THEL and ABL both use spotting lasers to detect the atmospheric conditions and then the data is feed through the computer. That way the adaptive optics can work around the issues.
Plus it's hard to get a smoke screen above about 200 feet, and the vast majority of the things these devices will shoot down go higher than that.
The Maginot Line failed because it couldn't move. Oh, and because it wasn't finished.
The only anti-missile system the US is working on that doesn't move in the ABM system. Most of the laser systems are mobile.
Plus the Maginot Line arguement doesn't hold water, because it was a tactical solution for a strategic problem. While the ABL and other systems like THEL are tactical solutions for tactical problems.
What is the cost of a mortar shell killing people? More or less than the three grade for a shot? I'd say yes, so would the people being shelled.
The way it works is...
You have your own mortars/howitzers/MLRS and a counter-battery radar. Someone shoots some rounds at you, you have a defence laser.
Hezbollah/Narco Terrorists...someone fires some smoothbore Russian mortars or some 122s at you. Counter-battery radar finds it, but the rounds hit your camp and you take dead and injured. Your counter battery fire killed the tangos.
With a close defence laser, you fire your counter-battery fire, but the close defence laser knocks out the enemy fire. You've taken no loses and the enemy has. That's how wars are won.
The life of a soldier in harm's way is almost priceless...as evident in the money the military spends on SAR and training.
Re:This raises some frightening questions
on
Battlefield Lasers
·
· Score: 1
The Russians use these devices as well.
Testimony from a Navy Officer injured by a Russian merchant ship's laser while working with the Canadian Navy.
"The Shortstop Electronic Protection System (SEPS) is an RF Proximity Fuze counter measure. The Shortstop battlefield electronic countermeasures system is capable of prematurely detonating incoming artillery and mortar rounds. It counters the threat of RF Proximity Fuzed munitions by causing them to prefunction, to protect friendly ground troops, vehicles, structures, and other equipment under fire."
Shortstop is already in service.
There are already radar systems to track rounds down to a 60mm mortar shell.
Actually, the power for the ABL isn't an expensive chemical. And they are mounting the lasers on some aircraft. The ABL 747 is a case in point.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/abl.htm
"The airborne laser would fire a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser, or COIL, invented at Phillips Lab in 1977. The laser's fuel consists of the same chemicals found in hair bleach and Drano - hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide - which are then combined with chlorine gas and water."
I would argue that artillery was only vital to the 19th century battlefield because "modern" military planning at the time focused on the mathmatical battle and the perfect geometric forts and cannon. Those plans were thrown out when the Panzers rolled over Poland and France in '39-40. Actung Panzer covers all of this.
I would say that Macs in general are has hackable as a PC from a vendor like Dell, Gateway or IBM.
G3-G4 Towers
1. Case is easier to open than a normal PC.
2. Use IDE, PCI, USB, AGP (G4s) and SDRAM
iMacs however are for the Educational or non-hacking user that just wants a computer that works. Moms, sisters, grandmothers, schools, girlfriends, secretaries or people with a tight space requirement. They arn't that hackable because it was designed for a group that wasn't going to be upgrading it alot. Although since the fall '99 redesign of the iMac case, it's much easier to upgrade the RAM and wireless card than it is in 90% of PC cases.
A inch tall slab of Titanium colored plastic with a mobile Radeon or GeForce for video and a 10/100/1000 nin along with a couple USB and Firewire ports. Toss in a 60-80 GB hard disk and you've got a sweet little OS X workstation or server. Throw in the G4 laptop's silent little fan for cooling. That would rock.
Those are the most common part to fail in our PCs here. In a lab of 18 PCs we've replaced 9 floppies this school year already.
Floppy drives in Macs are just as bad. Jerking the floppy out of Macs let them remove a cludgy piece of hardware and a wierd bus from the motherboard at one swoop.
I don't understand the PC love of floppies. You want a 20 year old technology that sucks in a computer with the latest video card, CPU and graphics bus?
No USB 2.0 support in XP, and Intel is moving towards IEEE-1394.
I reckon that Apple will put a higher speed Firewire in all the new desktops in January along with faster G3s and G4s, might call the new G4 a G5 and do an LCD iMac, but USB 2.0...no biggy.
In Japan they have groups of Lawyers and Scientists that think up "what-ifs" and patent them in case someone comes up with new things in the future.
Read about it back in the early 90s with the man who invented variable speed windshield wipers went back and was suing all the automakers for sitting on his idea till the patent expired and then started to ship products with the device.
As a "Real World" educational technology person, I'll toss in my 2 cents on why we think it doesn't matter what OS kids use.
In my experiance, kids can move between platforms (Mac OS 8-9, 10, Windows 9x, 2K/XP, Linux) with no problems at all. In fact at my work we in the IT group think it's better for the kids to be exposed to mulitple platforms because it assists them in learning how to deal with different things.
For the Middle School grades, a Mac makes more sense than Windows for a number of reasons.
1. iMovie - Easy as pie DV work.
2. Office 2001/X - Works better than Office for Windows
3. AppleWorks - Nice, easier to use "light" Office Suite for younger kids.
If you think giving a Middle School kid an iBook will do them little good in the "real world", that's just FUD. A computer is a computer, what a 6th grader will be using when they get to the "real world" in 6-10 years isn't going to be what they are using today. Windows, Mac and Linux have changed a great deal since 1995 (5 years ago - when a 12th grader was in Middle School).
If anything, concentrating on one OS through a child's school career will, if anything make them unable to deal with changes. In short, they will end up like the majority of thier teachers.
As for the tired old "open Apple's hardware" speech...IDE, USB, Firewire, AGP, PCI - It's as open as most PC vendors, and alot more open than offerings by Sony or Compaq.
Fuel Cells to replace APUs would be a Good Thing for civil and military aviation.
Some of the APUs for aerospace use nasty chemicals like Hydrazine. Replacing those APUs with a fuel cell (The Shuttle uses a combination of APUs and Fuel Cells) would make the planes alot safer for mainatance people.
On a small civil air craft like the story is talking about, you're not always going to get sunshine for the whole flight.
It's much more efficent to power your avionics with a wind driven turbine that hangs outside the plane (like the jammer EA-6 use) or from an alternator off the engine.
Now that Slashdot is starting to run the "Best/Worst of 2001" type stories, I want to call for a Slashdot Holiday Guide dang it.
Come on Cmdr Taco, come Thursday it's legal and moral to start talking about the greatest part of the December Holidays...Presents! So don't let us down...it's time for a Holiday Guide to Geek Gifts.
I don't remeber one last year, and there havn't been many Quickies of late...so I'm getting nervous here.
(Feel free to mod me down, but for the love of moderation, I'm not Trollin'. That's got to be the most over used use of a mod category...)
I have a couple problems with the devices being hooked up via RF.
1. There is the Cancer aspect. It's obvious that no one understands the issues that may arise from having a radio transmitter around you all the time (Cel phones) let alone multiple ones around you all the time at your computer.
2. Interferance. The FCC regulations for RF devices at these frequencies state that you have to accept whatever outside interference there is. Getting bad input on an RF mouse, display or keyboard would blow.
Those things said, my mother had an RF remote for her C-band sat dish, and it was really neat.
"FastTrack is a law which says so-called free trade agreements can not be debated in our Congress any more."
Bullshit.
FastTrack allows the President to negotiate and sign an agreement without consulting Congress before hand, Congress still has the power to vote it yea or nay. The EU, Japan, Russia, Israel, China, Taiwan and all the EU member-states have some sort of FastTrack laws.
FastTrack would give the President of the US the same abilities in the Commercial arena as he has in the Tactical and Stratigic Arms arena.
Like someone said up above, it's because the SCSI vendors decided to stay in the Servers that the price never came down.
Quick scan on Pricescan.com
Cheapest large SCSI drive there
Seagate Cheetah 73.4GB 10K Ultra160 SCA
$635.00
Cheapest medium SCSI drive there
BM Ultrastar 36LP 36GB 7200 Ultra160 LVD
$210.00
For ATA-133
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 80.0GB Ultra ATA/133
$195.00
I know that SCSI is better. But is it worth getting the SCSI card and paying alot more? Not to me it's not. I play some games, mess around on the Internet and thats it...SCSI won't make that any faster.
Slashdot Mirror
If you read the article, it says that email existed for computer to computer talk before this, but it couldn't go out across other networks.
It's not attempting to revise history, it's talking about email, the electronic messages that can cross networks.
THEL and ABL both use spotting lasers to detect the atmospheric conditions and then the data is feed through the computer. That way the adaptive optics can work around the issues.
Plus it's hard to get a smoke screen above about 200 feet, and the vast majority of the things these devices will shoot down go higher than that.
The Maginot Line failed because it couldn't move. Oh, and because it wasn't finished.
The only anti-missile system the US is working on that doesn't move in the ABM system. Most of the laser systems are mobile.
Plus the Maginot Line arguement doesn't hold water, because it was a tactical solution for a strategic problem. While the ABL and other systems like THEL are tactical solutions for tactical problems.
What is the cost of a mortar shell killing people? More or less than the three grade for a shot? I'd say yes, so would the people being shelled.
The way it works is...
You have your own mortars/howitzers/MLRS and a counter-battery radar. Someone shoots some rounds at you, you have a defence laser.
Hezbollah/Narco Terrorists...someone fires some smoothbore Russian mortars or some 122s at you. Counter-battery radar finds it, but the rounds hit your camp and you take dead and injured. Your counter battery fire killed the tangos.
With a close defence laser, you fire your counter-battery fire, but the close defence laser knocks out the enemy fire. You've taken no loses and the enemy has. That's how wars are won.
The life of a soldier in harm's way is almost priceless...as evident in the money the military spends on SAR and training.
The Russians use these devices as well.
/ 99 -02-11daly.htm
Testimony from a Navy Officer injured by a Russian merchant ship's laser while working with the Canadian Navy.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1999_h
There is also a system that uses radio signals to detonate the proximity fuzes at a distance from the friendly lines.
9 .h tm
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/an-vlq-
"The Shortstop Electronic Protection System (SEPS) is an RF Proximity Fuze counter measure. The Shortstop battlefield electronic countermeasures system is capable of prematurely detonating incoming artillery and mortar rounds. It counters the threat of RF Proximity Fuzed munitions by causing them to prefunction, to protect friendly ground troops, vehicles, structures, and other equipment under fire."
Shortstop is already in service.
There are already radar systems to track rounds down to a 60mm mortar shell.
Actually, the power for the ABL isn't an expensive chemical. And they are mounting the lasers on some aircraft. The ABL 747 is a case in point.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/abl.htm
"The airborne laser would fire a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser, or COIL, invented at Phillips Lab in 1977. The laser's fuel consists of the same chemicals found in hair bleach and Drano - hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide - which are then combined with chlorine gas and water."
I would argue that artillery was only vital to the 19th century battlefield because "modern" military planning at the time focused on the mathmatical battle and the perfect geometric forts and cannon. Those plans were thrown out when the Panzers rolled over Poland and France in '39-40. Actung Panzer covers all of this.
Apple has a deal with Samsung for LCDs, they invested a 100 million in them during the Asian Economic crisis in the Summer of '99.
So there is no telling what Apple can get LCDs for in reguards to the iMac LCD.
I would say that Macs in general are has hackable as a PC from a vendor like Dell, Gateway or IBM.
G3-G4 Towers
1. Case is easier to open than a normal PC.
2. Use IDE, PCI, USB, AGP (G4s) and SDRAM
iMacs however are for the Educational or non-hacking user that just wants a computer that works. Moms, sisters, grandmothers, schools, girlfriends, secretaries or people with a tight space requirement. They arn't that hackable because it was designed for a group that wasn't going to be upgrading it alot. Although since the fall '99 redesign of the iMac case, it's much easier to upgrade the RAM and wireless card than it is in 90% of PC cases.
Dude, that link there is from July.
"July 11 - 14:55 ET: Contrary to several published rumors, next week's Macworld Expo in New York City will not see the debut of a flat-panel iMac"
The MacWorld in question is MacWorld San Francisco from Jan 8-11.
Why not offer a G3/G4 in the LC II form-factor?
A inch tall slab of Titanium colored plastic with a mobile Radeon or GeForce for video and a 10/100/1000 nin along with a couple USB and Firewire ports. Toss in a 60-80 GB hard disk and you've got a sweet little OS X workstation or server. Throw in the G4 laptop's silent little fan for cooling. That would rock.
Floppy drives blow goats.
Those are the most common part to fail in our PCs here. In a lab of 18 PCs we've replaced 9 floppies this school year already.
Floppy drives in Macs are just as bad. Jerking the floppy out of Macs let them remove a cludgy piece of hardware and a wierd bus from the motherboard at one swoop.
I don't understand the PC love of floppies. You want a 20 year old technology that sucks in a computer with the latest video card, CPU and graphics bus?
It's a still-born connector.
No USB 2.0 support in XP, and Intel is moving towards IEEE-1394.
I reckon that Apple will put a higher speed Firewire in all the new desktops in January along with faster G3s and G4s, might call the new G4 a G5 and do an LCD iMac, but USB 2.0...no biggy.
Japan does.
In Japan they have groups of Lawyers and Scientists that think up "what-ifs" and patent them in case someone comes up with new things in the future.
Read about it back in the early 90s with the man who invented variable speed windshield wipers went back and was suing all the automakers for sitting on his idea till the patent expired and then started to ship products with the device.
That was the 5300 - Not the iBook. Old, old Machine. The first PowerPC laptop, not even close to the first clam-shell iBook, let alone a new iBook.
Apple hasn't shipped a 5300 in 5 years.
On that note, Dells have had the same problem with thier batteries.
As a "Real World" educational technology person, I'll toss in my 2 cents on why we think it doesn't matter what OS kids use.
In my experiance, kids can move between platforms (Mac OS 8-9, 10, Windows 9x, 2K/XP, Linux) with no problems at all. In fact at my work we in the IT group think it's better for the kids to be exposed to mulitple platforms because it assists them in learning how to deal with different things.
For the Middle School grades, a Mac makes more sense than Windows for a number of reasons.
1. iMovie - Easy as pie DV work.
2. Office 2001/X - Works better than Office for Windows
3. AppleWorks - Nice, easier to use "light" Office Suite for younger kids.
If you think giving a Middle School kid an iBook will do them little good in the "real world", that's just FUD. A computer is a computer, what a 6th grader will be using when they get to the "real world" in 6-10 years isn't going to be what they are using today. Windows, Mac and Linux have changed a great deal since 1995 (5 years ago - when a 12th grader was in Middle School).
If anything, concentrating on one OS through a child's school career will, if anything make them unable to deal with changes. In short, they will end up like the majority of thier teachers.
As for the tired old "open Apple's hardware" speech...IDE, USB, Firewire, AGP, PCI - It's as open as most PC vendors, and alot more open than offerings by Sony or Compaq.
Wouldn't have helpped Apple any, because as someone pointed out from the Dead-Tree issue of the WSJ...this technology won't work on a Mac.
English Food
French Beer
I don't know about TiVo, but on a ReplayTV under Other Options when you are recording, you can have it start a few minutes earlier or later.
Fuel Cells to replace APUs would be a Good Thing for civil and military aviation.
Some of the APUs for aerospace use nasty chemicals like Hydrazine. Replacing those APUs with a fuel cell (The Shuttle uses a combination of APUs and Fuel Cells) would make the planes alot safer for mainatance people.
On a small civil air craft like the story is talking about, you're not always going to get sunshine for the whole flight.
It's much more efficent to power your avionics with a wind driven turbine that hangs outside the plane (like the jammer EA-6 use) or from an alternator off the engine.
Now that Slashdot is starting to run the "Best/Worst of 2001" type stories, I want to call for a Slashdot Holiday Guide dang it.
Come on Cmdr Taco, come Thursday it's legal and moral to start talking about the greatest part of the December Holidays...Presents! So don't let us down...it's time for a Holiday Guide to Geek Gifts.
I don't remeber one last year, and there havn't been many Quickies of late...so I'm getting nervous here.
(Feel free to mod me down, but for the love of moderation, I'm not Trollin'. That's got to be the most over used use of a mod category...)
I have a couple problems with the devices being hooked up via RF.
1. There is the Cancer aspect. It's obvious that no one understands the issues that may arise from having a radio transmitter around you all the time (Cel phones) let alone multiple ones around you all the time at your computer.
2. Interferance. The FCC regulations for RF devices at these frequencies state that you have to accept whatever outside interference there is. Getting bad input on an RF mouse, display or keyboard would blow.
Those things said, my mother had an RF remote for her C-band sat dish, and it was really neat.
"FastTrack is a law which says so-called free trade agreements can not be debated in our Congress any more."
Bullshit.
FastTrack allows the President to negotiate and sign an agreement without consulting Congress before hand, Congress still has the power to vote it yea or nay. The EU, Japan, Russia, Israel, China, Taiwan and all the EU member-states have some sort of FastTrack laws.
FastTrack would give the President of the US the same abilities in the Commercial arena as he has in the Tactical and Stratigic Arms arena.
Because it's cheap.
Like someone said up above, it's because the SCSI vendors decided to stay in the Servers that the price never came down.
Quick scan on Pricescan.com
Cheapest large SCSI drive there
Seagate Cheetah 73.4GB 10K Ultra160 SCA
$635.00
Cheapest medium SCSI drive there
BM Ultrastar 36LP 36GB 7200 Ultra160 LVD
$210.00
For ATA-133
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 80.0GB Ultra ATA/133
$195.00
I know that SCSI is better. But is it worth getting the SCSI card and paying alot more? Not to me it's not. I play some games, mess around on the Internet and thats it...SCSI won't make that any faster.