USS Casa Grande (LSD-13)

USS Casa Grande (LSD-13) was a Casa Grande-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy, named in honor of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument near Coolidge, Arizona.

The ship was originally authorized under the Lend-Lease Act as BAPM-5, the fifth of seven British Mechanized Artillery Transports, to be named HMS Portway (F144). Reclassified a Landing Ship Dock, LSD-13, on 1 July 1942, the contract for LSD-13 was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia, on 10 September 1942. Renamed HMS Spear, LSD-13's keel was laid down, on 11 November 1943. While under construction, LSD-13, -14, and -15 were reassigned back to the United States. The ship was renamed Casa Grande, and, as the first of her class in the U.S. Navy, gave her name to the class.

Casa Grande was launched 11 April 1944, sponsored by Mrs. G. Delapalme; and commissioned 5 June 1944, Lieutenant Commander F. E. Strumm, USNR, in command.

World War II

Sailing from Hampton Roads 19 July 1944, Casa Grande was delayed at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone for repairs en route to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived 21 August. Here she offloaded landing craft brought from the east coast, and loaded men and equipment for the invasion of Yap. However, upon her arrival at Eniwetok on 25 September, she was ordered to Manus Island to prepare for the Leyte operation. Assigned to the Southern Attack Force, she entered Leyte Gulf uneventfully, and took part in the initial assault on 20 October. Her men worked at fever pace under enemy air attack as they launched their landing craft and serviced other small craft engaged in this triumphant return to the Philippines, and on 22 October, she withdrew for Hollandia. During the next month, she made two voyages from New Guinea to Leyte, ferrying reinforcements, and evacuating casualties.

USS Germantown (LSD-42)

USS Germantown (LSD-42) is the second Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship in the United States Navy. She is the second navy ship named after the Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown.

Germantown was the first ship in the class to serve in the Pacific. The amphibious ship's mission is to project power ashore by transporting and launching amphibious craft and vehicles loaded with embarked marines in support of an amphibious assault. The ship was designed specifically to operate with Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) vessels. She has the largest capacity for these landing craft (four) of any US Navy amphibious platform.

Construction and career

The navy ordered USS Germantown on 26 March 1982. Four years later, on 8 February 1986, the ship was commissioned. In 1990–1991, she played a significant role during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The ship participated in mock amphibious assaults in Oman after the start of the air war in preparation for a possible amphibious assault.

USS Ashland (LSD-1)

USS Ashland (LSD-1) was the lead ship of her class—indeed, the first dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship to be named for Ashland, the estate of Henry Clay, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Ashland was laid down on 22 June 1942 at Oakland, California, by the Moore Dry Dock Company; launched on 21 December 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Jabez Lowell, the wife of Captain Lowell who was then the inspector of naval material at San Francisco; and commissioned on 5 June 1943, Lieutenant Commander Francis J. Harris in command.

World War II

Following two months of trials, the dock landing ship loaded amphibious craft and personnel at San Diego, stood out to sea on 11 August, and headed west. After arriving at Pearl Harbor on 19 August, the ship paused to take on more cargo and sailed on 25 August for Baker Island. Ashland reached that destination on 1 September, unloaded her equipment, and returned to Hawaii on 27 September. Following voyage repairs, and the embarkation of Army troops, she sailed on 19 October for New Caledonia. At Nouméa, the ship loaded tanks and marines and proceeded to Efate where she joined Task Force 53 (TF 53) to take part in amphibious assault exercises in the Gilbert Islands area which she completed on 28 November and set a course for Hawaii. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 7 December and then commenced an availability period for voyage repairs and alterations.

Crack

Crack may refer to:

Crack may also refer to:

Music

Slang

Software

Other uses

Crak!

Crak! (sometimes Crack!) is a 1963 pop art lithograph by Roy Lichtenstein in his comic book style of using Ben-Day dots and a text balloon. It was used in marketing materials for one of Lichtenstein's early shows. It is one of several of his works related to military art and monocular vision.

Background

When Lichtenstein had his first solo show at The Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City in February 1962, it sold out before opening. The exhibition included Engagement Ring, Blam and The Refrigerator. The show ran from February 10 through March 3, 1962. After a west coast exhibition at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles from April 1–27, 1963, Lichtenstein had his second solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery from September 28 – October 24, 1963 that included Whaam!, Drowning Girl, Torpedo...Los!, Baseball Manager, In the Car, and Conversation.

Named for its onomatopoeic graphic text, Crak! is an offset lithograph on lightweight, white wove paper. According to the Lichtenstein Foundation, it was a marketing poster that "was published to announce Lichtenstein's exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, September 28 [–] October 24, 1963." The foundation notes that the work is sometimes dated 1964 with numbered impressions that are inscribed reflecting that date.

Software cracking

Software cracking (known as "breaking" in the 1980s) is the modification of software to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software, especially copy protection features (including protection against the manipulation of software, serial number, hardware key, date checks and disc check) or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.

A crack refers to the mean of achieving software cracking, for example a stolen serial number or a tool that performs that act of cracking. Some of these tools are called keygen, patch or loader. A keygen is a handmade product license generator that often offers the ability to generate legitimate licenses in your own name. A patch is a small computer program that modifies the machine code of another program. This has the advantage for a cracker to not include a large executable in a release when only a few bytes are changed. A loader modifies the startup flow of a program and does not remove the protection but circumvents it. A well known example of a loader is a trainer used to cheat in games.Fairlight pointed out in one of their .nfo files that these type of cracks are not allowed for warez scene game releases. A nukewar has shown that the protection may not kick in at any point for it to be a valid crack.