The Telescope Chronicles

Blog revisions, etc
Read about the dude's telescope troubles HERE.   And see the triumphant follow-ups!

We've all worked with a guy named "Ted", haven't we?
Who's yours?

  In reply to a Nervous Muslim   -  

You're right of course - America does indeed have large segment that  is weirdly fundamentalist Christian. But (so far) they haven't suggested imposed a tax, at least monetary, on the other Judeo-Christian-Islamic sects.
And if you were a woman (perhaps you are) would you feel more comfortable in the USA or in Saudi Arabia? The word is comfortable, not "safe". I'm sure a woman is normally a lot safer in Saudi Arabia. But then, so is a camel or a sheep.
  Anyhow, I'm an atheist and do not live in the US, though I do live in North America. I feel comfortable in mentioning this here or in the US. Would I mention it in the mid-east? I'm not sure. And if I were gay, I would be even less inclined to admit this in that part of the world, though I've been informed that sodomy and oral sex is widely practised in these nether regions...
So far the "christians" you speak of, are not (yet) forcing their tenets on everyone. And somehow I don't think the US is becoming a theocracy*. At least I hope not!
You are just hearing the sound and the fury, and as a Muslim (I assume you are one) you are obviously more sensitive to this nonsense than I am.

 

* In retrospect, I wonder if the US has always been a theocracy, albeit a mild and moderately tolerant one, ever since those crazies landed at Plymouth Rock, in spite of the best intentions of Jefferson and his gang...

Fwd: IBM is 100! But where is Token ring? where is the PS/2?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charlie Hurtubise <Charlie.Hurtubise@xxx>
Date: 17 June 2011 10:07
Subject: RE: IBM is 100! But where is Token ring? where is the PS/2?
To: tk@tonyking.tk
Cc: Desmondo <dezbeaxxxxs@xxxa>, Christian Kindarji <ck@xxx>

Well I worked with a token ring too at Syscor and at Richter. Rememebr the course we took at Syscor on that, when we had some crap near the end with a coax between big black controllers looping through the Queen Mary office. In the course the guy passed a token (an ashtray) from each person on the course and said "ok now you can transmit", then passed the ashtray to the next person (PC) and said "ok you can transmit".

In theory token-ring beat Ethernet which is based on a free for all transmit that restarted on collision detection. So the more traffic, the more collisions, and the less real data got through. But Ethernet was not effected by a cable cut, only one device was. But cut a token ring circle (step on one like happened at Richter all the time, or a loose coax connector with stupid silver strands sticking out), and the rest on the ring stopped working.

Anyway 3Com, Baystack, Cisco all solved the collision issues in HUBS with first bridges (I used those at Tecsys) to stop extra traffic between hubs, then switches that did it port by port and remembered where the recipient was plugged in, then router switches etc up to today. Ethernet won! Now with 10 Gbps speeds on Cat6 cables or fiber cables, Ethernet is still winning. The new cheaper iSCSI disk arrays use four Ethernet 1 Gbps cables to transmit disk data. We use fiber technology at Tecsys as it was out first at 2 Gbps then 4 Gbps, and now 8 Gbps. It is not Ethernet, but the larger fiber packet protocol is used. I heard at one point that the fiber protocol was going to replace IP Ethernet, as it's packets are too small. But the speeds are tremendous now and the costs have come way down.

That first 3Com bridge we bought at Tecsys in 1994 cost $5,000 or some such thing to connect two 3Com hubs at 10 Mbps.

Charles

---

From: tonyxxx [mailto:xxxx] On Behalf Of Tony King (aqk)
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 10:29 PM
To: Charlie Hurtubise
Cc: Desmondo; Christian Kindarji
Subject: IBM is 100! But where is Token ring? where is the PS/2?

Remember those IBM sales pitches, Charlie?

  http://www.zdnet.com/tb/1-98570-1910248?tag=talkback-river;1_98570_1910248   

• RE: IBM at 100: 3 or 4 INFECTION points in history

  @bhaskins@... 
  Oh phooey on your OS/2 Red Herring.
  I used OS/2 and alas it needed 4 or 5 times as much memory as Windows.
  And this was back when a Megabyte or RAM was... $1000? I think so...
  I asked my boss about getting another 4Meg of RAM for my OS/2 for it to run as fast as windows.. $4000?? He threw me out of his office.
  So I stayed with Win 3.0 / 3.1 - But now?
  Ahhh.. Linux... (sigh) 
  Say why don't you try flogging the PS2? (LOL- ZD's favourite PC)
  No? Then how about IBM's much vaunted Token Ring (LOL) - It's wayyyy faster than that old-fashioned Ethernet (said our IBM rep to the boss - he wouldn't dare talk to us!)
  And years later, I HAD TO MANAGE a *$#* Token-ring network acquired through an outsourcing contract! Grrrr.. What ****! 
  
  - Percy aka AQK (now getting really P....-Off)
  

  PercySludge   ... channeled by Tony Q King
  

  16th Jun

  • Reply to

• Thanks for reminding me

  @PercySludge (aqk)
  Your mention of "broken" ring nearly made me lose my dinner!
  

  rahbm
  

  21st Jun

   

 Another failed lad- he can only sneer.

RE :Nick Cave as Count Orlock? OMG!
Ya looks like just another Saturday night at Chateau Plonque when the rich red plonque is scarce…

Oooh, those hung politicians!

OK- two glasses of wine, with the CBC on the radio… and my Kelsey Grammarnazi doppelganger is kickin’ in…
Now THERE’S a mouthful!
Jean Chretien was having his portrait hung today, somewhere in the Parliament building in Ottawa, and at the reception, Stephen Harper joked “I always wanted to see Chretien hung…”
Hmmnn… was Harper staring at Chretien in the Parliamentary squash-court shower-room again?
If Chretien had had a better command of his second language, he might have replied something  such as “Hostie, Stephen! I am ALREADY hung enough, Meester Premiere Ministre!”.
Alas, all he could muster was a lame “And I hope to see the current Prime-Minister hung someday… etc”.
Well, if Stephen Harper gets the same kind of email spam as I do- “Increase size to TEN inches!” etc,  he just might stand a chance to oblige Chretien. That is, if he replies to a few of these spam messages.
As for me,  I delete this sort of rude spam. Unlike these overpaid politicians, I have little need for such peculiar products.
Bottom line:  Portraits are hung, Men are hanged. And these days the vision of a hanged Canadian politician somehow disturbingly appeals to me.
And don’t get me started on the new CBC pronunciation of KiloMeter: They now call it a “Kill”-ommeter…