Thank you Little Bill. Now I've seen the light. All this time I thought Microsoft wanted my money and my freedom. Now I see that they want to cooperate with me. Bullshit. The path of least resistance leads to slavery. When Big Bill makes you his bitch, don't come crying to me for a blowjob.
Well, he could do what we Merkins do and insist everyone use English. Then he has lots of choices. Probably easier to get the country to change its language than break the MSFT stranglehold anyway. (tounge in cheek! tounge in cheeck! I'm Going Down!! ABORT! ABORT!)
When will people realize that using a certain piece of software or Os is not a political decision, but a technical decision?
I am beginnig to think that they are the same thing. Or at least inseparable. Non-orthagonal. Not being flip. 1. See Lessig's arguments in "Code". Code is Architecture is Law. Making of law *is* political. 2. You wouldn't argue (I hope) that choosing a country to live in is a political descision. Why should choosing an OS to live in be apolitical? Separation of the two is like saying The country one chooses to live in should be solely on the tax rate.
3. I feel certain one could construct a hybrid verbal/math proof of non-orthaganality, but I've forgotten too much linear algebra. I see a matrix with a diagonal of "1"s and everything goes blank.
Given that there's nowhere better to go than the US, IMHO. and in the US there's no better state than NH (freedom-wise), You must stay and change the law. Or ignore it. As I try to parse your response I am unclear what it is you mean exactly. If you mean that those who agree that this kid broke the law (an did something immoral) shouldn't have to move to get away from his threats, well, yes and no. You don't have any right not to be annoyed, or ought not to. You do have a right not to be threatened into changing your legal behavior by credible threat of force. I just don't buy that this is a credible threat of force. Not that the kid should not be punished. Apply spanking/ whupping/ sweedish lecture/ time out as your parenting philosophy demands.
It looked to me like the ball was set into a hemispherical cavity with roller bearings at the rim preventing the magnet hold-down force from sucking the ball down against the cavity. I build linear motors with neodynium iron boron magnets (NeFeB), and I don't think you'd have trouble getting 300 pounds of holddown force in a ball that size with the newest permanent magnets at a 3 mm magnetic gap. (off the cuff, but one based on some experience) If that was a major concern, I'd bet you could make it even larger, thus supporting moderate robotic arms. Now the lack of a self locking mechanism seems easily overcome by making those roller bearings mounted at the tips of hydraulic cylinders, and retracting them to ground out the ball in the cavity. with a normal force on the order i'm talking about, and a decent coef. of friction, that ball can be pretty solidly locked with very little energy expendature. I want to empasize that some of these new magnets are incredible, making even the NeFeB magnets you can buy in Radio Shack, or on Ebay, seem like toys. Inductive power transfer is of course an option, but running a motor off it would require a *load of power, and negates the free joint locking you can get with permanent magnets.
This is a republic. If you don't like something, you *change* it. One of the steps in changing something is discussing what you'd like to change in a public forum. Like this one. Those discussions are bound to include some hyperbole. The Supreme Court is not the ultimate arbiter of legality, believe it or not; it certainly isn't the final arbiter of morality. Another step is electing public officials who agree with you, which, as another/.r mentioned, it seems the people of Salem NH already did. Seems like their community standards may not be what you think they are. Finally, Community only has one 't'. That's 't' for Troll.
Amazon owns exchange.com, which owns bibliofind. See announcement here. Modify your opinions accordingly, if you wish.
Re:Dont invent a better mousetrap; use bank machin
on
eLection '04
·
· Score: 1
Don't forget that anonymity is a crucial element that has to be taken into account in any voting scheme. I don't trust my bank to ignore it when I vote for a candidate that wants banking reform... And any poll tax would be extremely regressive and would be nailed to the wall by your basic (classical)liberal faster than you can say "Maggie Thatcher". As a Libertarian, I love the idea of paying the cost of elections this way, but I just can't imagine it working.
I actually read this book. I liked it. I think to some extent the virulent semi-self aware memes are allegorical stand-ins for real memes, which would be much more boring for those of us who have difficulty reading non-computer related nonfiction. The story is about conversion, so the goatsex/muslim troll/spammer is almost on topic.
I doubt, however, he/she/it realizes it though.
The *most expensive* hammer I could find at McMaster Carr is an 18lb nonsparking sledge made of ampco metal at $334.25 a pop. page 2500. ...Just in case anyone has a yen to spend a fortune on a hammer without doing the paperwork.
It ought to go w/o saying that 3D Graphics is no substitute for 3D Characters. I'd be happy to play 2D games for the rest of my life if all characters are well developed. Give me Sam and Max any day over Duke Nukem. With this 'build it bigger and better' attitute, a game of (2D) Monopoly (which is still sold in an analog form) would weigh more than a tank and occupy a floor of your house.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that the corpratists at CBS are finding sucess with an anti-geek show like Survivor. The very theme of the show is lifted from Lord of the Flies, which many of us remember with horror, as we identified with the weak, chubby, emasculate, glasses-wearing anti-hero. The book's message was that Civilization is fragile. Lord of the Flies judges the survivors, and declares them evil. But in Survivor, we have a celebration of a culture that is anti-cooperative, machiavellian, and uncivilized. You can see the effect of this culture as the TV show makes it's way into High Schools everywhere, where you can hear jocks and other popular types saying to geeks, "I'm voting you off my island" then laughing. Often they are too busy laughing to engage in beating or wedgieing the geek, which is their usual practice. The rise of geek culture was bound to engender a backlash, and this is only the beginning. Network Television, fearing for its life from internet-savvy-geeks, will encourage the backlash. We will be seeing televised death camps within a year, you wait and see.
Dear Sir or Madam: Congratulations are in order for your organazation's recent win in destroying PETA.org. Nothing could possibly demonstrate more clearly your organazation's lack of humour, which may allow poeple to take you more seriously. Your contempt for free speech may prove to be common ground with the companies you fight, enabling a more productive dialogue. Undoubtedly this is a step in the right direction, and will probably be remembered as PETA's finest moment. Sincerely, jackson@netway.com William Peterson
Their Reply:
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about PETA's lawsuit against Michael Doughney for his use of the domain name "peta.org."
Here at PETA, we pride ourselves on having a healthy sense of humor and can appreciate the temptation to parody our sometimes "over-the-top" tactics. However, the use of the name peta.org--the very address that most people would naturally think of if they wanted to reach PETA online--passed beyond the bounds of a harmless parody; it was an intentional hijacking of people who legitimately sought PETA's site to learn more about how to stop animal cruelty.
In the peta.org case, instead of taking customers under false pretenses, the cybersquatter took in Web surfers, confusing and frustrating them and ultimately, hurting animals, something that PETA undeniably takes very seriously.
Mr. Doughney is free to parody PETA on another site--we have no objection to parody per se. In fact, Doughney has had his parody on another site for the past four years. PETA has never sought to impede or interfere with that in any way. However, we began to feel that his motivations were less than pure when he went so far as to try to sell us back a domain name that he knew rightfully belonged to PETA. We decided to let the courts decide. The court found that Doughney had a bad faith intent and "clearly intended to confuse, mislead, and divert Internet users."
PETA has a duty to protect its members and other honest inquirers. Doughney's meat-eating site lured people in with the PETA name and then championed leather goods, hunting, and all sorts of other activities that PETA combats due to the animal suffering they cause.
PETA aggressively and diligently fights for animal rights in every way that we can. This Web site is integral to our work and will allow us to reach people more effectively and as a result, save more animals' lives.
People have described generally what an ERP system is. ie., a database with a number of customized frontends, and a number of off-the shelf frontends. Each dept. or person gets the frontend they deserve. Practically speaking: A part is ordered, the accounting system sees that. ERP checks inventory. if present, ship. Send message to shipping. (get part #8888888888 from bin #E456 and ship to $address) If not manufactured/in stock check Bill of materials. Are all parts in stock? if not order/build more. (sends appropriate orders)do above recursively until you can build original part. (sends documentation and work order to appropriate location with bin locations of subcomponents) when done mfg, you ask where to put it. when it is inventory first part of loop executes and part shipped. Many steps skipped. ie, purchase orders, routings, tool calibration information, almost all accounting. (I only know Mfg. side.) People have said that if the code was free it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. this is true and untrue at the same time. for a company that is big, with established processes, the frontend needs to be *heavily* customized. A startup, esp a manufacturing startup (yes, they exist, even in the US) could use a cleverly designed ERP right out of the box and make their processes match the ERP's processes. I think there is a market for this. I doubt Baan's is flexible enough to do it (but I havn't used it). Several people have noted that ERP co's sometimes give away some source and sell propreitary modules, or service. This resembles the open source model in some interesting ways already. Someday somebody will write or release a set of good, generally applicable ERP like frontends for pg/MySQL, with a slick customization script, and will capture the low end of the market.
There are more than 10,000,000 web pages on the internet with an average of 10? links. BT doesn't want to kill the market so they charge.01 $/year per link. this gives them ONE MILLION DOLLARS a year in revenue. Clearly Doctor Evil is behind this. This is.003353% of their yearly revenue. So actually, they'd charge more..01$/mo.? Only.04024%.05$/mo.?.201% a quarter per link per month? about 1%. Assuming the Internet wouldn't die or revolt. which it would. (disclaimer: all numbers are mostly made up. Actual Size of internet may vary. By a factor of 10.)
I don't think a saint with a semi full of moderator points and Signal 11's karma could rectify all that is wrong with this fucked up thread. That said, This is cause for celebration. BeOS is a great OS, at the top of its form, kicking some serious ass. Yeah, Its a Cathedral, not a Bazaar, but I like both. I just prefer to work in a Bazaar. So lets get down to the serious questions: What tradeoffs has BeOS made to get where it is? (ie. network X server, direct access to hardware in MU OS) Are these tradeoffs worth making in Linux? Can we have our cake and eat it too? Where does X 4.0 get linux in this benchmark? BTW I saw my first boxed BeOS5 boxed set in Borders this weekend (distributed by gobe). I think the proliferation of Linux boxes has made it easier for other Alternate OS's to get on the shelf. The world is a better place every day. (he said as he posted from a windows box using IE5)
It is not hyperbole to say that this TOU agreement forbids me from using the word "prey" in any domain name for the rest of my natural life. Or saying "Duke Nukem is a game for half wits" Because 'Duke Nukem' is a trade mark.
...Trademarks, logos, images and service marks (the "Marks")......You may not use the Marks in a derogatory or defamatory manner, or in any negative context...
It does not say anywhere "except for reviews". Your "..and such." is misleading. I do not consider it a "special privelege" to use the product's name. OK, in actual practice big media companies won't be sued. But Reviewsofappogeegames.com's "Planet of The Babes: Exposed!" Review damn well will.
Trinity Flywheel makes some flywheels, and as you can see from the pictures on thier website, almost all flywheels they make are 'barrel shape' rather than the 'platter shape' we usually imagine when we think of flywheels. This is done for two reasons. One is to increase energy w/o increasing rimspeed (more mass = more energy). The other is to simplify the control of the magnetic bearings. There are usually two, one at each end of the shaft. the further apart these guys get the easier it is to stabilize the flywheel. In fact, you can build a system that only actively controls the flywheel in one axis. The 6 axis controls needed for a big platter are a bear.
Well, this is exactly the response I hope to avoid, in myself mostly. Once you start believing in Kaa's rule there is no hope left, nowhere left to go. I like to believe people are reasonable, or at the very least act in their own self interest. Your view is bleak, cynical, and supported merely by facts. As that one guy said, "who are you going to believe? Me, or your own lying eyes?" Seriously, I think that making sweeping generalizations like this is dangerous. Some politican might take you seriously. And while I have no problem letting the drug addicts out of prison, I'd just as soon not replace them with some other group. Think of all the things that were really done to prevent stupid people from breeding, and tell me that its a good idea.
I think people of different ages would respond differently to this news. Many of us here are post cold-war kids, or just caught the end of it. The space race is as distant as the mythology that missions were named for. To me, this seems like just more inscrutable posturing by old-testament god[s]. I am barely able to comprehend the hostility people my senior by only a few years have for Russians (Soviets...), and completely unable to fathom my grandparents reactions to Germans and Japanese. Oh, sure, on an intellectual level we get it. I've read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and coutless other histories, but that's not the same as feeling it. So try to avoid the obvious "this is incredibly stupid" and "look how dumb/incompetent/out of touch the govenment/military is" Thats certainly my gut reaction too. But maybe we just don't get it. They must have had some reason. It must have made some sort of sense. Right?
perhaps they can implement it using RFC 2795 Seriously, this is not something that warrants actual spending of tax dollars. God knows those poor bastards in europe pay enough already. Not that the 1% of science^H^H^H^H^H^Hpeculative fiction which is based on real science doesn't have merit; there are thousands upon thousands of good, feasable ideas IMAO. For example Jack Vance suggests selling human pelts. A completely untapped market. Akkad Pseudoman (EF Northrup -yes, that one) suggested electromagnetic launch in a 1937 book entitled "Zero to Eighty". Intel ads have maglev material handling systems. There is Heinlien's oft mentioned 'waldo' of "Waldo and Magic Inc.". And John Christopher suggests electrical 'caps' to bend human minds to your every whim. Tell me thats not a good idea! All good ideas. But not worth spending tax money on.
Isn't it amazing how many of my sentences begin with contractions?
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Thank you Little Bill. Now I've seen the light. All this time I thought Microsoft wanted my money and my freedom. Now I see that they want to cooperate with me. Bullshit. The path of least resistance leads to slavery. When Big Bill makes you his bitch, don't come crying to me for a blowjob.
Well, he could do what we Merkins do and insist everyone use English. Then he has lots of choices. Probably easier to get the country to change its language than break the MSFT stranglehold anyway. (tounge in cheek! tounge in cheeck! I'm Going Down!! ABORT! ABORT!)
I am beginnig to think that they are the same thing. Or at least inseparable. Non-orthagonal. Not being flip.
1. See Lessig's arguments in "Code". Code is Architecture is Law. Making of law *is* political.
2. You wouldn't argue (I hope) that choosing a country to live in is a political descision. Why should choosing an OS to live in be apolitical? Separation of the two is like saying The country one chooses to live in should be solely on the tax rate.
3. I feel certain one could construct a hybrid verbal/math proof of non-orthaganality, but I've forgotten too much linear algebra. I see a matrix with a diagonal of "1"s and everything goes blank.
.85(withdrawn)-.15=(donation) .70,
Can I conclude you gave them
or 1.3529411764705882352941176470588 ?
I gave them 1.6775. I hope it helps their
noble cause.
Given that there's nowhere better to go than the US, IMHO. and in the US there's no better state than NH (freedom-wise), You must stay and change the law. Or ignore it. As I try to parse your response I am unclear what it is you mean exactly. If you mean that those who agree that this kid broke the law (an did something immoral) shouldn't have to move to get away from his threats, well, yes and no. You don't have any right not to be annoyed, or ought not to. You do have a right not to be threatened into changing your legal behavior by credible threat of force. I just don't buy that this is a credible threat of force. Not that the kid should not be punished. Apply spanking/ whupping/ sweedish lecture/ time out as your parenting philosophy demands.
It looked to me like the ball was set into a hemispherical cavity with roller bearings at the rim preventing the magnet hold-down force from sucking the ball down against the cavity. I build linear motors with neodynium iron boron magnets (NeFeB), and I don't think you'd have trouble getting 300 pounds of holddown force in a ball that size with the newest permanent magnets at a 3 mm magnetic gap. (off the cuff, but one based on some experience) If that was a major concern, I'd bet you could make it even larger, thus supporting moderate robotic arms. Now the lack of a self locking mechanism seems easily overcome by making those roller bearings mounted at the tips of hydraulic cylinders, and retracting them to ground out the ball in the cavity. with a normal force on the order i'm talking about, and a decent coef. of friction, that ball can be pretty solidly locked with very little energy expendature. I want to empasize that some of these new magnets are incredible, making even the NeFeB magnets you can buy in Radio Shack, or on Ebay, seem like toys. Inductive power transfer is of course an option, but running a motor off it would require a *load of power, and negates the free joint locking you can get with permanent magnets.
This is a republic. If you don't like something, you *change* it. /.r mentioned, it seems the people of Salem NH already did. Seems like their community standards may not be what you think they are.
One of the steps in changing something is discussing what you'd like to change in a public forum. Like this one. Those discussions are bound to include some hyperbole. The Supreme Court is not the ultimate arbiter of legality, believe it or not; it certainly isn't the final arbiter of morality.
Another step is electing public officials who agree with you, which, as another
Finally, Community only has one 't'. That's 't' for Troll.
Amazon owns exchange.com, which owns bibliofind. See announcement here. Modify your opinions accordingly, if you wish.
Don't forget that anonymity is a crucial element that has to be taken into account in any voting scheme. I don't trust my bank to ignore it when I vote for a candidate that wants banking reform... And any poll tax would be extremely regressive and would be nailed to the wall by your basic (classical)liberal faster than you can say "Maggie Thatcher". As a Libertarian, I love the idea of paying the cost of elections this way, but I just can't imagine it working.
I actually read this book. I liked it. I think to some extent the virulent semi-self aware memes are allegorical stand-ins for real memes, which would be much more boring for those of us who have difficulty reading non-computer related nonfiction. The story is about conversion, so the goatsex/muslim troll/spammer is almost on topic. I doubt, however, he/she/it realizes it though.
The *most expensive* hammer I could find at McMaster Carr is an 18lb nonsparking sledge made of ampco metal at $334.25 a pop. page 2500.
...Just in case anyone has a yen to spend a fortune on a hammer without doing the paperwork.
It ought to go w/o saying that 3D Graphics is no substitute for 3D Characters. I'd be happy to play 2D games for the rest of my life if all characters are well developed. Give me Sam and Max any day over Duke Nukem. With this 'build it bigger and better' attitute, a game of (2D) Monopoly (which is still sold in an analog form) would weigh more than a tank and occupy a floor of your house.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that the corpratists at CBS are finding sucess with an anti-geek show like Survivor. The very theme of the show is lifted from Lord of the Flies, which many of us remember with horror, as we identified with the weak, chubby, emasculate, glasses-wearing anti-hero. The book's message was that Civilization is fragile. Lord of the Flies judges the survivors, and declares them evil. But in Survivor, we have a celebration of a culture that is anti-cooperative, machiavellian, and uncivilized. You can see the effect of this culture as the TV show makes it's way into High Schools everywhere, where you can hear jocks and other popular types saying to geeks, "I'm voting you off my island" then laughing. Often they are too busy laughing to engage in beating or wedgieing the geek, which is their usual practice. The rise of geek culture was bound to engender a backlash, and this is only the beginning. Network Television, fearing for its life from internet-savvy-geeks, will encourage the backlash. We will be seeing televised death camps within a year, you wait and see.
Dear Sir or Madam:
Congratulations are in order for your organazation's recent win in destroying PETA.org. Nothing could possibly demonstrate more clearly your organazation's lack of humour, which may allow poeple to take you more seriously. Your contempt for free speech may prove to be common ground with the companies you fight, enabling a more productive dialogue. Undoubtedly this is a step in the right direction, and will probably be remembered as PETA's finest moment. Sincerely, jackson@netway.com William Peterson
Their Reply:
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about PETA's lawsuit against Michael Doughney for his use of the domain name "peta.org."
Here at PETA, we pride ourselves on having a healthy sense of humor and can appreciate the temptation to parody our sometimes "over-the-top" tactics. However, the use of the name peta.org--the very address that most people would naturally think of if they wanted to reach PETA online--passed beyond the bounds of a harmless parody; it was an intentional hijacking of people who legitimately sought PETA's site to learn more about how to stop animal cruelty.
In the peta.org case, instead of taking customers under false pretenses, the cybersquatter took in Web surfers, confusing and frustrating them and ultimately, hurting animals, something that PETA undeniably takes very seriously.
Mr. Doughney is free to parody PETA on another site--we have no objection to parody per se. In fact, Doughney has had his parody on another site for the past four years. PETA has never sought to impede or interfere with that in any way. However, we began to feel that his motivations were less than pure when he went so far as to try to sell us back a domain name that he knew rightfully belonged to PETA. We decided to let the courts decide. The court found that Doughney had a bad faith intent and "clearly intended to confuse, mislead, and divert Internet users."
PETA has a duty to protect its members and other honest inquirers. Doughney's meat-eating site lured people in with the PETA name and then championed leather goods, hunting, and all sorts of other activities that PETA combats due to the animal suffering they cause.
PETA aggressively and diligently fights for animal rights in every way that we can. This Web site is integral to our work and will allow us to reach people more effectively and as a result, save more animals' lives.
Sincerely,
Alisa Mullins
Correspondent
People have described generally what an ERP system is. ie., a database with a number of customized frontends, and a number of off-the shelf frontends. Each dept. or person gets the frontend they deserve. Practically speaking: A part is ordered, the accounting system sees that. ERP checks inventory. if present, ship. Send message to shipping. (get part #8888888888 from bin #E456 and ship to $address) If not manufactured/in stock check Bill of materials. Are all parts in stock? if not order/build more. (sends appropriate orders)do above recursively until you can build original part. (sends documentation and work order to appropriate location with bin locations of subcomponents) when done mfg, you ask where to put it. when it is inventory first part of loop executes and part shipped. Many steps skipped. ie, purchase orders, routings, tool calibration information, almost all accounting. (I only know Mfg. side.)
People have said that if the code was free it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. this is true and untrue at the same time. for a company that is big, with established processes, the frontend needs to be *heavily* customized. A startup, esp a manufacturing startup (yes, they exist, even in the US) could use a cleverly designed ERP right out of the box and make their processes match the ERP's processes. I think there is a market for this. I doubt Baan's is flexible enough to do it (but I havn't used it).
Several people have noted that ERP co's sometimes give away some source and sell propreitary modules, or service. This resembles the open source model in some interesting ways already. Someday somebody will write or release a set of good, generally applicable ERP like frontends for pg/MySQL, with a slick customization script, and will capture the low end of the market.
There are more than 10,000,000 web pages on the internet with an average of 10? links. BT doesn't want to kill the market so they charge .01 $/year per link. this gives them ONE MILLION DOLLARS a year in revenue. Clearly Doctor Evil is behind this. This is .003353% of their yearly revenue. So actually, they'd charge more. .01$/mo.? Only .04024% .05$/mo.? .201% a quarter per link per month? about 1%. Assuming the Internet wouldn't die or revolt. which it would. (disclaimer: all numbers are mostly made up. Actual Size of internet may vary. By a factor of 10.)
I don't think a saint with a semi full of moderator points and Signal 11's karma could rectify all that is wrong with this fucked up thread. That said, This is cause for celebration. BeOS is a great OS, at the top of its form, kicking some serious ass. Yeah, Its a Cathedral, not a Bazaar, but I like both. I just prefer to work in a Bazaar. So lets get down to the serious questions: What tradeoffs has BeOS made to get where it is? (ie. network X server, direct access to hardware in MU OS) Are these tradeoffs worth making in Linux? Can we have our cake and eat it too? Where does X 4.0 get linux in this benchmark? BTW I saw my first boxed BeOS5 boxed set in Borders this weekend (distributed by gobe). I think the proliferation of Linux boxes has made it easier for other Alternate OS's to get on the shelf. The world is a better place every day. (he said as he posted from a windows box using IE5)
setting aside morality and the like, this is a neat idea, though it makes legitimate searching difficult eh?
You fail the Turing test. Sorry.
Trinity Flywheel makes some flywheels, and as you can see from the pictures on thier website, almost all flywheels they make are 'barrel shape' rather than the 'platter shape' we usually imagine when we think of flywheels. This is done for two reasons. One is to increase energy w/o increasing rimspeed (more mass = more energy). The other is to simplify the control of the magnetic bearings. There are usually two, one at each end of the shaft. the further apart these guys get the easier it is to stabilize the flywheel. In fact, you can build a system that only actively controls the flywheel in one axis. The 6 axis controls needed for a big platter are a bear.
Hemos is just trying to Think Different.
Well, this is exactly the response I hope to avoid, in myself mostly. Once you start believing in Kaa's rule there is no hope left, nowhere left to go. I like to believe people are reasonable, or at the very least act in their own self interest. Your view is bleak, cynical, and supported merely by facts. As that one guy said, "who are you going to believe? Me, or your own lying eyes?" Seriously, I think that making sweeping generalizations like this is dangerous. Some politican might take you seriously. And while I have no problem letting the drug addicts out of prison, I'd just as soon not replace them with some other group. Think of all the things that were really done to prevent stupid people from breeding, and tell me that its a good idea.
I think people of different ages would respond differently to this news. Many of us here are post cold-war kids, or just caught the end of it. The space race is as distant as the mythology that missions were named for. To me, this seems like just more inscrutable posturing by old-testament god[s]. I am barely able to comprehend the hostility people my senior by only a few years have for Russians (Soviets...), and completely unable to fathom my grandparents reactions to Germans and Japanese. Oh, sure, on an intellectual level we get it. I've read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and coutless other histories, but that's not the same as feeling it. So try to avoid the obvious "this is incredibly stupid" and "look how dumb/incompetent/out of touch the govenment/military is" Thats certainly my gut reaction too. But maybe we just don't get it. They must have had some reason. It must have made some sort of sense. Right?
perhaps they can implement it using RFC 2795
Seriously, this is not something that warrants actual spending of tax dollars. God knows those poor bastards in europe pay enough already. Not that the 1% of science^H^H^H^H^H^Hpeculative fiction which is based on real science doesn't have merit; there are thousands upon thousands of good, feasable ideas IMAO. For example Jack Vance suggests selling human pelts. A completely untapped market. Akkad Pseudoman (EF Northrup -yes, that one) suggested electromagnetic launch in a 1937 book entitled "Zero to Eighty". Intel ads have maglev material handling systems. There is Heinlien's oft mentioned 'waldo' of "Waldo and Magic Inc.". And John Christopher suggests electrical 'caps' to bend human minds to your every whim. Tell me thats not a good idea! All good ideas. But not worth spending tax money on.
Isn't it amazing how many of my sentences begin with contractions?