If you don't understand a post, don't moderate it.
Postfix is an alternative notation to infix. For example 2 + 5 becomes 2 5 +. So "The Book of Postfix" becomes "The Book Postfix of". Maybe it isn't funny after all, but it isn't a troll by any reasonable definition.
Also, if you had followed the link, you would have seen that flashing from a CD (albeit DVD drive firmware) was something that I specifically mentioned.
Could we pretty, pretty please have a Roland Piquepaille section, so we can opt-out? I've been good all year, and it's almost my birthday, and I won't ask for anything for Christmas.
I get up one day and every kid is glued to a box that's fucking training him. Tell me it ain't. Millions of them, all over the country, all over the world, millions of kids spending hours and hours getting quicker and quicker on the trigger, getting truer and truer aim and colder and colder inside. That's training, if I ever saw it.
From John Dies at the End by "David Wong". (It's a bit uneven, but worth a read.)
Good for you that you're not letting your kid play those games.
This is probably the first interesting post in the thread!
you chaps execute far more friendly fires than other (developed) nation's armies.
I'd like to know more about this. More in terms of raw numbers? More on a per soldier basis? More in terms of shots fired? Or adversaries killed?
Can you point me to your source? I'd really like to understand this better. I'm not so patriotic as to be unable to admit that we could improve, or that someone else's way is better. (I think I mentioned in this thread that I don't think the US should have gone to Iraq.)
I will tell you that my initial reaction is that we fight more aggressively. Every fratricide is a tragedy. But look at the Desert Storm numbers. Yes, a HUGE percentage of the causalities were fratricides, but there were an astoundingly small number of casualties by any standard.
If we could, would you have reduced friendly fire casualties by 50%, at the expense of doubling the total number of casualties? I'm not saying that would be the exact result. It does seem clear to me that more aggressive fighting will lead to a quicker, clearer victory. It seems equally clear that this will reduce the total number of coalition du jour casualties.
they certainly haven't described it permanent terrifying chaos. Moments of that, yes, but not all of it.
Sure. There are also hours upon hours of playing cards and dominoes. That isn't when fratricide happens. It happens in the heat of the chaos part.
The point is that we hope to train soldiers to operate despite the fear.
Fear is just one contributing factor. No amount of training will yield perfect performance under the gamut of combat conditions. Fear, smoke, exhaustion, dehydration, blistering heat, biting cold, torrential rain, bugs, animals, booby traps, crotch rot, etc.
In spite of conditions as bad as we can imagine, most combatants are never involved in a fratricide incident. I think that's pretty impressive. That's why I thought the OPs message was foolish.
I'm going to be harder on you than I would/will be on the OP, since you decided to jump in.
I'm sure that you think that link is a slam dunk, but I think that it is telling that you haven't a single word of your own on the topic.
I think that your conception of combat is naive. I think these poor sons-of-bitches in the tanks that fired on their comrades made a gut-wrenching decision under impossible circumstances. In the dark, in a foreign land, in abject and immediate fear for their own lives they saw what appeared to be hostile troops firing on them.
These weren't guys who had been "in country" for weeks and months, and had developed an instinct for differentiating an RPG hit from enemy cannon fire. This was some 20-something guy, maybe a year out of West Point, or two out of ROTC, and some enlisted men, maybe 19 or 20. If they had the presence of mind to formulate a though more complex than, "Fuck! Those bastards are trying to kill me!" then they are probably better men than you or me.
Combat isn't like a game of chess. One can't sit back an contemplate the possible repercussions of one's actions. It's smoky, dark, dirty, hot, and freezing, windy, rainy mess. It's being hungry, scared, and confused. Sleeping standing up, and having rashes in places that we don't talk about in mixed company.
Now, I'm in favor of any technique or technology that you can come up with that reduces fratricide. But smug, flippant comments that show no application for the realities of combat make me sick.
This isn't meant as a flame, and I apologize in advance for anything that follows that seems like a flame. The questions that follow are intended to stimulate thought and discussion, not to inflame your temper:-)
What do you base your statement on?
Was it an off-the cuff comment, or did you seriously consider it before posting?
Do you think that war is ever necessary or appropriate?
If you found yourself in a "him or me" situation, through no fault of your own, would you choose a strangers life over your own?
The times I've been modded more than 18 hours after a story was posted, I'm pretty sure it was by someone who found my posts through my user page and had an axe to grind.
(Dark) Angel: Jessica Alba in latex pants, kicking dudes around. Buffy: Sarah Michelle Gellar in tight pants, kicking dudes (and un-dudes) around. Serenity: (Have you seen the preview?) Some chick in futuristic tight pants, kicking dudes around.
Hard cards were the original IDE drives. Before hard cards you had to have an actual disk controller plugged into your bus, then cabled to the drive. IDE, in it's original implementation, was just an ISA slot re-configured as a pin header connector with some unneeded pins (such as all the IRQs except for 14 or 15) removed.
With all the advances that IDE has taken, it is still a simple interface, not a disk controller.
Hard cards didn't last long, but they're an important mutation in the evolution of the modern PC.
Slashdot Mirror
The elusive shanda!
-Peter
Wait, he wasn't in the movies.
-Peter
Maybe everyone is just doing their Statler and Waldorf impression?
-Peter
I can't pass up a big plate of fried catfish with lots of hot sauce. And some cornbread, collards, and macaroni & cheese.
Wash that down with some icy cold beer on a hot day. Now that's livin'!
-Peter
PS: I think you meant accrete.
Dear Moderator,
If you don't understand a post, don't moderate it.
Postfix is an alternative notation to infix. For example 2 + 5 becomes 2 5 +. So "The Book of Postfix" becomes "The Book Postfix of". Maybe it isn't funny after all, but it isn't a troll by any reasonable definition.
-Peter
Who guys? And how can telling "us" "we're" off topic be any more on-topic than my statement?
Anyway, Koskun specifically mentions windows. Cliff mentions USB.
Also, if you had followed the link, you would have seen that flashing from a CD (albeit DVD drive firmware) was something that I specifically mentioned.
-Peter
Dear Slashdot Editors,
Could we pretty, pretty please have a Roland Piquepaille section, so we can opt-out? I've been good all year, and it's almost my birthday, and I won't ask for anything for Christmas.
-Peter
My Plextor DVD drive can only be flashed from Windows or MacOS. I only /wish/ I could flash it from a boot floppy.
-Peter
From John Dies at the End by "David Wong". (It's a bit uneven, but worth a read.)
Good for you that you're not letting your kid play those games.
-Peter
Shouldn't it be "The Book Postfix of"?
-Peter
I'd like to know more about this. More in terms of raw numbers? More on a per soldier basis? More in terms of shots fired? Or adversaries killed?
Can you point me to your source? I'd really like to understand this better. I'm not so patriotic as to be unable to admit that we could improve, or that someone else's way is better. (I think I mentioned in this thread that I don't think the US should have gone to Iraq.)
I will tell you that my initial reaction is that we fight more aggressively. Every fratricide is a tragedy. But look at the Desert Storm numbers. Yes, a HUGE percentage of the causalities were fratricides, but there were an astoundingly small number of casualties by any standard.
If we could, would you have reduced friendly fire casualties by 50%, at the expense of doubling the total number of casualties? I'm not saying that would be the exact result. It does seem clear to me that more aggressive fighting will lead to a quicker, clearer victory. It seems equally clear that this will reduce the total number of coalition du jour casualties.
Anyway, I'm very interested to read your reply.
-Peter
We don't have to watch 'em. "mplayer dvd://" usually gets us right to the feature!
-Peter
The Architect! I knew I'd find you trolling Slashdot!
-Neo
You didn't give me much to go on, did you? You haven't said anything to change my opinion.
I took the fact that you simply posted a link as smug and flippant. Again, you haven't persuaded me to to contrary.
-Peter
Sure. There are also hours upon hours of playing cards and dominoes. That isn't when fratricide happens. It happens in the heat of the chaos part.
Fear is just one contributing factor. No amount of training will yield perfect performance under the gamut of combat conditions. Fear, smoke, exhaustion, dehydration, blistering heat, biting cold, torrential rain, bugs, animals, booby traps, crotch rot, etc.
In spite of conditions as bad as we can imagine, most combatants are never involved in a fratricide incident. I think that's pretty impressive. That's why I thought the OPs message was foolish.
-Peter
I'm going to be harder on you than I would/will be on the OP, since you decided to jump in.
I'm sure that you think that link is a slam dunk, but I think that it is telling that you haven't a single word of your own on the topic.
I think that your conception of combat is naive. I think these poor sons-of-bitches in the tanks that fired on their comrades made a gut-wrenching decision under impossible circumstances. In the dark, in a foreign land, in abject and immediate fear for their own lives they saw what appeared to be hostile troops firing on them.
These weren't guys who had been "in country" for weeks and months, and had developed an instinct for differentiating an RPG hit from enemy cannon fire. This was some 20-something guy, maybe a year out of West Point, or two out of ROTC, and some enlisted men, maybe 19 or 20. If they had the presence of mind to formulate a though more complex than, "Fuck! Those bastards are trying to kill me!" then they are probably better men than you or me.
Combat isn't like a game of chess. One can't sit back an contemplate the possible repercussions of one's actions. It's smoky, dark, dirty, hot, and freezing, windy, rainy mess. It's being hungry, scared, and confused. Sleeping standing up, and having rashes in places that we don't talk about in mixed company.
Now, I'm in favor of any technique or technology that you can come up with that reduces fratricide. But smug, flippant comments that show no application for the realities of combat make me sick.
-Peter
This isn't meant as a flame, and I apologize in advance for anything that follows that seems like a flame. The questions that follow are intended to stimulate thought and discussion, not to inflame your temper :-)
:-)
What do you base your statement on?
Was it an off-the cuff comment, or did you seriously consider it before posting?
Do you think that war is ever necessary or appropriate?
If you found yourself in a "him or me" situation, through no fault of your own, would you choose a strangers life over your own?
I hope I've been civil. I hope you reciprocate
-Peter
Sounds more like Victorian Sci-fi to me, but what do I know?
-Peter
Wow. I've never felt so good about not living in New York.
And why didn't he just say, "Yeah. Black is the new white."?
-Peter
Actually, the FSF lists the CDDL as a Free Software license.
-Peter
Okay, she's wearing a dress when she's kicking the dudes around.
But I don't know many chicks who wear stretch pants with little buckles and grommets and shit on 'em.
-Peter
The times I've been modded more than 18 hours after a story was posted, I'm pretty sure it was by someone who found my posts through my user page and had an axe to grind.
-Peter
I see. I had "Dark Angel" and "Angel" confused.
I don't actually have television.
My (incorrect) understanding was:
(Dark) Angel: Jessica Alba in latex pants, kicking dudes around.
Buffy: Sarah Michelle Gellar in tight pants, kicking dudes (and un-dudes) around.
Serenity: (Have you seen the preview?) Some chick in futuristic tight pants, kicking dudes around.
-Peter
Hard cards were the original IDE drives. Before hard cards you had to have an actual disk controller plugged into your bus, then cabled to the drive. IDE, in it's original implementation, was just an ISA slot re-configured as a pin header connector with some unneeded pins (such as all the IRQs except for 14 or 15) removed.
With all the advances that IDE has taken, it is still a simple interface, not a disk controller.
Hard cards didn't last long, but they're an important mutation in the evolution of the modern PC.
-Peter
It wasn't a solar system. It was a galaxy far away.
-Peter