Yes. Flooding would have been much worse, had the storm pass just north of Tampa instead of just south. We also had to clean out food from the fridge after power was restored, but the fridge needed a good cleaning anyway. :-D Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!

We're in Albany. Thanks for the offer, it is very kind of you and appreciated! :) Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!

Silicon dioxide doesn't really qualify as a rare earth element :-) - it is the second most abundant one in the Earth's continental crust. There are, of course, various qualities of pureness in naturally occurring quartz. I guess this mine provides some of the purest raw material for further processing. Yet, I have never before heard anything getting even close to "Spruce Pine has pretty much a total worldwide monopoly on HPQ", as the article phrases it. Quartz is mined "all over" - and purified from less pure raw materials. Maybe the purification costs are somewhat higher in other places, but the electronics industry will not come to an abrupt halt from mine being shut down temporarily or permanently. In Norwegian, we have a way of speech, being "world renowned within Norway", indicating that those associated with some phenomenon grossly overstate their importance on a world scale. I am quite sure that a shutdown of the Spruce Pine mines may be catastrophic for the Spruce Pine village, far more than for the semiconductor industry. Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.

I use this too get the lifetime subscription VPN Unlimited by KeepSolid | Lifetime VPN Subscription Deal[^]

sadly there are people like that for real... :doh: :sigh: :sigh: M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

Cp-Coder wrote: I will never get in a position where cloud failures can harm me. Just as long as fire, floods, earthquakes, landslides, sink holes, lightning, theft, random acts of mayhem, out of control cars, in control cars (by someone with a grudge), dementia, technology failures, etc don't impact you then you should be good.

Funny. Dave Barry has a way with words. Reminds me of Douglas Adams. "A little time, a little trouble, your better day" Badfinger

Ron Anders wrote: I've stubbornly use MBR on all my machines for concern the real reason for UEFI is so Microsoft can control from where your pc loads it's boot code C'mon, even the hardcore Linux guys have come around on that one.

Certainly. But so is a targeted robbery.

Nelek wrote: I might have released the beast Muwahahahahaha 😈 Jeremy Falcon

Al Jaffee, the legendary cartoonist best known for his work in MAD Magazine, passed away on February 1, 2020, at the age of 99. Jaffee was famous for his contributions to MAD, including the iconic "Mad Fold-In" feature, which appeared in almost every issue of the magazine from 1964 to 2020. His innovative and humorous artwork left a lasting impact on the world of comics and satire. Throughout his career, Jaffee received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award and induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. His creativity, wit, and artistic talent continue to be celebrated by fans and fellow cartoonists alike. Al Jaffee's legacy lives on through his contributions to the world of humor and comics, and he will always be remembered as one of the greatest cartoonists of his time.

:) I also have a pi several times a night, but one has to do a 2*pi*r each time unless one wears diapers. "A little time, a little trouble, your better day" Badfinger

I do. My current recipe is ⅓ caffeinated and ⅔ decaf. My body is accustomed to a certain amount of coffee per day, but my cardiovascular system can't handle all of the caffeine. I tried telling it "Hey! I quit smoking in 1991, what more do you want?" but it wasn't impressed. Software Zen: delete this;

Couldn't find the switch! :doh: Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!

A long chunk of contiguous data will make the best use of the onboard precaching, allowing the disk to reach the reported speeds (e.g. 5500 mb/s reading) and it MAY be a significant improvement for the loading times of large games or large video files. It will shorten the ssd lifespan especially on cheap ones (many will use MLC or TLC to increase the available space at teh cost of longevity), so if you really have this necessity of working on large video files or regularly play huge games with long loading times even on ssd (bad game design) I'd consider buying a high quality lower capacity one for these kind of works. GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X The shortest horror story: On Error Resume Next

Short answer: No. Long answer: Unlike mechanical drives, data blocks aren't stored physically in the same order as they are logically. Blocks are physically fragmented internally in most cases, regardless (including what order the OS believes them to be in). But this doesn't matter, since all blocks are accessed at the same speed (**), eliminating any speed advantage of sequential access (++). ** Hypothetically, a high end drive could read/write multiple physical flash chips simultaneously, allowing a block to be accessed without waiting for a prior one to finish, if stored on a different chip. ++ Some Flash Translation Layer (FTL) structures may have a slight speed advantage from accessing co-located logical blocks (such as unfragmented reads). But the speed improvement would be trivial compared to the speed increase of sequential access of mechanical drives. While a given manufacture's implementation may vary, the mapping of blocks generally works something like describe on one of these pages: Overview of SSD Structure and Basic Working Principle(2) Coding for SSDs – Part 3: Pages, Blocks, and the Flash Translation Layer | Code Capsule

Easy - Sun OS, Solaris, HPUX, AIX, OpenVMS. They did not push arbitrary updates under the guise of "security" - meaning oh crap, we wrote more bugs. And we want you to have the latest advertisements. So, somehow Microsoft managed to push out software for users that don't even use the hardware. I wonder what else is being pushed out under the guise of page after page of user agreements. Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.

harold aptroot wrote: That's exactly what that prize is so controversial for Well, Time Magazine's had both Hitler and Bin Laden nominated as Person of the Year. These things don't necessarily always mean what most people think they mean.

Daniel Pfeffer wrote: Is that progress? It gives you broader scope when asking the all-important question: Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? Software Zen: delete this;

They'll see things we only dreamed of! As the aircraft designer said, "Simplicate and add lightness". PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.0 JaxCoder.com Latest Article: SimpleWizardUpdate