The military has been told by GAO and OMB and other bean counters to use COTS --- it's also more expensive to get things developed on proprietary systems and that runs into single source issues.
Arguably everyone should use NSA's security-enhanced Linux:
We'll know that these things make economic sense when car companies start purchasing them, placing them in every dealer's service department, and instead of shipping a replacement part to the dealership, the dealer will download the CAD file for the part, and 3D print it (loading the 3D printer w/ the right pigments to match the customer's car).
Had one guy on a graphic design mailing list claim, ``Without Steve Jobs there wouldn't have have programs like InDesign.'' --- displaying an apparently willful ignorance of the existence of page layout programs on the Xerox Alto, back from the days when Apple was still making the Apple ][, and another guy claim Steve Jobs ``never designed anything'' (counter-example would be the Apple Macintosh Calculator Desktop Accessory: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Calculator_Construction_Set.txt ).
He was an early pioneer (among many other pioneers) who worked as leadership to a lot of teams which did some amazing work (Apple ][, Macintosh, NeXT, iMacs, iPod, Mac OS X, iPhone, iPad), and had some bad moments (Apple III, Apple Macintosh Portable, closing down the Newton). It's sad that he has passed away, and while it's appropriate to remember the good things which he has achieved (getting California to directly ask about organ donor status at the DMV was huge), and the good aspects of his character, he was a man like other men, and it's important not to lose sight of that.
>China is much more similar to Japan than India, as I have yet to purchase any good that ever came from India.
Poke around a bit.
Since the kids have taken over, there's been better quality control at Harbor Freight Tools and there have been some surprisingly nice things showing up from India:
People don't want to make junk --- give them the chance and the economic support and they'll choose to make good things (as opposed to ``good enough'').
William (who is fortunate to have a bunch of tools from his father and grandfather)
It helps of course, that I'm using a full-fledged Tablet PC (to be specific a Fujitsu Stylistic 4121 w/ daylight viewable display --- I also use it as a map viewer when travelling).
Right, because every scientific paper, written up in Microsoft Word, w/ inconsistent formatting and font usage, never edited or corrected by anyone but the author, and low-res RGB graphics is instantly and automatically ready to print on a printing press, or to convert to a nice ePub which will re-flow and be readable.
Actually, my understanding is the developer _did_ contact Google, but there was no response, and Google Docs spreadsheet still doesn't support the Excel features needed by the tool.
I know it's not a popular bullet point, but until Google Docs is 100% compatible, complaints like this don't have much grounds to stand on.
Yeah, there's a free spreadsheet used in archery, Stu Miller's Dynamic Spine Calculator, which doesn't work in Google Docs --- I've suggested to the author that he contact the developers and try to get it working in Google Docs, but no success thus far.
It was small, efficient, object-oriented and had a very nice interface.
Last I heard, Taiwan's MITI had purchased it, but I've never heard of their doing anything w/ it, nor of anything of it save for Jerry Kaplan suing Microsoft a while back....
The program source code type which I've learned the most from has been those which are written in the ``Literate Programming'' style developed by Dr. Donald Knuth to write TeX ( http://www.literateprogramming.com/ ).
The only program I'm aware of written as a Literate Program in C++ and publicly available is the Ynot logic simulator:
You do understand that ``regulated'' in this context means trained for field maneuvers, and ``the militia'' as created by the Militia Act of 1903 consists of every able-bodied male citizen of at least 17 and under 45 years of age who are not members of the National Guard or Naval Militia.
``When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. '' --- Thomas Jefferson
The problem is,.1mm of tolerance means that one can have:
- a piece which is on-spec in all dimensions
- a piece which is off-spec in one or more axes by the tolerance at one end or the other
- a piece which is off-spec in _all_ dimensions at each end, doubling the error
It's when one has multiple pieces off in multiple ways that combinatorial mathematics kicks in and one sees that such won't work for large structures (cf. transmissions built w/ on-spec parts where all the parts are slightly too large or too small).
Until the technology gets much better and tolerances much tighter you will find that PirateBricks (Lego is a trademark) won't fit, stack or hold together well enough to justify the effort to make them.
The problem is you can't make bricks of the same quality as Lego bricks using any 3D printer currently in existence or on the drawing board --- the tolerances simply aren't tight enough --- Lego uses _tons_ of pressure in their molding equipment, moreover, Lego is constantly doing QA on their production and will pull a mold and grind it up to re-use it at the slightest deviation --- the new Lego bricks I purchase for my kids still work fine w/ four decade old bricks from my childhood. Lego's precision for brick parts is something on the order of 2 micrometers.
By way of contrast, the printer which Shapeways ( http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=tree&goto=1339&#page_top ) uses as a tolerance of, ``... about.1mm, but the material can change it slightly. Overall,.5 should be fine, just make sure that they are not any sort of support walls or they may get broken during shipping or printing.''.1 mm == 100 micrometers
If you want to know what its like when the tolerances are sloppy, buy a set of Mega Blok bricks, but even those have tighter tolerance than the tenth of a millimeter which Shapeways quotes.
when a car company puts such devices in all of their service departments, and simply FTPs the CAD files to make replacement trim parts on demand --- my truck has a broken seat adjustment handle --- I haven't even considered asking the dealer what a replacement part, w/ shipping would cost, but in a couple of years, I predict that I'll be able to just drop in and they'll be able to make such on-demand.
``Vilcabamba'' was interesting in that it tried to get this right, noting the earth as being more tectonically active than other planets, and having the aliens digging deep for materials like mercury which are unlikely to exist in the asteroids AIUI.
On the gripping hand, that was something which _Footfall_ got right --- noting that the aliens could have done much better to have chopped up the asteroid they dropped on earth and sold it as minerals instead, but placing a psychological block against their doing so.
Anyone got a breakdown on which solar system bodies are composed of what?
Slashdot Mirror
The military has been told by GAO and OMB and other bean counters to use COTS --- it's also more expensive to get things developed on proprietary systems and that runs into single source issues.
Arguably everyone should use NSA's security-enhanced Linux:
http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/
Or similarly secured systems.
We'll know that these things make economic sense when car companies start purchasing them, placing them in every dealer's service department, and instead of shipping a replacement part to the dealership, the dealer will download the CAD file for the part, and 3D print it (loading the 3D printer w/ the right pigments to match the customer's car).
William
What happened to:
- knotting / macrame --- a few lengths of small stuff, some beads (which can easily be whittled, see below) and one can make all sorts of things --- http://www.amazon.com/Ashley-Book-Knots-Clifford-W/dp/0385040253 ::grr::) --- still furious w/ my father that he sold his anvil. Next project at home is a lathe (since it's the one tool in a metal shop which can reproduce itself and be used to make other tools: http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html / http://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-Foundry-Build-Metal-Working/dp/1878087002/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318508452&sr=8-2 )
- whittling / carving / carpentry --- I used to make all manner of things w/a pocket knife (and saws, planes and drills from my father's tool box) when I was a kid --- http://www.amazon.com/Carving-Kids-Robin-Edward-Trudel/dp/1933502029 / http://www.amazon.com/Carpentry-Children-Lester-R-Walker/dp/0879519908
- making ceramic pots and other items --- I built a small kiln in the backyard so that I could fire the things which I made of a natural clay deposit in the field next to my house --- modern materials like Sculpey mean that one needs nothing more than a toaster oven (if that, some are air-drying)
- solutions &c. for basic chemistry --- made black powder using saltpeter collected from under the cow manure in local farmer's fields, sulfur from sulfur candles purchased at a local store and charcoal which I made in the afore-mentioned kiln --- http://chemistry.about.com/library/goldenchem.pdf
- basic metalworking --- used to grind basic tools --- a teacher actually took one of my screwdrivers, heat treated it (and kept it
That kids don't do these things is a arguably a big part of why manufacturing jobs are going overseas.
William
and accountable.
Look at the circular chain of passing the buck on the decision to block the importation of collectible M1 rifles and carbines:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/01/obama-administration-reverses-course-forbids-sale-antique-m-rifles/
Why they can't be transferred to the Civilian Marksmanship Program is inexplicable:
http://www.thecmp.org/
Had one guy on a graphic design mailing list claim, ``Without Steve Jobs there wouldn't have have programs like InDesign.'' --- displaying an apparently willful ignorance of the existence of page layout programs on the Xerox Alto, back from the days when Apple was still making the Apple ][, and another guy claim Steve Jobs ``never designed anything'' (counter-example would be the Apple Macintosh Calculator Desktop Accessory: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Calculator_Construction_Set.txt ).
He was an early pioneer (among many other pioneers) who worked as leadership to a lot of teams which did some amazing work (Apple ][, Macintosh, NeXT, iMacs, iPod, Mac OS X, iPhone, iPad), and had some bad moments (Apple III, Apple Macintosh Portable, closing down the Newton). It's sad that he has passed away, and while it's appropriate to remember the good things which he has achieved (getting California to directly ask about organ donor status at the DMV was huge), and the good aspects of his character, he was a man like other men, and it's important not to lose sight of that.
William
an AC wrote:
>China is much more similar to Japan than India, as I have yet to purchase any good that ever came from India.
Poke around a bit.
Since the kids have taken over, there's been better quality control at Harbor Freight Tools and there have been some surprisingly nice things showing up from India:
http://www.harborfreight.com/no-33-bench-plane-97544.html
Discussion of it here:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?173650-Harbor-Freight-quot-33-quot-Bench-Plane-I-like-it.-Especially-for-less-than-10.
review here:
http://forums.finewoodworking.com/fine-woodworking-knots/hand-tools/10-harbor-freight-plane
People don't want to make junk --- give them the chance and the economic support and they'll choose to make good things (as opposed to ``good enough'').
William
(who is fortunate to have a bunch of tools from his father and grandfather)
I dunno, I wrote my TUG 2003 paper on a pen computer running Windows:
http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb24-2/tb77adams.pdf
And I program scripts, and HyperCard-like things using it as well:
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.zip
http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/interfaceconcepts/proportionbar.app.sit
And it's very useful for drawing --- I draw up plans for woodworking projects among other things:
http://www.3riversarchery.com/images/Contest2010/WilliamAdamsTakeDownCase.jpg
It helps of course, that I'm using a full-fledged Tablet PC (to be specific a Fujitsu Stylistic 4121 w/ daylight viewable display --- I also use it as a map viewer when travelling).
William
There's a local remaindering shop which has the Pandigital tablets for $79.99.
You wrote:
>Fair point, but I'm guessing that authors who provide well formatted papers to a journal don't get discounts...
No, but authors who create nice, clean manuscripts get invited to write follow-on papers more frequently.
A few educated instances doesn't gainsay the matter that slaves were for the most part, not educated:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/283628
(or do you really think the mine owner was putting educated men down into the pit?)
or
``The goal of education in the Greek city-states was to prepare the child for adult activities as a citizen.'' http://www.crystalinks.com/greekculture.html
Slaves aren't citizens, and for the most part, weren't educated.
Right, because every scientific paper, written up in Microsoft Word, w/ inconsistent formatting and font usage, never edited or corrected by anyone but the author, and low-res RGB graphics is instantly and automatically ready to print on a printing press, or to convert to a nice ePub which will re-flow and be readable.
Also, no publisher has ever even considered something like ``The Article of the Future'' --- http://www.articleofthefuture.com/
While there are exceptions (arxiv.org comes to mind), for the most part, raw author manuscripts are _not_ pleasant to read or work w/.
Nemyst wrote:
>The Greeks were arguably far more educated than we are.
Sure, so long as one only counts citizens and discounts slaves.
(back in 1995 or so you were still noted as an archer: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/olympics/longterm/archery/archfact.htm and had been for quite a while -- photo here: http://www.archeryhistory.com/archers/pics/shatner.jpg )
If so, how often, using what equipment? Still using a compound or have you gone back to using a recurve or longbow?
If you do still shoot, do you travel w/ your archery gear? Any issues in doing so? Or amusing anecdotes?
William
Actually, my understanding is the developer _did_ contact Google, but there was no response, and Google Docs spreadsheet still doesn't support the Excel features needed by the tool.
I know it's not a popular bullet point, but until Google Docs is 100% compatible, complaints like this don't have much grounds to stand on.
Yeah, there's a free spreadsheet used in archery, Stu Miller's Dynamic Spine Calculator, which doesn't work in Google Docs --- I've suggested to the author that he contact the developers and try to get it working in Google Docs, but no success thus far.
it's printed on, when one is dealing w/ those whose given word is meaningless, and who don't understand the commitment of a firm handshake.
Should have gotten it in writing, w/ formal signature, from someone w/ the authority to make that commitment.
Subject of several theses:
http://www.tug.org/docs/liang/
http://www.pragma-ade.com/pdftex/thesis.pdf
https://www.tug.org/docs/plass/plass-thesis.pdf
(John Hobby's on METAPOST http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/hobby/thesis.pdf )
Probably others. More information at
http://www.tug.org/
and
http://www.latex-project.org/
and
http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Main_Page
William
It was small, efficient, object-oriented and had a very nice interface.
Last I heard, Taiwan's MITI had purchased it, but I've never heard of their doing anything w/ it, nor of anything of it save for Jerry Kaplan suing Microsoft a while back....
The program source code type which I've learned the most from has been those which are written in the ``Literate Programming'' style developed by Dr. Donald Knuth to write TeX ( http://www.literateprogramming.com/ ).
The only program I'm aware of written as a Literate Program in C++ and publicly available is the Ynot logic simulator:
http://www.brpreiss.com/books/opus3/
William
You do understand that ``regulated'' in this context means trained for field maneuvers, and ``the militia'' as created by the Militia Act of 1903 consists of every able-bodied male citizen of at least 17 and under 45 years of age who are not members of the National Guard or Naval Militia.
``When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. '' --- Thomas Jefferson
The problem is, .1mm of tolerance means that one can have:
- a piece which is on-spec in all dimensions
- a piece which is off-spec in one or more axes by the tolerance at one end or the other
- a piece which is off-spec in _all_ dimensions at each end, doubling the error
It's when one has multiple pieces off in multiple ways that combinatorial mathematics kicks in and one sees that such won't work for large structures (cf. transmissions built w/ on-spec parts where all the parts are slightly too large or too small).
Until the technology gets much better and tolerances much tighter you will find that PirateBricks (Lego is a trademark) won't fit, stack or hold together well enough to justify the effort to make them.
The problem is you can't make bricks of the same quality as Lego bricks using any 3D printer currently in existence or on the drawing board --- the tolerances simply aren't tight enough --- Lego uses _tons_ of pressure in their molding equipment, moreover, Lego is constantly doing QA on their production and will pull a mold and grind it up to re-use it at the slightest deviation --- the new Lego bricks I purchase for my kids still work fine w/ four decade old bricks from my childhood. Lego's precision for brick parts is something on the order of 2 micrometers.
By way of contrast, the printer which Shapeways ( http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=tree&goto=1339&#page_top ) uses as a tolerance of, ``... about .1mm, but the material can change it slightly. Overall, .5 should be fine, just make sure that they are not any sort of support walls or they may get broken during shipping or printing.'' .1 mm == 100 micrometers
If you want to know what its like when the tolerances are sloppy, buy a set of Mega Blok bricks, but even those have tighter tolerance than the tenth of a millimeter which Shapeways quotes.
when a car company puts such devices in all of their service departments, and simply FTPs the CAD files to make replacement trim parts on demand --- my truck has a broken seat adjustment handle --- I haven't even considered asking the dealer what a replacement part, w/ shipping would cost, but in a couple of years, I predict that I'll be able to just drop in and they'll be able to make such on-demand.
``Vilcabamba'' was interesting in that it tried to get this right, noting the earth as being more tectonically active than other planets, and having the aliens digging deep for materials like mercury which are unlikely to exist in the asteroids AIUI.
On the gripping hand, that was something which _Footfall_ got right --- noting that the aliens could have done much better to have chopped up the asteroid they dropped on earth and sold it as minerals instead, but placing a psychological block against their doing so.
Anyone got a breakdown on which solar system bodies are composed of what?
William