Sorry, wrong topic, i thought I was posting to real world military.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 01:43 pm: Edit

Me too

By Eddie E Crutchfield (Librarian101) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 02:13 pm: Edit

Jeff actually there are only 2 sets of locks in the great lakes to transfer between the various Great lakes. The Soo that allows passage from Lake Superior that allows passage to the lower lakes and the locks between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie for passage to the upper lakes. There are no locks needed to to pass from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron or to Lake Erie from those. For a complete story try here. American Great Lakes Ports Ass.
www.greatlakesports.org/industry-overview/the-great-lakes-seaway-navigation-system/

By Mike Dowd (Mike_Dowd) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 02:40 pm: Edit

DELETED

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 04:01 pm: Edit

Or better yet go visit them. They have historical museums close to the actual sites/facilities and its beautiful country. (I may hold on to some bias having grown up up in MI, the best of the GL States)

Niagara Falls is also a site to see (not in MI).

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 05:07 pm: Edit

Eddie, thanks for the info. I was aware that locks existed, but not how many. As with (dozens of?) other things, canals are a passing interest of mine.

(IMO, they're beautiful in their functionality )

Lar, I'd LOVE to visit them! BIG time!!

Thing is, I live in the SoCal region and am a live-in caregiver for my father who can't be left alone for even so much as an hour. Taking the week or three for a decent tour of canals is something not possible.

By Eddie E Crutchfield (Librarian101) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 08:25 pm: Edit

Jeff the lock going around Niagara Falls are great covering 50 miles I think 8 locks and changing the elevation over 300 feet. IN THE 50S A US heavy cruiser the Macon actually toured the Great Lakes.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 10:21 pm: Edit

Isn’t there a cruiser part of the naval ship museum in Buffalo, NY?

It thought it was the U.S.S. Little Rock, but I may not be remembering it correctly. It was the ship tied up to theU.S.S. Sullivans. (The destroyer that sank at her moorings some months ago.)

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, September 10, 2022 - 10:30 pm: Edit

They have refloated the U.S.S. Sullivans (Fletcher Class DD), the U.S.S. Little Rock (Cleveland Class CL), and the U.S.S. Croaker (Gato Class SS).


https://buffalonavalpark.org/

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, September 12, 2022 - 01:31 pm: Edit

For what it's worth, neither Croaker nor Little Rock needed a refloat (they didn't sink when The Sullivans went down last winter).

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Monday, September 12, 2022 - 08:35 pm: Edit

Fair, poor wording on my part.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, November 26, 2022 - 09:45 am: Edit

Looking for: a good copy from a safe site of Windows-7 Home or Home-Premium 32-bit ISO file that includes all Service Packs.

I do have Win-7 Home Premium on CD, but it obviously won't have any patches or service packs.

I need to set up a Virtual Machine on my Window-10 computer to run my Floor Plan Plus program (and a couple older games).

If anyone can point me to a link, feel free to email it to me at: garth-dot-getgen-at-cox-dot-net. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Again: Must be 32-bit, not 64-bit.


()


Garth L. Getgen

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Saturday, November 26, 2022 - 12:22 pm: Edit

Garth, let me check my archive this evening. I may have the 3 Service Packs for Win 7 on a CD. If I do, I can copy them and mail them to you.

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Saturday, November 26, 2022 - 02:58 pm: Edit

Sorry Garth I've only got the 64 BIP Service Pack.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, November 26, 2022 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Oh well. I do appreciate you checking.


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, December 12, 2022 - 03:14 pm: Edit

FYEO: Big Brother And The Invisibility Cloak
December 12, 2022: A group of Chinese graduate students specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) Developed a cheap and effective invisibility cloak that deceives digital cameras and heat sensor tech used for detection and identification. This approach is similar to an earlier device that was a collar of special digital lights worn around the neck to make face identification difficult. The cloak uses a special pattern printed on the cloak material that deceives systems that use digital cameras as source material for identifying what is out there. The students used AI to develop a pattern for the cloth that was most disruptive to digital camera recognition. Four temperature control modules placed at different positions of the cloak generate a unique heat pattern that deceives heat sensors.
The military has long sought ways to protect troops and vehicles from thermal sensors, which identify humans or vehicles with radar by the shape or patterns of heat they give off. Over the last few decades more solutions to this problem have been developed. For example, in 2021 an Israeli firm (Polaris) introduced Kit 300, a new MCS (Multispectral Camouflage System) cloth that was stronger and more effective at defeating detection by thermal, infrared or radar devices. The Israeli military had already tested Kit 300 in operations and found it effective enough to buy. Polaris was one of those defense firms that hired former IDF special forces to join the team developing Kit 300 and make sure new products meet actual needs. In this case Israeli firms have been trying, since the 2006 war in Lebanon with Hezbollah, to develop an MCS material that could be used by vehicles and ground troops to neutralize thermal sights like those Hezbollah used in 2006. Islamic terrorists have been using captured or black-market night-vision devices for over a decade, which has made it clear to Western forces that something like MCS was needed.
Thermal sights are the latest capability of infantry night vision devices that have been around since the 1960s. These portable devices first reached American soldiers in the 1960s, and amplified light so troops could see more in moonlight or starlight than the enemy. These devices became smaller, lighter and more powerful over subsequent decades.
In the decade after 2001 the advances have been faster and more revolutionary. By 2012 lightweight (for infantry) night vision devices were using a digital light amplification technology. Previously light amplification was analog. But as a digital device you get much more amplification (up to 300 times), software that can clarify a murky image or quickly adjust the amplification of a device so that a user going from the dark into a lighted room would not be temporarily blinded. Digital images can be easily transmitted wirelessly. By 2014 digital goggles weighed 680 grams (24 ounces) and had been successfully used by SOCOM operators. The new digital light enhancement tech worked well enough with existing thermal (heat) imaging tech to quickly blend data from both to produce an even more accurate image for the individual soldier using a helmet mounted night vision device.
Russia and China have access to this technology so developing MCS materials that will hide vehicles and troops from detection by digital thermal sensors is now a priority. That’s because thermal devices look for differences in heat. Hiding that has always been difficult and the Kit 300 MCS cloth does it better than any earlier material. Improved MCS materials usually appear first for vehicles and are too heavy for use by ground troops. It doesn’t take long for MCS manufacturers to develop lighter versions for the infantry.
For example, in 2017 the U.S. Army tested a new type of Swedish (Saab) MSC camouflage material for vehicles that provided an unprecedented degree of concealment. That’s because the SAAV MCS camouflage netting can be fitted to a particular type of vehicle like a second skin and provide protection while moving, even in combat. The U.S. and many other nations are looking for an MCS that provides this sort of protection. Saab had already sold Canada $8 million worth of MCS and this encouraged the Americans to take a look.
For the 2017 tests Saab provided, at their expense, four sets of this netting fitted for Stryker wheeled armored vehicles and the U.S. conducted field tests in Europe with them. If the U.S. military placed a large enough order, Saab was willing to set up an MCS manufacturing facility in the United States. The tests found the Saab MCS effective, but not enough to justify a large order. Saab has made some sales to Western nations and more are interested in trying it out.
This new generation of camouflage material has been evolving for several decades as a way to protect vehicles and mobile bases from aerial reconnaissance that increasingly used infrared (heat/thermal) sensors. The latest generation MCS material began showing up sixteen years ago and the U.S. bought a lot of it after 2006 when it seemed there would be a return to peer-versus-peer warfare against any enemy possessing air or satellite reconnaissance capabilities. The new MCS netting provides a degree of concealment from infrared, thermal and radar sensors. Some of the new material was used in vehicle soft tops and it was found that this provided a degree of protection. Combat uniforms contain cloth treated to make it more difficult for thermal sensors to quickly spot a soldier in the dark.
Saab and Polaris took this a step further and developed MCS cloth that rendered aerial or ground based thermal sensors much less effective. That can be a major advantage in combat because getting off the first accurate shot can be decisive. The Saab MCS was available in various camouflage patterns and colors so vehicles can quickly “change their skin” to cope with a new climate or season. The Israeli Kit 300 is a step beyond that and provides invisibility against thermal, infrared and radar sensors. Beyond that Israeli and other MCS developers are working on new materials that will render troops and vehicles invisible to the naked eye as well as multispectral sensors.
After 2006 there were fears that the basic stealth netting, because it was relatively cheap, might become popular with Islamic terrorists and drug gangs in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The result would be enemy positions that were more difficult to spot via airborne or satellite sensors. Enemy irregulars have been known to obtain high-tech gear, like night vision sights or encrypted radios and use them to their advantage. Of course, terrorists with commercial infrared sensors would find their gear less effective if they scanned the hills one night, and missed the Special Forces team out there, hiding beneath their new MSC camouflage net. This did not become a major problem in counter-terror operations. But the effectiveness of the new netting is real.
Camouflage is an ancient technique but technology caught up with camouflage in the 20th century. First came aircraft, which were initially used primarily for scouting. Camouflage that hid you from someone on the ground was usually ineffective when enemy aircraft flew over, unless they employed something to hide under. Now camouflage became a life saving measure for troops normally out of sight of the enemy. Through the middle of the 20th century, troops developed efficient techniques to hide themselves from aerial observation. The most ancient camouflage techniques are still very effective. These involve covering the troops, or their positions, with foliage most of the year, or white cloth when there's snow. The use of winter camouflage is a recent development, because winter warfare did not become common until the 20th century. Whatever the season, the principal function of camouflage is to make your troops invisible to the enemy. This invisibility is sometimes achieved, but usually the invisibility is not complete and the result is that the enemy is never sure exactly what you have and precisely where it is. The use of infrared (heat) sensors has made it possible to quickly tell what is live vegetation, and what has been cut down for camouflage. Infrared can also see into foliage and detect the warm bodies of troops, and the heat from engines and recently fired weapons. Other sensors can detect large masses of metal (tanks and trucks). By the late 20th century camouflage was still very effective against troops who did not have the latest sensors. Even against high tech armies, camouflage will hide you a lot of the time if y0u can keep up with the detection technology. Any degree of concealment is still an advantage. In electronic warfare, camouflage is anything that makes information look like something other than what it is. That’s why by the end of the 20th century camouflage paint and nets were modified to be less visible to radar. Now MCS netting has degraded many of the recent advances in sensors.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, December 13, 2022 - 07:48 am: Edit

There are essentially three kinds of night vision kit

1) Those that amplify existing light
2) Those that passively detect the heat (Infrared emissions)
3) Those that do a mix of both.

Note that NVGs are really useful with IR Lasers. Last time I checked they liked the "green" kind more than the red.

https://www.backstreet-surveillance.com/blog/post/what-is-color-night-vision#:~:text=Color%20Night%20Vision%20is%20not,required%20to%20generate%20color%20video.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 - 04:18 pm: Edit

All posts prior to 2023 will be deleted June 27, 2023.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, June 23, 2023 - 05:17 pm: Edit

Anybody any good with graphic arts programs? My brother needs advice / help with game board / map imagery. He built them in MS-Paint & Paint-Shop-Pro as bitmaps, but the publisher says they're too pixelated to use.


Garth L. Getgen

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, June 23, 2023 - 11:04 pm: Edit

Yeah. They need to be vector-based graphics so that they are ultimately scalable.

My daughter is pretty good with Adobe products. I would need to check with her if see is up on Illustrator. She mostly does video

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 25, 2023 - 12:18 am: Edit

THE AMERICAN ONE-CENT COIN
This is often called the "penny" but that is the British coin. The term "penny" is technically incorrect for US coins but it is the common term used by Americans.
In 2018, it cost 1.7 cents to make a penny and today it is over 2 cents. (The nickle also costs more to make than it is worth.)
Lots of people have suggested eliminating the penny (rounding purchases to the nearest nickle) but Americans overwhelmingly oppose doing this.
I have an idea to save the penny, that being corporate sponsorships!
Allow a big corporation to pay some fee to have their corporate logo replace the Lincoln memorial on the back of the penny. I would suggest 3 cents each for a run of one million pennies. Do the math; that would be a paltry $30,000 for advertising that will reach every American for decades! (Three cents might be too cheap! I think GM would pay 5 cents. Maybe hold an auction?) You could even charge the corporation an extra $12,000 and deliver the entire run of one million of "their" pennies to the corporation allowing them to use them for special promotions (buy a car, get a roll of pennies!), sell them to collectors, or destroy most of them to increase the value of the others.

I could see controversial or unpopular people (Kardashian, Trump, Ron Jeremy) paying to thumb their nose at the US government. People could enjoy beating the penny for their most hated politician to a flat disk.

Thoughts?

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, August 25, 2023 - 07:23 am: Edit

Why Ron Jeremy? How about Hillary Clinton & Martin Shkreli.

I wonder how much it costs to make a penny "die stamp?"

Brilliant idea.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Friday, August 25, 2023 - 08:00 am: Edit

Considering a decade or so ago, some government flunky wasn't paying attention and allowed $4 Bn or so worth of Bills to get printed cockeyed, it's understandable why D.C. wants to move to cards for purchases....
How many different variations of the quarter have we see over the past 25 years or so....

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Friday, August 25, 2023 - 10:45 am: Edit

At the time that the USA eliminated the half-penny coin (1857), it was worth quite a bit more than a current dime in terms of purchasing power and the cent (smallest value coin after that) was worth quite a bit more than a quarter.

In a sane country we'd have no coins smaller than a quarter, and we'd have 1 and 2 dollar coins and no bills smaller than a 5.

We've been rounding off prices of gasoline priced in mills to the nearest cent my entire life, similarly for rounding off sales tax, and no one thinks that's strange, but suggesting rounding off cents and suddenly you'll be being stollen from by the stores?

Seriously, stores have those little give a penny take a penny things at registers because it's simply not worth the time it takes a low paid clerk to count out pennies. Get rid of the things.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Friday, August 25, 2023 - 10:46 am: Edit

One thing that used to be popular for souvenirs was to crush a penny with the crushing die to put the souvenir image on it.

Unpopular people might increase the popularity of this idea...