>The aggressive party will just send thousands of fake mortars and make the >thing fire 24/7 until it breaks. >Or the residence leave because of the noise.
You're right. We should do nothing....
Do the math- thousands of rockets vs thousands of 20mm rounds.
"Fake mortars"? There's no such thing. A dud mortar will do considerable damage all by itself just from the kinetic energy it has. I have mortar fragments from a 'dud' to prove it. If I hadn't been behind a concrete barrier, I'd be dead now. The C-RAM would do well to shoot down ANYTHING on a ballistic trajectory towards its position. And yes, they can tell the difference between mortars and birds.
Hints: C-RAM is guided by RADAR, birds do not normally follow ballistic trajectories, nor do aircraft, shooting thousands of mortars and rockets will make your position very obvious, trust me, etc.
I won't say anything about its specifics, but I can tell you that it DOES work. It IS loud and you WILL crap your pants every time it goes off without warning, but that's a small price to pay for a WORKING product that shoots mortars and rockets out of the sky. This would be the perfect solution to their problem and frankly I'm surprised that I haven't heard more about it. Ah, I just answered my own question from my wiki link- it looks like they are in fact looking into these. Good for them.
I don't know what the retail is on these things, but I'm sure we could squeeze a few into the multi-billion-dollar defense support that we give to Israel every year.
>Now tell me, why should I go in at an entry level paygrade when I can make more as a civilian?
Most of us could make more as civilians. I know I could.
We do this for reasons other than money. I never thought I'd be saying this when I first joined; I thought it'd be some easy money and a degree and then WHAM I would be out the door. But as I've grown up and into my role as an adult and an American, I find myself really enjoying what I do for more personal and satisfying reasons. And I think I share that experience with many people- pretty much anyone who has re-enlisted.
If that sounds pathetic and smarmy and saccharine to you, then yeah- you might be better off with your fabulously well-paying civilian job.
And also, why on earth would you even complain about the pay and then talk about enlisting as a marine? WTF? The low paycheck hurts less when you're being shot at?
I think a lot of people are really overestimating the kind of skill that this new command will actually require. He made it clear that the software, hardware, procedure, support, etc. were all going to come from the civilian side. Learning to be a good sysadmin sure does take a while, but teaching someone how to portscan and use sniffers- eh, not so much. And I can almost guarantee that those will be the 'cutting-edge tools' that our new cyber warriors will be using.
Take this new cyber command with a huge grain of salt.
If you were right, we wouldn't have charities or non-profits.
People do things for reasons other than money. It's OK if you are not one of them. There are others who will take your place. Many people (like me) who join the military look at it as a valuable experience rather than a career move.
Don't get me wrong, I like shootin the shit with my army buddies. But when the topic of AF life VS. Army life comes up (as it invariably does), my usual response is: "If you don't like the Army, then join the Air Force. Quit bitching and pass me a beer or you don't get any fucking air support next time." And we laugh and have a good time.
And that is that. No reason to discuss further. Each branch has a job to do. If my generals had the balls to ask for AC tents for his guys in the field, then more power to him. What was your general up to that day?
I think part of this culture problem stems from hackers feeling entitled to some kind of special treatment. Don't take this personally, but I'm hearing a lot of comments scoffing at the idea that hackers should stoop so low as to soil themselves on the PT pad.
Give me a break.
Maybe you are a 'hacker' in the military. Great. I'm a mechanic. Larry over there is infantry. And we are ALL going to do some pushups now, because in the military you are not special.
You have 1337 skills? Great. Larry can hit a golf ball at 1000 yards with his rifle. I can design repairs that are stronger than the original structure while only adding negligible weight. Sally can drop bombs on a dime from 25,000 feet traveling at 500 mph.
We are all very accomplished people in the military. Knowing how to 'hack' does not really make you any different from the rest of us. Get over yourselves, please. If you don't want the job, then don't freaking take it.
We can talk all day about how hackers have such special skills that no one else could possibly learn after age 13, but that's just masturbation. And it's not true.
>>If anything, being in airforce is less honorable than being a marine, a firefighter, a cop, a paramedic, a janitor even. How much risk do they take bombing cavemen from 20,000 feet?
I meet a great number of marines and soldiers who have never seen action, whether it's because they are new or because they have a rear-echelon job like finance. Are they also less honorable?
I've served on the ground in Iraq twice, and I volunteered for a third trip next fall. I am also looking in to working for the Multinational forces in Baghdad and helping the Iraqi Air Force finds its 'sea legs'. I've endured the worst heat, dust, mud, parasites, spiders, mortars, rockets, and small arms fire that the country threw at me. I took it all in stride because I volunteered to do it, and because I love it.
Air Force personnel run the gamut from security forces, pararescue, combat control, combat weather, pilots, doctors, nurses, aircraft maintainers, you name it. We can ship an entire base to any place in the world and be flying combat sorties out of it within a week. We provide our own security, supply/logistics, fuel, munitions, tools, and airpower. We are not the rag-tag bunch of maverick pilots you see in WWI pictures.
I am going to assume that you are about 13 years old and have never had any substantial experience with the military outside of movies. That's fine. Even if you're 30, that's fine. You have your own road to walk down. But I have come THIS CLOSE to being a million tiny pieces and I have done it with a smile on my face. And you'll see that same smile if you ever meet me. But don't expect me to spare my piss if you're ever on fire.
Pot the entire thing in a block of hard wax. You have support, insulation, and shock absorption. The phase change of the wax from solid to liquid will absorb a great deal of heat during a fire. Make the box out of two layers of.090" 2024 T-3 or something, and have expanded foam in between the layers.
If the electronics in artillery shells can withstand the (hundreds of?) thousands of G's placed on them during launch, then I'm pretty sure this box will do just fine.
That's some pretty good advice you just handed out. I've been trying to align myself with your outlook for a while now, with interesting results. But...
I think that part of the indignation (frustration?) slashdotters feel about astrology is that it implies a way of thinking that is so foreign to most of us that we cannot imagine holding meaningful, personal conversations with an 'astrologer'. I know from my own experiences with these people that they can be maddeningly irrational. They have been very nice (as in friendly, amiable) people, all of them, but I had a hard time talking with them about anything that I cared about. To a person willing to believe astrology, things like math and physics and chemistry and natural laws are a hindrance to a happy life- they are boundaries, hurdles, artificially erected by snotty jerks like me who can't see past my books to enjoy things like mermaids and emo music.
And I'm serious. I'll never forget a girl saying (on our last date), "How can you not believe in mermaids if you can't prove that they don't exist?"
The most frustrating part of this is that, in the short-term, geeks and astrologer-type people often get along very well. There is a good sexual chemistry between the two personality types that I won't pretend to understand. Maybe it's just a matter of these Extroverted Sensing people being more accepting and optimistic with an Introverted iNtuitive person than two Introverted people could be together. Maybe we INs just get lucky every now and then and an ES comes along who is nice enough to like us. I find that these relationships are short-lived as the ES gets fed up feeling held back by the IN, while the IN gets sick of the ES being so flighty and air-headed. Friendships can last a long time if the time spent together is spaced at healthy intervals.
This is just my opinion, which is of course based on my personal experiences. But I think I speak for a lot of people in saying that I know very clearly certain limitations of my own personality. I know through hard experience what to avoid in a relationship. And I think for many IN-type geeks here on/., a willingness to believe in something as absurd as astrology raises HUGE warning flags.
>>If the moon can affect when I have my period, why can't Jupiter affect when I'll be in a good mood to throw a party?
-Ancient creatures could SEE the moon, even through clouds. -The moon is close and massive enough to influence the tides -The stages of the moon are cyclical and reliable -A full moon sheds a good light for certain nocturnal, er, activities that would be too dangerous during the day -Early sex (and a lot of modern invertebrate sex) entailed large numbers of a population fertilizing at the same time to maximize the survival rate of their darling snot-like offspring -You and I are descended from those creatures
It comes down to vast seas of tiny creatures all fertilizing at once. We share that legacy for sort of the same reason. Notice how women's periods will synchronize. This kind of reaction to the moon far precedes even the first glimmer of humanity that would be able to tell planets from stars.
Yes. 100 years after the widespread use of electricity, and we don't have a grand unified theory. What a bunch of hooey! A few years ago, we didn't even know if fission was possible. Hooey! Science is all hooey for not solving ALL the questions RIGHT NOW. A few years ago we didn't have a hubble telescope, and now that we do, the scientists can't use it to explain the origins of the universe by my next birthday! Bah, I'll just lump science together with astrology and scientology. It's all the same.
And btw, this article wasn't about dating people with different beliefs; it was about dating people who believe in astrology, a very specific and very well debunked idea.
My mom believes that if you curse and yell at water, it will freeze into 'ugly' crystals. She learned this on a 'documentary' called "What the blank do we know."
You can can fucking well bet that I get indignant over other people's stupid beliefs. She still has another kid to raise.
How stupid would a person's beliefs need to be before you thought that they WERE in fact stupid (barring mental illness)?
Ignorant != Stupid
Stupid == Ignorant
While an ignorant person may very well not be stupid, there is a good chance that they are, depending on the particular ignorance they are 'guilty' of.
You made some good points, and it hurts me to nitpick like this, but we do in fact call Newton's 'models' laws and have for some time. You may wish that the word 'law' had a rigid, SI-style definition, but it doesn't really apply to Newton's work, which I believe predates our efforts to standardize this stuff. You can call it simple nostalgia, if you like.
I think there's a pretty huge difference between, "At speeds approaching C, newtonian physics is not accurate," versus "If you were born in August, you are stubborn."
Astrology, when it IS right/appropriate, is right by CHANCE. Newtonian physics is right because it follows very closely with observed results at a human scale. It is consistent and it is useful. Astrology is useful in SPITE of its scientific pretensions, not because of them.
Like it or not, clothing our delicate naked bodies plays a huge role in preserving most people's dignity. Or should I say, controlling whether or not you are wearing clothes plays a huge role in preserving dignity. You can be OK with nudism, but I'll bet you'd still get upset if someone took pictures of you naked without your consent and then did whatever they pleased with them.
If not, then you do not represent the vast majority of people.
Slashdot Mirror
All those people who were found dead in front of their computers? The ones we assumed must have had heart attacks? At age 30?
Goatse.
The dirtiest kind of clean crime scene.
-b
>The aggressive party will just send thousands of fake mortars and make the
...
>thing fire 24/7 until it breaks.
>Or the residence leave because of the noise.
You're right. We should do nothing.
Do the math- thousands of rockets vs thousands of 20mm rounds.
"Fake mortars"? There's no such thing. A dud mortar will do considerable damage all by itself just from the kinetic energy it has. I have mortar fragments from a 'dud' to prove it. If I hadn't been behind a concrete barrier, I'd be dead now.
The C-RAM would do well to shoot down ANYTHING on a ballistic trajectory towards its position. And yes, they can tell the difference between mortars and birds.
Hints: C-RAM is guided by RADAR, birds do not normally follow ballistic trajectories, nor do aircraft, shooting thousands of mortars and rockets will make your position very obvious, trust me, etc.
-b
The U.S. has a system that works pretty well in this kind of situation: The Phalanx CIWS, or the C-RAM system (very similar).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-RAM
I won't say anything about its specifics, but I can tell you that it DOES work. It IS loud and you WILL crap your pants every time it goes off without warning, but that's a small price to pay for a WORKING product that shoots mortars and rockets out of the sky. This would be the perfect solution to their problem and frankly I'm surprised that I haven't heard more about it. Ah, I just answered my own question from my wiki link- it looks like they are in fact looking into these. Good for them.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847389509&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
I don't know what the retail is on these things, but I'm sure we could squeeze a few into the multi-billion-dollar defense support that we give to Israel every year.
-b
>Now tell me, why should I go in at an entry level paygrade when I can make more as a civilian?
Most of us could make more as civilians. I know I could.
We do this for reasons other than money. I never thought I'd be saying this when I first joined; I thought it'd be some easy money and a degree and then WHAM I would be out the door. But as I've grown up and into my role as an adult and an American, I find myself really enjoying what I do for more personal and satisfying reasons. And I think I share that experience with many people- pretty much anyone who has re-enlisted.
If that sounds pathetic and smarmy and saccharine to you, then yeah- you might be better off with your fabulously well-paying civilian job.
And also, why on earth would you even complain about the pay and then talk about enlisting as a marine? WTF? The low paycheck hurts less when you're being shot at?
-b
I think a lot of people are really overestimating the kind of skill that this new command will actually require. He made it clear that the software, hardware, procedure, support, etc. were all going to come from the civilian side. Learning to be a good sysadmin sure does take a while, but teaching someone how to portscan and use sniffers- eh, not so much. And I can almost guarantee that those will be the 'cutting-edge tools' that our new cyber warriors will be using.
Take this new cyber command with a huge grain of salt.
-b
If you were right, we wouldn't have charities or non-profits.
People do things for reasons other than money. It's OK if you are not one of them. There are others who will take your place. Many people (like me) who join the military look at it as a valuable experience rather than a career move.
-b
Don't get me wrong, I like shootin the shit with my army buddies. But when the topic of AF life VS. Army life comes up (as it invariably does), my usual response is: "If you don't like the Army, then join the Air Force. Quit bitching and pass me a beer or you don't get any fucking air support next time."
And we laugh and have a good time.
And that is that. No reason to discuss further. Each branch has a job to do. If my generals had the balls to ask for AC tents for his guys in the field, then more power to him. What was your general up to that day?
-b
I think part of this culture problem stems from hackers feeling entitled to some kind of special treatment. Don't take this personally, but I'm hearing a lot of comments scoffing at the idea that hackers should stoop so low as to soil themselves on the PT pad.
Give me a break.
Maybe you are a 'hacker' in the military. Great. I'm a mechanic. Larry over there is infantry. And we are ALL going to do some pushups now, because in the military you are not special.
You have 1337 skills? Great. Larry can hit a golf ball at 1000 yards with his rifle. I can design repairs that are stronger than the original structure while only adding negligible weight. Sally can drop bombs on a dime from 25,000 feet traveling at 500 mph.
We are all very accomplished people in the military. Knowing how to 'hack' does not really make you any different from the rest of us. Get over yourselves, please. If you don't want the job, then don't freaking take it.
We can talk all day about how hackers have such special skills that no one else could possibly learn after age 13, but that's just masturbation. And it's not true.
-b
>>If anything, being in airforce is less honorable than being a marine, a firefighter, a cop, a paramedic, a janitor even. How much risk do they take bombing cavemen from 20,000 feet?
I meet a great number of marines and soldiers who have never seen action, whether it's because they are new or because they have a rear-echelon job like finance. Are they also less honorable?
I've served on the ground in Iraq twice, and I volunteered for a third trip next fall. I am also looking in to working for the Multinational forces in Baghdad and helping the Iraqi Air Force finds its 'sea legs'. I've endured the worst heat, dust, mud, parasites, spiders, mortars, rockets, and small arms fire that the country threw at me. I took it all in stride because I volunteered to do it, and because I love it.
Air Force personnel run the gamut from security forces, pararescue, combat control, combat weather, pilots, doctors, nurses, aircraft maintainers, you name it. We can ship an entire base to any place in the world and be flying combat sorties out of it within a week. We provide our own security, supply/logistics, fuel, munitions, tools, and airpower. We are not the rag-tag bunch of maverick pilots you see in WWI pictures.
I am going to assume that you are about 13 years old and have never had any substantial experience with the military outside of movies. That's fine. Even if you're 30, that's fine. You have your own road to walk down. But I have come THIS CLOSE to being a million tiny pieces and I have done it with a smile on my face. And you'll see that same smile if you ever meet me. But don't expect me to spare my piss if you're ever on fire.
-b
Pot the entire thing in a block of hard wax. You have support, insulation, and shock absorption. The phase change of the wax from solid to liquid will absorb a great deal of heat during a fire. Make the box out of two layers of .090" 2024 T-3 or something, and have expanded foam in between the layers.
If the electronics in artillery shells can withstand the (hundreds of?) thousands of G's placed on them during launch, then I'm pretty sure this box will do just fine.
-b
I'll change all my user names to "Your Can't". That way I'll know which ads are useless.
"You Can't find everything you need at carpet warehouse!"
"You Can't find 'quadratic equation' and anything else on eBay!"
I hate those eBay ads that just take your google search input to serve in the ad. Apparently eBay will sell you entire cities.
-b
That's some pretty good advice you just handed out. I've been trying to align myself with your outlook for a while now, with interesting results.
/., a willingness to believe in something as absurd as astrology raises HUGE warning flags.
But...
I think that part of the indignation (frustration?) slashdotters feel about astrology is that it implies a way of thinking that is so foreign to most of us that we cannot imagine holding meaningful, personal conversations with an 'astrologer'. I know from my own experiences with these people that they can be maddeningly irrational. They have been very nice (as in friendly, amiable) people, all of them, but I had a hard time talking with them about anything that I cared about. To a person willing to believe astrology, things like math and physics and chemistry and natural laws are a hindrance to a happy life- they are boundaries, hurdles, artificially erected by snotty jerks like me who can't see past my books to enjoy things like mermaids and emo music.
And I'm serious. I'll never forget a girl saying (on our last date), "How can you not believe in mermaids if you can't prove that they don't exist?"
The most frustrating part of this is that, in the short-term, geeks and astrologer-type people often get along very well. There is a good sexual chemistry between the two personality types that I won't pretend to understand. Maybe it's just a matter of these Extroverted Sensing people being more accepting and optimistic with an Introverted iNtuitive person than two Introverted people could be together. Maybe we INs just get lucky every now and then and an ES comes along who is nice enough to like us.
I find that these relationships are short-lived as the ES gets fed up feeling held back by the IN, while the IN gets sick of the ES being so flighty and air-headed. Friendships can last a long time if the time spent together is spaced at healthy intervals.
This is just my opinion, which is of course based on my personal experiences. But I think I speak for a lot of people in saying that I know very clearly certain limitations of my own personality. I know through hard experience what to avoid in a relationship. And I think for many IN-type geeks here on
That's just my 2 cents, of course.
-b
>>If the moon can affect when I have my period, why can't Jupiter affect when I'll be in a good mood to throw a party?
-Ancient creatures could SEE the moon, even through clouds.
-The moon is close and massive enough to influence the tides
-The stages of the moon are cyclical and reliable
-A full moon sheds a good light for certain nocturnal, er, activities that would be too dangerous during the day
-Early sex (and a lot of modern invertebrate sex) entailed large numbers of a population fertilizing at the same time to maximize the survival rate of their darling snot-like offspring
-You and I are descended from those creatures
It comes down to vast seas of tiny creatures all fertilizing at once. We share that legacy for sort of the same reason. Notice how women's periods will synchronize. This kind of reaction to the moon far precedes even the first glimmer of humanity that would be able to tell planets from stars.
-b
Yes. 100 years after the widespread use of electricity, and we don't have a grand unified theory. What a bunch of hooey! A few years ago, we didn't even know if fission was possible. Hooey! Science is all hooey for not solving ALL the questions RIGHT NOW. A few years ago we didn't have a hubble telescope, and now that we do, the scientists can't use it to explain the origins of the universe by my next birthday! Bah, I'll just lump science together with astrology and scientology. It's all the same.
And btw, this article wasn't about dating people with different beliefs; it was about dating people who believe in astrology, a very specific and very well debunked idea.
-b
Jesus may not have hungered for human flesh himself, but he seems to have been a fan of the idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist
-b
My mom believes that if you curse and yell at water, it will freeze into 'ugly' crystals. She learned this on a 'documentary' called "What the blank do we know."
You can can fucking well bet that I get indignant over other people's stupid beliefs. She still has another kid to raise.
-b
ps- hi mom
>>By your line of reasoning (if I can call it that), women are easily swayed by what they read in fashion magazines.
Well, they DO keep buying them... Month after month... The mags wouldn't put them in there if they didn't sell advertising.
I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
I've yet to meet a man who gives any credence to astrology. Call me sexist, but that's the facts (of my particular situation), jack.
It could very well be that my experience is within the statistical noise.
-b
To be fair, astrology goes by month, not season.
Still a load of nonsense, though.
-b
How stupid would a person's beliefs need to be before you thought that they WERE in fact stupid (barring mental illness)?
Ignorant != Stupid
Stupid == Ignorant
While an ignorant person may very well not be stupid, there is a good chance that they are, depending on the particular ignorance they are 'guilty' of.
-b
You made some good points, and it hurts me to nitpick like this, but we do in fact call Newton's 'models' laws and have for some time. You may wish that the word 'law' had a rigid, SI-style definition, but it doesn't really apply to Newton's work, which I believe predates our efforts to standardize this stuff. You can call it simple nostalgia, if you like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_laws_of_motion
I think there's a pretty huge difference between, "At speeds approaching C, newtonian physics is not accurate," versus "If you were born in August, you are stubborn."
Astrology, when it IS right/appropriate, is right by CHANCE. Newtonian physics is right because it follows very closely with observed results at a human scale. It is consistent and it is useful. Astrology is useful in SPITE of its scientific pretensions, not because of them.
-b
Like it or not, clothing our delicate naked bodies plays a huge role in preserving most people's dignity. Or should I say, controlling whether or not you are wearing clothes plays a huge role in preserving dignity. You can be OK with nudism, but I'll bet you'd still get upset if someone took pictures of you naked without your consent and then did whatever they pleased with them.
If not, then you do not represent the vast majority of people.
-b
I'm making a note here
"HUGE SUCCESS!"
You should keep a close eye on your vacuum. Apparently nature hates it.
Cue video of increasing closet entropy equalizing your vacuum into your towels, spare toilet paper, fan, etc.
That would suck.
-b
Ah, a new breakthrough. The HHGTTG is written in little-endian ObjectiveTroll. Thank you so much!
-b