$ jlc (10,317)

The Martian, The Martian, The Martian...

Looking forward to some of the upcoming Star Wars in December.

Jan, total SF geek
(let me know if San Andreas is good - that one caught my eye in the trailers)

Isn't this just another example of the 'peacetime commander' johnpe? Famously, the people filling the upper ranks between wars have outdated and inappropriate philosophies and martial skills. Then the next war breaks out and they die like flies, leaving room for the commanders who came up via the ranks to take over. Then, with peace returned, the wartime commanders find themselves 'not PC' and retire.

Repeat.

Jan, bummed that we do not learn - and lives are needlessly spent because of it

Probably, but it has the advantage of being a 'movie blog'. I hope that will trivialize a lot of what is said here, though I wish people would be a bit more careful in how they phrase things.

Jan

I agree. I too want the philosophy to 'soar'. Good phrase! I do wonder if the SF aspect will put the Gulch on another planet...I had not thought of that_. (Your idea of a Bioshock Gulch is also good, but probably not possible to keep secret in the modern world - and it would be very vulnerable if discovered.)

Mr Aglialoro did a fine job of 'getting it right'. If the world had been ready for a shot of raw distilled Ayn Rand, his first film would have done well at the box office (our metric); the next 2 films would have taken off from there.

We obviously need an entry point for the philosophy. A love story is a strong beginning, for one has a choice and can chose to love both the person and his ideals. Dagny's lovers reflect a consistent philosophy, but each has a better embodiment of it, ending with the archetype of John Galt.

The lamentable almost-rape scene is another expression of outdated worldview. In modern times, it is quite acceptable for a woman to be an enthusiastic and physically assertive lover without having had to be raped to give permission for that level of intensity. We are in a different world and this needs to be taken into account.

Jan
_ It occurs to me that the dark energy needed for FTL travel (per the Alcubierre equation) may also be a key to unlimited power generation. Hmmm...

I am from a longtime military family. REMF is not the worst label. Worst is when the people commanding the folks in combat are theorists or are using outdated strategy and tactics. (During my childhood, "Bomber Pilot" was a term of mild derision; if you behaved in a particularly obtuse fashion you were called, "Tank Commander!".)

As MichaelA says, there is actually a function for support personnel. (I was in a medical squadron.) It is the Generals who are 'fighting the last war' who (and who cannot learn) who cause spurious casualties in the combat forces. (The very term "front lines" - which I originally used in that sentence - is an example of 'the last war' type of thinking. From what I have read, relying on the concept of defined combat zones is a major handicap in modern combat.)

Jan

It is an Earth Is Flat sort of phenomenon, and quite beyond me why this is not obvious.

Jan

I have certainly learned more in the Gulch than I have in any civics, gov, or modern events class.

Jan

Reality does not change, but our perception of it does. We used to think that sub-atomic particles were like little planets orbiting the 'sun' of a nucleus, for example, not probabilistic clouds of energy that might decide to take a vacation in Alpha Centauri at any given moment.

The change in this perception is significant, since it philosophically reflects that the universe itself is a fluctuating matrix where things are only 'probably' at a given location, and we cannot, by definition, both see something and know where it is.

So while I am quite in accord with you that Truth is a fact, not an opinion, my ability to grasp the truth of even simple things such as 'the location of an electron' is...cloudy.

Jan, struggles gamely with this

Yeah, me too. We need to reconsider what the word 'public' means, and we need to have virtual walls that we can erect - against even (or especially) the gov - that have Constitutional protection against being casually breached. (Of course, it would be nice if our real walls had that protection...!)

Jan

Ha! Yes, I suspect that there will be a threshold of tolerance...and then possibly another one, if/when we decide to divorce SchuyLab from Windows OS altogether.

Have not reached it yet: still hoping that MS wakes up to the fact that business needs a steadfast produce that is not swayed by the latest trend.

Jan

Unfortunately, Open Office does not do the trick - I had trouble with the formatting of docs made in Open Office (some employees used it). Since all of our documentation (User Manual, etc) is in Word, we either have to keep it as our official word processing program or go to a ton of effort to convert 20 years of stuff over to Open Office (or another product).

Jan

I beg your pardon? "plonk"? Are you shooting at me or toasting me? What is "plonk"?

Jan, 5+ hours after "plonk"...whatever it was

I hurried to post some links on how to remove the alert and prevent the upgrade, but I did not express my opinion: This ploy of MS stinks.

Microsoft has made many wrong decisions recently, including crippling their programs eg (the 'ribbon' bars do not give access to the tools I had before), mistaking work computers for youtube/Facebook access units, and now trying to force the use of an OS that, rumor says, may be subscription and cloud based.

Even to use Win7, I have steadily had to uninstall recent versions of, for example, Word, and replace them with the older versions that actually had the abilities I needed. Everything on recent MS OS seems to be made into a toy.

We run our medical software on MS OS so it is important to me that this software continue to be prevalent and useful. It would be nice if Microsoft were of similar opinion.

Jan, tool user

We invested some effort in them, and have a couple of great employees...but your use of the term "cheated" is what I too feel like with respect to their formal education. No other word seems correct.

Jan

We hired some of those folks...and they were not dumb people. After working for us for a number of years, their literacy has improved to a considerable degree.

So here is the other thing to consider: Those illiterate freshmen are often intelligent and capable...and have nonetheless emerged from High School hating science, not understanding math, and without (as you say) the ability to read or to write an intelligible sentence.

Jan

Competing for good grades was a big motivator for me. I enjoy learning and reading for their own sakes, but I also like to do well on an objective scale.

Jan

Thank you, Zero. MichaelA's response is a bit puzzling to me as well.

Jan

Actually, MichaelA, I offered you an interesting idea.

The world is not going to match your vision of it. The only possibility of positive change lies in incremental improvements within the bounds of reality.

And - hey - Did I ask you to fight for me? I did my 4 in the USAF...A lot of people who were alive in the US at that time represented philosophies I did not personally care for. This did not determine what I did or what I believed.

Jan

Hi johnpe!

Your link is helpful, but from 2010 and XP in nature. Here is a link to some more info on ridding yourself of Win10

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...

MrGolem says:
Here is the answer Microsoft does NOT want you to know about. I posted a question and answered my own post with a solution. In the time that has past, I had time to confirm it works.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...

My own second reply offers the cleanup solution to remove what I called a Virus. In the way this upgrade offer was forced on our systems and how much work is needed to remove it, I can find no other word than VIRUS to describe it. Judge by yourselves.

Removing KB3035583 will remove the Icon in the taskbar but Windows will still try to infect your system.

You need to remove KB2952664 (Win7) or KB2976978 (Win8 and 8.1) using the solution in the other link.

Keep in mind, the Icon can be uninstalled from the Control Panel - Programs and Features - View Installed updates and searching for KB3035583 and accept the reboot.

When you come back, then, from DOS (Command line and described in my other post) remove the Updater for your appropriate Windows Version.

Do not despair. On a friend's system I had to run the uninstall command 18 times in a row before I removed ALL the VIRUS files. Once you run the DOS Command and remove 1 instance of the offending file, use the UP ARROW to REPEAT the last command making sure NOT TO REBOOT until ALL the copies are removed. At a certain point you will get a message that the KB is NOT installed, then do the reboot.

Do not forget to Check for Updates again when you have finished and ask to HIDE THESE UPDATES (right-click, Hide), (in Win 8.x do not use the Update App but instead search and use the OLD Windows Update that let's you pick and choose), there also, choose to HIDE the KBs.

Hope this helps.

Jan

Oh. This is good, "My general impression is Republicans are fine with a massive gov't that harasses its citizens and foreigners, as long as it does not give the appearance of trying to be helpful."

It should be in a book or script somewhere...

Jan

MichaelA-

But that is just fine. Human beings are fallible, and as long as he does his job well, I can quote, "Dinna bind th' mouth o'th' kine that tred th' corn." If he negotiates a balance budget and gets our finances under better control, then I will live with human failures.

If it turns out that he actually has integrity, so much the better. Have you noticed that in SF/Fantasy novels where the world is 'just a little bit better' than our current one, there is often a 'truth machine' (or 'spell')? If we could vet for integrity, or at least minimize lack thereof, we would be better off. We cannot, so we have to work with the tools available.

Jan

And the way to do that is to extract the chip they inject into you and re-inject it into your dog.

Jan

This will be interesting to watch, but I expect his power to change and improve will be in small increments, not in spectacular alterations in budget or philosophy. Politics is, and will always be, a gamed system.

He has more power now; let's see what he does with it.

Jan

And then there is a matter of grammar: "...suggested that the use of this term for someone like Ryan is insulting to people who once picked cotton or mothers without health care." This gives me an image of a crop of small plants with 'mothers without healthcare' growing on them. A line of calico-clad workers move down the furrows, picking mothers without health care..

Jan