On Thu, Jan 18, 2001 at 12:11:23PM -0800, Paul Makepeace wrote:
> From: "David Cantrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> > Yeah, it's always amazed me just how crap the north American power system
> > seems to be. Even in cities.
>
> This is a different issue, http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/power.crisis/
I know :-) Although actually, I feel it is at least a bit related. It
seems that CA tried to copy the de-regulation which was implemented in
various parts of Europe (including the UK) but that they decided to tamper
with a system which demonstrably worked (if it ain't broke don't fix it!),
but worse, they tried to shoe-horn it into a completely different
environment. The UK has for many years had a fair amount of spare generating
capacity, and there are new power stations being built. CA did not have any
spare generating capacity of note, and has not built any new power stations.
Duh.
> The US has much more to worry about than the UK, like high water tables,
> vicious weather and earthquakes.
And the UK doesn't have high water tables (in some places and not in others,
just like anywhere else) or vicious weather (again, in some places not in
others, just like anywhere else). But it strikes me as being absurd that I
hear EVERY YEAR of the power going out for large areas of major cities in
.us, something which just doesn't happen in Europe.
> The smart money goes on hosting in Texas
> (San Antonio) not California though -- relatively
> earthquake/tornado/storm/etc-free!
>
> On the upside, the US doesn't have BT "engineers" to deal with...
Nah, you just have their cousins in the baby bells :-)
Actually, I've had no problems with BT engineers in the three years I've
lived here. My voice line came in just fine and has never stopped working.
Same with the ISDN, and the ADSL line. Telewest, on the other hand - I
wouldn't trust them to run the hundred yard dash, let alone my comms.
--
David Cantrell | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced
