your 2 main choices are etymotic or shure. I did a stack of research about a year ago, and in some ways it came down to what you like in your sound - each had certain advantages. With the Shures - don't go with models below the e3 however
Back when I was a team leader, the best motivator I found was either 1)Cookies, or 2)M&Ms!!
No, I'm serious....
Depending on which the developer liked
If a developer did something cool, or busted his (or her - yes we had some female type programmers) butt, or anything else that was "above the bar", that afternoon, around 2pm (after lunch) - I would walk over to their cube, with a tray - with a cup of coffee form them, and a snack - and a little hand written "Thanks" note. The company supplied the coffee, and the cookie/snack came out of my pocket money. And you made sure that his/her co-workers SAW you deliver the snack
In out little area - it soon became an M&M standard - if you found a package on your chair - you knew that someone was saying "Good work - thank you"
It's amazing what folks will do for a cookie or package of M&Ms - or maybe it was the regularly occuring fact that the team leads would recognize the work, it a quiet, but still public way
Back in the mid to late 70s, possibly early 1980s, I saw a REALLY REALLY interesting paper on climate that I wish I could find again. It pointed out that we were about to enter (or had entered) a period of NATURAL rapid global warming, which would rapidly lead to the northern icecap shrinking, leading to some artic ocean water mixing with Atlantic and Pacfic waters - which would distrupt this exact current, which would VERY rapidly lead to the next (overdue) Ice Age! The paper was on what causes an Ice Age (NOT on Global warming etc), and it was the ONLY model this guy could come up with that fit
To sum it it - Ice Ages are actually triggered by the global climate getting above a certain temp, and it SUDDENLY changes to cold - almost a sawtooth pattern - and that we are overdue for an Ice Age....
The BIG problem is that vendors often change the way components are made without telling you
Back in the early 80s, I worked for a defense contractor. One of the units we made used a FET (Field effect transistor) - a nice standard 2n number if I remember right. Well, one day, about every 3 or 4th unit we made failed ONE test, and all symptoms pointed at the FET - you'd change it, and sometimes it would go away - luckily, we saved the "BAD" FETs - it seems that ONE of the manufacturers had "Improved" their process for making the part. None of the parts made by them after a certain date worked in our design, and it turns out, they "tweaked" the spec based on our findings. Didn't HELP us, but we knew then to do what is known as a "lifetime buy" - aka buy ALL the parts of the old spec that we thought we would ever need - we figured we needed about 100 more - we bought 1000 to be safe (hey, at 10 cents each - better save than sorry)
So trust me, the cap maker can change things on someone like Dell (or IBM or whoever) and never even mention it to them. I'm quite sure that Dell will be talking to them about this problem
Heh - go to any vibration testing lab, and they've played with stuff at those frequencies and LOWER - I used to do vibration sweeps that ran from.5hz (yes 1/2 hz) to 2 Khz with an electrodynamic shaker (thing speaker with a metallic cone to which you could bolt your test fixtures and units under test) - our "normal" interface plate was a slab of aluminum plate 24" in diameter about 2.5" thick - and we could mount bigger -and my lab only had a SMALL shaker - it was a MERE 18 Kilowatts (and I'm NOT talking peak - that's RMS continuious) - water cooling is a "good thing"
What's real fun is going to a lab doing earthquake testing - those test tables are usually hydrolic powered, go from freqs measured in seconds/cycle usually up to around 30-40hz, but the "table" on some I've seen are 10 or 15 FEET square, and have throws measured in FEET. One lab that I knew that did that used to have to restrict certain tests to certain days, because there was a printing company about 500 yds away, and the shaker would actually create enough ground vibration to mess up any print jobs that were running (the presses would kick off in earthquake mode) Ever seen a rack cabinet full of gear mounted to a slab of metal, and then shaken back and forth, say 2-3 FEET at 20hz? And SURVIVE? I have - and is some of the testing required of gear going in Nuke plants.
I once asked them about riding the table - they said it would litterally break your legs to stand on the table - your bones would not be able to handle it
That's the same lab where I saw a telephone pole launched at 300 mph end on into a containment building door (hey, a tornado MIGHT pick up a pole and throw it into the door) yes - the pole bounced off the door - it was a VERY impressive bang - and they did NOT to it at the main lab - not enough room (think about how you do that test - get a telephone pole to fly like a giant arrow in free flight, at a pre determined, replicable speed - hint - High pressure N2, burst disks, and pipe are your friends)
I've been a computer programmer for a LONG time - by 1984 I was making at least part of my living programming. Ive seen stuff come, and stuff go
What usually makes people adopt an OS (I'm NOT talking me in particular) 1)The Killer Application - an application that runs on YOUR OS that runs NOWHERE else. Honestly, for at least 2-3 of the transitions I've seen, it was (at least partly) the "Next great spreadsheet" - Apple II - VisiCalc - IBM PC - Lotus 123 - Windows - Excel/Wingz/Word for Windows
2)The OS does something itself that the competition does NOT - In the case of Linux, It's generally things like firewalls/stability etc - THIS "something" generally has to be a bigger "something" than #1 - or it leads to slow adoption
3)Cost - and I'm NOT talking $$$ or even TCO as measured in studies, although they are certainly PART of the "Cost" I'm talking about, and in fact, in a corp environment, TCO aproximates the "Cost" I'm talking about. In my case, talking about individuals, it's more $$ and effort combined. For a person just starting in computers, there is little "cost" in moving to Linux - but to the person who has spent a lot of years learning to use Windows and it's applications, there is a "Mental" cost of re-learning how to do things. For us geeks, this is fun, and the cost can be negative (hey, we LIKE playing with new stuff), but to most people, any skill set change is real, and a bother. Why do you thing the average PC doesn't get patched/have it's anti virus updated - too much bother. They run the PC until it breaks, and then get someone to "fix it" - and in fact, often the "fix" is to buy another computer!! I've seen perfectly good PCs thrown out, because the owner doesn't want to bother - they spend the $500 or $1000 on a new PC, move their data, and get a new toy, and have fixed their problem. Doesn't seem to make much sense, until you figure that for a LOT of people, if you figure in their time as money, it's actually cheaper to do this - let's face it - if you earn even $10/hr, if you save 50 hours over the life of the PC by NOT updating, etc, you have paid for a new PC!! (which has all the NEW toys...)
It comes down to - we are not normal users (thank goodness)
Also, a lot of folks don't think about Mantiles - they really change the color temperture of light, and even kerosene lamps can have mantiles - which REALLY raise the color of the light
Cotton gin - drums with hooks that basically mechanically carded the wool - I can ge more detailed if you'd like
Steam Locomotion - as I'm in the middle of building a 2.5"/1ft scale engine, I'd BETTER know how this works - getting the blast pipe adjusted is fun...
Electricity - well, I was an electronics tech for 10 years - built my share of SR memory circuits from transistors
Telephone system - circa what era? Pulse dial (steppers) - cross rod? Modern switches? The fact that most analog audio electronics on the pro level is still compatible with the standards set back when by Western Electric...
Over the air broadcasting? I'm a ham, and used to by the assistant cheif eng of a small AM radio station...
Spent part of today discussing video signals with the techs at work (major TV network) and they were shocked that a "Mere programmer" actually could look at the video signals, and discuss what was likely happening, and more importantly, how to fix it, and what the tradeoffs are
I can also run a lathe (wood and metal), mill, tablesaw, jointer (again, wood and metal), plainer (never run a metal plainer, but...), I can weld a bit, have fully renovated more than 1 house (can't plaster very well however - I can spackle) - I call a pro when I need a wiped lead bend done, but that has (mostly) been replaced by PVC
I don't ask that people understand how most of this is done - but it would be nice if people had a general idea of the topic, if not the ability
Well, it doesn't have to be a shiny desk - but a desk with a big top to spread the paper out on makes a big difference - heck, my favorites are one of those old grey steelcase industrial desks from the 1950s - the ones you can park a compact car on, and it wont break - cheap if you can find one - an BIG
As you said - space to do paper designs - a big white board, or at least a big easel pad
a Good chair Do NOT pick based on name - go sit in various models - I hate the Aeron, and traded a guy at work for a chair that fit ME better
A good keyboard that YOU like (I like the old IBM style - still made by Unicomp)
A mouse that YOU like
(Hint - I've actually paid for my own keyboard and mouse at various employers)
A good monitor - or better - 2 (I keep trying to talk my boss into dual monitors with no luck)
Bookshelves to store your reference books
It comes down to this - ergonomics in the interface to the PC, a large flat work surface (heck, I'd rather a BIG folding table than a small fancy desk) and a good chair and lighting - and remember, you will do a lot of paper design
I will tell you that some of the best design time I've ever had was at 9 or 10am, in the back corner of the company cafeteria - we put 2-3 tables together, there was almost no one around, and we were close to coffee and snacks
Next generation of hackers are upstairs, asleep in their bed, my wife is in the kitchen playing with the new laptop, and I'm getting ready to grive to a friends to drag Cat-5 in his new house.
So I know where the next generation of hackers is coming from, and I trust my kids will figure it out - my daughter already knows the basics (fun "talk")
I'm thinking of doing the "semi rural" think - but I think of it this way - sell my house here, pay the mortgage off, by the house there (mortgage free), and pocket the other 290k. Now I work. If I earn 1/2 of what I do now, who cares?
You can ALWAYS penetrate it - the question is, do you have what it takes - Drop a 2k bomb on the roof of the M1A? (1 or 2) it'll go through - if not, hey, I put a 50 Mt on the roof, it'll go
Yes, you have to understand where they are coming from. Unfortunately, I believe the current problem stems from two major historical factors, plus 3 or 4 tactical mistakes
Historical factors 1)Post WWI, the Ottoman Empire broke up - to look at the Ottoman Empire in "Other terms" think of it as the Caliphate - aka the area under control of the Sultan. They basically ruled central/south eastern Europe, and most of the Middle East. They have NOT forgotten that. They do NOT forgive us "upstarts" from taking that away. You have a bunch of religious radicals who want to see the Caliphate restored, and are promising that to the masses 2)Oil. Or more generally, wealth earned because of resources developed by outsiders without the corresponing increase in local infrastructure/knowledge/"civilization" (can't think of a better word right now - sorry, it's early) - look historically - Gold, Phosphates, Oil, whatever. An outside group comes in, appoints a leader, takes the resource, and pays the leader. Unless the leader is VERY smart, what you end up with is people with wealth/technology that they can NOT deal with because of the lack of support structure (NOT lack of intelligence or drive). It leads two one of 2 things - a "Playboy" culture of wealth that was not really worked for, OR (when the money goes away) a cargo cult. In the playboy mode, eventually, a percentage of people come to realize "is that all there is" and that there is some gap in their life, and they turn towards religion - often towards fundimentalism (of which ever flavor - Islam, Christian, etc) - and this case, leaving them open to the same people in item 1, only they have the money to finance things
The tactical mistakes I'll only talk recent - we could go through a bunch of them, back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and we really should
The BIGGEST mistake was made by President Carter - he basically did NOTHING with the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and when we had the dramatic failure in the rescue mission, we backed off, and whimpered about it - the signal "The Americans won't do anything if attacked, they are weak" - It was NOT only Carter however - there was a LOT of backing off - the Pubelo Incident, Ditto the Liberty Incident, The Beruit bombing, the USS Cole, The Blackhawk down incident - the list goes on. We basically became a country known for talking the talk, but NOT backing it up, and if our nose got bloodied at all, we would back off. Items that in earlier times that would have been called an act of war, and were ("Remember the Maine"), we ignored. We taught people the lesson - Punch the US in the nose, and they will negotiate with you, and you'll get at least some of what you want. It's like children - if they do something wrong, and you then bribe them to behave, they learn that misbehavior gets them what they want - aka you are giving positive reinforcement for misbehavior
According to someone I know who worked on the orignal "Star Wars" research, he says the big mistake everyone makes is that they thing that the high power lasers melt things - he said "Nope, they are actually kinetic weapons - says you put enough energy in a laser beam (think high power pulsed) the slug of energy acts like a kinetic impact"
Actually, at this point, almost all the Humvees are "Up armored", the problem is, as usual, this has lead to a response - less ak47 type ambushes, more IEDs. And as other, even heavier armored vehicles have shown up, the IEDs have gotten bigger - They refer to them as N-bangers where N = 1 or more - 1-banger is one shell/mine etc, 2 is 2 etc. The reports that I'm hearing say they have mostly given up on 1 bangers, and 2,3,4s are the most common
Action leads to reaction, and no matter HOW much armor you put on something, you can always penetrate it - just takes a bigger bang. The say that some of the bigger IEDs actually pick something like a APC and throw them a couple of hundred yards, and up-armored HUMVEES just get blown to bits
How about switching back to the older foam that shead less. NASA switched to an "envrionmentally friendly" foam a few years back, even though they have an exemption...
There are some of us middle aged extras who can do the modern stuff to - and unlike w2irt (who is a friend, even if we can't agree on politics) I'll be glad to see code go. I learned it, and have forgotten it - but it's on my "things to brush up on for fun" list
Code kept me out of the hobby back in the late 70s, early 80s, got my tech eventually, and decided I wanted to play HF, so I buckled down and learned it, even though the ITU had already dropped the code requirement, and I figured this day was coming
CW? Interesting mode - glad it's there. As a requirement? No thanks. Should the make the written harder, and more "up to date" YES - I'd love to see the tech exam have sections on things like "what is CTCSS and how to use it", aka, I'd like to see the exams make it into the late 1980s, never mind the 21st century
Biggest problem with both WAAS and GRINGO in Africa is that there is not likely to be a local CORS station to get a reference from - remember, the closer you are to a CORS (continuiously operating reference station) the better your accuracy - and the CORS data is what is used to generate the WAAS signal, AND used for the post processing in GRINGO
Most models are available with flux gate compasses today - for instance, that is one of the 2 differences between the Garmin G60C and g60CS (S is for sensors) - the other is a barometric altimeter
Yep, definately the way to go - you know that there is a whole subsection of the Ham radio hobby that does this?
IF you use a directional antenna (aka beam) you will usually also need/want an attenuator, so you can cut down on signals that are TOO strong
There are also "time of arrival" RDF units - take 2 antennas, put them say, less than 1/2 wavelength apart, and a fairly simple circuit that generates FM, plus a radio tuned to the frequency in question - if the signal gets to both antennas at the same time, you gte no difference signal, hence no tone. Turn away, you get tone
Yep - they work GREAT for that - first learned about releasable ties working for my college TV station, oh, 20+ years ago
That said, I've almost totally switched to "12 cord" type lacing cord - carry a roll of it with you (or even a partial roll) and you can make "any size" lacing you want, from tiny - 2-3 wires, to HUGE, plus you can tie things up and the like. Last roll I got cost me $4 or so, and should last me the rest of my life. I go through a roll ever 10-20 years, and I have 6 rolls Just cut, and make new, as needed
The BIGGEST problem with releasable ties is that the ends stick out and leave things sloppy - at least for "semi fixed" installs - don't be cheap, cut the ends off, and use new ties when you re-bundle, unless it's an almost every day thing
I DO like releasable ties for things like spooling up audio, video and LAN cables for storage - like the ones that go in my field bag - they come out, get unspooled, used, and then wrapped back up, and put away, usually in a few hours - also great for extention cords
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your 2 main choices are etymotic or shure. I did a stack of research about a year ago, and in some ways it came down to what you like in your sound - each had certain advantages. With the Shures - don't go with models below the e3 however
Back when I was a team leader, the best motivator I found was either 1)Cookies, or 2)M&Ms!!
No, I'm serious....
Depending on which the developer liked
If a developer did something cool, or busted his (or her - yes we had some female type programmers) butt, or anything else that was "above the bar", that afternoon, around 2pm (after lunch) - I would walk over to their cube, with a tray - with a cup of coffee form them, and a snack - and a little hand written "Thanks" note. The company supplied the coffee, and the cookie/snack came out of my pocket money. And you made sure that his/her co-workers SAW you deliver the snack
In out little area - it soon became an M&M standard - if you found a package on your chair - you knew that someone was saying "Good work - thank you"
It's amazing what folks will do for a cookie or package of M&Ms - or maybe it was the regularly occuring fact that the team leads would recognize the work, it a quiet, but still public way
Back in the mid to late 70s, possibly early 1980s, I saw a REALLY REALLY interesting paper on climate that I wish I could find again. It pointed out that we were about to enter (or had entered) a period of NATURAL rapid global warming, which would rapidly lead to the northern icecap shrinking, leading to some artic ocean water mixing with Atlantic and Pacfic waters - which would distrupt this exact current, which would VERY rapidly lead to the next (overdue) Ice Age! The paper was on what causes an Ice Age (NOT on Global warming etc), and it was the ONLY model this guy could come up with that fit
To sum it it - Ice Ages are actually triggered by the global climate getting above a certain temp, and it SUDDENLY changes to cold - almost a sawtooth pattern - and that we are overdue for an Ice Age....
Hummmmmmm
The BIG problem is that vendors often change the way components are made without telling you
Back in the early 80s, I worked for a defense contractor. One of the units we made used a FET (Field effect transistor) - a nice standard 2n number if I remember right. Well, one day, about every 3 or 4th unit we made failed ONE test, and all symptoms pointed at the FET - you'd change it, and sometimes it would go away - luckily, we saved the "BAD" FETs - it seems that ONE of the manufacturers had "Improved" their process for making the part. None of the parts made by them after a certain date worked in our design, and it turns out, they "tweaked" the spec based on our findings. Didn't HELP us, but we knew then to do what is known as a "lifetime buy" - aka buy ALL the parts of the old spec that we thought we would ever need - we figured we needed about 100 more - we bought 1000 to be safe (hey, at 10 cents each - better save than sorry)
So trust me, the cap maker can change things on someone like Dell (or IBM or whoever) and never even mention it to them. I'm quite sure that Dell will be talking to them about this problem
Heh - go to any vibration testing lab, and they've played with stuff at those frequencies and LOWER - I used to do vibration sweeps that ran from .5hz (yes 1/2 hz) to 2 Khz with an electrodynamic shaker (thing speaker with a metallic cone to which you could bolt your test fixtures and units under test) - our "normal" interface plate was a slab of aluminum plate 24" in diameter about 2.5" thick - and we could mount bigger -and my lab only had a SMALL shaker - it was a MERE 18 Kilowatts (and I'm NOT talking peak - that's RMS continuious) - water cooling is a "good thing"
What's real fun is going to a lab doing earthquake testing - those test tables are usually hydrolic powered, go from freqs measured in seconds/cycle usually up to around 30-40hz, but the "table" on some I've seen are 10 or 15 FEET square, and have throws measured in FEET. One lab that I knew that did that used to have to restrict certain tests to certain days, because there was a printing company about 500 yds away, and the shaker would actually create enough ground vibration to mess up any print jobs that were running (the presses would kick off in earthquake mode) Ever seen a rack cabinet full of gear mounted to a slab of metal, and then shaken back and forth, say 2-3 FEET at 20hz? And SURVIVE? I have - and is some of the testing required of gear going in Nuke plants.
I once asked them about riding the table - they said it would litterally break your legs to stand on the table - your bones would not be able to handle it
That's the same lab where I saw a telephone pole launched at 300 mph end on into a containment building door (hey, a tornado MIGHT pick up a pole and throw it into the door) yes - the pole bounced off the door - it was a VERY impressive bang - and they did NOT to it at the main lab - not enough room (think about how you do that test - get a telephone pole to fly like a giant arrow in free flight, at a pre determined, replicable speed - hint - High pressure N2, burst disks, and pipe are your friends)
I've been a computer programmer for a LONG time - by 1984 I was making at least part of my living programming. Ive seen stuff come, and stuff go
What usually makes people adopt an OS (I'm NOT talking me in particular)
1)The Killer Application - an application that runs on YOUR OS that runs NOWHERE else. Honestly, for at least 2-3 of the transitions I've seen, it was (at least partly) the "Next great spreadsheet" - Apple II - VisiCalc - IBM PC - Lotus 123 - Windows - Excel/Wingz/Word for Windows
2)The OS does something itself that the competition does NOT - In the case of Linux, It's generally things like firewalls/stability etc - THIS "something" generally has to be a bigger "something" than #1 - or it leads to slow adoption
3)Cost - and I'm NOT talking $$$ or even TCO as measured in studies, although they are certainly PART of the "Cost" I'm talking about, and in fact, in a corp environment, TCO aproximates the "Cost" I'm talking about. In my case, talking about individuals, it's more $$ and effort combined. For a person just starting in computers, there is little "cost" in moving to Linux - but to the person who has spent a lot of years learning to use Windows and it's applications, there is a "Mental" cost of re-learning how to do things. For us geeks, this is fun, and the cost can be negative (hey, we LIKE playing with new stuff), but to most people, any skill set change is real, and a bother. Why do you thing the average PC doesn't get patched/have it's anti virus updated - too much bother. They run the PC until it breaks, and then get someone to "fix it" - and in fact, often the "fix" is to buy another computer!! I've seen perfectly good PCs thrown out, because the owner doesn't want to bother - they spend the $500 or $1000 on a new PC, move their data, and get a new toy, and have fixed their problem. Doesn't seem to make much sense, until you figure that for a LOT of people, if you figure in their time as money, it's actually cheaper to do this - let's face it - if you earn even $10/hr, if you save 50 hours over the life of the PC by NOT updating, etc, you have paid for a new PC!! (which has all the NEW toys...)
It comes down to - we are not normal users (thank goodness)
Also, a lot of folks don't think about Mantiles - they really change the color temperture of light, and even kerosene lamps can have mantiles - which REALLY raise the color of the light
Cotton gin - drums with hooks that basically mechanically carded the wool - I can ge more detailed if you'd like
Steam Locomotion - as I'm in the middle of building a 2.5"/1ft scale engine, I'd BETTER know how this works - getting the blast pipe adjusted is fun...
Electricity - well, I was an electronics tech for 10 years - built my share of SR memory circuits from transistors
Telephone system - circa what era? Pulse dial (steppers) - cross rod? Modern switches? The fact that most analog audio electronics on the pro level is still compatible with the standards set back when by Western Electric...
Over the air broadcasting? I'm a ham, and used to by the assistant cheif eng of a small AM radio station...
Spent part of today discussing video signals with the techs at work (major TV network) and they were shocked that a "Mere programmer" actually could look at the video signals, and discuss what was likely happening, and more importantly, how to fix it, and what the tradeoffs are
I can also run a lathe (wood and metal), mill, tablesaw, jointer (again, wood and metal), plainer (never run a metal plainer, but...), I can weld a bit, have fully renovated more than 1 house (can't plaster very well however - I can spackle) - I call a pro when I need a wiped lead bend done, but that has (mostly) been replaced by PVC
I don't ask that people understand how most of this is done - but it would be nice if people had a general idea of the topic, if not the ability
Well, it doesn't have to be a shiny desk - but a desk with a big top to spread the paper out on makes a big difference - heck, my favorites are one of those old grey steelcase industrial desks from the 1950s - the ones you can park a compact car on, and it wont break - cheap if you can find one - an BIG
As you said - space to do paper designs - a big white board, or at least a big easel pad
a Good chair Do NOT pick based on name - go sit in various models - I hate the Aeron, and traded a guy at work for a chair that fit ME better
A good keyboard that YOU like (I like the old IBM style - still made by Unicomp)
A mouse that YOU like
(Hint - I've actually paid for my own keyboard and mouse at various employers)
A good monitor - or better - 2 (I keep trying to talk my boss into dual monitors with no luck)
Bookshelves to store your reference books
It comes down to this - ergonomics in the interface to the PC, a large flat work surface (heck, I'd rather a BIG folding table than a small fancy desk) and a good chair and lighting - and remember, you will do a lot of paper design
I will tell you that some of the best design time I've ever had was at 9 or 10am, in the back corner of the company cafeteria - we put 2-3 tables together, there was almost no one around, and we were close to coffee and snacks
Next generation of hackers are upstairs, asleep in their bed, my wife is in the kitchen playing with the new laptop, and I'm getting ready to grive to a friends to drag Cat-5 in his new house.
So I know where the next generation of hackers is coming from, and I trust my kids will figure it out - my daughter already knows the basics (fun "talk")
I'm thinking of doing the "semi rural" think - but I think of it this way - sell my house here, pay the mortgage off, by the house there (mortgage free), and pocket the other 290k. Now I work. If I earn 1/2 of what I do now, who cares?
You can ALWAYS penetrate it - the question is, do you have what it takes - Drop a 2k bomb on the roof of the M1A? (1 or 2) it'll go through - if not, hey, I put a 50 Mt on the roof, it'll go
Yes, you have to understand where they are coming from. Unfortunately, I believe the current problem stems from two major historical factors, plus 3 or 4 tactical mistakes
Historical factors
1)Post WWI, the Ottoman Empire broke up - to look at the Ottoman Empire in "Other terms" think of it as the Caliphate - aka the area under control of the Sultan. They basically ruled central/south eastern Europe, and most of the Middle East. They have NOT forgotten that. They do NOT forgive us "upstarts" from taking that away. You have a bunch of religious radicals who want to see the Caliphate restored, and are promising that to the masses
2)Oil. Or more generally, wealth earned because of resources developed by outsiders without the corresponing increase in local infrastructure/knowledge/"civilization" (can't think of a better word right now - sorry, it's early) - look historically - Gold, Phosphates, Oil, whatever. An outside group comes in, appoints a leader, takes the resource, and pays the leader. Unless the leader is VERY smart, what you end up with is people with wealth/technology that they can NOT deal with because of the lack of support structure (NOT lack of intelligence or drive). It leads two one of 2 things - a "Playboy" culture of wealth that was not really worked for, OR (when the money goes away) a cargo cult. In the playboy mode, eventually, a percentage of people come to realize "is that all there is" and that there is some gap in their life, and they turn towards religion - often towards fundimentalism (of which ever flavor - Islam, Christian, etc) - and this case, leaving them open to the same people in item 1, only they have the money to finance things
The tactical mistakes
I'll only talk recent - we could go through a bunch of them, back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and we really should
The BIGGEST mistake was made by President Carter - he basically did NOTHING with the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and when we had the dramatic failure in the rescue mission, we backed off, and whimpered about it - the signal "The Americans won't do anything if attacked, they are weak" -
It was NOT only Carter however - there was a LOT of backing off - the Pubelo Incident, Ditto the Liberty Incident, The Beruit bombing, the USS Cole, The Blackhawk down incident - the list goes on. We basically became a country known for talking the talk, but NOT backing it up, and if our nose got bloodied at all, we would back off. Items that in earlier times that would have been called an act of war, and were ("Remember the Maine"), we ignored. We taught people the lesson - Punch the US in the nose, and they will negotiate with you, and you'll get at least some of what you want. It's like children - if they do something wrong, and you then bribe them to behave, they learn that misbehavior gets them what they want - aka you are giving positive reinforcement for misbehavior
So, how do you deal with these issues?
According to someone I know who worked on the orignal "Star Wars" research, he says the big mistake everyone makes is that they thing that the high power lasers melt things - he said "Nope, they are actually kinetic weapons - says you put enough energy in a laser beam (think high power pulsed) the slug of energy acts like a kinetic impact"
Actually, at this point, almost all the Humvees are "Up armored", the problem is, as usual, this has lead to a response - less ak47 type ambushes, more IEDs. And as other, even heavier armored vehicles have shown up, the IEDs have gotten bigger - They refer to them as N-bangers where N = 1 or more - 1-banger is one shell/mine etc, 2 is 2 etc. The reports that I'm hearing say they have mostly given up on 1 bangers, and 2,3,4s are the most common
Action leads to reaction, and no matter HOW much armor you put on something, you can always penetrate it - just takes a bigger bang. The say that some of the bigger IEDs actually pick something like a APC and throw them a couple of hundred yards, and up-armored HUMVEES just get blown to bits
Yeah - I'd say your 2nd idea is on the money - see a lot of PII-233s running around with 256meg memory, including in places like control rooms.
I also think there is a lot of "if the user does not ask for, and make a business case for an upgrade, why should we change it"
and as for bad printer names, the one down the hall has a name listing it 3 buildings over, on another floor, and as the wrong type!
iNews - It runs on XP - perfectly. Running 2.1.1.2 with no problem (I personally prefer other systems, but hey)
(Back to coding some stuff against the iNews API - later)
How about switching back to the older foam that shead less. NASA switched to an "envrionmentally friendly" foam a few years back, even though they have an exemption...
There are some of us middle aged extras who can do the modern stuff to - and unlike w2irt (who is a friend, even if we can't agree on politics) I'll be glad to see code go. I learned it, and have forgotten it - but it's on my "things to brush up on for fun" list
Code kept me out of the hobby back in the late 70s, early 80s, got my tech eventually, and decided I wanted to play HF, so I buckled down and learned it, even though the ITU had already dropped the code requirement, and I figured this day was coming
CW? Interesting mode - glad it's there. As a requirement? No thanks. Should the make the written harder, and more "up to date" YES - I'd love to see the tech exam have sections on things like "what is CTCSS and how to use it", aka, I'd like to see the exams make it into the late 1980s, never mind the 21st century
Biggest problem with both WAAS and GRINGO in Africa is that there is not likely to be a local CORS station to get a reference from - remember, the closer you are to a CORS (continuiously operating reference station) the better your accuracy - and the CORS data is what is used to generate the WAAS signal, AND used for the post processing in GRINGO
Most models are available with flux gate compasses today - for instance, that is one of the 2 differences between the Garmin G60C and g60CS (S is for sensors) - the other is a barometric altimeter
Yep, definately the way to go - you know that there is a whole subsection of the Ham radio hobby that does this?
IF you use a directional antenna (aka beam) you will usually also need/want an attenuator, so you can cut down on signals that are TOO strong
There are also "time of arrival" RDF units - take 2 antennas, put them say, less than 1/2 wavelength apart, and a fairly simple circuit that generates FM, plus a radio tuned to the frequency in question - if the signal gets to both antennas at the same time, you gte no difference signal, hence no tone. Turn away, you get tone
Yep - they work GREAT for that - first learned about releasable ties working for my college TV station, oh, 20+ years ago
That said, I've almost totally switched to "12 cord" type lacing cord - carry a roll of it with you (or even a partial roll) and you can make "any size" lacing you want, from tiny - 2-3 wires, to HUGE, plus you can tie things up and the like. Last roll I got cost me $4 or so, and should last me the rest of my life. I go through a roll ever 10-20 years, and I have 6 rolls Just cut, and make new, as needed
The BIGGEST problem with releasable ties is that the ends stick out and leave things sloppy - at least for "semi fixed" installs - don't be cheap, cut the ends off, and use new ties when you re-bundle, unless it's an almost every day thing
I DO like releasable ties for things like spooling up audio, video and LAN cables for storage - like the ones that go in my field bag - they come out, get unspooled, used, and then wrapped back up, and put away, usually in a few hours - also great for extention cords
Cable ties are cheap enough that you just pull out a pair of dikes and cut them - they are disposable
I personally use lacing cord, and cut that, but I'm strange, and know how to use lacing cord