Rattlesnake

Robert J. Chassell's page focuses on various ideas, including the GNU Project, his books on Emacs Lisp and software freedom, his airplane, and includes various of his short essays.

Yet more added to Choice and Constraint' - (Found July 2, 2008 )

I added 1' to the edition number because I added chapters and changed their order. Constraints tell us what is'. Choices are what we can do'. Choice and Constraint' is intended as a description of what is' ... not a what is' of political scientists, but a what is' that reflects the current world and of what can be done'. It begins with the most basic constraints, including the political necessities for security and law as well as the civilized constraints of justice and the need for...
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/Choice-and-Constraint.html

Persuading Those Not Sure - (Found July 2, 2008 )

How the US conducts its efforts against Al Qaeda makes a difference. It is "about convincing those people that aren't sure who to believe who is right." Both the current notions associated with war and those associated with policing fail under modern conditions; and that supposes competent action.
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/not-sure.html

A Long Term US Deficit - (Found July 2, 2008 )

A topical and pessimistic issue: what if the current United States government deficit continues without the economic growth and security that enables it to borrow from abroad Since the US can continue such a deficit for a generation or so, a deficit is economically rational for those who plan to take their money and abandon the country before the advent of the unemployment, higher prices, higher taxes, and other suffering that come from the end of such deficits.
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/US-deficit.html

Energy, Information, Opportunity - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Energy and information are critical to contemporary states. In addition, legitimacy is necessary. Opportunity, along with compassion and justice, will provide legitimacy. In turn, this determines in part how a civilized state should work.
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/energy-information-opportunity.html

Schooling - (Found July 2, 2008 )

More than ten years ago, David Perkins published a book that enables us to judge an educational system. His underlying notion is simple: that people learn much of which they have a reasonable opportunity and motivation to learn. This concept defines the simplest of conditions for good schooling, which are needed if we wish to avoid disastrous decisions.
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/Perkins-schools.html

Single Input, Multiple Outputs - (Found July 2, 2008 )

People mostly work with the surface expressions' or renderings' of a document; they listen to it or read it. Every document produced with a computer has at least three such renderings in addition to the deep representation in which it is stored electronically. Often systems have only one read-write format for their multiple read-only renderings (printing on paper being a rendering that is always read-only). When you have only one such read-write format, it is better as a deep...
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/single-multiple.html

US Democratic Party Failures - (Found July 2, 2008 )

A topical issue: in September 2004, people posting on the Blogging of the President' Web site argued that the Democratic campaign will lose the coming US presidential election. The discussion is posed as a conflict between modernism' and post-modernism'. I argue this is wrong because neither offers a believable mechanism for determining a hint towards what is true.
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/US-Democratic-party-failures.html

Single Input -- Multiple Outputs updated - (Found July 2, 2008 )

On computers, a single input can produce several output formats. What might you see in an editor (or word processor') that provides two or more different surface expressions at the same time as a deep representation In addition, the introduction of an occasionally useful third term, that of intermediate expression'. (And I have been revising Choice and Constraint'.)
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/multiple-output-preview.html

Responsibility, Frugality, Markets - (Found July 2, 2008 )

After current Bush Administration policies fail, the U. S. Republican party will have to adapt. Responsibility', Frugality', and Markets' provide the base for slogans that can also define policies. Moreover, U. S. Democrats could live with the policies suggested and the political process within the U. S. improve.
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/responsibility-frugality-markets.html

Encyclopedias as Trust Based Institutions - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Banks and insurance companies depend on trust. That is because they offer promises of future delivery, not anything that can be checked in the here and now. Encyclopedias are also based on trust since, as a practical matter, no one is able to check their articles. To be useful, you need to trust that the unchecked articles are good enough.
http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/trust-based-institutions.html