Re: lynx-dev Concerning the use of abort in the source of lynx

[Michael Sokolov]

Vlad Harchev <address@hidden> wrote:

> At least not all software should be free (otherwise it will be
> safe to fly on airplanes only when they are equipped with  20th+ release of
> software, if it ever existed).

OK, we disagree on politics and I won't pursue that thread any further, but
free software reliability is a different story altogether. I believe that on
the contrary, what you are describing concerning airplanes is precisely the
case with proprietary software. That may be the reason why these airplanes
really do crash as often as they do. Free software is infinitely better and
more reliable than anything proprietary. You know, Pathfinder, the robot that
walked on Mars, ran Linux.

To give you an idea of just how much I trust community-developed and community-
supported free software and distrust the officially sanctioned stuff, let me
share a little story with you. The reasons why I run the Harhan Engineering
Laboratory are more than just Communism. There is also a very radical project
involved, from the biomedical field, my involvement in which has to do with
someone very special to me (that's a girl, in case it isn't obvious :-). My
biggest and most powerful VAX, the 9000, which is one of the most powerful
computers in the world ever built and of which only a handful were made, but
which also sucks 36.6 kW of 3-phase power, has been acquired for no purpose
other than cracking DNA codes and state machines associated with development
cell biology. The idea is to convert the amassed data about cell functions and
development from the traditional language of biologists into bits, codes,
logic, and state machines, i.e., approach biology from the information science
viewpoint. When I studied biology it became obvious to me as a computer
scientist that this is the only proper way to approach it, but biologists don't
see it. Then what I'm seeking to do is to map out the complete state transition
table of the FSM that runs as the zygote develops into the embrio and into the
baby. This table would map all the tissues that make up the human body into the
corresponding states of the FSM in which they are developed. Then, with all
cell biology processes presented in convenient bits and logic equations,
standard computer science methods can be used to construct the bit sequence
that needs to be fed into the state machine of a cell in a human body to cause
that tissue to be regenerated. A program can then be written, running on an
embedded microprocessor core in a bionic chip (a chip designed for implant and
equipped with a facility for affecting and controlling chemical processes in
cells, one professor at Berkeley developed one recently) that controls and
directs cell division and development processes to regenerate lost, damaged,
removed, or mutilated organs.

The reason I'm doing this is because someone very special to me has fallen a
victim to the murderous American doctors who badly mutilated her in a barbaric
surgery (some organs and tissues lost, scars, stitches, and damage
devastating). Given what she means to me, I will not settle for anything but a
total and complete bioregeneration and restoration of the damaged parts, to
regenerate everything lost, remove all scars, and eliminate all traces of her
ever being cut. And the only way I can ensure that is by writing a program, a
piece of free software under my total control and free from any authorities, to
drive the process, to build it using free tools, and to see it run with my own
eyes. I trust free software and community-supported non-officially sanctioned
practices enough to collect all biological data from university research labs,
without involving doctors who insist on approvals and all that, treat all data
tables, analysis, constructed regeneration sequences, and program files for the
bionic chip as free software, write the main regeneration program as free
software as well, build it with gcc, program it all into a chip developed with
free IC design tools, and use it to bring back my dearest beloved girlfriend,
employing university students and maybe Russian doctors, but absolutely no
American doctors, to assist in the direct medical part. If free software is fit
to walk on Mars, it is fit to bring back my girl. And it was the official
sanctioned American healthcare system that messed her up, just as it is the
officially sanctioned for-profit closed-access industry that makes airplanes
and servers that crash, brainwashes the public into using Weendoze and other
abominations (and undergoing mutilation surgery to lose weight), and draws
resources away from universities, the space program, and other places where
talented individuals can best help the world community.

--
Michael Sokolov         Harhan Engineering Laboratory
Public Service Agent    International Free Computing Task Force
                        International Engineering and Science Task Force
                        615 N GOOD LATIMER EXPY STE #4
                        DALLAS TX 75204-5852 USA

Phone: +1-214-824-7693 (Harhan Eng Lab office)
E-mail: address@hidden (ARPA TCP/SMTP) (UUCP coming soon)

; To UNSUBSCRIBE: Send "unsubscribe lynx-dev" to address@hidden