NL pushes for closer European defence

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Robin Edgar

The only way for Europe to project the military might it needs to be able to protect its vast economic interests is by unifying the military and foreign policies of its member states. Only this will allow the economies of scale necessary to create an effective, non duplicated, expeditionary tool for politicians to use when diplomacy fails. The NL seems to have seen the light and is leading the way not only by example (integrating withe the DE navy, the BE air force, the UK marines, the common air transport fleet, the NATO AWACS fleet and the EU battlegroups), but also by leading the charge in this speech to the EU member states to get other nations on board as well. Only this way can the reliance on the US and NATO be removed and will the EU be able to stand on its own two feet in order to pursue its independent interests.

http://www.defensie.nl/actueel/nieuws/2013/11/05/46209209/Hennis_meer_samenwerking_op_defensieterrein_in_Europa

Study into consumer hard drive failures

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Robin Edgar

Backblaze’s study finds that both AFR and MTBF are bunk. The document finds that disks follow the predicted “bathtub” curve of failure: lots of early failures due to manufacturing errors, a slow decline in failure rates to a shallow bottom and then a steep increase in failure rates as drives age.Backblaze’s disk longevity study shows something pretty close to the ‘bathtub’ curve one would expect
The study then looked at when drives fail and found a drive that survives the 5.1 per cent AFR of its first 18 months under load will then only fail 1.4 per cent of the time in the next year and half. After that, things get nasty: in year three a surviving disk has an 11.8 per cent AFR. That still leaves over 80 per cent of drives alive and whirring after four years, a decent outcome.
The study also predicts accelerated failure rates in years four and five, guesstimating things will get very, very bad in years four and five.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/12/server_server_in_the_rack_whens_my_disk_drive_going_to_crack/