I recall Carl Sagan despairing that Reagan believed it. The amount of money and resources that went into live tests would suggest there was faith at the top, regardless of what those 'lower' in the chain of command might have thought.
At the time SW was being promoted, it gave all the appearance of earnestness. • Warren • off console • w azkrmc.com • h nightwares.com • On Nov 11, 2012, at 20:52, Nick Arnett <nick.arn...@gmail.com> wrote: > I didn't realize how unclear it is whether Reagan and other top officials > regarded it as a bluff or not, until I poked around a bit just now. Easy to > see how they might have started off serious, then decided to re-write history > and say it was all a bluff. I have some up-close and personal experience > with the Reagan White House rewriting history - their version persists in > most peoples' minds still; when I tell my version, most people are still > surprised. Shows the power of the bully pulpit, sure was interesting to see > it first-hand. > > Nick > > > On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 3:00 PM, Dan Minette <danmine...@att.net> wrote: >> On Star Wars, it worked as a bluff, but I don't think Reagan was bluffing. >> I think he believed. I know as a fact that the Defense Department said they >> would require that all programming for applications they used would have to >> be done in Ada (I think within 5 years) because Ada was a compiler that >> automatically eliminated bugs. Anyone who wrote any software at Dresser >> Industries had to write a program in Ada, even scientists like me. But, >> that was back in the day when the head of computer departments for major >> corporations had no idea how computers worked. >> >> > Back to the facts. The Romney team said the software was running 20-30 >> minutes behind. >> >> Well, I also read that parts of it simply failed....reporting 0 votes from a >> long list on election day. The part that targeted voting lists to cull >> those who haven't voted for attention can be made modular. >> >> >But in that situation, you have to really over- design for scalability. >> >> Or modular. Let the software run on 10,000 computers in every regional >> office, with just the sums sent to the main headquarters. Obama's software >> worked....and I think its because it was field tested for months....it was >> intended to track voters for months, not just on election day. >> >> Dan M. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com > > _______________________________________________ > http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com >
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