Software Development

If you like rockets, computers and the space program, you'll want to see this. Talks about creating the computer that went into the Apollo program. 72K of hand weaved memory if you can believe that. Found it on reddit.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7F223B0B5228CB54

I'm reading that it's from a 6 part show called Moon Machines aired on Discovery.

I was thinking about my undo problem again and although I had a solution mostly worked out, perhaps there is an easier way. I wanted to enable the sharing of data amongst multiple users. So you could work on a part of the project while someone else works on something else. Also, I wanted to be able to make changes in someone else's workspace. I thought I had to build a custom back-end platform to enable all of this. Then again, perhaps not. Would there be any drawback in using a wiki to store projects? The data itself would mostly just be junk if you were to view it through a web page, but comments, copyright, inputs, outputs, component name, usage, author, history of changes, etc. would all be there.

I think I'm going to go this route. You can load up a local copy and the IDE will mark another page stating that you're working on it. Of course, the IDE would check this list first and inform you that it's being worked on, giving you the chance to visually connect to the active worksheet on someone else's machine if they allow it. In essence, I would use certain pages as a tracker to monitor who is working on what as well as a way to connect to each other P2P style in order to be notified of changes, especially for chat and concurrent updates on the same worksheet.

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Handwaving, Lawyer Speak and avoidance are three of my favourite techniques that I see used by people who don't understand a particular topic (mostly when I go on other sites, but occasionally here as well). Perhaps I should qualify that. It's not people that don't understand the topic, but rather people who do not want to understand. Most often, these people simply repeat what they've been taught, what they've seen or what they've read. In a conversation, you don't need these people to be present. They can simply give the reference and be gone.

Handwaving is when you state something that you think is obvious, but never think of producing any explanation. Begging the question is a form of this, but handwaving doesn't even try to set up an argument. It's only the first part of begging the question.

Lawyer Speak takes the top spot for deceitful tactics. It's really effective against someone who has never encountered it before. And even then, if you haven't recognized it, you will continue to be fooled by it. The technique involves argument X, but then you state argument X again but about topic Y. Topic Y seems like it's related to X on the surface. But it is in fact completely irrelevant to the situation. Ad hominem attacks are a form of this, but Lawyer Speak is never direct. In fact, the subtlety of it is what makes Lawyer Speak so effective.

An example of Lawyer Speak is someone trying to convince you language A is just as good as language B since they are equivalent. Sounds good on the surface, but equivalence has nothing to do with what language is better.

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PART III

Hiding the King

In Part I, we mentioned how we built the first grid with SHDRLU. I'm sure some astute readers are wondering what the other six characters would give. So let's try it.

ETAOIN

Now, we need another 2 letters. DH seems like good candidates as they stick out in D^YAH^R and are found in the second group.

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Kryptos sculpture at CIA.

My partial solution to Kryptos.

Before I begin, I need to mention that I don't have the final solution and am no longer interested in obtaining it. Perhaps I'm wrong. I hope I am and I'll need some humility going forward. But if what I present here is in any way true, then I want no part of the final solution. I may still look at it from time to time. I know where the next part is and know some of the details for deciphering it. But my interest just isn't there anymore. You'll see why as we move along. The beginning is very interesting. There is even a clue at the end that I found quite intriguing, even fun. But it only confirmed my worst fears. I once had a comment that I was climbing mountains. I think that comment should be redirected at Sanborn if the following XI part series is true. It's crMzy what's here. You will see exactly WHY, or should I say C exJctYL Y it's never been cracked, and why I leave this here for others to C. Annoying, isn't it? But like I said, the first parts are quite entertaining.

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