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Robotic Cannon Loses Control, Kills 9
TJ_Phazerhacki writes "A new high tech weapon system demonstrated one of the prime concerns circling smarter and smarter methods of defense last week — an Oerlikon GDF-005 cannon went wildly out of control during live fire test exercises in South Africa, killing 9. Scarily enough, this is far from the first instance of a smart weapon 'turning' on its handlers. 'Electronics engineer and defence company CEO Richard Young says he can't believe the incident was purely a mechanical fault. He says his company, C2I2, in the mid 1990s, was involved in two air defence artillery upgrade programmes, dubbed Projects Catchy and Dart. During the shooting trials at Armscor's Alkantpan shooting range, "I personally saw a gun go out of control several times," Young says. "They made a temporary rig consisting of two steel poles on each side of the weapon, with a rope in between to keep the weapon from swinging. The weapon eventually knocked the pol[e]s down."' The biggest concern seems to be finding the glitches in the system instead of reconsidering automated arms altogether."
That's it, I'm done. I've been a loyal Slashdotter for many years now. I've been wearing my asbestos flamewar armor for so long that I have half a dozen different varieties of cancer. And today, I renounce my faith.
The reason is simple: I clicked this story, There were 11 comments at the time. Every comment was a joke about robots. Not a single one was even remotely funny or clever. And I realized: Are these the kind of people I want to hang out with online? Aren't these the same kind of awkward social retards who I carefully sidestep every single day in my CS classes?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you guys need to start pumping iron and fucking girls. I'm just as much of a loser as you in many ways. However, I at least retain some dignity. Dignity enough not to spew this kind of retarded crap and call it Funny, and get uppity when people say the site sucks because "They don't get the moderation system, it kicks ass".
Fuck it, I'm going back to /b/. At least there half the retards are actually trolls, not sincere attempts at making a Funny esoeteric subcultural reference. I feel so fucking dirty right now. Before I finally cut the last remnants of Slashdot out of my life, I will perform a final check of this page. Perhaps my mind will be changed. Perhaps all of those 11 shit-curdlingly awful first posts will have be at -1 Die In A Fucking Fire. Perhaps my mind will be changed...
That is fucking awesome.
By posting this, I undo my screwup of moding the parent as flamebait. (The old system at least gave you a chance to realize you'd erred before you clicked "submit.")
Sorry about that.
your little racist rant bares absolutely no relevance to the actual accident. if you really want to go comparing the state of the army to pre-aparthied days then it's worth bearing in mind that army needed to be a well oiled machine to keep 'them' (as you so affectionately put it) in order. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa_in_the_apartheid_era#State_security)
what happened was a tradedy. and you're right, poor maintainance is a highly likely cause too. but using this incident to justify your racist beliefs is just pathetic and sad.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on your facts, since you know South Africa. ...is a good thing. I'm guessing this 10million people doesn't include your closest friends.
But in my book:
"Since 1994, 10 million more people have access to clean water." (http://www.dfid.gov.uk/countries/africa/southafrica.asp)
If the black government is helping the citizens of South Africa, they should be applauded, shouldn't they? If not (maybe you're right), they should be voted out, right? And they can be now, since everyone in the country has the right to vote, don't they?
Oh, RIGHT! That's the little difference between the Apartheid regime and now, isn't it? if you disagree, you (and everyone in SA) get to vote about it. Remember that that wonderful government you were talking about was an oppressive regime denying the vote to people based solely on the color of their skin.
'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore