RobertoOberto @ RobertoOberto @sh.itjust.works

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109

Joined

2 yr. ago

Also, it ultimately doesn't matter at this point. The methods and actions required to stop the runaway train are the same regardless of who is behind the wheel.

What will I see?

The fall of all the rest of us.

Metal Storm

Damn, that's a name I haven't heard in a while. I remember finding that early prototype video somewhere online in the pre-youtube days.

is

🙃

Maybe it isn't discussed because ARs are also the most common rifle in the U.S., and for at least 10 years now, the cheapest non-22LR. It's hard to know how much of a role the psychological factors actually play when "easy to obtain" is a significant one of them.

"Easy to obtain" is also the part that is easy for legislation to address, while vaguely defined and hard to measure "psychological effects" requires significant effort just to understand, let alone implement the required social safety nets and induce cultural change to address the root causes.

glirchy

I love it when typos create new words that fit so well.

My favorite is when it actually says "out for delivery" on the day it's supposed to arrive, never shows up, then changes to "could not be delivered" after not showing up.

I called FedEx last time this happened because the delivery was a firearm, and I needed to know what's happened. The person said it was loaded on a truck that morning, which triggered the status change to "out for delivery", but they didn't actually have anyone scheduled to drive the truck that day so it never even left the lot. It did arrive the next day, but I learned to not even trust "out for delivery" from them.

Awesome system, guys.

i just don’t know what keeps these guys in business.

I've never heard of this company in the US, but I assume they have super cheap rates. That means they will continue to be the first choice of shippers that are covering shipping costs. This is especially true for high-volume businesses that move so much product it's cheaper to replace a couple of lost packages than to pay a better shipping company for every one.

Yeah, I think that list overemphasises the role of fiction in individual inventions. Most significant inventions have messy histories of iterative development and multiple sources of inspiration with varying degrees of influence. Here is a patent for a taser-like devices that predate the taser and doesn't use that name: https://www.freepatentsonline.com/3523538.html. It was also invented by a Japanese guy who probably never read the electric rifle book. The later company and commercial product just used the book as loose inspiration for the name.

On the other hand, that last paragraph in the long post undersells the role of fiction in how people's worldviews are shaped and how it can influence their everyday decisions. I think that's way more significant than any one invention, but it's even messier and hard to trace conclusively.

In the past the dangerous morons sent their kids to die in war, and the people who stayed behind were the ones who were more peaceful

Historically, the number of people who have been offered a choice about whether or not their children would participate in a war is vanishingly small compared to those who have not.

WELCOME TO ERF

I think that's because in the first case, the amp modeller is only replacing a piece of hardware or software they already have. It doesn't do anything particularly "intelligent" from the perspective of the user, so I don't think using "AI" in the marketing campaign would be very effective. LLMs and photo generators have made such a big splash in the popular consciousness that people associate AI with generative processes, and other applications leave them asking, "where's the intelligent part?"

In the second case, it's replacing the human. The generative behaviors match people's expectations while record label and streaming company MBAs cream their pants at the thought of being able to pay artists even less.

Having watched from the outside as other people make this transition, it never looks fun. At least in large organizations, it just looks like a ton of added responsibility without enough additional authority to make meaningful change.

I remember having a period of time like this when I was enlisted - I was held responsible for the completion of tasks but not given authority to reward or correct the behavior of those in my charge. I would absolutely loathe being in that position again in the civilian world.

Materials that are actually bulletproof to anything more than 22LR and birdshot don't dent like this.

I like the combination of the absurdly-new tech and a nearly 70 year old front sight post design. Not even a red dot.

FSP gang represent, no other AR sight is better, fight me.

Ready to fly...

latest pew

Heh. Pew go pew pew.

The chunky, thundering sound of the ID logo smashing into the screen when starting up Quake 3 Arena. So many LAN parties...

Imma get real pedantic here - "thermite" is just a composition, like C4, TNT, or PETN. Those drones show just one of many specific delivery methods, spraying or dropping pre-ignited thermite as they moves To say that "[thermite] sprays flammable liquid everywhere" isn't correct, but burning thermite can be spread like those drones do.

My heart smiles at the thought of the first crew to actually command this thing in a war zone pulling security on some unknown pile of rubble and being awoken at 0347 by their tank unexpectedly dumping its entire payload on an "enemy" that it hallucinated.

Granted, dumb privates do this too, but it's funnier to think about the tank doing it all by itself.