Comment Re:1994-95 (Score 1) 204
My only 2 regrets about the NeXTs - 1) them being diskless 2) Them being based on 68040 rather than SPARC or PA/RISC
that's where I first saw X. at DEC we had DECwindows on ultrix (bsd like unix) and vax/vmx.
motif was the toolkit we developed guis in. and we used UIL to describe the UI, which was data that was read in and could change the look/feel of the widgets or their layout without rebuilding from source.
instead of node:1 for a display it was node::1 for the display (double colon meant decnet instead of that newfangled thing called IP)
In 1992, when I entered the University, I managed to see a variety of Unix workstations in different labs. Our Computer Science labs were exclusively Sun workstations - at the time, SunOS, not even Solaris. We had some DECstations (the ones based on MIPS 3k, not Alpha) in our VLSI lab, running DECwindows on Ultrix. In our Parallel Computing lab, we had some RS/6000 workstations running AIX and Motif (remember that?) There was one term when we had a Real Time computing class, which involved running HP/RT - a real time version of HP/UX on the PA-RISC. Elsewhere, I saw SGI Indigo workstations in the Graphics lab of the CS department.
At that time, I was new to UNIX, so none of these were easy to use, so having X on them didn't really help me. What revolutionized my computer use were the NeXTstations in our computer center. Our computer center had NeXTs, IBM mainframes, Vaxes and Suns. The NeXTs were somewhat painful to use, being diskless workstations, but they drew their data from the Sun servers. It was there that I became a fast typist, and learnt to use quite a few applications, like NewsReader (for USENET), Improv (for spreadsheets) and Frame. After I graduated and NeXT got bought by Apple, I missed them.
The thing I miss about those days is not X, which never impressed me, but the fact that most of those RISC beauties are out to pasture: even having Windows NT on some of them, like Alpha or MIPS, could not save them
In Ukraine, Russia smuggled in Russian militias into Russian populated areas, such as the Crimea and Donbatz. Since the unrest in Ukraine was started by native Ukrainians - albeit ethnic Russians - the Russians had a major advantage here.
There is no way that the Chinese could pull that off in Japan. For starters, Japan has the most stringent immigration policies, and is so ethnically pure that it's impossible for foreigners to 'become' Japanese, the way people become Americans or Europeans. So that sort of stunt couldn't even begin to work there. Then also, the Japanese have a small ethnic Korean population, but not Chinese. Hence, territorially, they are safe.
As a result, the only way China could threaten Japan was either directly invade, or let client states like North Korea fly rockets over Japan and land east of Tokyo. In fact, the last time Pyongyang did that, Charles Krauthammer suggested that the one thing the US could do could be to signal Japan to officially go nuclear. Nothing else would scare China, who still have WWII memories of Nanjing and other such events. So do that, and China would do everything to make Japan happy.
Even more interesting would be if the US let Taiwan go nuclear: it would be funny to watch Beijing's reaction
Who are they?
Russia - yeah, they have nukes and are armed, but everyone knows that in their Soviet incarnation, their main objective was the West. Yeah, they had a rivalry w/ China during the Cold War, but after that ended, China & Russia have been a de-facto bloc, agreeing on everything, whether it's support for Syria or Iran, opposition to Islamic Jihadis on their borders & so on.
Mongolia - has never been a threat to China since the Khanates; if anything, it's been the other way around in the last few centuries. Mongolia in fact embraced Russia so that the latter could keep them independent from China
North Korea - yeah, they have nukes, but they've always been a vassal of Beijing. Since when do countries feel threatened by their friends having nukes?
South Korea - yeah, they have US troops there, no nukes, and those troops are there to stop the Kims from walking into Seoul. Not there to take a stroll to Beijing or skate over the Great wall.
Japan - hasn't been a threat to anyone, but given North Korean posturing, and China backing them, who can blame them if the post WWII restriction on Japan rearming is removed and they decide to arm themselves?
Taiwan - yeah, a real threat to China, whose potential declaration of independence would bring down the Communist regime, given the way Beijing reacts to such moves
Vietnam/Malaysia/Philippines - have dispute w/ China over islands in the South China sea, whose possession would threaten China's very existence
Laos - still in China's orbit.
Myanmar - regime very friendly to China
India - does have nukes, but this was a decade long effort since the 1960s, when China defeated India in a war. India never needed nukes against Pakistan, who they defeated in 1947/65/71/95, but they did recognize that they were at a disadvantage against China, who had conquered Tibet, and could devour Bhutan and Nepal. Nepal now has a pro-Maoist regime, and India, despite its stockpiles, now has a nuclear Pakistan to worry about, not just China.
China does have one genuine threat that I agree w/ them on - the Jihadi threat on their West by the Uyghurs. In the ex Soviet 'stans', the Islamic movement of Turkestan, which is a Jihadi campaign to restore the Timuride empire, is out to topple secular regimes in those countries in order to achieve that. Included in their Jihad is the liberation of Xinxiang, or 'East Turkestan'. This has been a real - as opposed to imagined - cause of worry to Beijing, and has caused them to dilute the Turkic populations there by settling Han Chinese there in huge numbers.
So yeah, China does have real threats. Japan simply ain't one of them. Not unless and until the Chinese totally unleash the North Koreans.
Kleeneness is next to Godelness.
