No one denies that capacity planning is hard. There are books written on the subject. The points you make are exactly the reason why you need to do capacity planning and plan for mitigating failures. If you aren't planning on 2x (in fact more) growth then I'm confused as to what kind of growth you really expect in your service.
If you aren't giving yourself room for expected and unexpected loads, you're doing it wrong. Add capacity and load testing to your process.
Bing uses a lot of Microsoft technologies including C# and .NET framework languages but as with many large services (or sets of services in this case) the components crawling, processing, indexing and serving content are written in a variety of languages including C, C++, etc and are managed by a myriad of tools languages that support features.
So you're saying the BankSimple team should consist of folks who have built complex systems, designed and implemented interfaces that are engaging to customers, and are knowledgeable about banking, right?
I'm pretty sure this article is one of those filler pieces that are in the writer's back pocket in case he can't think of something else to write about.
I take my iPhone and MBP up to the Bellevue and Redmond offices all the time. I get some weird looks sometimes when I pull out the laptop in the cafeteria but when they see I'm running Windows 7 and I'm doing stuff on the intranet, their attitude turns to curiosity. I've had many questions like "How does CorpNet work on your Mac?" My usual response: "Very well."
Sure you can eat your own dog food or whatever the cool new term for this is but there's also something about using the tools that work well for the job. I don't really run anything important for work on my Mac. All of my code builds/runs on lab machines or a desktop that sits in the office which I can connect to via Remote Desktop Connection. My Mac works great as a thin client to these machines.
Most of these (at least now) are made of sugar and baking soda. They used to be made of mercury thiocyanate back when we didn't know mercury poisoning was trouble.
It's been a while but I could start to explain it and maybe someone can pick it up from my rusty memory.
Mercury thiocyanate, Hg(SCN)2, decomposes at about 165 degrees Farenheit[1] to elemental components. I would guess that the shape of the product in that video is most likely due to the gases that are formed (most likely cyanide and mercury gas). I'm guessing the products are sulphur, cyanide vapor and mercury vapor. I'm also guessing that there are some oxides of sulphur and nitrogen forming since oxygen is readily available.
I have always wondered why there aren't more visible chemical 'sniffers' in all airports as I've seen at NY's Penn & Grand Central Stations. They're not really in the way and there are specific security protocols in place if one of them go off. iRobot is already producing bomb sniffing bots for the military and I doubt it'd be too hard for the technology to be adapted for airport checkpoints.
The sad reality is that we've more or less given our government emergency powers to issue such ludicrous directives to the airlines and for what? Some semblance of security? I guess Ma and Pa Kettle feel more safe on the airlines on their one round-trip flight they take every two years to see the grand kiddies but for those of us who fly more than that, it's a pain in ass and we're smart enough to realize where the holes are in security. I've heard plenty of instances of people bringing things that they didn't expect they could through security by mistake.
Our representatives in government aren't going to revoke these powers any time soon unless we ask them to.
There are some review articles that are very readable for non-scientists written by an old boss of mine (Dr. Mark Mattson at the National Institute on Aging) on dietary intake.
Mattson is an interesting (albeit, a bit harebrained) dude. He completely believes in this caloric restriction stuff so much that he lives the lifestyle and follows a really strict diet.
If you aren't giving yourself room for expected and unexpected loads, you're doing it wrong. Add capacity and load testing to your process.