On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:13:33 -0700, John Smith
wrote:

On 8/22/2010 11:55 PM, wrote:

...
Well, after all, it seems that we only forgot to mention the
name of that elephant in the room -perhpas because its
advantageous name is /F/L/O/S/S/.

Best regards,

pez



Yes, the free, as in free beer is one great advantage, but an advantage
not all will be able to take advantage of.

If you're saying free isn't really free I can agree with you. I have
brewed my own beer (still do) and the realization was quickly
discovered that free isn't really free unless the hourly rate is zip,
zero, nada....

Paying consultants a kilobuck per day to support FOSS-based projects
starts looking pound-foolish very quickly. Training the in-house guy
to learn the ins and outs of a piece of FOSS doesn't work too well
either. If the guy is any good, he will soon be marketing his skills
as a $100+/hr consultant. In this aspect FOSS is just another form
vendor lock-in except the vendor is the consultant hawking his skills
and knowledge.

Since MMANA-GAL and EZNEC
have visual interfaces so similar, being able to use one is effectively
being able to immediately use the other. The learning curve into your
interface takes just a bit longer ...

Both provide immediate understanding but one immediacy takes longer
than the other? How different are skillsets for using a WIMP
interface?

but, as you say, the availability
of the source makes it highly desirable to at least one group.

The free in FOSS doesn't mean that anything is free of a learning
curve. In fact FOSS can actually present a learning wall. P2P support
tends to deal with solving specific problems rather than any abstract
interpretation of what the problem is, why it exists (aka why the tool
works as it does), and how best to resolve the specific issue.

The biggest problem with FOSS is too many freetards try to use the
tools and fail to contribute what they have learned/experienced into
any sort of public knowledge base.

I don't mean to denigrate FOSS at all. I'm just asking if FOSS is
_the_ answer what was _the_ question? Too many know-nothings assume
the tool is the answer and free means minimal effort/expense required.
Only knowledgeable consumers ask how expensive is free.

Please, note that I experimentally confirmed -once again- that
NASA does not infinitely support direct linking to its
Technical Reports Server (NTRS) contents. Therefore, the link
given in article:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
| Sent......: Thursday, August 19, 2010 7:32 PM
| Newsgroups: sci.physics.electromag,rec.radio.amateur.antenna
| Subject...: vemsa3d 1.1 - a floss visual em simulator for
| 3d antennas
| From......:
|
| ...
| J. H. Richmond, Radiation and Scattering by Thin-Wire
| Structures in the Complex Frequency Domain, (15), p.6
| http://tinyurl.com/24zwycy
| ...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
is not a valid one anymore. One has to firstly connect to
NTRS:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp

and search for:
"Radiation and scattering by thin-wire structures in the
complex frequency domain"

or some adequate part of it, e.g. like the following one,
which it seems that currently holds:
"Radiation and scattering by thin-wire"

to get the Richmond's report item first and after two
more steps the full-text through "View PDF File".

Petros Zimourtopoulos

wrote:
Please, note that I experimentally confirmed -once again- that
NASA does not infinitely support direct linking to its
Technical Reports Server (NTRS) contents. Therefore, the link
given in article:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
| Sent......: Thursday, August 19, 2010 7:32 PM
| Newsgroups: sci.physics.electromag,rec.radio.amateur.antenna
| Subject...: vemsa3d 1.1 - a floss visual em simulator for
| 3d antennas
| From......:
|
| ...
| J. H. Richmond, Radiation and Scattering by Thin-Wire
| Structures in the Complex Frequency Domain, (15), p.6
| http://tinyurl.com/24zwycy
| ...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
is not a valid one anymore. One has to firstly connect to
NTRS:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp


I think the tinyurl got screwed up.. the url it maps to is a search
request, not the actual direct link to the document.
(http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=87...false&or=true&...
qs=Ntt%3DRadiation%2Band%2Bscattering%2Bby%2Bthin-wire%2Bstructures%26...
Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ns%3DHarvestDa te%257c1%26N%3D0)

'
I would think that using the link by the the handle will remain fixed:
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19740013743

but it's always useful to keep track of the NASA document number (that
won't change).. NASA-CR-2396 or TR-2902-10 and hopefully you can always
search on that, if the handle dies for some reason.

| "Jim Lux" wrote in message
| ...
| wrote:
| Please, note that I experimentally confirmed -once again- that
| NASA does not infinitely support direct linking to its
| Technical Reports Server (NTRS) contents. Therefore, the link
| given in article:
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|| Sent......: Thursday, August 19, 2010 7:32 PM
|| Newsgroups: sci.physics.electromag,rec.radio.amateur.antenna
|| Subject...: vemsa3d 1.1 - a floss visual em simulator for
|| 3d antennas
|| From......:
||
|| ...
|| J. H. Richmond, Radiation and Scattering by Thin-Wire
|| Structures in the Complex Frequency Domain, (15), p.6
|| http://tinyurl.com/24zwycy
|| ...
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
| is not a valid one anymore. One has to firstly connect to
| NTRS:
| http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp
|
|
| I think the tinyurl got screwed up.. the url it maps to is a search
| request, not the actual direct link to the document.
| (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=87...false&or=true&...
| qs=Ntt%3DRadiation%2Band%2Bscattering%2Bby%2Bthin-wire%2Bstructures%26...
| Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ns%3DHarvestDa te%257c1%26N%3D0)
|
| '
| I would think that using the link by the the handle will remain fixed:
| http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19740013743
|
| but it's always useful to keep track of the NASA document number (that
| won't change).. NASA-CR-2396 or TR-2902-10 and hopefully you can always
| search on that, if the handle dies for some reason.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thank you very much to correct me on this issue!

I did know the DocID existence but I did not realise,
until now, how it can be proved helpful. From the URL
you gave us for Richmond's report:

| http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19740013743

I found that 'hdl.handle.net' is a 'Handle Server', and
from NTRS item for this paper, I see that 19740013743 is
its DocID. In this way, and by experimentally replacing
this DOcID with '19890004330', I got the report titled
"Radiation and scattering ...". May now I think that
'2060' is some kind of ID in this Handle System for NTRS?
Where can I find more such IDs? Would you please advise me
more on this interesting subject?

| wrote in message ...
|| "Jim Lux" wrote in message
|| ...
|| ...
|| I think the tinyurl got screwed up.. the url it maps to is a search
|| request, not the actual direct link to the document.
|| (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=87...false&or=true&...
|| qs=Ntt%3DRadiation%2Band%2Bscattering%2Bby%2Bthin-wire%2Bstructures%26...
|| Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ns%3DHarvestDa te%257c1%26N%3D0)
||
|| '
|| I would think that using the link by the the handle will remain fixed:
|| http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19740013743
||
|| but it's always useful to keep track of the NASA document number (that
|| won't change).. NASA-CR-2396 or TR-2902-10 and hopefully you can always
|| search on that, if the handle dies for some reason.
|
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
| Thank you very much to correct me on this issue!
|
| I did know the DocID existence but I did not realise,
| until now, how it can be proved helpful. From the URL
| you gave us for Richmond's report:
|
|| http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19740013743
|
| I found that 'hdl.handle.net' is a 'Handle Server', and
| from NTRS item for this paper, I see that 19740013743 is
| its DocID. In this way, and by experimentally replacing
| this DOcID with '19890004330', I got the report titled
| "Radiation and scattering ...". May now I think that
| '2060' is some kind of ID in this Handle System for NTRS?
| Where can I find more such IDs? Would you please advise me
| more on this interesting subject?


It seems that this is a somehow complicated matter...

Well, there is a basic FAQ he
http://www.handle.net/faq.html
http://www.handle.net/overviews/handle-syntax.html

where I found that in the referenced by Jim Lux:

| http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19740013743

or in:

http://dx.doi.org/2060/19740013743

the couple of numbers '2060/19740013743' forms indeed
a unique 'handle' of which the two parts (numbers)
are known as:

Handle Prefix/Handle Suffix

or as

'unique naming authority'
/
'unique local name under this naming authority'.

Anyway, after I found
'The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)', of which:
'The goal of the IETF is to make the Internet work better':
http://www.ietf.org/

it made clearer that there is a registration procedure of
'naming authorities', as well as and this is definitely
a work which currently in progress, since on July 12, 2010,
the registered Name Assigning Authority Numbers (NAAN)
are only 54:
http://www.cdlib.org/services/uc3/naan_table.html

while among of them there is no NAAN for NASA or NTRS.

Anyway, this is really a very helpful reference system
for the Internet, but only *after* someone have search and
find the document which looked for, along with its unique
handle, of course.

Once again, thank you very much Mr. Lux for pointing out
this very interesting issue!