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Auric Goldfinger wrote: This is what happens when you write software that is not robustable, scalable, cloudable, deployable, readable, and useable, and above all anti-xp-able.
No, this is what happens when you have already paid millions for software written 14 years ago, when the idea of cloud computing wasn't even around because most people still connected to the Internet with a 14.4K modem.
This is what happens when you've trained thousands of people, not just on the operation of the software, but the maintenance of the equipment.
Besides, the issue isn't whether the software can run on something other than XP. I would imagine it can. The issue is that the military went through a vetting process of XP, and they'll have to go through the same thing with W8 or W10 (and by the time their done, W20 will be out) and I can only imagine the complexity of vetting something like W8/10 from scratch. I certainly wouldn't want an OS that craps out right in the middle of a major military exercise (or battle.)
Marc
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You've got it in one, Marc. A long time ago I worked for a defense contractor who did IV&V (independent verification and validation) for the Air Force. Our job was to validate designs that went into military systems. For example, in one project we built an emulation of the F-16 flight control system using the original F-16 design documents. The purpose was to verify the correctness of the design under a wide variety of flight conditions, some of which would be difficult to recreate in an actual flight test.
The point being, the term 'mission-critical' has a whole new meaning when it comes to military systems. Out in The World if a program crashes it gets restarted and you go on. For the DoD, it means someone dies.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote: 'mission-critical' has a whole new meaning when it comes to military systems
Or in space systems, I was gobsmacked the first time I found out they were still using 386 systems. Then I read up on it and the light went on. And they still have system crashes in space, I wonder if the space X one was such a crash?
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Marc Clifton wrote: I can only imagine the complexity of vetting something like W8/10 from scratch
That, in itself, is probably more than the $9M they just spent to stay on XP.
Considering the DoD's budget (to the tune of hundreds of billions), the Navy got itself a heck of a deal.
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On a contract for the US Navy, we were told to write training documentation using single-syllable words as the reading comprehension of the Navy employees were on a par with students in the third grade.
You can't get cannon fodder if they all have PhDs!
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I think you misread; that's $9 million per copy of Windows (in the grand tradition of $500 hammers.)
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I have become tired of the tailgating redacted term who appear to believe that 6 feet is a safe distance to keep when travelling at 50+mph. So as well as a front facing camera, I am now installing a rear facing camera into my car.
The rear facing camera comes through on Monday however in the meantime I placed a sticker in the rear window that says "smile in car camera recording". Strangely enough since the sticker has been there everyone is driving a good distance behind me, I am still getting the camera.
It's interesting how just the presence of a sticker suddenly increases the intelligence of people.
I once saw a very interesting interview with a mortuary worker who was asked "what is the one thing a person can do to prolong their life?" and the mortuary worker answered - the one thing they were aware of that would, statistically speaking, extend your life is keeping a good distance from the car/truck in front.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
modified 27-Jun-15 15:04pm.
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Wouldn't you be then donating the sticker to each car in-front of you to increase your life time? 
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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I don't understand 
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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*cries in the corner*
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Crying in the corner is one strategy, another strategy is using different words 
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Never mind... 
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Putting a sticker on your car increases the life expectancy of those following you, unless I misunderstand your account of the conversation with the mortician.
So, [insert Afaal's original comment here]
And yes, I realize that it's pointless if you already understand the correlation between increased mortality and following distance - just as I'm aware that jokes get exponentially less funny the more they're explained..
"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." - John Lennon
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enhzflep wrote: just as I'm aware that jokes get exponentially less funny the more they're explained..
But, sometimes if delivered properly**, over-explaining a joke can actually make it quite funny. Norm Macdonald has a knack for that.
**Delivery is everything. In many cases, the content of the joke isn't important.
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Agreed. But the logistics would be terrible. I better idea would be have the sticker on the bonnet of your car facing you. Problem solved 
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Yes, it would get stuck to the car in front of us, after the accident, after all.
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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No need of a real rear camera. Just a dummy camera, with a prominent sticker would do, isn't it?
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Yeah, it's all fun and games until someone actually rear ends you and you wanna claim on the insurance. Always best to assume the worst and be delighted when it doesn't happen than assume the best and live (or indeed die) to regret it!
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Why not install a bazooka, and blow them off the face of the earth?
When driving with stupid and unsafe drivers, my dad used to tell my brother and I, "Boys, get me the bazooka. We are being attacked by idiots." 
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:grins:
I imagine trips with your dad were more interesting than those with mine.
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enhzflep wrote: I imagine trips with your dad were more interesting than those with mine.
Yes, I miss my dad. He was the best.
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I've always been tempted to get some of those solid-fuel rocket models[^] you can build and install them in PVC tubes on the roof of the car for just such eventualities...
But, the Police would probably frown on them, and call in the anti-terrorism group. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Haha, nice. I've got an Estes Executioner sitting in storage somewhere, complete with a couple of D12 motors, waiting for when I get a chance to assemble it and some nice weather.
Against my better judgement, I'll share a tale of an exchange I had on a now defunct website back in either 2006/7. Your mention of using hobby rockets for something other than their intended purpose reminded me of the affair.
Basically, someone was running through the calculations required to make a 'pop-bottle rpg' as he called it. The idea was to emulate the flight performance of an rpg-7 round, using a P.E.T bottle as the nacelle. I forget the projected weight now, but we worked out that to accelerate it to 115 m/s as it left the muzzle, you'd need a peak impulse of something in the order of 50,000 newtons (Recall that an Estes A motor has up to just 2.5 N·s in it, with an A10 reaching a peak thrust of about 12 newtons).
Anyway, it quickly became apparent that that was not the sort of kit one puts together in the home garage.
Not all that long after, one of the mods (whom I despised and in the meantime had banned me for disagreeing with and insulting him) at the place became a wanted suspect in the shooting death and subsequent dismemberment of the fella he lived with. It was all rather surreal to be honest. This fella was totally off the radar until the fool used a credit card of the deceased somewhere near the canada/us border. Two months after the murder he was found in Canada.
The problem was though, he'd been discovered hiding out at the house of the 'pop-bottle rpg' guy. Oh crap! But it got even 'better' - the host and his family were found to have illegal and unlicensed fully automatic weapons and to have been manufacturing and selling meth-amphetamine. Oh elephant! What on earth have I gone and done now, I wondered.
The mod was eventually found guilty back in 2012 and sent off to her majesty's hotel. Never heard anything more of of about pop-bottle guy, thankfully.
It seemed kinda funny on reflection that the mod had called someone the term for a bundle of sticks or a homosexual man, which led to a heated discussion, culminating in me making the reply that got me banned - something like 'have fun in prison gay-boy' (which was used on account of how offensive I knew he'd find it. I'm really happy that people are increasingly being permitted to marry whomever they choose) . I vaguely considered sending him a print-out of the exchange in prison once or twice, but decided I'd been foolish enough already and that there was really nothing to be gained by antagonizing him.
You'd think someone would have the sense not to engage someone that called themselves NBK2000, presumably after the Woody Harrelson movie Natural Born Killers. Alas, I did not. I'd be amazed if my internet usage hasn't been monitored since that time, to be perfectly honest. Joining The Explosives and Weapons Forum wasn't exactly the brightest idea I've ever had.  I never was interested in the 'right' things..
Sharing here my account of the time probably isn't terribly wise either, but it's the truth. Hope someone gets a laugh out of it. 
"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." - John Lennon
modified 28-Jun-15 11:24am.
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I'm just guessing that there are enough "keywords" there that if you weren't being monitored before, you are now!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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