Posts by Wzrd1

Re: I have a cunning plan...

Well, as one who is retired US military, I'll mention the fact that we were only armed when in the field training or on the range firing, when on our home base.

So, going to and from my home to the base, I most certainly was not armed.

That said, if anyone then or now came at me with a knife, he'd end up either with multiple dislocations or impaled upon his own blade. It all would depend on how irritated I was.

Military victories aren't measured by the number of dead, they're measured by when the enemy lost the will to continue fighting.

Re: The cats out of the bag

Erm, CIA operations *are* Top Secret from end to end.

The CIA is prohibited by its charter from operating within the United States, so need for a judge to sign off on anything.

Re: This isn't the right fix

The NSA and CIA cannot merge. Ever.

The NSA is part of the DoD. The CIA is a civilian intelligence agency.

Now, the CIA does indeed have some specialized mission specific needs in the digital arena, but we most certainly don't need two agencies ending up with 100% overlap.

Re: Amazing...

Heh, one enterprising individual plopped an oscilloscope onto the 3.3 volt line and hit his flash on his camera.

Beautiful waveform showing photvoltaic effect and decay of excitation when disconnected from power.

Similar waveform, with transition to zero, a bit of negative and spiking near 5 volts ensued.

Considering the 10cm light source to component, I'd strongly suspect no significant effect in strong sunlight.

Re: Bizarre, but in the interests of science...

"The big mainframe my equipment was attached to crashed pretty much about the same time as the predictions."

Yeah, been there, done that. Bad enough getting spikes in power lines, ground current differentials and even induced voltages along long conductors raise merry hell with electronics, especially computers and especially with supercomputers and mainframes.

Re: Bizarre, but in the interests of science...

"I'll try duct tape, though, a much more likely option in space."

Not really, they switched to Kapton tape decades ago. Regrettably, Kapton transmits IR along nicely, which leaves you with the original problem.

Xenon flash tubes release loads of IR and near IR light. Silicon junctions, in particular PN junctions will act like a photodiode.

So, personally, I'd go with black epoxy. I'd even go with plumber's epoxy (kneaded two part in a roll) in a pinch. Duck tape, nope. Nothing conductive on a PCB with solid state electronics, thank you.

Re: Resistance is futile!

"There is a risk, when observing other animals, that we will interpret their behavior through human values."

Fair enough, although in this case, one order of chimpanzee was observing another, hairier variety of chimpanzee. The genetics don't lie.

"Of course the chimps can learn to use the local vernacular!"

Most certainly! Why, I've learned both proper English and Arabic via exposure to both groups in an environment foreign to myself and the UK citizens.

Although, I must admit an entire uncertainty as to *what* that chap from Liverpool was speaking.

Both sets of groups also learned a bit of American English, an abuse of the originating language by any measure of extremes.

"They want to communicate, and have learned what is the most effective locally."

See my two points above.

Re: Ran out of hydraulic fluid?

A closed system isn't that much more massive. One only keeps a closed loop, so it's a bit more tubing.

Re: ROFL

"Remind me. Why would CENTCOM have a Twitter feed? Would there be any connection with PR motives?"

In part. They also use it to keep in contact with their personnel, even when on leave.

Twitter and Facebook were used to alert and inform personnel during the Fort Hood shooting incident, as people off base would not be able to hear Giant Voice (a basewide PA system used for emergencies).

Hell, the CIA and NSA also have Twitter accounts.

Re: Cool. Ta for the input.

Mutt is nice, but I prefer Alpine.

Still, for GPG encrypted mail, I stick with Thunderbird. Even my wife can work that.

Re: A rock and a hard place

"I only moved from Snow Leopard when new apps that I wanted were only supported on more recent version of OS X; and then I moved from Snow Leopard to Mavericks just before Yosemite shipped because I wanted to last stable version of OS X."

Same here, holding off, as I got bit by bugs and various programs not liking Mavericks at first.

Maybe I'll go with Yosemite in a year or so.

Re: Lately, while President Obamacare wallowed in his certainties...

"While I assume that the NSA knows its shit"

From my own, personal experience with them, yes, they know their shit quite well.

Re: There's a time and a place for confession and the good Admiral has blown it.

"a 100% Only Democracy In The Middle Eastern invention."

Iran *was* a democracy, British oil interests were upset about Iran nationalizing the oilfields and asked the US to have the CIA overthrow the government.

Truman said no, Eisenhower said yes. It was called Operation Ajax, which culminated with the installation of the Shah.

Eventually, the Iranians booted the Shah and installed a democracy, but one that also can have any laws overruled by an ayatollah.

As for Iranian nukes, I far prefer to chase plaid unicorns, which are far more numerous.

Re: The NSA bot is telling elements of truth.

"Canada was found to have been hacking into servers in Brazil on behalf of the NSA in order to steal the commercially sensitive data of major Brazilian mining and oil companies, so it's not like the "5 eyes" countries aren't busy doing exactly the same thing to every other country in the world."

And why would the NSA ask Canada to hack into that which they have the capability to hack into themselves?

Re: So much money wasted @ Destroy All Monsters

Those ideas worked, huh?

Do you mean ideas like, oh, Operation Ajax, the overthrow of a democratic governent of Iran and installation of the corrupt and inept Shah? That idea?

*That* laid the seeds for the ongoing debacle of dealing with Iran. They're a bit testy over the tens of thousands dead, courtesy of the US installed Shah. All to take care of Eisenhower's war buddies in UK oil interests.

Re: Pigs Stomach

Hell and damnation, but I know the spice you mean and it entirely escapes my recall right now.

I'd be best served to drive an half to an hour to ask a Pennsylvania Dutch what the spice is, but I know from experience, it'll vary by the mile.

Someday, I'll actually get an opportunity to try haggis. Just to actually know what it really tastes like.

Really! I'm serious there. I've tried dishes and appetizers from many nations, even consuming raw garlic and onions as an appetizer (my Iranian hosts were astonished that a US citizen actually ate something of strong taste and smell, I had a secret weapon. Both a love of trying new foods (repeating the experience on a regular occasion, when I enjoyed it and avoiding the shit if I did not) and a lack of a sense of smell.

That is a good thing, as I'm known as a "supertaster", having more taste buds than the majority of humanity has.

As for the loss of a sense of smell, I'm entirely uncertain if it was secondary to grade school pugilism, of which I was uninvitingly a participant or secondary to ill advised chemo-cautery, secondary to severe nosebleeds that left at least a pint of blood on the floor or toilet (I was one of the reasons of the Red Cross guidance to *not* tip the head back, that damned near flooded my lungs with blood).

Interesting side note, my cooking is wildly popular. I simply refuse to work my up the food chain in chefdom. It's obscenely long, it's will renumerated and well, unappreciated in my nation.

I'm simply satisfied that my recipes are well received on three continents and reasonably well received on one other. That wasn't by any effort beyond cooking for fellow expats.