| Monday
September 26, 2005 We will have a new debate
on what to do about Iraq, but first an interesting item from The Guardian:
Subject: I don't believe this, but it's . . .
interesting.
I don't believe this, but it's . . . interesting.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/
international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.html
- Roland Dobbins
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing
stupid things,
because that would also stop you from doing clever things.
-- Doug Gwyn
You may or may not agree with the aphorism Mr. Dobbins has
chosen to accompany this. Marvin Minsky once told me that programming in a
Wirth language was a bit like putting on a straightjacket so that you
couldn't hurt yourself. Marvin preferred LISP, although he was known to use
APL sometimes. But then Marvin was writing programs to investigate AI, not
to control ICBM's... Perhaps it is time to have a new language debate.
I am still of the opinion that if our operating systems and software were
written in something like Modula-2 (expanded and with better I/O libraries),
with strong typing, mandatory declarations in the heading sections, and both
type and range checking during compilation we would have far fewer bugs, and
far fewer security holes. It would run slower but the hardware is taking
care of that; you would not notice the speed difference now. And some of it
would run faster because it wouldn't be patched so often. With strongly
typed and structured languages, the compiler catches many of the bugs; and
once it is compiled it generally does what you expected it to do. As for
speed, you can always go in and hand optimize loops if need be.
But that is for another debate another time.
=======
Of course Katrina was pretty much Bush's fault: At least Al
Gore told the Sierra Club so.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/12/215525.shtml?et=y
As to what happened there:
Rumors.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/
mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_26.html
-- Roland Dobbins
Leaving me at a loss: does anyone reliably know what
really happened? I have pointers to this article from several of you; thanks
all.
We also have this:
Subject: Katrina datacenter blog
Jerry,
It's a lot calmer of late, but there's a blog being
kept by the people at DirectNIC in NO who kept their datacenter up & running
right through Katrina to the present. They apparently have been working with
the city to get at least basic datacomm set up for the recovery work.
There's a picture gallery from their vantage point in the business district
and from their various sorties into the city. Unfortunately, there's also
any number of items about being hassled by both the NOPD and the military
patrols. Check
http://livejournal.com/users/interdictor (mirrored at mgno.com)
for a running journal from the middle of the hairball. -- Bob Halloran
Jacksonville FL
And on another subject:
For those that say the Chinese are only
repeating Mercury should read this. Each Shenzou leaves a piece of the space
station up there.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-05zzzzzzzn.html
R
And if you want to know more about SWIFT:
Dad,
Attached is a video clip taken by the Navy Marine Corps news about Swift
while we were in New Orleans. There is a higher quality version available on
the web site itself
http://www.news.navy.mil/management/videodb/player/video.aspx?ID=5585
Love,
Phil
As well as From Chris Christenson
Jerry: You might want to post this URL, for people who
want a little more information on Swift.
http://www.cat.com/cda/files/255880/7/HSV2%20SWIFT.pdf
"Time is the best teacher. Unfortunately, it kills all
its students."-- Hector Berlioz
Good article, with good pictures.
==========================
And now something I seldom do: an
advertisement. I don't hesitate to post this; I've known Ed Green since he
was 18 years old.
Dear Jerry,
Recently, after a LASFS meeting, a group of us were
talking about the current job market in Southern California. While it does
appear to be picking up in some areas, one of the problem areas is for
people with a strong admin background, such as myself.
You kindly offered to post a letter from me about
this, along with a link to my resume, if I would send it in to you. I am
taking you up on that offer!
I'm a retired US Army NCO, with over 20 years
experience. Almost all of my assignments required a great deal of
administrative expertise and office management. I've worked in positions in
the Law Enforcement, Human Resources and Military Intelligence field. Trust
me, I can multi-task and think on my feet.
My resume is available at:
http://www.geocities.com/edwardlgreen/resumeedwardgreen.doc
<http://www.geocities.com/edwardlgreen/resumeedwardgreen.doc>
Thanks for your time and help, Jerry!
Ed Green
He's not even exaggerating. I don't mind being a reference
if one is needed.
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