Remember that cassette drive on your TRS-80?
June 12, 2000 7:07 PM Subscribe
Remember that cassette drive on your TRS-80? Well, now, *submarines* can make use of that advanced technology, too...
Me, myself, I can't see how this can be any different than active sonar or a Gertrude, neither of which you use if you think you're being tracked.
The whole thing sounds flaky, to me...
posted by baylink at 8:04 PM on June 12, 2000
I'm just reminded of a Johnny Quest cartoon where Johnny found out that Whalesong was a kind of animal internet. Makes me wonder if there's a lot of whaleporn and whalespam traffic.
posted by Ezrael at 8:59 PM on June 12, 2000
posted by Ezrael at 8:59 PM on June 12, 2000
I couldn't get through the article. The writer kept refering to email as e-mails and it just sounded, well, odd.
My old boss used to say "Earls", "Jiffs", and "Hyperlinks" and I just couldn't deal. He may have been a smart man but he lost all credibility when we were in meetings.
posted by perplexed at 10:11 PM on June 12, 2000
My old boss used to say "Earls", "Jiffs", and "Hyperlinks" and I just couldn't deal. He may have been a smart man but he lost all credibility when we were in meetings.
posted by perplexed at 10:11 PM on June 12, 2000
Gives 'Just click on the Earl' a whole new and somewhat perverted image, huh?
posted by Ezrael at 10:17 PM on June 12, 2000
posted by Ezrael at 10:17 PM on June 12, 2000
It sounds stupid that nobody has figured this out until now, but reliably getting undistorted sound across open dynamic ocean isn't something a trs-80 could do.
As we discovered on my boat, before DOLPHIN's test.
posted by flestrin at 8:32 AM on June 13, 2000
As we discovered on my boat, before DOLPHIN's test.
posted by flestrin at 8:32 AM on June 13, 2000
baylink, It is roughly the same as a gertrude. And you wouldn't use it if you thought you were being tracked. Point is, when you upload messages to the buoy, it saves them long enough for you to clear the area, then when the messages go out over the air, the buoy's position is given away, but not the boat's.
Problem I see with it is this: If you wanted to find a US submarine, you could just wait by one of the buoys and only have a 3 mile radius circle to watch instead of the whole ocean.
posted by flestrin at 8:38 AM on June 13, 2000
Problem I see with it is this: If you wanted to find a US submarine, you could just wait by one of the buoys and only have a 3 mile radius circle to watch instead of the whole ocean.
posted by flestrin at 8:38 AM on June 13, 2000
Sounds like a dialect issue, perplexed. Regionality, or something. Or maybe just different ages.
Because I hear "earl" much more often than U-R-L; "Jiff" has been the right way to pronouce .GIF since it was a proprietary Compuserve format (tagline seen on BBSes at the time: "Choosy modems choose .GIF!" I think there was also an image editor called .GIFfy); and I'd have to rummage through TBL's docs on W3, but I could swear "hyperlink" was the original term...
But, heck, I'm a guy who thinks "loan" is a always a noun and "lend" is always a verb; and that "hopefully" is the opposite of "hopelessly" ("Hopelessly we'll make it on time..." Just doesn't sing, does it?)
posted by aurelian at 8:46 AM on June 13, 2000
Because I hear "earl" much more often than U-R-L; "Jiff" has been the right way to pronouce .GIF since it was a proprietary Compuserve format (tagline seen on BBSes at the time: "Choosy modems choose .GIF!" I think there was also an image editor called .GIFfy); and I'd have to rummage through TBL's docs on W3, but I could swear "hyperlink" was the original term...
But, heck, I'm a guy who thinks "loan" is a always a noun and "lend" is always a verb; and that "hopefully" is the opposite of "hopelessly" ("Hopelessly we'll make it on time..." Just doesn't sing, does it?)
posted by aurelian at 8:46 AM on June 13, 2000
Ah, yes... the Giraffe-ic Interchange Format; the picture format for images that are much taller than they are wide.
Morons.
posted by baylink at 9:37 AM on June 13, 2000
Morons.
posted by baylink at 9:37 AM on June 13, 2000
JIF - The Jurrasic Interchange Format ... and other extinct file types.
posted by wendell at 9:45 AM on June 13, 2000
posted by wendell at 9:45 AM on June 13, 2000
An extinct file type used on this very page... Passenger pigeons should have it so good. :)
posted by aurelian at 4:18 PM on June 13, 2000
posted by aurelian at 4:18 PM on June 13, 2000
Hyperlink has been shorted to link since like 1996. Saying "hyperlink" everytime you want to say "link" is pretty lame.
I believe you about the GIF pronounciation, I remember it being (soft G)if a while back. But now it's "gif", as in "gift". Spend some time at a large web design company and you'll see what I mean...
As for URL, everyone I know spells it, everyone in the office spelled it, therefore, he should go along with all 20 other web people and speak like we speak.
posted by perplexed at 7:13 PM on June 13, 2000
I believe you about the GIF pronounciation, I remember it being (soft G)if a while back. But now it's "gif", as in "gift". Spend some time at a large web design company and you'll see what I mean...
As for URL, everyone I know spells it, everyone in the office spelled it, therefore, he should go along with all 20 other web people and speak like we speak.
posted by perplexed at 7:13 PM on June 13, 2000
You know, I was really hoping Bay would shellack my ass for that whole Whaleporn comment, but apparently my Johnny Quest reference slid below the surface of the commentary like a basking humpback.
There. Nobody could ignore all of that pornic iconography. Someone will come. :)
posted by Ezrael at 8:11 PM on June 13, 2000
There. Nobody could ignore all of that pornic iconography. Someone will come. :)
posted by Ezrael at 8:11 PM on June 13, 2000
There used to be Usenet polls about things like the pronunciation of GIF. The earlier you were on the net, the more likely you were to use a hard "G" as in "Graphic" Interchange Format -- I even think Compuserve specified this at one time. But "JIF" has come from behind and overtaken "GHIF".
posted by dhartung at 8:20 PM on June 13, 2000
posted by dhartung at 8:20 PM on June 13, 2000
Not where I live, Dan. Without exception, the people using JIF are posers. It was JIF because Compuserve *said so*. Look where *Compuserve* is now... :-)
As for whaleporn, Ez, aren't you following the pedophilia argument taking shape (not nearly quickly enough, damnit; I was looking forward to it) over on the "Kids aren't stupid" thread?
posted by baylink at 8:24 PM on June 13, 2000
As for whaleporn, Ez, aren't you following the pedophilia argument taking shape (not nearly quickly enough, damnit; I was looking forward to it) over on the "Kids aren't stupid" thread?
posted by baylink at 8:24 PM on June 13, 2000
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It's interesting that they don't give away the location of the sub, but our enemies (whales?) will finally realize just how poorly americans spell. It's all worth it, though, cause it's high time our boys at sea saw that Whazzup commercial.
posted by Doug at 7:41 PM on June 12, 2000