I'm a technology rat. When I worked full time as an electronic engineer I would clip tech magazine articles and save them in folders if I thought there was any possibility I might use that information at a later time. So I have 15 years or more of such articles in boxes in my basement that, over the past week, I decided to sort through. Some of those folders were damaged from mold and mildew from water damage from the basement getting wet from a broken sump pump.
Three articles made me laugh a bit. One from EE Times in 1982 talking about this new up and rising programming language called "C" with interviews with Kernighan and Ritchie. Another was a later article about OOP and the introduction of Objective C and the "new" C++. (Major concerns about the slowness of C++ but a major effort may come about due to rumors Microsoft may come out with a compiler).
A third article was in Byte about "Object-Oriented Programming in Assembly Language" from DDJ in 1990 from our own Randy Hyde.
I found the issue of Byte magazine that has a hardware article from ME! (Not that it didn't already have a prominent place on my shelf :toothy ) Here's an interesting story that came about because of that article:
This was back in the early 80s when stories of the "red menace" and spies trying to get our advanced technology were everywhere. I got a few letters from people thanking me for the "excellent article" but two unusual postcards came one day. Both were from Hungary which, then, was a communist country. These people requested that I send them a copy of my article.
I had read that our "enemies" would frequently try and get such information for themselves and was concerned about what I should do. So I did what any other red-blooded American would and I contacted our FBI. They invited me down to their offices where I had a meeting with two agents in a gloomy, green downtown office. After a few questions they told me to go ahead and send copies to these people because, obviously, since they were already aware of the article that they probably already had a copy of it.
I asked what might happen if I did this and they said, "Probably nothing", but if these people were wanting to make a contact I might get a phone call one day from someone wanting more information and get invited for lunch one day. I thought, cool! I mailed it off.
About a month later, I got a call. This guy claimed he was from a publishing company wanting me to write a book for them. About any kind of leading tech subject, my choice, but he was particularly interested in hard disk drives.
GULP! Now I'm scared. The next day I call the FBI to tell them about the call. They don't seem to really know what to do. I had never heard of the publisher before so I requested a "sample" copy of one of their books. I made a few more calls and, after receiving the copy, determined that this caller was legitimate.
Though being in the spy business sounded really glamorous and fun, when it came down to actually getting involved, I feared for my life! In the end, it just turned out to be a funny story.
Damn, so the free lunch with spies never eventuated :'(
Truth is, you probably had nothing to worry about, the Russians have always shown themselves to be very smart with technology, even when they have few resources.
What was your article about?
If I told you I'd have to kill you. :lol
Then you'd know my real name, too. :naughty:
I was surprised to see it used as a reference by the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) and a few websites. It had to do with designing and using memory circuits and interfacing them to microprocessors.
What a great story :U
It seems so long ago that we worried about such things and frankly, just silly now that there are more pressing concerns. I remember once we tried to broker some tempest PC's from a liquidation, not having any idea the technology was COCOM restricted, only to have some very serious military types show up and pack up all the machines and leave.
Quote from: sluggy on January 09, 2005, 04:18:15 AM
the Russians have always shown themselves to be very smart with technology, even when they have few resources.
Eh? Not in those days, certainly. The Soviets were very slow in adopting computers. When we were developing computerized encryption, they were still doing ciphers by hand :p. And don't even get me started on their military technology...
I know a funny story about a MIG that was defected by flying it to south Korea. Everyone laughed at the miniature radio valve electronics in it until it dawned on someone that it could be flown through the aftermath of a nuclear explosions without dying like silicon chips do under the same levels of X rays.
Valves as in valves holding water?!
Tubes, as in vacuum tubes.
Ahhhhh
Steven said it right. im familiar(specialized) with MIG-29 (im a lieutenant of Aero Forces of Russian army in reserve) and i can say that the key of all military aircrafts is in their simplicity and as a result efficiency (compared assembly to HLL:) cuz we know that the more complex the device, the more probability of its unstability... thats it... ha ha what a speech:)
Quote
And don't even get me started on their military technology
I'm not a russian, but i have expirience with above, a have 4 years military service on a war ship ,made in Russia.
I know what 'Russian Technology' ( :tdown) really is. Not to mention that the ship was made all the way back in 1961.
You cannot even imagine what horror was that service.
Yes it is well known to any US military pillot that any last generation MIG fighter cand fly circles arround any US top tech aircraft.
The MIG analog differential signal processing assures it very fast response times, greate stability and linear predicatbility in end of scale situation...
Actually it is so advanced that only the courage and better trainig and skills of US pilots made them have any chance... if any. US pilots have the luck to never entery direct combats with skilled russian pilots; they only fighted very low skills Irak, etc.
But yeah soviet digital computing was not very advanced :D
yes, it is true that computing technologies at that moment in Russia is not good cuz many years ago the Soviet leaders made a great mistake not bringing the military technology to common peaceful life. remember the experience of the USA and CIA brought the Internet to life, thanks them;) i wouldn't speak now to a such interesting people without their help:)
asmfan,
You make a very good point. It is fun to communicate with people all over the word. I bet it is a lot of fun to fly an aircraft!
Paul
may be, Paul, may be... im just some kind a MIG-29 weapon mechanic/specialist (you know rockets, bombs, 23/31cm guns, etc.) but alas not a pilot...
The sexiest looking aircraft I have ever seen is a Sukkoi 27 and later, it looks like a flying squirrell but I gather it has some excellent characteristics. fast, long range, high payload capacity, very stable, can correct from a stall in a side shear and apparently the later version use some very advanced plasma based stealth technology. Sad to say I will never get a chance to see one for real here in OZ but where I live in the middle of Sydney, I have seen or mainly heard the FA18s that our air force have. If you can hear them coming and get outside quick enough you see this dot flash across the sky then do a turn out to sea.
Our air force has not only maintained a set of 60s F111s but bought more from the US as they are nearly ideallly suited for defence in OZ which covers very long distances and a massive coastline. Some of the farmers up the north coast of New South Wales often compalin about the airforce playing treetop lopping in F111s as they are designed for low altitude torrain hugging and the pilots often practice up in that area.
We have a special secret weapon here in OZ for potential invasions from the north, the northern part of Australia from the western tip of West OZ to half way down the Queensland coast is this primeavil soup of swamps, 35 foot tides, coastal islands, exotic diseases, poisonous plants and crocodiles that are so friedly they will eat anyone with no predjudice at all. It was well known that the japanese did numerous landing on the north west coast but they had a double disadvantage in that the local aboriginal people hated them from the old pearling days so if the massive temperatures inland did not get them, it was reputed that some of the aboriginal people "ate" them.
Inland northern OZ has temperatures that make Iraq look like an air conditioned sunday school picknick but with the added bonus in the wet season that it all turns to flooding and mud.
This is something like the same situation that the Russian people have used with their Winters against Napoleon and later the Nazis in ww2 but in reverse. You could land the sum total of combined Euro style armies and all of their hardware along the north coast of OZ and after one wet season, you could not find them. On the bright side the crocodile may end up a bit fatter though as they are now a protected species. :bg
Steven,
dont you think the country tourism will drop after such sights description of you;))? now i know for sure to where i wont go this summer:) (joke:)
Sometimes, when I drive the highway about 100 miles west of me, I pass Air Force base and see the B2 Bombers come in for a landing or a stealth F-117 or two.
Quote from: drhowarddrfine on March 11, 2006, 09:52:22 PM
Sometimes, when I drive the highway about 100 miles west of me, I pass Air Force base and see the B2 Bombers come in for a landing or a stealth F-117 or two.
Dr Howard,
I used to work at that AF Base in the early 80's, but at that time it had a totally different mission. It has changed it mission due to the various START/SALT treaties that have been signed.
asmfan,
I had the pleasure of watching a MIG-29 do a tail stand at a local air show about 10 years ago. It was truely remarkable to see a modern jet fighter, standing nearly motionless above the runway, on its tail end.
regards,
Rags
yes, Rags, this motion is called "Cobra" or "Bell" depending on details.
asmfan,
On the contrary, the top end of OZ is very popular, you just pick the season. West of Ayres Rock is a mountain range called the Olgas where a human being will last less than an hour before dying in the heat. You just don't holiday in the wet season anywhere near the coast.
Now Russians may be classed as approved nutrition for the crocodiles in the area but we try to discourage Americans from making the ultimate sacrifice of themselves as they eat too much fast food full of preservatives which may be detrimental to a protected species.
I remember with some humour in northern Queensland where the crocodile warning are all over the place that a woman at a party decided to do some naked skinny dipping in the middle of the night and ended up as a crocodile's breakfast. These things are skilled predators that have not had to adapt for hundreds of millions of years. They were nealy hunted out until the species was protected and people of my dad's generation have seen 25 to 30 feet long salt water crocs and it will take a while to see them grow to that age again.
As far as defence, OZ is unusual and very different to Euro style warefare, very large land mass, massive coastline and a lot of very hostile torrain make things like tanks useless. Aicraft are useful if they have the range and this is among the reasons why something as old as F111s are still useful, apart from complete refits of their electronics and weapon systems. Fighter style aircrafts are useful in localised city defence but rarely have the range to be useful as offensive weapons in a country this large.
In ww2, the Japanese bombed the PHUK out of Darwin from Timor because there was little that could compete with the Zeros early in the war but after bringing in a squadron of Spitfires, they shot the sh*t out of the zeros and it stopped. My dad remembered watching a dogfight between a zero and a Lockheed Lightning on the north coast of new Guinea and while the zero was more manouverable, when it tried to leave, the Lightning ran it down and shot it down.
Talking about russian weapons again...,The only one that i regard is AK47, i have over 100 X 30 shots whit it and i can say YEAH, that's the tool, I doubt that M16 will do the same job :8)
Here are a couple of Sukhoi 27 and later images I pinched from Venik's site. Its a wild looking gadget. Somewhere along the line I rememered reading that the Russians have very advanced technology in jet engine nozzle design which gets very high thrust out of jet engines.
(http://www.masmforum.com/private/su2778.jpg)
(http://www.masmforum.com/private/su34004.jpg)
Steve,
i was laughing out loud while reading about approved nutritious russians:))) the conclusion is - people, eat healthy food:)
as for air combats - nowaday combat is a distant one cuz all existing weapon(rockets) is aimed to achieve the very distant target avoiding close combats. so you wont ever see the show of close combat as in those old days (and i hope we will never see the such "show" of this kind in future).
weapon is good only to look at not to use it.
as i saw in someones signature: approximate quote: "the only way to manipulate the reality is to manipulate words"...
Shaka_zulu,
by the way speaking on russian/soviet electronics in those days, dont you remember who was the first in outer space? it means our electronics were on level to bring the human being to the space:) and now answer: was it (electronics) good or not...
I know... And i admit it...
I just still want know what was really the truth about the accident with Jury Gagarin! There are many interrogatives about it /i'll stop about it because is not really close to the post's subject/.
This is a sign of age but I remember as a primary school kid watching Sputnik orbit over in the early evening. It looked like a fast moving star travelling west to east. A fascination with the space age is another sign of age and while I saw both the US and the old Soviet do so amazing things, the one that appealed to me was the soft landing on Venus and actually getting photos back before the heat destroyed the lander.
My mum worked for an American company Honeywell and one thing she got for me as a kid was a reassembled photo of the martian surface taken as a 360 degree sweep from the US landing on Mars. This stuff was literally out of this world.
Space travel was always a big deal here where I live. I'm almost a stone's throw from where the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft were built at the former McDonnell Aircraft site in St. Louis, MO. (Turned McDonnell-Douglas, then Boeing). Needless to say, growing up we got a lot of science talks from those people along with up close views of the real spacecraft and a semi-permanent capsule at the local science center.
Shka_zulu,
it is a really strange death of Jury... officially it was said that he crashed with the aircraft... but could he? the top-level specialist... may be our children will know all the truth. i hope so.
and we keep producing the spacecrafts. in my native city we have a very huge plant/factory that specialized on developing space rockets, satellites and that kind of devices. my mother works there. i can say that she is taking a part of doing the space closer to us:)
so... if you need a space rocket just give me to know;)
I have only ever seen photos of the launch site Balkonur in Khazakstan but the rocket size is truly massive, they look larger than tall city buildings.
it's true...
we have a memorial of space rocket (1:1), which is launched with the satellites aboard (not with human), in our city. i go by it every day going to my study in university...
Asmfan,
The russians are very good at useing what they have. Example, Nasa spent millions of dollars building a presurized pen in space. The russians use a pencil :bg
The t34 tank chassis was designed by an American.
The front cunard design was originally built by the wright brothers. I can't remember the exact reason they went to the single wing design, with the tail section. I think it was because of the material's at the time and the strength of their construction.
Both the US and Russia owe their space programs to the German scientist from world war II.
You are right about long distance with the aircraft now. Its not the aircraft you have to out manuever its the 120 plus mile missle system that comes in at over mach 3. You have a chance, just not a good one.
The parity of technology has made it so that their are less and less advantages in air combat anymore.
Hopefully, we can learn to use the technology to better everyone's lives instead of spending on weapon's systems.
Quote from: NPNW on March 13, 2006, 06:21:14 AM
Hopefully, we can learn to use the technology to better everyone's lives instead of spending on weapon's systems.
Historically, it seems like war is inevitable. ::)
I interviewed at a corporation once which originally built gyroscopic laser-modules for military armament. For some reason the government ousted that program, so the corp used their newfound knowledge to build holographic display units. Very cool stuff. I think there were some issues regarding the previous employer though as the corp closed soon after opening. Got to see a holographic display unit up-close and personal once - truly remarkable tech of course. The CEO explained how the unit worked by its relationship to the captured time-domain of holographic film - the physics behind that just blew my mind. :dazzled: :toothy
reading all of this i see to where can bring us someones basement;) - it is more than just "cleaning out the basement" it is more like "cleaning out the history":)
thanks to all of you for such an interesting facts and discussion... just keep going
speaking about space- and aircrafts i think there will be in future some kind a BBCs "Top Gear":) to compare them and to reveal the truth
QuoteThe t34 tank chassis was designed by an American.
Talking about tanks, i can say something too :), My father was commander of T-52 (made in Russia) and my brother was on T-72(Rus too).
asfman, i agree with you - the war sucks, no doubt about that, but i think that if russians was more concentrated in developing of space or electronic systems instead of Nuclear Submarine Warfare(like K-19 wich actually is developed in the same year with the Anti-submarine warfare ship that i spend 4 years on), or such things, the world could be different now. The First Book written by Victor Suvorov, that i had read once ,was like a cold shower to me. This men was banished by Russia for these books. As an Ex-Officer of the Russian Army, Suvorov describes the entire war power of Russia as fake theatre, organized by the comunism. So i ask this, why to hell all of us - people,we wasting our time to make war, instead of something usefull ? Last Night i had downloaded The free GoogleEarth and WOW!!! You know, Steve, actually i can see you car on the street now! Amazing ,isn't ?
That's is the direction we should follow, not to use a space for termal tracking for targets or some s..t like that.
I hope you understand what i mean, friends!
Quote from: shaka_zulu on March 12, 2006, 12:26:50 AM
Talking about russian weapons again...,The only one that i regard is AK47, i have over 100 X 30 shots whit it and i can say YEAH, that's the tool, I doubt that M16 will do the same job :8)
Nah, they are both items of past and sucks. There are now newer models, which has better firing capabilities, more durable, compact and convenient to use.
Like Tavor (TAR21 is the official name I believe. Stands for Tavor Assault Rifle). This baby can fire both 5.56 and 9mm, has an integrated MARS optics (reflex sight, invisible/visible laser, night vision monocular) and some other cool features like changing the direction at which the shells are ejected. It's 20cm shorter than m16 and has practically the same firing accuracy. Although they should made it with more "gunly" design, currently it looks like a gun from science fiction cartoon ::).
A few month before I was dismissed from the army, they just started to appear in some units, So I had a chance of firing it a couple of times, and man I was impressed!
Quote from: asmfan on March 12, 2006, 09:04:54 PM
it is a really strange death of Jury... officially it was said that he crashed with the aircraft... but could he? the top-level specialist... may be our children will know all the truth. i hope so.
There 1000 and one versions about his death. Such as http://www.moles.ee/98/Apr/02/10-1.html (sorry non-russian speaking folks). However if it does somehow connects to the government, then we better forget about knowing the truth ever. Russian government agencies has been know for along time for their great ability to hide the truth from the people. :naughty:
BTW - "9th company" ("9 Рота") is a Great movie ,and a holywood movies big oponent i think :U Does anybody here watch it already ?
It is interesting to see the development of military rifles over time. The army here for most of the earlier part of the 20th century used a Lee Enfield 303 that dated from ww1 but it had the useful characteristic of good groupings at 1000 yards where the original FN that replaced it was lucky to get the same groupings at 300 yards. They later produced a 303 that was called a jungle carbine complete with a flash guard at the front but it was a bad mannered brutal pig to use that kicked like a mule and had a 3 feet long flash that no flash guard would work on.
An AK47 was an assault rifle and while the design is now old, it had the reputation for being very robust and reasonably portable. The problem with high tech toys is they don't like being dragged through the mud or carried underwater in jungle river crossings so they are really urban warefare toys, not serious military weapons for all conditions. I still tend to like BIG calibre weapons and when I was young and very foolish, I used to go with people who hunted wild pigs on foot and where a lot of these guys used to use high velocity small calibre weapons, my 44 Winchester used to bowl a large boar flat on its ass where the ones hit with small calibre rifles often ran away.
Big calibre stuff shoots through undergrowth, low scrub and most anyhting else that gets in the way so it is a better hunting rifle for things that are hard to stop in difficult conditions.
I agree with you Hutch.
Big calibre is the way to go. I like the M1 Gerand with the 30 -06 round. We got to fire some of these back in the 90's and just last year. In 1990 we were fireing hot armor pierceing loads. When the grass in front of you is waving when fireing from a prone position, I don't want to be hit by the round. After 60 rounds everyone had a sore shoulder.
From people in Vietnam war, they said they could fire the AK47 all day. Take it home throw it in a locker. A couple months later without cleaning it, it would be jammed. Take it out of the locker, use their boot to get the shell out and take it out and it would fire. The designer purposely designed the tolerences so that they were not so precise so the gun would work in these environments. Very smart.
There are some "caseless?" ammo guns that the German's designed that fire the bullet and caseing down range, no ejection out the side. Suppose to be pretty durable.
Most of the technology we are seeing is very outdated. Aircraft design is from the 60's, 70's, maybe the 80's. The newer stuff we don't even have a clue with. Some of the propulsion systems on the prototype experimental aircraft come from the 1950's.
QuoteI interviewed at a corporation once which originally built gyroscopic laser-modules for military armament. For some reason the government ousted that program, so the corp used their newfound knowledge to build holographic display units.
Mark Jones,
The gyroscopic are from the 30's -50's. Brown developed them for the German space program.
On the Holographic technology Did they have a three dimensional unit? Some of the newer technology for LCD, and paperthin displays will use some of these algorithms. If you go look at some of the Japanese sites for monitor development they have some of the equations for their display technology design, which goes into the wavelength and focal points.
NPNW,
There is a trick if you know how to do it firing prone. Put a pad under the stock to get it slightly off the ground and lean your shoulder on top of it rather than behind it and your shoulder lasts a lot longer. My Winchester is a 94 pattern 44 magnum and with jacketted ammo it had a velocity of about 1800 fps so for a 240 grain projectile, it would stop anything short of a railway train.
There was a contemporary big calibre toy from Marlin, a 444 lever action that was popping about 2200 fps but it had the reputation of being a bit of a handful to use. Hunting wild pigs is a risky business and often what you see is a very unhappy boar at 50 feet coming in fast and all you can see is the width of the head and the furrow in the undergrowth. I have even seen a 303 fail in its first shot because a big boar has a very thick skull from the front but the 44 magnum literally takes their head off.
I have never hunted indiginous animals and never will as i don't approve of exploiting them for any purpose but OZ has a massive problem with wild domesticated animals that need to be removed as they destroy the habitat for the indiginous ones.
I think the shoulder was a combination of too much piss water (beer) and not being used to such a large caliber with hot loads that day. Since then have fired the M1 and not had a problem,a lthough wasn't the same ammo either. I'll have to remember that if I run into some custom hot rounds.
Most of the time the M1 is heavy enough that you don't feel it recoil at all. My wife got to shoot one this last year. We have quite a few friends that go shooting, and they are amazed that she will fire anything offered, nails and all. :bg
I think if I gave her your cannon, after she fired it she might point it at me :bg
My father in law has something huge like you've got. My wife's ex husband fired it once. Broke his nose. My father in law use's it for bear hunting, big game.
Takeing care of pigs when I was younger you learned where to get a pigs attention. In the head was not really a good place. I certainly wouldn't want a wild boar chargeing at 50 feet and not have it stopped. I've had them pick up a wire panel with two people on each end and move it and they were light by comparison at around 300 pounds vs a boar at 600?
I've heard that the wild boar's are tearing up the country side in Oz. That just goes to show how short sighted we are. We have a similar problem with the "flying" carp from china that were imported to help clean fish farm's. They escaped in a flood. Imagine that? Now they are so bad that people have to have nets when they are running their boats around the rivers south of chicago and the great lakes because they literally jump into the boat and hurt people.
The Department of Natural Resources has boats with nets as the fish literally jump into them. They are trying to develope receipe's so people will fish them and eat them.
I like the idea of the bigger rifles with the caseless ammo, low or no recoil. Hits once and drops the target. I'll have to look at some web sites or talk to my friend about these rifles. Ever fire a musket?
The Spanish had some that had a range of over a mile and were 6 or 8 feet in length. Talk about some power.
NPNW,
the problem in the state where I live is a Government run by hippies, poofters and greenies that have shut down and locked up the national parks, banned hunting and a whole pile of other really stupid things so that instead of the ferrule animals being well under control, they are getting into epidemic proportions again and it cashes out in stock losses for farmers, habitat damage for indiginous animals and in the case of wild pigs, they are a danger to unarmed people in the country. I am waiting for the "Save the rabbit" campaign to completely destroy the country areas. Good thing is this state government is so unpopular they will probably get arseholed at the next election but the damage is massive.
You may be better off with the flying carp than we are with the introduction of cane toads in Queensland. They were originally introduced to kill a beetle that effects sugar cane but instead bred out of control and have been migrating down the coast ever since. When i have been up in Queensland, you see them at night on the lawns of houses standing on their toes trying to catch gnats or similar. They don't particularly offend me but they are a pest to many. The problem is they are plug useless and are poisonous to boot. At least you can probably do something useful with carp if you can catch enough of them where cane toads are truly beyond use.
Interesting your comments on muskets, a sharps rifle in good condition has an accurate range of something like a mile and from memory one was used to shoot a general in the American Civil War. They apparently were still being used for target shooting well into the 20th century. I don't like all of the smoke from gunpowder rifles, you have to wait for the smoke to clear to see if you hit anything. :bg
Yes Hutch,
We have giant viscious rabbits of an extreme nature here in Iowa. If you import them they will take care of your wild pig problem. :bg I'm not sure that they like poisonous frogs. However a good side effect might be crocodile boots with fur... :U The really other exciteing prospect might be hippies with brains. Just toss a few rabbits into a meeting and the survivors might get smart. :green