I don't want to buy a drive that burns cds that wont play in anything but the one player I own- that if it breaks, can't be replaced.
And I want to be able to make DVDs and give them to people.
Lots of reason.
A lot of people are giving me grief and I've been modded down as over rated but I tell you this makes sense to me and is not uncommon. While all this stuff is floating about I'll hold off.
But more importantly - "Everybody to the limit"
.
Re:CDBurners not the end for high-capacity Zip dri
on
DVD Burner Round-up
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Even better than the pen-sized piece of plastic is this sweet watch
Yeah- zip drives are pretty pointless as far as I can tell.
I do understand- but you can't look at the 2 weapons (missile & carrier) in isolation.
Yes, one could keep ramping up the numbers of missiles in the scenario- and increase the odds agains the carrier-- but those missiles have to be delivered. They don't just get launched out of nowhere. And the platforms that deliver those weapons have to be supported- and so on. So while the cost of the missiles is much lower on paper- that does not mean that kind of attack would be easy to carry out.
Maybe the Russians could have done it- with their huge military. But I have trouble imagining who else could do so today.
And the whole platform thing is key. Carriers do not operate close to shore. When I say they are surrounded by the battle group- we are talking about thousands of square miles of ocean. All of it monitored for just such an attack.
So exceeding that defensive threshold is not as cheap as might be imagined.
I would think that the most effective way to launch such an attack would be using aircraft. How many military aircraft can carry substantial anti-ship missiles? How many can each carry? Soon we are talking about an air force. That is not cheap to build or maintain.
What platform are would be used to launch these missiles and at what range?
If it is aircraft- the CAG's E-2's should pick it up prior to launch and vector intercept aircraft to take it out.
If it is land based- there still needs to be somebody out there who can find and track the carrier. They are not fast compared to a missile or jet- but they are extremely fast for a surface vessel. They can exceed 30 knotts easily.
And the ocean is big- so it is not that easy to just say - 'there's the carrier' and assume it will still be there 2 or 3 hours later.
So say 10 missiles are launched- if the destroyers and frigates around the carrier can take out 6 and the air wing can take out 2 - that leaves 2 for the phalanx. And if 1 should get through-- doubt we are talking about a sinking.
Look at the damage done to the Forrestal, and the complete lack of preparation on the part of the crew to deal with the situation. They still kept steaming. Today's sailors have much better training and DC skills.
As for nukes. If you can deliver one on target- nothing is safe. The trick with nukes is keeping them from ever being delivered. That's a whole different ball game. But you can't just get it in the ballpark and take out a carrier.
It will be interesting to see if they can actually build what they have envisioned.
I still have not seen specs on some of these proposed systems that meets the marine corps need for fire support a decent distance in shore- while keeping the boat far enough out to be safe.
That is going to be an even more interesting nut to crack than the missile defence, etc.
They've got the whole carrier group around them - plus they have their own ASW aircraft. Helos with sonobuoys- and maybe still S-3s.
Plus their own on board systems.
A ship that size on it's own is always at risk. That's why it is always surrounded by other vessels to protect it. Maybe that does include subs- but if not I'd bet they are still pretty well protected against that threat.
I served on the U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN-70). I also spent a little time on the Nimitz after I came off active duty and was in the reserves.
What always impressed me about carriers- beyond the obvious, was that all that high tech is backed up by very simple means of getting the job done.
I worked in the V-2 division, arresting gear. We had electric motors that set the weight on an arresting gear engine for each trap. But each of those motors had a crank and they could be set by hand if power was not available.
Sound powered phones are still another slick- no power needed tool that impress the heck out of me.
But what everyone should remember - the single thing that make carriers so effective- are the people that run it.
Space exploration will develop along the same lines that exploration grew in the past. The technical challenges are new but the social challenges are tried and true.
Nations will send out explorers for God, Glory and Gold (or the modern version- you come up with some nifty alliteration).
Corporations will drive exploration as the profit is seen.
Individuals will push into space as they are able because we are wired that way. Of course right now and for a while that is going to be limited to those with the resources at hand to make the trips possible.
This is not new- it has been going on for quite a while and I am obviously not the first to notice this.
No it's not, but....
on
Altered Carbon
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
that doesn't mean he might not bring some new thoughts to the basic issues. This boils down to basic questions that were being asked much longer than 30 years ago.
It is also a common theme in other art forms where reality need not be considered- like film.
What is interesting to me is that all these formats cannot use the current situation as it limits the ability to play with what defines sentience. It seems always not too far off that humans will be able to 'bottle' their essence or some facsimile thereof. Yet it does not happen. Some of my favorite stuff to deal with these questions appears in Ghost in the Shell, and the Reality Dysfunction books.
For now we are stuck with humans being in the bodies they have for better or worse. I think much of the allure of these stories lies in the fact that many people are quite discontented with that- for many reasons. (mortality, obesity, weakness, etc.)
But all this rambling to tell you- yeah- there is nothing new under the sun.
I don't think you can compare the success of MT to something like what Marvel or DC need in terms of generating revenue. 2 or 3 people with no overhead can do well with a wildly popular web comic- if enough people buy merchandise and printed material.
But how can that format replace printed issues that have a low cost and generate income on volume? You bought the MT book but I don't know if anyone would make money selling monthly MT episodes. It probably would not be cost effective.
These companies are looking at how the net will help or hinder sales of individual, low price, comic books. That is a tougher nut to crack. (it seems to me).
MT is a great model for the individual artist - looking to make a go of it- not the large corporation looking to leverage new technology.
Re:wont work , support costs to much
on
More Cheap Linux PCs
·
· Score: 4, Informative
to quote the article
Linare will try to offer better technical support than do current $200 PC makers by outsourcing technical support to employees in India who don't cost as much to hire. It will also sell its products in India, not just to countries such as the United States, where Microsoft holds more sway, Sundaram said.
"Because we are going to keep the operating expenses low, it gives us a good profit margin,"
It was a java app that really swung me over. I needed a GUI based telnet app that would allow a user to click on buttons that would send control characters to the host. (I work in a call center). I needed it to run on linux and I wanted something open source that I could modify. So I headed over to sourceforge and ended up with something that is working very well.
It can be run as an applet or application. (Something else I like is how easily you can move java to web stuff and vice versa) I run it as an application. It works well. And it didn't do everything just the way I wanted- so now I am fixing it to do just what I need. (that's an open source thing more than a java thing- but I love it) My IDE- Eclipse, is also a Java app that works well, on both platforms by the way. It does not seem slow or buggy to me.
I will relate to you my experience and the largely subjective reasons I ended up moving towards Java. I am still new at it, and open to other tools- but this is where I am at right now.
I'm not trying to defend my choice but rather- just answering your question by describing what happened to me.
All the code I had written outside the classroom- prior to a couple months ago was written in VB6. That is what I get paid to do. As I've learned more, read more, and dealt with things like MS licensing for a company app that exceeded the cost of the server it ran on by a large margin, I've decided that I want to move to tools that don't leave me depending on MS.
I took a c++ class at a community college- I learned how to write stuff that ran from the command line. It was cool but I wanted to see the kind of progress I had working with VB. Writing GUI based apps in C++ was in a word daunting.
At the same time, working on a project to move a group of people at my company off of windows to linux, I needed to start working with an App written in Java. I found that I could do GUI work that ran on linux and windows with the same code.
Yes it took me a few tries to get things to run on each system. But I only had to figure it out once.
To be frank- and this may get a negative reaction- but if I didn't read/. I wouldn't know what Python is.
Java is accessible, launches you quickly into results that are enjoyable and runs on both platforms without too much effort.
And once again my disclaimer-- I'm not interested in arguing why Java is or is not better. As someone new looking to move away from something that has grown undesirable- Java has attracted me the most. This article encouraged me - because my one concern was- "will java be around for a while". I think so.
I'm a full time VB programmer who is looking to move away from microsoft tools as well as microsoft platforms.
I started out not knowing anything but ms products- learned VB in school and landed my first job writing database apps. As I learned more, and my employer's needs grew- we started realizing that MS was too expensive and we looked for alternatives.
Now we use linux and open source tools. I am learning to handle a system and use software that has been built by the open source community. I've even tweaked some code here and there for our own purposes.
While all this has been going on- I've been trying to look to the future and work on some projects of my own. I really wanted to learn a language that would be portable, and have good tools I could afford. I've finally opted to go with Java.
Java seems the simplest way to be able to work cross platform and have access to sufficient resources without having to shell out big bucks. In fact my development platform right now is a RedHat box with eclipse and Sun's JDK. I'm about 2 months into what I hope will be a long relationship. I think the article is right in that what is good for Linux is also very good for Java.
second: being modded down is the confirmation of your post- if they hadn't you would have been wrong. It was worth it. If I hadn't just burned my last point i'd have modded you back up.
Next time you see a PT Cruiser driving down the road- check to see if is not a Special Edition. I'd guess 1 out of every 40 or 50 I see is not Special Edition. It is a standing joke in my family that non-Special Edition PT Cruisers are very rare.
I did a C++ class on line. I withdrew and got a refund when I could.
My problems were partly due to the way the class was run and partly due to my own nature. I had a tough time getting work done because there was no 'scheduled' time for me to show up any where. Rack this up as a failure on my part but I just tend to be more successful at getting work done when I've got to show up to class and turn it in.
The lack of in class time was tough because I couldn't sit and look at examples while the instructor was there to talk about how things were done. I missed that time to discuss with the instructor and other students. I know I'm not the only one who struggled in that regard. I did meet up with another student early on and help her learn how to set up and use her compiler. (free borland compiler)
On the class failing side- when I emailed the teacher with questions, responses were not prompt. His lectures were posted and there was no good method for getting further information to clarify points made in the lecture, etc. It was basically as you describe. Read a book, do homework, take a final.
There may be some who can use the format to advantage but it did not work well for me.
I've recently been very interested in trying to learn about embedded programming- so I apologize in advance if this is not helpful, but the book "Embedded Software Development with eCos" by Anthony J Massa uses another pc as the target for its examples. So I would assume (I've downloaded the free electronic version of the book here, but I haven't started working through it yet) that you can learn the tools and OS without investing in a system other than a normal PC. This is part of what I found inviting about the whole thing. I can play/learn to my hearts content without forking over large quantities of cash. (which I don't have anyway)
Free eCos book available
on
eCos 2.0 Released
·
· Score: 2, Informative
... got this link from Bruce Peren's post on the snort thread a day or two ago.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't have a lot of money.
I don't want to buy a drive that burns cds that wont play in anything but the one player I own- that if it breaks, can't be replaced.
And I want to be able to make DVDs and give them to people.
Lots of reason.
A lot of people are giving me grief and I've been modded down as over rated but I tell you this makes sense to me and is not uncommon. While all this stuff is floating about I'll hold off.
But more importantly - "Everybody to the limit"
.
Even better than the pen-sized piece of plastic is this sweet watch
Yeah- zip drives are pretty pointless as far as I can tell.
-- not until all the standards crap settles down and I know what I get wont be useless 2 months later.
I don't even waste a lot of timing reading up on them. Just waiting on the market to decide what will be dominant.
.
I do understand- but you can't look at the 2 weapons (missile & carrier) in isolation.
Yes, one could keep ramping up the numbers of missiles in the scenario- and increase the odds agains the carrier-- but those missiles have to be delivered. They don't just get launched out of nowhere. And the platforms that deliver those weapons have to be supported- and so on. So while the cost of the missiles is much lower on paper- that does not mean that kind of attack would be easy to carry out.
Maybe the Russians could have done it- with their huge military. But I have trouble imagining who else could do so today.
And the whole platform thing is key. Carriers do not operate close to shore. When I say they are surrounded by the battle group- we are talking about thousands of square miles of ocean. All of it monitored for just such an attack.
So exceeding that defensive threshold is not as cheap as might be imagined.
I would think that the most effective way to launch such an attack would be using aircraft. How many military aircraft can carry substantial anti-ship missiles? How many can each carry? Soon we are talking about an air force. That is not cheap to build or maintain.
.
What platform are would be used to launch these missiles and at what range?
If it is aircraft- the CAG's E-2's should pick it up prior to launch and vector intercept aircraft to take it out.
If it is land based- there still needs to be somebody out there who can find and track the carrier. They are not fast compared to a missile or jet- but they are extremely fast for a surface vessel. They can exceed 30 knotts easily.
And the ocean is big- so it is not that easy to just say - 'there's the carrier' and assume it will still be there 2 or 3 hours later.
So say 10 missiles are launched- if the destroyers and frigates around the carrier can take out 6 and the air wing can take out 2 - that leaves 2 for the phalanx. And if 1 should get through-- doubt we are talking about a sinking.
Look at the damage done to the Forrestal, and the complete lack of preparation on the part of the crew to deal with the situation. They still kept steaming. Today's sailors have much better training and DC skills.
As for nukes. If you can deliver one on target- nothing is safe. The trick with nukes is keeping them from ever being delivered. That's a whole different ball game. But you can't just get it in the ballpark and take out a carrier.
.
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 1
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 2
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 3
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 4
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 5
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 6
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 7
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 8
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 9
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 10
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 11
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 12
USS Reagan Carrier Pic 13
The navy is really pushing to go all electric.
It will be interesting to see if they can actually build what they have envisioned.
I still have not seen specs on some of these proposed systems that meets the marine corps need for fire support a decent distance in shore- while keeping the boat far enough out to be safe.
That is going to be an even more interesting nut to crack than the missile defence, etc.
.
I don't know about that.
They've got the whole carrier group around them - plus they have their own ASW aircraft. Helos with sonobuoys- and maybe still S-3s.
Plus their own on board systems.
A ship that size on it's own is always at risk. That's why it is always surrounded by other vessels to protect it. Maybe that does include subs- but if not I'd bet they are still pretty well protected against that threat.
.
I served on the U.S.S. Carl Vinson (CVN-70). I also spent a little time on the Nimitz after I came off active duty and was in the reserves.
What always impressed me about carriers- beyond the obvious, was that all that high tech is backed up by very simple means of getting the job done.
I worked in the V-2 division, arresting gear. We had electric motors that set the weight on an arresting gear engine for each trap. But each of those motors had a crank and they could be set by hand if power was not available.
Sound powered phones are still another slick- no power needed tool that impress the heck out of me.
But what everyone should remember - the single thing that make carriers so effective- are the people that run it.
.
probably not- but a more accurate title.
.
Space exploration will develop along the same lines that exploration grew in the past. The technical challenges are new but the social challenges are tried and true.
Nations will send out explorers for God, Glory and Gold (or the modern version- you come up with some nifty alliteration).
Corporations will drive exploration as the profit is seen.
Individuals will push into space as they are able because we are wired that way. Of course right now and for a while that is going to be limited to those with the resources at hand to make the trips possible.
This is not new- it has been going on for quite a while and I am obviously not the first to notice this.
that doesn't mean he might not bring some new thoughts to the basic issues. This boils down to basic questions that were being asked much longer than 30 years ago.
It is also a common theme in other art forms where reality need not be considered- like film.
What is interesting to me is that all these formats cannot use the current situation as it limits the ability to play with what defines sentience. It seems always not too far off that humans will be able to 'bottle' their essence or some facsimile thereof. Yet it does not happen. Some of my favorite stuff to deal with these questions appears in Ghost in the Shell, and the Reality Dysfunction books.
For now we are stuck with humans being in the bodies they have for better or worse. I think much of the allure of these stories lies in the fact that many people are quite discontented with that- for many reasons. (mortality, obesity, weakness, etc.)
But all this rambling to tell you- yeah- there is nothing new under the sun.
I don't think you can compare the success of MT to something like what Marvel or DC need in terms of generating revenue. 2 or 3 people with no overhead can do well with a wildly popular web comic- if enough people buy merchandise and printed material.
But how can that format replace printed issues that have a low cost and generate income on volume? You bought the MT book but I don't know if anyone would make money selling monthly MT episodes. It probably would not be cost effective.
These companies are looking at how the net will help or hinder sales of individual, low price, comic books. That is a tougher nut to crack. (it seems to me).
MT is a great model for the individual artist - looking to make a go of it- not the large corporation looking to leverage new technology.
I use it every day. Sorry it didn't work for you.
.
to quote the article
Linare will try to offer better technical support than do current $200 PC makers by outsourcing technical support to employees in India who don't cost as much to hire. It will also sell its products in India, not just to countries such as the United States, where Microsoft holds more sway, Sundaram said.
"Because we are going to keep the operating expenses low, it gives us a good profit margin,"
It was a java app that really swung me over. I needed a GUI based telnet app that would allow a user to click on buttons that would send control characters to the host. (I work in a call center). I needed it to run on linux and I wanted something open source that I could modify. So I headed over to sourceforge and ended up with something that is working very well.
You can find it here
It can be run as an applet or application. (Something else I like is how easily you can move java to web stuff and vice versa) I run it as an application. It works well. And it didn't do everything just the way I wanted- so now I am fixing it to do just what I need. (that's an open source thing more than a java thing- but I love it) My IDE- Eclipse, is also a Java app that works well, on both platforms by the way. It does not seem slow or buggy to me.
I will relate to you my experience and the largely subjective reasons I ended up moving towards Java. I am still new at it, and open to other tools- but this is where I am at right now.
/. I wouldn't know what Python is.
I'm not trying to defend my choice but rather- just answering your question by describing what happened to me.
All the code I had written outside the classroom- prior to a couple months ago was written in VB6. That is what I get paid to do. As I've learned more, read more, and dealt with things like MS licensing for a company app that exceeded the cost of the server it ran on by a large margin, I've decided that I want to move to tools that don't leave me depending on MS.
I took a c++ class at a community college- I learned how to write stuff that ran from the command line. It was cool but I wanted to see the kind of progress I had working with VB. Writing GUI based apps in C++ was in a word daunting.
At the same time, working on a project to move a group of people at my company off of windows to linux, I needed to start working with an App written in Java. I found that I could do GUI work that ran on linux and windows with the same code.
Yes it took me a few tries to get things to run on each system. But I only had to figure it out once.
To be frank- and this may get a negative reaction- but if I didn't read
Java is accessible, launches you quickly into results that are enjoyable and runs on both platforms without too much effort.
And once again my disclaimer-- I'm not interested in arguing why Java is or is not better. As someone new looking to move away from something that has grown undesirable- Java has attracted me the most. This article encouraged me - because my one concern was- "will java be around for a while". I think so.
I'm a full time VB programmer who is looking to move away from microsoft tools as well as microsoft platforms.
I started out not knowing anything but ms products- learned VB in school and landed my first job writing database apps. As I learned more, and my employer's needs grew- we started realizing that MS was too expensive and we looked for alternatives.
Now we use linux and open source tools. I am learning to handle a system and use software that has been built by the open source community. I've even tweaked some code here and there for our own purposes.
While all this has been going on- I've been trying to look to the future and work on some projects of my own. I really wanted to learn a language that would be portable, and have good tools I could afford. I've finally opted to go with Java.
Java seems the simplest way to be able to work cross platform and have access to sufficient resources without having to shell out big bucks. In fact my development platform right now is a RedHat box with eclipse and Sun's JDK. I'm about 2 months into what I hope will be a long relationship. I think the article is right in that what is good for Linux is also very good for Java.
First- here is the answer.
second: being modded down is the confirmation of your post- if they hadn't you would have been wrong. It was worth it. If I hadn't just burned my last point i'd have modded you back up.
"the ultimate dos-Ã-dos swing machine."
I know the caption says it uses old technology- but I'm not trusting my space flight to something that runs on DOS.
All those guys standing around at road construction sites have a lot to do with OSHA and very little to do with unions.
.
Next time you see a PT Cruiser driving down the road- check to see if is not a Special Edition. I'd guess 1 out of every 40 or 50 I see is not Special Edition. It is a standing joke in my family that non-Special Edition PT Cruisers are very rare.
I did a C++ class on line. I withdrew and got a refund when I could.
My problems were partly due to the way the class was run and partly due to my own nature. I had a tough time getting work done because there was no 'scheduled' time for me to show up any where. Rack this up as a failure on my part but I just tend to be more successful at getting work done when I've got to show up to class and turn it in.
The lack of in class time was tough because I couldn't sit and look at examples while the instructor was there to talk about how things were done. I missed that time to discuss with the instructor and other students. I know I'm not the only one who struggled in that regard. I did meet up with another student early on and help her learn how to set up and use her compiler. (free borland compiler)
On the class failing side- when I emailed the teacher with questions, responses were not prompt. His lectures were posted and there was no good method for getting further information to clarify points made in the lecture, etc. It was basically as you describe. Read a book, do homework, take a final.
There may be some who can use the format to advantage but it did not work well for me.
I've recently been very interested in trying to learn about embedded programming- so I apologize in advance if this is not helpful, but the book "Embedded Software Development with eCos" by Anthony J Massa uses another pc as the target for its examples. So I would assume (I've downloaded the free electronic version of the book here, but I haven't started working through it yet) that you can learn the tools and OS without investing in a system other than a normal PC. This is part of what I found inviting about the whole thing. I can play/learn to my hearts content without forking over large quantities of cash. (which I don't have anyway)
... got this link from Bruce Peren's post on the snort thread a day or two ago.
eCos Book
The linux development book is good too.