byron_fast (u/byron_fast)

byron_fast commented on Avro Arrow blueprints on display after sitting in man's home for decades cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat... · Posted by u/goodcanadian

na85 · 6 years ago

> The USA didn't want to see this tech fall into enemy hands

I've heard this preposterous story several times and it never makes sense. If the US doesn't trust Canada to defend North America then explain NORAD (and the 5 Eyes for that matter).

byron_fast · 6 years ago

It's not prepostorous. It's what it's like to be Canada - the smart upstart, in this respect - when you challenge the incumbent. Look to tech history for many similar examples.

byron_fast commented on Avro Arrow blueprints on display after sitting in man's home for decades cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat... · Posted by u/goodcanadian

byron_fast · 6 years ago

Even fewer Canadians understand why the U.S. didn't trust Canada with such an able aircraft. It's destruction was, sadly, the right choice.

byron_fast · 6 years ago

By expressing an opinion that is unpopular, my "karma" takes a hit. This is how Hacker News works, like Y Combinator: be popular, or STFU. Understandable in many respects for those who have maintained forums, but still unfortunate.

byron_fast commented on Avro Arrow blueprints on display after sitting in man's home for decades cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat... · Posted by u/goodcanadian

na85 · 6 years ago

The US was offered the chance to "acquire their competitor" and declined. So was the UK.

Meanwhile, American firms were testing prototypes that were faster and carried similar armament. Those prototypes were also cancelled.

There is no conspiracy here.

byron_fast · 6 years ago

It's not a conspiracy. Just business as usual where tech is concerned. The USA didn't want to see this tech fall into enemy hands; it was easier and cheaper to see it killed and hire the engineers as they came available. Acquihire, government style during the Cold War.

byron_fast commented on Avro Arrow blueprints on display after sitting in man's home for decades cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat... · Posted by u/goodcanadian

na85 · 6 years ago

That's a myth. The US government was offered the chance to buy the Arrow and all its intellectual property but declined.

It was a promising design but it was not the world-beating wonderplane that its reputation suggests.

byron_fast · 6 years ago

Yeah, maybe. But like in tech, it's easier to acquire or destroy a competitor than catch up.

byron_fast commented on Avro Arrow blueprints on display after sitting in man's home for decades cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat... · Posted by u/goodcanadian

kejaed · 6 years ago

Any references as to why they didn’t ?

byron_fast · 6 years ago

The obvious, that it was "too expensive" like Israel's Lavi program: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/avro-iarro...

But there was the idea that the CIA didn't trust Canada to not sell it to an enemy of the USA. If the Arrow had existed under P. Trudeau, that was a justified fear.

byron_fast commented on Avro Arrow blueprints on display after sitting in man's home for decades cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat... · Posted by u/goodcanadian

namirez · 6 years ago

Almost every Canadian knows the sad story of Avro Arrow, yet most people in the rest of the world, including the US, have never heard of it. There are people in search of what is left of the program.

https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2017/07/18/the-arrow-legend-mystery...

byron_fast · 6 years ago

Even fewer Canadians understand why the U.S. didn't trust Canada with such an able aircraft. It's destruction was, sadly, the right choice.

byron_fast commented on Lisp Interpreter in Tandy TRS-80/100 Basic m.facebook.com/#!/story.p... · Posted by u/franze

velcrovan · 6 years ago

Funny, my current job involves a lot of coding in BASIC (BASIS and ProvideX commercial flavors) and I'm trying to wedge in some Racket where I can. I got my start typing in listings from Rainbow magazine at age 10. (I never thought I'd be writing BASIC for a living though, life took a turn at 35)

byron_fast · 6 years ago

Pretty sure my life would have turned out differently if I'd seen some Lisp listings in Rainbow. I do recall William Barden Jr. making fun of parentheses once.

byron_fast commented on French court rules Steam games must be able to be resold engadget.com/2019/09/19/f... · Posted by u/abbe98

tensor · 6 years ago

This is all speculation, but I would guess that the main issue is legal agreements with the publishers. The publishers don't want any game resales, they want only new sales. Unless France can equally compel the publishers to allow this, it might end up being that Steam is forced to withdraw from France.

byron_fast · 6 years ago

Maybe, but I don't see that publishers could push Valve around too much these days.

You're right everyone wants new sales - but they've learned to be okay with offering 90% off at some point, and smaller discounts along the way.

byron_fast commented on French court rules Steam games must be able to be resold engadget.com/2019/09/19/f... · Posted by u/abbe98

byron_fast · 6 years ago

I've always wanted to re-sell my Steam games. I assume Valve has a real business reason why they haven't allowed this, since when sharing your games locally they are better than anyone. Clearly they don't have the big company mindset of forcing people to pay for a license on every device.

If Valve complies with this ruling I'd guess we'll find out what that reason is. I think loot crates and the item market reveals the problem. Steam licenses will turn into some kind of black market money laundering machine that will be impossible to regulate.

Dead Comment

u/byron_fast

KarmaCake day253September 6, 2013View Original