What about warp speed? I was wondering about time. Doesn't FTL travel suggest arriving before you left? Time slows to zero at light speed and reverses at faster than light.
Monday, July 25, 2016
Rodian trivia
What about warp speed? I was wondering about time. Doesn't FTL travel suggest arriving before you left? Time slows to zero at light speed and reverses at faster than light.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Now I remember...
...why I haven't made pea soup for over 3 decades. I'm shopping. I see a can of pea soup. I love pea soup. But I'm a cheapskate and I think, "Why pay the price of a can when bulk dry split peas cost so much less?" Because the companies that make canned pea soup have nuclear rocket scientist that know the exact incantation to get soup from a pea. Me I'm thinking, "Ya boil 'em in water. How hard can it be?"
First thing is they swell. I have just one cooking pot. I pour an entire bag of peas into the pot and add what should be enough water...
Now I go back to this coding problem I'm having. I'm trying to do trig functions on integers. It's not happening. I'm getting very strange results. Yes, I'm using radians as cos() and sin() require. I'm passing those double values. Never had a problem doing this in VB, but now I'm using a much less familiar language.
It isn't enough water. In order to make pea soup you have to boil them at low heat for about a generation, adding water every five second and still you will burn them. The peas themselves are not edible until you have reduced them to their constituent atoms. I may have to buy a new pot!
To be charitable, this debugger is Satan's spawn. Usable only if your goal is to get less work done. I haven't figured out how to set break points or even if I can. The docs are... not wonderful; so I'm googling for answers. There is no immediate mode where you type in an expression and out pops an answer. Even an internet browser can do that... which doesn't help much if my code doesn't work.
The peas smell good cooking.
I can't seem to be able to print results on a form. I have to add a graphic panel and send print to that instead... fine.
It's my housekeepers fault. She hid my Rotini somewhere. I'm out of sauce except this canned stuff they use to torture only the most evil criminal masterminds. The peas have been sitting in the cupboards for months. That's why they're there, they keep.
They are now, after some hours, turning into mush. This is good. That's what's suppose to happen. now if I can unmush my trig code...
First thing is they swell. I have just one cooking pot. I pour an entire bag of peas into the pot and add what should be enough water...
Now I go back to this coding problem I'm having. I'm trying to do trig functions on integers. It's not happening. I'm getting very strange results. Yes, I'm using radians as cos() and sin() require. I'm passing those double values. Never had a problem doing this in VB, but now I'm using a much less familiar language.
It isn't enough water. In order to make pea soup you have to boil them at low heat for about a generation, adding water every five second and still you will burn them. The peas themselves are not edible until you have reduced them to their constituent atoms. I may have to buy a new pot!
To be charitable, this debugger is Satan's spawn. Usable only if your goal is to get less work done. I haven't figured out how to set break points or even if I can. The docs are... not wonderful; so I'm googling for answers. There is no immediate mode where you type in an expression and out pops an answer. Even an internet browser can do that... which doesn't help much if my code doesn't work.
The peas smell good cooking.
I can't seem to be able to print results on a form. I have to add a graphic panel and send print to that instead... fine.
It's my housekeepers fault. She hid my Rotini somewhere. I'm out of sauce except this canned stuff they use to torture only the most evil criminal masterminds. The peas have been sitting in the cupboards for months. That's why they're there, they keep.
They are now, after some hours, turning into mush. This is good. That's what's suppose to happen. now if I can unmush my trig code...
Saturday, July 23, 2016
How to Defeat Terrorism
Via Rand.
The obvious...
The obvious...
- "The enemy is not radical Islam..."
- “Be nice to us or we’ll kill more of you.”
- Self-regulated ghettoes [within our country] have to be opened up and rigorously policed.
- All mosques, which are effectively command centers, must be stringently investigated...
- Every imam in the country should be thoroughly vetted...
- Jihadi suspects clearly and unequivocally known to law enforcement agencies should not be
so readilyallowed. - [Those] who leave the country to fight alongside terrorist entities must not be repatriated, even if they are passport-holding citizens.
- Muslim organizations with ties to terror-sponsoring organizations or that lobby for Sharia or for cultural and political influence must be disbanded and outlawed.
- Islamic immigration must be
drastically curtailed if notcompletely stopped. Muslim immigration must be thoroughly vetted.
Islam is at war with everyone else. There is no 'sunset clause' in their war. First we need to win the war with our own apologists for Islam. We win. They lose. Nothing else is acceptable.
We don't need to become a police state to do this. We do need officials, elected or not, to respect law and order and the citizens that support them. Those supporting Islam have chosen not to be citizens of this country, but instead citizens of a country intent on our destruction.
Update: What a treaty with Islam gets you. Via Peter.
When they call you an Islamaphobe.
Update: What a treaty with Islam gets you. Via Peter.
When they call you an Islamaphobe.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
What's the deal with Turkey?
I met my ex-wife in Istanbul January 2001 according to the visa in my old passport. Actually we met on the internet about a year earlier. She's a Russian-American now working in Sacramento for the state of California. At the moment she's visiting her mother and family in Crimea.
People are people pretty much anywhere. I met a lot of very friendly Turks (most working near the low budget hotel I could afford to stay at) just a stone's throw away from the Hagia Sophia. Especially at one restaurant where I got to know the owner pretty well. I wasn't there to talk politics but we did touch on the subject.
I also came across some dangerous people, but none that I couldn't deal with. Istanbul is a tourist city and they like American tourist money. Actually they like tourist money regardless of what part of the world it comes from... but they don't like Russians.
I have no knowledge of the factors in the recent coup attempt. Turkey is in a very strategically important geography as it has been throughout history. At one time they had a massive chain stretching between Asia and Europe to prevent sea passage during the days of cannon and castles.
They are in NATO, but are not entirely loyal to it. It's a good place for spies to trade secrets... except they really don't like Russians.
The people like Americans, but it's government is not it's people. We can say that about America itself these days. Laura Ingraham pointed out the problem when she called out the media to 'do it's job.'
Now we have to worry about the security of our military secrets. What about our people at Incirlik Air Base?
People are people pretty much anywhere. I met a lot of very friendly Turks (most working near the low budget hotel I could afford to stay at) just a stone's throw away from the Hagia Sophia. Especially at one restaurant where I got to know the owner pretty well. I wasn't there to talk politics but we did touch on the subject.
I also came across some dangerous people, but none that I couldn't deal with. Istanbul is a tourist city and they like American tourist money. Actually they like tourist money regardless of what part of the world it comes from... but they don't like Russians.
I have no knowledge of the factors in the recent coup attempt. Turkey is in a very strategically important geography as it has been throughout history. At one time they had a massive chain stretching between Asia and Europe to prevent sea passage during the days of cannon and castles.
They are in NATO, but are not entirely loyal to it. It's a good place for spies to trade secrets... except they really don't like Russians.
The people like Americans, but it's government is not it's people. We can say that about America itself these days. Laura Ingraham pointed out the problem when she called out the media to 'do it's job.'
Now we have to worry about the security of our military secrets. What about our people at Incirlik Air Base?
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Good news; Bad news
That $70 book arrived today. "That's good."
No, 'Windows Internals,' doesn't document the API. "That's bad."
No. Instead I found a good reference came with FreeBasic. "That's good."
No. It's old. "That's bad."
No. Even Microsoft couldn't totally redefine those calls. "That's good."
No. I'm not going to use the API. "That's bad?"
No. I've chosen to go forward in a way that bypasses direct API calls. "That's good."
I hope so.
No, 'Windows Internals,' doesn't document the API. "That's bad."
No. Instead I found a good reference came with FreeBasic. "That's good."
No. It's old. "That's bad."
No. Even Microsoft couldn't totally redefine those calls. "That's good."
No. I'm not going to use the API. "That's bad?"
No. I've chosen to go forward in a way that bypasses direct API calls. "That's good."
I hope so.
Keeping focus
I used to be a contendah. I did some amazing things with VB6 back in the day. I was always aware of it's flaws, but nothing allowed me to be more productive in writing business software. 12 years later and I still can't find anything to equal it. I had hopes back when I bought Delphi 5, but I just can't stomach Pascal. It makes me think it's the bastard love child of Fortran and Cobol. I've written exactly one program in each of those languages. I had an old girlfriend that used to say "she'd do anything once; twice if she liked it." I didn't like P, F or C. The other, just C, I did like; but it's not a complete language by itself. You have to use libraries to complete it and I've never liked any of those libraries. C++ is just worse.
I'm using PowerBASIC because of the resulting executable... not because I like the language. I bought EZGUI 5 recently to complement it, but it will not add anything that I need to the core language so it will have to wait for another project. I will not let anything distract me from getting this first project done. I even got an email from someone wanting to host my new domain (the competition for customers must be intense.) I told him to remind me in about four months which is about when I'll be ready for initial testing.
I was worried about how I'd do a database, but SQLitening seems up to the task. I won't have to write any host software (clarification in a moment) because I can code directly to it's service on a host. It's been stress tested using 500 bots without a hiccup, so it should be able to handle the load I intend to throw at it (and I have some control in limiting users per host if need be.) While I will not need to write a host. I will need to write an admin program that will interact with the service just like the clients will. That opens up the question of access security. I need to look into that.
I've downloaded just about every IDE on the net (seems like I'm not the only VB guy wanting what he once had.) None of them are more than a pretty face. One, Firefly, looks interesting but I can't find the PowerBASIC version it's supposed to have. I have the FreeBASIC version and it seems the best I've come across. I can't use FreeBASIC. It uses GCC to compile and the result is horrible compared to what I can produce with PB. The other PB, PureBasic, has some of the same flaws as FreeBASIC so it's out (both can do Linux, so may get another look... after my main focus: get a money making product in production within the year.)
I've found a useful, but not essential, tool for working with SQLite files. All I really need to do now is code (which is being interrupted for the next few days.) Then back to it.
Right now I'm just using one local SQL file. But my next job will be to simulate the host. When I actually do have a host running it will only require small changes to my code. The big changes will start with this simulation so I'm going to start that now (first thing in a few days when my interruption is over.)
I'm using PowerBASIC because of the resulting executable... not because I like the language. I bought EZGUI 5 recently to complement it, but it will not add anything that I need to the core language so it will have to wait for another project. I will not let anything distract me from getting this first project done. I even got an email from someone wanting to host my new domain (the competition for customers must be intense.) I told him to remind me in about four months which is about when I'll be ready for initial testing.
I was worried about how I'd do a database, but SQLitening seems up to the task. I won't have to write any host software (clarification in a moment) because I can code directly to it's service on a host. It's been stress tested using 500 bots without a hiccup, so it should be able to handle the load I intend to throw at it (and I have some control in limiting users per host if need be.) While I will not need to write a host. I will need to write an admin program that will interact with the service just like the clients will. That opens up the question of access security. I need to look into that.
I've downloaded just about every IDE on the net (seems like I'm not the only VB guy wanting what he once had.) None of them are more than a pretty face. One, Firefly, looks interesting but I can't find the PowerBASIC version it's supposed to have. I have the FreeBASIC version and it seems the best I've come across. I can't use FreeBASIC. It uses GCC to compile and the result is horrible compared to what I can produce with PB. The other PB, PureBasic, has some of the same flaws as FreeBASIC so it's out (both can do Linux, so may get another look... after my main focus: get a money making product in production within the year.)
I've found a useful, but not essential, tool for working with SQLite files. All I really need to do now is code (which is being interrupted for the next few days.) Then back to it.
Right now I'm just using one local SQL file. But my next job will be to simulate the host. When I actually do have a host running it will only require small changes to my code. The big changes will start with this simulation so I'm going to start that now (first thing in a few days when my interruption is over.)
Monday, July 18, 2016
Contemplation
I didn't do a thing about my software today other than contemplation, but that's not such a bad thing. I did do a search for some royalty free artwork, but I don't count that.
One day when I was a kid I was sitting at my computer , fingers on the keyboard, motionless, not moving a muscle for quite a while when one of my bosses came out of his office... looked at me and said, "stop thinking and start working." I was a computer programmer. Thinking WAS my work.
Anyway I continued to think with the added consideration of how I might include this boss in my process which lead me to some question I thought he might be helpful to me in answering. So I got up and went to his office. What work was he doing? A crossword puzzle! You should have seen my self control in not laughing in his face.
The guy was one of four partners in the publishing business. He really didn't know anything about the circulation fulfillment business or data processing. He and his partners proved that when they fired essential people (like the black, third shift computer operator.) I only mention he was black because his firing clearly was racially motivated. He was the most productive of our three operators and it turned out the only one maintaining backups which stopped when he was terminated. That was a bad decision that bit them within a few short months when it became critical.
I can't say he knew much about publishing either. Penny stock news was one of their publications which was just made up blather but it provided them some income. The thing I learned during that time was that paid subscriptions wasn't about income from subscribers, it was about income from advertisers with two national auditing associations determining a publication value (not in quality of writing but in quantity of eyeballs.)
I used that education later in life when I doubled my young millionaire friend's income with just one afternoon's work by better putting our customers together with the right distributors. He later rewrote my work to include it in his support software (it didn't do the job any better, but like many programmers, they really don't trust code they haven't played with themselves.) We had about 300 distributors but only about ten of them were really productive and only one of those had the most business by a good margin (and us the least margin in the way it was structured. He even branded the product in such a way that customers were trying to decide between our product and our product by another distributor!) I tried to point out to my young boss (early twenties) that most of our potential income would come from our middle tier distributors if we gave them more support which we could have and they were begging for. At least my ex-wife got a nice luxury car out of it.
One day when I was a kid I was sitting at my computer , fingers on the keyboard, motionless, not moving a muscle for quite a while when one of my bosses came out of his office... looked at me and said, "stop thinking and start working." I was a computer programmer. Thinking WAS my work.
Anyway I continued to think with the added consideration of how I might include this boss in my process which lead me to some question I thought he might be helpful to me in answering. So I got up and went to his office. What work was he doing? A crossword puzzle! You should have seen my self control in not laughing in his face.
The guy was one of four partners in the publishing business. He really didn't know anything about the circulation fulfillment business or data processing. He and his partners proved that when they fired essential people (like the black, third shift computer operator.) I only mention he was black because his firing clearly was racially motivated. He was the most productive of our three operators and it turned out the only one maintaining backups which stopped when he was terminated. That was a bad decision that bit them within a few short months when it became critical.
I can't say he knew much about publishing either. Penny stock news was one of their publications which was just made up blather but it provided them some income. The thing I learned during that time was that paid subscriptions wasn't about income from subscribers, it was about income from advertisers with two national auditing associations determining a publication value (not in quality of writing but in quantity of eyeballs.)
I used that education later in life when I doubled my young millionaire friend's income with just one afternoon's work by better putting our customers together with the right distributors. He later rewrote my work to include it in his support software (it didn't do the job any better, but like many programmers, they really don't trust code they haven't played with themselves.) We had about 300 distributors but only about ten of them were really productive and only one of those had the most business by a good margin (and us the least margin in the way it was structured. He even branded the product in such a way that customers were trying to decide between our product and our product by another distributor!) I tried to point out to my young boss (early twenties) that most of our potential income would come from our middle tier distributors if we gave them more support which we could have and they were begging for. At least my ex-wife got a nice luxury car out of it.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Found another nice tool
I'd already started to write a crude version of this. Now I don't have to. It had me confused and feeling stupid at first, but now I understand how to use it. I was just creating my DBs in code and will continue that in my final program. But having a tool like this is very useful during development.
I see they've stress tested SQLitening with 500 bots hitting it at once and it didn't miss a beat. That should translate to about 5,000 to 10,000 users per host in my scenario. I can be a success even if much less. Now back to work. Grindstone... nose!
I see they've stress tested SQLitening with 500 bots hitting it at once and it didn't miss a beat. That should translate to about 5,000 to 10,000 users per host in my scenario. I can be a success even if much less. Now back to work. Grindstone... nose!
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Falcon 9 has gone from 13 to almost 23 ton in launch capability. Can it now launch a BA330? Could a Falcon Heavy launch two?
Mars needs more moms
A commenter points out the budget of various space agencies. Note India, the smallest budget on the list, has successfully sent mom to mars.
NASA: $18 billion
ESA: $5 billion
Roscosmos: $3 billion
JAXA (Japan): $2 billion
CNSA (China): $1.3 billion
ISRO (India): $1.2 billion
NASA: $18 billion
ESA: $5 billion
Roscosmos: $3 billion
JAXA (Japan): $2 billion
CNSA (China): $1.3 billion
ISRO (India): $1.2 billion
Friday, July 15, 2016
It's nice to have documentation
But better if you can read them. Win 8.1 can't read .CHM files. I know there is supposed to be a registry fix but I found something that works for me. 64bit portable was my choice which I manually copied over into the 64 executables folder, then associated with the CHM file type. Works like a charm.
The reason I needed this is that one important document with SQLitening is a CHM file. Now that I can read it I understand why SQL code that doesn't specify type works. Also when I set up my online server (a few months from now) I'll actually have an explanation of how. Amazing how that helps.
Things are working. It has me terrified!
The reason I needed this is that one important document with SQLitening is a CHM file. Now that I can read it I understand why SQL code that doesn't specify type works. Also when I set up my online server (a few months from now) I'll actually have an explanation of how. Amazing how that helps.
Things are working. It has me terrified!
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Domain name
Don't make this mistake: I typed a .com name into the browser address bar a few days ago just to see if it was available. It was so I went to register it at godaddy today and it no longer was. Looking at the page, it's obvious somebody just made the page. So I registered a shorter version of the name. I kept getting not available until I got excited when one was, only to find out... sure it's available... for $45k!!!
I can't believe what some people will do! So tomorrow I've got some good news for my partner... we have a domain, for the next two years at least. I'm really happy with the code performance I'm getting. Reading thousands of records and displaying them graphically... if you blink you miss it. I also bought a library today that I may use in future products (not this first one.)
I may not use that domain for quite a while yet, but it's good to have it. I've been needing a new email address for years. A few years back somebody broke into my email account so I changed to a longer password. I haven't had a problem since but I still get email meant for him. Apparently he's a gay arab in to filipinos? The good news is people searching for information about me get info about him. It sort of protects my identity (not that anyone would want to steal mine other than to hide their own. Years of unpaid and partly paid hospital bills guarantee I won't be buying anything on credit.
Perhaps that will change when I have an income? Until then, embrace the ramen!
I can't believe what some people will do! So tomorrow I've got some good news for my partner... we have a domain, for the next two years at least. I'm really happy with the code performance I'm getting. Reading thousands of records and displaying them graphically... if you blink you miss it. I also bought a library today that I may use in future products (not this first one.)
I may not use that domain for quite a while yet, but it's good to have it. I've been needing a new email address for years. A few years back somebody broke into my email account so I changed to a longer password. I haven't had a problem since but I still get email meant for him. Apparently he's a gay arab in to filipinos? The good news is people searching for information about me get info about him. It sort of protects my identity (not that anyone would want to steal mine other than to hide their own. Years of unpaid and partly paid hospital bills guarantee I won't be buying anything on credit.
Perhaps that will change when I have an income? Until then, embrace the ramen!
Renting your operating system
Don't pay? We turn off your computer!
Too late for antitrust?
The alternative.
Do you know how I know windows days are numbered? Because I've started a windows only project that will take me about a year and I'm finding the tools I need!
Too late for antitrust?
The alternative.
Do you know how I know windows days are numbered? Because I've started a windows only project that will take me about a year and I'm finding the tools I need!
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
PowerBASIC Graphics
One of the reasons for using PB is because it has double buffered graphics built in. That means no flicker. That's what I'm playing with learning today.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Making progress
I added 24 forms to my project yesterday and today I've been testing SQL performance. In order to get the hot performance I have to submit inserts in batches... one big string with semicolon separation. I can do that on the server side as well. It means I have to change some habits, refactor, etc.
I'm very happy. I really enjoy coding when things are moving along.
Update:
I think I'll celebrate by getting some sleep tonight! Yahoo! When coded right you can add or retrieve 1000's of records in a blink. It took a while for me to figure out how. GUI updates take most of the time but I've got ideas about that too.
The only bad news is the DLL I'm calling calls another which I don't have the source for... but I can live with that.
I'm very happy. I really enjoy coding when things are moving along.
Update:
I think I'll celebrate by getting some sleep tonight! Yahoo! When coded right you can add or retrieve 1000's of records in a blink. It took a while for me to figure out how. GUI updates take most of the time but I've got ideas about that too.
The only bad news is the DLL I'm calling calls another which I don't have the source for... but I can live with that.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Sunday, July 10, 2016
SQLitening
It works in local mode and it's fast. I created a DB and inserted 50,000 records in less than 2 secs. I haven't got the server side working yet, but I can proceed with development in local mode for now.
In the words of Joe Biden, "this is a big f&&%g deal!"
Eventually I will get the server side working and statically link the DLL to my client code. I just woke up thinking it was morning but it's still evening. My brain seems to have been working the problem while I was asleep. I've got a 7am appointment in town, so I'd better try to get back to sleep.
In the words of Joe Biden, "this is a big f&&%g deal!"
Eventually I will get the server side working and statically link the DLL to my client code. I just woke up thinking it was morning but it's still evening. My brain seems to have been working the problem while I was asleep. I've got a 7am appointment in town, so I'd better try to get back to sleep.
IDE differences
I got a simple menu window from the Phoenix IDE demo to compile. Rather than one file that VB would produce, it produces seven including a resource file I couldn't get from the demo. Not ideal, but I can work with it. One of the WinAPI files that came with the PBW10 compiler needed tweaking but no big deal. I don't really like the code the IDE produces, but it works. I'll probably just use it to draw GUI's then abandon it to hand code after that. If that's the case they give me very little incentive to buy it since I won't be able to maintain my project with it. So I get to continue to eat. Yay!
What I could do is write a VB to PowerBASIC file converter and just maintain everything in VB? But I'm not going to get sidetracked by that. My goal is to make money. Anything not contributing to that goal is going to be put on the back burner.
So now the remaining hurdles are implementing UDP and SQL. The SQL server will use two circular message queues (high and low priority.) I'll only be retrieving as little data as possible from the host and only as needed. Static data will be copied to local DBs. UDP will be the easy part and I can define data packets as I develop the rest of my code. The only demo code for UDP I have is not multiuser but I don't expect that to be a big deal. Soon this is going to get fun once the foundation is tested and working. I can put off getting my domain until I'm ready to deploy. The last domain I bought expired before I used it ;-P
What I could do is write a VB to PowerBASIC file converter and just maintain everything in VB? But I'm not going to get sidetracked by that. My goal is to make money. Anything not contributing to that goal is going to be put on the back burner.
So now the remaining hurdles are implementing UDP and SQL. The SQL server will use two circular message queues (high and low priority.) I'll only be retrieving as little data as possible from the host and only as needed. Static data will be copied to local DBs. UDP will be the easy part and I can define data packets as I develop the rest of my code. The only demo code for UDP I have is not multiuser but I don't expect that to be a big deal. Soon this is going to get fun once the foundation is tested and working. I can put off getting my domain until I'm ready to deploy. The last domain I bought expired before I used it ;-P
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Am I crazy?
Monday I'm going to buy this $160 IDE (more than the cost of my PowerBASIC compiler) from a Canadian website that doesn't appear to have any activity for about two years and offers no contact information.
Wish me well.
Also I've got a Btree program that doesn't install. Although my understanding is if I can get it installed on an older version of windows I can just copy the files over and that will work.
I really need this IDE. I don't know if it has a drill down function (probably not and sorely missed) but everything else in the demo looks pretty good. It will save me years of not having to search for how to do basic things so I can focus just on my code.
Update:
Just downloaded SQLitening 1.7 written in PowerBASIC and includes source. They claim it's fast. I haven't got the demos working but if it works it will be much better than working with Btree. Just a single DB file to work with instead of auxiliary index files. Since I have the source I can create static link libraries instead of DLL's removing that support issue. On the server DLL's are fine, but not for clients when I don't want the support headache.
Update : 4 am
I'm digging deeper into the IDE demo and believe I'm detecting some problems. The demo doesn't allow me to save code to do test compiles... except I can cut and paste to accomplish the same thing. The problem is it doesn't appear to create correct code. It creates individual callback routines for each control attempting to imitate VB. However it doesn't seem to produce form creation code or the callback function for forms either. I could work around that (but should not have to.) Then there's new menu defaults which are fine if those are the one's you want, but deleting a menu item leaves the orphaned event code in your file. That could be corrected if I can remove the defaults other than FILE/EXIT which would be fine. With no contact info... well they do have a forum. I'll try that.
Update:
I don't expect PowerBASIC will come out with a version for Linux (although they may?) so my choice to use PB was not an easy one. It's not a great tool to work in. VB6 spoiled me but it also hid things that shouldn't have been. The end product with VB6 was always a compromise but it had the SQL performance (w/ ADO) that kept my customers satisfied with my work. PB produces tight, fast code which was the deciding factor for me. I'm going to keep working with the IDE demo because I found it was splitting code between files and may work after all. I'd just like to confirm that before I go a few weeks without food? It really would be worth such a sacrifice if it does work.
Different languages steal ideas from one another and they are not always good ideas. I never liked C header files because it meant you had to look in two different places to know how a thing might work (or not work if you change one without the other.) Basic steals that with it's include files. Declaring a function makes sense for an outside DLL call but no sense for the purpose it is otherwise used for... languages whose identifiers are sequence dependent. Functions should be atomic with no sequence dependency (something the OpenEuphoria crowd is belatedly discovering.) Includes, preprocessors and macros are all mistakes for similar reasons. They were solutions whose time has expired. A programmer needs to be humble and let the computer do the work it is better suited for (leaving the programmer to do the things a computer can't.) Namespaces seems like a really cool idea, but again is a mistake. It's an attempt to tighten scope but in a mistaken way because again it makes things less atomic. If you have file scope, namespaces become superfluous. You should never have to look beyond the passed in parameters to figure out what a function does. Hunting down code is a waste of the programmers time and a lack of humility by relying on human memory where it isn't required. Being able to drill down to called functions (two clicks in VB) is also a great time saver for the humble programmer. I could have never handled well over a million lines of code by myself without it.
Wish me well.
Also I've got a Btree program that doesn't install. Although my understanding is if I can get it installed on an older version of windows I can just copy the files over and that will work.
I really need this IDE. I don't know if it has a drill down function (probably not and sorely missed) but everything else in the demo looks pretty good. It will save me years of not having to search for how to do basic things so I can focus just on my code.
Update:
Just downloaded SQLitening 1.7 written in PowerBASIC and includes source. They claim it's fast. I haven't got the demos working but if it works it will be much better than working with Btree. Just a single DB file to work with instead of auxiliary index files. Since I have the source I can create static link libraries instead of DLL's removing that support issue. On the server DLL's are fine, but not for clients when I don't want the support headache.
Update : 4 am
I'm digging deeper into the IDE demo and believe I'm detecting some problems. The demo doesn't allow me to save code to do test compiles... except I can cut and paste to accomplish the same thing. The problem is it doesn't appear to create correct code. It creates individual callback routines for each control attempting to imitate VB. However it doesn't seem to produce form creation code or the callback function for forms either. I could work around that (but should not have to.) Then there's new menu defaults which are fine if those are the one's you want, but deleting a menu item leaves the orphaned event code in your file. That could be corrected if I can remove the defaults other than FILE/EXIT which would be fine. With no contact info... well they do have a forum. I'll try that.
Update:
I don't expect PowerBASIC will come out with a version for Linux (although they may?) so my choice to use PB was not an easy one. It's not a great tool to work in. VB6 spoiled me but it also hid things that shouldn't have been. The end product with VB6 was always a compromise but it had the SQL performance (w/ ADO) that kept my customers satisfied with my work. PB produces tight, fast code which was the deciding factor for me. I'm going to keep working with the IDE demo because I found it was splitting code between files and may work after all. I'd just like to confirm that before I go a few weeks without food? It really would be worth such a sacrifice if it does work.
Different languages steal ideas from one another and they are not always good ideas. I never liked C header files because it meant you had to look in two different places to know how a thing might work (or not work if you change one without the other.) Basic steals that with it's include files. Declaring a function makes sense for an outside DLL call but no sense for the purpose it is otherwise used for... languages whose identifiers are sequence dependent. Functions should be atomic with no sequence dependency (something the OpenEuphoria crowd is belatedly discovering.) Includes, preprocessors and macros are all mistakes for similar reasons. They were solutions whose time has expired. A programmer needs to be humble and let the computer do the work it is better suited for (leaving the programmer to do the things a computer can't.) Namespaces seems like a really cool idea, but again is a mistake. It's an attempt to tighten scope but in a mistaken way because again it makes things less atomic. If you have file scope, namespaces become superfluous. You should never have to look beyond the passed in parameters to figure out what a function does. Hunting down code is a waste of the programmers time and a lack of humility by relying on human memory where it isn't required. Being able to drill down to called functions (two clicks in VB) is also a great time saver for the humble programmer. I could have never handled well over a million lines of code by myself without it.
Sodium
I ordered dried and canned food from jet.com last month. Well, and a jar of pickles which had its own bubble wrap suit of armor. One of the things I got was a case of noodles in Styrofoam cups. What a discovery... boil water (even I can do that) pour it into the cup and wait a few minutes. Actually simpler than ramen noodles because there's nothing to drain.
Of course I'm supposed to check the salt content which is listed on the part of the packaging that I toss away (nothing like that is printed on the cup) which turns out to have 1800 mg of sodium. My doctor has me on 1700mg or less a day. So that case will last me a long time!
Of course I'm supposed to check the salt content which is listed on the part of the packaging that I toss away (nothing like that is printed on the cup) which turns out to have 1800 mg of sodium. My doctor has me on 1700mg or less a day. So that case will last me a long time!
Today's Mission...
...should I and my IMF team (me!) choose to accept...
I'm writing a UDP data server. At least that's the plan. Already I'm reusing some of the code I've been working on for the last few days. That should save me some time.
This message will self destruct before I do!
I'm writing a UDP data server. At least that's the plan. Already I'm reusing some of the code I've been working on for the last few days. That should save me some time.
This message will self destruct before I do!
Friday, July 8, 2016
What a pain
I just spent a day creating a form in PowerBASIC that would have taken me about 30 minutes in VB6. I've got about 30 task like that to do which makes this about a six month project. Of course, most of that time was figuring out the strange way PB works with controls. Then I'll have a whole lot of other things left to do before I can publish it. The good news is the end result should be small and fast. That's one thing PB does do well. Installation will be... download the file... run the file.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Cold pizza for breakfast
At 3AM. That's how ya know I'm coding. Did ya catch the error in my last post? The midpoint may only change half a record for an addition or deletion, but that could potentially mean updating every record in the database. Can't have that. For the link one jump forward or back that's just three writes. But for the midpoint links that's not gonna work. So I've devised an evil plan. I will adjust the current link to those of the second link forward. Adjusting my links 3/4 forward or back and only update 3 or 4 links either side. Over time all the links will adjust to the growth in the database even though some links will fall short of half and others will overshoot. No sleep and I'm still this brilliant! Who'da thunk it? Well, if it works?
Speaking of pizza. Eating it cold for breakfast is how you find out if it really was good. Not so much in this town. I like the owners, but nobody in town really knows how to make a great pizza. I had friends in Seattle that used to rave about some of their pizza places, but putting exotic stuff on a pizza is not what makes a good pie. A plain cheese pizza almost anywhere in Brooklyn, NY beats almost anything any place else. In NYC they did sometimes try to get a little fancier. I once had a ricotta and broccoli pie that was pretty good, but the only thing they did fancy in Brooklyn was stretch the dough.
How many links forward or back should I update? I'm thinking log10(db size, that's record count, not bytes) should be about right?
What about records marked deleted? I can still use those links that will still exist. If a new record had been updated there I can follow it's link (whichever side I'm following to the first record with a usable link.) For a record marked deleted a one direction link can be put in the data field so we don't overwrite the still usable old links.
One last point. 32bit links will be large enough and 16 bit counts will do the trick so that's about 18 bytes of overhead per record. However, strings will store a 4 bytes pointer to records that have no links at all. So 40 bytes per record should be enough for 200 bytes of string data (two bytes reserved per record.) Wait, actually string records could be a linked lists (unrelated to those other links so I really have almost unlimited space up to 160 billion bytes of data! If I count by record size rather than actual byte position.)
Speaking of pizza. Eating it cold for breakfast is how you find out if it really was good. Not so much in this town. I like the owners, but nobody in town really knows how to make a great pizza. I had friends in Seattle that used to rave about some of their pizza places, but putting exotic stuff on a pizza is not what makes a good pie. A plain cheese pizza almost anywhere in Brooklyn, NY beats almost anything any place else. In NYC they did sometimes try to get a little fancier. I once had a ricotta and broccoli pie that was pretty good, but the only thing they did fancy in Brooklyn was stretch the dough.
How many links forward or back should I update? I'm thinking log10(db size, that's record count, not bytes) should be about right?
What about records marked deleted? I can still use those links that will still exist. If a new record had been updated there I can follow it's link (whichever side I'm following to the first record with a usable link.) For a record marked deleted a one direction link can be put in the data field so we don't overwrite the still usable old links.
One last point. 32bit links will be large enough and 16 bit counts will do the trick so that's about 18 bytes of overhead per record. However, strings will store a 4 bytes pointer to records that have no links at all. So 40 bytes per record should be enough for 200 bytes of string data (two bytes reserved per record.) Wait, actually string records could be a linked lists (unrelated to those other links so I really have almost unlimited space up to 160 billion bytes of data! If I count by record size rather than actual byte position.)
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Redirection
Choices you make at the beginning of a project can haunt you for years and even decades. I was a really good VB6 programmer, but Microsoft decided to kill it for dotNET. At the time everyone said "go to Java young man!" but of all the flavors I looked into, none came close to the productive level or code performance of VB6. I thought C was my only option, but I never liked C++... or header files or MFC or the list goes on.
I'd still like to write my own language, but I've got a higher priority and need to stay focused. I need to make money by writing a commercially viable product and not being distracted by anything else.
I own two of the top three compilers that tried to take over the VB's crown. The third just didn't have the code performance even though it had the best code environment. The first one I bought about a decade ago, PowerBASIC was such an ugly language I just filed it away and didn't bother with it. I have an autographed copy of the language reference signed by Bob Zale who died a few years back.
Later I bought PureBasic which includes the kitchen sink. Then found out it's SQL performance was ridiculously slow. So at this point a few years back I just kind of gave up. But something keeps nagging me not to go gently into that good night. So this is my version of raging against the dying of the light (and the light is dying. I can't really believe my physical health as I one finger type this.)
So the Win32API references I finally got together all have one thing in common. They tell you the size of the parameters but leave out that slightly important info of what they are. So I ordered this book. Note it's the 5th edition. The latest is the 6th which comes in two parts and the second doesn't seem to be available yet. After ordering it I gave some more thought to my choice of language. I can compile Euphoria with GCC. I also thought for later in my project I could use GAS to avoid reinventing another wheel. I could use Euphoria's EDS for both my client and server databases. I'm planning to use UDP messaging because I can deal with lost packages but need the speed. I also plan to do some peer to peer where I can bypass the host.
But I changed my mind.
I could try to find someone else's DB backend but I don't need to. I can just open a binary file in PowerBASIC and get blazingly fast speed. I'll be mostly reading static data. I'll have some circular message queues that just require two reads. I'll only have two data types (integers and fixed length strings) and the integers can represent fixed point floats. I'm writing my database editor now, which because of my lack of experience with PB should take me about a week (it will look ugly, but I'm the only one that will ever use it.) I'm thinking I can have the host continuously update midpoint links. Adding or deleting will only change the links by half a record which won't affect performance at all.
I can do the same thing with clients but only have to do those about a thousandth or so as often (there will be some start up cost when a user comes back on, but I think that's manageable.) Doing is how I will find out. I really have nothing to lose.
So what am I writing? I plan to make money by giving it away for free (remember AOL?) That's when you'll find out.
Here's a place that might be worth looking into? Jim got me curious.
I'd still like to write my own language, but I've got a higher priority and need to stay focused. I need to make money by writing a commercially viable product and not being distracted by anything else.
I own two of the top three compilers that tried to take over the VB's crown. The third just didn't have the code performance even though it had the best code environment. The first one I bought about a decade ago, PowerBASIC was such an ugly language I just filed it away and didn't bother with it. I have an autographed copy of the language reference signed by Bob Zale who died a few years back.
Later I bought PureBasic which includes the kitchen sink. Then found out it's SQL performance was ridiculously slow. So at this point a few years back I just kind of gave up. But something keeps nagging me not to go gently into that good night. So this is my version of raging against the dying of the light (and the light is dying. I can't really believe my physical health as I one finger type this.)
So the Win32API references I finally got together all have one thing in common. They tell you the size of the parameters but leave out that slightly important info of what they are. So I ordered this book. Note it's the 5th edition. The latest is the 6th which comes in two parts and the second doesn't seem to be available yet. After ordering it I gave some more thought to my choice of language. I can compile Euphoria with GCC. I also thought for later in my project I could use GAS to avoid reinventing another wheel. I could use Euphoria's EDS for both my client and server databases. I'm planning to use UDP messaging because I can deal with lost packages but need the speed. I also plan to do some peer to peer where I can bypass the host.
But I changed my mind.
I could try to find someone else's DB backend but I don't need to. I can just open a binary file in PowerBASIC and get blazingly fast speed. I'll be mostly reading static data. I'll have some circular message queues that just require two reads. I'll only have two data types (integers and fixed length strings) and the integers can represent fixed point floats. I'm writing my database editor now, which because of my lack of experience with PB should take me about a week (it will look ugly, but I'm the only one that will ever use it.) I'm thinking I can have the host continuously update midpoint links. Adding or deleting will only change the links by half a record which won't affect performance at all.
I can do the same thing with clients but only have to do those about a thousandth or so as often (there will be some start up cost when a user comes back on, but I think that's manageable.) Doing is how I will find out. I really have nothing to lose.
So what am I writing? I plan to make money by giving it away for free (remember AOL?) That's when you'll find out.
Here's a place that might be worth looking into? Jim got me curious.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Refactoring
My egg foo young from lunch was too much, so I left it to snack on later. Chinese food doesn't sit well.
Anyway I got to thinking about my idea to put all OS dependencies in one file, but decided to split it in two because win32 has hundreds of possible calls and breaking those out into a separate file allows code reuse on future projects.
Euphoria is a bit manic. When it generates an error file it sometimes points you in the wrong direction. I had implemented LoadIcon and LoadCursor and they were working fine. Then I added CreateWindow and LoadIcon blew up. Wrong count of parameters it said which I hadn't changed. So I stubbed it out, after which it started complaining about LoadCursor, so I stubbed that out as well.
Then I was shocked that it compiled and seemed to run fine. That should not have happened. Somehow I'm sure I'm corrupting memory somewhere but haven't a clue how I'm going to track that down.
I'm not sure about parameter passing from Euphoria to C either. Euphoria has two routines that work together but take their parameters in reverse order. To pass strings to C you have to allocate memory and pass a pointer. The thing is I'm not confident I'm passing the right size parameters. Everything is working, but I'm flying blind at the moment. Euphoria has a thing called a sequence which is not a contiguous array. I understand it's referenced by a pointer, but how does C know anything about the structure of a sequence? It cant, but passing them as parameters seems to work fine. I'm going to have to dig a bit into the calling functions so I can better understand what's going on.
I'm shocked to discover references I used back when I was a working programmer are no longer online. I've got Petzold in PowerBASIC and everything else in C (I do not like C++) which I then have to translate into Euphoria which has documentation that doesn't keep up with the changes in the development of the language. I want a function dictionary with snippets and something definitive on type sizes. The information just isn't in one place as it should be. I downloaded win32.hlp and win32.chm but neither of them gave me access to their info! Those were both large downloads but appear empty when I tried to reference them. The help file was particularly outragious since it did load but wouldn't show me anything. That means Microsoft intentionally made help files obsolete starting with windows 8. How can I know that? Because the help files do load, they just don't work beyond that. So Microsoft removed the functioning code from the OS and intentionally replaced it.
I've got an early appointment with my wound care guy in about 5 hours from now, so I'd better get some sleep.
Update: Well, I got a refreshing 3 hours of sleep last night. I'm good to go. Across the street is a field filled with donkeys and llamas. The donkeys think they are roosters. They put on quite a racket just before dawn. I've got another two hours until my appointment which only takes about 15 minutes, then I'm back to coding. Right now it's a bit of drudgery, but as I get the foundation built the rest will be a lot more fun.
Anyway I got to thinking about my idea to put all OS dependencies in one file, but decided to split it in two because win32 has hundreds of possible calls and breaking those out into a separate file allows code reuse on future projects.
Euphoria is a bit manic. When it generates an error file it sometimes points you in the wrong direction. I had implemented LoadIcon and LoadCursor and they were working fine. Then I added CreateWindow and LoadIcon blew up. Wrong count of parameters it said which I hadn't changed. So I stubbed it out, after which it started complaining about LoadCursor, so I stubbed that out as well.
Then I was shocked that it compiled and seemed to run fine. That should not have happened. Somehow I'm sure I'm corrupting memory somewhere but haven't a clue how I'm going to track that down.
I'm not sure about parameter passing from Euphoria to C either. Euphoria has two routines that work together but take their parameters in reverse order. To pass strings to C you have to allocate memory and pass a pointer. The thing is I'm not confident I'm passing the right size parameters. Everything is working, but I'm flying blind at the moment. Euphoria has a thing called a sequence which is not a contiguous array. I understand it's referenced by a pointer, but how does C know anything about the structure of a sequence? It cant, but passing them as parameters seems to work fine. I'm going to have to dig a bit into the calling functions so I can better understand what's going on.
I'm shocked to discover references I used back when I was a working programmer are no longer online. I've got Petzold in PowerBASIC and everything else in C (I do not like C++) which I then have to translate into Euphoria which has documentation that doesn't keep up with the changes in the development of the language. I want a function dictionary with snippets and something definitive on type sizes. The information just isn't in one place as it should be. I downloaded win32.hlp and win32.chm but neither of them gave me access to their info! Those were both large downloads but appear empty when I tried to reference them. The help file was particularly outragious since it did load but wouldn't show me anything. That means Microsoft intentionally made help files obsolete starting with windows 8. How can I know that? Because the help files do load, they just don't work beyond that. So Microsoft removed the functioning code from the OS and intentionally replaced it.
I've got an early appointment with my wound care guy in about 5 hours from now, so I'd better get some sleep.
Update: Well, I got a refreshing 3 hours of sleep last night. I'm good to go. Across the street is a field filled with donkeys and llamas. The donkeys think they are roosters. They put on quite a racket just before dawn. I've got another two hours until my appointment which only takes about 15 minutes, then I'm back to coding. Right now it's a bit of drudgery, but as I get the foundation built the rest will be a lot more fun.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
making code progress
I'm making progress on the code I'm working on. Outwardly the result hasn't changed from where I started yesterday, but internally I've cleaned up the code and removed a lot of dependencies. Considering I'm hampered by not knowing where most functions were defined I've had a pretty productive day. I've moved all my OS dependencies into one file so when the day comes for my Linux version I only have to replace that one file. Time to sleep.
Zimmerman's Linux installation series
So the first two parts have been posted with more to come...
Part 1, Part 2,
Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
I'll be getting this.
After installation...
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mint-meta-codecs
I will update as more of the series becomes available.
Part 1, Part 2,
Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
I'll be getting this.
After installation...
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mint-meta-codecs
I will update as more of the series becomes available.
code rot
Code rot is a misnomer. Code doesn't usually change itself. What happens is some idiot wants to make things 'better' and doesn't consider how their changes might affect other software that depends on how the legacy code worked. I was spoiled. When I started as a programmer in NYC, the VP that hired me had been with the company since it's founding 20 years earlier. Some of his code continued to work since that founding despite many generations of hardware upgrades (Univac mainframes that were code compatible with IBM mainframes.)
So when I got a copy of the first Euphoria program I wrote (it's awful, but it worked then) from an online archive, because I wanted to grab some functionality I'd written in it, I expected it to run. Which it didn't of course. Dependencies had been altered. This is one of the reasons I may write my own language and IDE. First, because I can control it over the years and second, because the tools to make coding fun in my terms just don't exist (I've been waiting so long I'm now officially obsolete.) Today I found FASM has an IDE and source (windows defender wouldn't let me download it. So I bypassed it. Test compiles work.) I don't know if I'll use FASM, GAS or some other assembler (bought MASM about 30 years ago. I bought Lattice C around the same time.) I'm not an assembly programmer and the references I've found are inconsistent and full of holes, but I think that's how I must move forward. Eventually I'll write the new language in itself and having a machine language version will give me something with which to compare it.
PowerBASIC, another compiler I bought years ago, has some good reference material I'm going through. Ironically, in order to have just one language to write my code in I have to have an understanding of half a dozen others! Back in the 80s I remember asking myself, in order to do this thing in dBase, how would I do it in 6502 assembler? That worked! The 6502 was such a sweet cpu to write code for. I wrote an assembler/disassembler for it in BASIC which got me my first programming job in NYC (writing BAL on that Univac.)
Coding can be such a pain. Not figuring out algorithms (that's the fun part) but getting all the plumbing right without good references. I just know that once I've got things working user32.dll and gdi32.dll will disappear breaking my code again. That will not affect my Linux version of course. I will have only one file different between the two versions.
So when I got a copy of the first Euphoria program I wrote (it's awful, but it worked then) from an online archive, because I wanted to grab some functionality I'd written in it, I expected it to run. Which it didn't of course. Dependencies had been altered. This is one of the reasons I may write my own language and IDE. First, because I can control it over the years and second, because the tools to make coding fun in my terms just don't exist (I've been waiting so long I'm now officially obsolete.) Today I found FASM has an IDE and source (windows defender wouldn't let me download it. So I bypassed it. Test compiles work.) I don't know if I'll use FASM, GAS or some other assembler (bought MASM about 30 years ago. I bought Lattice C around the same time.) I'm not an assembly programmer and the references I've found are inconsistent and full of holes, but I think that's how I must move forward. Eventually I'll write the new language in itself and having a machine language version will give me something with which to compare it.
PowerBASIC, another compiler I bought years ago, has some good reference material I'm going through. Ironically, in order to have just one language to write my code in I have to have an understanding of half a dozen others! Back in the 80s I remember asking myself, in order to do this thing in dBase, how would I do it in 6502 assembler? That worked! The 6502 was such a sweet cpu to write code for. I wrote an assembler/disassembler for it in BASIC which got me my first programming job in NYC (writing BAL on that Univac.)
Coding can be such a pain. Not figuring out algorithms (that's the fun part) but getting all the plumbing right without good references. I just know that once I've got things working user32.dll and gdi32.dll will disappear breaking my code again. That will not affect my Linux version of course. I will have only one file different between the two versions.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Friends of the Clintons - a chilling list
...lest we forget what has happened to many "friends" and associates of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
1- James McDougal - Convicted Whitewater partner of the Clintons who died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr's investigation.
2 - Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown (Washington, D. C.). The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment by Clinton in the White House.
3 - Vince Foster - Former White House Councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide. (He was about to testify against Hillary related to the records she refused to turn over to congress.) Was reported to have been having an affair with Hillary.
4 - Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown's skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the Air Traffic controller committed suicide.
5 - C. Victor Raiser, II - Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.
6 - Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock on September 1992. Described by Clinton as a "dear friend and trusted advisor".
7 - Ed Willey - Clinton fundraiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day His wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.
8 - Jerry Parks - Head of Clinton's gubernatorial security team in Little Rock ... Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park's son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.
9 - James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a "Black Book" of people which contained names of influential people who visited Prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas
10 - James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to the Clintons' Whitewater deals.
11 - Kathy Ferguson - Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones Lawsuit, and Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.
12 - Bill Shelton - Arkansas State Trooper and fiancée of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancée, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancée.
13 - Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton's friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client, Dan Lassater, was a convicted drug distributor.
14 - Florence Martin - Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal, Mena, Arkansas Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot Wounds.
15 - Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died Of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a Suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.
16 - Paula Grober - Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9,1992. She died in a one car accident.
17 - Danny Casolaro - Investigative reporter who was Investigating the Mean Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.
18 - Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mean Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 "October Surprise" was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993, in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death. (May have died of poison)
19 - Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August 15,1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal.
20 - Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.
21 - Charles Meissner - Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.
22 - Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton 's advisory council personally treated Clinton's mother, stepfather and Brother.
23 - Barry Seal - Drug running TWA pilot out of Mean Arkansas, death was no accident.
24 - Johnny Lawhorn, Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.
25 - Stanley Huggins - Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.
26 - Hershel Friday - Attorney and Clinton fundraiser died March 1, 1994, when his plane exploded.
27 - Kevin Ives & Don Henry - Known as "The boys on the track" case. Reports say the two boys may have stumbled upon the Mean Arkansas airport drug operation. The initial report of death said their deaths were due to falling asleep on railroad tracks and being run over. Later autopsy reports stated that the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.
THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:
28 - Keith Coney - Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, 7/88.
29 - Keith McMaskle - Died, stabbed 113 times, Nov 1988
30 - Gregory Collins - Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.
31 - Jeff Rhodes - He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989. (Coroner ruled death due to suicide)
32 - James Milan - Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to natural causes"?
33 - Jordan Kettleson - Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.
34 - Richard Winters - A suspect in the Ives/Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.
THE FOLLOWING CLINTON PERSONAL BODYGUARDS ALL DIED OF MYSTERIOUS CAUSES OR SUICIDE
36 - Major William S. Barkley, Jr.
37 - Captain Scott J . Reynolds
38 - Sgt. Brian Hanley
1- James McDougal - Convicted Whitewater partner of the Clintons who died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr's investigation.
2 - Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown (Washington, D. C.). The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment by Clinton in the White House.
3 - Vince Foster - Former White House Councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide. (He was about to testify against Hillary related to the records she refused to turn over to congress.) Was reported to have been having an affair with Hillary.
4 - Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown's skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the Air Traffic controller committed suicide.
5 - C. Victor Raiser, II - Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.
6 - Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock on September 1992. Described by Clinton as a "dear friend and trusted advisor".
7 - Ed Willey - Clinton fundraiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day His wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.
8 - Jerry Parks - Head of Clinton's gubernatorial security team in Little Rock ... Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park's son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.
9 - James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a "Black Book" of people which contained names of influential people who visited Prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas
10 - James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to the Clintons' Whitewater deals.
11 - Kathy Ferguson - Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones Lawsuit, and Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.
12 - Bill Shelton - Arkansas State Trooper and fiancée of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancée, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancée.
13 - Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton's friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client, Dan Lassater, was a convicted drug distributor.
14 - Florence Martin - Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal, Mena, Arkansas Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot Wounds.
15 - Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died Of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a Suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.
16 - Paula Grober - Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9,1992. She died in a one car accident.
17 - Danny Casolaro - Investigative reporter who was Investigating the Mean Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.
18 - Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mean Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 "October Surprise" was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993, in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death. (May have died of poison)
19 - Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August 15,1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal.
20 - Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.
21 - Charles Meissner - Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.
22 - Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton 's advisory council personally treated Clinton's mother, stepfather and Brother.
23 - Barry Seal - Drug running TWA pilot out of Mean Arkansas, death was no accident.
24 - Johnny Lawhorn, Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.
25 - Stanley Huggins - Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.
26 - Hershel Friday - Attorney and Clinton fundraiser died March 1, 1994, when his plane exploded.
27 - Kevin Ives & Don Henry - Known as "The boys on the track" case. Reports say the two boys may have stumbled upon the Mean Arkansas airport drug operation. The initial report of death said their deaths were due to falling asleep on railroad tracks and being run over. Later autopsy reports stated that the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.
THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:
28 - Keith Coney - Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, 7/88.
29 - Keith McMaskle - Died, stabbed 113 times, Nov 1988
30 - Gregory Collins - Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.
31 - Jeff Rhodes - He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989. (Coroner ruled death due to suicide)
32 - James Milan - Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to natural causes"?
33 - Jordan Kettleson - Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.
34 - Richard Winters - A suspect in the Ives/Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.
THE FOLLOWING CLINTON PERSONAL BODYGUARDS ALL DIED OF MYSTERIOUS CAUSES OR SUICIDE
36 - Major William S. Barkley, Jr.
37 - Captain Scott J . Reynolds
38 - Sgt. Brian Hanley
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Bowling for strawmen
In the post, "Delusions of a Mars Colonist" Dr. Spudis asks some questions. Let's try to answer them...
The good doctor gives us the formula for success: arrive, survive and thrive.
Arrival, he identifies, must overcome radiation, landing and return. Except to colonize you don't need the return part. Landing is a technical problem that soon will be tested in a new landing profile using a SpaceX Dragon 2 possibly as soon as 2018. That leaves us just radiation. It is an issue, but not one we need to cower from. We've measured the radiation levels of unmanned vehicles going to mars. It's manageable for the length of the trip to mars. Had Inspiration Mars taken place we would have had an example to point to. They planned to use human waste (shit!) as the mitigating factor.
Survival; the martian surface is hostile to life. He identifies cold, cosmic rays, UV radiation and chemicals in the dust: perchlorates and peroxides. Energy is the solution to cold. Cosmic radiation even affects us on the earth's surface but on mars we will simply spend more time indoors. So making the quality of indoor living good will be a higher priority on mars. UV is a similar issue we also deal with right here on earth. We can certainly handle it on mars. The chemicals in the dust are highly reactive making it an easier issue to deal with than if they weren't. The best mitigating agent is water.
Oops, almost neglected to address plant growth. The Mars Society and others have tested plant growth in a simulated mars environment. They grow well and are not toxic to eat.
Yes, we can survive on mars, but what about thrive?
Mars has plenty of water and we can get it. We need to provide the colonists with more than enough energy. Energy, as Jerry Pournelle identified in the 70s, is the only real limiting factor. We should definitely plan to over supply the colony with an over abundance of energy. It can be done with solar power initially (directly and by producing fuel for generators) but we should get over our fear of nuclear power.
Solar arrays can be manufactured from local materials on mars. There is no perhaps about it and dust lowers energy production, but only a bit. Rovers only meant to survive 90 days on mars have lasted over a decade in part because the wind on mars itself gently cleans the dust off of solar cells. Those rovers would have died long ago if it didn't.
I agree with the doctor that thriving has been ignored. We will not. Dr. Spudis starts with a question: "How will martians make a living?" He dismisses autarky without even a thought. Is that justified? How do people make a living on earth? He correctly points out that martians will need imports from Earth, but not that much since mars has the resources (and incentive) to produce almost all they need from local resources. Where will the things they must import come from? Simple; From new arrivals as part of their personal property to be used as trade goods. It would be foolish of new colonists to bring stuff with them they can get when they arrive on mars. We can safely assume each colonist has a personal mass allotment for the trip (beyond just a spacesuit.) Even if it were only 100 kg (and it should be more like 1000 kg for each colonist) that would be worth about $100,000 (what it would cost to get that delivered from earth.) The existing martians would trade labor and materials (producing their trade goods) for those imports before the new colonists even arrive.
We've just answer his next question. "What will they have of value to trade or to sell for these imports?" But let's be explicit... habitats, life support and anything else they think they can sell. Free enterprise works everywhere.
Then he states, "we do not know if Mars contains anything that would have economic value on Earth." I'd go even further and assume it doesn't at all (although it's easy to show it potentially does.) "We have no idea [if] deposits are accessible for mining and refining," he states. This is the most ridiculous statement of all. Humans have been mining and refining since before the invention of writing. We already know that some of the most important elements they require are in the air and the dust. Other minerals will be found because they are abundant and we have the technology and knowledge to find them. The rovers have accidentally discovered useful amounts of ore already and humans on site will do it a thousand times better. "Martian products must be of sufficient worth so as to merit their transportation back to terrestrial markets," he correctly says. Which is why mars will focus on electronic data and intellectual property that has almost no transportation costs. "It is not clear that Mars is particularly rich in factual data marketable to those back on Earth." Only if you assume a level of quality we don't even expect right here on earth. Beside that, we already spend money on rovers when we would get more bang from just hiring local martian researchers for anything a rover might do. Any equipment needed would only require the marginal cost of sending it with new colonists.
"[Colonies are] established primarily for two reasons: power and wealth creation." We have other reasons. We have no need at this time to project power. Those against colonizing mars just assume there will be no wealth creation but that requires an profound ignorance of what humans are. No matter where we go, we create wealth. Suppose we have a million people living on mars one day. Can you possibly imagine them not creating wealth among themselves. This requires an inconceivable level of blindness.
Getting a million people to mars is a problem already being worked out. The thing that people are missing is that once we begin possessing a thing, it gets value. That value will grow over time. Wealth creation? Anything we imagine today will be ridiculously short of the reality tomorrow. Bet on it. The delusion is thinking otherwise.
In speculative markets people trade not on today's value, but what they believe the value will be in the future. If today's value is nearly worthless, that's a good thing from the speculators perspective.
Suppose the govt. (any govt.) did something wise for a change and declared they would fully acknowledge title to martian property (144 million sq. km. of land.) Suppose speculators bought that land for a penny a sq. km. Would that be a smart decision? If some of that land was possessed by colonists which then paid a nickel per sq.km., that speculator would realize a 500% percent profit on the land sold and still have more land to sell at a better price in the future. Since worthless deeds are already being sold for both the moon and mars today for about $20 an acre the actual market value may already be well above worthless. At $1/acre mars is worth over $35 trillion (247 acres x 144,000,000 x $1.) In a trust fund set up for the purpose of colonists transportation that would easily pay the ticket price for more than a million colonists. So the colonists could all arrive debt free and wealthy (in trade goods needed by the colony.)
As far as terraforming goes, it's an unrequired bad idea. Practice on venus instead. We agree that the govt. space program is a ridiculous mess today, but commercial space is just beginning to come into its own. A colony is just the thing to create for them an unprecedented level of growth.
Of course I haven't addressed every issue, just touched on those the dr. brought up. Other issues are all within our ability to mitigate.
The good doctor gives us the formula for success: arrive, survive and thrive.
Arrival, he identifies, must overcome radiation, landing and return. Except to colonize you don't need the return part. Landing is a technical problem that soon will be tested in a new landing profile using a SpaceX Dragon 2 possibly as soon as 2018. That leaves us just radiation. It is an issue, but not one we need to cower from. We've measured the radiation levels of unmanned vehicles going to mars. It's manageable for the length of the trip to mars. Had Inspiration Mars taken place we would have had an example to point to. They planned to use human waste (shit!) as the mitigating factor.
Survival; the martian surface is hostile to life. He identifies cold, cosmic rays, UV radiation and chemicals in the dust: perchlorates and peroxides. Energy is the solution to cold. Cosmic radiation even affects us on the earth's surface but on mars we will simply spend more time indoors. So making the quality of indoor living good will be a higher priority on mars. UV is a similar issue we also deal with right here on earth. We can certainly handle it on mars. The chemicals in the dust are highly reactive making it an easier issue to deal with than if they weren't. The best mitigating agent is water.
Oops, almost neglected to address plant growth. The Mars Society and others have tested plant growth in a simulated mars environment. They grow well and are not toxic to eat.
Yes, we can survive on mars, but what about thrive?
Solar arrays can be manufactured from local materials on mars. There is no perhaps about it and dust lowers energy production, but only a bit. Rovers only meant to survive 90 days on mars have lasted over a decade in part because the wind on mars itself gently cleans the dust off of solar cells. Those rovers would have died long ago if it didn't.
I agree with the doctor that thriving has been ignored. We will not. Dr. Spudis starts with a question: "How will martians make a living?" He dismisses autarky without even a thought. Is that justified? How do people make a living on earth? He correctly points out that martians will need imports from Earth, but not that much since mars has the resources (and incentive) to produce almost all they need from local resources. Where will the things they must import come from? Simple; From new arrivals as part of their personal property to be used as trade goods. It would be foolish of new colonists to bring stuff with them they can get when they arrive on mars. We can safely assume each colonist has a personal mass allotment for the trip (beyond just a spacesuit.) Even if it were only 100 kg (and it should be more like 1000 kg for each colonist) that would be worth about $100,000 (what it would cost to get that delivered from earth.) The existing martians would trade labor and materials (producing their trade goods) for those imports before the new colonists even arrive.
We've just answer his next question. "What will they have of value to trade or to sell for these imports?" But let's be explicit... habitats, life support and anything else they think they can sell. Free enterprise works everywhere.
Then he states, "we do not know if Mars contains anything that would have economic value on Earth." I'd go even further and assume it doesn't at all (although it's easy to show it potentially does.) "We have no idea [if] deposits are accessible for mining and refining," he states. This is the most ridiculous statement of all. Humans have been mining and refining since before the invention of writing. We already know that some of the most important elements they require are in the air and the dust. Other minerals will be found because they are abundant and we have the technology and knowledge to find them. The rovers have accidentally discovered useful amounts of ore already and humans on site will do it a thousand times better. "Martian products must be of sufficient worth so as to merit their transportation back to terrestrial markets," he correctly says. Which is why mars will focus on electronic data and intellectual property that has almost no transportation costs. "It is not clear that Mars is particularly rich in factual data marketable to those back on Earth." Only if you assume a level of quality we don't even expect right here on earth. Beside that, we already spend money on rovers when we would get more bang from just hiring local martian researchers for anything a rover might do. Any equipment needed would only require the marginal cost of sending it with new colonists.
"[Colonies are] established primarily for two reasons: power and wealth creation." We have other reasons. We have no need at this time to project power. Those against colonizing mars just assume there will be no wealth creation but that requires an profound ignorance of what humans are. No matter where we go, we create wealth. Suppose we have a million people living on mars one day. Can you possibly imagine them not creating wealth among themselves. This requires an inconceivable level of blindness.
Getting a million people to mars is a problem already being worked out. The thing that people are missing is that once we begin possessing a thing, it gets value. That value will grow over time. Wealth creation? Anything we imagine today will be ridiculously short of the reality tomorrow. Bet on it. The delusion is thinking otherwise.
In speculative markets people trade not on today's value, but what they believe the value will be in the future. If today's value is nearly worthless, that's a good thing from the speculators perspective.
Suppose the govt. (any govt.) did something wise for a change and declared they would fully acknowledge title to martian property (144 million sq. km. of land.) Suppose speculators bought that land for a penny a sq. km. Would that be a smart decision? If some of that land was possessed by colonists which then paid a nickel per sq.km., that speculator would realize a 500% percent profit on the land sold and still have more land to sell at a better price in the future. Since worthless deeds are already being sold for both the moon and mars today for about $20 an acre the actual market value may already be well above worthless. At $1/acre mars is worth over $35 trillion (247 acres x 144,000,000 x $1.) In a trust fund set up for the purpose of colonists transportation that would easily pay the ticket price for more than a million colonists. So the colonists could all arrive debt free and wealthy (in trade goods needed by the colony.)
As far as terraforming goes, it's an unrequired bad idea. Practice on venus instead. We agree that the govt. space program is a ridiculous mess today, but commercial space is just beginning to come into its own. A colony is just the thing to create for them an unprecedented level of growth.
Of course I haven't addressed every issue, just touched on those the dr. brought up. Other issues are all within our ability to mitigate.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Willful blindness
Andrew says...
...I don’t disagree with the literal statements that Andrew McCarthy’s message...
Let's see if Andrew is lying. Consider these literal statements...
...I don’t disagree with the literal statements that Andrew McCarthy’s message...
Let's see if Andrew is lying. Consider these literal statements...
- "war-footing strategy is the only sensible counterterrorism paradigm"
- "The jihadists who listened to [the Blind Sheikh] did so because he is an internationally recognized authority in the political ideology that draws on Islamic scripture to inspire attacks against the West."
- "What matters is that there is a sharia-supremacist construction of Islam to which hundreds of millions of Muslims have adhered for centuries."
- "Sharia supremacism is virulently anti-Western..."
- "A sensible national security policy cannot regard the objective presentation of evidence as if it were the promotion of hate speech."
- "The goal of counterterrorism is supposed to be the prevention of jihadist attacks[, not prosecution after.]"
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
Ordering from Jet.com
My food order from Jet.com arrived today. I live on the second floor down two long halls. With my heart condition and anemia I have difficulty without carrying anything. We have a shopping cart for tenant use, but it's still difficult for me. It was so nice to have a box delivered right to my door.
I got mostly dried goods and canned food with two exceptions. One was a glass jar of pickles (sealed in its own bubble wrap) and some Mott's candies (ate half the packages today. They are so good!)
I haven't looked at salt content yet, but it will be a consideration if I make another order.
I got mostly dried goods and canned food with two exceptions. One was a glass jar of pickles (sealed in its own bubble wrap) and some Mott's candies (ate half the packages today. They are so good!)
I haven't looked at salt content yet, but it will be a consideration if I make another order.
Here's what I'm up to
I don't have the tools I want, but I'm going to try to use the tools I can.
I bought a compiler from France that is just too slow regarding SQL that it was unusable. So I'm going to try something different. Euphoria can be translated to C then compiled. The code bloat is ridiculous, but I can deal with that. While I'd prefer to use a central SQL database I can distribute data among several local databases (for a mega-multi-user game I've been thinking about since the 70s. Interestingly, a non client/server architecture was my original concept.)
I'm using Notetab as my file editor (an IDE would be nice but no good one exists. I just don't like the code they produce.)
In time I may write my own IDE that will produce an exe file directly (skipping C entirely.) It's really the only way I will get the development environment I want. I've got nothing but time.
Further down the road I would like to simplify Euphoria with objects (not what euphoria calls objects) dot notation and intellisense and scoping rules that make sense to me (I used to manage a project with over a million line of VB6 code by myself. I can't do that with the tools I have today.)
The stupid fluff that coders think is important are nothing compared to the ability to drill down to a routine's definition that I had in VB. Even useful debugging tools are less than essential (nice to have, but other debugging methods work just as well.)
I don't know how far I'll get, but I've got a goal now at least. My code should work for both windows and linux if I do it right.
I bought a compiler from France that is just too slow regarding SQL that it was unusable. So I'm going to try something different. Euphoria can be translated to C then compiled. The code bloat is ridiculous, but I can deal with that. While I'd prefer to use a central SQL database I can distribute data among several local databases (for a mega-multi-user game I've been thinking about since the 70s. Interestingly, a non client/server architecture was my original concept.)
I'm using Notetab as my file editor (an IDE would be nice but no good one exists. I just don't like the code they produce.)
In time I may write my own IDE that will produce an exe file directly (skipping C entirely.) It's really the only way I will get the development environment I want. I've got nothing but time.
Further down the road I would like to simplify Euphoria with objects (not what euphoria calls objects) dot notation and intellisense and scoping rules that make sense to me (I used to manage a project with over a million line of VB6 code by myself. I can't do that with the tools I have today.)
The stupid fluff that coders think is important are nothing compared to the ability to drill down to a routine's definition that I had in VB. Even useful debugging tools are less than essential (nice to have, but other debugging methods work just as well.)
I don't know how far I'll get, but I've got a goal now at least. My code should work for both windows and linux if I do it right.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
China is no paper dragon
Some would mock China for lacking innovation, but after years of manufacturing and educating some of their workforce it can not be dismissed so easily. They are making real progress in 'rocket science.'
Spinning McConnell
The media would have you believe he was bashing Trump. That's not what he said. Keep in mind he's talking to a former Clinton employee...
I think there's no question that he's made a number of mistakes over the last few weeks. I think they're beginning to right the ship. It's a long time until November. And the burden, obviously, will be on him to convince people that he can handle this job.That's just plain truth, not bashing.
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Tridymite found on mars
The implication is mars had some of the same type of volcanoes that concentrate ores on earth. The discovery was somewhat of an accident.
About Sharia
Islamic shariah is not implemented in any country of the world. This got me thinking. In the USA, Sharia is being implemented in Muslim communities. So could this also be the case in Muslim countries where it's 'not' implemented?
In other words, is this another example of the Quran algorithm at work?
In other words, is this another example of the Quran algorithm at work?
Can Texas leave?
Secession not legal, but if it was?
What would it do to the United States politically? What would it then mean for Texas?
What would it do to the United States politically? What would it then mean for Texas?
Friday, June 24, 2016
Torches and pitchfork time
That's what will happen if the GOP doesn't get its act together and support Trump over Hillary.
Insanity at the convention?
Insanity at the convention?
Brexit aftermath
First I need to get this out of the way... 'Brexit' reminds me of how adolescents make up their own language. Then others can feel superior because your not up on the latest lingo. The advantage once you're up on the term is it's a useful summarizing tool. 'nuff said.
Now pundits are going to 'explain' Brexit to us.
It's xenophobia, thus dismissing decent people as nothing but rubes. With the implication of more rubes.
Trump said, "Come November, the American people will have the chance to re-declare their independence. Americans will have a chance to vote for trade, immigration and foreign policies that put our citizens first. They will have the chance to reject today's rule by the global elite, and to embrace real change that delivers a government of, by and for the people."
What's wrong with that? Nothing, but it's being ridiculed by the same clueless media that wants to tell us what we all should think.
Self determination is suddenly a hostage situation? Or a self inflicted wound?
Self determination. How horrible for those that want to control other peoples lives.
Sarah Palin said, "It is time to dissolve political bands that connect us to agendas not in our best interest." Not worthy of even considering the media says. So apparently they let out of the bag that we should have connections that are against our interests. Nice of them to tell the truth for a change.
In negotiations and relationships, national leaders should first ensure they have protected the safety and legitimate interests of their own people. This principle has been eroded and Brexit is a warning for America. Our British friends have sent the message loud and clear.
It's like they read Ayn Rand or something.
Liberals by acts reveal who they are.
A positive perspective.
Now pundits are going to 'explain' Brexit to us.
It's xenophobia, thus dismissing decent people as nothing but rubes. With the implication of more rubes.
Trump said, "Come November, the American people will have the chance to re-declare their independence. Americans will have a chance to vote for trade, immigration and foreign policies that put our citizens first. They will have the chance to reject today's rule by the global elite, and to embrace real change that delivers a government of, by and for the people."
What's wrong with that? Nothing, but it's being ridiculed by the same clueless media that wants to tell us what we all should think.
Self determination is suddenly a hostage situation? Or a self inflicted wound?
Self determination. How horrible for those that want to control other peoples lives.
Sarah Palin said, "It is time to dissolve political bands that connect us to agendas not in our best interest." Not worthy of even considering the media says. So apparently they let out of the bag that we should have connections that are against our interests. Nice of them to tell the truth for a change.
In negotiations and relationships, national leaders should first ensure they have protected the safety and legitimate interests of their own people. This principle has been eroded and Brexit is a warning for America. Our British friends have sent the message loud and clear.
It's like they read Ayn Rand or something.
Liberals by acts reveal who they are.
A positive perspective.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Radicalized by Andrew
Andrew, you've made a number of statements along these lines...
Andrew, I think you've got both a good heart and strong mind. I do not know to what extent you are sincere or just playing games. But suggesting that I don't think for myself is not going to win me over.
You tell me the terrorists are not representative, but the evidence you give is not persuasive. I would expect most Muslims to be peaceful because I see them as people before I see them as Muslim.
I will argue about those things that make no sense to me. I honestly tell you the problems I have with your arguments and you respond that I'm a liar. That also is not persuasive. You may dismiss me if you like, but that's your loss. Not mine.
What you don't know about Christianity is another area where you lose me. Don't try to teach me something you don't understand when I've seriously studied it from many perspectives for over half a century. I don't need to google an explanation about almost any scripture because not only have I likely read it numerous times, but I've meditated, considered cross reference, looked it up in Strong's and often discussed it's understanding among members of different sects.
You can't just assert something about me, not knowing my background, and not look foolish. When you're not doing that, I admire how you often make a decent argument even when I disagree with your conclusions Take it for what its worth.
being as indoctrinated against Islam as thoroughly as you areI would disabuse you of this line of thought. You are the one indoctrinating me, along with numerous news stories where the media continuously tries to sell a false narrative. Note the link rot on my blog for Pam Geller. Why? because it's not news there. Which reminds me I have to do some house cleaning of my links.
Andrew, I think you've got both a good heart and strong mind. I do not know to what extent you are sincere or just playing games. But suggesting that I don't think for myself is not going to win me over.
You tell me the terrorists are not representative, but the evidence you give is not persuasive. I would expect most Muslims to be peaceful because I see them as people before I see them as Muslim.
I will argue about those things that make no sense to me. I honestly tell you the problems I have with your arguments and you respond that I'm a liar. That also is not persuasive. You may dismiss me if you like, but that's your loss. Not mine.
What you don't know about Christianity is another area where you lose me. Don't try to teach me something you don't understand when I've seriously studied it from many perspectives for over half a century. I don't need to google an explanation about almost any scripture because not only have I likely read it numerous times, but I've meditated, considered cross reference, looked it up in Strong's and often discussed it's understanding among members of different sects.
You can't just assert something about me, not knowing my background, and not look foolish. When you're not doing that, I admire how you often make a decent argument even when I disagree with your conclusions Take it for what its worth.
Ed's two excellent points
Ed said...
There are a couple flaws here. First, the First Amendment would not allow the prohibition of any religion, and laws and common practices that tried to do so would be struck down under the same reasoning that got such laws and practices used against Jews struck down. Secondly, there are already Muslims in America, generations of them, so many American Muslims were born in America. How could they be deported?
June 23, 2016 at 12:58 PM
Second point first. This has nothing to do with Muslims per se. Anyone following the Quran's world domination algorithm should be stripped of citizenship and deported. I don't care where or if they are a natural born citizen. It is insane that the family members that colluded with the Florida nightclub killer will not face punishment or that we even have a support network in this country that would hide them from justice.
The first amendment does not require self extermination and not all religious beliefs are protected by it. If we come to understand the Quran as an algorithm to exterminate the non-Muslim (which although it is the end state, does not happen all that quickly) we can make law to deal with it. Paying Jizyah, for example, has an expiration date, after-which you must convert to Islam or die. Granted this is only after the return of a spirit being, but it is the Islamic algorithm's rule.
So if we see Islam as an existential threat we could just rule that it doesn't meet the requirements for 1st amendment protection. This of course would lead to a supreme court fight. The outcome would require solid evidence of the existential threat (and justices that want to see America endure.)
BTW, this fight has already started over Sharia law.
There are a couple flaws here. First, the First Amendment would not allow the prohibition of any religion, and laws and common practices that tried to do so would be struck down under the same reasoning that got such laws and practices used against Jews struck down. Secondly, there are already Muslims in America, generations of them, so many American Muslims were born in America. How could they be deported?
June 23, 2016 at 12:58 PM
Second point first. This has nothing to do with Muslims per se. Anyone following the Quran's world domination algorithm should be stripped of citizenship and deported. I don't care where or if they are a natural born citizen. It is insane that the family members that colluded with the Florida nightclub killer will not face punishment or that we even have a support network in this country that would hide them from justice.
The first amendment does not require self extermination and not all religious beliefs are protected by it. If we come to understand the Quran as an algorithm to exterminate the non-Muslim (which although it is the end state, does not happen all that quickly) we can make law to deal with it. Paying Jizyah, for example, has an expiration date, after-which you must convert to Islam or die. Granted this is only after the return of a spirit being, but it is the Islamic algorithm's rule.
So if we see Islam as an existential threat we could just rule that it doesn't meet the requirements for 1st amendment protection. This of course would lead to a supreme court fight. The outcome would require solid evidence of the existential threat (and justices that want to see America endure.)
BTW, this fight has already started over Sharia law.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
The solution to Islam
It's a pretentious title, but I think apt.
First we need to define the problem. The Quran is an algorithm (originally a Persian term) for conquering the world. It will succeed, if it is not understood and fought properly. It's not going to happen today or tomorrow, but it's end state is a Muslim world that does not tolerate anything outside of Islam.
Looking at its history we can clearly see it taking over countries. Occasionally some countries seem to have effectively fought back, but that's an illusion. As it gains power in a country, first by demanding minority rights and later by imposing majority rule, it becomes less and less tolerant of rivals until you have a Muslim country. Many examples, all of which began as non-Muslim countries, existing today.
Terrorism is barbaric but focusing on that is not the solution to Islam. We could easily defeat Islam militarily, but that doesn't work either. Islam destroys from within. The mongols found this out when they beat Islam militarily (1258), but then became Islamic themselves.
The key to Islam's success is deceit. They simply move forward with their algorithm while the world is focused on the wrong things. Terrorism is a diversion.
Islam, unlike the west, is not interested in winning wars. They are only interested in conquest which is a different thing altogether. We think of war as a last method of resolving a dispute. We aren't interested in conquest, or as Colin Powell once put it, "we only ask for six feet of ground to bury our dead." Islam is only interested in conquest. The algorithm has only one final outcome: the entire world must fall under the control of Islam.
The key to Islam is they work in parallel to existing systems. Sharia is their law and they operate under it wherever they migrate, slowly changing the lands they occupy into Muslim lands. Here in America they claim sharia is only used to resolve religious issues. This is one of their many lies. They also claim not to use sharia at all (it's all just a right wing nutcase theory) but then we find it is operating in one place after another where Muslims live in America. If there were no sharia, why do Muslims cause an uproar when some legislation simply resolves that American laws will be the law of the land without even mentioning sharia? Because Muslims know exactly what they are doing.
The Muslims support 'diversity' when it suits them, then clamp down after it's served its purpose.
Lying is not only not a sin in Islam, it is a sacred duty. Taqiyya is part of the Quran's algorithm for advancing the cause of Islam - "...in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them."
Even better is to use the truth to mislead. Because human's have fought wars throughout the ages, Islam can claim to be a religion of peace in comparison. Tolerating no dissent, countries that are under full Muslim control can seem relatively peaceful. Defenders of Islam even making the outrageous claim that, "Slay non-Muslims wherever you find them" doesn't mean what you think it means. Who are you going to believe? Them, who are steadfastly insistent, or your own lying brain?
The problem for Islam is when they seem to have the upper hand, they get cocky and tell the truth, like this Muslim ambassador for the 18th century Barbary pirates that said...
One common tactic is to disavow Muslims that are currently seen unfavorably, like ISIS, but at the same time claim they have a justification because we first caused them some grievance. Even if they have to go back hundreds of years for some supposed justification. Not that they agree with that justification. No never that, but it's only reasonable right? They will even contradict themselves as long as it furthers the progress of the algorithm.
Muslims are the masters of spin. For example. The crusades were an attempt to protect pilgrims going to Jerusalem from Muslim attack. Muslim spin: The Crusades were a series of attacks and wars by European Christianity against Muslim lands. Note that this statement is technically true. Those pilgrims were going to Jerusalem which the Muslims controlled. The crusaders could not possibly protect the pilgrims without fighting on Muslim lands. The Muslim wants you to get distracted from the fact that Muslims attacking pilgrims was the entire cause.
Make any point about Muslims and their defenders will point to non-Muslims doing the same thing or worse. Never will they allow the clear pattern of the Muslim algorithm written in black and white in the Quran not be obscured. A word can have different meanings, so they will claim the most common meaning is not what the Quran is saying. They can correctly point out that some fighting is justifiably defensive but then generalize to claim all Muslim fighting is just defense (as if slaying doesn't mean what you think it means.)
The solution to Islam is intolerance which goes against our ideals. We don't want to tell others how to live. That's the weakness that Islam exploits. Islam's algorithm does not allow other systems to exist. To tolerate Islam is an invitation to destruction. There is no other solution.
So we have to implement Islam's algorithm in reverse. Islam can do what it wants in other nations, but not here in America. Other countries are reaching this same correct solution. If Muslims want to remain in America they need to renounce Islam. Any indication that they are lying should result in revocation of citizenship and expulsion. Nothing less will work. An algorithm is a step by step process with a result that is certain. We face this reality or we lose our lives.
First we need to define the problem. The Quran is an algorithm (originally a Persian term) for conquering the world. It will succeed, if it is not understood and fought properly. It's not going to happen today or tomorrow, but it's end state is a Muslim world that does not tolerate anything outside of Islam.
Looking at its history we can clearly see it taking over countries. Occasionally some countries seem to have effectively fought back, but that's an illusion. As it gains power in a country, first by demanding minority rights and later by imposing majority rule, it becomes less and less tolerant of rivals until you have a Muslim country. Many examples, all of which began as non-Muslim countries, existing today.
Terrorism is barbaric but focusing on that is not the solution to Islam. We could easily defeat Islam militarily, but that doesn't work either. Islam destroys from within. The mongols found this out when they beat Islam militarily (1258), but then became Islamic themselves.
The key to Islam's success is deceit. They simply move forward with their algorithm while the world is focused on the wrong things. Terrorism is a diversion.
Islam, unlike the west, is not interested in winning wars. They are only interested in conquest which is a different thing altogether. We think of war as a last method of resolving a dispute. We aren't interested in conquest, or as Colin Powell once put it, "we only ask for six feet of ground to bury our dead." Islam is only interested in conquest. The algorithm has only one final outcome: the entire world must fall under the control of Islam.
The key to Islam is they work in parallel to existing systems. Sharia is their law and they operate under it wherever they migrate, slowly changing the lands they occupy into Muslim lands. Here in America they claim sharia is only used to resolve religious issues. This is one of their many lies. They also claim not to use sharia at all (it's all just a right wing nutcase theory) but then we find it is operating in one place after another where Muslims live in America. If there were no sharia, why do Muslims cause an uproar when some legislation simply resolves that American laws will be the law of the land without even mentioning sharia? Because Muslims know exactly what they are doing.
The Muslims support 'diversity' when it suits them, then clamp down after it's served its purpose.
Lying is not only not a sin in Islam, it is a sacred duty. Taqiyya is part of the Quran's algorithm for advancing the cause of Islam - "...in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them."
Even better is to use the truth to mislead. Because human's have fought wars throughout the ages, Islam can claim to be a religion of peace in comparison. Tolerating no dissent, countries that are under full Muslim control can seem relatively peaceful. Defenders of Islam even making the outrageous claim that, "Slay non-Muslims wherever you find them" doesn't mean what you think it means. Who are you going to believe? Them, who are steadfastly insistent, or your own lying brain?
The problem for Islam is when they seem to have the upper hand, they get cocky and tell the truth, like this Muslim ambassador for the 18th century Barbary pirates that said...
“[the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.American marines still talk about the shores of Tripoli.
One common tactic is to disavow Muslims that are currently seen unfavorably, like ISIS, but at the same time claim they have a justification because we first caused them some grievance. Even if they have to go back hundreds of years for some supposed justification. Not that they agree with that justification. No never that, but it's only reasonable right? They will even contradict themselves as long as it furthers the progress of the algorithm.
Does social disruption cause terrorism apart from religious considerations?Of course it does. But this is not THE explanation for Islamic terrorists. Terrorism is just a component of the Quran's algorithm. Don't get drawn into the why's of terrorism. Terrorism exists outside of Islam, but in Islam it is part of their algorithm. Other injustices also exist outside of Islam. How can the defenders of Islam use this to support Islam? Logically they can't, but since it's useful to cause confusion and doubt, they do.
Muslims are the masters of spin. For example. The crusades were an attempt to protect pilgrims going to Jerusalem from Muslim attack. Muslim spin: The Crusades were a series of attacks and wars by European Christianity against Muslim lands. Note that this statement is technically true. Those pilgrims were going to Jerusalem which the Muslims controlled. The crusaders could not possibly protect the pilgrims without fighting on Muslim lands. The Muslim wants you to get distracted from the fact that Muslims attacking pilgrims was the entire cause.
Make any point about Muslims and their defenders will point to non-Muslims doing the same thing or worse. Never will they allow the clear pattern of the Muslim algorithm written in black and white in the Quran not be obscured. A word can have different meanings, so they will claim the most common meaning is not what the Quran is saying. They can correctly point out that some fighting is justifiably defensive but then generalize to claim all Muslim fighting is just defense (as if slaying doesn't mean what you think it means.)
The solution to Islam is intolerance which goes against our ideals. We don't want to tell others how to live. That's the weakness that Islam exploits. Islam's algorithm does not allow other systems to exist. To tolerate Islam is an invitation to destruction. There is no other solution.
So we have to implement Islam's algorithm in reverse. Islam can do what it wants in other nations, but not here in America. Other countries are reaching this same correct solution. If Muslims want to remain in America they need to renounce Islam. Any indication that they are lying should result in revocation of citizenship and expulsion. Nothing less will work. An algorithm is a step by step process with a result that is certain. We face this reality or we lose our lives.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Does the defense argument hold water?
No. The defense is wrong!
Andrew has argued that the Quran does not require Muslims to wage war against non-Muslims; and that I am taking certain verses out of context. He says those verses refer to warmaking and therefore are not a call to murder. Because I was tired and felt I should choose my battles I conceded the point. I am now ready to consider the link he provided as argument.
9:5 …slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way.
The link doesn't comment on that verse but does a related one...
How can I possibly claim war is a perpetual state? Simple, it says "until [they all submit.]" All being people of the book and those not (all non Muslims.)
2:191. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have Turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them.
If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way.
Otherwise, slay the idolaters wherever you find them!
Andrew has argued that the Quran does not require Muslims to wage war against non-Muslims; and that I am taking certain verses out of context. He says those verses refer to warmaking and therefore are not a call to murder. Because I was tired and felt I should choose my battles I conceded the point. I am now ready to consider the link he provided as argument.
9:5 …slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way.
The link doesn't comment on that verse but does a related one...
9:29. Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
Or to paraphrase, "fight all non Muslims until they submit (or die.)" But wait, the link doesn't claim these refer to war, it says, "fighting unbelievers by the tongue." Frankly, the warmaking argument makes more sense. Here's the argument... God revealed this verse so that the Muslims could defend themselves... But what it's actually saying is a perpetual state of war exists between Muslim and non. By that logic, it's not murder... simply the result of war!!!
How can I possibly claim war is a perpetual state? Simple, it says "until [they all submit.]" All being people of the book and those not (all non Muslims.)
Note the convenient sleight of hand. It both refers to war and it doesn't. You simply pick the argument that most befuddles your opponent.
This verse clarifies that the fight is not just some internal struggle. Fight might refer to an internal struggle, but slay never does. In context (2:190) the argument that this refers to self defense is sound.
So does the Quran require Muslims to wage war? If non Muslims don't submit, absolutely it does. The game being played is if everyone submits there is no requirement for war (providing a technical out for their argument.) Extremely misleading at the very least.
I've only read the link Andrew provided. I'm sure there are other links that do a much better job than I did here. Here I've just discussed the text, but real world context is extremely important as well. A large percent of Muslims interpret the text exactly as I have. Andrew claims they are not representative. What percent is required before they are?
I see no reason not to continue to believe that Islam requires all non Muslims to either submit or die. Terrorist justify their acts because it is a war that Allah demands until every last person submits.
No matter how much peaceful time goes by they can always point to some wrong somewhere in the past (going back to the crusades if they have to) and claim we started it, so they are justified. Andrew claims it's only the terrorists making this claim, but his sentiments are clear.
Some Muslims are probably peaceful, but those that are not means we are in a war whether we like it or not. You don't have to fight a war, but someone has to lose.
Otherwise, slay the idolaters wherever you find them!
It's pretty damned clear. A final word.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
A space based civilization
What are the forces that will shape it?
Let's assume several lessor O'Neill colonies are established (up to about 100 people per station. Each costing about $50 million per person or about $5 billion per station. Much less than the $150B ISS which can only hold half a dozen.) Some in earth orbit, some in lunar orbit and some at the Lagrange points. Also assume some trade ships owned and operated by individuals with crews from one to a dozen (about 5 ton per crew. Cargo capacity being limited by fuel capacity.) We also have slow, high Isp, unmanned tugs.
Each ship and station will have a captain, the rest are crew. Why not a democracy? Show me any successful ship run as a democracy! For the sake of argument, let's say the stations are a democracy with elected leaders. Those leaders act as term limited captains.
How does this work? Everybody has abundant energy, that's a given. Recycling will be less than 100%. There will be trade that includes the cost of the rocket equation.
Ships will need provisions, fuel and amortization costs (20 years at perhaps a million dollars per month) which is paid for by trade profits. Stations will require bulk imports which they turn into trade goods between colonies. Unmanned tugs will be limited to probably manned destinations able to process asteroid materials although automation will have its part.
Two things should be obvious. Getting people with required infrastructure in space will cost more than the one time cost of delivering people to mars, but let's say it's the same $50M per person. Operating costs in space will be relentless (you simply can't ignore the rocket equation.)
Habitats on mars should have zero amortization costs. They will be fully paid for by the mass allotment of each incoming colonist. They will be built by local labor using local resources. A habitat on mars might cost $100K in labor and materials. A single laptop computer brought from earth could pay for that. Space habitats will cost about $50M per person.
In the far future, O'Neill cylinders could bring those cost per person down, but not in the near term. Cost to mars will also come down, but at a much quicker rate (let's see what Musk has to say this September?)
Let's assume several lessor O'Neill colonies are established (up to about 100 people per station. Each costing about $50 million per person or about $5 billion per station. Much less than the $150B ISS which can only hold half a dozen.) Some in earth orbit, some in lunar orbit and some at the Lagrange points. Also assume some trade ships owned and operated by individuals with crews from one to a dozen (about 5 ton per crew. Cargo capacity being limited by fuel capacity.) We also have slow, high Isp, unmanned tugs.
Each ship and station will have a captain, the rest are crew. Why not a democracy? Show me any successful ship run as a democracy! For the sake of argument, let's say the stations are a democracy with elected leaders. Those leaders act as term limited captains.
How does this work? Everybody has abundant energy, that's a given. Recycling will be less than 100%. There will be trade that includes the cost of the rocket equation.
Ships will need provisions, fuel and amortization costs (20 years at perhaps a million dollars per month) which is paid for by trade profits. Stations will require bulk imports which they turn into trade goods between colonies. Unmanned tugs will be limited to probably manned destinations able to process asteroid materials although automation will have its part.
Two things should be obvious. Getting people with required infrastructure in space will cost more than the one time cost of delivering people to mars, but let's say it's the same $50M per person. Operating costs in space will be relentless (you simply can't ignore the rocket equation.)
Habitats on mars should have zero amortization costs. They will be fully paid for by the mass allotment of each incoming colonist. They will be built by local labor using local resources. A habitat on mars might cost $100K in labor and materials. A single laptop computer brought from earth could pay for that. Space habitats will cost about $50M per person.
In the far future, O'Neill cylinders could bring those cost per person down, but not in the near term. Cost to mars will also come down, but at a much quicker rate (let's see what Musk has to say this September?)
Friday, June 17, 2016
Obama administration’s abnormality
A deep ambivalence about our country that has produced a desire to see the U.S. become less powerful.I saw this among the left over 30 years ago while living in NY. That we gave the presidency to someone like this is mind blowing. Trump is right and intelligent people are recognizing it.
The Kafir
Leland provides a link.
I was unfamiliar with the term. Thank you, Leland.
A support network confirmed.
I was unfamiliar with the term. Thank you, Leland.
A support network confirmed.
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