->  ->  -> How about Edwards, and Billy Mitchel. Both Canadians if
->  ->  -> memory serves me. 

->  ->  WC> Not as familiar with them but Billy Mitchel's name rings a
->  ->  WC> bell.

->  -> As in Edwards Air Force Base... Heard of it now? 

->  WC> Yeah, where the Bell X rocket planes were tested under the
->  WC> previous name.

-> Sure, that's near the Salt Flats, isn't it? Forgot about that.
->  -> Mitchel [Might have spelt it wrong.] was court-marshaled
->  -> for insubordination,
->  -> for his views on airborne threats. Post WWI, he

Murdock or something that begins with M before Edwards AFB.

->  WC> I'll have to google for it.

-> Like I say, I might have spelt it wrong, so maybe a "Capt.
William Mi" might
-> prove more fruitful. The movie name was something like "The Court Marshall
-> Of..."                                                  

"Billy Mitchell" and Pearl Harbor snagged it on google.
Astonishing he nailed the attack in a presentation
in 1924 even getting the Pearl Harbor attack time to
40 minutes accuracy and Clark field to under two hours.

->  ->  WC> Psychology can work :-)

->  WC> I used psycholoy more often than anything else, particularly
->  WC> when the level of mayham that would result would rise to the
->  WC> level someone would quite likely have been severely injured.

-> My last two close calls, I had to judge if it was to be bloody, or backing
-> down. Stupidly, I could have been less machismo for both, but they ended up
-> with one guy walking back to his car in a huff, and me walking away from a
-> foursome, not knowing if there was a firearm concealed.

-> First, I was walking across a crosswalk. Macho-man starts crowding the plate
-> with the nose of his rust-bucket. I just *had* to give him a NY salute. My
-> first mistake. He rounded the block looking for me. My second mistake was not
-> to duck into a store, or mall to watch passively.

-> After he navigated the plethora of one-ways, and obstructed alleyways, he was
-> MAD! After he made his first lunge at me, I could tell he was a fighting idiot,
-> but the dilated pupils, and yellow cloud on the white of his eyes concerned me
-> that he would feel nothing. After listening to his gibberish for a spell, I was
-> able to yell at him loud enough, to be a nice boy and go away. That guy would
-> have been a quick toss, but I'm sure glad he didn't press the issue. Like I
-> say, any damage would have just made the goof mad, and until you give the fool
-> a reason to fear for his life...

-> Second, four kids saunter out of an alleyway at about 1am. Ringleader asks me
-> for five bucks. I guess I could have given it to him, but after just working a
-> thirteen hour shift, knowing that I'd likely loose my wallet in the process, I
-> decided to smart mouth something like, "You can't find a
job?" I said it with
-> some concern in my voice, and tried to keep the conversation lite, but I was
-> thinking, "You band of twits!"

-> Once he stood in my way, I put one hand on his shoulder, and one on his right
-> ribcage, and informed him, "You don't know who you're [bleep]in'
with." His #2
-> had a down coat on, so I didn't know if he was concealing anything, but the
-> other two were just their girlie hang-ons. I knew I could side-kick #2, while
-> taking care of #1, but like I say, if #2 had something hidden...

->  WC> You learn to read people.

-> Sometimes in a hurry! <-;
                   
You can't let fear or emotion interfere with a cold appraisal
of the situation but you can sculpt your face to
telegraph a image contrary to what you're really thinking.
Plus having run into a few full blown psychotics in my time
I learned to emulate the expression in their eyes, demeaner  and
posture.

No-one wants to fight with someone who's completely insane
and unlikely to stop short of killing you so giving that
impression spared me a great many other fights.

-> I don't know if I've just been lucky, but my pride alone should have had my
-> butt kicked more than once. A knock-down in elementary school, and a mutual
-> standoff in Junior-High (I was in grade seven, he was in the nineth.)... One
-> KO, and a draw! Both were beggin' me for a whippin', and I did the best I knew
-> how at the time,  to avoid them.            

I got totally trashed by a guy named Eric ( near killed me)
when defending a woman he attacked.
This was well removed from the bar in geography and time so word didn't
get around.

->  ->  -> I'm no tea-toddler, but I sure developed
->  ->  -> a distaste for drunk belligerents.

->  ->  WC> I get introverted and quiet when drunk.

->  -> Ditto. The potential in-laws were perplexed by it. One
->  -> of the reasons I second
->  -> guessed her for a wife... Well, that and her character. 

->  WC> I think it's because our true natures are peaceful where the
->  WC> drunk troublemakers are suppressing hostilty that explodes when
->  WC> alcohol releases inhibitions.

-> ...A great way of thinking of it. Drop the conscious thinking, and the beast -
-> or lack of - shows up. When first experimenting with alcohol, I remember
-> wishing I could be more gregarious at gatherings, but it just wasn't my nature
-> to get in peoples faces. I didn't like it when others did it to me, so I
-> instead preferred to engage in one-on-ones. Sure seemed to work with the
-> 'chicks' too. 

->  ->  WC> Strength avails one not against Akaido 

->  -> I smell a tagline comin' on!

-> Hope you don't mind me quoting you on it? [See tag]
-> [...] Brain Drain RE: MPFI

Knock yourself out.

->  -> Mitsubishi uses a magnet-proximity switch for the
->  -> distributer, so maybe firing
->  -> the plugs isn't that much a function of the logic. 

->  WC> More like;y the logic rather than the Hall effect sensor.
->  WC> Played around with them in non-automotive application.

-> Hall effect... See, I have to call them a spinning magnet that trips reed
-> sensors. Say what you will about them, they are a sight more reliable than
-> contacts arcing at umpteen K times/min.

Hall Effect: the effect of a current in a wire to be affected
by a perpendecular magnetic field.
The effect is small so the sensors have very high gain amplifiers
built right into them.

->  ->  -> Probably saved half a lb. of copper along the way.

->  ->  From what I've seen of you on ELECTRONICS, you
->  -> could make my head swim in that area too. Again, I have some simple
->  -> troubleshooting skills there, but nothing to write home about.

->  WC> You just have to dive in.
->  WC> Got interested in electronics early on and was
->  WC> building advanced Heathkits at 14.

-> Dad bought me one of those Electronic Experimenter kits as a kid. It was just
-> like him to buy the big one. It wasn't long before I was stringing an antenna
-> out to the Willow tree, 
   
Radio Shack had their "P-Box" series of kits, one a 2 transistor
regenerative multiband radio performed rather spectacularly.

-> (Ya... I had to learn about how grounding affects those  

I sued plastic insulators as suggested in the kit, wasn't long before
moving on to Heath Kits.

-> yet. ;-) and setting up the electric fencer to a coat-hanger on the bed. (We
-> just sold the horses.)

-> Came time for me to apply my knowledge of n-p-n vs. p-n-p transistors on a
-> test, and I couldn't recall a lick of it. Since then, I'd been trying to go
-> further with it, but the occasional shots of pain really messes with my
-> recollection.

FET's are easier to use as they amplify voltage in a ways
rather than current.
FET's emulate tubes.

-> Spurious note taking has become the norm, as the shorthand just doesn't make
-> sense like it used to, but I do what I can. This Linux is a great learning
-> experience so far, but a linear study guide *has* been hard to come by.

Yeah  having no hard drive here I'm using SSL online.
Running Knoppix Linux based on Debian entirely in Ramdisk here,
256 Meg of RAM.

->  WC> Then I started building stuff from published schematics and my
->  WC> own designs.

-> Where's Heath when you need them?  Shoot, even the
periodicals seem to be
-> dumbing down. Not that I can't learn *something* from them, but... Maybe next
-> trip to the library, I'll try to sous something out.

All and all i built a 30 Watt stereo Amp, FM stereo tuner and 
aircraft - police band VHF FM radio they sold.

->  -> I have to keep my eyes open for a replacement for my
->  -> ageing ride, and much of
->  -> what you are saying is a real concern for me. If I find
->  -> something without all
->  -> the electronics in it,

->  WC> This is why I bought most of my motorcycles used, points.
->  WC> kickstarter in addition to the electric starter, ect.

-> Ya, well a day at the scrap-yard for me is just not in my list of favourite
-> things to do any more. And kick-starting an econo-box, last I checked, wasn't
-> available. I guess a guy could weld something up. Maybe like a ME 109 with a
-> sprung starter. <-;

You couldn't kick my 1000 either though they included an emergency kick
starter stored under the engine.
I couldn't kick it as is was a huge high compression engine.

->  WC> I can't sit either nor could I drive a bike without
->  WC> falling from a muscle spasm likely in a turn.

-> Even without the nerve throwing me, there's still plenty of ice here to put one
-> in a nasty case of road-rash.                            

->  -> This disposable society we live in is a
->  -> bitch. ...And that's an insult to female dogs!

->  WC> I too hate the disposable society.
->  WC> I like to fix stuff, even that which is not intended to
->  WC> be fixed.
->  WC> This computer is a salvage someone else tossed out.
->  WC> I fixed it.

-> Sad part is, that same computer is likely seen as worthless, or next to it. )-:
-> I too have made a habit of hobbling old parts together, but am constantly
-> frustrated by parts that were designed to fail. (Sorry for burning your ear.
-> Guess I'm glad the last few days are over with.)

No problem, I know what isolation does and I too "burn ears when they're
about. 
Sony T.V.'s are a bitch to repair.
Put in a standard replacement part and they fail again in hours to
weeks.
You have to get Mil spec devices to repair them as that's what they use.

-> My #1 machine was from the pawn-shop w/o CPU, mem, or HD. OS -RH.

Mine's the one I'm typing on, April or may gets a hard drive and I/O
card for over 32 Gig then I install Linux on the drive w/o Windows.

-> #2 Auction: Flaky HD, and an ill-flash on the BIOS. OS -W98

Had Linux -Win 98 dual boot on this box but my flaky hard Quantum
6.$ Gig croaked. 

-> #3 Auction: ... You get the idea?

My number two was bought new ( 486) at obscene cost.
It died a few years back however I'd found a 496 of the same brand
tossed in somone's trash two weeks before.
It had a later release of the same motherboard.
My 486 is still working after swapping that motherboard out.

-> Not a one is better than a Celeron 466. Next, I want to upgrade a box to a GHz
-> or two. (The case will take an ATX MB.) Just one more financial duck to get in
-> the row, and I'll have disposable income again. 

Same sort of difficulties here.

Hey this is just a Celeron 433 but more than servicable with 
Linux running.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5