Driver to drive?

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:52:30 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:

John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
John Larkin wote:

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.

---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

JF

Not as though WE Poor Unwashed Masses can do anything about not
repeating the Vietnam war all over again... (whoops, did I say that
out loud?)

History may repeat itself yet again...
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/euthanasia.htm

Especially with this lot around !
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

" The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American
leadership is good both for America and for the world. "

There is no period there in the original sentence. You snipped it to
suit your prejudices.

I bet you design electronics the same way... ignore the realities that
don't suit your prejudices.

John

 

On 30 okt, 16:48, John Larkin
<jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0500, John Fields

jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:03 -0700, John Larkin
jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war, but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.

Since we owe the Russians a larger debt of gratitiude, we presumably
ought to hate them more than we hate you.

In fact nobody hates America (with the possible exception of Osama bin
Laden and his colleagues) but we do think that you ought to get around
to cleaning up your act sometime fairly soon.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

 

On Oct 30, 5:13 pm, bill.slo...@ieee.org wrote:

On 30 okt, 16:48, John Larkin



jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:
On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0500, John Fields

jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:03 -0700, John Larkin
jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war, but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.

Well, to be fair, the USA was kind of busy fighting the Japanese.
Don't forget, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (part of the USA), and
seized one of the US territories (the Philippines). Google "Bataan
Death March" someday. Did any European countries help out fighting
the Japanese? Maybe then bombing Japan with A-bombs could have been
avoided. Imagine dropping an A-bomb on Dresden... unthinkable, huh?

Michael, Sacramento

 

[Eeyore]

John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:
John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
John Larkin wote:

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.
---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

Not as though WE Poor Unwashed Masses can do anything about not
repeating the Vietnam war all over again... (whoops, did I say that
out loud?)

History may repeat itself yet again...
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/euthanasia.htm

Especially with this lot around !
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

" The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American
leadership is good both for America and for the world. "

There is no period there in the original sentence.

That makes it OK does it ? Actually, I didn't do that on purpose.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:

bill.slo...@ieee.org wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
John Fields wrote:
John Larkin wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war, but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.

Well, to be fair, the USA was kind of busy fighting the Japanese.
Don't forget, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (part of the USA), and
seized one of the US territories (the Philippines). Google "Bataan
Death March" someday. Did any European countries help out fighting
the Japanese?

GOOD LORD

Yes, well they do call Burma the 'forgotten war'. Ever seen the movie "The
Bridge on the River Kwai" or heard about the building of the Burma Railway
using forced labour (by British and Empire troops and Asian civilians). Makes
the Bataan Death March look like a picnic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_on_the_River_Kwai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Railway

Of course, The British, Australians, New Zealanders, Gurkhas and Indians (and
doubtless other Empire troops) helped fight the Japanese. And some Dutch too.

There were Royal Navy ships in your Pacific sea forces too.

As I have always said, you Armericans haven't a clue about TRUE history.

Graham

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:44:08 -0700, the renowned Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Martin Brown wrote:
On Oct 29, 10:53 pm, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net
wrote:
Jan Panteltje wrote:

[...]

I do not recommend to use this scaler, but an other one:
http://www.mir.com/DMG/Software/
But I have not tested that one for aliasing....
Mine was just to demonstrate the need for lowpass when sub-sampling.
Actually it is a nice fft and reverse fft exercise (using the wild wild west fft package).
I don't think they do much outside the time/space domain (and in medical
we rarely do either) but it is rather complicated. You can see
differences between TV sets when interpolating fast moving scenes. Very
important to check that thoroughly before whipping out the credit card.

That is certainly true. I don't find any of the current 50Hz sets
acceptable at all for fast moving sports events. The worst thing I
have seen in shops was water skiing on a dark pond in bright sunlight.
The sets for the most part could not handle high contrast fast dynamic
changes at all and the spray pixellated in a visually offensive
manner. It is not for nothing that all the demo CDs and feeds in shops
are smooth panning of detailed scenes to show off the system
performance to maximum advantage.


Luckily most stores in the US grant you the right to return stuff. Now I
do not do this light-heartedly because often the returned merchandise
will be destroyed which is sad in many ways. But with one small Philips
TV I bought they were not willing to allow me to switch channels in the
store. Back at home motion artefacts were horrible. Tried it on the PC,
yuck. I returned it the next day. Packaged it very carefully, just like
new. The store clerk: "Didn't you at least open it?" ... "Oh yeah, tried
it for a whole hour." ... "Hmm, really? Well, then we'll have to scrap
it, can't re-sell it" ... "But it's all packaged like new, I was very
diligent about that" ... "Nope, it's the policy" ... How sad.

Don't be too sad. They can't re-sell it as new, there are tough

consumer laws (up to 6 months in jail in California) regarding that.

Probably they just shoved it back up on their supplier (contractually
obligated to accept it for credit), who then sold it wholesale
shrink-wrapped to a skid with other returned items, and it ended up at
a flea market or being sold as "refurbished" at some point. There's
enough markup through the chain to handle this, and if it happens too
much there is something wrong with the product or how it is being
sold.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

On 31 okt, 04:40, mrdarr...@gmail.com wrote:

On Oct 30, 5:13 pm, bill.slo...@ieee.org wrote:





On 30 okt, 16:48, John Larkin

jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:
On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0500, John Fields

jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:03 -0700, John Larkin
jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war, but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.

Well, to be fair, the USA was kind of busy fighting the Japanese.

WW2 started in Europe in August 1939. The Japanese didn't hit Pearl
Harbour in December 1941. The point I was making was that the U.S.A.
might have concentrated on the war against the Japanese in the
Pacific, but did in fact chose to commit troops to North Africa and
Europe as well - for which Europeans are grateful, though we do
appreciate that this was primarily motivated by enlightened American
self-interest rather than any particular sympathy for the countries
your ancestors had come from,

Don't forget, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (part of the USA), and
seized one of the US territories (the Philippines).  

I'm Australian. My mother's older brother served in Papua-New Guinea
and the islands to the north in the last year of WW2.

http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=57D8BA7E-BBA8-5D39-133611C9100A5B6A&id=126

Google "Bataan Death March" someday.  Did any European countries help
out fighting the Japanese?

As Eeyore has pointed out, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was
part of a general attack on a number of European colonies in Southeast
 Asia - the Japanese invasion of Malaysia started almost immedately
afterwards

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fall_of_singapore.htm

and the Japanese attack on Dutch-held Indonesia began only a few days
later.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Dutch_Empire/Contents/Japanese_Invasion

The U.K. and Australia lost quite a few people fighting the Japanese,
and it was a U.K-led army that drove the Japanese out of Burma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Campaign

Maybe then bombing Japan with A-bombs could
have been avoided.  Imagine dropping an A-bomb on Dresden... unthinkable, huh?

I'm sure that if Churchill had had an A-bomb to drop on Dresden, he
would have used it rather than the fleet of 1300 bombers that were
required to ignite the firestorm that killed some 25,000 people.
Hiroshima lost 140,000 people and Nagasaki some 80,000, but Dresden is
clearly in the same class.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

 

[Eeyore]

bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:

mrdarr...@gmail.com wrote:
bill.slo...@ieee.org wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
John Fields wrote:
John Larkin wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war, but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.

Well, to be fair, the USA was kind of busy fighting the Japanese.

WW2 started in Europe in August 1939. The Japanese didn't hit Pearl
Harbour in December 1941. The point I was making was that the U.S.A.
might have concentrated on the war against the Japanese in the
Pacific, but did in fact chose to commit troops to North Africa and
Europe as well - for which Europeans are grateful, though we do
appreciate that this was primarily motivated by enlightened American
self-interest rather than any particular sympathy for the countries
your ancestors had come from,

Don't forget, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (part of the USA), and
seized one of the US territories (the Philippines).

I'm Australian. My mother's older brother served in Papua-New Guinea
and the islands to the north in the last year of WW2.

http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=57D8BA7E-BBA8-5D39-133611C9100A5B6A&id=126

Google "Bataan Death March" someday. Did any European countries help
out fighting the Japanese?

As Eeyore has pointed out, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was
part of a general attack on a number of European colonies in Southeast
Asia - the Japanese invasion of Malaysia started almost immedately
afterwards

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fall_of_singapore.htm

and the Japanese attack on Dutch-held Indonesia began only a few days
later.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Dutch_Empire/Contents/Japanese_Invasion

The U.K. and Australia lost quite a few people fighting the Japanese,
and it was a U.K-led army that drove the Japanese out of Burma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Campaign

Maybe then bombing Japan with A-bombs could
have been avoided. Imagine dropping an A-bomb on Dresden... unthinkable, huh?

I'm sure that if Churchill had had an A-bomb to drop on Dresden, he
would have used it rather than the fleet of 1300 bombers that were
required to ignite the firestorm that killed some 25,000 people.
Hiroshima lost 140,000 people and Nagasaki some 80,000, but Dresden is
clearly in the same class.

Interesting point about Dresden. It was a MAJOR rail junction and therefore of
significant military significance.

Many of the numbers quoted dead were simply Nazi propaganda.

Furthermore the raids on Dresden were carried out by BOTH the USAAF and the RAF at the
specific request of the Russians.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:

mrdarr...@gmail.com wrote:

Google "Bataan Death March" someday. Did any European countries help
out fighting the Japanese?

Your level of ignorance is shocking.

As Eeyore has pointed out, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was
part of a general attack on a number of European colonies in Southeast
Asia - the Japanese invasion of Malaysia started almost immedately
afterwards

Hence .....
http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Neutral-Soldiers-Two-Year-Japanese/dp/1592281079

"Product Description

THE JUNGLE IS NEUTRAL makes The Bridge Over the River Kwai look like a tussle in a
schoolyard.

F. SPENCER CHAPMAN, the book's unflappable author, narrates with typical British aplomb
an amazing tale of four years spent as a guerrilla in the jungle, haranguing the
Japanese in occupied Malaysia.

Traveling sometimes by bicycle and motorcycle, rarely by truck, and mainly in dugouts,
on foot, and often on his belly through the jungle muck, Chapman recruits sympathetic
Chinese, Malays, Tamils, and Sakai tribesman into an irregular corps of jungle fighters.
Their mission: to harass the Japanese in any way possible. In riveting scenes, they blow
up bridges, cut communication lines, and affix plasticine (I assume he means plastic
explosive) to troop-filled trucks idling by the road. They build mines by stuffing
bamboo with gelignite. They throw grenades and disappear into the jungle, their faces
darkened with carbon, their tommy guns wrapped in tape so as not to reflect the
moonlight.

And when he is not battling the Japanese, or escaping from their prisons, he is fighting
the jungle's incessant rain, wild tigers, unfriendly tribesmen, leeches, and undergrowth
so thick it can take four hours to walk a mile.

This classic tale has been compared to Lawrence of Arabia's classic account, The Seven
Pillars of Wisdom, and the gritty account of day-to-day operations is so accurate that
the French Foreign Legion used the book as a primer on jungle warfare. It is a war story
without rival."

It's a stunning read !


Graham

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:59:27 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:
John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
John Larkin wote:

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.
---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

Not as though WE Poor Unwashed Masses can do anything about not
repeating the Vietnam war all over again... (whoops, did I say that
out loud?)

History may repeat itself yet again...
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/euthanasia.htm

Especially with this lot around !
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

" The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American
leadership is good both for America and for the world. "

There is no period there in the original sentence.

That makes it OK does it ? Actually, I didn't do that on purpose.

Graham

That's funny: you snipped it to spin it in your preferred negative
direction, and you can't remember why.

John

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:40:50 -0700 (PDT), mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:

On Oct 30, 5:13 pm, bill.slo...@ieee.org wrote:
On 30 okt, 16:48, John Larkin



jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:
On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0500, John Fields

jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:03 -0700, John Larkin
jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war, but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.


Well, to be fair, the USA was kind of busy fighting the Japanese.
Don't forget, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (part of the USA), and
seized one of the US territories (the Philippines). Google "Bataan
Death March" someday. Did any European countries help out fighting
the Japanese? Maybe then bombing Japan with A-bombs could have been
avoided. Imagine dropping an A-bomb on Dresden... unthinkable, huh?

Michael, Sacramento

Hasn't anybody read any history?

The US was not prepared, militarily or politically, to enter the war
in 1941. But we had already chosen sides, and were helping the British
just short of a declaration of wat against Germany. And arming at a
frantic pace.

After Japan attacked, and threatened Hawaii, Alaska, the Alutians, and
even the US west coast, FDR met with Churchill and decided on a
"Europe first" war policy, sending most of our resources to europe and
atempting a minimal holding pattern in the Pacific. A near miracle in
the Coral Sea, and a genuine miracle at Midway, and some superb code
breaking, let us barely get away with it.

The Brits helped a little against the Japanese, but their resources
were minimal. They were especially weak in aircraft carriers, and the
Pacific war was mostly a carrier war.

John

 

[Joerg]

Spehro Pefhany wrote:

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:44:08 -0700, the renowned Joerg
notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Martin Brown wrote:
On Oct 29, 10:53 pm, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net
wrote:
Jan Panteltje wrote:
[...]

I do not recommend to use this scaler, but an other one:
http://www.mir.com/DMG/Software/
But I have not tested that one for aliasing....
Mine was just to demonstrate the need for lowpass when sub-sampling.
Actually it is a nice fft and reverse fft exercise (using the wild wild west fft package).
I don't think they do much outside the time/space domain (and in medical
we rarely do either) but it is rather complicated. You can see
differences between TV sets when interpolating fast moving scenes. Very
important to check that thoroughly before whipping out the credit card.
That is certainly true. I don't find any of the current 50Hz sets
acceptable at all for fast moving sports events. The worst thing I
have seen in shops was water skiing on a dark pond in bright sunlight.
The sets for the most part could not handle high contrast fast dynamic
changes at all and the spray pixellated in a visually offensive
manner. It is not for nothing that all the demo CDs and feeds in shops
are smooth panning of detailed scenes to show off the system
performance to maximum advantage.

Luckily most stores in the US grant you the right to return stuff. Now I
do not do this light-heartedly because often the returned merchandise
will be destroyed which is sad in many ways. But with one small Philips
TV I bought they were not willing to allow me to switch channels in the
store. Back at home motion artefacts were horrible. Tried it on the PC,
yuck. I returned it the next day. Packaged it very carefully, just like
new. The store clerk: "Didn't you at least open it?" ... "Oh yeah, tried
it for a whole hour." ... "Hmm, really? Well, then we'll have to scrap
it, can't re-sell it" ... "But it's all packaged like new, I was very
diligent about that" ... "Nope, it's the policy" ... How sad.

Don't be too sad. They can't re-sell it as new, there are tough
consumer laws (up to 6 months in jail in California) regarding that.

Probably they just shoved it back up on their supplier (contractually
obligated to accept it for credit), who then sold it wholesale
shrink-wrapped to a skid with other returned items, and it ended up at
a flea market or being sold as "refurbished" at some point. There's
enough markup through the chain to handle this, and if it happens too
much there is something wrong with the product or how it is being
sold.

IMHO this one fell under the latter category. Performance was pathetic.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

On 31 okt, 15:23, John Larkin
<jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:40:50 -0700 (PDT), mrdarr...@gmail.com wrote:
On Oct 30, 5:13 pm, bill.slo...@ieee.org wrote:
On 30 okt, 16:48, John Larkin

jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:
On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0500, John Fields

jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:03 -0700, John Larkin
jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war, but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.

Well, to be fair, the USA was kind of busy fighting the Japanese.
Don't forget, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (part of the USA), and
seized one of the US territories (the Philippines).  Google "Bataan
Death March" someday.  Did any European countries help out fighting
the Japanese?  Maybe then bombing Japan with A-bombs could have been
avoided.  Imagine dropping an A-bomb on Dresden... unthinkable, huh?

Michael, Sacramento

Hasn't anybody read any history?

The US was not prepared, militarily or politically, to enter the war
in 1941. But we had already chosen sides, and were helping the British
just short of a declaration of wat against Germany. And arming at a
frantic pace.

After Japan attacked, and threatened Hawaii, Alaska, the Alutians, and
even the US west coast, FDR met with Churchill and decided on a
"Europe first" war policy, sending most of our resources to europe and
atempting a minimal holding pattern in the Pacific. A near miracle in
the Coral Sea, and a genuine miracle at Midway, and some superb code
breaking, let us barely get away with it.

The Brits helped a little against the Japanese, but their resources
were minimal. They were especially weak in aircraft carriers, and the
Pacific war was mostly a carrier war.

The British did operate some aircraft carriers in the Pacifc at the
end of the war. They were fleet carriers with armoured flight decks,
where the American carriers had wooden flight decks, which allowed the
British carriers to shrug off kamikazee attacks. The impact of the 500
pound bombs typically involved didn't distort the British armoured
flight decks to any significant extent, and planes could land and take
off within minutes of a kamikazee impact - the times listed in the URL
below are 25, 40 and 60 minutes

http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-042.htm

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

 

[Charlie E.]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:43:59 -0700, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Joel Koltner wrote:
"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news8oOk.3547$hc1.2706@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com...
Luckily most stores in the US grant you the right to return stuff. Now I do
not do this light-heartedly because often the returned merchandise will be
destroyed which is sad in many ways.

I suspect it will end up as "refurbished" goods on Woot.Com, Geeks.Com, etc...
or perhaps sold as part of a "return pallet" at an auction where people will
then piecemeal it out on eBay. I just can't imagine that something like a
fully-functional big-screen TV would actually be stuck in a landfill.


It was a 19" or smaller, don't remember. Definitely not up to snuff with
respect to DSP know-how and/or technology. It's sad, those used to be
the old name brands. Now companies like Insignia and Vizio run circles
around them.


So we have some useful technology features that are rendered useless by
either incompetence at the stations or sloppy management.

My current pet peeve with respect to sloppy management is HD radio stations
syncing their analog and digital broadcasts: The radios start out in analog
mode and then, if a digital signal is detected, cross-fade over to the digital
signal. This is all supposed to be unnoticeable and seamless -- other than
the bonus of the background noise going away once the digital signal is picked
up -- but of course that's only the case is the analog and digital feeds are
aligned in time. Otherwise you get an audible "stutter" during the
cross-fade. :-(


You also observe an interesting effect with digital TV sets. The audio
delays can differ and you'll hear weird room echoes if two sets of
different architecture are running at the same time.


I came across some guy's web site where he took measurements on a bunch of
radio stations down in the California Bay area, and it was something like 2/3
that were out of spec for time alignment... and some were really gross, like
1 second apart!


I once called a station that their audio was messed up. Guy at the other
end turning on his radio. "Whoops! Sorry, thanks for letting us know."

We have two different DishHD receivers, one with DVR, and one without
it. If you have them both on the same channel, there is a definite
'reverb' effect between them, very noticeable delay. Sometimes, it
can be a few seconds!

One big problem - voice and picture out of sync, especially on our
local channels (which aren't in HD yet... :-( ) I have finally
figured out that on the DVR set, if I just back it up a little bit, it
get them back in sync again.

Charlie

 

[Joerg]

Charlie E. wrote:

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:43:59 -0700, Joerg
notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Joel Koltner wrote:
"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news8oOk.3547$hc1.2706@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com...
Luckily most stores in the US grant you the right to return stuff. Now I do
not do this light-heartedly because often the returned merchandise will be
destroyed which is sad in many ways.
I suspect it will end up as "refurbished" goods on Woot.Com, Geeks.Com, etc...
or perhaps sold as part of a "return pallet" at an auction where people will
then piecemeal it out on eBay. I just can't imagine that something like a
fully-functional big-screen TV would actually be stuck in a landfill.

It was a 19" or smaller, don't remember. Definitely not up to snuff with
respect to DSP know-how and/or technology. It's sad, those used to be
the old name brands. Now companies like Insignia and Vizio run circles
around them.


So we have some useful technology features that are rendered useless by
either incompetence at the stations or sloppy management.
My current pet peeve with respect to sloppy management is HD radio stations
syncing their analog and digital broadcasts: The radios start out in analog
mode and then, if a digital signal is detected, cross-fade over to the digital
signal. This is all supposed to be unnoticeable and seamless -- other than
the bonus of the background noise going away once the digital signal is picked
up -- but of course that's only the case is the analog and digital feeds are
aligned in time. Otherwise you get an audible "stutter" during the
cross-fade. :-(

You also observe an interesting effect with digital TV sets. The audio
delays can differ and you'll hear weird room echoes if two sets of
different architecture are running at the same time.


I came across some guy's web site where he took measurements on a bunch of
radio stations down in the California Bay area, and it was something like 2/3
that were out of spec for time alignment... and some were really gross, like
1 second apart!

I once called a station that their audio was messed up. Guy at the other
end turning on his radio. "Whoops! Sorry, thanks for letting us know."

We have two different DishHD receivers, one with DVR, and one without
it. If you have them both on the same channel, there is a definite
'reverb' effect between them, very noticeable delay. Sometimes, it
can be a few seconds!

One big problem - voice and picture out of sync, especially on our
local channels (which aren't in HD yet... :-( ) I have finally
figured out that on the DVR set, if I just back it up a little bit, it
get them back in sync again.

That is quite weird even on our local news station. You see an insert of
an interview held somewhere in D.C. The lips of the guys speaking are
totally out of sync with the audio.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Eeyore]

John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:
John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
John Larkin wote:

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.
---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

Not as though WE Poor Unwashed Masses can do anything about not
repeating the Vietnam war all over again... (whoops, did I say that
out loud?)

History may repeat itself yet again...
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/euthanasia.htm

Especially with this lot around !
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

" The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American
leadership is good both for America and for the world. "

There is no period there in the original sentence.

That makes it OK does it ? Actually, I didn't do that on purpose.

That's funny: you snipped it to spin it in your preferred negative
direction, and you can't remember why.

Are you trying to deny the words ?

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
mrdarr...@gmail.com wrote:

Well, to be fair, the USA was kind of busy fighting the Japanese.
Don't forget, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (part of the USA), and
seized one of the US territories (the Philippines). Google "Bataan
Death March" someday. Did any European countries help out fighting
the Japanese? Maybe then bombing Japan with A-bombs could have been
avoided. Imagine dropping an A-bomb on Dresden... unthinkable, huh?

Michael, Sacramento

Hasn't anybody read any history?

The US was not prepared, militarily or politically, to enter the war
in 1941.

Your aircraft certainly weren't !

But we had already chosen sides, and were helping the British
just short of a declaration of wat against Germany. And arming at a
frantic pace.

Not a lot of choice really.

After Japan attacked, and threatened Hawaii, Alaska, the Alutians, and
even the US west coast, FDR met with Churchill and decided on a
"Europe first" war policy, sending most of our resources to europe and
atempting a minimal holding pattern in the Pacific. A near miracle in
the Coral Sea, and a genuine miracle at Midway, and some superb code
breaking,

BRITISH code breaking. That you guys initially ignored at the cost of many US
seamens' lives with East Coast sinkings.

let us barely get away with it.

The Brits helped a little against the Japanese, but their resources
were minimal. They were especially weak in aircraft carriers, and the
Pacific war was mostly a carrier war.

The British did operate some aircraft carriers in the Pacifc at the
end of the war. They were fleet carriers with armoured flight decks,
where the American carriers had wooden flight decks, which allowed the
British carriers to shrug off kamikazee attacks. The impact of the 500
pound bombs typically involved didn't distort the British armoured
flight decks to any significant extent, and planes could land and take
off within minutes of a kamikazee impact - the times listed in the URL
below are 25, 40 and 60 minutes

http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-042.htm

Very true. The British carriers were much tougher. Whatever persuaded the USN to
use wooden decks is unfathomable.

Mind you, a guy I know did during his service see an F4 Phantom go through a
British carrier deck and end up in the Officers' Wardroom !

Graham

 

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:08:52 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:
John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
John Larkin wote:

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.
---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

Not as though WE Poor Unwashed Masses can do anything about not
repeating the Vietnam war all over again... (whoops, did I say that
out loud?)

History may repeat itself yet again...
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/euthanasia.htm

Especially with this lot around !
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

" The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American
leadership is good both for America and for the world. "

There is no period there in the original sentence.

That makes it OK does it ? Actually, I didn't do that on purpose.

That's funny: you snipped it to spin it in your preferred negative
direction, and you can't remember why.

Are you trying to deny the words ?

Graham

I have no idea what "deny the words" could possibly mean; the web page
exists. You did snip Kristol's sentence to better align with your
prejudices.

He is right, of course. Kristol is a very smart and funny guy.

John

 

[Richard The Dreaded Liber]

On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:45:42 +0000, Eeyore wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

Hitler turned east after being stopped at the Channel.

Yes and had you lot not been attacked at Pearl Harbor and Germany then
declared war on you, all of Europe would have finally fallen to Russia.

Come on, Graham. You can't be claiming that there was no one in Europe who
had a clue how to save their own ass? And that without US intervention,
you'd have _all_ gone down? Sounds a lot like "US 1, Them, 0."

And, when it comes to being dominated, has no one in Europe ever heard of
"civil disobedience?" >:->

Oh, yeah - when you weren't paying attention, your authorities disarmed
all of you and taught you to be subhuman obediant sheep, devoid of even
a trace of self-respect.

Sorry if my noticing this phenomenon offends you.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[John Fields]

On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:29:36 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:

mrdarr...@gmail.com wrote:

Google "Bataan Death March" someday. Did any European countries help
out fighting the Japanese?

Your level of ignorance is shocking.


As Eeyore has pointed out, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was
part of a general attack on a number of European colonies in Southeast
Asia - the Japanese invasion of Malaysia started almost immedately
afterwards

Hence .....
http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Neutral-Soldiers-Two-Year-Japanese/dp/1592281079

"Product Description

THE JUNGLE IS NEUTRAL makes The Bridge Over the River Kwai look like a tussle in a
schoolyard.

F. SPENCER CHAPMAN, the book's unflappable author, narrates with typical British aplomb
an amazing tale of four years spent as a guerrilla in the jungle, haranguing the
Japanese in occupied Malaysia.

Traveling sometimes by bicycle and motorcycle, rarely by truck, and mainly in dugouts,
on foot, and often on his belly through the jungle muck, Chapman recruits sympathetic
Chinese, Malays, Tamils, and Sakai tribesman into an irregular corps of jungle fighters.
Their mission: to harass the Japanese in any way possible. In riveting scenes, they blow
up bridges, cut communication lines, and affix plasticine (I assume he means plastic
explosive) to troop-filled trucks idling by the road. They build mines by stuffing
bamboo with gelignite. They throw grenades and disappear into the jungle, their faces
darkened with carbon, their tommy guns wrapped in tape so as not to reflect the
moonlight.

And when he is not battling the Japanese, or escaping from their prisons, he is fighting
the jungle's incessant rain, wild tigers, unfriendly tribesmen, leeches, and undergrowth
so thick it can take four hours to walk a mile.

This classic tale has been compared to Lawrence of Arabia's classic account, The Seven
Pillars of Wisdom, and the gritty account of day-to-day operations is so accurate that
the French Foreign Legion used the book as a primer on jungle warfare. It is a war story
without rival."

It's a stunning read !

---
Quite the opposite, then, of a galloping equine?

JF