Part X wrapped up discussing the lead in to the Great Leap forward to the Mac II world…

But before going on to Mac IIs, a little side track. So, there I was with a Mac SE at home. It was coming up on Christmas and one of the guys in the Mac Club, who had left his family “back home” while at War College, didn’t want to leave his Mac in his BOQ room, so he asked if I’d keep it.

Now I had two computers in the same house, and there was an inexpensive network system called “PhoneNet,” which used a network protocal called “LocalTalk” or “AppleTalk.” it used standard phone wires to connect two computers. I picked up two of them and built a home, peer-to-peer network, where we were able to play “Smash Hit Racquetball” with two players, each at separate computers. That was December, 1987 and my first journey into networking.

During this time, several of us found out we all also were using the GEnie Bulletin Board System (BBS), each of us downloading the new Mac offering each week. At that time, you paid a monthly service fee, then by the minute for your time logged in. On top of that, the nearest access number was in the next zone, so it was a toll call on top of that. we put our heads together and came up with another use for Excel. On Saturday morning, I’d log into GEnie and download the listings of new Mac files. I’d scan the list and see what looked like it had universal appeal to our group. Then I’d import the file into Excel, complete with file sizes, and assign each of us a set of files to download. The Excel spreadsheet kept a balance of downloads by file size, so in the long run, while you might download a large file one week, someone else would do that next week. Later in the week, we’d get together and pass the floppies around with the files we procured. That saved us all money. I seem to recall it was five of us doing this, so it certainly took the edge off the costs, yet got us all the files we wanted.

Anyhow, early the next year, I was able to buy a Mac II. This was the first “open box,” where you had slots to put in interface cards. Using the Motorola 68020 series chip as a CPU, operating at 16Mhz (so I doubled my CPU clock speed, YEAH!), it was a great leap forward. I went from greyscale graphics on a 9″ screen of the SE, to 256 colors on a 12 monitor. It, as did the SE, but I never messed with it then, had built in 8 bit sound, so there was more to life than a series of essentialy monotoned “beeps,” like the PC could do.

It was on this machine I found out about “fractional dimensions” or “fractals” from some programs I found on GEnie. I bought the book “Chaos: The Making of a New Science” by James Glieck and studied the subject. I’d set in parameters for a very small area, deep indie a Mandelbrot fractal and go to bed. In the morning, I’d wake up to find a picture on the screen that took 2-3 hours to draw, showing the subtle changes in the repetition of the shape. The understanding I took away from al this is what we would view as chaotic processes are most likely ordered, but the order is to the right of the decimals we have chosen to round off at, leaving us scratching our heads in wonder.

It is also that understanding that was the genesis of the title of this blog.

More on Mac IIs and doing serious graphics work at home later.

Falcon Hypersonic Plane

From DefenseTech:

A decade after the final retirement of Lockheed Martin’s Mach-3 SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, the Air Force is preparing to test a plane that flies more than three times as fast. Two Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicles, built by Lockheed Martin with input from NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), will take to the air in 2008. The $100-million program aims to field a Mach-10 unmanned aircraft that can spy on foreign powers, drop bombs or even lob satellites into orbit.

Read the rest here!

This project, aimed at making a Mach 10 aircraft, will drive all sorts of R&D in the form of high temperature resistant, light weight materials, as wll as aerodynamic research and propulsion technology…which, or course, will one day make it’s way into all sorts of other markets to give us things we haven’t even conceived of yet.

That thing will fly so fast, they may not have to design a relief tube system for the aircrew.

From MS NBC, it seems Kim Jong Il is “sorry” he upset so many, in the “region” (read: China) and around the world.

I’d like to have been a fly on the wall when the represenative from the Chinese government walked in and said: “This conversation never happened…” and went on to tell the little man just what he was going to do next. I’m sure saying “I’m sorry” was but one of the steps to redemption that was issued, followed by a list of things that would no longer find their way across the borders, such as food and fuel….

It will be many, many years before what happened in the last few days in an office in North Korea, but…that’s the way “history” works.

Update 10/24/2006: OOPS! Just kidding! great…well, you know, the left thinks all things are settled if someone says “I’m sorry!” What are they to think now?

Most likely it will be light blogging this weekend….but not sure yet.

Anyhow: Thought of the moment that confounds me:

The left wing/liberal mentality really hates this war. They mostly show it by claiming they hate President Bush, but they also drag out the “No War for Oil!” signs, too (BTW, I like that war right now). These are the same people who have culturally “evolved” to ensure that human rights have been stretched to the nth degree, using an “umbrella” argument about a right to privacy being stated (not so) clearly in the Constitution.

The next few statements are presented for the purpose of illustrating my upcoming points:

As a result, women have attained positions of very high economic and social levels and pretty much do what they want.

Homosexuals are pushing hard, and have succeeded in some school districts, of taking a message about sexual experimentation into the middle and elementary level of schools.

Children are lobbied to become sexually active, and given the freedom to make major medical decisions about their lives, to the exclusion of parents being told of such conditions. Adults, other than parents, and sometimes not even known to the girls, have become accustomed to transporting them to where they can get abortions.

Christian or Catholic references are being removed/banned from being seen or talked about in public at an alarming rate. Islamic advocacy groups have successfully lobbied to teach Islam, for up to three weeks, including requirements to memorize verses from the Koran and pray to Allah in schools around the country.

These are factual conditions that exist today and efforts to reverse them are fought with lots of money and very high powered lawyers and judges.

Ok, that being said, the same political mindset that supports all of this are the ones against the war against terror and get particularly upset when it is couched as the “war against radical Islam.”

Yes, the confounding part: The Islam that would sequester (or quarantine, if you prefer) women to their homes, would not allow them to vote, to drive, to wear swim suits skimpier than their underwear, and would allow them to the beaten, but not so bad as to leave marks; The Islam that would allow stoning to death the woman if they were caught exercising their “sexual freedom;” The Islam that would hang a teenage girl for having sex; The Islam that would allow male members of the family to kill their sisters/daughters is they talked back to to them and demanded to be able to marry who they chose.

The very people who have gained so much in freedoms in our society are the ones who would wish us to welcome, with open arms, the religion that would first line them up and inform them they would not only not have those freedoms anymore, but would tell them the consequences. They welcome the one state religion, yet scoff at the one that has been the dominant one in this culture for over 200 years, and has been a part of ensuring and supporting the freedoms the society now “enjoys” as a result.

Oh, well, it’s not looking good for the “good guys.”

Lots of discussion on President Bush acknowledging that the situation today in Iraq could have a resemblance to a battle fought almost 29 years in the past. Almost a year ago, I blogged about echos of the 1968 Tet Offensive in the current conflict.

Executive Summary of Tet:

The Tet Offensive was conducted during an agreed upon truce between the beligerants in the conflict.

The NVA used the Viet Cong as an “ablative shield.” This worked to clear out the “tainted” South Vietnamese fighters by sacrificing them “for the cause.”

Despite a few VC getting into the US Embassy compound, they were all killed in the yard, and did not get into the building.

The US and international press presented the Tet Offensive as a success for the forces opposing the Government of South Vietnam.

The press was wrong in a military sense, but were correct in the historical context, yet they had no clue at the time how correct they were.

The NVA understood the power of the press had “crossed over” and had become more of an effective weapon that raw military might, which led to the strategic move.

———————————
Commentary for today:

Yes, it is similar to today in the sense that the enemy understands:

• 1) How we have abandoned, as a culture, any significant effort to keep ourselves informed beyond the headline of any article, or cover statement of current news magazines;
• 2) Anything the tradtional media states must be true and;
• 3) The public contains significant numbers of skeptical people who believe the US Government is behind all the conflict for the purpose of lining their pockets, or those of their friends in industry;
• 4) Regardless of how devastating such an effort is in the short run in terms of physical resources or manpower it is to them, it has the potential to cause us to turn our gaze away and vote for the appeasers, just as was done in Spain.

Differences:

• 1) We have historical perspective, as a result of the long term effect of the 1968 events to view this period in history;
• 2) The war then was defined by soverign nations and international boundries, fueled by an idealology, this time it’s a war defined by one side with national boundries, and an opponent that knows no territorial constraints, yet it still filled by an idealology;
• 3) If the insurgents do make a “final sprint” in the hopes of biasing the outcome of the November 7th elections, they will be in poor logistical shape to follow up on any attacks, therefore we need to be ready to step up and squash them when they are at a low point militarily and;
• 4) Our political leaders can use this analogy to their advantage, while the press will try to use it to the nation’s disadvantage.

In the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, and even the Vietnam War, both sides of the equation, the Coalition and the insurgent forces, can take lessons learned away from the Tet Offensive. It is not a perfectly modeled analogy, but it has similarities. It would serve the press well to do some more detailed study of the actual battles across South Vietnam. It would serve the military, and our political leadership well to study the battles across South Vietnam.

If the military has read the tea leaves correctly, they will have stockpiled supplies, pre-postioned troops and tactical/strategic reserves, and have shored up the defenses. In addition, focused analysis of intelligence, to help tactically prepare for the next 3 1/2 weeks. Once the battle has joined, then it will be time to crush the exposed enemy forces, then be prepared to follow them, physically or via collected intel, back to their safe houses to continue the fight, with one intention to eliminate every possible combatant, then, they will have correctly interpreted the lessons of February 1968.

The press should spend some time studying history, beyond what some old timer in the press room tells them. I’m sure George Stephanopoulos doesn’t comprehend the bigger implications this all has within the story from a war long ago, which I discussed above. If he somehow thinks the current levels of violence, like Tet will cause us to “cut and run,” he has to understand the US military didn not “cut and run” from that battle, in fact, they stood tall and obliterated the VC in massive numbers. We are doing the same thing today. If anyone cut and ran, it was the Democratically controlled Congress, that withdrew funds from the Vietnamization effort and the US military for non-Army support for the ARVN forces.

Our leadership needs to prepare us for a potential “October Surprise” from the enemy in the form of massive, coordinated, widespread and well documented attacks, and also the knowledge that our military is prepared to take it to the enemy and put the dampers on civial war, insurrection and other violence behind us and the people or Iraq. If anything, President Bush should highlight that it was the Democrats who lost their nerve in the face of the enemy, but only after a Republican took office. They certainly supported the war (and the dreaded “military-industrial complex”) while Kennedy and Johnson were in office. If any lessons should be taken away from Tet, it is that one in the last sentance.

As a final statement, even General Giap acknowledged to a US officer, many years later, that the NVA/VC never won on the battlefield of Vietnam, but he also stated, wisely and accurately, that fact was also completely irrelevant.

Trackbacked at: Mudville Gazette, Samantha Burns, Blue Star Chronicles, Stuck on Stupid, TMH Bacon Bits, Linkfest Haven, third world country, Castle ARGGHHH!

“Growing Old Disgracefully”

I was a young, full of it, Fleet LT(JG) aboard a brand new greyhound of the seas, the USS LEFTWICH (DD-984). I was a plank owner (a member of the commissioning crew), and the Missile Officer. I had the responsibility of the NATO Sea Sparrow Missile (NSSMS) and Harpoon Weapons System (HWS). My Condition III watch station was that of the Ship’s Weapons Coordinator (SWC), where I sat the watch at the OJ-194 Console in the Combat Information Center (CIC), being the control point between the Captain or Tactical Action Officer (TAO) and the weapons systems for air and surface target engagements.

We commissioned in Aug 1979, and in late January, returned to Ingalls Ship Building and Drydock in Pascagoula, MI, for our post-shakedown availability (PSA – read warranty work by the builder after you take the ship out for 6 months of ops) and also for the Restricted Availability (RAV), which would install many upgrades not originally purchased for the hull during the intial Congressional funding. We had sailed from the shipyard on August 26th, 1979 with the NATO missile launcher installed, but the control consoles and some of the computer cabinets, as well as the cable runs, were not. None of the Harpoon system was initally installed, either. The RAV portion of our 5 months in Ingalls would put both of these systems into service.

One day, I was informed that some people would be coming aboard to discuss human factors for some of the weapons systems, one of which would be the Harpoon Weapons System. So, I went about my work until the appointed time, then went to CIC to await the visitors. An older gentleman in regular civilian clothes came in and introduced himself, then asked me if I had any suggestions on the controls for the HWS. I sat in the SWC chair and proceeded to demonstrate one design flaw I particularly thought was stupid. The AN/SWG-1 Harpoon Shipboard Control Launch Control System (HSCLCS) was mounted perpendicular to the SWC console, so you had to turn to your left in the SWC chair to operate the controls. That wasn’t the issue. The power switch was located on the upper left of the console, but underneath a cover plate that had a screw to hold it closed. Still not bad. The procedure for launching included powering the system up (duh!), then securing the cover over the power switch, and you would go about entering the aim point and cell(s) for launching. On the command to shoot, you would rotate the ITL (intend to launch) switch handle (on the lower right of the console) clockwise about 45 degrees and hold it there. At this point, your first visual check was to see if the indicator light for the boosters went from “Safe” to “Arm.” Herein comes the rub. Along with some maintenace lights and switches, the Booster Safe/Armed indicator was also in the well that held the power switch. The cover plate, which was also anodized aluminum, was, quite obviously opaque. So, when you were shooting the bird(s), the first indication to validate was the safe/arm light and it was now obscured.

My sage comment to the visitor, while I sat with my torso twisted markedly to the left: “Whoever invented this was a real bonehead” I stated with the confidence of a fully SWO qualified hot runner, while I demonstrated the problem with now having to open the cover plate to do the job. His very polite (and possibly amused) response: “That was me.”

Ok, so now I find out he’s a retired admiral, now working for Boeing, conducting this human factors/ergonomics survey, and…he had been the first Harpoon Program Manager. Well, that was a moment to pause and shut up and dig no deeper. He was gracious and, as he scribbled on his note pad, he said something like “You’re right, we need to fix that.”

Lesson learned: Just be professional.

Moving right along from Part IX, I advance to the later part of 1986, where I not only played with computers, but also managaed to stand watches in the Med from Jan to May, while we bombed Libya from north of the “Line of Death.” Details of that story are in the series “A Journey Into History” (Part I is here). One of the other details not previously discussed in either series, is I began “offline blogging” back in those days, as I began to write “Life Between the Catapults or What I did on My Indian Ocean Cruise.” Unfortunately, I have lost the 5 1/4″ floppies that contained my musings, but, I do recall it was a daily writing effort for while. At some point, some of those adventures will become part of the the weekly (on Wednesdays) Ropeyarn Sunday “Sea Stories” and Open Trackback postings, like the story of USS FAKEFISH.

We returned from that cruise and were tasked with some tactical R&D effort for the Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile (TASM). Rather than retype it all here, click over to this post and see how I used the Mac 512K to take the edge off the rather extensive data reduction and report writing. It was Apple that saved the world (notice how Apple computers are prominent in so many movies these days, many of them about hi-tech stuff and svaing the world?)

Apple Mac SE

From that job, I headed to school in Newport. While enroute, I found out my sister’s company that sold lab equipment had added the Mac SE to their line, and that she would purchase one for me. I got settled in in Newport and the SE arrived. When I unboxed it and plugged it in, the supplied keyboard didn’t work. That turned out to not be a problem, as using the mouse and a Apple Menu item named “Key Caps,” I was able to click on a graphical keyboard, then select the typed text and copy and paste it. I set up the entire system, including several layers of folders using the mouse alone. A few days later, a new keyboard arrived and thigs were great.

The Mac SE was my first system with the “ADB” (Apple Desktop Bus). This was a serial interface that allowed you to “daisy chain” items, such as the mouse and keyboard and other input devices, in line. Sounds familiar? That was 1987. Now we see it in the form os the “USB” interface, but, once more, Apple enigineers were out ahead of the pack. I out the SE to good use for the later part of 1987, and into early 1988. It was very handy when doing those class papers, and I could graphically maneuver the page margins and font size to make my paper fit the magical 8 page standard. It was great if you were short on what to say, and also if you had too much to say.

We formed an Mac club and also succeeded in converting most of the local Apple ][ users group to Mac users, because we could. I tried my hand at editing a newsletter for club. I used Aldus PageMaker and one of the other page layout programs, and I learned about kerning and leading and linking columns across pages. I learned a lot more, too.

Once more, I pulled Excel out and developed two logistical problems we had to solve. It took 20 hours over the weekend, but I’m sure it would have taken much, much longer by hand. I brought it into class, and passed out the handouts. The Air Force Col, who was one of our moderators flipped through the spreadsheet and said: “I’m not going to ask any questions because you’ll probably point at one of these numbers and make me feel stupid.” Well, it was a good briefing and I have to admit I gained a lot of respect for the “loggies” as I spend the time at home trying to figure out how to get a few divisions and fighter wings, along with all their equipment loads, into Kuwait very quickly (this was in late 1987).

Next time: Mac IIs, 256 colors, 8 bit sound editing and color business cards.

Vought VE-7

1922 – Lt. Cmdr. Virgil C. Griffin, in a Vought VE-7SF makes first the takeoff from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV 1) anchored in York River, Va.

From the Richmond-Times Dispatch:

On Oct. 17, 1922, as the Langley lay anchored in the York River, Lt. V.C. Griffin’s Vought VE-7SF biplane took off from its deck, the first takeoff from a Navy aircraft carrier. Griffin is believed to have flown the plane back to Norfolk, where it had been loaded onto the Langley, Forrest said.

Lt. Cmdr. Griffin was attached to the “Bounty Hunters” of “Fighting Two” (VFA-2 is the present name for the squadron and it is still commissioned).

Interested in more aircraft carrier aviation history? Here’s your link.

Gee, I can’t believe I scooped SteelJaw Scribe and Far East Cynic (both CV aviation guys, but since they are VAW and not VF/VFA types), and Instapinch! I’m letting Capt Lex have a pass, since he’s doing the “I’m here from da gov’ment, and I’m here to help!” thing with forward deployed forces right now.

Part VIII is here.

In the fall of 1986, I also purchased an Apple ][gs. The short story of the acquisition is the Surface Forces, Atlantic Officer’s Wives Club had a scholarship and annually held an auction to raise money. We were *ahem* encouraged to find worthwhile items to donate for this endeavor. I did track down a few items that did make some money for the scholarship in the silent auction part of the evening and later, a ][gs went up for the main auction. I, being the hobbyist I was, lusted after the 128K of the newer version of the workhorse, the new mouse “pointing device” and it’s early graphical user interface (GUI). They brought it out and wanted to start the bidding at $900. No one raised their hand or spoke. It was a great item, but no one seemed rich enough. Finally, after much cajoling from the CNSL Chief or Staff’s wive, we began the bidding. I think someone first said $600. Anyhow, the “battle enused” and I won at $825. My evil plan was to put it in the paper and make a few dollars, as I couldn’t really afford it at the time. As I walked out to the car with my prize, one couple said they wanted it and asked if I’d take $850. I turned them down politely, and the next day put my ad in the paper.

One call came that week, and, after the initial fact finding by the caller, and I guess the attempt to see how little I’d take, I never got another call. I sold it to my sister for what I paid for it the following week. I will admit to having pulled it all out of the boxes and booting it up for a few hours, before I reboxed it for shipment.

Somewhere in this time period, I got a look at a program by Owl Software named “Guide.” I can’t find any links to it, but I saw it running on the Apple ][ series. It may have been at AppleFest in 1983 (held in Boston). Anyhow, I was intrigued for you could mark a section of text and when a user clicked on it, another document would load and be displayed. You could use it for acronyms, of more detailed info on a topic, and there seemed to be no limits to the “depth” of the linking. I thought you could generate a document coveinr all aspects of a topic, to the very minutest level of detail, yet the reader wold only have to dig in as far as necessary to make sure they followed/understood the writing. Of course, now we know this as HTML, but, if you’ve followed the series, this is my second encouter with software that used the methodolgy of the Wolrd Wide Web, years after I had seen it.

Also in this time frame, probably around early 1986, I convinced the spouse we should upgrade to a Mac, now that used ones were on the market. I do recall seeing the 1984 SuperBowl commercial for the Mac, and then kept my eye on the development, but it was too expensive. I finally found one two years later, when someone else was upgrading their system, and I bought their Mac 512K, complete with the single external 400K 3.5″ floppy.

Now, about 4.5 years into owning computers, I moved from 1Mhz (8 bit words)/48K/134K (storage) to 8Mhz (16 bit words) /512K/400K (storage) Moden spped had moved from 300 bps to 1200 bps over the same time frame.

From here I began learning about “object oriented programming” (OOP) from a program that was part of the Mac purchase (if new) or $30 if purchased separately with HyperCard ( I bought it when it came out in 1987). It allowed you to manage data and pictures and place buttons all over the background, and you could “program” on a set of cards, much like having a rolodex, and each card was a new surface to work on. Not only did you do much of the work graphically, you cold then attach code to any of the “objects” on the screen. I, once more, figured out some things I wanted to do and then figured out how to make HyperCard do it for me. I hacked up someone else’s public domain address book, and I transmogrified it so I could also keep track of who I send Christmas cards to each year, and also for the current year, where I made it print out all my mailing labels for the year I was working on them.

I also found out it was much more fun to create a “this is everything” letter for Chritmas, then I’d cut and paste each one going out, depending on how much contact I’d had with the friendd/relative that year. Ah, the magic of word processing…

Next “expose:” Retreading other serial posts, the HyperCard in Navigation and 4th Dimension helps lay out a long range project.