And, because of an urgency to "hunt down an kill all dee terrists", I wouldn't be surprised if there soon will be government tax (or, coercive) incentives for carriers and phone retailers to stop stocking low-tech phones. Instead, roll out the latest, or a low-end with SOME of the best ram and silent remote-access features. As the networks upgrade, it becomes a drag to support the older and ancient phones, yet these are still on some nets.
I for a number of months heard computer speakers popping and buzzing away, even if no one was in the nearby cube. I suppose someone COULD have left their phone in the cube while at lunch or a meeting, but... now I am wondering if it was MY phone. Might not have been. But, for shits and giggles, I sometimes just turn off my phone, or leave it "somewhere" for a few hours, then retrieve it.
What's REALLY weird, is during November, on no fewer than THREE outbound calls, I got cross-connected with OTHER people who were NOT even IN my contact list, and were NOT the people I was trying to reach. One acted like she was already talking to someone as if in another conversation. Another I think didn't quite want to hang up, either. Then, I've gotten the "wrong number" call where they caller asked for "Mo", and despite my saying I'm not "Mo", he didn't want to hang up. My friend standing next to me noted my time with this caller and then told me "You're very nice, patient...I would have just hung up..." Truth is, if I could reach through the phone, I'd probably tear the jaw off that caller, even if it were an agent just doing his/her job. Or, euphemistically, I'd deal with that situation.
(I could also go on about my website having been experiencing WEIRD stuff, like my updates not going through, the server crashing on the ISP side (I asked them, "Don't you have fail-overs or redundancy to cover this stuff?" The rep didn't answer. Thing is, I don't know about outtages of my site when I'm NOT on my site, but at least 3 times over the past few months, my site croaked while I was updating pages. Not doing anything special. Just using THE (major Host)-provided tool, just text, a few pics and some flash-based image presenters... And, on my log stats, there are sometimes more "unresolved IP" sites than normal IPs/geography. Some are from overseas as I expect/presume, but some go to the US east coast, and have weird names, making me think a front company for some agency is periodically checking my site. Go ahead. look all you want. I wish I had friends all over the world and could reach them anonymously; I could have them report to me their successes and failures to see my site to once and for all put my mind at rest over possible disruptions and plain old blocking of my site. http://www.otanashide.com/ is one of them. I suppose some bastard will try to throw the 2006 military commissions act against me, retroactively...)
I also, notice that my inbound calls' timestamps are set for the east coast. I called my carrier and the CSR told me I had to go to a landline phone, call them, then he would give me a sequence of codes to reset the phone. I told him I don't HAVE a landline phone, and that he could help me by giving me the sequence. He said he couldn't do that. He suggested I go to the local authorized retailer and have them punch the code into my keypad.
Sheesh.
Then, there are times when I have had my phone turned off, and not just by my OWN hand. When I turn it on, it tells me "Updating Contacts". This is MetroPCS, for shit's sake. It's a cheap, lousy, S14 from 2004, and they can "update" my contact list? Hell, I've for some time been thinking they or some agency is lifting my contacts. Fine, go ahead. But when/IF I enter a contact "bomb local FBI office" I'm SURE they'll REALLY up the ante, like knock down my door, confiscate my shit, and ship me off to Guantanamo. Could probably happen to ANYONE, if you become a person of interest. Might be safer to just stick with "Fuck you through and through" as a contact name...
Yep, my phone mysteriously and occasionally TURNS ITSELF OFF, even when the battery is fully charged. I COULD be a bad battery, as only one of the two regularly does it, but I think they both will or have. So, I suspect someone is trying to test whether I am monitoring my phone, or maybe trying to reinitialize some soft-feature in the phone. Maybe I'll just give up cell phones all together. Could save me $55 per month, anyway.
ASS. Maybe there ought to be a category for shitty assets. Then, the IRS would have to create a new category. I'm sure they'll come up with euphemisms... SO, rename chair to shit-foundation-seat, etc... why not create a shitty situation for a shitty situation?
And, for the jobless who play these games (I don't; don't have job yet, and no money to play these games even if I were interested...), are they self-employed. I guess the IRS would class them as what, "self-employed professional gambler"? Sounds like a destructive life style for the losing of the gamblers.
too. I was in a train station in San Jose a few months back and noticed the Amtrak ID requirement sign. It's not new, but in summary, one has to present ID to purchase tickets to ride the train between states. So, sounds almost like needing an internal visa or passport. "What, thought you could travel anonymously since we crimped your flying ease? Nyet Nyet..." I figure anyone who is savvy will just meticulously plan their routes to ride the Amtrak as long as they can, then switch to Greyhound or *USA, then back on another mode. BUT, then they ticket agent computer might be linked to a profile database and flag it to "delay or get more information from a traveler when said traveler has unusual breaks in transit not commensurate to any business events, registered funerals, or known relatives in the area to which said traveler might have reasonable cause to participated in." Don't forget: TIA: Total Information Awareness, boys and girls...
But, I wouldn't be surprised if later they ease up. Why ease up? Facial Recognition and other means might mean they can afford to relax the rules and just let us pay and board, so long as we don't carry on any dangerous items.
One day, we'll need a mag card to take a shit anywhere outside of home, and some processor/analizer, umm, analyzer will record our dietary, blood, cell irregularity, and other things. I suppose DNA is in the matter somewhere, tho...
is a hidden awardee of the analysis aspects of things. I wonder if we'll have another story on what was it, Time Magazine, about the current cadge/cabal whining that the magazine egregiously tipped the hand to terrorists about how money exchange and such were monitored to locate terrorists. The thing is, VISUAL ANALYTICS had for maybe a YEAR posted on their website how capable their software was and how successfully their software was used by government agencies domestically and abroad.
So, it MIGHT be informative if we find out that Visual Analytics is combing the data to look for those who laundered money, started or operated shell companies, illegally diverted restricted materials or technology or got caught doing so, and so on.
I'm not falling into any damned "trap". The trap is using self-accorded intellect status to "neatly" put everything into a category, a box or a priority, and it only serves economists, military strategists, politicians and a handful of others. The rest of us consumers are mere fodder to justify THEIR existence, and we feel empowered when we don't think about how more at the mercy of them we are than they are to us. Not enough people will cut back on expenses to SHOCK policy makers into making Earth-sustainable mining and drilling and cutting and burning decision. It's all about fattening a portfolio, kicking some country's ass, or marginalizing those who challenge stupid decision making.
OK, troll me, whoever you are, if you want. But next time someone says there's no money available, they mean "programmed or budgeted for YOU and YOUR ideas or the people YOU would like to see empowered, fed, clothed, etc."
I it demoralizing the in chasing the lottery to discover some earth-shattering piece of science (maybe to preserve national eminence and more) we allow our (and others allow their) government to boondoggle TRILLIONS of dollars when we have human feces, sleeping bags, blankets, junk-filled shopping carts and more all over the streets of a so-called god-fearing, god-loving nation.
Wake me up when I can vote for REAL people who DO fear some god, and who DO feel "Whatsoever you to to the least..."
In the mean time I have no desire to vote for assholes, selfish, or warmongers. Would it REALLY hurt humanity to for at LEAST 2 or 3 years, CLEAN UP OUR PROBLEMS.
You mean to tell me that IFFF by chance we are approached by otherworlders in the next, say, 25 years that we could successfully intellectually weasel our way out of the racism, gentrification, marginalization and more? If they said, "You've got 5 minutes to justify when you deserve to be in outer space OR to live at all on your planet... Start... NOW!" I somehow doubt ANY human on this planet can with integrity and HONESTY justify the two demands. Not until we get greed out of the human experience/dignified living equation.
Troll, huh? What a disappointment. That was probably just slathered onto me by some self-serving individual who wouldn't be able to STAND seeing his or her favorite industry cut a few billion dollars for a few years...
Hell, with all ARMY of lawyers IBM has, IBM can make one helluva "call to arms": OK, boys, THROW ALL THOSE CHAIRS back at SCO" Then, pick em up and crush'em twen chair and floor." So, "ron", you better not heed stevie's advice to "buy more chairs". They'll come back to haunt you..
Quit your whi ^h^h^h, wait... yeh, cool by me.... SCO is SC(O)toast...
SCO, go get your butter knife and scrape off you over-tan and reinvent yourselves and ply, umm, play NICE next time. But, if you play nasty again, I imagine what you'll have learned is to pay your lawyers based on PERFORMANCE, not expectation...
Humans have NO business COLONizing any planets until they conquer:
-- Racism -- Racist or insensitive investment and reinvestment policies -- Pestilence -- Diseases via maldistribution of medicines -- Poverty -- Classism -- Bigotry -- Rampant corporate fraud -- Imperialist invasions of negligible countries -- Waste of non-renewable energy sources -- Destruction of the Amazon -- Poising of nuclear and chemical weapons (yeh, still up, and in standby mode) at other countries -- Duping taxpayers into quasi-fear/Disneyland states to prop up multi-trillion dollar military machines globally... -- Ghost Planes, illegal "renditions", torture, and more -- False, corrupt, self-serving news outlets.... -- Gentrification -- Vote tampering (not just in the US, but in foreign countries by the US and by local corrupt governments...)
(How many TIMES now could have the dirtier, poorer parts of these places been built and RE-built:
Dallas, Chicago, Houston, DC, parts of Atlanta, New New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco, and on and on and ON?
Fraking idiots would rather play masters of the Universe, sewing hatred, fear, isolationism, racism, drug proliferation and more.
If humans make it to a planet, and try cowboy, expansionist diplomacy, I hope the first crossed, violated other-worlder bombs humans back to proto-protozoa. Maybe re-write the human DNA.
Space and the Cosmos are beautiful. The oceans are wondrous. The forest and all the Earth has to offer are mind-bogglingly mesmerizing, and we temporary residents allow it to be plundered, destroyed and made non-renewable within our lifetimes or our great-great-great-GREAT x10^3 grand children's lifetimes.
Yes Stephen, you're a talented, inspiration, eminent human being, but I wish you could enlighten some of the frakin idiots down on Terra Firma. Please don't again preach the colonization message (or allow suppression of any of your clean up Terra Firma messages I might have missed). There's too much dirt and connotation that will go with it. Humans won't be that enlightened for maybe another 3,000 years.
Yeh, this astrolube, ummm, labe, was probably one that got torpedoed in WW 2.5x10^-15 by the Proto-Soviets, who somehow bombed themselves into the future, but went broke and couldn't go back in time, so maybe this was another "Enigma" machine. Now, wouldn't THAT be, umm, enigmatic?
Wikipedia.... look out Shakra and the Sleetaks might be coming back...
when companies go to bed with mshaft? I too feel that this is about mshaft being too inept or too unwilling to have the will power to design ORIGINAL good products, not crib or buy up and then kill off or so intensely modify the bought stuff that the customers end up ditching some of the stuff because they don't recognized it anymore.
When I finished reading the slash submitter article summary, I thought:
There might be a Pirate TAX, but maybe there will be PyroTaxknicks. And, those who are quiet and more inclined to pirate, there will just be enhanced Pirate Tactics...
And, boy, from reading the seething, indignant, furious responses, some of those execs need to rethink how they treat their customers: "Assume their all guilty, and if not guilty, what the hell? Charge 'em as if they are, anyway."
WOW! Just recently I was talking with someone about how the US is so advance in so many ways yet the BLIND have no easy way to manage paper money. I even asserted that the Blind should have an organization to outright SUE the US government into action. IIRC, the person I spoke with is of Asian heritage, and I was told that in Japan (or maybe it was Korea) the paper currency has a texture or risen symbols to assist the blind know what they are handing to clerks or to others. Now, weeks later, this particular article is on Slash. So much for advancement in the US. Paper money IS costly to make, and the number of blind is vastly small, but that is no excuse to leave them at the mercy of any mischievous or mean clerks.
"How does a blind person identify money? Coins can be distinguished by their size and the texture of their edges. Paper money is identified by folding the denominations differently."
"There are so many wonderful things happening in Australia which NFBCA is taking the lead in promoting. We do not have a simple means of identifying paper money here." That was 1998; I don't know about now... -----------
And, if the canopy is damaged in flight, or the pilot falls asleep and the dog does too, nobody will be in control. Then things will be, in English parlance, really "cocked up". No sky-high cock fights?
But, even if there is a ground controller, and the signals are jammed, things will be REALLY cocked up...
Maybe the dog should be a "Cocker Spaniel", fully equipped with a Snoopy outfit AND 9mm sidearm. (Maybe DARPA can join in and develop or put out bids for a special paw adapter for Special Co-Pilot Sidearm Project...)
And, the US version can come with udders on the rudders, so the side-swarm can suckle from time to time. But, in that case, they ought to just use a B-52, and drop the litter from the bomb bay... But, if the B-54, err, B-52 RCS is too inefficient, then it'll get shot down, and that plane would be, in English parlance, "tits up" (if the udders are LOWER than the rudders...).
" Last time I checked, the only other two mainstream Linux distributions that have all of those advantages are SuSE Linux (Novell) and Red Hat Linux."
For, me PCLinuxOS, a Mandriva derivative, is my thing now that I can use Win4Lin kernel 2.6.8.1 without my system locking up....
Maybe. But, I recently hit the wall with tiring and trying to get Mdv 2005, 2006 *and* 2007 to run stably or at all the Win4Lin 2.6.8.1 kernel. I for what, now 2 years, was stuck on Mdk/Mdv 10.1. I couldn't even go to 10.2. At least not the "free" versions. I'm unemployed and cannot anymore afford to drop $80 to $199 on PowerPack like I used to before and just after Feb 2001. Now, I by chance, decided to take for a whirl two of the latest distros Linux Format put on the Issue #86:
With my Linux Pro User DVD of 2006, my DVD device sometimes just would NOT spin the disk, and sometimes only cold boot would see the disk spin and offer its menu. That kind of intermittent harassment meant I could not rely on the disk for later troubleshooting, even though the contents were copied to disk during the initial install. But, desperately wanted the latest KDE has to offer
Gentoo and PCLinuxOS. Gentoo went boo-boo by freezing up or something that I allowed only about 10 minutes for. I started to toss the disk to the pile of other disks and stopped to spin PCLinuxOS. I am very thrilled that PCLinuxOS exists. They have the drakconf and diskdrake, as well as KDE. Best of all is Synaptic, which I am finding works like my brain wants it to vs packagedrake (which IS good, but for me, getting to mirrors under Free has been next to impossible, causing me to go to PLF and rpmfind and such...) and kpackage, which I also still like. I learned of Synaptic even before trying Ubunto 6.06 LTS, and when I saw it in use by my hand, I then had yet aNOTHER reason to scratch the itch to get the latest Mandriva distro.
Under Mdv 10.2 on forward, I could not run 2.6.8.1 by Win4Lin, and I have no need whatsoEVER to upgrade to nor any remote interest in giving up money for bloatware, appsless XP in my 256 MB box. I sure don't have any interest in running XP native either. And I am not buying Virtual Server, since I'm not a business with virtualization needs. Win98 gives me what I need: a space to run Lotus SmartSuite. I use SmartSuite for Approach and for for Word Pro. They give me what I will probably NEVER in my lifetime see OO.o finally get round to offering. Anyway, 2006 and 2007 would just LOCK UP once I entered win &. Lock up HARD, forcing reboots.
I installed PCLinuxOS, and at first I met failure, but then I was plying through Synaptic to d/l other stuff unrelated at all to Win4Lin or windoze. Later, after a reboot, (I did get the w4l license stage completed, and even rebooted maybe 2 times, and still nothing...) whalaa, suddenly Win4Lin RAN. It's been fairly stable, Win4Lin AND PCLinuxOS and Lotus SmartSuite. When I get back to work, I will DEFINITELY send PCLinuxOS at least $50. I sincerely hope that neither Mandriva nor Win4Lin causes any problems for PCLinuxOS, because at least a few dozen users out there are in EXACTLY my scenario:
Re-effing-FUSE to touch XP, and therefore have no economic reason to use Win4Lin Pro or Virtual Desktop.
PCLinuxOS helped me drag my baseline up from 2004 to 2006+. I feel INCREDIBLY fortunate for PCLinuxOS, and this just goes to show that distributors and devs and Linux mags publishers are some REALLY kewl and praiseworthy people, helping people help themselves.
As for "free" Mdv versions, the hog-tied desktop and minimalist screen savers put a crimp in the "cool demo" abilities. It makes it hard to "show off" Mandriva to would-be Linux adoptees, meaning showing off Linux using ANOTHER distro when I wanted to show off Mandriva. So, I also hate having to remember how to restore the user icons to the login screen and remove the "free" background that is forced upon users of "free".
Since 2001 or so, whenEVER I toyed around with Samba, trying to get windoze 98 to see Linux
"The Coming China Wars: Where They Will be Fought and How They Can Be Won"
ISBN 0-13-228128-7 ~$24 I saw it at Borders, but it's probably in many "fine" booksellers "everywhere" (as the commercials say of such large stores...)
My attitude over the years and some reinforcement of my supposition from the book is that China is basically keeping the US afloat right now. The rules of economics and the fact that most damned economists will sell granny for a buck means that as long as China keeps buying US debt, the US is afloat. Once China cuts back, the US is in deep shit. If the world goes Euros and China calls its debt from the US, the US will likely plunge. But, being "Masters of the Universe" and not being willing to take 2nd place to ANYone, the US will likely set up nations for upheavals, coups, insurrections, and even assassinate a good number of those who won't play the US way. Sort of gives some credence to those who suspect that the US poisoned the Russian defector to make it look like Putin ordered it, though Putin probably WOULD have done it himself if pushed any more.
The book also talks about how China boondoggles and allows billions in US dollars to be frittered away via corruption which led to numerous dams being build of shoddy materials. It talks about how around 1976 cheap materials substituted for the specified materials led to a dam collapse in which some ***200,000*** people died as one dam after another gave way to an onslaught of flooding from upstream. I only skimmed it, but for $24, had I any money, it would be in my book collection.
And, don't forget that even though we love to make the US a villain, a LOT of the US activities are nuanced by... yep, old money ties back to Europe. So, maybe that's one reason people persist in talking about bloodlines between bush and Churchill, old crowns and scepters and crap that people hang on to for the sake of family crests. Money might make the world go round, but it can also sure as hell screw it up, too. Just look at the disenfranchised, gentrified, starving, and politically oppressed who don't fit into the money-making, power-expanding schemes.
As long as no real trans-national wars occur, history might be able to show all posturing was similar to intramural, childish phallic stroking self aggrandizement. We'll see. Humans are wily, deceitful, ingenious, and amazing, and many things. But, violence is in the blood. Greed is eternal, and all those other things which apply to those who seize power.
When I was in "the Nav" (1984-1988) I loathed some of the ridiculous scenarious I read in some pubs, and some of the exercises we participated in.
I suggested this: the Soviets don't NEED to sink a carrier. Just do one or two or both of these:
A. send a low-yield/radiation, high-blast effect nuke or exotic violently explosive bomb over the CVNs. Warp the flight deck and jame the steam catapults. Now, no jet planes (other than Skyhawks, Harriers and smaller training planes) would launch. If you get lucky and jam the retractable arrestor gear, then no big planes will land. The birds in the air, far out to sea, will ditch, if they can't make it to a shore landing field or another CV, which, after a blast like that will be bugging out to avoid being ravaged.
B. Send mini-nuke warhead torpedoes after the ship. They don't need to HIT the carrier, just penetrate the screen defenses. Ships will zig-zag and collide jockeying for terminal defense to save the carrier, or blow the warhead to divert the screen, or get lucky and damage the shafts of several of the ships. No NEED to SINK them, just immobilize them outside of missile-to-shore range.
And, to deal with Aegis, just send in a very long barrage of missiles with sticky-foil like filaments to stick against the planar faces, short out the aerials from mast to superstructure, or just send a few non-radioactive types of EMP bombs to saturate and blind a squadron, SAG,or BG.
I was NOT an officer. I just did a LOT of reading, thinking, and re-hashing. Ideas like these, if actionable, render meaningless and as boondoggles all the money taxpayers around the world spend for governments to stroke themselves in their games of stratego.
But, those 3 ideas and others like them got me the nickname "TAO", for Tactical Action Officer, aboard my second ship. On my first ship, thoughts like that garnered from my shipmates comments such as, "Damn, I'm glad you're on OUR side and not the RUSSIANS..." Hell, I'm on NObody's side but my own. I call it like I see it, and if I'm wrong, I have the guts to still express myself despite the group-think mentality.
These boys can exercise all they want, but I hope fate deprives them of any significant opportunities to actually do any grand or WWII style campaigns. We don't need that shit anymore. Keep it to exercises and to fiction. Period.
I might have seen that on Discovery Channel last year. I think I also saw a piece on a ferry that crosses some long channel in Europe, carries cars, and uses pump jets.
As long as the submerged portion fits normal harbors and waterways (meaning no special dredging or annual clearing out), some bulk or other carriers might go with it, but IIRC, many carriers don't want to be the odd one out, using unconventional-looking vessels, unless there's a HUGE savings. Once one or two do take the plunge, the others will have to follow suit to remain competitive, or change their business models.
Thanks for replying with the ideas. I'll re-examine my thinking. Since I want to inspire the creation of a design studio (for real competitive ship designs or just for gaming/3D animation and fiction screenplays in the nav-fict genre) it actually would behoove me to keep an open mind. Real or fiction world, trimarans and cats would have roles to play.
Pull this off. I am partial to monohull naval ships. While foils and cats have some interesting qualities, I couldn't help conjuring up scenarios to demolish all the geeky/frenulum-stroking excitement over exotic hulls. If new tech can improve the existing hull cheaper than boondoggling BILLIONS and TRILLIONS of dollars on new-fangle stuff, then I'm all for it.
I hope a lot of ship designers of the monohull camp feel vindicate -- when this technology bears out. Even books I have from the late 70's and 80's touch these topics, expressing if ONLY the boundary layers and transverse wakes and so on and so forth could be cut by such and such percent, hull speeds and transit speeds of military and merchant vessels could be increased while still decreasing the operating costs. Now, maybe we'll have that without the public being force-fed triple hull and "weird-looking" hull configurations to deliver items. Tri-hulls do and will continue to have their place, but I still feel that blowing off one pontoon or skeg or damaging the center body is all it takes to nullify any gains. If that threat exists and cannot be overcome, then monohull gains will probably keep large-scale trimarans on paper, and not on the water.
BUT, if you like trimarans, one of my other posts in this thread points to some intensively detailed and yet very interesting studies made by UC Berkeley and I think the USN Postgraduate School in Monterey. I was tempted to make my 5th ship design a cat, but I am really interested in Gas Turbine-powered, triple-Azi-Pod monohull ships of the conventional appearance. I am also still interested in shaft-propulsion, too, because I find very cool some European and the Russion/Former Soviet M-7 reduction gear assembly where most of the gear box is in one compartment, with all four engines (in my design, gas turbines) are independently able to drive one OR both shafts. The current USN design (at least up to the Burkes and possibly the new design that might not be electric-propulsion jets or such) favors two GTMs per shaft.
But, once I saw the M-7 gearbox and prime mover arrangement, that was IT. I "specced" 4 Rolls-Royce GT engines, one per shaft, and ditched the idea of two engines per shaft. The USN surely has its reasons (and I am sure no M-7 patent would be enough to stop the USN from doing what it wants to do, unless feasibility studies were too great to ram down Congress' throat... the USN does lose sometimes...)-- possibly the boost speed gained by paring two engines on one reduction gear and the compactness and arrangement and such. But in my design, as long as the ship sustains no massive damage amidships, then even if the port side loses a shaft, but loses one or more of the starboard engines, MY ship can still sail. If the USN shaft-driven ships lose their port-side engines, but the starboard-side shafts, the ship's dead in the water. Unless it's an FFG-7 which has twin "get-home" electrical propulsors, which are independently-trained, independent thrust, drop-down, 650-hp units. They're used more for mooring and docking and station keeping events but I've not yet read of the losing their two gas turbine modules or their single shaft/propeller system to require creeping home on the 5-to-6 knots pods.
But, better than the USN current shaft design and even my M-7-like plant is the use of 3 or 4 GTMs for prime mover and 1 or 2 GT gen sets for hotel services (electrical load support). These are shaft-less ships, and that saves an enormous amount of aft-end weight, eliminates a source of vibration, noise, acoustical "shorts", and maintenance head aches. I recall reading that the CG-47 and DD-963 class were for a time plagued with leaking shaft seals (basically a huge, tough rubber bag that inflates to keep sea water (well, MOST OF IT) out of the
I wonder if they'll give the "leader" a lifetime supply of Vitamin P (porno), or if they'll just tell him, "You need da ty-gah. Ty-gah medicated palm... umm balm..."
I mean, he could go NUTS in there for the next x number of years.
But this guy surely got caught up in an anti-piracy dragnet to appease the US. Meanwhile, umpteen millions more outlets get off free, knowing not ALL of them can be jailed.
Slashdot Mirror
And, because of an urgency to "hunt down an kill all dee terrists", I wouldn't be surprised if there soon will be government tax (or, coercive) incentives for carriers and phone retailers to stop stocking low-tech phones. Instead, roll out the latest, or a low-end with SOME of the best ram and silent remote-access features. As the networks upgrade, it becomes a drag to support the older and ancient phones, yet these are still on some nets.
Just an idea...
"When I cycle into town, I go past about six cameras - I'm recorded by each one."
"You've never driven over 70mph on a motorway? "
Umm, I gather he pedals to and fro. If he's doing 70mph, s/he's a HELLUVA FAST peddler.
I for a number of months heard computer speakers popping and buzzing away, even if no one was in the nearby cube. I suppose someone COULD have left their phone in the cube while at lunch or a meeting, but... now I am wondering if it was MY phone. Might not have been. But, for shits and giggles, I sometimes just turn off my phone, or leave it "somewhere" for a few hours, then retrieve it.
What's REALLY weird, is during November, on no fewer than THREE outbound calls, I got cross-connected with OTHER people who were NOT even IN my contact list, and were NOT the people I was trying to reach. One acted like she was already talking to someone as if in another conversation. Another I think didn't quite want to hang up, either. Then, I've gotten the "wrong number" call where they caller asked for "Mo", and despite my saying I'm not "Mo", he didn't want to hang up. My friend standing next to me noted my time with this caller and then told me "You're very nice, patient...I would have just hung up..." Truth is, if I could reach through the phone, I'd probably tear the jaw off that caller, even if it were an agent just doing his/her job. Or, euphemistically, I'd deal with that situation.
(I could also go on about my website having been experiencing WEIRD stuff, like my updates not going through, the server crashing on the ISP side (I asked them, "Don't you have fail-overs or redundancy to cover this stuff?" The rep didn't answer. Thing is, I don't know about outtages of my site when I'm NOT on my site, but at least 3 times over the past few months, my site croaked while I was updating pages. Not doing anything special. Just using THE (major Host)-provided tool, just text, a few pics and some flash-based image presenters... And, on my log stats, there are sometimes more "unresolved IP" sites than normal IPs/geography. Some are from overseas as I expect/presume, but some go to the US east coast, and have weird names, making me think a front company for some agency is periodically checking my site. Go ahead. look all you want. I wish I had friends all over the world and could reach them anonymously; I could have them report to me their successes and failures to see my site to once and for all put my mind at rest over possible disruptions and plain old blocking of my site. http://www.otanashide.com/ is one of them. I suppose some bastard will try to throw the 2006 military commissions act against me, retroactively...)
I also, notice that my inbound calls' timestamps are set for the east coast. I called my carrier and the CSR told me I had to go to a landline phone, call them, then he would give me a sequence of codes to reset the phone. I told him I don't HAVE a landline phone, and that he could help me by giving me the sequence. He said he couldn't do that. He suggested I go to the local authorized retailer and have them punch the code into my keypad.
Sheesh.
Then, there are times when I have had my phone turned off, and not just by my OWN hand. When I turn it on, it tells me "Updating Contacts". This is MetroPCS, for shit's sake. It's a cheap, lousy, S14 from 2004, and they can "update" my contact list? Hell, I've for some time been thinking they or some agency is lifting my contacts. Fine, go ahead. But when/IF I enter a contact "bomb local FBI office" I'm SURE they'll REALLY up the ante, like knock down my door, confiscate my shit, and ship me off to Guantanamo. Could probably happen to ANYONE, if you become a person of interest. Might be safer to just stick with "Fuck you through and through" as a contact name...
Yep, my phone mysteriously and occasionally TURNS ITSELF OFF, even when the battery is fully charged. I COULD be a bad battery, as only one of the two regularly does it, but I think they both will or have. So, I suspect someone is trying to test whether I am monitoring my phone, or maybe trying to reinitialize some soft-feature in the phone. Maybe I'll just give up cell phones all together. Could save me $55 per month, anyway.
When
ASS. Maybe there ought to be a category for shitty assets. Then, the IRS would have to create a new category. I'm sure they'll come up with euphemisms... SO, rename chair to shit-foundation-seat, etc... why not create a shitty situation for a shitty situation?
And, for the jobless who play these games (I don't; don't have job yet, and no money to play these games even if I were interested...), are they self-employed. I guess the IRS would class them as what, "self-employed professional gambler"? Sounds like a destructive life style for the losing of the gamblers.
Captcha: "compute" (doh!)
Mind... Your... Own... Business... Or... you... might... be... Poloniumized
Captch: grasping
HOLY MOSES!
Captcha: factor...
(Why am I thinking blood factors and MaxxFactor?)
too. I was in a train station in San Jose a few months back and noticed the Amtrak ID requirement sign. It's not new, but in summary, one has to present ID to purchase tickets to ride the train between states. So, sounds almost like needing an internal visa or passport. "What, thought you could travel anonymously since we crimped your flying ease? Nyet Nyet..." I figure anyone who is savvy will just meticulously plan their routes to ride the Amtrak as long as they can, then switch to Greyhound or *USA, then back on another mode. BUT, then they ticket agent computer might be linked to a profile database and flag it to "delay or get more information from a traveler when said traveler has unusual breaks in transit not commensurate to any business events, registered funerals, or known relatives in the area to which said traveler might have reasonable cause to participated in." Don't forget: TIA: Total Information Awareness, boys and girls...
But, I wouldn't be surprised if later they ease up. Why ease up? Facial Recognition and other means might mean they can afford to relax the rules and just let us pay and board, so long as we don't carry on any dangerous items.
One day, we'll need a mag card to take a shit anywhere outside of home, and some processor/analizer, umm, analyzer will record our dietary, blood, cell irregularity, and other things. I suppose DNA is in the matter somewhere, tho...
Can't these regurgitated stories be presented as UPDATES? I KNOW I read somewhere about this. Probably even
http://www.visualanalytics.com/
is a hidden awardee of the analysis aspects of things. I wonder if we'll have another story on what was it, Time Magazine, about the current cadge/cabal whining that the magazine egregiously tipped the hand to terrorists about how money exchange and such were monitored to locate terrorists. The thing is, VISUAL ANALYTICS had for maybe a YEAR posted on their website how capable their software was and how successfully their software was used by government agencies domestically and abroad.
So, it MIGHT be informative if we find out that Visual Analytics is combing the data to look for those who laundered money, started or operated shell companies, illegally diverted restricted materials or technology or got caught doing so, and so on.
Captch: "sleuth"
I'm not falling into any damned "trap". The trap is using self-accorded intellect status to "neatly" put everything into a category, a box or a priority, and it only serves economists, military strategists, politicians and a handful of others. The rest of us consumers are mere fodder to justify THEIR existence, and we feel empowered when we don't think about how more at the mercy of them we are than they are to us. Not enough people will cut back on expenses to SHOCK policy makers into making Earth-sustainable mining and drilling and cutting and burning decision. It's all about fattening a portfolio, kicking some country's ass, or marginalizing those who challenge stupid decision making.
OK, troll me, whoever you are, if you want. But next time someone says there's no money available, they mean "programmed or budgeted for YOU and YOUR ideas or the people YOU would like to see empowered, fed, clothed, etc."
I it demoralizing the in chasing the lottery to discover some earth-shattering piece of science (maybe to preserve national eminence and more) we allow our (and others allow their) government to boondoggle TRILLIONS of dollars when we have human feces, sleeping bags, blankets, junk-filled shopping carts and more all over the streets of a so-called god-fearing, god-loving nation.
Wake me up when I can vote for REAL people who DO fear some god, and who DO feel "Whatsoever you to to the least..."
In the mean time I have no desire to vote for assholes, selfish, or warmongers. Would it REALLY hurt humanity to for at LEAST 2 or 3 years, CLEAN UP OUR PROBLEMS.
You mean to tell me that IFFF by chance we are approached by otherworlders in the next, say, 25 years that we could successfully intellectually weasel our way out of the racism, gentrification, marginalization and more? If they said, "You've got 5 minutes to justify when you deserve to be in outer space OR to live at all on your planet... Start... NOW!" I somehow doubt ANY human on this planet can with integrity and HONESTY justify the two demands. Not until we get greed out of the human experience/dignified living equation.
Troll, huh? What a disappointment. That was probably just slathered onto me by some self-serving individual who wouldn't be able to STAND seeing his or her favorite industry cut a few billion dollars for a few years...
Captcha: delirium
"Hopefully, Novell will not pull any punches, and IBM can continue the beating after Novell's had their fill."
Reminds me of:
"The BEATINGS shall continue until morale IMPROVES."
Captcha: "minimal"
Hell, with all ARMY of lawyers IBM has, IBM can make one helluva "call to arms": OK, boys, THROW ALL THOSE CHAIRS back at SCO" Then, pick em up and crush'em twen chair and floor." So, "ron", you better not heed stevie's advice to "buy more chairs". They'll come back to haunt you..
Quit your whi ^h^h^h, wait... yeh, cool by me.... SCO is SC(O)toast...
SCO, go get your butter knife and scrape off you over-tan and reinvent yourselves and ply, umm, play NICE next time. But, if you play nasty again, I imagine what you'll have learned is to pay your lawyers based on PERFORMANCE, not expectation...
Humans have NO business COLONizing any planets until they conquer:
-- Racism
-- Racist or insensitive investment and reinvestment policies
-- Pestilence
-- Diseases via maldistribution of medicines
-- Poverty
-- Classism
-- Bigotry
-- Rampant corporate fraud
-- Imperialist invasions of negligible countries
-- Waste of non-renewable energy sources
-- Destruction of the Amazon
-- Poising of nuclear and chemical weapons (yeh, still up, and in standby mode) at other countries
-- Duping taxpayers into quasi-fear/Disneyland states to prop up multi-trillion dollar military machines globally...
-- Ghost Planes, illegal "renditions", torture, and more
-- False, corrupt, self-serving news outlets....
-- Gentrification
-- Vote tampering (not just in the US, but in foreign countries by the US and by local corrupt governments...)
(How many TIMES now could have the dirtier, poorer parts of these places been built and RE-built:
Dallas, Chicago, Houston, DC, parts of Atlanta, New New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco, and on and on and ON?
Fraking idiots would rather play masters of the Universe, sewing hatred, fear, isolationism, racism, drug proliferation and more.
If humans make it to a planet, and try cowboy, expansionist diplomacy, I hope the first crossed, violated other-worlder bombs humans back to proto-protozoa. Maybe re-write the human DNA.
Space and the Cosmos are beautiful. The oceans are wondrous. The forest and all the Earth has to offer are mind-bogglingly mesmerizing, and we temporary residents allow it to be plundered, destroyed and made non-renewable within our lifetimes or our great-great-great-GREAT x10^3 grand children's lifetimes.
Yes Stephen, you're a talented, inspiration, eminent human being, but I wish you could enlighten some of the frakin idiots down on Terra Firma. Please don't again preach the colonization message (or allow suppression of any of your clean up Terra Firma messages I might have missed). There's too much dirt and connotation that will go with it. Humans won't be that enlightened for maybe another 3,000 years.
Thanks, Stephen
Captcha: untidy (hmmm....)
Yeh, this astrolube, ummm, labe, was probably one that got torpedoed in WW 2.5x10^-15 by the Proto-Soviets, who somehow bombed themselves into the future, but went broke and couldn't go back in time, so maybe this was another "Enigma" machine. Now, wouldn't THAT be, umm, enigmatic?
Wikipedia.... look out Shakra and the Sleetaks might be coming back...
when companies go to bed with mshaft? I too feel that this is about mshaft being too inept or too unwilling to have the will power to design ORIGINAL good products, not crib or buy up and then kill off or so intensely modify the bought stuff that the customers end up ditching some of the stuff because they don't recognized it anymore.
When I finished reading the slash submitter article summary, I thought:
There might be a Pirate TAX, but maybe there will be PyroTaxknicks. And, those who are quiet and more inclined to pirate, there will just be enhanced Pirate Tactics...
And, boy, from reading the seething, indignant, furious responses, some of those execs need to rethink how they treat their customers: "Assume their all guilty, and if not guilty, what the hell? Charge 'em as if they are, anyway."
FUNNY is in the EAR of the beHEARer...
WOW! Just recently I was talking with someone about how the US is so advance in so many ways yet the BLIND have no easy way to manage paper money. I even asserted that the Blind should have an organization to outright SUE the US government into action. IIRC, the person I spoke with is of Asian heritage, and I was told that in Japan (or maybe it was Korea) the paper currency has a texture or risen symbols to assist the blind know what they are handing to clerks or to others. Now, weeks later, this particular article is on Slash. So much for advancement in the US. Paper money IS costly to make, and the number of blind is vastly small, but that is no excuse to leave them at the mercy of any mischievous or mean clerks.
e nt/htm/hr.005.00.000094.00.htm
s ers/2006/07/does_the_us_suc.html
A quick search of some possibly interesting URLs:
How Does a Blind Person... ?
http://www.blind.state.ia.us/curious/howdoes.htm
"How does a blind person identify money?
Coins can be distinguished by their size and the texture of their edges. Paper money is identified by folding the denominations differently."
---------
Human Resources Code, State of Texas:
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/HR/cont
---------
Does the US suck at design?
The Difference Between the US and Switzerland
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_u
---------
Blind Citizens News, January 1998
http://www.bca.org.au/news9801.htm
"There are so many wonderful things happening in Australia which NFBCA is taking the lead in promoting. We do not have a simple means of identifying paper money here."
That was 1998; I don't know about now...
-----------
Bon...
Gives a whole new meaning to "Dog Fight"
And, if the canopy is damaged in flight, or the pilot falls asleep and the dog does too, nobody will be in control. Then things will be, in English parlance, really "cocked up". No sky-high cock fights?
But, even if there is a ground controller, and the signals are jammed, things will be REALLY cocked up...
Maybe the dog should be a "Cocker Spaniel", fully equipped with a Snoopy outfit AND 9mm sidearm. (Maybe DARPA can join in and develop or put out bids for a special paw adapter for Special Co-Pilot Sidearm Project...)
And, the US version can come with udders on the rudders, so the side-swarm can suckle from time to time. But, in that case, they ought to just use a B-52, and drop the litter from the bomb bay... But, if the B-54, err, B-52 RCS is too inefficient, then it'll get shot down, and that plane would be, in English parlance, "tits up" (if the udders are LOWER than the rudders...).
" Last time I checked, the only other two mainstream Linux distributions that have all of those advantages are SuSE Linux (Novell) and Red Hat Linux."
For, me PCLinuxOS, a Mandriva derivative, is my thing now that I can use Win4Lin kernel 2.6.8.1 without my system locking up....
Maybe. But, I recently hit the wall with tiring and trying to get Mdv 2005, 2006 *and* 2007 to run stably or at all the Win4Lin 2.6.8.1 kernel. I for what, now 2 years, was stuck on Mdk/Mdv 10.1. I couldn't even go to 10.2. At least not the "free" versions. I'm unemployed and cannot anymore afford to drop $80 to $199 on PowerPack like I used to before and just after Feb 2001. Now, I by chance, decided to take for a whirl two of the latest distros Linux Format put on the Issue #86:
With my Linux Pro User DVD of 2006, my DVD device sometimes just would NOT spin the disk, and sometimes only cold boot would see the disk spin and offer its menu. That kind of intermittent harassment meant I could not rely on the disk for later troubleshooting, even though the contents were copied to disk during the initial install. But, desperately wanted the latest KDE has to offer
Gentoo and PCLinuxOS. Gentoo went boo-boo by freezing up or something that I allowed only about 10 minutes for. I started to toss the disk to the pile of other disks and stopped to spin PCLinuxOS. I am very thrilled that PCLinuxOS exists. They have the drakconf and diskdrake, as well as KDE. Best of all is Synaptic, which I am finding works like my brain wants it to vs packagedrake (which IS good, but for me, getting to mirrors under Free has been next to impossible, causing me to go to PLF and rpmfind and such...) and kpackage, which I also still like. I learned of Synaptic even before trying Ubunto 6.06 LTS, and when I saw it in use by my hand, I then had yet aNOTHER reason to scratch the itch to get the latest Mandriva distro.
Under Mdv 10.2 on forward, I could not run 2.6.8.1 by Win4Lin, and I have no need whatsoEVER to upgrade to nor any remote interest in giving up money for bloatware, appsless XP in my 256 MB box. I sure don't have any interest in running XP native either. And I am not buying Virtual Server, since I'm not a business with virtualization needs. Win98 gives me what I need: a space to run Lotus SmartSuite. I use SmartSuite for Approach and for for Word Pro. They give me what I will probably NEVER in my lifetime see OO.o finally get round to offering. Anyway, 2006 and 2007 would just LOCK UP once I entered win &. Lock up HARD, forcing reboots.
I installed PCLinuxOS, and at first I met failure, but then I was plying through Synaptic to d/l other stuff unrelated at all to Win4Lin or windoze. Later, after a reboot, (I did get the w4l license stage completed, and even rebooted maybe 2 times, and still nothing...) whalaa, suddenly Win4Lin RAN. It's been fairly stable, Win4Lin AND PCLinuxOS and Lotus SmartSuite. When I get back to work, I will DEFINITELY send PCLinuxOS at least $50. I sincerely hope that neither Mandriva nor Win4Lin causes any problems for PCLinuxOS, because at least a few dozen users out there are in EXACTLY my scenario:
Re-effing-FUSE to touch XP, and therefore have no economic reason to use Win4Lin Pro or Virtual Desktop.
PCLinuxOS helped me drag my baseline up from 2004 to 2006+. I feel INCREDIBLY fortunate for PCLinuxOS, and this just goes to show that distributors and devs and Linux mags publishers are some REALLY kewl and praiseworthy people, helping people help themselves.
As for "free" Mdv versions, the hog-tied desktop and minimalist screen savers put a crimp in the "cool demo" abilities. It makes it hard to "show off" Mandriva to would-be Linux adoptees, meaning showing off Linux using ANOTHER distro when I wanted to show off Mandriva. So, I also hate having to remember how to restore the user icons to the login screen and remove the "free" background that is forced upon users of "free".
Since 2001 or so, whenEVER I toyed around with Samba, trying to get windoze 98 to see Linux
Check out his book:
"The Coming China Wars: Where They Will be Fought and How They Can Be Won"
ISBN 0-13-228128-7
~$24
I saw it at Borders, but it's probably in many "fine" booksellers "everywhere" (as the commercials say of such large stores...)
My attitude over the years and some reinforcement of my supposition from the book is that China is basically keeping the US afloat right now. The rules of economics and the fact that most damned economists will sell granny for a buck means that as long as China keeps buying US debt, the US is afloat. Once China cuts back, the US is in deep shit. If the world goes Euros and China calls its debt from the US, the US will likely plunge. But, being "Masters of the Universe" and not being willing to take 2nd place to ANYone, the US will likely set up nations for upheavals, coups, insurrections, and even assassinate a good number of those who won't play the US way. Sort of gives some credence to those who suspect that the US poisoned the Russian defector to make it look like Putin ordered it, though Putin probably WOULD have done it himself if pushed any more.
The book also talks about how China boondoggles and allows billions in US dollars to be frittered away via corruption which led to numerous dams being build of shoddy materials. It talks about how around 1976 cheap materials substituted for the specified materials led to a dam collapse in which some ***200,000*** people died as one dam after another gave way to an onslaught of flooding from upstream. I only skimmed it, but for $24, had I any money, it would be in my book collection.
And, don't forget that even though we love to make the US a villain, a LOT of the US activities are nuanced by... yep, old money ties back to Europe. So, maybe that's one reason people persist in talking about bloodlines between bush and Churchill, old crowns and scepters and crap that people hang on to for the sake of family crests. Money might make the world go round, but it can also sure as hell screw it up, too. Just look at the disenfranchised, gentrified, starving, and politically oppressed who don't fit into the money-making, power-expanding schemes.
As long as no real trans-national wars occur, history might be able to show all posturing was similar to intramural, childish phallic stroking self aggrandizement. We'll see. Humans are wily, deceitful, ingenious, and amazing, and many things. But, violence is in the blood. Greed is eternal, and all those other things which apply to those who seize power.
When I was in "the Nav" (1984-1988) I loathed some of the ridiculous scenarious I read in some pubs, and some of the exercises we participated in.
I suggested this: the Soviets don't NEED to sink a carrier. Just do one or two or both of these:
A. send a low-yield/radiation, high-blast effect nuke or exotic violently explosive bomb over the CVNs. Warp the flight deck and jame the steam catapults. Now, no jet planes (other than Skyhawks, Harriers and smaller training planes) would launch. If you get lucky and jam the retractable arrestor gear, then no big planes will land. The birds in the air, far out to sea, will ditch, if they can't make it to a shore landing field or another CV, which, after a blast like that will be bugging out to avoid being ravaged.
B. Send mini-nuke warhead torpedoes after the ship. They don't need to HIT the carrier, just penetrate the screen defenses. Ships will zig-zag and collide jockeying for terminal defense to save the carrier, or blow the warhead to divert the screen, or get lucky and damage the shafts of several of the ships. No NEED to SINK them, just immobilize them outside of missile-to-shore range.
And, to deal with Aegis, just send in a very long barrage of missiles with sticky-foil like filaments to stick against the planar faces, short out the aerials from mast to superstructure, or just send a few non-radioactive types of EMP bombs to saturate and blind a squadron, SAG,or BG.
I was NOT an officer. I just did a LOT of reading, thinking, and re-hashing. Ideas like these, if actionable, render meaningless and as boondoggles all the money taxpayers around the world spend for governments to stroke themselves in their games of stratego.
But, those 3 ideas and others like them got me the nickname "TAO", for Tactical Action Officer, aboard my second ship. On my first ship, thoughts like that garnered from my shipmates comments such as, "Damn, I'm glad you're on OUR side and not the RUSSIANS..." Hell, I'm on NObody's side but my own. I call it like I see it, and if I'm wrong, I have the guts to still express myself despite the group-think mentality.
These boys can exercise all they want, but I hope fate deprives them of any significant opportunities to actually do any grand or WWII style campaigns. We don't need that shit anymore. Keep it to exercises and to fiction. Period.
Captcha: "instruct"
"Help wanted. Many positions available" images...
I might have seen that on Discovery Channel last year. I think I also saw a piece on a ferry that crosses some long channel in Europe, carries cars, and uses pump jets.
As long as the submerged portion fits normal harbors and waterways (meaning no special dredging or annual clearing out), some bulk or other carriers might go with it, but IIRC, many carriers don't want to be the odd one out, using unconventional-looking vessels, unless there's a HUGE savings. Once one or two do take the plunge, the others will have to follow suit to remain competitive, or change their business models.
Thanks for replying with the ideas. I'll re-examine my thinking. Since I want to inspire the creation of a design studio (for real competitive ship designs or just for gaming/3D animation and fiction screenplays in the nav-fict genre) it actually would behoove me to keep an open mind. Real or fiction world, trimarans and cats would have roles to play.
David
Well, I for one SINCERELY hope that Kodama AMTTD and Matveev at:
http://www.hydrofoils.org/Acs/acs.html
and at:
http://www.dkgroup.dk/
Pull this off. I am partial to monohull naval ships. While foils and cats have some interesting qualities, I couldn't help conjuring up scenarios to demolish all the geeky/frenulum-stroking excitement over exotic hulls. If new tech can improve the existing hull cheaper than boondoggling BILLIONS and TRILLIONS of dollars on new-fangle stuff, then I'm all for it.
I hope a lot of ship designers of the monohull camp feel vindicate -- when this technology bears out. Even books I have from the late 70's and 80's touch these topics, expressing if ONLY the boundary layers and transverse wakes and so on and so forth could be cut by such and such percent, hull speeds and transit speeds of military and merchant vessels could be increased while still decreasing the operating costs. Now, maybe we'll have that without the public being force-fed triple hull and "weird-looking" hull configurations to deliver items. Tri-hulls do and will continue to have their place, but I still feel that blowing off one pontoon or skeg or damaging the center body is all it takes to nullify any gains. If that threat exists and cannot be overcome, then monohull gains will probably keep large-scale trimarans on paper, and not on the water.
BUT, if you like trimarans, one of my other posts in this thread points to some intensively detailed and yet very interesting studies made by UC Berkeley and I think the USN Postgraduate School in Monterey. I was tempted to make my 5th ship design a cat, but I am really interested in Gas Turbine-powered, triple-Azi-Pod monohull ships of the conventional appearance. I am also still interested in shaft-propulsion, too, because I find very cool some European and the Russion/Former Soviet M-7 reduction gear assembly where most of the gear box is in one compartment, with all four engines (in my design, gas turbines) are independently able to drive one OR both shafts. The current USN design (at least up to the Burkes and possibly the new design that might not be electric-propulsion jets or such) favors two GTMs per shaft.
But, once I saw the M-7 gearbox and prime mover arrangement, that was IT. I "specced" 4 Rolls-Royce GT engines, one per shaft, and ditched the idea of two engines per shaft. The USN surely has its reasons (and I am sure no M-7 patent would be enough to stop the USN from doing what it wants to do, unless feasibility studies were too great to ram down Congress' throat... the USN does lose sometimes...)-- possibly the boost speed gained by paring two engines on one reduction gear and the compactness and arrangement and such. But in my design, as long as the ship sustains no massive damage amidships, then even if the port side loses a shaft, but loses one or more of the starboard engines, MY ship can still sail. If the USN shaft-driven ships lose their port-side engines, but the starboard-side shafts, the ship's dead in the water. Unless it's an FFG-7 which has twin "get-home" electrical propulsors, which are independently-trained, independent thrust, drop-down, 650-hp units. They're used more for mooring and docking and station keeping events but I've not yet read of the losing their two gas turbine modules or their single shaft/propeller system to require creeping home on the 5-to-6 knots pods.
But, better than the USN current shaft design and even my M-7-like plant is the use of 3 or 4 GTMs for prime mover and 1 or 2 GT gen sets for hotel services (electrical load support). These are shaft-less ships, and that saves an enormous amount of aft-end weight, eliminates a source of vibration, noise, acoustical "shorts", and maintenance head aches. I recall reading that the CG-47 and DD-963 class were for a time plagued with leaking shaft seals (basically a huge, tough rubber bag that inflates to keep sea water (well, MOST OF IT) out of the
I wonder if they'll give the "leader" a lifetime supply of Vitamin P (porno), or if they'll just tell him, "You need da ty-gah. Ty-gah medicated palm... umm balm..."
I mean, he could go NUTS in there for the next x number of years.
But this guy surely got caught up in an anti-piracy dragnet to appease the US. Meanwhile, umpteen millions more outlets get off free, knowing not ALL of them can be jailed.