"Geoff Schultz" wrote in message
6...
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in
news:Xk4Le.17506$Ie.6745@lakeread03:

"Lew Hodgett" wrote Along the same "time
marches on" theme, it has been announced that the
USN will cease using paper charts. Conversion to be complete in this
decade.

That one will be interestingG.


Yeah, but they are running Linux on $100K computers. Are you ready to
trust your life to Bill Gates and Gateway? :-)

Who's running on a $100K computer? Even the shuttle astronauts are
running
laptops, which happen to be IBM ThinkPad 760XD specially modified for use
in space. The 760XD uses a 166MHz Pentium with 64MB RAM, and a 3.0 GB
removable hard drive. They run Windows 95.

See: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=213

And yes, I would trust Windows...

-- Geoff

They might use laptops for some of their work but the computers flying the
shuttle are rather different. According to a book I read some time ago
these little boxes (there were 4 of them originally and I guess this has not
changed) were built to be bullet-proof. The code was written by IBM and
every one of the 100,000 plus lines was verified more than once. The book
said it was some of the most expensive code ever written.