wrong direction and pulled into her space. I started honking my horn and yelling, "You can't do that, buddy! I was here first!"
The guy got out of his Camero completely ignoring me. He walked toward the mall as if he didn't even hear me. I thought to myself, this guy is a jackass. There sure are a lot of jackasses in this world. I noticed he had a "For Sale" sign in the back window of his car. I wrote down the number. Then I hunted for another place to park.
The next day I was at home sitting at my desk. I had just gotten off the phone after calling 555-1212 and yelling, "You're a jackass!" (It's really easy to call him now since I have his number on speed dial.) Then I noticed the phone number of the guy with the black Camaro and decided to call him too. After a couple of rings someone answered the phone. I asked, "Are you the man with the black Camaro for sale?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me where I can see it?"
"Yes, I live at 1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house and the car is parked right out front."
I asked, "What's your name?"
"My name is Don Hansen."
"When's a good time to catch you, Don?"
"I'm home in the evenings."
"Listen, Don, can I tell you something?"
"Sure."
"Don, you're a jackass!" And I slammed the phone down.
After I hung up I added Don's number to my speed dialer. Now I had two jackasses to call whenever I had a bad day. However this wasn't as much fun as it used to be. So I thought about it and came up with a solution.
First, I had my phone dial jackass #1. The man answered nicely and I yelled, "You're a jackass!" But I didn't hang up.
The jackass said, "Are you still there?"
I said, "Yeah."
He said, "Stop calling me."
I said, "No!"
He said, "What's your name, pal?"
I said, "Don Hansen."
He said, "Where do you live?"
"1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house and my black Camaro is parked out front."
"I'm coming over right now, Don. You'd better start saying your prayers."
"Yeah, like I'm really scared, Jackass!" And I hung up.
Then I called Jackass #2. He answered, "Hello."
I said, "Hello, jackass!"
He said, "If I ever find out who you are..."
"You'll what?"
"I'll kick your butt."
"Well, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now, jackass!"
And I hung up. Then I picked up the phone and called the police. I told them I was at 1802 West 34th Street and that I was going to kill my gay lover as soon as he got home. Another quick call to Channel 13 news about the gang war going down on West 34th Street. After that I climbed into my car and headed over to 34th Street to watch the whole thing. Glorious!
I watched two jackasses kicking the crap out of each other in front of 6 squad cars and a police helicopter I also taped it off the evening news!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
More from Yahoo News
Reuters - eWEEK
Tue Sep 5, 2:25 AM ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - In death as in life, iconic TV naturalist Steve Irwin captivated millions worldwide and clogged the Internet as fans from Guam to Glasgow reacted with disbelief to news "The Crocodile Hunter" was dead.
ADVERTISEMENT
Some Web sites groaned to a halt within hours of the first reports on Monday that Irwin had been killed by a stingray's barb through his chest in a freak diving accident off Australia's northeast coast.
Web measurement company Hitwise said Irwin's death was the biggest news event read by Australians on the Internet since two Australian miners were trapped by a mine collapse in southern Tasmania state in late April.
"We noticed that the Web site www.crocodilehunter.com increased in popularity quite substantially. It became the number one entertainment personality Web site in Australia yesterday and in the United States it also became the third most popular," Hitwise Asia-Pacific marketing director James Borg told Reuters.
Australian news Web sites struggled to keep up with demand.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s site (www.abc.com.au) had to temporarily shut down, posting a notice on Monday that it was experiencing higher than normal traffic.
It resumed soon after in a low-bandwidth format to cope with hundreds of thousands of hits.
Newspaper Web sites also wobbled but kept up with demand.
A spokesman for The Sydney Morning Herald's site, www.smh.com.au, said it had experienced a "huge" 40 percent spike in page impressions compared with the previous week's average weekday number of about 500,000.
There was also a 70 percent jump in visitors to its pages, the spokesman said.
That pattern was mirrored around the world, with Irwin's death leading major news Web sites such as CNN and U.S. and British newspaper Web sites, as well as swamping their most viewed and most emailed categories.
Web logs and Internet feedback pages were also awash with postings from shocked readers from around the world, many of them from Americans charmed by Irwin's quirky style and his typically Australian catchphrase of "crikey".
Irwin first found fame in the United States before his "Crocodile Hunter" documentaries on U.S.-based television company Discovery Communications' Animal Planet attracted a global audience of 200 million—10 times Australia's population.
"Crikey, I miss him so much," Tina Treece from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, posted on a CNN feedback page. The site had contributions from readers in Guam, Romania, Thailand, France, Scotland, India, New Zealand, Canada, Brunei, Britain, Malaysia, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Many faced the problem of explaining to their children how one of their favorite TV characters had died.
"Why did it have to be Steve Irwin?" 11-year-old Daniel told Australian Associated Press.
Tue Sep 5, 2:25 AM ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - In death as in life, iconic TV naturalist Steve Irwin captivated millions worldwide and clogged the Internet as fans from Guam to Glasgow reacted with disbelief to news "The Crocodile Hunter" was dead.
ADVERTISEMENT
Some Web sites groaned to a halt within hours of the first reports on Monday that Irwin had been killed by a stingray's barb through his chest in a freak diving accident off Australia's northeast coast.
Web measurement company Hitwise said Irwin's death was the biggest news event read by Australians on the Internet since two Australian miners were trapped by a mine collapse in southern Tasmania state in late April.
"We noticed that the Web site www.crocodilehunter.com increased in popularity quite substantially. It became the number one entertainment personality Web site in Australia yesterday and in the United States it also became the third most popular," Hitwise Asia-Pacific marketing director James Borg told Reuters.
Australian news Web sites struggled to keep up with demand.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s site (www.abc.com.au) had to temporarily shut down, posting a notice on Monday that it was experiencing higher than normal traffic.
It resumed soon after in a low-bandwidth format to cope with hundreds of thousands of hits.
Newspaper Web sites also wobbled but kept up with demand.
A spokesman for The Sydney Morning Herald's site, www.smh.com.au, said it had experienced a "huge" 40 percent spike in page impressions compared with the previous week's average weekday number of about 500,000.
There was also a 70 percent jump in visitors to its pages, the spokesman said.
That pattern was mirrored around the world, with Irwin's death leading major news Web sites such as CNN and U.S. and British newspaper Web sites, as well as swamping their most viewed and most emailed categories.
Web logs and Internet feedback pages were also awash with postings from shocked readers from around the world, many of them from Americans charmed by Irwin's quirky style and his typically Australian catchphrase of "crikey".
Irwin first found fame in the United States before his "Crocodile Hunter" documentaries on U.S.-based television company Discovery Communications' Animal Planet attracted a global audience of 200 million—10 times Australia's population.
"Crikey, I miss him so much," Tina Treece from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, posted on a CNN feedback page. The site had contributions from readers in Guam, Romania, Thailand, France, Scotland, India, New Zealand, Canada, Brunei, Britain, Malaysia, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Many faced the problem of explaining to their children how one of their favorite TV characters had died.
"Why did it have to be Steve Irwin?" 11-year-old Daniel told Australian Associated Press.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
More
When I was a kid, there were no pcs or laptops . Nowadays I still have to use pen and paper because there are no computers in the office where I work.My family owns a business, and they do have a computer at one site, but the main office where I work at has none. My father does not really believe in computers. He has used pencil and paper all his life, and in all honesty, he is almost 70 years old, set in his ways, and a computer would just confuse him. He has no desire to learn how to use one, anyway! and I learn on a somewhat sadder note : the 18 year old kid that I was telling you about in earlier posts, the one that filled out the credit card ap has put in his 2 week notice. He is headed for a financial brick wall, and nobody can really stop him. Its sad
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
Spanking
I do not fully understand what all the controversy is about parents spanking their kids. I do not have any kids myself, but I can speak from experience as being a kid. I did get spanked(on occassion- I know, theres a SHOCK, haha) but it did not happen that often, and I did learn not to do what I did to get the spanking. Mention it nowadays and some folks think that it is abuse. I think that there is a big difference between giving a kid a swat on the fanny, and tying a kid up to a radiator and punching him. When the subject of spanking is brought up, someone always brings up some statistic about how kids who were spanked when they were younger grow up to be serial killers. To that I say, my brother, sister and I all got spanked a few times in our lives, and so did every kid in the rest of our family, plus friends did by their parents and none of us have grown up to be killers. We were also brought up to respect authority, even if we did not agree(and lets face it, a little bit of fear does not hurt) We were afraid to go to the Principal's office, police, teachers. This does not mean that we were little automatons. In fact, quite the opposite. These days , one of the reasons that I refuse to go to Wal-mart is because of bratty little kids that run up and down the aisles screaming and hitting each other. We(my sibs and I ) did NOT behave that way when we were kids. I have come to the conclusion-no matter how unpopular this opinion may be, that some kids these days are just plain BRATS, and need a good spanking.
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