OT: Sci-fi (was RE: Ultra-portable terminals)

[Mike Schwartz (PC Support)]

> On Fri, 28 Jul 2006, GCC Consulting wrote:
> 
> > I know the concept of how a plane flies, think I'll build a passenger
> plane
> > for all of these genius' to travel in.
> 
> When I was in school they taught us how and when to use apostrophes, and
> when not to. But maybe we "geniuses" were the only ones paying attention
> :-)
> 
> Regards,
> ....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

    When I was in school, they taught us grammar, along with spelling and
punctuation.  Did you mean to say "us geniuses" rather than "we geniuses",
which would exclude the original author from the rank of genius, given his
spelling mistake?   :<)

   Actually, his use of the apostrophe was correct, given his misspelling of
geniuses.  He had a spelling error, not a punctuation error.  :<)) 

   Let me tell you that this group has more important issues to contemplate
than the correct use of English.  Having just spent a few days at the
Experimental Aircraft Association's Annual Fly-in,

http://www.eaa.org

 I feel it is my duty to let the original author, as well as the rest of
you, know that there are a -LOT- of people who are building passenger planes
with little more that a rough concept of how one actually flies.  The trend
toward designing and building your own passenger carrying airplane has
actually been greatly increasing each year.

  As far as what makes a plane fly, even the Bernoulli principle,

http://amasci.com/wing/airfoil.html

is under attack and further investigation.   

   For example, the revolutionary new Honda Business Jet is a "clean slate"
design that was originally begun by Honda's jet engine designers who wanted
to build a test bed for the new engines they were developing.  They threw
many "unusual" concepts into the plane. For example, they felt there were
several benefits from mounting the engines on pylons above the wings.  The
aeronautical engineers laughed at them. 

http://world.honda.com/news/2006/c060725HondaJet/photo/pages/04.html

   Nobody is laughing now! By breaking several accepted principles, the
Honda people have come up with a product that stands head and shoulders
above all the other light business jets.

   Look what Howie started with filePro!  filePro is so different from most
of the mainstream databases that I'd venture a guess that Howie had only a
"concept of how a database flies" when he started.  (Note filePro tie in...)

Mike Schwartz