Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!clarke From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: problems with Star Wars #2 (part 2: the crux) Message-ID: <1237@utcsri.UUCP> Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 13:40:56 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsri.1237 Posted: Wed Jul 10 13:40:56 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 10-Jul-85 14:19:54 EDT References: <1197@utcsri.UUCP> <5772@utzoo.UUCP> <1236@utcsri.UUCP> <5775@utzoo.UUCP> Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 30 Summary: In article <5775@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP writes: >I wasn't aware that there was a "current actual Star Wars proposal", in >the sense of specific ill-advised hardware systems having been chosen for >active use. And I think you are reading a bit much into the space between >the lines; I was claiming that the critics are being silly in certain ways, >not that the system they are attacking is beyond criticism. Yes, I do have >reservations, some of them quite serious, about the current proposal. But >it is vitally important that the baby not be thrown out with the bathwater; >it is high time, long past time, that our "defence departments" got back >into the defence (as opposed to deterrence) business. > Sorry to misread you (though, as you can guess, I still disagree with that last sentence). >> Just think of it as a giant Berklix in the sky, Henry. The first time you >> hit funny code, bam! we're all dead. Or maybe the second time. Or the third. > >Just think of our current setup as a giant OS/360 in the sky. You know your >programs won't run forever, especially since IBM keeps changing the control >blocks with each new release. It's a question of whether you can get >everything important off onto another system -- yes, even a Berklix -- before >the crash comes. Because there really isn't much hope of convincing the >Computer Center to stop buying from IBM. > >[Oh boy, a rousing round of analogical one-upmanship!] >-- > Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology I surrender! (... though I wonder if instead of "a giant OS/360 in the sky", what we really have mightn't be a whole lot of 360/30's on the ground?)