Well, Anonymous liar Coward, if you're going to rewrite the headline to suit you, despite the content of the article to which you linked, you can get as emotional about Bush as your lovey little Republican heart desires. The article in fact states "The second most common response from historians, trailing only Nixon, was that the current presidency is the worst in American history." Since you've got a Bush education, I'll translate: historians most commonly say that Nixon was the worst president in American history, while Bush is second worst. And that's before all the facts are in, and while many historians are Bush worshippers, just like you - before something like impeachment smashes that delusion. Sure, each of those other presidents had their personal bests in worst, but Bush combines all of them into the worst ever. And he's (probably) still got 3 more years to outdo everyone. He can pull that off without even trying - his specialty.
JFK was killed the week he decided to reduce US forces in Vietnam. Johnson's first act was to reverse that decision. Johnson certainly had a lot of blood on his hands for creating that war. Nixon campaigned on a platform of ending the war, then acted to make it permanent. In fact he also kept the war going in 1972 specifically to campaign for reelection. If he hadn't got caught in Watergate, he'd have cut and run in his second term, and installed his successor as President in 1976, probably Bush, the head of the Republican Party. Which is exactly the same strategy Bush is using right now: prop up the catastrophic Iraqis long enough to win in 2004, cut and run in 2006 enough to install his successor in 2008. Too bad his office has committed so much treason that even Republicans are turning against him. I'm looking forward to the full Nixon treatment.
Well, Anonymous Republican whiner Coward, if you showed up and shot off your Republican mouth with a bunch of lies covering for irreparable attacks on America, I'd bash you, too. Why would I waste time "defending Carter", instead of attacking the lying, thieving Republicans you'd present? Typical Republican: thinks every debate is an election campaign, where you just attack/defend your partisan favorite. And where Republicans get outraged when their opponents don't defend themselves the way the Republicans would prefer they do.
When Republicans stop attacking America, when their damage is gone and forgotten, I'll stop bashing them... and ride my flying pig to the pie in the sky.
No, Carter began a process of reregulation, which Reagan/Bush hijacked to rip off the economy. Their incoherent strategy was "free market" only in the sense of a gang of thieves free to steal from an unlocked vault. For over 8 years, while they stole some for their own covert CIA Iran/Contra wars. I guess Carter must have also killed Kennedy, too, right?
Yes, what about the S&L heist? Carter's reregulation of the S&Ls made their deposits investable in more than just buildings, and raised the government insurance from $40K to %100K. A measure to increase the investable cash being held by these rich people's banks that they were witholding from the economy, and to lower the risk of investment, by government indemnification.
Then Bush, as VP, oversaw the subsequent reckless deregulation of the S&Ls. Removing their requirements for things like collateral, or sufficient deposits. Reagan/Bush oversaw the recession of 198s which, in combination with their deregulation program, transformed the American economy. The S&Ls invested in new "junk bonds", like craps at a casino: a few big winners, and a guaranteed huge loss overall in these voodoo economic tricks. Meanwhile, the S&Ls also invested in worthless real estate in Southern California and Texas (where Reagan and Bush came from, respectively), pumping billions into the pockets of Reagan/Bush bribers^Wsupporters. Along the way, Bush got the S&L heist smokescreen to cover some "small" ripoffs to finance Iran/Contra, along with his royal Saudi buddies (see previous post).
By 1989, when the S&Ls were collapsing under the weight of all their bad loans, Reagan/Bush had overseen the industry for 8 years. If Carter in fact had done anything to cause it, they had nearly a decade of their "revolution" to undo it. In fact, they did it, and did it to death. And I'm still paying off their heist. Your mistaken assertion is right along the rightwing blinder policy that will blame Clinton for Bush's Iraq catastrophe. You vote for these criminals - you have to take the punches they throw at our country. Don't try to duck the blame when someone like me, who saw it all happen, tells the truth about their crimes.
Yes, and thanks for the excuse to revisit _De Re Atari_, the original hacker's cookbook. The initial experience programming such a little multiprocessing OS definitely set me off on the right track. And the dearth of documentation of its powerful facilities (until and excluding De Re Atari) gave me the DIY hacker mentality that I cherish to this day.
But the prof didn't teach not to use goto. He omitted teaching how to use goto, which is not the same - especially since use of goto for optimization was in the book. The prof taught not to use goto by failing the student after the test. That's a failure of the prof to teach a technique we've learned from experience.
In 1982, I had an Atari 400 (5MHz 8bit 6502) with a tape drive which cost $500. I upgraded its 16KB RAM to 48KB (replacement) for $500, and the tape to an 88KB (double sided) floppy for $500. Now I can get a P4/3.0GHz for $300, a $104 300GB HD, and 1GB RAM for $60. That's 1440x the CPU bandwidth, 16.4Mx the storage, 10.4Mx the memory for a dollar - which is itself worth less than half its value (in noncomputer goods) of a quarter-century ago. And the HD is 1/10th the size (volume), while the other components are about the same size. So it's clear that storage technology has advanced the most during the "PC revolution", by a factor of a thousandfold. The only competing tech is the transformation of my $500 300bps modem and $50:month Compuserve account to a $50 6Mbps DOCSIS modem at $50:month, which is 20-200Kx cheaper for WAN.
I'm all for putting that 300GB into a cheap, tiny device. All the other cheap, even mobile networked computing has created mainstream demand for archive, beyond memory and storage. But I'm betting on it not because storage tech is somehow lagging. I'm betting on it because that industry is by far the highest performing personal computing innovation we've got.
It's not a copout, and it's also not a revolutionary stance. I personally wouldn't take a bribe, or trust a politician who does. But I also realize that politics is not about trusting politicians, but getting things done. That's a bad state of affairs, but only a martyr tries to fix everything at once, without chance of success. Dirty, secretive business is part of the political system, and the secret part is the part that OSS has a chance at changing. Once we've got some tide-turning gains in that fight, we might have a chance to do something about its political counterpart. In the meantime, we've got all we can manage in just getting OSS to be the default, with proprietary SW the odd exception.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but we're not trying to make a right out of the political process. We're trying to do OSS right, without resorting to even worse practices as a tradeoff. Accepting that politicians are on the take isn't anything like bombing MS headquarters. And OSS victory isn't anything like identical with cleaning up politics. Politics might be more important, but OSS is more urgent - and part of a winning strategy for both. As I said, the OSS revolution is practical - don't get that mixed up with ideology or purity, or you won't get very far.
Enjoy your wallow in the 1970s. My coding experience, which started there, includes typing hex machine code into the Apple ][+ machine language monitor. And it also includes working with customers, graphic artists and mathematicians. Which is why productivity is clearly highest throughout the cycle with flowcharts of reusable schematic objects. We've got lots of native topological intuition and skills we almost use while coding and debugging, but which we're not skilled in operating by typing.
I want to keep the lexical tools you love, especially for geeks who can't use the multidimensional tools, but also just to keep their proven value. So what I'm looking for is a callgraph visualizer for your stuff, and a flowchart compiler that produces procedural code like C and Java. Then we can each use the machines for maximum productivity among all our individual idiosyncracies.
How come the first several links to which I pointed, some pointing to hemp experts, say "canvas" comes from an old Dutch word? Your dictionary blames it on the Belgians, like "French Fries". I thought Dutch people were like Germans, but with a sense of humor...
Maybe you just haven't been smoking long enough: "[Middle English canevas, from Old French, and from Medieval Latin canavsium both ultimately from Latin cannabis, hemp. See cannabis.]":). Click the link, or at least use your imagination if you're amotivated;).
I just want to draw a flowchart and have the compiler and realtime scheduler distribute processes and data among the hardware resources. If we are getting a new architecture and new "programming models", and therefore new compilers and kernels, how about a new IDE paradigm.
Er, could it be that the effect of thousands of Microsoft salespeople is increasing Windows sales, compared to the much smaller amount of Linux salespeople? Maybe all that monopoly vendor lockin is giving Microsoft an edge in sales. And perhaps the media bias in favor of their big advertiser, Microsoft, after years of buying brand favoritism, is responsible for that media spin. Any Linux competitiveness in the highly rigged market is testament to its value. And stories like that one validate Linux's inexorable rise in market share. Linux is just getting started, while Windows getting pretty creaky. Propping it up won't last forever.
At worst, if Quinn got free vacations at OSS conferences paid by OSS corporations, it will show that at least OSS corporations are fighting proprietary corporations like Microsoft in an arena where victories are won every day: buying political decisions. The OSS revolution is a practical one, not an ideological one (though some ideologues like Stallman can be useful). Maybe once the tiny sector of government that is its technology formats and software is open and transparent, we'll have some luck fixing the political part. Until then, I remember the fortune cookie "it's best not to know how laws and sausages are made".
That's a fascinating story that certainly sheds light on this whole subject. I'm curious why you released the source under GPL, and whether that worked out as you expected.
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Well, Anonymous liar Coward, if you're going to rewrite the headline to suit you, despite the content of the article to which you linked, you can get as emotional about Bush as your lovey little Republican heart desires. The article in fact states "The second most common response from historians, trailing only Nixon, was that the current presidency is the worst in American history." Since you've got a Bush education, I'll translate: historians most commonly say that Nixon was the worst president in American history, while Bush is second worst. And that's before all the facts are in, and while many historians are Bush worshippers, just like you - before something like impeachment smashes that delusion. Sure, each of those other presidents had their personal bests in worst, but Bush combines all of them into the worst ever. And he's (probably) still got 3 more years to outdo everyone. He can pull that off without even trying - his specialty.
JFK was killed the week he decided to reduce US forces in Vietnam. Johnson's first act was to reverse that decision. Johnson certainly had a lot of blood on his hands for creating that war. Nixon campaigned on a platform of ending the war, then acted to make it permanent. In fact he also kept the war going in 1972 specifically to campaign for reelection. If he hadn't got caught in Watergate, he'd have cut and run in his second term, and installed his successor as President in 1976, probably Bush, the head of the Republican Party. Which is exactly the same strategy Bush is using right now: prop up the catastrophic Iraqis long enough to win in 2004, cut and run in 2006 enough to install his successor in 2008. Too bad his office has committed so much treason that even Republicans are turning against him. I'm looking forward to the full Nixon treatment.
Well, Anonymous Republican whiner Coward, if you showed up and shot off your Republican mouth with a bunch of lies covering for irreparable attacks on America, I'd bash you, too. Why would I waste time "defending Carter", instead of attacking the lying, thieving Republicans you'd present? Typical Republican: thinks every debate is an election campaign, where you just attack/defend your partisan favorite. And where Republicans get outraged when their opponents don't defend themselves the way the Republicans would prefer they do.
When Republicans stop attacking America, when their damage is gone and forgotten, I'll stop bashing them... and ride my flying pig to the pie in the sky.
No, Carter began a process of reregulation, which Reagan/Bush hijacked to rip off the economy. Their incoherent strategy was "free market" only in the sense of a gang of thieves free to steal from an unlocked vault. For over 8 years, while they stole some for their own covert CIA Iran/Contra wars. I guess Carter must have also killed Kennedy, too, right?
Yes, what about the S&L heist? Carter's reregulation of the S&Ls made their deposits investable in more than just buildings, and raised the government insurance from $40K to %100K. A measure to increase the investable cash being held by these rich people's banks that they were witholding from the economy, and to lower the risk of investment, by government indemnification.
Then Bush, as VP, oversaw the subsequent reckless deregulation of the S&Ls. Removing their requirements for things like collateral, or sufficient deposits. Reagan/Bush oversaw the recession of 198s which, in combination with their deregulation program, transformed the American economy. The S&Ls invested in new "junk bonds", like craps at a casino: a few big winners, and a guaranteed huge loss overall in these voodoo economic tricks. Meanwhile, the S&Ls also invested in worthless real estate in Southern California and Texas (where Reagan and Bush came from, respectively), pumping billions into the pockets of Reagan/Bush bribers^Wsupporters. Along the way, Bush got the S&L heist smokescreen to cover some "small" ripoffs to finance Iran/Contra, along with his royal Saudi buddies (see previous post).
By 1989, when the S&Ls were collapsing under the weight of all their bad loans, Reagan/Bush had overseen the industry for 8 years. If Carter in fact had done anything to cause it, they had nearly a decade of their "revolution" to undo it. In fact, they did it, and did it to death. And I'm still paying off their heist. Your mistaken assertion is right along the rightwing blinder policy that will blame Clinton for Bush's Iraq catastrophe. You vote for these criminals - you have to take the punches they throw at our country. Don't try to duck the blame when someone like me, who saw it all happen, tells the truth about their crimes.
Your opinion is, in fact, very popular among some of our worst citizens. Here's the thing:
Reagan/Bush's campaign team paid the Iranians to keep the American hostages through the 1980 election against Carter. Then Reagan/Bush's Iran/Contra team sold Iran weapons while also sending Iraq chemical weapons during their war against each other, which Bush followed with a war against Iraq. Then Bush's son started a war against Iraq that's turning it over to Iran.
Weigh all that against Carter failing to stop a Soviet invasion of their neighboring Afghanistan, which undid Russian confidence in their government's invincibility. Throw in Reagan/Bush's creation of the Afghan jihad, including bin Laden, which eventually destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon. Which Bush's son used to justify invading Iraq, which we're now turning over to Iran (see paragraph 1).
I'll take Carter, thank you, even if he couldn't do much to rescue an economy destroyed by Nixon/Ford's disastrous war in Vietnam, defeat by OPEC (see paragraphs 1 & 2), and general implosion of American confidence after Watergate. To say nothing of the SEC chaired by Bush/Reagan's campaign manager, Bill Casey (see paragraph one).
Certainly better than the current Bush residue: Worst. President. Ever.
Now we just need the source to Mathematica and we can merge it with AutoCAD.
How about an open source app, or just a nonpriced app, that can import AutoCAD files, edit them, and export AutoCAD?
I want a third arm installed for skiboxing. The second head can wait until I need to try one of those neural implants.
Yes, and thanks for the excuse to revisit _De Re Atari_, the original hacker's cookbook. The initial experience programming such a little multiprocessing OS definitely set me off on the right track. And the dearth of documentation of its powerful facilities (until and excluding De Re Atari) gave me the DIY hacker mentality that I cherish to this day.
But the prof didn't teach not to use goto. He omitted teaching how to use goto, which is not the same - especially since use of goto for optimization was in the book. The prof taught not to use goto by failing the student after the test. That's a failure of the prof to teach a technique we've learned from experience.
In 1982, I had an Atari 400 (5MHz 8bit 6502) with a tape drive which cost $500. I upgraded its 16KB RAM to 48KB (replacement) for $500, and the tape to an 88KB (double sided) floppy for $500. Now I can get a P4/3.0GHz for $300, a $104 300GB HD, and 1GB RAM for $60. That's 1440x the CPU bandwidth, 16.4Mx the storage, 10.4Mx the memory for a dollar - which is itself worth less than half its value (in noncomputer goods) of a quarter-century ago. And the HD is 1/10th the size (volume), while the other components are about the same size. So it's clear that storage technology has advanced the most during the "PC revolution", by a factor of a thousandfold. The only competing tech is the transformation of my $500 300bps modem and $50:month Compuserve account to a $50 6Mbps DOCSIS modem at $50:month, which is 20-200Kx cheaper for WAN.
I'm all for putting that 300GB into a cheap, tiny device. All the other cheap, even mobile networked computing has created mainstream demand for archive, beyond memory and storage. But I'm betting on it not because storage tech is somehow lagging. I'm betting on it because that industry is by far the highest performing personal computing innovation we've got.
I like subclassing and embedding :).
It's not a copout, and it's also not a revolutionary stance. I personally wouldn't take a bribe, or trust a politician who does. But I also realize that politics is not about trusting politicians, but getting things done. That's a bad state of affairs, but only a martyr tries to fix everything at once, without chance of success. Dirty, secretive business is part of the political system, and the secret part is the part that OSS has a chance at changing. Once we've got some tide-turning gains in that fight, we might have a chance to do something about its political counterpart. In the meantime, we've got all we can manage in just getting OSS to be the default, with proprietary SW the odd exception.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but we're not trying to make a right out of the political process. We're trying to do OSS right, without resorting to even worse practices as a tradeoff. Accepting that politicians are on the take isn't anything like bombing MS headquarters. And OSS victory isn't anything like identical with cleaning up politics. Politics might be more important, but OSS is more urgent - and part of a winning strategy for both. As I said, the OSS revolution is practical - don't get that mixed up with ideology or purity, or you won't get very far.
You can't do that by throwing down a broken linebreak tag. You don't seem very German or very Dutch - maybe you're some kind of humorless Alsatian.
Enjoy your wallow in the 1970s. My coding experience, which started there, includes typing hex machine code into the Apple ][+ machine language monitor. And it also includes working with customers, graphic artists and mathematicians. Which is why productivity is clearly highest throughout the cycle with flowcharts of reusable schematic objects. We've got lots of native topological intuition and skills we almost use while coding and debugging, but which we're not skilled in operating by typing.
I want to keep the lexical tools you love, especially for geeks who can't use the multidimensional tools, but also just to keep their proven value. So what I'm looking for is a callgraph visualizer for your stuff, and a flowchart compiler that produces procedural code like C and Java. Then we can each use the machines for maximum productivity among all our individual idiosyncracies.
How come the first several links to which I pointed, some pointing to hemp experts, say "canvas" comes from an old Dutch word? Your dictionary blames it on the Belgians, like "French Fries". I thought Dutch people were like Germans, but with a sense of humor...
Maybe you just haven't been smoking long enough: "[Middle English canevas, from Old French, and from Medieval Latin canavsium both ultimately from Latin cannabis, hemp. See cannabis.]" :). Click the link, or at least use your imagination if you're amotivated ;).
Isn't "canvas" the Dutch word for make your own fun?
I just want to draw a flowchart and have the compiler and realtime scheduler distribute processes and data among the hardware resources. If we are getting a new architecture and new "programming models", and therefore new compilers and kernels, how about a new IDE paradigm.
Er, could it be that the effect of thousands of Microsoft salespeople is increasing Windows sales, compared to the much smaller amount of Linux salespeople? Maybe all that monopoly vendor lockin is giving Microsoft an edge in sales. And perhaps the media bias in favor of their big advertiser, Microsoft, after years of buying brand favoritism, is responsible for that media spin. Any Linux competitiveness in the highly rigged market is testament to its value. And stories like that one validate Linux's inexorable rise in market share. Linux is just getting started, while Windows getting pretty creaky. Propping it up won't last forever.
At worst, if Quinn got free vacations at OSS conferences paid by OSS corporations, it will show that at least OSS corporations are fighting proprietary corporations like Microsoft in an arena where victories are won every day: buying political decisions. The OSS revolution is a practical one, not an ideological one (though some ideologues like Stallman can be useful). Maybe once the tiny sector of government that is its technology formats and software is open and transparent, we'll have some luck fixing the political part. Until then, I remember the fortune cookie "it's best not to know how laws and sausages are made".
That's a fascinating story that certainly sheds light on this whole subject. I'm curious why you released the source under GPL, and whether that worked out as you expected.
That's a pretty clear analysis - thanks. And a cute .sig, too :).
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