Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop FOSS in Europe - and errata too!

[Detonate]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

Actually many threads in this section of the forum go off topic, and that's when they usually get interesting. It's just as if we were sitting around a table talking. And these threads are where we really get to know each other. Leave it be. My only experience with home made explosives was as a youth watching my uncle remove stumps with fertilizer, (was it ammonium nitrate?) and diesel fuel. Many years before Timothy McVeigh got the idea. Farmers have been using this method for a long time. As an adult, my deployment of explosives was always at a long distance. I was an artilleryman.

But one does not need a knowledge of explosives to be a terrorist. No knowledge of explosives required to fly a plane into a building. There are many other acts a terrorist could commit without explosives. Derail a passenger train. Poison a water supply. The list goes on.

[toad]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

Yeah, we don't half rant 8)

Anyway, thank you very much for bringing bitcoin to my attention, PhilT! Also, I remember that some nobel peace price bloke from India a couple of years ago had this idea of direct credits, i.e. cutting out the gluttonous banking middle man. Does anybody remember what his scheme was called or is aware of any other such "direct" schemes?

Many thanks and sorry about getting even further OT

[dibl]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

Bitcoins - there was a big dustup on aptosid forum when that was suggested as a means for donations, and the thread ended up locked. But, it's still educational:

http://aptosid.com/index.php?name=PN...iewtopic&t=219

[toad]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

Thanks, dibl. Wow, that aptosid forum is quite something

[dibl]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

Heh heh heh -- yes. There's no messing about with OT stuff there, and close to zero tolerance for folks who skipped the manual-reading phase of solving their problems.

But, since their forum is hosted and moderated by the development team themselves, and it's a small one, they need to keep it efficient. Also, they have a very active IRC channel where you can take serious support questions. I think the forum is kind of a hobby.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

This certainly has been a twisty thread, as indicated elsewhere!

And, speaking of making gunpowder, one of my roommates, for almost all four years, when I was an undergrad was an artistic type, and the other a blond Nordic type. Many if not all of the folks here at the forum, probably, if you are as old as dirt, saw the "Estes Rockets" adverts on the backs of comics and Boy's Life but I never had the money to order one and the only hobby stores were an hour's drive away so I all I ever did was get to dream about them.

Well, the Nordic type was poor but his dad ran a business and ordered stuff all the time and had ordered a couple of the rockets for the boy and he brought one to college as a thing for the three of us to do, and he built it in our room.

That sparked the evil imagination of our artistic roomie and he, somehow, found Michelangelo's recipe for making gun powder, being the art major that he was gave him access I guess!. His theory was that the ejection charge for the parachute would ignite the powder on it's upward flight and provide us with a lot of fun! Ahhhh the best laid plans of college roomies!!

Well, the rocket was built and duly packed with the hand made gunpowder. The Nordic roomie did not have the requisite wire for an electrical launcher(the nichrome wire that goes in the engine), so he had kept various LARGE firecrackers like M-80's that had a dual(actually bent over) fuse and which could be straightened out for a long fuse.

So..........to launch it we went to.......the top of the dorm! lol! I mean one cannot get more logical than THAT!!! Back then one didn't worry too much about security and so the doors were not locked. He had also squirreled a long "brazing" rod for a launch rod, and we used a brick to hold the end as it was leaned against the top "coping" of the building, the angle being about 75 degrees from vertical.

The artistic type smoked Camels, unfiltered, and volunteered to light the fuse with a ciggy which was hesitantly done and we all three ran to the opposite side of the roof only to stand and wait because the fuse had gone out at "the bend"...so after a while the process was repeated and off it went!

Expecting to see a spectacular display of pyrotechnics in the evening sky, we were looking upward, but we were astounded to see....nothing...

So....we hesitantly went to the launch site and looking over the coping....we saw to our great chagrin that the baseball field, across parking lot and road....was now ablaze!

We hied ourselves to our room, locked the door, got in bed and spent the rest of the evening waiting for somebody to come and expel us from school.

However, nobody did, although the admin conducted as thorough an investigation as possible....

Just goes to show the truth of the "warism" that "loose lips sink ships"....well we kept ours SHUT!!!

What was really hilarous was that the college's volunteer fire department, which never had to volunteer for anything! had it's one and only, real work out with putting out the grass fire! They all received commendations!

woodsmoke

[Detonate]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

This will probably start a slew of stories about the old days, when one could actually buy real firecrackers. M-80's and Cherry Bombs. I would start the stories, but I'm not sure the Statute of Limitations has run out yet. Woodsmoke, now that you have broken the silence on who started that fire, you will be getting a bill from that school shortly.

I had a few experiences with those Estes Rockets myself. Pretty cool. They had a solid fuel motor that, as mentioned by Woodsmoke, was designed to be electrically fired.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

Hi Detonate!
Thanks for the advice on watching out for the bill!

woodsmoke

[Detonate]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

The Estes Model Rocket factory is located about halfway between Pueblo and Canon City Colorado on the North side of US80. As an adult I have driven by it many times, but never stopped to check it out. Kind of a dumpy looking building and not very large. I have not driven by it in many years so I don't know if it is still there. Whenever I drove by it, it triggered childhood memories. I just did a web search and came up with this, they are still in the same place in Penrose, CO.

http://www.estesrockets.com/about-estes

[Detonate]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

I think I have to have one of these because of the name.

http://www.estesrockets.com/rockets/gnometm

[dibl]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop Free and Open Source software in Europe

Interesting that they're now an ESOP company -- if I were King, all U.S. corporations would have to include an ESOP of some kind (now that we're a million miles from the OP topic). I'm presently retiring on the proceeds of my ESOP account.

My middle daughter chose a rocket project for her 6th grade science project. Of course, it was a pink one. Dad learned lots about model rocketry ....

Later, up on the farm, I put a double-charge of propellant in it, and on a July day launched it in the general "upwind" northwest direction, in front of gathered siblings, in-laws, neices and nephews. It went waaaayyyyyy up, popped its chute, and proceeded to float gently down all the way across the 80-acre farm, causing a fun hunt after we traipsed over to the general area where we thought it landed. Good times!

[Detonate]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop FOSS in Europe - and errata too!

Judging by the size of the building, I'll bet they don't have more 20 to 30 employees. They have been in that location so long the original capital investment has long since been recovered. I think that would probably be a pretty profitable little ESOP. Makes for some happy employees. I'll bet they don't have much turnover.

[dibl]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop FOSS in Europe - and errata too!

ESOP is not a cure-all for labor relations, but with the near-extinction of company-funded retirement plans, it seems to me that the employees need to get a fair share of the proceeds of the business where they spend so much of their time and energy. A fairness thing. It also makes a person think twice about screwing over his/her employer -- it's also screwing yourself and your co-workers.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop FOSS in Europe - and errata too!

Ah, model rockets. Fond memories. My son and I built them together. Our first was the Alpha, then Big Bertha, then we started working on 3 stage rockets using D5 & D6 engines. My son and his son have continued the tradition. I have films of Jordan's first rocket launch.

I required my 9th grade science class to build a model rocket. At the time, around 1974 or 75, I was using an HP 55 calculator, which offered 50 programming steps. I programmed it with three successive programming stages to compute the Tc = Tb + Tc and Sh = Sb + Sc (b=burn, c=coast). In the spring, on the last day of class, following the last test, that calculator grew legs and walked away.

I replaced it with a TI SR-52 calculator for which I programmed three magnetic cards (224 steps per mag card, one for each stage, using improvements on my HP code) to calculate the predicted time of flight and max height reached. One entered the diameter of the rocket, time of burn of the engine, its specific impulse, coast time, and mass of the rocket including engine and payload. TI included that program in their listing of available SR-52 software. It was my first "published" computer code. The program predicted height and time of flight to apogee so accurately that it was possible to plug in various payload weights and compute the Th and Sh without firing the rocket, keeping diameter, drag, and engine specs constant. As you'd expect, heavier payloads didn't reach as high at burn out, but they coasted a lot higher than lighter payloads. So every rocket has a specific payload weight which gives it the maximum altitude, Any heavier or lighter and it won't go as high. One of my brighter students built a three stage rocket with 3 engines (2 D5's and 1 C6). Polished like glass, the 2nd & 3rd stage weights were perfectly matched for the 1st D5 engine, and the 3rd stage was weighted perfectly for the 2nd stage. The 3rd stage payload was a parachute and weight to match. With a 500' base line the measured angle was about 84 degrees +- a couple. So, climbed to between 4,100' and 5, 100'.

I was thinking about using the Camroc, but never did. Now, with balloons, they are getting photos from altitudes of 125,000 feet it makes a Camroc look silly.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Wikileaks - Documents aiming to stop FOSS in Europe - and errata too!

As to the ESOP, Estes has a wandering history. During the big slump in model rocketry a few decades back they bought Centuri(I think) then were bought by a conglomerate that also bought up some "Kite" company(ies) and the profits were used to work on a medical condition, diabetes, I think, and then that company collapsed and during the court hearings Robert Cannon(I think) who was the former CEO offered to take the company and make it profitable again.

Things kind of floundered around for a while and now I see, from the website, that it either owns Cox(radio control airplanes) or they are a joint thing or something.

Estes sees to be a reasonably good example of good things come to good people... since it is still around even after its convoluted history.

I still have my catalogues from back in 1972! lol

woodsmoke