I had no idea they were recycling fiber optic cables like that! I remember seeing an underseas cable dragged up into the jungle down in Panama when I was working in the Army Jungle School at Fort Sherman. It was at Devil's Beach, where our student companies would regularly take a break, and the big black cable (I can't remember, maybe 3 or 4 inches in diameter?) was just lying there in the jungle. You could see its construction on the end visible there. I always have regretted not bringing a hacksaw there one day and hacking off a foot or two just as one hell of a souvenir!

I hope they sue his ass off for stealing even the _thought_ of such an image.

Ditto on the several purported Rachel Maddow channels I've been viewing lately. And the channels on that out-of-system "comet" over the past several months. Tipoffs: lip synching may be good, random head movements, etc. But the hand and arm movements are identical, repetitive. And the way they spell out millions of dollars as "digit dollarsign millions".

Very disappointing.

I somehow ended up with two Prime memberships (I suspect one belonging to my deceased wife). I got tired of paying for both of them, went online, cancelled one of them. No confusion, no problems, no nagging "are you sure?" stuff. I consider this a non-issue.

I am so pleased to read that perl is regaining its popularity again! I did some _serious_ hacks in perl back in The Day. I don't program any more, but I think some of my best (and certainly quickest and most portable) work was in perl.

Or if you must use fixed wing (for range, etc.), why not just hang the blades on the outside of the fuselage? Or use a C-130 or C-141 or C-5A or C-17 or whatever, leave the rear ramp open, and just let the lighter tip end of the blade hang out the back?

True, that. Now if there were only a Japanese form of suicide for AIs :-(

https://mai-ko.com/travel/japa...

Now, now: that's kind of harsh.

I always knew Microsoft was kind of evil, but I still regret not selling everything when I retired from the Army in '84 and moving to Washington, to try for a job in Microsoft. I was a pretty good programmer back then, could've impressed them somehow or another.

The farther away they can get from the DC swamp, the better off they'll be.

Besides, there should be plenty of room left at Fort Meade. I got to visit the big bronze mirrored cube one time (long long ago) to explain to the crippies my source code for an encryption file/communication program they were somehow interested in. Very intimidating, to say the least (since I wasn't really a crippie myself, and they had to explain the questions they asked as much as I had to explain the code (8086 assembly language and Pascal). It was kind of fun, once I realized these were actually real humans ... and one of them was kind enough to mention "Wow, this is a real Cray-buster!" What an honor!

One might wonder why she signed that non-disparagement agreement in the first place? She could've just walked away, right? Of course that might've affected the publishing and/or distribution.

I've never signed a non-disclosure agreement in my life (not quite the same as a non-disparagement agreement, true) that I didn't carefully and suspiciously rewrite, ensuring I wasn't giving away the entire farm. Curiously, I never had an employer who disagreed with my rewrite ... to include the US Army! I guess my work didn't matter so much after all. Or those greedy, crippling conditions they always seemed to have were just boilerplate after all.

Agreed.

Youtube on my TV is the vast majority of things I watch on that TV. The vast scope of topics, the effective use of however they do it (algorithms? whatever that means): it all adds up to very interesting, educational, and even current topics. Of course I watch a LOT of history and old programs (dearly loving snips from "West Wing" and the like). But I could do without almost every other choice of "channels" that are available on my TV (although I'm subscribed to almost none of them). Cheers for Youtube (although I find accessing program comments awkward, and I hardly ever view them).

Far better, one would think.

I still remember the goats grazing on the ammo storage bunkers down at Fort McClellan (home of the US Army Chemical School, not to mention the WAC basic training).

Most of them were extremely wary of us humans, since the Chemical School had the habit of occasionally grabbing one of them for nerve agent (and remedy) training. They'd usually survive (I still remember the "Hoof Spread Chest Pressure" CPR exercise), but they never were very happy about it.

Naw, those are electric. No surprise there.

Sigh ... no surprise here, only the beginning.

I'm making plans on how to sit down on the Pope Field (near the former Fort Bragg) runway to block the C-17's on their way to Greenland, Panama, wherever. You know, kind of like the little Chinese guy with his bags in front of the Tienaman (sp?) Square who became so famous.

I'm _pretty_ sure the C-17 pilot wouldn't run me over like a dog. But you never can tell about those flyboys :-(