A farewell gift

For decades the Naftziger collection was the most renowned reference point for wargamers like me if it came to solid information about orders of battle. Its wealth and depth were a constant source of envy and admiration at the same time. In numerous occasions a fading print-out, arriving in a brown envelope from across the Atlantic, settled a long-lasting feud between gamers in Essen and Wuppertal over the presence of a particular regiment of grenadiers or voltigeurs at this or that napoleonic battle.

So I am sad to read George Naftziger has gone into retirement, sad cause with him we loose one of the most dedicated researchers of statistical data for military history. My English skills are not good enough to really describe the gap he will leave.

On his way out, however, Mr. Naftziger donated the whole corpus of his collection to the public, so that it can be accessed at the CARL library of Ft. Leavenworth from now on. And the only thing I can do is to encourage everyone to make the best use of this information, and of course say: Thank you, Mr. Nafziger. May you live long and prosper.

Mirror-Fencing

As an Addendum to the last entry: Not very surprisingly, Murdochs son now called for an end to goverment-sponsored media. I admit its boring that someone says exactly what is to be expected from him, I still find myself dissapointed at the fact that none of those smart guys can come up with a better idea than to outlaw competition. News are not “free” in the intertubes, I pay the service provider, and I pay my taxes which pay for those News. If your business can’t generate the revenue you need, change your business plan. Its been done before.

Im Westen nichts Neues II

Beim Stöbern gefunden habe ich diese nette kleine Kampagne, die sich, wie andere auch, gegen die zunehmende Überwachung im Internet richtet. Nun müßte man nur noch wenigstens eine der Parteien dazu bewegen, sich nicht im Namen von Berufsparanoikern und Musikindustriellen zum Affen zu machen, sondern gegen Prestige- und Wählergewinn sich dieser Sache annimmt. Ich schätze die Chancen vorerst nicht hoch ein, leider.