Superfast Interface for PC slots

The short version: 250 – 4000 megabytes per second sustained bus throughput, 75 watts, backwards compatible with PCI 2.2. The variable speed is due to x1, x4, x8, x16 versions. 250MB per second per x. Current PCI is 133MB per second and 25 watts.

Although the bus is going to be backwards compatible with current PCI, the slots will not be. PCs will probably have both PCI and PCI Express slots for a while, although dual-use slots may also be on some boards. This will be the end of AGP, and if you have an AGP video card, you will need to buy a new PCI-E card.

Go here for much greater detail.

Tech people, please correct me if I’ve got any of this wrong.

Wizbang: This Doesn’t Sound Too Good

Winds of Change: Electronic Voting: Truly, Deeply Stupid

The lack of a paper trail is disturbing. The lack of basic information security is troubling. The lack of public outrage is troubling.

Is there anything we can do about it at this point? Would a massive letter-writing, e-mailing, and phone-calling campaign to local, state, and national representatives be able to change the plans? Would a lawsuit be able to get an injunction?

I’m not barking at the moon here, am I?

However, I’m not really buying a claim made by a friend of mine recently. He seems to think that charges of election fraud will only sound legit if used against the Republicans. While I understand that perception may be quite different from reality, does anyone truly believe that only Republican-supporting people or groups would mess with the election?

Go read the posts above. And the comments on each. Very good, very important stuff.

The Stanley Cup playoffs are right around the corner, and the Colorado Avalanche are playing like it’s training camp. What’s going on?

They needed a win last night to keep from falling to FIFTH in the Western Conference. Luckily, they pulled out a 2-1 victory over the LA Kings. Their road record, even after this terrible slump, is 20-8-7-4 while their home record is only 19-14-6-1. Maybe it’s just as well that they’ll lose home ice after the first round. And how did they manage to win a big game at home at all?

Every other team in the league wins in Denver, so the Avs figured they could, too.

New York City’s Smoking Ban Helps Business, Study Says

I’m a little skeptical of this, but regardless of the accuracy or the veracity of the study, it hints that perhaps the smoking ban isn’t the end of bar business in the free world, after all.

For totally partisan screaming and yelling, be sure to visit this Free Republic thread.

And remember this: That DJ who crawled into that wall and died last fall was found after the club was closed for a couple of day and the smoke smell dissapated a bit. Only then could they smell his decomposing body.

There seems to be a little confusion over my position on the body armor issue. Two days ago I posted about an article about military families buying body armor for deploying relatives.

In the comments of my post and the Across the River post that tipped me off to the story, I’m being taken to task. I’m not sure what I’m wrong about, though. If you read the comments without reading my own comments or my original post, it sounds like I must be blowing off the armor shortage or putting complete faith in the Army to have it fixed already.

If you read my post or any of my comments, though, it should be completely clear that I’m not doing that at all. Not one bit. Although just a blogger with an opinion and not a member of the armed forces, I have been following the story as closely as the internet and the evening news will allow. In fact, I’ve posted several times on the issue going back to September:

• Shame Shame Shame
• At least they’re trying to fix it, but still no excuse
• Body armor
• Body Armor (again)
• Interceptor Shipping Now
• Body armor, Humvee armor, and tracked armor

Also, in my New Year’s Predictions, I figured that all our troops in Iraq would get body armor just in time to rotate back to the US. And that the troops rotating into Iraq would be short of armor.

My post the other day, plain and simple, was about the fact that the headline and content of the article might give folks the impression that troops in Iraq still don’t have enough body armor. That might be entirely true. My problem was that the story didn’t even address that issue. It didn’t ask. It didn’t find out. It just said that people were still buying loved ones body armor, and, given the ugly history of the subject, that sort of story is likely to put a certain impression into peoples’ heads.

What if we saw a story about how a lot of people in Florida were building bomb shelters because of the missiles in Cuba, without bothering to discuss whether there might even be missiles in Cuba at all? Does that mean that the people building the bomb shelters are wrong? No. But it might convince other people that they also need to build themselves a bomb shelter. Why don’t we find out if we need to? That was my problem with the story. That was what I wrote about, and that was what my comments on Across the River were about. My post is about responsible media reporting, not about the importance of body armor. If you want my opinion on that (although why would you?), see the posts I listed above.

One thing that a comment did mention is

There has been no shortage of armor for the civilian contractors of KR&B aka Halliburton. When you have seen a convoy of Guard troops, with no body armor or armored humvees being sent to escort some contractors wearing the best body armor & driving a armored humvee, you really question what is going on here.

This is the first I’ve heard of this, but I’m not surprised. That is indeed very troubling.

Another item in a comment at Across the River from the same writer is

Don’t even get me started on the shitty sand attracting gun oil that was sent to Iraq. Thankfully, I brought my own.

I also posted on this issue here, here, and here.

The Stryker that was destroyed yesterday burned because an external fuel can caught fire after the slat armor defeated the incoming RPG warhead.

A short CJTF7 press release sums it up:

A Task Force Olympia Stryker vehicle was attacked by rocket-propelled grenade fire in west Mosul this afternoon.

An RPG hit the external armor on the left rear of the Stryker. The armor caused the RPG to detonate before it hit the vehicle’s hull; however, shrapnel ignited an external fuel can, causing the vehicle to catch fire.

The Stryker crew was able to exit the vehicle without injury.

Coalition Soldiers will continue to work together with Iraqi Security Forces to provide a safe and secure Iraq. The Coalition is committed to helping Iraq win this war against terrorism. These attacks show that those who are against progress are desperate. Terrorist acts only increase the resolve of the Iraqi Security Forces, Iraqi citizens, Iraqi Governing Council and the Coalition forces.

Remember the fire extinguishers? They must not have been able to get the blaze under control quickly enough. That’s two Strykers lost to enemy fire. Both times the crew got out okay with minor injuries, but the vehicle was lost after a fire couldn’t be put out. (via Stryker Brigade News)

RifleShooter field review of the Remington 6.8mm SPC

Airborne Combat Engineer has another extensive post up on this round. Many think that it might be a potential replacement for the current 5.56mm NATO round used by the US military and our NATO allies. Since the early 90s, there has been a fair amount of criticism of the current round, especially when fired from the shorter barrels of M4 carbines.

Now, desk jockeys with spreadsheets on their computers are deciding whether we can afford to go to something better. Meanwhile, Soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are being instructed to place two rounds in the torso to insure adversaries are stopped. Two 5.56mm rounds weigh more than one 7.62 round.

The often-repeated “wisdom” that it’s better to wound an adversary than to stop him from further action (because it ties up 2-3 other people helping him and demoralizes his comrades) is a concept developed by think-tank professors (like the guy who ram-rodded the 5.56mm through) who never had to worry about a guy you just shot continuing to fire back at you, or the guy you shot and moved past finding just enough strength to shoot you in the back.

If you’re following this issue, you must go read this post and keep an eye on ACE.

Just ignore the fact that he’s all over my back for suggesting that the Marines might be better suited to the current military situations than the Army is.

A big “Welcome Back!” to Scott Elliot of Election Projection. Mr. Elliot’s parents, missionaries in Iraq, were killed earlier this month with along two other missionaries in Mosul.

The map on my sidebar shows the current status of Election Projection, and links to the main page. Go check it out. (via Wizbang)