World Wind vs Google Earth

Time to correct a few details from the last post. At present, the coverage offered via virtual globe software is not real time (it may be over a year old!) and not 'military grade' - i.e. at best, you can see a car, but not a person (1 pixel = 15 meters). On the bright side, it is still cool :) Now, for comparison of two of the most popular softs: World Wind and Google Earth (and yes, this time I have installed them and seen them myself :>).

Keeping it short: World Wind offers several types of maps, but kills the CPU (official bug promised to be fixed in some future release), has no hiqh quality coverage other then USA and eats drive space like mad. Google Earth is much smaller, faster and hdd-friendly, and offers some HQ maps of non-USA places, although they seem mostly limited to Western Europe. Both softs could do with better user interface and debugging. For example, World Wind can either show all names (city, dostricts, streets, etc.) or not at all. Google Earth has quite a few filters, but seems to have problems displaying important things like cities name, and its search function seems to work badly with non-US cities (actually, my searches for Katowice and Cracow/Kraków were directed to some strange places in US). There are quite a few other bugs: World Wind maps don't work well with axis change, creating terrible artifacts that seem to recreate themselves even after image refresh, and Google Earth interface can freeze sometimes. All things considered, all of the above seem more like a beta versions then any final release - but they are still mighty cool. I was unable to find my house in Katowice (Poland), but I could find my quarter and I am pretty certain I recongized some larger landmarks like the naerby airfield, lake or scyskraper. US coverage is beautiful, and you can find individual houses (hotels, universitites) easily - after half an hour learning the controls, I found both the university I will do my PhD (University of Pittsburgh) and hotel I will be staying for the few days looking for the appartment.

Here's hoping that high quality coverage for rest of the world will be availalble soon, and that real time super high quality coverage will not take more then few years. Anyway, I highly recommend downloading the above software and taking a look. If I had to chose, I'd say go with Google Earth first - it is smaller, faster and more user friendly. If you like it, give World Wind a try as well. Expect to lose a few hours either way :)

PS. Mars/Moon and other maps in making...

The world on your screen

Interesting. NASA created the 'World Wind' soft, free to download, that provides high resolution satellte scans of the entire world (screenshots). If you leave in US, you should have no problems finding your home. I will see if it will prove useful in finding me an appartment :) Which also reminds me of the 'privacy scare' some people are fond of: the malicious government is watching us from above! Bah. Now, everybody can be a Big Brother... there is nowhere to run :) Hopefully, some privacy freaks will now dig a dungeon and stop bothering the rest of us :)

Review of the Sarmatian Review

It is always a nice suprise to find an academic publication that is easily accessible through the web, and doesn't hide its publications behind some expensive scheme, usually out of reach of a normal student's budget. This is the case of the Sarmatian Review, a small (quaterly) but good quality publication dedicated to Central and Eastern Europe.

The web design is very simple, one can say 'primitive' (the covers are terrible), but it is functional. No javascript, no flash, no large graphics - just access to the articles, with a simple but functional search tool. One thing I'd like to see is some kind of comment/forum for discussion of various articles, but I am not suprised an academic publication is slow to adapt such 'public discussion' tools, but I hope it will happen soon. After all, the strenght of the Internet is not only that it allows such specialised sites to adress worldwide public, but that it allows easy two-way communication.

All things considered, I am pleasantly suprised whith quality free content of this site, especially considering how much troubles (and/or money/time) one has to go through to access most academic journals. Even with my economic MA I have much trouble understanding why they are so expensive. Sure, there is litte demand for them, but by putting such prohibitive prices in place, they are off-limits to most studends and casual readers. Perhaps its my wiki/open source POV, but I think it would be much more useful for everybody if all academic publications were free and easy to access, just ike the Sarmatian Review.

Looks like fun

I won't have time to play it myself, but perhaps one of you readers will and tell me if it was worth it: AdventureQuest - looks like a new generation of MUDs - that what I call progress :) Enjoy!

Some reading: 2 FAs to look at

Polish September Campaign just got featured on Wiki's Main Page, and History of Poland (1945-1989) is my newest and longest (so far) feature-quality article. Perhaps you will find them interesting.

Spam Poison

Nifty. Just follow the link below to learn how to kill the spam spiders.

And good riddance, spammer-d00des :)

The past, present and future, illustrated.

Courtesy of KurzweilAI.net, , Technological singularity article on Wiki now has beautiful graphs. Do take a look!

The economic prediction

With my background in economics, I find The Economist predictions are usually right on spot. It's the only print magazine I read - if you don't, my advice is to get one and try to get hooked up. Oh, the current online edition is always free.

Still, the today's subject is not how good TE is, but what is it saying. And it's predicting a bubble is about to burst on the housing market.

The worldwide rise in house prices is the biggest bubble in history. Prepare for the economic pain when it pops.

Soaring house prices have given a huge boost to the world economy. What happens when they drop?

In many countries the stockmarket bubble has been replaced by a property-price bubble. Sooner or later it will burst, says Pam Woodall, our economics editor.

You have been warned...

The Good Old Quard

When I was younger, I thought they were hilarious. I still think that now. The Quard Corners, 1995-1999 are a piece of history - mine, net and MTG (what's that? read the Corners to find out). I loved them, and they are still funny.

The QCs in today's post serve dual purposes: an illustration to two points. A good and a bad one.

Good one: the tool I used to find the Quard Corners, which I presumed lost few years ago when thedojo.com portal went down (now is a spam ad site) was the Internet Archive (aka the Wayback Machine). A very nifty tool to search for sites you presumed lost - give it a try. It may come in handy one day. The point is that even if you are looking for something far from serious, you may discover a tool useful for scientific purposes. I have already used it to get access to some articles I thought were gone.

Bad news is that Quard, while great in the past, seems to have lost 'the touch'. He has a site now, with a blog and thing...but it is no longer funny. Poor jokes and 3%#5-like obscenities aplenty. Point being this time - 'how the mighty have fallen'. There is funny and there is sad. If I ever start sounding like that, kill me on spot.

Tommorow is my 25th birthday. Here's wishing that Quard's regains his touch that made me once ROTFLOL.

Scorch

Apparently, I don't have a single 3,5" floppy left. Workable, that is. I have quite a lot of old, broken and unreadable floppies. In the day of nets and CDRWs, floppies are required only by some old bureaucrats :>

Anyway, what I wanted to write today is Scorch. I found it on one floppy I tested - or should I say I found it with a label 'Scorch', since the floppy contents were unreadable. But all the memories of my high school time spent playing Scorch with my friends came back.

So, what is Scorch? How can you ask - it's the 1mb hit of 1995 :) Wiki sais: Scorched Earth is a popular shareware computer game from the PC-DOS era, originally written by Wendell Hicken, in which tanks do turn-based battle in two-dimensional terrain, adjusting the angle and power of their tank turrets before each shot. Despite the simple premise (and very simple graphics, by modern standards) the game is still playable, and some find it quite addictive. Scorched Earth is considered the archetype of its format, on which the popular Worms and GunBound games are based.

If you want more info, just go dowload it :) Visit BugMeNot.com for pass/login (unless you feel like receiving more spam :>), and if you have java problems (like me), the direct link to download is 'http://xfer13.fileplanet.com/classicgaming/scorch/scorch15.zip'. I can never understand why ppl waste time designing sites that try to mess with java and don't work half the time.

And after you check the classic, do try the open source Scorch 3D as well :) Oh, and there is a Java-based Scorch 2000 as well. Not a bad remake. Glad to see old game alive :)

Anyway, enjoy the games :)

A self-improving computer?

An experimental supercomputer made
from hardware that can reconfigure
itself to tackle different software
problems is being built by Edinburgh
University researchers. It will use
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
chips instead of conventional fixed,
general-purpose processing devices.
The researchers say it could usher
in a new...

http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=4547&m=16051

Interesting. It reminds me of what I. J. Good once said

"Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make."

Can you hear the singularity getting closer?

Wish it existed in Poland

Just today I found a very interesting page: http://www.ratemyprofessor.com. I have to say it is an excellent idea: a webpage where one can rate all his lectures. One can only whish that in the future the student's opinion will be the most imporant factor determining wheter a given person should be employed as a lecturer. One has to remember that universities primary goal is to spread knowledge, and thus they are made for the students, not the other way around. And remember: being a great scientist does not make one a great techer (or vice versa).

Good riddance :)

Internet Explorer share slips below 90 percent

Better late then never. Honestly, how can web savvy people - using forums, blogs and such - still use such a backword, user unfriendly and unsafe product as IE is beyond me.

Star Wars III: The better take

85 mb - believe me, worth every bit of this. ROFTLOL.

When you get up from the floor, try



If you can still move, go for some other great production from STASZEK :)

And remember: STASZEK IS THE BEŚCIAK

KurzweilAI.net

Most of the time, Wiki and few foras like Baens Bar are enough to make my web-day. Still, from time to time one discovers a site that is so...nifty...that one has to add it to his fav websites (after all, they did find their way there like this in the first place). My new discovery is KurzweilAI.netTechnological Singularity. Yes, news - I have to admit that I signed for their weekly newsletter, which collects interesting news stories, and I don't regret it. I don't have to look for them anymore - they are arriving in my mail - news about nanotechnology being used in production, gene sequencing costs droping rapidly...all those cool things that say 'Singularity is a'comin'!'. Plus it has a bot. And graphs. And link maps. And a guide how to live for eternity. If it ain't nifty, then what is? - a nice collection of news about the

I will buy you a beer at Olympus Mons yet :)

How it all started...

While we are celebrating the end of the Second World War, it is good to remember how it all started...

German troops destroying a Polish border checkpoint, 1 September 1939. World War II begins.

Following the German-staged attack on September 1, 1939, at 04:40 hours, German forces invaded Poland's western, southern and northern borders. Polish armies, defending the long borders, were soon forced to withdraw east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of Bzura, Germans gained undisputed initiative. Polish forces then begun a withdrawal south-east, following a plan that called for long defence in the Romanian bridgehead area, where the Polish forces were to await expected Western Allies counterattack and relief. On 17 September, 1939, the Soviet Red Army invaded the eastern regions of Poland. The Soviets were acting in co-operation with Nazi Germany, carrying out their part of the secret appendix of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (the division of Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influences). In view of the unexpected Soviet agression, Polish government and high command decided that the defence of the Romanian bridgehead was no longer feasible and ordered the evacuation of all troops to neutral Romania.

Testing 2

Testing comments...

And one, two, three...singularity here we come!

1950s:

"One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue." -- Stanislaw Ulam, May 1958, referring to a conversation with John von Neumann

In 1965, statistician I. J. Good described a concept even more similar to today's meaning of singularity, in that it included in it the advent of superhuman intelligence:

"Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make."

1993: Vinge's essay "Technological Singularity" contains the oft-quoted statement that "Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly thereafter, the human era will be ended."

2001: n his essay, The Law of Accelerating Returns , Ray Kurzweil writes: An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The "returns," such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.


2005: So where are we now? Check the recent (April 23rd) New Scientist: Whatever happened to machines that think? In the next few months, after being patiently nurtured for 22 years, an artificial brain called Cyc (pronounced "psych") will be put online for the world to interact with. And it's only going to get cleverer. Opening Cyc up to the masses is expected to accelerate the rate at which it learns, giving it access to the combined knowledge of millions of people around the globe as it hoovers up new facts from web pages, webcams and data entered manually by anyone who wants to contribute. Crucially, Cyc's creator says it has developed a human trait no other AI system has managed to imitate: common sense. "I believe we are heading towards a singularity and we will see it in less than 10 years," says Doug Lenat of Cycorp, the system's creator.

It is close. Every day, it gets closer. Today? Tommorow? Next decade? I don't know about you, but I *am* expecting to see Singularity during my lifetime...

My hero

Well, at the very least a person that I can call my role-model. Do check the Economist article 'The future, just around the bend' about Ray Kurzweil.

A year in review OR a new mission statement

This entry I will do something I rarely do: I will write a little about myself. Please bear with me - at least if you want to know the reason for lack of updates over the past weeks and what is likely to happen next. If you are a causal - or first time - reader, I invite you to go throug archieve instead, as most of my entries are more interesting then this, and few lose their relevance.

It has been a year since I started this blog. A lot has happened since then. A year ago, I had just obtained my MA in Economy, I was torn between looking for job, looking for a doctorate and just 'living the life'. One of the reasons that made me start this blog was my desire to keep contact with other human beings, since I lost touch with majority of my student-day collegues. Another was because I believe I had something to share with you - something interestign along the lines of various reviews, ideas, links and such.

Now many of this has changed. I am pursuing a doctorate, which does take some of my time (and is likely to take even more with time) and I discovered an apparently better venue for my desire to contribute to others - meaning you - the Wikipedia. While this blog has received at best a little over 50 hits per months, my Wikipedia contributions, especially my eight (so far) Featured Articles, had been viewed by scores of thousands. I would like to take this moment to thank all of my readers - you, again - especially Jason C, the only person who more or less regulary commented on my posts, and therefore is the only person I can actually name and thank in person (I could try to make an educated guess based on some IPs, but if you want to remain anonymous, well, it is your choice :) ). You were the reason that kept me blogging, hoping to make your time visiting this site worthwile. But web gravitation - and simple common sense - made me spend more and more time on Wiki, were my contribution is simply much more valuable - instead of being of mild interest to few dozens of people, it is of use to many many more.

What I want to say, basically, is that barring any comments on your side, I will likely settle on blogging once per week or less. I simply don't think this is useful anymore - to me or you - compared with what I (and you) can do with our time on Wikipedia.

Feel free to drop here again. I will likely post, as always, various trivia and useful links that I think are important - or just *so* funny. Or anything you request. Just no so often as I used to.

Take care and visit my Wiki homepage to check on my most recent articles!

Something begins, something ends

It is nice to see something one helped to create grow. And no, I am not talking about Wiki this time. Check Worldcon blog entry on Games Research Association of Poland.

In other news. A great man has passed away. I am sure you know who I mean. But still, you may want to check His entry on Wiki. In Poland, I have seen many mourning flags and such. And I have heard - seen, read - that it is common in many other parts of the world. I wonder if any other person alive today could commend such loyality...or love? Truly, the Pope was the friend of us all.

April Fools and assorted wisdom

Wikipedia:Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense

Got me ROTFLOL for a long, long time. Now it is your turn!

One can wish...

...for more often updates, perhaps? Well, I guess not. Still, I have not abandoned the blog. Just that I am busy working on Wiki (and my doctoral studies seem to have finally picked a pace up...more on that later).

Central and Eastern Europe have been a site of much war and destruction over the last few hundred years. But in alternate history, this could have been different, for example, if one man dream would have became a reality:

In 1919 Józef Piłsudski envisioned a federation (the "Federation of Międzymorze"), a Polish-led confederation comprising Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and other Central and East European countries now emerging out of the crumbling empires after the First World War. The new union would have had borders similar to those of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 15th–18th centuries; and it was to be a counterweight to, and restraint upon, any imperialist intentions of Russia or Germany. It might have made central Europe into a "Third Europe" invulnerable to Poland's historic antagonists, Germany and Russia.

It might have. It didn't, since it never happened. Soviets pulled all strings they could to prevent this. Western Allies feared that weakened Germany and Russia may not be able to pay First World War reparations, and that the balance of power in Europe would be offset too much by the newly independent countries. Lithuanians, Ukrainians and many other nations that were approached for entry into the Miedzymorze federation were afraid of any compromise limiting their own, dearly awaited independence, and in many cases had good reasons to be wary of Poland, as various border conflicts and even all-out wars divided their new, respective governments (especially the Polish-Lithuanian War, Polish-Ukrainian War and border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia). Finally, many Polish politicians like Roman Dmowski were opposed to the idea of multi-cultural federation, prefering the creation of nationalistic, pure-ethinic Polish country. Eventually, Piłsudki's dream was lost in the aftermath of the Polish-Soviet War, and the alliance between Central and Eastern European countries was never formed. Less then two decades after Piłsudski first articulated the proposal, and five years after his death, all of the countries that so persistently guarded their independence were again swallowed by their neigbours - Germany and the Soviet Union.

One can only wonder what would our world look today if Piłsudski's dream became a reality. I can't help but think that for the war ravaged European countries this alternative world would be a better one...

Wikipedia Publishes 500,000th English Article

Press release:

The Wikimedia Foundation announced today the creation of the 500,000th article in the English-language Wikipedia, its project to create a free, multilingual, online encyclopedia. The article was about "Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_settlements_in_the_Soviet_Union)." Wikipedia is a comprehensive online reference that has won acclaim and awards (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trophy_box) for its detailed coverage of current events and popular culture, its usability, and its community of contributors. It receives millions of visits each day.

Other recent additions to its English-language edition include hundreds of full-length songs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sound/list), almost a gigabyte of new images (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page), and subject-specific portals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Art).

Daniel Pink, author and WIRED Magazine columnist, recently described Wikipedia as "the self-organizing, self-repairing, hyperaddictive library of the future." BBC News calls it "One of the most reliably useful sources of information around, on or off-line," and Tim Berners-Lee, father of the Web, has called it "The Font of All Knowledge."

Wikipedia is the first and best-known project of the Wikimedia Foundation. It has spawned sister projects, including a dictionary, a library of textbooks, a compendium of quotations, and a news site. These projects are all run on the open source MediaWiki platform (http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net/).

Wikipedia is available free of charge and free of advertising from its website, en.wikipedia.org. Interested contributors can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Introduction to learn how to add to the encyclopedia. DVD versions of the encyclopedia are scheduled to be released in English, German (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia-Distribution), and French, later this year.

Why ebooks are GOOD

It sounds bizarre, but giving something away for free is ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
insert link good way to make profit. A contradiction? No.

Read Building the , and don't forget to check the Ghostwheel!

Nice reading...and buying :D

The Daily .WAV

Found a new site. Nifty. The Daily .WAV. Title sais it all. Enjoy!

The Daily .WAV


"I am Susan Ivanova, Commander, daughter of Andre and Sofie Ivanoff. I am the Right Hand of Vengence. . .and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, damnit. I am Death Incarnate and the last living thing you are ever going to see. God sent me."

Anybody wants to guess where is this quote from? :)

Free Antivirus

It is worth following Sourceforge Projects of the Months. Each of them represents the best of open source community. And this month we got a real treat: a free antivirus, ClamWin:

ClamWin A Free Antivirus For Windows

ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003. It provides a graphical user interface to the Clam AntiVirus engine.

ClamWin Free Antivirus uses the GNU General Public License by the Free Software Foundation and is free (as in freedom) software. To find out more about GNU General Public License and what it entitles you to, please visit the following link: Philosophy of the GNU Project - Free Software Foundation.

ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code at no cost. It features:

• Scanning Scheduler;
• Automatic Virus Database Updates. ClamAV team updates Virus Databases on a regular basis and almost immediately after a new virus/variant is out;
• Standalone Virus Scanner;
• Context Menu Integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer;
• Addin to Microsoft Outlook.

The latest version of Clamwin Free Antivirus is 0.83 (click on this link for more information.

Gotta love open source. Now, where can I find good oo firewall?

Gallery update

I've updated my honorverse gallery with many new Honorverse-based pictures. Enjoy!

Here is one my favourites:

Donate to Wiki

Imagine a world in which every person has free access
to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.

And we need your help.

Fund drive goal: $75,000 (USD) $33,393.02 to go.

Good anime

I have discovered an interesting thing. More to the point, a new anime, definetly worth watching to all fans of good space combat.

Target destroyed!

Starship Operators is an anime (so far 4 eps have been released) about a single spaceship fighting a war after the main fleet has been destroyed and their country has surrendered. So far, every episode has a nice one on one battle, with a nice array of weapons (including asteroid throwing ship), decent tactics (how to spot a stealth ship or close to a long range ship) and character development. I had some doubts after the 1st episode if the story would hold, but after the 4 eps I am definetly hooked up and want more.

The crew

Btw, they finally managed to explain why we can hear sound in space...

Target spotted

Since the show is not licensed outside Japan, episodes can be downloaded from animesuki. Catch them when they are available!

Official site, probably nice...if you can read Japanese :D; some tech pics under mechanics section, character sections has character pics and bios.

Seaslug Team has pics and spoilers, be warned!
http://www.davidslife.com/anime/reviews/starship_operators_1.php (pics and review)

Your standard blurb on animesuki.

REPORT FROM THE BESIEGED CITY

My favourite poem.

"REPORT FROM THE BESIEGED CITY" (1982) by Zbigniew Herbert

Late update

Almost a week with no updates - that is rare even for me. I was waiting for the replies to the quiz...got none :(

Well, no replies - I am not telling you the answer then. Over the next few days I'll be at Krakonsci-fi con, so expect few updates (please note...if you want more updates, all you gotta do is *ask* :D).

Quiz question nr 3: Who and when wrote the oldest alternative history?

News...or no news

Today's news...well, I am not a journal. But I can point you to 2 very interesting news sites. You probably know the first one, as I mentoned it already: Wikinews. Well, Wikinews is interesting, but atm it is far from comprehensive (although it is growing rapidly). Now, the second site is probably more widly known: one of Google spin-offs, Google News. What it does it offers you a search (suprise...) for the latest news on a given topic. A nice thing, give it a try - or check the most recent news article about Wikipedia :) Btw, I had a really good laugh reading the 'Guide to a smarter you' . Although, on a second thought, this should be obligatory subject in schools...well, perhaps with the exception of visitng Fark.com :>

With accordance to the rules, I am extending the last queston deadline until I get at least one answer...

Game round two

So, answers to yesterday's quiz.

Zepplin answer: TRUE

Winner: Noah and Flow, who voted true. Although none of you were very convincing :D

Rule update: only answers in the blog comments section or send to me by mail are counted. I don't mind if you send me sth on ICQ or etc., but don't count I will remember who send what few hours later. My memory is not what is used to be... :> To find my mail, click 'About me' on the left panel.

From my favourite source: Zeppelin article on Wiki

While Germany determined the Zeppelin would be obsolete for military purposes in the coming war and concentrated on the development of airplanes, the United States pursued a program of military zeppelin construction even though it had not developed a clear military doctrine for Zeppelin use. At the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 that brought the United States into World War II, it had 10 pressure zeppelins:

• 4 K-class US Zeppelins: K-2, K-3, K-4 and K-5 designed as a patrol zeppelins built from 1938.
• 3 L-class US Zeppelins: L-1, L-2 and L-3 as small training zeppelins, produced from 1938.
• 1 G-class US Zeppelin built in 1936 for training.
• 2 TC-class US Zeppelins that were older patrol zeppelins designed for land forces, build in 1933. The US Navy acquired them from Army in 1938.

Only K and TC class zeppelins could be used for combat purposes and they were quickly pressed into service against Japanese and German submarines which at that time were sinking US shipping in visual range of US coast. US Navy command, remembering the zeppelins anti-submarine success from WWI, immediately requested that new modern anti-submarine Zeppelin and on [2 January]] 1942 formed the ZP-12 patrol unit based in Lakehurst from the 4 K zeppelins. The ZP-32 patrol unit was formed from 2 TC and 2 L zeppelins a month later, based at US Navy (Moffet Field) in Sunnyvale in California. A zeppelin training base was created there as well.

In the years 1942-1944, approximately 1400 zeppelin pilots and 3000 support crew members were trained in the military zeppelin crew training program and the zeppelin military personnel grew from 430 to 12400. The US Zeppelins were produced by the Goodyear factory in Akron. From 1942 till 1945, 154 zeppelins were built for the US Navy (133 K-class, 10 L-class, 7 G-class, 4 M-class) and 5 L-class for civilian customers (serial number L-4 to L-8).

The primary zeppelin tasks were patrol and escort of ships near the coastline. They also served as an organisation center for the convoys to direct ship movements and course, and were used during naval search and rescue operations. Rarer duties of the zeppelins included aerophoto reconaissance, naval minelaying and minesweeping, parachute unit transport and deployment, cargo and personnel transportation. They were deemed quite successful in their duties with the highest combat readiness factor in the entire US airforce (87%). They were extremely successful in their primary goal of anti-submarine warfare as the below numbers ilustrate:

• 1942: 454 ships sunk near the US coat, 4-13 zeppelins in service
• 1943: 65 ships sunk near the US coat, 17-53 zeppelins in service
• 1944: 8 ships sunk near the US coat, 56-68 zeppelins in service
• 1945: 3 ships sunk near the US coat, 53-48 zeppelins in service

Not a single ship from a convoy escorted by zeppelins was sunk. Zeppelins engaged the submarines with depth charges, or rarely from other onboard weapns. They were very successful since they could match the slow speed of the submarine and bomb it until its destruction. Additionally, sumberged sumbarines had no means of detecting a zeppelin approaching.

Only one zeppelin was ever destroyed by U-boot: on the night of 18/19 July 1943 a K-class zeppelin (K-74) from ZP-21 division was patrolling the coastline near Florida. Using a radar, the zeppelin located a surfaced German submarine. Due to the failure of the depth charge release mechanism, the Zeppelin was unable to release the bombs during the bombing run and the German returned fire. The (K-74) received serious damage and was forced to make a water landing. The crew was rescued by patrol boats in the morning, but one crewman died from a shark attack. The U-Boat responsible was sunk a few hours later.

Some US zeppelins saw action in the European war theater. The ZP-14 unit operating in the Mediterranian area from June 1944 completely denied the use of the Gibraltar Straits to Axis submarines. Zeppelins from the ZP-12 unit took part in the sinking of the last U-Boat before German capitulation, sinking U-881 on 6 May 1945 together with destroyers Atherton and Mobery.

Now, for the question #2:

Look at the picture below and tell me, what in the world is going on there? The person who answers with the description closest to the real historical event, gets the prize. Of course if sb manages to find EXACTLY the event in question, the better.

Rules of the Game

All right, I decided to do something to this blog to make it more fun than it already is - yes, I know it is a challenge, but it can be done! :D

Seriously. In addition to my normal posts, the game will be based on what I posted yesterday about Zeppelins. So:
* every day (more or less...) I will post a question. After 24h AND after I receive at least one reply, I will post the answers. There will be Hall of Fame for the players, and we can discuss the prizes later (for example, blog links exchange, etc.).

Answer to the Zep question coming in <12h. Yep, that means 2 updates in one day. Aren't I full of surpises today? :D

Zeppelins

Fascinating topic. But let's keep this short today - I'll ask you a single question and you reply 'True' or 'False'. Answer is coming tommorow.

Question: Did USA use zeppelins extensively during the Second World War?

Prize is...well, you post, you tell me what you want, I'll see what can be done.

U.S. Navy Zeppelin ZRS-5 "USS Macon" over Moffett Field in 1933

World War Two: The Game

The blogger seems to be having trouble with html coding today, so no pic in this update. and if the links is butchered, you know who to blame :> Today's theme is: the coolest game simulating WW2. Whether you remember the Panzer General times and dreamed of a full world map lile me, or just like strategy game - this is one good piece of work!

With a demo to download: Hearts of Iron


And if you manage to defend Poland in '39 I'll give you a present :)

PS. It appears that the popularity of this blog is slowly increasing (see Stat4U link below if you don't believe me, it is non-passed). I am happy that some of you find my ramblings somewhat useful D Feel free to use comment button for some feedback! <- Yes, this is a hint.

Be seeing you!

Auschwitz concentration camp

Seems to be the current topic of the day, and rightly so. I recently reviewied a very interesting article arguing that the number of people who pershed there is not ~1,5 million but ~5 million. Somehow reading this article (unfortunately, not online yet), in an academic manner detailing things like crematories workload capacities, with columns of numbers calculating how efficient Nazi machine was...it was the most horryfing this I have ever seen or read.

My grandfather, a prisoner of a Nazi camp himself, used to say: 'Don't be afraid of ghosts. Be afraid of man'. I understand now why.

Entrance to Auschwitz, 1941. — The slogan Arbeit macht frei over the gate translates as "work liberates".

Turn on your TV and see the International Anniversairy speeches. Or just read a Wiki article. One way or another, we should make sure such things never happen again.

You are of course aware that Soviet Union used to run its own concentration camps? That China still runs its own camps, the Laogai? That before the US Invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein regime had its own camps, in which ~500,000 of Iraqis opposed to his regime have perished? That hundred thousands of people are dying in North Korean concentration camps, where families of three generations are sent for life for a casual remark about the ruling party? That death squads in Sudan are commiting genocide as you read those words, that the still lingering Congo Civil War is responsible for civilian casualties approximetly equal to the number of Auschwitz dead...

Just something to think over while listening to the Auschwitz memorial. We have many words to say...but pitfuly little of will to back them up with action. People are still dying, as they have been in Auschwitz. I wonder for how much longer...

A nice suprise

News flash:
Today, I have been elected to the position of Wikipedia Administrator.

With great power comes great responsibity...

Pilecki nominated

Today, Witold Pilecki is a FA on Wiki.

That's my 4th featured FA :) Time fora 5th, I think :)

Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, founder of the resistance movement Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska) and member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). During World War II he was the only person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. While there, he organized inmate resistance and as early as 1940 informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's camp atrocities. He escaped from Auschwitz in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising (August-October 1944). Pilecki was executed in 1948 by communist authorities.

Wikinews growth

I have just checked on Wikinews growth, and I am very pleasantly suprised. Late Novermber there was hardly any news, and now? See for yourself. Or to quote a friend: We're even starting to have scoops. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Crisis_in_Belize isn't covered by the major media yet.

I wrote obituary for Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, see Jan Nowak-Jezioranski Dies. It is easy to report on the news you deem important. No corporaton tells wikinews what to write - we report the truth only.

Reporting from Wikinews, the ultimate news service.

Would you?

15 years ago:




Tank man. What would you do in his place?

Happy Birthday Wiki!

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, turned 4 years old 15 January 2005.

The English Wikipedia alone now has more than 450,000 articles. Soon, we will know the winner of the Wikipedia:Half-million pool. As of today, bets are still open on when the millionth English article will be reached (Wikipedia:Million pool)

Fifty four of the non-English Wikipedias have over 1,000 articles.

On 29 December 2004, for the first time, Wikipedia was listed on Alexa's list (http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=lang&lang=en) of the top 100 English-language web sites, at #99. On Wikipedia Day 2005, it was listed at rank 87.

Let's party!

Cassini-Huygens

The Cassini-Huygens probe has landed on Saturn's moon Titan, the mysterious satellite that has perplexed astronomers for decades.

Below: An artist's impression of the Huygens probe as it descends through Titan's atmosphere. Titan's sky may well be darker and smoggier than this painting suggests and Saturn never actually rises above the horizon at the probe's landing site.

See Space.com for current coverage, and Wikipedia article for a comprehensive (and constantly updated) background

Trivia

According to Alexa, Wiki is much more popular then Slashdot.com and is the #196 most popular internet size, rising fast.

This has a downsize: Wiki is quite slow recently :(

Oh well. It is still *so nifty*. And a reason I have been bloggin a little less recently - most stuff I write is on Wiki. See?

First words in space...

On 12 April, 1961, 06:17 UTC Yuri Gagarin, from Vostok 1 spacecraft, said "The craft is operating normally. I can see Earth in the view port of the Vzor. Everything is proceeding as planned".

Perhaps not the most inspiring words, but nonetheless, the first words a man has spoken outside Earth.

Good enough for me. You can read the entire transcript from the mission here.

The 18th Most Decisive War in the world's history

Is the article I am working on the Wiki right now. Feel free to help me make Polish-Soviet War a featured article. Or just read it for fun.

‘If Charles Martel had not checked the Saracen conquest at the Battle of Tours, the interpretation of the Koran would be taught at the schools of Oxford, and her pupils might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.
Had Pilsudski and Weygand failed to arrest the triumphant advance of the Soviet Army at the Battle of Warsaw, not only would Christianity have experienced a dangerous reverse, but the very existence of Western civilisation would have been imperilled. The Battle of Tours saved our ancestors from the Yoke of the Koran; it is probable that the Battle of Warsaw saved Central and parts of Western Europe from a more subversive danger – the fanatical tyranny of the Soviet.
On the essential point, there can be little room for doubt; had the Soviet forces overcome Polish resistance… Bolshevism would have spread throughout Central Europe and might well have penetrated the whole continent.’ -- Edgar Vincent D'Abernon

Restraining creativity

How legal issues strangle creativity: The Case of FairUse on WikiCommons.

In other news. MegaMek is nifty. Check it out. Feel free to challenge me to a duel :)

.

Poetry day

I am a long way from poetry fan and there are very few poems that I definetly enjoy. I find most poetry to be a novel-wannabe. Poor authors who cannot write a novel may create a poem, which is just as illegible, but its form is more likely to be 'recognized' Sheez.

But then there are some good poems, which do convey universe of meanings in their microscopic form (eeerrr...I think I am gettign to poetic myself, now.). So let me just invite you to familiarize yourself with work of Zbigniew Herbert.

Several his poems have been translated into English, including my favourite Report from the Besieged City. I like it so much I have learned it by heart once, just for myself :)

Unfortunately, my 2nd favourite, Powrót Prokonsula, is available online only in Polish.

In this last day of 2004, I think that some poetry is just what the doctor's ordered...enjoy, and see you next year :)

More featuredness

Max Weber has been featured today on Wiki.

And I submitted another bio to Featured Articles Candidates: Witold Pilecki

He took part in Polish-Soviet War, ensuring the communist menace didn't conquer Europe in the aftermath of IWW. He fought in the Polish Defence War of 1939 and Warsaw Uprising. He was the only person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where he organized a resistance movement and helped inform the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's camp atrocities (although the Allies chose not to believe him, considering his reports grossly exaggerated). If this is not a hero, who is? And for all this, he was executed in 1948 by communist authorities after a staged trial, for his loyality to the democratic Polish Government in Exile in London.

Consider: Pilecki in Auschwitz, 42, and Mokotów, 47. Good proof there was little difference between Nazis and Communists.


To a forgotten hero. We do remember you.

Schoolars here and far away

Google has recently launched a new, quite interesting service: Google Schoolar.
' Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.'
Definetly a tool with great potential. I spend hours looking for various info every day, and often it is difficult to find proper peer-reviewed materials in the flood of web junk. Google Schoolar seems like a good idea. Just look at the results on my fav topic, 'evolution of democracy'. Quite a few worthwile hits - a much bigger improvement then results from 'classic Google (keep in mind 'peer review', this is be or not to be for anybody thinking 'serious science').
Oh. It has its own official blog :)

On a more distant front, Cassini-Huygens, the Saturn probe, has , released a probe to land on Titan. Setting beside many trivia things, I am nicely suprised by the coverage such a current event is getting on Wiki. Same as with Ukraine's Orange Revolution. Before Wiki, we had to wait years for new things to be added to encyclopedia. Now it is happening almost in an instant. Sign of times, perhaps?

Space.com has a pretty nice coverage as well. A site dedicated to space news. Nifty. :)

Mmm....mecha

Mecha. The nifty looking piece of sf military hardware, perfect for big dozes of property damage.

And they look cool. See the Battlemechs...

Oh. Found you another nice comic. Real life. Check their 'mecha' comic. Requirements: understand the difference between western and eastern mecha concepts :>

3rd Featured

With Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth becoming Featured on Wiki, this is my 3rd article that became Featured - after Warsaw Uprising and Max Weber.

I am not sure what topic I'll chose for next article. Suggestions or wishes, anybody?

XMAS Comics

It's time to relax and have a laugh.

And what better then to read some funny comics?

Garfield is my old favourite, although they have lately redisgned their site, making it cluttered with usless Flash junk, and even worse, music. And the new postcards and games are as bad as the movie was. Oh well, the comic is still is good. :)



Sluggy, as always, is nifty and a bit cracked.



Grand Avenue seems nice. Although I have discovered it just today :)



Calvin and Hobble are just being themsevles.



In case you want to see more, here is a nice collection of links.

Oh yes. Merry XMAS - Wesołych Świąt!

Ooooo! OO 2.0

End of 2004 is a good time for good open source soft. Not only browsers and email clients have been revolutionized by Firefox and Thunderbird, but now office suites are witnessing the birth of Open Office 2.0

Better then Microsoft Office, free, smaller, compatibile with all known formats, with text editor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, database and graphic editor - if you haven't tried OO, do so now!

In case you want a second opinion, here is a review from the Inquirer.

Ooo, the power of OO! :)

Say No to Patents

But first, let's start with nice e-library - online collection of Greg Egan's texts (on his own page, of course).

Perhaps this short poem from his novel 'Distress' will illustrate best what today's blog is about:

It is not true that the map of freedom will be complete
with the erasure of the last invidious border when it remains for us to chart the attractors of thunder
and delineate the arrhythmias of drought to reveal the molecular dialects of forest and savanna
as rich as a thousand human tongues and to comprehend the deepest history of our passions
ancient beyond mythology's reach
So I declare that no corporation holds a monopoly on numbers
no patent can encompass zero and one
no nation has sovereignty over adenine and guanine
no empire rules the quantum waves
And there must be room for all at the celebration of
understanding
for there is a truth which cannot be bought or sold imposed by force, resisted or escaped.

And now, with no further diversions, the most important link of this post:

Wiki as a portal

I believe I let you go over two weeks without hearing (err...reading) me talking about the virtues of Wikipedia. So for today's argument on 'why Wiki is so nifty':

Wiki main page as a portal

Wiki main page consists of several very useful tools, making it an accidental but extremly nice portal. Unlike the commercial portals, that shower you with adds and substandard services like 'free' (lol...) email or advertisers-friendly search engine, wiki sports no ads and has both the important utility and trivia features you may want to start your day.

Utility comes first, so here it is: In the news. Or as wikipedians call them - current events. Look to the right side of Wiki's main page. If something important is happening out there, wiki will have a note about it asap. For me it is much better to start my day checking for important global news on Wiki then going to a site like CNN and trying to see what is going on by browsing through dozen of US-centric dumbed-down news, half the time concerned with (let me check what is on CNN *now*) - oh yes, 'Slain mom's baby believed to be found.' Geez. Like I care. This is what is important for me: European Union leaders agree to invite Turkey to begin negotiations to join the EU from 3 October 2005. With a picture, it is one of the first things that hit me when I loaded Wiki page today. And suprise, to find it on CNN I had to scroll down one screen and check the tiny World news hyperlinks section. No comment :>

Then there is the wiki search engine. Sure, it is limited to wiki only, but if it doesn't find you what you want, it gives you the choice to search for the term on Google or Yahoo. Honestly, I find myself more and more often going first to Wiki site for search then to Google. The logic is simple: if I type whatever on Google, I get zillion hits, sometimes getting lucky and having relevant ones early. But if I go to Wiki, sure, I have a good chance of finding nothing and having to go to Google anyway - but more and more often Wiki nets me a releavant article, saving me having to sort Google pages. Btw, you can now have Wiki search in your Mozilla browser in addition to Google toolbar. If it is not near perfect, then what is?

After you know the news, then you can check the trivia. Althoug Wiki trivia is almost always useful. Sooner or later...knowledge is power. Behold, the left of Current Events: Featured Articles.

Featured articles are the heart of Wiki. Or at the very least, one of several heats. Each day they provide new article for the Main Page. With a nice picture. Btw, while I am talking about pictures, please take a look at Featured Picture section! Featuered section means that people have a good reason to visit Wiki every day, even if they are not looking for anything particular - they can read the short lead on interesting subject, and if they find it interesting, the entire article itself. Well, thats trivia for you :) Then there is of course more trivia like Selected Anniversaires and Did you know... section.

If you ever though encyclopedia is not fun (who didn't? :>), time to revise that. Off you go, have fun at wiki. :)

Mozilla news

Firefox 1.0, the best browser out there, is old news - but I will remind you about it in the unlikely event some of you forgot about it and - Passion forbids - are still using the virus-friendly Internet Exploder.

But just few days ago it was joined by Thundirbird 1.0, the best email client out there :> So if you are using Outlook Exploder, the virus-friendly client, feel free - or should I say obliged - to check the 'bird.

Of course it will import all you old mails, settings, passwords, and such.

Consider this: many people happily load Firefox and Thunderbird onto Windows, but would anybody ever load Internet Explorer onto desktop Linux?

Feel the power of open source...

Fallen Art

An island.

An old forgotten base somewhere out on the pacific. An asylum for insane soldiers and officers, too highly connected or (in)famous to be send elsewhere.

Sergant Al cultivates his love for young soldiers.

Dr. Friederich cultivates his love for photography.

And the old, mentally lost General A creates his art.

He uses neither paper nor canvas.

He uses something totally different.

--------

I feel Oscar a'comin'. Check it yourself.

Enjoy the reading

Today I have some free (legal) ebooks for you. Well, perhaps more of a short stories. Still definetly worth reading - check out Michael Stackople's Wars stories

Enjoy. And if you want more, remember there is the entire Bean Free Library out there!

Hot Stock Options

In blogs. LOL. BlogShares. LOL again.

On second thought, it is not as crazy idea as one may think. Economic games do allow one to see which blogs are most popular, and some other nifty tools provided by BlogShares allow are useful for seeing blogosphere growth or track how individual blogs are doing.

Still. LOL. Oh, do invest in Voice... :D

Best space opera ever

Is Legend of Galactic Heroes. And you can download it from animesuki. Now isn't it nifty?

Let's hope it does gets licenced in US or Europe one day, so it all can be reased as high quality DVDs...mmm....you did sign the petition, did you? No? Go now and sign! NOW!

One can always dream...

Max, featured, raises questions

Just letting you know that my* work on Max Weber article on Wiki has paid off - it is now officialy featured (i.e. among a hundred or so best articles on Wiki).

Feel free to read it. I have to admit, parts of his work are really fascinating.

There is this problem that I can't get out of my head.
I. Weber concluded that:
* Christianity is the reason our Occident (Western) culture is dominant today
II. Weber never wrote directly that in his works, but it is (my) logical conclusion:
* if we accept the Christianity religious view that there is a God and he gave his revelations to Jews and later Christians - we have to ask why didn't He gave this revelations to other civilisation (Chinese, Native American, African, etc.)? Did He meant for Western culture to dominate?
* if there is no divine puprose behind that process, does Western culture domination is based on accident - i.e. invention of 'right' religion in the Middle East few k years ago?
* is the path towards modern state, illustrated by Weber, the only path a civilisation can take? ie. if Christianity never appeared, would we be still living in 'ancient era', without scientifc method and capitalsm? What is needed for civilisation evolution? For how long can a civilisation stagnate - consider that in our world it was Occident that evolved fast and thus gained domination over other civlisations/cultures, which compared to Occident development, mostly stayed frozen in time...

This relates to extraterrestial life and alternative histories, you know :)

Consider. If similar religion is needed for technological and cultural advancement, then if we meed aliens, they should be some interesting similarities between our cultures, even if they evolved in entirely idffrent and separate places.

Hmmm. From Weber to ETs. My mind does amaze even me sometimes. Take care,

Good news for oranges

From Wikipedia: Ukraine's Supreme Court annuls the run-off vote of the disputed presidential election. The judges have declared that a new vote must be held by 26 December.

Le Sabot : Big News -- Supreme Court Ruling

Tulip Girl : Just In -- Supreme Court Has Ruled!

Still, this is just the beginning. The process of 'democratization' (and I need to write about what this means one day) is not achieved in one election. Poland started it 14 years ago and we are still feeling the aftershocks, especially the corruption of most of our politicians (for which we have to thank the Western companies and their generous bribes, I am afraid).

Don't despair though. However flawed our reality is today, it is uncomparably better to what we left behind. Ukraine is in for a rough, but better times, I hope.

Still keeping fingers crossed,

Late News

Apologies for being tad inactive here. I have been writing an AAR - After Action Report - from a multiplayer 4X game Space Empires. Think of it like a space opera story.

Feel free to read it here: link. Unfortunately, it is in Polish. Sorry :>

In other news.

Le Sabot: The Reformers are nobody's fool. Just found out that Poroshenko is saying the protesters will stay put until Yanukovych is out of office. This makes sense, since there's no way to trust any vote run by his ministers. On a practical level little compromise seems possible (in my opinion) so long as Yanukovych holds on to his office.

Agreed. As long as they hold office and power, what has changed? Not much.

Orange Ukraine: is now officialy orange (in all meanings of both officialy and orange :D).

Keep the support going. This fight is not yet over, and the bad guys still may have a few aces to play out. Remember: evil rarely goes down quietly.