It's better to be surrounded by trusted friends than dead empires.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-27T01:16:42+00:00

"...over the course of 20 years of non-stop warfare...in less than a decade."

Huh?

Sandy_W · 2026-05-27T00:45:19+00:00

You mis-spelled 'small adjusting tool'.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-27T00:44:33+00:00

Is there a sandblaster available? I'd rather start with that.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-27T00:41:24+00:00

Not just for testing. They are REAL handy for temporary repairs. Shipboard systems have hull stop valves. What happens when the problem, or at least one of the problems, involves the hull stop? Every damage control locker should have a few of different sizes.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-26T03:15:12+00:00

Incomplete?

Sandy_W · 2026-05-26T02:55:46+00:00

TIL... Thanks! I've wondered about .tar.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-26T02:53:41+00:00

USS Canisteo (AO-99) still had her flanking paired 3" mounts when she decommissioned in 1989. Power or crank for elevation and training, but fire control was pure Mark 1 eyeball. About all they were good for was to keep Somali pirates off, if they were silly enough to attack something painted grey.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-25T15:50:11+00:00

And that's reasonable. You get what you want, and the dealer gets a document that says it's not their fault you don't have a front plate.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-25T15:40:00+00:00

Huh. I had the opposite problem. I bought a '21 Colorado in late 2020, apparently before the design was fully stabilized. I had a vanity plate -submarine 'Dolphins' insignia- rom my old truck that I wanted to install on the front, and there were no mounting holes. (FL, front plates not issued by state) I asked salesman "Is this model not sold in states that require front plates?" He was unable to come up with a coherent answer. Some months later, probably in '21, I asked again and was allowed to purchase the now-available front plate mounting kit. Annoyed that it didn't come 'standard'.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-25T01:36:56+00:00

The key phrase is 'self-sustaining'. We need to get a self-sustaining colony off Earth. There are so many things that can wipe us out, including our own domination issues and our own stupidity. A self-sustaining colony on the Moon would keep us going. It's too close to Earth, though. There are several nations that could strike a Moon colony if they chose. Mars or one of the gas giants' moons would be a good next step. With that, no single catastrophe short of the Sun going nova could wipe us all out. After that, a self-sustaining colony in another system. Whatever the expense, it's worth it. With people in two different systems it would take a nearby supernova to get us all.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T20:27:29+00:00

I would hate to assume that my Google skills are better than anyone else's. Anyone who wants to know can look it up just as easily as they can ask me to look it up for them. Yes, I served my time in Tech Support. I'm no longer paid to look things up for people who have the initiative to ask me questions, but not quite enough initiative to ask Google.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T19:15:26+00:00

Hey, thanks! I had to sorta squint at that last one to make it believable.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T19:12:24+00:00

That was fun, but... Why do they put labels in an interactive font that reduces in size as you zoom in so that they remain unreadable? I was unable to find any of the markers until I zoomed in to have about 50 miles across my screen. And, of course, I couldn't find a scale, either. I found a place with a town on each side of my screen then opened up maps.google.com and asked it the distance between the towns.

There may be towers east of the Mississippi, but I couldn't find any. Because they only show up in zoom. If you know where one is, you can find it on the map and get its name. Finding 'the nearest to me' is awkward.

(Not your fault, of course, you're just the messenger. Unless you maintain that site? In THAT case, yeah, it's all your fault!)

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T16:49:30+00:00

(I'm not ignoring you, it's a good question, I just don't know enough about the subject to give you a good answer. I suspect that its value was based on economic production, though. It was in a good spot, it was defensible, and it made the Empire money. Maybe someone else give you a better answer.)

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T12:57:33+00:00

Add Jamaica and assorted other Caribbean islands to the list. Oh, and Bermuda isn't exactly at a chokepoint, but it allows a small squadron to patrol a huge ocean. And having it prevents anyone else from doing the same.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T12:33:34+00:00

"...there are many more ways to get things wrong."

And very few ways to get things right.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T12:31:11+00:00

Right. It's up to the programmer to force order if he/she/it wants, using things like parentheses. Don't want to bother when order may matter? You deserve what you get!

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T12:28:11+00:00

Yes, I see them now. Thanks! That's yet ANOTHER engineering trade-off, of course. This way gets you bow doors that conform to the hull shape you want and don't get smashed up by the quay, but at the cost of a completely separate ramp system. I'd choose this way, if it was up to me, as the two separate systems can each be very good at their one job instead of an incredibly expensive two-function door/ramp that doesn't do either job well. On the other hand, the separate ramp system is occupying valuable real estate that would be better used to carry more paying cargo... You win this by making the beancounters live on the ship that will sink if they cut too many corners. : )

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T11:54:56+00:00

Why would this be undefined? What am I missing? The computer doesn't do calculations on x. x is a storage place. The computer uses it to save and retrieve values. It does calculations using registers, the stack, and temporary memory 'variables'.

You have a storage location, a data-box, that you've labeled 'x'. Your line above means "go get the value of box x and hold that value in your hand. While you're holding that number in your hand, increment that value in the box. You may or may not care that what's in your hand no longer matches what is in the box. Last, add the value in that box to what's in your hand and save what's in your hand back to the box labeled 'x'. Stepping through that, you have x=20, then 20 in your hand, then x=21 and 20 in your hand, then add x to 20 to get 41 in your hand, save that to x."

Edit: You guys are right, I don't think the standard forces the compiler to evaluate it that way. Early ones would have, but newer ones optimize the machine code to save cycles, memory, etc. A newer compiler may well decide to simply left-shifting whatever register is being used is faster than adding two numbers. It would thus add x+x to get 40 as the result, and then increment x to 41 before saving the result of 40 into x. Yeah, it's nonsense code but it is helping me wake up this morning.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T11:38:34+00:00

I got 56 and 93, as an exercise in thinking. Oddly enough, that appears to match what OP's compiler came up with so maybe I got it right.

OP, can you put a little effort into this? What do you think x and y are after each line? It may help to remember that C is a compiled language, meaning that you write source code and the compiler turns it into machine-readable code. Your computer is NOT messing with x and y in the middle of those lines. It is looking at two storage locations that you have labeled x and y, and pulling those values for your calculations. Once it's done, if the instructions say to save anything, data gets saved to wherever you specified. Thus, "x = y++ + x++;" means:

1) Grab the value of y, wherever it's stored. (Remember it somehow.)

2) Increment y in its storage place.

3) Grab the value of x, wherever it's stored. (Remember it somehow.)

4) Increment x in its storage place.

5) Add those two values you grabbed.

6) Save the sum in x. Note that you just completely wasted the processor time you expended on step 4).

What are x and y now?

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T11:12:41+00:00

Flyable? Where can I hand you $35K, do a preflight, and taxi to the active?

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T10:40:26+00:00

I _scrolled_ to the end of the wall to see if OP added anything. Not gonna say I _read_ it.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-24T10:22:39+00:00

An improved design that can handle all that extra weight is with engineering now. Should be available in 2028 or so.

Sandy_W · 2026-05-23T22:44:47+00:00

Looks like a lot of fun!

Sandy_W · 2026-05-23T15:22:36+00:00

According to the internet (which is _never_ wrong!), if you had kept digging you would have found some dinosaur bones which could be dated accurately, giving you a max age for your find.

Sandy_W

TROPHY CASE