| Monday
November 19, 2001
Jack writes,
"Ismail Khan, the man who now rules over Herat
and six other provinces on the Iranian border, is also a Pashtun"
No, he is a Tajik - and friend of Iran.
Beth Queman
Thank you. This place has some of
the sharpest readers in the world, and I try to keep things as up to date
as possible...
Hi!
I ran across this a while back, and was reminded of
it while reading your report entitled, "Why NASA?". I haven't
researched it exhaustively, but it looks interesting, anyway.
Here's the link:
http://www.sea-launch.com/special/sea-launch/index.html
I hope you find it interesting.
Best Regards,
Doug Hayden, "Loyal Fan in Science Fiction
& Fact"
Sealaunch is the "Big Dumb
Booster" concept, and has some advantages, but I think the right way
to go to space is with reusable spacecraft. But sometimes you just need a
truckload...
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
Take a look at this:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-111801inform.story
The government is ordering libaries to destroy
information, even going so far as to designate certain libraries as
depositories for such information. Perhaps we'll call the book-burners
"firemen"?
The new secret police state will make us safer. No,
really. Laffink ist verboten!
Gordon Runkle
-- It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster. --
Greg LeMond
I saw that in yesterday's paper. I
have mixed emotions on the subject, although on the whole I am on the side
of openness...
Now for something different:
-----------------------------------------------
Dear Mr.Jerry Pournelle.
I know how you'll be able to successfully fight with
BIO-
terrorizm.
I have idea which help USA defend their population
from
terrible illnesses which terrorists send into
envelopes.
I ready to sell my idea to USA at $10000.
If my information is interesting for you,please,send
me your
information at my e-mail address: Sasha23SC@mail.ru
Àëåêñàíäð Êóöåíêî [sasha23sc@mail.ru]
I don't think I can help here...
Hi Jerry. I share your love of the movie Caesar
& Cleopatra, it is quite true to the original. Curious readers may
want to get the full text of Shaw's play, it is available from Project
Gutenberg: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=3329
All the best, David Mazzotta http://www.provide.net/~dmazzotta/current.html
Thanks
Jerry
I read with interest that Ricochet may be back. That
would be great for you. I know that DSL has made a huge improvement in my
enjoyment of the Net and vastly improved my read/wait ratio. And downloads
are fairly painless now. And my kids are finding online games. And and
and. It's wonderful-ever since I improved the physical line it was running
on. Bad connections are still bad connections.
I also can't say enough about my SMC Barricade
router. It's a standard 4-port router that has a serial port for an analog
modem for when the highspeed access goes down (that hasn't happened since
I fixed my line). It also has a built-in print server, so the other
computers on our little net can print when my machine-the one that used to
"own" the printer-is turned off. Setup is browser-based and
straightforward, and the manuals are very helpful. They have a more
comprehensive set of manuals on the CD-ROM that comes with the router. And
when I needed help with the print server and Windows XP, they really do
have toll-free help 24/7.
On high-speed cable access, I do have one concern:
Researchers probe Net's 'dark address space' (from
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/22850.html ) leads off with this:
"Broadband customers and U.S. military systems are the most common
victims of an online phenomenon researchers have dubbed "dark address
space," which leaves some 100 million hosts completely unreachable
from portions of the Internet." Further down, it says, "Why
cable modem customers also top the list remains one of the unsolved
mysteries in the project. . ."
This would push me toward DSL over cable, until the
problem is fixed. I know that cable access is faster than DSL, but having
used T1 lines in work situations, I find it good enough for me-other than
streaming media or huge file downloads, where a hyperfast connect would
make a difference.
Verizon tells me my connect speed may be up to 768
kB/sec. I have no way to know what my connect speed is, though-all the
software I have seen simply tests download speed.
As I write this I am downloading a file from Denmark
at a little over 62 kB/sec. The best I did on dial-up was about 4 kB/s.
Typical download speeds on DSL range from 15 to 30 kB/s or so. Most of
that is net congestion and slow servers, of course.
On the other hand, some download software
(e.g.-Microsoft's Windows Update) doesn't tell you how fast you are
downloading. In general, though, I get fast page downloads from places
like Dawn (a Pakistani newspaper), the London Times, etc. Lots of fun.
Whatever you end up with, I'm sure you will be most
happy.
Ed Hume
They tell me it won't be long now...
Meanwhile the satellite works when it works,
which is usually until the evil spirits rise from the local graveyards, or
my nose twitches improperly...
On BIOWAR: I have put up a long and sensible discourse.
See the Security page of the Black
September War section.
Now for something completely different
Some people just need to be burned -- in effigy, of
course. The officers of the Boulder chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union are among those people. Maybe they would be less upset
about such an act if the effigies were wrapped in an American flag at the
time of the burning...
Here in Boulder, Colorado - a.k.a. "The
People's Republic of Boulder," or "the Berkeley of the Rocky
Mountains," -- there was a controversy when the Boulder Public
Library refused to display a large American flag in the aftermath of
September 11 and the war in Afghanistan, because a flag might offend some
people.
However, at the same time, the library was
displaying an exhibit called "Hung Out to Dry," which consisted
of ceramic penises hanging from a cord running across the library.
"Hung Out to Dry" was part of a larger exhibit called "Art
Triumphs Over Domestic Violence." Apparently, the penises are
supposed to symbolized domestic violence [1].
On Saturday, November 10, somebody stole the penises
and replaced them with an American flag [2].
After Bob Rowan - who became known as "El Dildo
Bandito" - called a radio talk show and admitted to stealing the
"art," Boulder Police recovered the items the next day. The
police did not arrest Rowan, because they were not able to contact the
"victim" - artist Susan Walker - to see if she wanted to press
charges [3].
Of course, the Boulder police would have looked
really bad if they had made an arrest of "El Dildo Bandito"
within 48 hours, while still unable to make an arrest in the murder of 6
year old Jon Benet Ramsey after five years, but that's another topic.
Now, it's not hard to imagine that if the situation
had gone the other way - say someone stole an American flag from the
library and replaced it with a ceramic penis to make some idiotic
statement about domestic violence - the ACLU would be defending such a
courageous act of artistic expression on first amendment grounds, and
probably demand federal funding for it.
However, not only will the ACLU refuse to defend Bob
Rowan, they are urging that he be prosecuted. Judd Golden, vice chair of
the Boulder County Chapter of the ACLU [4], referred to Rowan's brave act
of civil disobedience as "censorship," even though Rowan was not
an agent of the government.
Barry Satlow, chairman of the Boulder ACLU, is
demanding that the district attorney prosecute Rowan. Satlow stated that
leaving the decision to prosecute up to the victim is comparable to the
days before arrests for domestic violence were mandatory. "If she
doesn't complain, it's OK, it's not a crime? Bull. This is a crime and
should be treated as a crime" [5].
Funny - the ACLU consistently claims that they're
for a "woman's right to choose." Now they want to deny Ms.
Walker - the artist - the choice of whether or not to press charges
against Bob Rowan, and deny Mary Keenan - the district attorney - the
choice of whether or not to prosecute him.
Of course, for years the ACLU has not defended the
right of women to, say, weigh the risks vs. benefits of owning and
carrying a firearm for self-protection, and act upon that choice. And they
actively oppose a woman's right to choose how to use the funds collected
and allocated for the education of her children, because she might *gasp*
send her kids to a private school. To them (and most of the political
Left), a woman's "choice" is narrowly defined in a warped
Orwellian way, and has become an exclusive synonym for the termination of
fetuses.
Somebody - and I wish I could remember who so I
could credit him - said that the United States needs an American civil
liberties union, and it's too bad that we don't have one.
1. Catherine Donaldson-Evans. "Colorado Library
Exhibit Pushes Boundaries of What Defines Art." Fox News. November
08, 2001.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,38368,00.html
2. "Ceramic Penises taken, replaced with Old
Glory." Boulder Daily Camera. November 11, 2001.
http://www.bouldernews.com/news/boulder/11lpeni.html
3. "'Bandito' admits to stealing library art.'
Boulder Daily Camera. November 12, 2001.
http://www.bouldernews.com/news/boulder/12llib.html
4. Boulder County Chapter of the ACLU web page:
http://www.aclu-co.org/chapters/bld_aclu/boulder.htm
5. "Libarary art won't be reinstated."
Denver Rocky Mountain News. November 13, 2001.
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_876414,00.html
Robert Racansky
You make your case well. Thanks.
Hi, Dr. Pournelle:
Well, it's no longer hearsay to my company: THE
letter arrived from Microsoft, "kindly" requesting that we
inventory the software licenses for every machine we own and make them all
compliant with Microsoft's EULA "within 30 days".
We did it and we're in compliance, of course, but
this is surely no way to treat your customers. As the open-source tide
begins to build and Microsoft watches its customer support first trickle
then flow away, perhaps they can scratch their chins and wonder what they
did wrong.
I remember a time not that long ago when you found
an item you wanted to buy, laid down your cash, and that was the end of
your involvement with the seller. Are they really so paranoid and
cash-starved that it's just not possible for them to sell their products,
take the cash and move along?
Best Regards,
I think they have lost their minds.
TRUST US they say with Dot.NET. "We don't trust you," they say
with their new policies.
I think they have gone insane.
The following sign is posted in the front window of
a local (Florida) neighborhood business.
WE WOULD RATHER DO BUSINESS WITH 1000 TERRORISTS
THAN WITH ONE JEW.
GOLDBERG'S FUNERAL HOME
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Hi Jerry,
