I had a fail for CS Assembler 101. Even though it was 68000 I did the assignment instantly (I was a BBC Micro owner and knew everything 6502). I left a printout in the bin, this was to be copied by twenty others. Come results time I was with them - in trouble. The lecturer was keen to get to the bottom of things and I thought I was unable to prove the work was mine. I remembered a last minute bug fix that I had to make when I showed my work to a colleague. This was a half cleared register - run the program more than once and it would go wrong. I fixed it and that was the only difference other than label names and comments to all the cloned entries! Tip to anyone good and studying CS: complete projects early, slip in a minor bug, leave printouts around...
Let's road test the instructions for the application that matters most to Linux. Do they work, could they be more succinct?
1) The download.
The site defaults to the download option. Why would you try anything else? The installation instructions are don't say what you do thereafter, and simple distro specific lines, e.g. "type 'yum update fedora' as root" are not given as an option without digging around on the site. Hence...
2) Unpacking and running the installer. I unpacked the tarball, hopefully to find a INSTALL.TXT inside:
tar xvf firefox-3.0.tar-1 ls cd firefox ls more README.txt
This was to a URL that redirected back to square one - the page with no useful instructions. Several clicks later I found them:
Silly me for not finding that page before unpacking the tarball. I followed these to then try to run the installer -./firefox (with path or else the browser launches). I did this as root with the browser closed down. This came up with an error that xhost+ could not fix. This error could have said - 'you are running as root, hit CTRL+D and try again' but it did not.
I then tried enabling all the depositories for the 'yum update firefox' route as well as the package manager search. This did not work and held me back by some time. I gave the command line a try as a normal user. Note that 'yum' is run as root - I expected FF3 to have an installer that would be the same or an error message that made things clear.
The instructions lead me down the command line route. Nowhere was I told whether I needed to close down my existing browser session or not. The use of the folder browser was not suggested either.
The quicker way is with the folder browser:
Download tarball. Extract it to the home folder. This will create a 'firefox' folder. Open it with the graphical file browser and double click on the 'firefox' icon. Choose to run this in a terminal window and you are all set.
Now, I know what you are asking, what happened to the 39 tabs?
Miraculously they all loaded again with FF3, unscathed.
What hope is there for Linux taking over the desktop when the main application has no install instructions online for easy reference?
Since I run Fedora I obviously do not need any instructions whatsoever, however, they would be nice. I know what the command line is, but what do I type into it? I doubt that will be difficult to figure out, however, blow me down with a feather if I can find install.html on the Mozilla site.
Any clues for the Fedora command line?
I don't close my browser down that often and I expect all 39 tabs to start up if it stacks it, will FF3 pick up my 39 tab FF2 session to 'restore', or do I *have* to save all tabs as bookmarks?
Obviously I don't close down all 39 of my browser tabs unless I have to, so I have yet to extract the tarball, however, where are the instructions? I checked Mozilla and the only words I could find were:
Please note that installing Firefox 3 will overwrite your existing installation of Firefox. You wonâ(TM)t lose any of your bookmarks or browsing history, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might not work until updates for them are made available. Because I have Fedora I do not need instructions. True, it's a bit like Lego - best without the instructions - however, what chance does Linux have of taking over the desktop when the main application does not come with instructions. Even 'tarball' is a bit obscure - tapes, what are they? If only *they* knew.
People have forgotten test images of times past! When image processing was new and exciting there were reference images of a baboon, the bay area from a Landsat camera and Lenna:
David C. Munson, editor-in-chief, January 1996 IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, cited two reasons for the popularity of the image in research: âoeFirst, the image contains a nice mixture of detail, flat regions, shading, and texture that do a good job of testing various image processing algorithms. It is a good test image! Second, the Lena image is a picture of an attractive woman. It is not surprising that the (mostly male) image processing research community gravitated toward an image that they found attractive."
Lenna is so widely accepted in the image processing community that SÃderberg was a guest at the 50th annual Conference of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology in 1997.
Synergy allows one keyboard and mouse to control more than one PC. With an EEE PC running Synergy you would just have to move the mouse left-right between the EEE and the server. Synergy is really easy to setup and it is always useful to have two screens. The TV guide can be brought up on the EEE without having to disrupt the big screen. If running mythtv you get mythweb for this purpose. If taking the Synergy route the EEE PC is the keyboard/mouse for the server once it has booted up and assuming no network problems.
Undoubtedly the Model 'M' is the one to get, however, I have better memories of the keyboards that came with early SGI deskside computers. These were PS2 many years before the rest and you could plug the three button mouse into either side, again PS2. 'Alps' actually made the keyboard for SGI in 'granite' and it did not creak like Sun keyboards or click too much, as per the Model 'M'. The defining feature for me was the lack of 'feet', i.e. the keyboard could not be tilted. At the time this made sense for a 'graphics' workstation.
Check out the 'PERFECT SERVER HOWTO' on http://www.howtoforge.com/ for your preferred distro. It is all you need for what you want to achieve and 'ISPconfig' costs nothing (unlike some other control panels). I can only speak of the 'Fedora' 'HOWTO' - you should get good results and have fun doing it. You only have to have one friend that pays to make your virtual server hire significantly more affordable, chances are that they will not be hammering the server and once you have put in some work getting them setup it will just be a matter of collecting the fees.
I see what the naysayers are saying, however, if you do pick up those 'artist', 'photographer' and other not-so commercial projects you will have an excuse for staying in better touch with people you might otherwise not stay in touch with.
Even if it takes you a whole weekend of fettling I think the effort will be worth the while, have a go with 'ISPconfig' as per tried-and-trusted instructions and take things from there, one project at a time:
You might also be interested in getting a few extra domains to practice with. You can get dynamic ones for free at http://www.dyndns.com/ and check that everything (including email) works. Note that you will have to look in your junk email for emails from a dyndns address.
In the future there will be few notebook machines of the PII/PIII era that actually work. Hence, you could refurbish these humble notebooks with new batteries, keyboards, power cords, optical disks, fixed disks and CCFL tubes. The parts can be found now, they will be hard to come by in days to come. The expenditure may seem outlandish but it is necessary to get a future classic retro-notebook, with collectible value.
Much like how some people use and maintain classic cars there will come a time when people maintain and use classic computers. A vintage IBM from before it all went Lenovo with as-new functionality will command a premium, Toshibas and VAIOs will do too. The HPs and Dells of that era had flimsy cases and could completely vanish, much like the Ford Cortina or anything ever made by British Leyland (except for the old Mini or earlier Minor).
The notebooks have to work if they are to have value in the future. Much like how a classic car actually works and gets from A to B with style, the refurbished PII/PIII retro classic (with wifi card) will be able to run a browser and get from virtual A to B in style.
If the investment route is not for you then give away the machines to someone that can get toy value from them, otherwise cannot your local council dispose them for a small fee?
The current cyber-warfare 'build-up' cannot be discredited without some study of the problems that befall a government that loses all authority and gets it's comeuppance. This should have happened a long time ago with the 'U.S. regime', however, most Americans have been getting butter even though the entire country has been mortgaged to pay for the guns.
Before the "Ceausescu Moment" happens, something has to happen first in the information space. With the example set in Romania it was news of riots elsewhere in the country. The regime did all it could to make sure that the citizens did not get to find out, however, word-of-mouth and foreign radio was telling a different story to the state broadcaster and the authorities were unable to credibly blame the disturbances on a foreign power. It did not take long after that for the firing squads to sort out Ceausescu and his ilk.
There have been exercises by the Department of Homeland Security to control the dissemination of information on the Internet (e.g. the first Cyberstorm). These may have been dressed up in convoluted security language, however they are nothing more than dry runs at internet censorship, feasibility studies in controlling a www word of mouth campaign. As I understand matters, Cyberstorm I was a great success, in effect the government can control what gets written about them. Nothing has changed since then to change that, however, with Cyberstorm II the 'active' measures have been furthered, so that a misinformation campaign can be played out on the 'Web 2.0' blogs.
The government only needs this cyber-warfare capability if it has something to hide - which it does. They are lucky in that nobody would ever believe the lies that the government told to get the world into war. This matters not when there is butter, but when there isn't?
Dear A/C, please read the article before diving off of the deep end:
"Asher's query produced [hijacker Mohamed] Atta's photo -- and about 80 others, many of them fellow 9/11 hijackers, many of them associates of the 9/11 hijackers."
...and my comment disclaimer:
"in fact I think I should tip off the 9/11 'it was explosions and holograms' crowd!"
Yep, I believe the 9/11 'truth movement' have lost the plot, brains fried from too much paranoid conspiracy. That said, a lot of people in New York and elsewhere believe that the government were either behind the attacks or that they knew about it and let it happen on purpose (LIHOP).
In this latter scenario another previously unimagined group could have been behind the attacks (maybe a U.S. based McVeigh-style outfit, lurking in darkest Big-Sky country or in Boston bedsits). Obviously the government would not have been able to get their PNAC war on terror if the culprits lived in the USA or another NATO country, hence, if a domestic group were involved, the blame would have to be elsewhere with make-believe suspects framed for that purpose.
Those not happy with the official narrative have had exactly as much time as you have had to think about what-happen yet they did not believe the election-buying, warmongering-crooks that you fell for, seemingly hook, line and sinker. The 9/11 'doubting Thomas's' can say things that don't stack up, but, to my knowledge, none dispute that there once was a twin-towered WTC. (Your assertion?)
Okay, this was not the first time that the authorities went after the wrong suspects (e.g. the first WTC bombing incident), however, as of yet, no explanation has been provided as to why the original list of 18 had to be changed to 19 hijackers. At the time the world was so shocked by what had been seen that nobody dared ask basic questions, like how a new and definitive list could be produced so quickly or what the supporting evidence was.
This article reveals a mechanism for quickly producing a (near identical) list to that foisted on the world by the feds, with the database developer demonstrating the capabilities somewhat boastfully. Given the incorrect first list and the absence of any other plausible detective work used to get the names right, I think it is about time that the freedom-of-information request goes in to find out if MATRIX was used to produce the suspect lists. If that is the case then some serious questions need to be asked regarding MATRIX and the vested interests behind it.
Note that nobody on this board thinks MATRIX is credible, so if it was used for 9/11 then the lists of suspects are 'incredible' and the trillion-dollar war is further undermined - sorry about that...
Finally, here's a 'lil quote from the 'Big Lie Aryan' that had finance help from grand-daddy Bush (before having to suicide himself when the WWII chapter came to an end):
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
I just had a quick grep on Google for 'Hank Asher'. The results were spectacular - in fact I think I should tip off the 9/11 'it was explosions and holograms' crowd! I always did wonder how they managed to come up with 19 names shortly after the original 18 was proven as bogus. Maybe we are at war with make-believe MATRIX instead of make-believe al-qaeda, or perhaps they are both one and the same. (alqaeda == the database, al-qaeda is widely acknowledged as invented by the government so they could prosecute UBL for being part of a terrorist organisation, presumably because there is no evidence beyond hearsay linking him to the embassy bombings of '98.)
A sample story from the Google:
Another Friend of Giuliani's Embroiled in Sheriff's Criminal Case â" Giuliani's Partner Linked to Bribery Case 04 Dec 2007
When Hank Asher reached into the bag and pulled out the two $15,000 gold Cartier watches, the holiday crowd at Carmine's restaurant on 44th Street in Manhattan noticed, patrons recalled. Later, so did the U.S. attorney in Orange County, Calif., and soon yet another of Rudy Giuliani's business partners was embroiled in a bribery case. Asher, identified by the initials H.A. in Overt Act 59 of a federal grand jury indictment against Orange County sheriff Michael Carona, had handed the diamond-encrusted Cartier baubles to the wives of the sheriff and his deputy, and with that, assured himself a place in a federal indictment that was looming.
The full article and your own research is highly recommended: abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3952112
The original Amstrad wordprocessor came out at an interesting time in the UK. Unemployment rates were sky high and one of my friend's dads (he had two) quit the day-job to build a new writing career. The Amstrad was bought with a grant, then available to people wanting to set up their own business (therefore reducing the unemployment figures). I think there was five pounds a week more than 'dole' in doing this and you did not have to 'sign on' every fortnight. Anyway, on a chance visit to friend's dad five years ago I noticed this particular Amstrad was still in use, in it's original application. There was green rationale in not throwing the thing out (and getting a PC), furthermore, for word-processing, what more do you need? The Z80 was able to keep up with the typing and even the largest poetry anthologies could fit on those disks. Given the decades of use I doubt that this particular Amstrad has yet to be chucked out. I would be surprised if it has been moved out of the study, it probably isn't collecting dust either as the dust covers (remember them?) always went on when the machine was turned off.
Message me if you live in the UK and want to track down a 'current user'.
Less is more when it comes to fear, terror and those sorts of things. 3D Monster Maze on the ZX81 was a lot more scary than Doom (as was Awesome Wells 'War of the Worlds' in AM radio format). The ZX81 screen was black and white, somewhat blocky (80 by 50 'pixels'). There were no guns at all in the 3D Monster Maze game and just the one maze to exit. The sight of the baddy (a T.Rex) was really scary and the seconds between screen updates only made it more so. (It was seconds per frame, not 'FPS' back then.) As well as the panic in normal game play there was an added hardware function. If you accidentally nudged the 16K RAM-pack then the computer would crash, throwing random graphics on the screen - terrifying in a 3D Monster Maze game. Much like how painting has been going downhill with nothing new since the Mona Lisa, so it is with games. Doom is merely a tarted up version of 3D Monster Maze with a few bombs and weapons gimmicks thrown in for the American market.
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I had a fail for CS Assembler 101. Even though it was 68000 I did the assignment instantly (I was a BBC Micro owner and knew everything 6502). I left a printout in the bin, this was to be copied by twenty others. Come results time I was with them - in trouble.
The lecturer was keen to get to the bottom of things and I thought I was unable to prove the work was mine. I remembered a last minute bug fix that I had to make when I showed my work to a colleague. This was a half cleared register - run the program more than once and it would go wrong. I fixed it and that was the only difference other than label names and comments to all the cloned entries!
Tip to anyone good and studying CS: complete projects early, slip in a minor bug, leave printouts around...
Let's road test the instructions for the application that matters most to Linux. Do they work, could they be more succinct?
./firefox (with path or else the browser launches). I did this as root with the browser closed down. This came up with an error that xhost+ could not fix. This error could have said - 'you are running as root, hit CTRL+D and try again' but it did not.
1) The download.
The site defaults to the download option. Why would you try anything else?
The installation instructions are don't say what you do thereafter, and simple distro specific lines, e.g. "type 'yum update fedora' as root" are not given as an option without digging around on the site. Hence...
2) Unpacking and running the installer. I unpacked the tarball, hopefully to find a INSTALL.TXT inside:
tar xvf firefox-3.0.tar-1
ls
cd firefox
ls
more README.txt
This was to a URL that redirected back to square one - the page with no useful instructions. Several clicks later I found them:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Installing+Firefox+on+Linux#Installing_outside_of_a_package_manager
Silly me for not finding that page before unpacking the tarball. I followed these to then try to run the installer -
I then tried enabling all the depositories for the 'yum update firefox' route as well as the package manager search. This did not work and held me back by some time. I gave the command line a try as a normal user. Note that 'yum' is run as root - I expected FF3 to have an installer that would be the same or an error message that made things clear.
The instructions lead me down the command line route. Nowhere was I told whether I needed to close down my existing browser session or not. The use of the folder browser was not suggested either.
The quicker way is with the folder browser:
Download tarball. Extract it to the home folder.
This will create a 'firefox' folder.
Open it with the graphical file browser and double click on the 'firefox' icon.
Choose to run this in a terminal window and you are all set.
Now, I know what you are asking, what happened to the 39 tabs?
Miraculously they all loaded again with FF3, unscathed.
What hope is there for Linux taking over the desktop when the main application has no install instructions online for easy reference?
Since I run Fedora I obviously do not need any instructions whatsoever, however, they would be nice. I know what the command line is, but what do I type into it? I doubt that will be difficult to figure out, however, blow me down with a feather if I can find install.html on the Mozilla site.
Any clues for the Fedora command line?
I don't close my browser down that often and I expect all 39 tabs to start up if it stacks it, will FF3 pick up my 39 tab FF2 session to 'restore', or do I *have* to save all tabs as bookmarks?
Obviously I don't close down all 39 of my browser tabs unless I have to, so I have yet to extract the tarball, however, where are the instructions?
I checked Mozilla and the only words I could find were:
Please note that installing Firefox 3 will overwrite your existing installation of Firefox. You wonâ(TM)t lose any of your bookmarks or browsing history, but some of your extensions and other add-ons might not work until updates for them are made available.
Because I have Fedora I do not need instructions. True, it's a bit like Lego - best without the instructions - however, what chance does Linux have of taking over the desktop when the main application does not come with instructions. Even 'tarball' is a bit obscure - tapes, what are they? If only *they* knew.
People have forgotten test images of times past! When image processing was new and exciting there were reference images of a baboon, the bay area from a Landsat camera and Lenna:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna
David C. Munson, editor-in-chief, January 1996 IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, cited two reasons for the popularity of the image in research:
âoeFirst, the image contains a nice mixture of detail, flat regions, shading, and texture that do a good job of testing various image processing algorithms. It is a good test image! Second, the Lena image is a picture of an attractive woman. It is not surprising that the (mostly male) image processing research community gravitated toward an image that they found attractive."
Lenna is so widely accepted in the image processing community that SÃderberg was a guest at the 50th annual Conference of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology in 1997.
Bring back Lenna!
Synergy allows one keyboard and mouse to control more than one PC. With an EEE PC running Synergy you would just have to move the mouse left-right between the EEE and the server. Synergy is really easy to setup and it is always useful to have two screens. The TV guide can be brought up on the EEE without having to disrupt the big screen. If running mythtv you get mythweb for this purpose.
If taking the Synergy route the EEE PC is the keyboard/mouse for the server once it has booted up and assuming no network problems.
Undoubtedly the Model 'M' is the one to get, however, I have better memories of the keyboards that came with early SGI deskside computers. These were PS2 many years before the rest and you could plug the three button mouse into either side, again PS2. 'Alps' actually made the keyboard for SGI in 'granite' and it did not creak like Sun keyboards or click too much, as per the Model 'M'.
The defining feature for me was the lack of 'feet', i.e. the keyboard could not be tilted. At the time this made sense for a 'graphics' workstation.
1) Try the admin login at the ISPconfig site:
:-)
http://www.ispconfig.org/demo.htm
Prod around and you will see it does what you want.
2) Use howtoforge to set it up on your distro
Check out the 'PERFECT SERVER HOWTO' on http://www.howtoforge.com/ for your preferred distro. It is all you need for what you want to achieve and 'ISPconfig' costs nothing (unlike some other control panels).
I can only speak of the 'Fedora' 'HOWTO' - you should get good results and have fun doing it.
You only have to have one friend that pays to make your virtual server hire significantly more affordable, chances are that they will not be hammering the server and once you have put in some work getting them setup it will just be a matter of collecting the fees.
I see what the naysayers are saying, however, if you do pick up those 'artist', 'photographer' and other not-so commercial projects you will have an excuse for staying in better touch with people you might otherwise not stay in touch with.
Even if it takes you a whole weekend of fettling I think the effort will be worth the while, have a go with 'ISPconfig' as per tried-and-trusted instructions and take things from there, one project at a time:
http://www.ispconfig.org/index.htm
http://www.howtoforge.com/fedora-8-server-lamp-email-dns-ftp-ispconfig
You might also be interested in getting a few extra domains to practice with. You can get dynamic ones for free at http://www.dyndns.com/ and check that everything (including email) works. Note that you will have to look in your junk email for emails from a dyndns address.
In the future there will be few notebook machines of the PII/PIII era that actually work. Hence, you could refurbish these humble notebooks with new batteries, keyboards, power cords, optical disks, fixed disks and CCFL tubes. The parts can be found now, they will be hard to come by in days to come. The expenditure may seem outlandish but it is necessary to get a future classic retro-notebook, with collectible value.
Much like how some people use and maintain classic cars there will come a time when people maintain and use classic computers. A vintage IBM from before it all went Lenovo with as-new functionality will command a premium, Toshibas and VAIOs will do too. The HPs and Dells of that era had flimsy cases and could completely vanish, much like the Ford Cortina or anything ever made by British Leyland (except for the old Mini or earlier Minor).
The notebooks have to work if they are to have value in the future. Much like how a classic car actually works and gets from A to B with style, the refurbished PII/PIII retro classic (with wifi card) will be able to run a browser and get from virtual A to B in style.
If the investment route is not for you then give away the machines to someone that can get toy value from them, otherwise cannot your local council dispose them for a small fee?
The current cyber-warfare 'build-up' cannot be discredited without some study of the problems that befall a government that loses all authority and gets it's comeuppance. This should have happened a long time ago with the 'U.S. regime', however, most Americans have been getting butter even though the entire country has been mortgaged to pay for the guns.
Before the "Ceausescu Moment" happens, something has to happen first in the information space. With the example set in Romania it was news of riots elsewhere in the country. The regime did all it could to make sure that the citizens did not get to find out, however, word-of-mouth and foreign radio was telling a different story to the state broadcaster and the authorities were unable to credibly blame the disturbances on a foreign power. It did not take long after that for the firing squads to sort out Ceausescu and his ilk.
There have been exercises by the Department of Homeland Security to control the dissemination of information on the Internet (e.g. the first Cyberstorm). These may have been dressed up in convoluted security language, however they are nothing more than dry runs at internet censorship, feasibility studies in controlling a www word of mouth campaign. As I understand matters, Cyberstorm I was a great success, in effect the government can control what gets written about them. Nothing has changed since then to change that, however, with Cyberstorm II the 'active' measures have been furthered, so that a misinformation campaign can be played out on the 'Web 2.0' blogs.
The government only needs this cyber-warfare capability if it has something to hide - which it does. They are lucky in that nobody would ever believe the lies that the government told to get the world into war. This matters not when there is butter, but when there isn't?
Dear A/C, please read the article before diving off of the deep end:
...and my comment disclaimer:
"Asher's query produced [hijacker Mohamed] Atta's photo -- and about 80 others, many of them fellow 9/11 hijackers, many of them associates of the 9/11 hijackers."
"in fact I think I should tip off the 9/11 'it was explosions and holograms' crowd!"
Yep, I believe the 9/11 'truth movement' have lost the plot, brains fried from too much paranoid conspiracy. That said, a lot of people in New York and elsewhere believe that the government were either behind the attacks or that they knew about it and let it happen on purpose (LIHOP).
In this latter scenario another previously unimagined group could have been behind the attacks (maybe a U.S. based McVeigh-style outfit, lurking in darkest Big-Sky country or in Boston bedsits). Obviously the government would not have been able to get their PNAC war on terror if the culprits lived in the USA or another NATO country, hence, if a domestic group were involved, the blame would have to be elsewhere with make-believe suspects framed for that purpose.
Those not happy with the official narrative have had exactly as much time as you have had to think about what-happen yet they did not believe the election-buying, warmongering-crooks that you fell for, seemingly hook, line and sinker. The 9/11 'doubting Thomas's' can say things that don't stack up, but, to my knowledge, none dispute that there once was a twin-towered WTC. (Your assertion?)
Okay, this was not the first time that the authorities went after the wrong suspects (e.g. the first WTC bombing incident), however, as of yet, no explanation has been provided as to why the original list of 18 had to be changed to 19 hijackers. At the time the world was so shocked by what had been seen that nobody dared ask basic questions, like how a new and definitive list could be produced so quickly or what the supporting evidence was.
This article reveals a mechanism for quickly producing a (near identical) list to that foisted on the world by the feds, with the database developer demonstrating the capabilities somewhat boastfully. Given the incorrect first list and the absence of any other plausible detective work used to get the names right, I think it is about time that the freedom-of-information request goes in to find out if MATRIX was used to produce the suspect lists. If that is the case then some serious questions need to be asked regarding MATRIX and the vested interests behind it.
Note that nobody on this board thinks MATRIX is credible, so if it was used for 9/11 then the lists of suspects are 'incredible' and the trillion-dollar war is further undermined - sorry about that...
Finally, here's a 'lil quote from the 'Big Lie Aryan' that had finance help from grand-daddy Bush (before having to suicide himself when the WWII chapter came to an end):
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
I just had a quick grep on Google for 'Hank Asher'. The results were spectacular - in fact I think I should tip off the 9/11 'it was explosions and holograms' crowd!
I always did wonder how they managed to come up with 19 names shortly after the original 18 was proven as bogus. Maybe we are at war with make-believe MATRIX instead of make-believe al-qaeda, or perhaps they are both one and the same. (alqaeda == the database, al-qaeda is widely acknowledged as invented by the government so they could prosecute UBL for being part of a terrorist organisation, presumably because there is no evidence beyond hearsay linking him to the embassy bombings of '98.)
A sample story from the Google:
Another Friend of Giuliani's Embroiled in Sheriff's Criminal Case â" Giuliani's Partner Linked to Bribery Case 04 Dec 2007
When Hank Asher reached into the bag and pulled out the two $15,000 gold Cartier watches, the holiday crowd at Carmine's restaurant on 44th Street in Manhattan noticed, patrons recalled. Later, so did the U.S. attorney in Orange County, Calif., and soon yet another of Rudy Giuliani's business partners was embroiled in a bribery case. Asher, identified by the initials H.A. in Overt Act 59 of a federal grand jury indictment against Orange County sheriff Michael Carona, had handed the diamond-encrusted Cartier baubles to the wives of the sheriff and his deputy, and with that, assured himself a place in a federal indictment that was looming.
The full article and your own research is highly recommended:
abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3952112
Nostalgia is what it used to be!
The original Amstrad wordprocessor came out at an interesting time in the UK. Unemployment rates were sky high and one of my friend's dads (he had two) quit the day-job to build a new writing career. The Amstrad was bought with a grant, then available to people wanting to set up their own business (therefore reducing the unemployment figures). I think there was five pounds a week more than 'dole' in doing this and you did not have to 'sign on' every fortnight.
Anyway, on a chance visit to friend's dad five years ago I noticed this particular Amstrad was still in use, in it's original application. There was green rationale in not throwing the thing out (and getting a PC), furthermore, for word-processing, what more do you need? The Z80 was able to keep up with the typing and even the largest poetry anthologies could fit on those disks.
Given the decades of use I doubt that this particular Amstrad has yet to be chucked out. I would be surprised if it has been moved out of the study, it probably isn't collecting dust either as the dust covers (remember them?) always went on when the machine was turned off.
Message me if you live in the UK and want to track down a 'current user'.
Less is more when it comes to fear, terror and those sorts of things.
3D Monster Maze on the ZX81 was a lot more scary than Doom (as was Awesome Wells 'War of the Worlds' in AM radio format).
The ZX81 screen was black and white, somewhat blocky (80 by 50 'pixels'). There were no guns at all in the 3D Monster Maze game and just the one maze to exit. The sight of the baddy (a T.Rex) was really scary and the seconds between screen updates only made it more so. (It was seconds per frame, not 'FPS' back then.)
As well as the panic in normal game play there was an added hardware function. If you accidentally nudged the 16K RAM-pack then the computer would crash, throwing random graphics on the screen - terrifying in a 3D Monster Maze game.
Much like how painting has been going downhill with nothing new since the Mona Lisa, so it is with games. Doom is merely a tarted up version of 3D Monster Maze with a few bombs and weapons gimmicks thrown in for the American market.
Anyone for a game of Hunt The Wumpus?