Re: Can I do Pubkic Domain that -

[David Honig <honig@otc.net>]

At 12:58 PM 12/18/97 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>At 12:04 PM -0700 12/18/97, David Honig wrote:
>>At 06:33 PM 12/17/97 -0800, Bruce Balden wrote:
>>>
>>>Those guys just never learn that not only is the barn door open, but that
>>>contents were never theirs to begin with.
>>>
>>
>>They blew their chance to regulate *computers* as military tech.
>>Computers, after all, were developed by the military for ballistic, bombs,
>>and codes.
>
>I can't follow your logic here. Several points:


I was alluding to the licensing of ordinary photocopiers and fax machines
(and computers, 
and now internet connections) in statist nations, to prevent their "misuse".  
In the 50's, the government should have 
(from the control point of view) used the hysteria of the times to regulate
*domestic* use of reprogrammable computers.  

As far as justification, bring up the baddies and the sheep cower: the
communist dope smoking child
pornographers with ties to Libya.  What's a little liberty for security? :-<


>* Nor is it clear that computers were developed "for" military uses. True,
>some earlier computers were used by the military, and the development bill
>was paid for by the military. But unless specific patents are involved,
>such early uses most definitely do not give the military control over later
>developments!
>
>(Nor do I think the military played the dominant role. I have long heard
>about how the space program caused the microprocessor to be invented.
>Nonsense. I was at Intel from 1974 to 1986, and have also read many
>histories of the 1960s developements, and can argue without fear of
>correction that neither military nor NASA spending had much if anything to
>do with the developments.)
>
>--Tim May
>


The develoment of computers can be traced along numerous threads.  One
thread (from say the 40's to 50's)
traces the encouragement of the codebreaking, ballistics, h-bomb fluid
dynamics, and missile
control community.  

By the 50's the computer was done, and improvements were just making better
implementations.

It is admittedly oversimplifying to follow only one thread (e.g., only
mathematical or engineering development),
but in the early days (way before intel) computers were built for the uses
I describe.




------------------------------------------------------------
      David Honig                   Orbit Technology
     honig@otc.net                  Intaanetto Jigyoubu

	M-16 : Don Quixote :: PGP : Louis Freeh
         Let freedom ring (or screech at 28.8)