The original Windows NT had the concept of protected mode subsystems, so it could handle NT, DOS and OS/2 binaries. Similarly, it should be able to handle POSIX as an equal partner to any of the other subsystems. I suspect that OS/2 is no longer supported.

It was a pretty cool idea and I think they could have taken it a lot further.

A.

Sabre might have been the largest travel reservations company, but it's not in any way the *main* system. Amadeus is considerably larger, and there are a couple of other competitors.

Companies must cooperate with subpoenas / watchlists / etc, and all all proud that they do. I was working at Sabre when 9/11 happened and things moved very quickly to supply as much information as we could to the government agencies that rightfully needed it.

A.

The core Sabre system runs on IBM's z/TPF operating system and is largely written in assembler, with some components in C. It has never been COBOL and never been CICS. A lot of the newer components are on Linux, but the core still is on the mainframe.

Source - I was the chief architect of their airline hosting business for a few years and worked for AA / Sabre for 25+ years.

Yes! Give me a hard limit of 80 character lines and I'll show you a bunch of 3-letter variable names!

A.

Nuclear power currently costs about $150 / MWh, with solar about $40 / MWh. Solar cells and battery technology will make huge advances in the next decade, and the renewable technologies don't need government funding for this to happen.

One "advantage" of nuclear power is that the US can always have fissile material on hand for building nuclear weapons. If this weren't important, there'd be more research into traveling wave reactors / thorium cycles / other technologies that can use more of the fissile material and have less bomb-potential material around.

Just my $0.02 worth...

Seems to me that the usual defense contractors (Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Grumman, etc) will get massive amounts of money to build prototypes that don't quite work and cost 5x the original budget. They'll distribute production over 30+ states so that senators will force the DoD to buy these in the name of "jobs".

Meanwhile, by 2024, we'll be able to order personal quad-copters on Alibaba from a factory in Shenzhen. I would not want to fly one, BTW, even though I'm a pilot.

Now, if some American billionaire decided they wanted to make these (Musk / Bezos / other?), we might have a chance...

A.

I think the title says it all...

A.

Dammit - exactly what I was thinking, you beat me to it !!! Maybe they'll send all the pumice to Nauru or somewhere...

Some of these Pacific Islands could do with all this pumice, just to stay above rising sea levels. :-)

It's worth taking a look at the Federal Aviation Regulations, such as FAR 25.807. I did some consulting work with LTU in Duesseldorf about 20 years ago, and remember someone telling me that they initially setup a 767 with tight economy seats front to back - but had to reduce the number of seats after testing the time to exit. Apparently they tried it with an airplane full of airline employees, but couldn't get out in time and still had people with broken arms and other injuries.

So, this seating is like a "concept car" at the auto show. Interesting design, gets you talking about the company, but it's totally impractical and will never actually work.

My experience with Slack, working with a couple of startups, is that people are mostly sharing rubbish. For example piece of potentially useful content, there are 15 replies that include giphys and irrelevant shit.

A.

I've never seen that quote before, just wondering if Mark Twain had a time machine and came to see Donald Trump... :-)

Mince-meat pies are made from fruit and don't have any "animal meat" in them at all. They're a Christmas tradition in the UK.

Well, I guess after Brexit, this won't matter much anyway...

A.

For many years, companies have been gathering data from public records. Companies like Experian and others have amassed all this and resold it. So, your demographic might be that you're likely "18-25 years old, unmarried, male, $50K-75K / year, etc..."

Now take a look at what Amazon and Facebook know about you! They know your political orientation, your hobbies, the things you buy online, etc. They also know this about dozens or even hundreds of your "friends".

Which is more valuable in selling you stuff? I't certainly not your "demographics"...

A.

I'm just wondering how long before the British Halley VI Research Station breaks away from Antarctica :-)

A.

Exactly what I thought. Just wondering if Berzerkistan could buy a launch from Elon Musk and land a thumb drive on the moon, claiming 5th place?

A.