First off, don’t be expecting entries this frequent under normal circumstances, but I just came across something on J. Lewis’ website that is not to be missed.
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/spending_cash.html
Do yourself a favour … make some time, make a nice cup of tea (or whatever tickles your tummy), sit down and have a nice chuckle. Here’s a taster :-
“A regular amount of Deliberate Disk I/O (DDI) is very important, and without a suitable amount of DDI taking place, your Oracle system may fail catastrophically with a condition known as energetic bit failure (EBF). Remember, memory works quickly because it is very, very small and the bits can cram themselves really close together. But the downside of cramming the bits together is that they can very hot. (Imagine being on the London Underground, or New York subway, in the rush hour on the hottest day of the year). When a bit gets too hot, it can be subject to EBF, and the failure is subject to the domino effect ? when a bit fails, a byte fails; when a byte fails, a word fails; when a word fails a dword fail ? and on a 64-bit system a long-word fails , and then next thing you know a whole memory chip fails, and then the entire machine memory fails. (Every time one bit fails, all the surrounding bits have to hold it up, which means they are working harder ? which gets them hotter ?)To avoid the problems of EBF, it is necessary to make sure that all bits are allowed to visit the disc on regular occasions. Not only do the bits on disc get more space to spread themselves out and relax, the fan-like spinning motion of the disc ensures that the bits can cool down very quickly. “
Works best if you’ve read some of the bunfight links below!