Gun control

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Pdxfashionpioneer
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Re: Gun control

Post by Pdxfashionpioneer »

It was also brought to its knees by a bug. Not a figurative one, a literal 6-legged critter with a three-part body and wings.

I'm not a computer geek, but I am a history buff and my favorite period is WWII.
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Re: Gun control

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hoborob wrote:Ah so crfriend but the ENIAC was reprogrammable.
I never implied that it wasn't; I merely pointed up that its program could not be changed easily, never-mind under programmatic control. Even unit-record gear could be programmed with patch-panels and had the ability to do basic arithmetic; a fully general-purpose computer must be able to change its own programming on-the-fly, and that pretty much demands execution-out-of-mainstore.

Likely the first truly general-purpose electronic computer that is recognisable as such would be the Manchester SSEM, or "Baby", which was the test-bed for what would late become the Mark I. "Baby" had electronically-alterable memory (Williams tubes) and could self-modify its program if required. As a test-bed, it was very limited, but all the basics were there. If we expand the horizon to allow for electromechanical devices, likely the first operational one would have been Konrad Zuse's Z3 which was operational in 1941.

Calling the shot on what machine was first is always difficult, and that's further muddied my nationalism and jingoism. Even getting historians to agree on what classifies a computer as first-generation (valves/tubes), second-generation (discrete transistors), and third-generation (integrated circuits) is difficult because lots of hybrid machines were built with both technologies. Then there's the matter of classification of supercomputers, mainframes, super-minis, mincomputers, and microcomputers. Consensus is starting to appear in that second realm, but as humans tend to be fairly nationalistic there may never be on the former.

So, ENIAC is "in" as a calculating device but "out" as a computer.
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Re: Gun control

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Who needs chips, transistors or even tubes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4
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Re: Gun control

Post by Darryl »

Stonehenge?


:shock:
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Re: Gun control

Post by crfriend »

Thanks for putting that up, Dillon. I'd seen it before and forgot where it was.

However, that's not a general-purpose design as it can't be reprogrammed on-the-fly. But it's brilliant -- and instantaneous (as are all analogue computers) in computation.
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Re: Gun control

Post by pelmut »

crfriend wrote:...However, that's not a general-purpose design as it can't be reprogrammed on-the-fly. But it's brilliant -- and instantaneous (as are all analogue computers) in computation.
There are many problems which remain unchanged, only the input values and some of the 'constants' change, so the need for reprogramming never arises; for these situations, analogue computing could still be a more economical solution than digital. In the 1980s, I designed and built an electronic analogue computer for de-clicking gramophone [phonograph] records. At the time it was faster than any available digital technology ... it still is - and it is still in everyday use.
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Re: Gun control

Post by Tor »

Darryl, I would consider Stonehenge and certainly some of the other ancient constructions as detectors rather than computers. From my reading it seems that at least one of them is a detector of when Venus is at its extreme northward position - an event that occurs a little more frequently than once per generation. It seems to do this accurately enough that one would be hard pressed to figure out what else it might have been designed for on seeing this.
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Re: Gun control

Post by skirtedMarine »

Awesome input , it just seems to come down to Guns aren't the problem, mental health is the problem, where have we lost our faith? I hear a rat say "why do you need 30 round d s to kill a deer?
I don't want to be offensive to my British friends, but when was the last time you heared " The dear are coming" ?
I love my country, I love the freedom that God has given us, even when we might disagree on issues, what I love most is that I don't need to kill you because of whatever you believe, but, if you want to go there because of what I believe... I can drop you from a different zip code... Please don't come here and claim to be an American and hate everything that we've gone through and stood for,
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Re: Gun control

Post by Fred in Skirts »

skirtedMarine wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2020 3:08 pmI love my country, I love the freedom that God has given us, even when we might disagree on issues, what I love most is that I don't need to kill you because of whatever you believe, but, if you want to go there because of what I believe... I can drop you from a different zip code... Please don't come here and claim to be an American and hate everything that we've gone through and stood for,
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Re: Gun control

Post by Ray »

Scott,

I have no idea what you are babbling on about. “The dear (sic) are coming”. What? A herd of them? Is that a problem? I’ve never heard that phrase outside of the moors in Scotland.

Also - what on Earth do you mean by dropping someone from a different zip code? I drop friends at train stations: I’ve seen aircraft drop parachutists near where I used to live. But from a different zip code? That’s a new one on me

This is a subject best dropped. Views on the matter are too entrenched.
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Re: Gun control

Post by moonshadow »

Ray wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2020 10:28 pm This is a subject best dropped. Views on the matter are too entrenched.
Indeed... this subject is just "so Janurary 2020"... a plethora of fresh fuster clucks have been thrown in this dumpster fire since then!

And these matters are best left checked at the door, we've been down this road too many times... We know where it leads.
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Re: Gun control

Post by Dust »

Ray wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2020 10:28 pm Scott,

I have no idea what you are babbling on about. “The dear (sic) are coming”. What? A herd of them? Is that a problem? I’ve never heard that phrase outside of the moors in Scotland.

Also - what on Earth do you mean by dropping someone from a different zip code? I drop friends at train stations: I’ve seen aircraft drop parachutists near where I used to live. But from a different zip code? That’s a new one on me

This is a subject best dropped. Views on the matter are too entrenched.
"The deer are coming" I believe was a reference to the American Revolution and the message "the British are coming" which was what they teach American elementary school students was the message relayed at the beginning of the war, when the British army was sent in. Maybe not the wording they would have used back then, but that's how the story is told here, and it gets the meaning across. Thus, the whole, "I don't want to be offensive to my British friends, but..."

"Dropping" someone refers to shooting them, and making them literally drop dead. Military slang. He's talking sniper shots from far away. Zip codes are postal codes in the US. Think the next town over.

The US was founded by ordinary people winning a war against what was essentially the regular, professional army of a superpower. That is why we have gun rights in the Constitution. To fight an oppressive government, not for hunting.
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Re: Gun control

Post by Ray »

Dust, thanks for the clarification.

My only comment - if one’s reaction to one’s views being challenged in robust fashion is to shoot them... - that’s your (country’s) problem, right there.
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Re: Gun control

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That is why we have gun rights in the Constitution. To fight an oppressive government, not for hunting.


The main purpose of the 2nd Amendment was to enshrine the right of the several stated to maintain their militias as a counterbalance to the federal government on the one hand (People weren't sure what kind of monster they had unleashed when they established a central government. I'd say we're still trying to figure that one out.) and the "mob" (ordinary people) on the other.

Another part of the impulse was that the first few Congresses were so leery of standing militaries, they thought they could adequately defend the country on the cheap by drawing on the state militias. Similarly, they thought they could defend our maritime interests with a flotilla of ungainly gunboats. They were wrong on both counts.

With the exception of his Christmas raid on Trenton, Washington's Army was much better at losing battles than winning them because too many of his troops were members of the states' militias rather than professionally drilled soldiers. Which is why Gen. Von Steuben's (In Europe he hadn't risen higher than Captain; even then the US was the land of opportunity. The reason he was basically run out of the Prussian Army was that he was gay.) role was so critical. He upgraded the Continental Army from a random collection of state and local militias into a professional army.

In fact, at The Cowpens, Gen Morgan won the battle by turning the British Army's expectations of the American militias against them. From previous engagements after Bunker Hill, where the militia units held out through three volleys, the British Army had learned that after two volleys they could count on militia units to break ranks and flee.

The night before the battle, Morgan instructed the militias to do exactly that, hold their position for two volleys and then withdraw, because he was going to position them as the first line of resistance on a ridge line with his Continentals positioned as the second and concealed line of resistance. As planned, after their second volley, the militiamen broke ranks and ran pell-mell to the line of Continentals. The Redcoats came running after them, in broken ranks (It's virtually impossible for soldiers to maintain shoulder to shoulder ranks when they're all running as fast as they can!), only to be mowed down by disciplined rifle and artillery volleys from the professional soldiers of the Continental Army.
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Re: Gun control

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That's fine, you have the legal right to possess arms. But why do you need guns that can fire several hundred rounds per minute or possess thirty or forty firearms? It's not the owning of the guns that I have issue with it's the attitude of glorifying the use of them and the pride at killing animals and people. That's one of the things what I have issue with.

Incidentally I agree to let this thread die quietly. I think Scott deliberately started it up again to try and stir things up.
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