Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is closely related to failure rate. In the special case when the likelihood of failure remains constant with respect to time (for example, in some product like a brick or protected steel beam), and ignoring the time to recover from failure, failure rate is simply the inverse of the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). MTBF is an important specification parameter in all aspects of high importance engineering design–such as naval architecture, aerospace engineering, automotive design, etc.–in short, any task where failure in a key part or of the whole of a system needs be minimized and severely curtailed, particularly where lives might be lost if such factors are not taken into account. These factors account for many safety and maintenance practices in engineering and industry practices and government regulations, such as how often certain inspections and overhauls are required on an aircraft.
A similar ratio used in the transport industries, especially in railways and trucking is 'Mean Distance Between Failure', a variation which attempts to correlate actual loaded distances to similar reliability needs and practices.
Failure rates are important factors in insurance, business, and regulation practices as well as fundamental to design of safe systems throughout a national or international economy.
Copy-on-write
Copy-on-write (COW) is a means of optimisation in Computer Science. When several callers ask for the same resource, they can all be given a pointer to the same address. Only when they try to change the resource does a local copy need to be made. This happens without the caller noticing. It is done so that all the other callers do not see the change they did not do.
Write Anywhere File Layout
Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL) is a file system. It was developed with large RAID arrays in mind. After a failure, the RAID array can be directly restarted. Other features like making the filesystem bigger without taking it offline are also supported.
Tibetan Blue Bear
The Tibetan Bear or Tibetan Blue Bear ("Ursus arctos pruinosus") is a subspecies of the Brown Bear ("Ursus arctos"). It is found in the eastern Tibetan Plateau.(In the Himalayas.)
Tibetan red deer
The Tibetan red deer ("Cervus affinis affinis" or "Cervus affinis wallichi"), also known as shou, is a subspecies of Central Asian Red Deer that is native to the Tibetan highlands of Central Asia.
Wild goat
The wild goat ("Capra aegagrus") is a mammal of the Caprinae subfamily.
The wild goat is a widespread species, with a distribution ranging from Europe and Asia Minor to central Asia and the Middle East.
The wild goat is an ancestor of the domestic goat.
Wild goats do not rely on humans for shelter, food or medical care
Asiatic wildcat
The Asiatic wildcat ("Felis silvestris ornata") is also known as the Asian Steppe wildcat or Indian Desert cat. It is a subspecies of the Wildcat.
It lives mainly in the Thar Desert, and the Rann of Kutch in India and Pakistan. It is about the size of a domestic cat, with a pale yellowish body marked with black spots.
Woolly Flying Squirrel
The woolly flying squirrel ("Eupetaurus cinereus") is a squirrel. It is the only species of the genus "Eupetaurus".
Until recently scientific knowledge of this rare species was limited to 11 skins collected in the late nineteenth century. However, recent research has confirmed that it is still extant in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (P.A.K). It is the longest member of the family Sciuridae and the most massive gliding animal known, but observations confirm that despite its size, it does glide effectively like other flying squirrels.
Wild yak
The wild yak ("Bos mutus") is a large wild bovid native to the Himalayas in Central Asia. It is the ancestor of the domestic yak ("Bos grunniens").
Most yaks are domestic, which means they live on farms run by people. There are a few wild yak but there are not many left and are in danger of extinction. There may be as few as 100 yak left in the wild. Wild male yaks stand about 2–2.2 meters tall at the shoulder, the females about 1 metre. Domestic Yaks are shorter, between 1 and 2 metres for both males and females. All yaks have long, thick hair to keep them warm in the cold places they live. Wild yaks can be black or brown. Some domestic yaks are white. All kinds of yaks have horns.
Yaks are herd animals. This means they live in groups called "herds". Yaks are "herbivores", they don't eat meat. The oldest yaks can live up to 25 years.
STV (TV channel)
STV is a free television channel in Scotland. It is part of the ITV network. It is one of the five main channels in Northern and Central Scotland. It started in 2006, when the old Grampian Television (Northern Scotland) and Scottish Television (Central Scotland) were merged. STV has the channel 3 licence in these areas. In the Scottish Borders, ITV is shown. STV's director is Gordon MacMillan.
Scotsport
Scotsport is a television programme on STV in Scotland. It covers the results of football in Scottish games.
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a part of the BBC in Scotland. It operates the television and radio channels in Scotland.
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is BBC Scotland's national English language radio network. It broadcasts a wide variety of programming including news, sport, music, the arts, comedy, drama, history and lifestyle. It replaced the Scottish opt-out part of BBC Radio 4 in November 1978.
BBC Radio Scotland was founded as a full-time radio network in 1978, although the name had been used since 1974 for the Scottish opt-out parts of BBC Radio 4. The creation of a separate network was made possible when Radio 4 became a fully national network and moved from medium wave to long wave.
Opt-out stations were established in Inverness and Aberdeen in 1976, followed by Orkney and Shetland in 1977, and Selkirk and Dumfries in 1983. Previously planned opt-outs in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee were never realised.
The station broadcasts a wide range of programming including news, debate, music and sport commentaries.
News and current affairs programming has always constituted the dominant part of BBC Radio Scotland's schedules, especially on weekdays. In addition to regular news bulletins (usually hourly), the station broadcasts a wide range of longer in-depth news and current affairs programmes.
Good Morning Scotland (weekdays, 0600-0900) is Scotland's longest-running radio programme and one of the most popular in the country. It provides regular news, sport, business, travel and weather bulletins along with interviews and in-depth reports. It is similar to BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, but from a Scottish perspective. It also includes the daily religious slot "Thought for the Day", again similar to that broadcast on Radio 4's "Today" programme.
The other daily news and current affairs strands are the "Morning Extra" phone-in (0905-1000), "Scotland Live" (1200-1245), "Newsdrive" (1600-1800) and the political news programme "Scotland At Ten" (2205-2230).
Weekend programmes include "Newsweek Scotland" (Sat, 0800-0900), "Shereen" (Sun, 0900-1000) and "The Business" (Sun, 1000-1030).
Like Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Scotland covers most of the major sporting events in Scotland. It holds exclusive rights to the Scottish Premier League and operates its Sportsound programme on a multitude of frequencies on Saturdays when games are being played. Other sporting events that can be heard on Radio Scotland include both of Scotland's domestic football cup competitions, Scotland football internationals and European games affecting Scottish teams and the rugby union Six Nations championships. Alongside the live action sports programmes, Radio Scotland also produces popular sporting shows such as football fanzine Off the Ball, phone-in forum "Your Call with Jim Traynor" and the multi-sports programme "Sports Weekly", presented by former Scotland rugby player, John Beattie.