The Spruce Goose was like trying to run Windows 95 on 4 MB of RAM.
Aviation bloatware...Shuttle, B-36, FB-111 when it was a fighter for the Navy and a Bomber for the USAF, the Nazi Germany Giant Gilder/Bomber/Transport. Those are examples of Aviation bloatware...but the Shutte is awesome, but it was an attempt to do everything in one vehicle. Like Homer Simpson's car for his brother's company.
"All my life, I have searched for a car that feels a certain way. Powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball. Now, at last, I have found it."
"We here at Slashdot would like to take the time to say that strong competition and innovation have been the twin hallmarks of the technology industry, and if the future is going to be as successful as the recent past, the technology sector must remain free from excess regulation."
I think that one of the things that have gotten us to the point of bloated, unstable software is a LACK of regulation and recourse against some of the larger Software companies.
Companies like General Motors or Boeing must abide by safety and quality standards, while a Microsoft doesn't, even though it's products may or may not have more of an impact on daily lives and safety than cars by GM or planes from Boeing.
The point-click-lock-you-in EULA has done away with the ability to have stable software on a computer for the vast majority of users in the United States and the rest of the world.
Hoping for a hands off approach will not make it better, it will make it worse. I think that if you make a product, physical or virtual (software) you should be held responsable for the quality if you are charging money for it. Getting the software industry to the same level that the automotive, aerospace or appliance industry is, isn't excess...it's minimum regulation.
Again, yes...Apple did create Firewire-IEEE 1394-iLink.
Actually iLink is a little different. It uses a 4 pin interface instead of the 6 pin that the rest of Firewire uses, the two pins missing are the power pins.
The GUI is a tool, just like the CLI is. It's a tool that works if it is done right, and once a tool is done right, theres very little to no reason to reinvent it.
The "Classic" MacOS GUI works very well, yea maybe it's ripped off from Xerox, but whatever, it works. It's not themeable (well kinda...) but in the System 7 and OS 8 versions it was simple and it worked very well. So well that 3 year olds and 80 year olds could master the interface quickly and without help.
Aqua is just a step beyond the "Classic" GUI and with some refinement it could last another 20 years.
However...I do not agree that a new interface concept is needed. A screwdriver's interface has remained unchanged for centuries and it doesn't need a new concept. Same with the firearm, a Beretta flintlock from 1300 had the same interfact characteristics as a Beretta Gold Sable rifle made in 2001.
When a concept works...don't spend the effort on changing it. Spend the effort on making the OS run better behind the interface.
iMac - one power, one Ethernet (or you can go Airport and eliminate that) and a single USB cable for the keyboard and mouse.
G4 has that sweet USB/Display/Display power cable from the CPU to the display, Ethernet (or you can go wireless here too) and power. Keyboard and mouse are on the single USB cable.
My girlfriend's iMac DV setup sounds just like your dream box and desk. Me, I have an old G3 tower with a rat's nest of cables...can anyone tell me why cables will always get tangled?
In the novelization of 2001, where they went to Saturn instead of Jupiter, there was a bit about the Astronauts listening to the music of Jupiter as they passed by it in Discovery.
You'd hope that someone that'll be in business in 3 years would have bought Be. Like Sony or Apple or IBM. But at the rate that Palm is tanking, I doubt they will be in business by 2004.
Going by Intel's plans the Itanium should have been out for 18 months and be at 2 GHz right now. Going by Motorola's plans I should have a 1.5 GHz G4 right now.
However, the Cargolifter is just undergoing gas bag checks according to thier website, so I'll call it vapor at this point.
I'll assume that the Cargolifter will be worthless in crosswinds/bad weather due to the large crossection it will present.
When I see a Cargolifter actually lift something, I'll change my tune.
However, people have been talking about Blimps and Zeppelins being the airplane/autogyro/helicopter killer since the 1920s...and it's not happened yet.
So...but like the new Amiga...the Cargolifter is just vapor at this point.
Copters like the Skycrane, Chinook or the USAF/USMC H-53 can carry alot more then a blimp in worse weather conditions.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/h-53.htm
"The helicopter is capable of lifting 16 tons (14.5 metric tons) at sea level, transporting the load 50 nautical miles (57.5 miles) and returning. A typical load would be a 16,000 pound (7264 kilogram) M198 howitzer or a 26,000 pound (11,804 kilogram) Light Armored Vehicle."
"Sea Dragon is capable of carrying up to 55 troops or a 16-ton payload 50 nautical miles or a 10-ton payload 500 nautical miles."
External cargo of up to 36,000 pounds may be transported by using either the single- or two-point suspension system.
In the long run, I just don't see a blimp providing the cost/lift capability of a helicopter. The numbers above are for US helicopters, the price to performance ratio of Russian helicopters is even greater. Another problem with the blimp is weather. You start to get cross-winds you lose alot of control in a blimp compared to a helo.
Even if a fighter can get close, once you start getting over 60,000 feet things get touchy. You have to ask yourself if the fighter/missile combo are within a launch envelope, and for alot of AAMs, anything above 60,000 is a cruise altitude because there ins't enough air to manouver.
When the F-15s and MiG29s and Su-27 did thier "Streak Eagle" times to altitude and altitude records, they were stripped down. Most modern fighters have a time staying above 50,000, let alone firing weapons from there.
Vast majority of SAMs and AAMs couldn't touch something at 100,000 feet. The only ones that might are the SA-12 (questionable), Patriot PAC-3 (questionable) and the Sprint/51T6 Gorgon. Since the Sprint isn't anymore and the Gorgon is static around Moscow...the vast majority of SAMs and AAMs couldn't touch this.
Actually, the trend in medium and long range AAMs is to use a rocket to get them to speed, then use a ramjet to power them through the attack.
There is a Russian missile that uses this tech, can't remeber the callsign for it, saw it in Air and Space magazine. The AMRAAM is supposedly being tested with the same technology, latest World Air Power Journal talked about rumors of the USAF in Alaska testing them in an operation role.
"The Air-Launched Miniature Vehicle (ALMV) was the primary American ASAT effort in the early 1980s. This weapon, launched from an F-15 fighter by a small two stage rocket, carries a heat-seeking Miniature Homing Vehicle (MHV) which would destroy its target by direct impact at high speed. The F-15 can bring ALMV under the ground track of its target, as opposed to a ground-based system, which must wait for a target satellite to overfly its launch site."
Back in the 50s and 60s the USAF and Army tested both air launched and ground based systems as well.
In 1997, the council approved the issuance of $336 million in bonds on behalf of the Washington State Major League Baseball Public Facilities District (PFD) for construction of Safeco Field. State and county law require that all excess revenue from the authorized taxes be distributed in the following manner of priority.
The funds for the PDF came after a 1996 Seattle Metro area ballet initiative was passed.
I'm American and I don't desperatly want to hate the Chinese.
But since I follow geo-political issues I know that the Communist Chinese Government want to invade a soverign nation (Taiwan), which could cause huge damages in lost lives, destroyed infrastructure and lost envestments. I also know that the Chinese government wants to take the Spratly Islands, which are a loooong way from China and that will cause problems with the Phillipines, Vietnam and Malasya.
In short, many of the things that the Chinese Government claims are the same things that Japan claimed in the late 30s and early 40s.
Oh, and the Chinese are exporting missile and nuclear technology, despite treaties and agreements not to do that.
For the 8,015,604th time, the US Orion was in INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE. Legally. But it's always the Americans that are in the wrong.
Chinese, Soviet, Indian, French, British, hell...Israeli spy sats have been floating over the planet for decades. If you don't think other nations don't spy on the US, and it's just the big bad Americans that spy...you are ignorant.
If there are snapshots of Area-51 on the Federation of American Scientists webpage, you can bet your ass there are some in Russian, North Korean and Chinese bunkers somewhere.
http://www.fas.org/irp/overhead/groom.htm
Boom. Area 51. Doesn't get more secret than that.
As for other bases, say a big nuclear bomber base like Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, well the glide path into Rapid City Regional Airport offers great views of the flight line and nuclear weapon "igloos". So I agree with the earlier posters that a "Chinese military officer can come over here to America and pay $50 to a small plane pilot to fly over whatever he wants and snap as many pictures as he wants. Then walk into KMart and get them developed in an hour, and mail them via US Mail back to Beijing."
Actually, it's perfectly legal to spy outside of the 12 mile limit.
That's what the US Navy plane was doing when it got body checked.
Chinese and Russian trawlers do it all the time off the US coast. The US and the Soviets had treaties that made it clear it was OK to send planes over eachother's country. They could be shot down, but it wasn't an act of war to be flying there or to be shot down. Soviet Bear bombers and recce aircraft were herded away from the US, Canada, UK, Norway all the time during the Cold War. US RB-47s, U-2s, helicopters and British Lincoln bombers were shot down by the Soviets, East Germans, and Chinese numerous times during the Cold War.
Actually, since the USA sits on the UN Security Council as one of five permanent members, the US has the right to do whatever it wants with atomic weapons, first and foremost.
Any nation that has atomic weapons and doesn't have one of the five spots...is a "rogue nation."
An animal's life doesn't have the importance as a human's life.
I'm not trolling or asking for flames, but it's true.
A cow or bunny doesn't have the same level of intelligence or in the case of cows, even sentience. Cats, dogs, cows, chickens, bunnies, mice, rabbits...have a place in the whole cycle of life and it's not up with the humans. It's bad that we test on animals in labs, but in my opinion, it's important to make sure that things are safe.
On topic...I think the President did a good job threading a middle line between the Catholics and hardcore anti-abortionists and the far left that would like to use any tissue from any aborted feteus for testing. $250 million dollars isn't a tiny sum of money...I'd be happier with Federal Tax Credits for research then cash...but it's a start.
"KOIN's investigation found that amber lights connected to cameras changed to red much more quickly than those without the cameras. Armey says that the news story gave him the proof that he needed to call for a national study."
A study done in Farfaix County Virgina found that increasing yellow times made intersections safer.
http://www.motorists.org/issues/enforce/vastudy. ht ml
I was wrong about out here, the company isn't LockMart, it's an Australian Company. And yes...the Company DOES issue the tickets.
"The company's attraction is that it offers an entire traffic service, from the taking of photos, to processing and collecting the money from motorists. Redflex will provide Beaverton with cameras, evidence processing, court evidence, training services and a toll-free hotline as part of a public education service."
It's simply wrong to force people into breaking the law in order to increase revenue for a city.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't mean the software.
I meant the way the system was designed.
Take an airplane, a rocket, reusable systems and disposable systems and wrap it into one system.
It was almost as if all the pre-1970 NASA and USAF programs that Nixon chopped got parts wrapped up into Shuttle.
No...the 747 was built to a spec.
The Spruce Goose was like trying to run Windows 95 on 4 MB of RAM.
Aviation bloatware...Shuttle, B-36, FB-111 when it was a fighter for the Navy and a Bomber for the USAF, the Nazi Germany Giant Gilder/Bomber/Transport. Those are examples of Aviation bloatware...but the Shutte is awesome, but it was an attempt to do everything in one vehicle. Like Homer Simpson's car for his brother's company.
"All my life, I have searched for a car that feels a certain way. Powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball. Now, at last, I have found it."
"We here at Slashdot would like to take the time to say that strong competition and innovation have been the twin hallmarks of the technology industry, and if the future is going to be as successful as the recent past, the technology sector must remain free from excess regulation."
I think that one of the things that have gotten us to the point of bloated, unstable software is a LACK of regulation and recourse against some of the larger Software companies.
Companies like General Motors or Boeing must abide by safety and quality standards, while a Microsoft doesn't, even though it's products may or may not have more of an impact on daily lives and safety than cars by GM or planes from Boeing.
The point-click-lock-you-in EULA has done away with the ability to have stable software on a computer for the vast majority of users in the United States and the rest of the world.
Hoping for a hands off approach will not make it better, it will make it worse. I think that if you make a product, physical or virtual (software) you should be held responsable for the quality if you are charging money for it. Getting the software industry to the same level that the automotive, aerospace or appliance industry is, isn't excess...it's minimum regulation.
Again, yes...Apple did create Firewire-IEEE 1394-iLink.
Actually iLink is a little different. It uses a 4 pin interface instead of the 6 pin that the rest of Firewire uses, the two pins missing are the power pins.
Actually, Apple came up with it.
It was Firewire first, then it was IEEE-1394.
The GUI is a tool, just like the CLI is. It's a tool that works if it is done right, and once a tool is done right, theres very little to no reason to reinvent it.
The "Classic" MacOS GUI works very well, yea maybe it's ripped off from Xerox, but whatever, it works. It's not themeable (well kinda...) but in the System 7 and OS 8 versions it was simple and it worked very well. So well that 3 year olds and 80 year olds could master the interface quickly and without help.
Aqua is just a step beyond the "Classic" GUI and with some refinement it could last another 20 years.
However...I do not agree that a new interface concept is needed. A screwdriver's interface has remained unchanged for centuries and it doesn't need a new concept. Same with the firearm, a Beretta flintlock from 1300 had the same interfact characteristics as a Beretta Gold Sable rifle made in 2001.
When a concept works...don't spend the effort on changing it. Spend the effort on making the OS run better behind the interface.
Sounds like your dream box is already here.
Take your pick, iMac or G4 Tower.
iMac - one power, one Ethernet (or you can go Airport and eliminate that) and a single USB cable for the keyboard and mouse.
G4 has that sweet USB/Display/Display power cable from the CPU to the display, Ethernet (or you can go wireless here too) and power. Keyboard and mouse are on the single USB cable.
My girlfriend's iMac DV setup sounds just like your dream box and desk. Me, I have an old G3 tower with a rat's nest of cables...can anyone tell me why cables will always get tangled?
In the novelization of 2001, where they went to Saturn instead of Jupiter, there was a bit about the Astronauts listening to the music of Jupiter as they passed by it in Discovery.
Interesting stuff those sounds of Jupiter.
Palm's market share is falling like a stone.
Palm's stock price is falling like a stone.
You'd hope that someone that'll be in business in 3 years would have bought Be. Like Sony or Apple or IBM. But at the rate that Palm is tanking, I doubt they will be in business by 2004.
Well, the Zeppelin will need fuel as well. It may float on it's own, but going from point A to B takes fuel.
Helium isn't free either. Although the US Navy used to have VAST amounts of it in a National Helium Reserve.
Going by Intel's plans the Itanium should have been out for 18 months and be at 2 GHz right now. Going by Motorola's plans I should have a 1.5 GHz G4 right now.
However, the Cargolifter is just undergoing gas bag checks according to thier website, so I'll call it vapor at this point.
I'll assume that the Cargolifter will be worthless in crosswinds/bad weather due to the large crossection it will present.
Yep. Exisiting blimps.
When I see a Cargolifter actually lift something, I'll change my tune.
However, people have been talking about Blimps and Zeppelins being the airplane/autogyro/helicopter killer since the 1920s...and it's not happened yet.
So...but like the new Amiga...the Cargolifter is just vapor at this point.
A helicopter will carry more than a blimp.
Copters like the Skycrane, Chinook or the USAF/USMC H-53 can carry alot more then a blimp in worse weather conditions.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/h-53.htm
"The helicopter is capable of lifting 16 tons (14.5 metric tons) at sea level, transporting the load 50 nautical miles (57.5 miles) and returning. A typical load would be a 16,000 pound (7264 kilogram) M198 howitzer or a 26,000 pound (11,804 kilogram) Light Armored Vehicle."
"Sea Dragon is capable of carrying up to 55 troops or a 16-ton payload 50 nautical miles or a 10-ton payload 500 nautical miles."
External cargo of up to 36,000 pounds may be transported by using either the single- or two-point suspension system.
In the long run, I just don't see a blimp providing the cost/lift capability of a helicopter. The numbers above are for US helicopters, the price to performance ratio of Russian helicopters is even greater. Another problem with the blimp is weather. You start to get cross-winds you lose alot of control in a blimp compared to a helo.
Not always a game over.
Even if a fighter can get close, once you start getting over 60,000 feet things get touchy. You have to ask yourself if the fighter/missile combo are within a launch envelope, and for alot of AAMs, anything above 60,000 is a cruise altitude because there ins't enough air to manouver.
When the F-15s and MiG29s and Su-27 did thier "Streak Eagle" times to altitude and altitude records, they were stripped down. Most modern fighters have a time staying above 50,000, let alone firing weapons from there.
Vast majority of SAMs and AAMs couldn't touch something at 100,000 feet. The only ones that might are the SA-12 (questionable), Patriot PAC-3 (questionable) and the Sprint/51T6 Gorgon. Since the Sprint isn't anymore and the Gorgon is static around Moscow...the vast majority of SAMs and AAMs couldn't touch this.
Actually, the trend in medium and long range AAMs is to use a rocket to get them to speed, then use a ramjet to power them through the attack.
There is a Russian missile that uses this tech, can't remeber the callsign for it, saw it in Air and Space magazine. The AMRAAM is supposedly being tested with the same technology, latest World Air Power Journal talked about rumors of the USAF in Alaska testing them in an operation role.
The F-15 in the early and mid 80s tested an Anti-satellite missile.
e rv iew.htm
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/asat/ov
"The Air-Launched Miniature Vehicle (ALMV) was the primary American ASAT effort in the early 1980s. This weapon, launched from an F-15 fighter by a small two stage rocket, carries a heat-seeking Miniature Homing Vehicle (MHV) which would destroy its target by direct impact at high speed. The F-15 can bring ALMV under the ground track of its target, as opposed to a ground-based system, which must wait for a target satellite to overfly its launch site."
Back in the 50s and 60s the USAF and Army tested both air launched and ground based systems as well.
Well...if I remember correctly...
In 1997, the council approved the issuance of $336 million in bonds on behalf of the Washington State Major League Baseball Public Facilities District (PFD) for construction of Safeco Field. State and county law require that all excess revenue from the authorized taxes be distributed in the following manner of priority.
The funds for the PDF came after a 1996 Seattle Metro area ballet initiative was passed.
But there were cost over runs...that is true.
I'm American and I don't desperatly want to hate the Chinese.
But since I follow geo-political issues I know that the Communist Chinese Government want to invade a soverign nation (Taiwan), which could cause huge damages in lost lives, destroyed infrastructure and lost envestments. I also know that the Chinese government wants to take the Spratly Islands, which are a loooong way from China and that will cause problems with the Phillipines, Vietnam and Malasya.
In short, many of the things that the Chinese Government claims are the same things that Japan claimed in the late 30s and early 40s.
Oh, and the Chinese are exporting missile and nuclear technology, despite treaties and agreements not to do that.
For the 8,015,604th time, the US Orion was in INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE. Legally. But it's always the Americans that are in the wrong.
Those are state issues, not Federal issues, BIG difference.
Now I'm from Portland, and I remeber clearly that the Seattle Metro area voted Yes on the new Seahawks stadium in...98 was it?
Now here in Portland when we vote yes on things like North-South Light Rail, stupid Tri-Met makes us vote again so that they don't get the money.
And don't forget how many times doctor assisted suicide or anti-gay rights bills get on the ballot.
Chinese, Soviet, Indian, French, British, hell...Israeli spy sats have been floating over the planet for decades. If you don't think other nations don't spy on the US, and it's just the big bad Americans that spy...you are ignorant.
If there are snapshots of Area-51 on the Federation of American Scientists webpage, you can bet your ass there are some in Russian, North Korean and Chinese bunkers somewhere.
http://www.fas.org/irp/overhead/groom.htm
Boom. Area 51. Doesn't get more secret than that.
As for other bases, say a big nuclear bomber base like Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, well the glide path into Rapid City Regional Airport offers great views of the flight line and nuclear weapon "igloos". So I agree with the earlier posters that a "Chinese military officer can come over here to America and pay $50 to a small plane pilot to fly over whatever he wants and snap as many pictures as he wants. Then walk into KMart and get them developed in an hour, and mail them via US Mail back to Beijing."
Actually, it's perfectly legal to spy outside of the 12 mile limit.
That's what the US Navy plane was doing when it got body checked.
Chinese and Russian trawlers do it all the time off the US coast. The US and the Soviets had treaties that made it clear it was OK to send planes over eachother's country. They could be shot down, but it wasn't an act of war to be flying there or to be shot down. Soviet Bear bombers and recce aircraft were herded away from the US, Canada, UK, Norway all the time during the Cold War. US RB-47s, U-2s, helicopters and British Lincoln bombers were shot down by the Soviets, East Germans, and Chinese numerous times during the Cold War.
Actually, since the USA sits on the UN Security Council as one of five permanent members, the US has the right to do whatever it wants with atomic weapons, first and foremost.
Any nation that has atomic weapons and doesn't have one of the five spots...is a "rogue nation."
Good.
An animal's life doesn't have the importance as a human's life.
I'm not trolling or asking for flames, but it's true.
A cow or bunny doesn't have the same level of intelligence or in the case of cows, even sentience. Cats, dogs, cows, chickens, bunnies, mice, rabbits...have a place in the whole cycle of life and it's not up with the humans. It's bad that we test on animals in labs, but in my opinion, it's important to make sure that things are safe.
On topic...I think the President did a good job threading a middle line between the Catholics and hardcore anti-abortionists and the far left that would like to use any tissue from any aborted feteus for testing. $250 million dollars isn't a tiny sum of money...I'd be happier with Federal Tax Credits for research then cash...but it's a start.
In Beaverton Oregon, where I work. The time of the yellow lights have been reduced at intersections with the new cameras.
r ie s/news-specialreports-78637420010523-140557.html
r ie s/news-specialreports-77893620010516-200526.html
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0 0N ov1.html
http://www.koin.com/c6k/news/specialreports/sto
http://www.koin.com/c6k/news/specialreports/sto
"KOIN's investigation found that amber lights connected to cameras changed to red much more quickly than those without the cameras. Armey says that the news story gave him the proof that he needed to call for a national study."
A study done in Farfaix County Virgina found that increasing yellow times made intersections safer.
http://www.motorists.org/issues/enforce/vastudy
I was wrong about out here, the company isn't LockMart, it's an Australian Company. And yes...the Company DOES issue the tickets.
http://www.theage.com.au/bus/20001102/A21000-20
"The company's attraction is that it offers an entire traffic service, from the taking of photos, to processing and collecting the money from motorists. Redflex will provide Beaverton with cameras, evidence processing, court evidence, training services and a toll-free hotline as part of a public education service."
It's simply wrong to force people into breaking the law in order to increase revenue for a city.