I have lost 2 drives in my mirrored set over the years and recovery was pretty painless. I get a message that a drive has failed. I swap out the bad one (you could hot swap them buy why bother) Power up and the RAID controller sees the drive and restores it while you are off doing other things. I am not sure how long it takes but the next time I look things are fine. I also keep an image of my C: from a fresh load and periodically after that. It is the ultimate "System Restore" that gets around hardware failures and the worst viruses. The "data" drives are backed up many times, including drives in a cabinet
The way the country is going I bet not one in 100 , maybe 1000 know enough to ask anything about a car other than how much is the down payment, and how much a month. The same for most other large priced items. The color is probably the most important thing.
As we discussed before, my wife has a lot of sales experience. She says people only have two things that make them buy, love or fear. You either make them love your product or make them afraid not to buy it. If you watch the TV ads you see both concepts in action, usually trying to tap into both emotions.
How large are your mirrors? E.g., my music archive is a bit larger than
1TB (plus another 1TB for its mirror); my "software" (purchased) archive is about 2TB (with a 2TB copy); the historical archive for the database used in my current project is 3TB (so a 3TB duplicate); etc. Each of my workstations has at least 1T spinning ("working storage").
Rebuilding a complete mirror of any one drive takes a *long* time.
My USB approach is actually much worse (in terms of potential rebuild time) because it is USB-based. But, putting drives *in* a machine leaves me trapped with that particular type of machine. E.g., I have SATA, SAS, SCA, SCSI-W and PATA drives... which should I "standardize" on?
I image each system as I build it. E.g., after installing the OS. After installing drivers. After installing updates. After installing "core utilities" (like archivers, compressors, etc.). After installing the applications. Then, finally, after configuring the applications.
So, I can roll back to an arbitrary point in the build process and "start over" from that point. (I keep a typewritten log of the build steps *in* the image so I can see what I did to get to a particular point; includes any license activations, etc. so I don't have to revisit the original media unnecessarily -- ISO's kept in that 2T archive)
This is particularly useful with Windows machines. But, also handy with the other boxen that I use -- too hard to keep track of all the little details required for each system, otherwise!
I have two laptops that are configured to automatically restore themselves from a custom image that I hide on a hidden "partition". These are handy for on-line work: any infestation goes away as soon as I reboot.
That's probably true. But, if the only question will be those pertaining to color and payments, there's no need for a sales droid! You could design a vending machine to handle those requests!
As a salesman, knowing about your product gives you things to talk about that can highlight its assets and differentiate it from the competition.
I did a lot of research before we looked at each vehicle that we considered in our search. It was embarassing to have to correct salespeople about how certain features operated, etc.
We also tended to notice a lot of details that salesfolks either didn't notice or chose to ignore. E.g., we found all of the Subaru SUV-ish products "imposed" on the legroom of the passenger in a way that made it very uncomfortable for either of us to occupy that seat. On a repeat test drive, SWMBO sat in the passenger seat and complained that she was uncompfortable. Having sat in that spot on the first test drive (different model vehicle, same problem), I immediately told her what to look for -- how she was being forced to sit: "Oh, my!"
It was unfortunate as I really liked the layout of the engine compartment in those vehicles (given that *I* would be doing all the maintenance work). But, we quickly ruled them out solely because of this "seating problem".
It is actually the first or second question that we were asked. The other being related to financing, our budget, etc. Amazing how many salespeople were unable to get past this issue! "We'll be paying cash for anything you have on your lot. Your job is to convince us that we should buy one of YOUR vehicles instead of one of the vehicles from any of your competitors that line the street, here..."
A while back we went looking for cars and found a subaru that was close to something I'd want to drive. They dealership wanted a specific price, but I wanted to pay a different amount. When we sat down to talk numbers they told me the price was already on the car, and then I told them how much I was willing to pay for it. The sale man looked at me and told me that was impossible, but he'd get his manager to come talk with me. The manager told me the same thing the salesman said about the price being rock solid on the car, and I told the manager what I was willing to pay for it. They both looked at me like "well if you want THIS car you'll pay what we're asking." I looked at them and said, "OK. Thanks for your time." I got up and walked out of the building and left the lot. You should have seen the looks on their faces. They could have sold me the car at my price, but they lost a potential customer because they weren't willing to come down on it even a little bit. I've got no problem walking away from a purchase. They thought they had a sale because I liked the car.
I guess it's pretty bad if the salesman can't answer easy questions!
I've ruled out several cars just because the drivers seat was uncomfortable, and the door was so close to the drivers seat that you couldn't adjust the seat unless the door was open. What were they thinking with such a design?
YOu left out the important part. Did you go somewhere else and get the car or did you get something else ?
I was going to buy a new car that was one year old at the end of the season and the credit union had a deal they would beat anyones interist by a certain percent down to a certain percent. I had worked out a deal on a car and then asked them if they could match the credit union rate. They could not. I asked them for a paper saying they would give me a rate near the minimum of the credit union. They told me they could not and it would be dishonest.. Said so long to them and went to a dealer with a new car just like the other but a current model for almost the same price and got the paper I wanted.
At that time I had the money to buy the car, but the CDs were at 5 % and the credit was slightly less than 4 %.
Yes. We ended up choosing between our "finalists" based primarily on how good *both* seats felt. I.e., *one* of us will be seated in the passenger seat so it had better be AS COMFORTABLE as the driver's seat!
We gave some (token) consideration to the back seat, as well. But, we rarely drive folks around so this wasn't going to be a deal-breaker (or maker).
Many of the cars that we *thought* would be in our final list before we started the selection process failed to clear that bar: their seats were very uncomfortable (even though we spend ~250 hours ANNUALLY in the car). Others failed the "visibility" criteria (c'mon, guys... don't you *see* that pillar blocking your vision?? Are your eyes located on a different body part than mine??)
I still haven't purchased a car, yet. I'm waiting until I find what I really want for the price I want to pay for it.
We can get great rates at our credit union, too, but my old van still runs and it's paid for, and I haven't found the car that has what I want on it, yet. I'm patient, and will buy the car when I find the one that has what I want.
I have a 1TB mirrored set that is a little less than half full I didn't think there was a terabyte of music out there ;-) I have over 6000 songs and it is a lot smaller than a TB. Movies are the ones that gobble up bytes.
It happens in the background so I don't care.
These days SATA seems to be the way everyone is going. I have a few SCSI drives but they are tiny compared to newer drives and I don't use them. The last couple machines I bought don't even have PATA ports. I still have a stack of drives tho
I was "window shopping" for a vehicle many (many many!) years ago. I wasn't yet "in the market" but, rather, just trying to get myself up to speed on product offerings at a leisurely pace (i.e., if I had some spare time and happened to be NEAR a dealership, I *might* drop in). A (pushy) salesman once threw a question at me like: "What would I have to do to get you to buy that car, today??"
As I had already told him I was NOT in the market, I replied, "Sell it to me for $5,000" (sticker was close to 30 at the time).
"Well, come sit down and we'll see what we can do!"
I reacted as if I'd been slapped in the face: "Do you REALLY think I am that stupid as to think you are GOING to sell it to me for $5,000? You asked me a question -- I gave you an honest answer. If you *ARE* going to sell it to me for $5,000, then I'll write you a check NOW and you can hand me the bill of sale. There's no need to 'come sit down'. So, the fact that you are NOT ready with a bill of sale in your hands suggests you are dishonest, insulting or value your time far less than I value mine. Which is it?"
[If assault was not a crime, I am *sure* he would have punched me in the face!]
We don't spend much time on price. We figure out what the car is
*worth* to us (we've also got alternate choices to choose from in our mind when we reach this stage of the "game"). If a seller wants to hit our price range, we'll buy. If not, we walk. We don't waste time "dickering": "There's another dealership across the street. Granted, they don't sell *this* vehicle. But, they sell this *other* vehicle that we would buy if yours was unavailable, out of stock, unreasonably priced, the wrong color, etc. Maybe *they* want to sell a car, today?"
We figure folks sell things for a reason: to make money. We want to make money in *our* dealings so it's only fair to let others make money in theirs.
I was sitting down with a client ~30 years ago to draft our contract. Being young/naive, I was, of course, under the impression that this was a "competition": each of us trying to get the BEST deal -- which meant "at the other party's expense!".
The gentleman negotiating for the client was very frank: "Look, Don. We *want* you to make money on this deal. *YOU* are not our customer! We're not keen on making you filthy rich -- but, we realize that if we nickel and dime you, there's a good chance that you'll underperform on this contract (which means we get something of lesser quality than it might otherwise be) or, if we cut too close to the bone, you may simply WALK AWAY from it (which means we've lost all that time you've spent on it and have NOTHING to show for it -- even if we get to keep our cash!). If you make money on this deal, we figure you will be around for the *next* deal. You have something that we WANT to buy (your expertise) and don't want to drive you out of OUR market over a few dollars!"
"What role does this dipstick play -- tranny, power steering, etc.?"
The fact that you don't know means you aren't INTERESTED in your own product! It suggests that he wouldn't BUY his own product!
When I talk about something I've done/designed/selected, I'm *excited* about it; I want to *share* that excitement with others so they can appreciate the points that I'm describing. To just rattle off details in a flat monotone (or, not even know those details) suggests a "ho hum" event (decision, product, etc.)
yeah! If the seats in the front aren't comfortable for both myself and hubby, it's a deal breaker for me. If the controls are too complicated, it's another deal breaker. I once drove some Ford new model and they said you had to go to a class to learn how to operate all the bells and whistles it had. DEAL BREAKER! I want to commute to work and around town, not learn how to program an SUV. I don't need complicated in order to commute. Give me comfortable seats, reliability, heat and AC, a radio that plays local stations, maybe a CD player, I like power steering, windows, and seats, and a light colored interior. What's up with offering a black interior as the ONLY choice??
This is how *all* people "manipulate" others! Consider political ads, political speeches, trials (legal system), etc. Most people are *so* easily manipulated by emotion that any *reasoned* argument is a wasted effort -- they are far less capable of analytic thought and far more susceptible to "animal instinct".
[notice how little "substance" is present in political discourse? news reporting? etc.]
I contend that this is the reason behind most "buyer's remorse": the emotional manipulator wears off (after the decision is finalized!) and then the slower, calculating subconscious starts reexamining the transaction in the cool light of day! Often, with regret.
If you, instead, apply *reason* to your decisions (not just purchases), then there is a greater chance that your decision will stand the test of time *without* those nagging uncertainties/regrets.
We've owned our vehicle for a couple of months, now. And, become
*happier* with our (reasoned) decision with each drive we take: "Gee, they really thought this feature out a lot better than those other vendors did!"
"Wow! Can you imagine how uncomfortable this ride would have been in that (other) vehicle?"
Of course, the true test will be ten years hence...
My archive is 96K/24b lossless. Far more "expensive" than MP3's (even 320Kb MP3's are small by comparison). I "play" music through "network speakers" throughout the house (like streaming audio, in a sense, but higher fidelity and precision) Rather than transcoding MP3's "on the fly", I've ripped or transcoded all my music "one time" and stored it in this "bigger" format (disk space is cheap!). This cuts down on the processing required in the audio server and the "network speakers".
You are vulnerable to a second failure while the mirror is being rebuilt. What if it dscovers the "mirror copy" is corrupt while reading it to recreate the "primary"?
E.g., RAID5 arrays that incur an error often become irrecoverable before the array can be rebuilt (admittedly, more costly than rebuilding a simple mirror/RAID1)
This is why I have daemons running to verify each file is intact whenever a volume is "spinning" -- so the window in which it can fail is reduced. It also ensures *every* copy of a file (which can be more than one on *a* spindle or more than one spindle!) is checked for integrity -- its not "use the backup if the primary fails (and HOPE the backup hasn't failed BEFORE this but wasn't noticed)"
In the future, there will be something else. My archive spans more than 30 years...
I image machines onto *bare* SATA drives (typically 80 or 160G). I use a USB "dock" to connect the bare drive to the machine in question (when creating or restoring the image). This lets me keep many "image drives" in the same sort of space that
2.5" external USB laptop drives might occupy.
[I like one machine per drive so I don't have to put much structure in the filesystem on the drive: /machineA ./firstImage ./secondImage /machineB ./firstImage ./secondImage vs. an adhesive label ON the drive ("MachineA") with: ./firstImage ./secondImage
SWMBO does most "solo" driving. I drive very infrequently. Most of my time spent in the car is weekly shopping trips. In previous vehicle, she hated passenger seat (comfort) so ended up driving most of the time. New car has essentially "equivalent" seats in passenger and driver spots.
As I design these sorts of things for a living, I'm not intimidated by them. Rather, see them as learning experiences: why did they make this design choice instead of some *other*?
I find very few "big" disagreements with their chosen implementation. Most noteworthy is NOT being able to "backup" your settings to a thumbdrive. Imagine what happens when you accidentally delete -- or
*lose* -- all the addresses, phone numbers, etc. that you've meticulously "programmed" into the car/GPS! Likewise, in the
21st century, it doesn't seem too far fetched to let me *edit* this sort of stuff on a PC in the comfort of my home -- instead of trying to type stuff in on a touch panel seated in a hot garage!
I addressed the "how to backup the OTHER settings" issue by creating a "cheat sheet" that enumerates all the settings, their FACTORY DEFAULT choices, lists of POSSIBLE choices and *my* choice (using bold and italics to make the visual distinctions). I laminatated these and stuffed them in a seat back pocket -- so I don't have to remember where I "filed" them!
We found MANY seats to be very uncomfortable. The Lexus saleswoman was chagrined that we spent a mere *minutes* at her dealership! We'd sit in a vehicle, then get up, close the door and walk away -- in search of another vehicle that *might* have more comfortable seats. (we didn't find any, there!)
We encountered lots of black-on-black offerings. Totally ridiculous in an environment where it's sunny 360+ days per year and over 100F on anywhere between 60 and 100 of those days!
[We likewise lamented the sun/moonroof issue but typically had no choice in that "option" for the sorts of vehicles in which we were interested.]
Most people are easily intimidated/coerced. They don't have strong opinions because they haven't *thought* (using their own braincases) about the issues they are facing. Easier to "go along" with an outside force than to *oppose* it!
I had a couple of good clients/employers over the years. But, by far, most were pretty bad -- especially the Manglement folks.
An employer at a summer job (while in school) once called me into his office to lecture me on my "brutal honesty" in filling in my timecard (I didn't have to "punch a clock" -- office staff could "write in" their arrival/departure times). If I showed up at 8:03, I wrote down "8:03" -- AS IF I had had "punched" the clock! Of course, I wouldn't leave until 5:03PM (or later) so I wasn't cheating them out of any time!
His objection was that my honesty put *him* in a touchy position: why haven't you *disciplined* this employee for being habitually late?
This was interesting, to a youngster. I'd naturally assumed the risk was entirely *mine* -- I was the "offender"!
No one wants to listen to an accountant recounting the mundane calculations in the P&L he prepared. OTOH, they *might* be interested in the story *behind* those figures!
These days cars have become such a commodity item that seating comfort may be the main thing I look for. There isn't a "Chevy" anymore. You just get a GM and the same parts may be in any car in the line. I had a Chrysler with a Mitsubisi engine in it. Now I am in a Honda Prelude and a Ford truck OTOH my newest vehicle is 15 years old. My wife has a fairly new Lincoln but I am not that "driven". A car is just a piece of metal that gets me up to the store. I used to drive 50,000+ a year when I was working and I am over the car thing.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.