Has anyone tried to read their Doctor's handwriting? Just because his penmanship looks like a 5-year old's doesn't make him incompetent. You can take that chicken scratch to any other Doctor/Nurse and they'll know exactly what it says. Using Jargon and abreviations speeds up communication between like groups. Hell, in some cases abreviations and substitutions can actually improve communication. Think of using long-range radios. Someone not communicating by a writer's literacy standard in every e-mail doesn't make them an idiot.
If i was going to re-enlist at all, it would of couse be in a Tax-Free zone. Who can't use $15k tax free? I'd say there are several incentives above and beyond the norm to reup in a combat zone.
"Vets who bother to get skilled and take advantage of their service are highly employable." Yeah, on my application it says: -I can clear a room in under 3 seconds. -I can carry a lot of heavy equipment. -I can accept death in my daily working environment." -I'm partially deaf so I can operate loud machinery easily." -I'm ok with not eating three meals a day.
The AirForce is a great organization to transition from. Lot's of technical jobs and office experience. I personally didn't get a damn thing from my time in Iraq. If i do get a civilian job, it'll be militant in some way. Guard, Merc (Blackwater??), or a Policeman or something like that.
Award Bullet: "On [Date], [Rank Name] was part of an Iraqi Candidate Screening for the Iraqi Police at the [Province] Police Academy that consisted of 250 IP's in [City] Iraq. At 0830 approximately 20 or more insurgents attacked the Academy and the IP's outside. With bullets cracking over head, [Rank Name] reacted immediately, suppressing the attack."
What's the point? Nobody cares. Everyone back here treats me like a kid. There's no place for me here.
Bah, now i've gotten lost in a rant. It came off a bit too hard. But i truely don't think many skills transition to the civilian world very well. Attitudes and Personal traits are the best things vets can offer an employer.
Actually, that probably answers your last question. Amputee Vets return because, even disabled, it's what they are the best at.
Sorry, that kind of thing will never be in the budget. The Army doesn't care enough. What's more cost effective? Recruiting a new soldier or developing and implimenting a PTSD recovery program. Mental Health services are as good as it gets. Who want's a docter on an army salary?
But you're absolutely right. It could be a great resource to use in recreating a situation or environment that has caused someone PTSD.
Well, it's what i was taught.. and it seems to work. A good example of this training is during night fire exercises when the enemy/opfor is using flares. You drop to the ground, don't move, and close your firing eye. Remain still until the flare has extinguished. Unless the flare was the light an ambush, in which case you should move VERY quickly.. but that's something different.
Thanks for the comment, I'll have to look into what exactly "does" happen to the eyes when one is open and the other is closed.
It's not a big deal to have a light attached to your weapon. Typically i've seen surefire brand flashlights the most popular. Personally, in a confined space or small courtyard type situation, i'd rather flash on my light for a few seconds to determine who i'm looking at. I prefer only to use nods when mounted. Dismounted ops i keep them close at hand, but prefer TRUE depth perception than better vision. If you MUST use your flashlight and don't want to lose natural night vision, close your firing eye and look with the other eye. This can also be used to your advantage, as when you turn off the light, you still have a fully adjusted night vision eye, whereas the person you pointed your light at, does not.
Yea.. it's a piece of shit. I really only have experience on the Cavalry Fighting Vehicle (CFV), not the IFV. But i'll cite a few problems.
The army only calculates the human factors when the vehicle is already in production. Where do the soldiers keep their gear? Tied to the outside on the skirts, there isn't room inside (especially if you have it filled up with ammo). Have you ever been doing a movement to contact and came to a tree with a pile of rucksacks next to it? I have. The Brad drove too close and ripped them all off.
Crew compartment seats 2. (Though i believe this has changed in the A2 version?)
Ammo must be assembled into giant chains to be loaded into the ready boxes. There simply isn't room for that unless you drop the back ramp (not good for a combat situation). Though.. i belive the A2 has floor paneling that can hold extra (already assembled) ammo.
Whoever invented the hellhole (passageway to driver compartment) should spend a year of his/her life practicing how to extract unconscious personnel through it.
In order to have a full combat load of ammo in it. You literally have to stack the crew compartment with it. There isn't enough assigned space. Though, you can make a really good level surface to sleep on (if you don't mind sleeping on depleted uranium).
I think the M242 Bushmaster is a beautiful weapon system. 25mm autocannon that can alternate between HE and AP rounds. Absolutely beautiful.
People under estimate it's firepower.. but we over estimate its survivablity. People see videos of it punching holes into a T72 and go.. "wow! what a great weapons platform!" They should also see what more than small arms will do to it as well.
I'd rather it be light though. No more "invulnerable tanker" mentality. Just that it should be taught as a light vehicle.. like an up-armored HMMWV.
I agree completely. People are too quick to replace an older model with something that can't fill the shoes of it's predecessor. Lately it has been armor and aero vehicles rather than weapon systems.
Look at the M2.50 cal machine gun. Today you can go to the Arms Room and draw a.50 cal that came off of a WWII era sherman tank. That sherman tank only had it because a bomber was downed and they needed one. The.50 cal works fine.. great design.
I think the only reason they haven't replaced it yet is they haven't depleted the warehouse supplies from 30+ years ago.
The Crusader is stupid because it fires relatively slow rounds that can be interdicted in flight. Hellfire equipped UAVs on station can provide better artillery support.
There isn't a government on this earth who can "interdict" an artillery round. Perhaps you are thinking about radar systems that can trace the source of incoming rounds? While the Crusader can drop 8 rounds onto a target at the exact same time (multiple firing solutions) then move to a new location, a hellfire equiped UAV (max 2 currently) has to sit and literally watch his payloads go down range. Hellfires are NOT a fire and forget weapon.
Hellfires are good for destroying slow moving or immobile targets. A scout with a map and bino's can do the exact same thing with artillery.
I know a cadence that goes "Shoot, move, and communicate.. boom boom". I'm sure it's been around for a good long while.. and with reason.
I'm a 19D Cav Scout You guys always call us speed bumps.
I thought it was funny until an M1 rolled over my OP/LP (Observation Post / Listening Post). Of course in the morning during the AAR, nobody could recall being in the AO. Let alone remember crushing my ruck.
Linux as a desktop, no.. dual booting is useful.
I keep all my binaries & important media in linux. The only thing windows really does well is games. Having the ability to nuke the windows partition every few months and lose nothing feels good.
Yea, using samba is fine, but it seems windows only acts up when you're at a lanparty or something. All you wanna do is play games.. so you nuke it, recopy over a backed up fresh install.. you're playing again in minutes.
But, i do agree with you to a point. Linux is best after it's been up for 200+ days or so. Gives the feeling of true reliability.
The Army does mine for free. My guess is that's because they know for SURE that they already took enough from me.
Re:I'm more than a little skeptical of Minksy
on
AI Going Nowhere?
·
· Score: 1
First post quote: IMHO one of the problems with AI is that we don't even know what human intelligence is, and until there is a fundamental advance (not technological but in our understanding of our human/biological mind) then it seems to me the most we can hope for are machines that mindlessly ape intelligent behavior, but are not intelligent in any but very superficial ways or by very loose definitions.
quote: What I can see as a sort of middle ground is that it seems our cutesy, baby steps in AI have at least let us try out theories as to how the "mechanics" of the human mind work, so it's possible that the breakthrough will be simultaneos (we understand the human mind when we stumble across a way of modeling it successfullY).
We are making an attemp at reverse-engineering the mind. Until we learn more about the internal mechanics, we are stuck in "guess and check" mode. We create systems that try to mimic the minds output. Each successful program created helps propell us to the day a system can replicate human creativity and beyond.
quote: the reason AI is going nowhere is that the way we build machines right now, it is not possible to simply "program in" a mind
We are nearing a childs mind.. That will be a good place to start.
No one hates you. They hate some of the things your government has done.
I take it you've never been called "fucking american" when you didn't understand how to use a foreign nation's subway system. I don't expect ppl to like me, but i expect them to respect me as a human being.
I play violent games as an escape from the fact that I might have to kill someone in combat. After you've been training to do something for years, sometimes you leap at the chance to do it. After all, it IS what you are trained to do. But, then again.. i'm not in Iraq. I'm stuck in one of the few non-deployable Cavalry Squadrons stationed stateside.
When "applying" to the army, you go through a full physical, and yes, they can reject you for not having all 10 fingers or toes. Anything the doctors think might prevent you from doing your job (head aches, sleep walking) will prevent you from being accepted. You are treated like a piece of meat; would you eat meat that smelled bad or had green spots on it? You are finger printed and a background check is ran. Any outstanding debt or speeding ticket and you're going to have problems. Once in the military, the commander reviews the UCFR (Unit Commanders Financial Report), which has things like, how much money you send to your divorced wife one a month, on it. If you don't pay your phone bill on time, the First Sergeant will hear of it, and he'll probably say something like "Pay it or i'll shove my boot right up your ass!" and mean it.
I love the Army, and i'd rather do this as my profession than code shit in C for a living (which i'm pretty good at). It's just a choice.
Trust me.. civilians have it good.. If you have a problem with how someone is treating you, give them the finger and keep moving. There is ALWAYS a better job out there for you.. motivation and will power can overcome any obstacle.
SPC Carnes - Delta, 1/16th Cavalry Regiment, Fort Knox, KY
I love most FPS games but i'd have to say "America's Army" sucks. Though it is one of the best games graphically i've seen in a while. It was NOT designed with soldiers in mind.
For example, Level 1: BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) What soldier has the patients to shoot at digital popup targets when his head is full of shit like BRAS (Breath, Relax, Aim, and Squeeze) and SPORTS (Slap the Magazine, Pull charging handle, Observe round eject, Release charging handle, Tap forward assist, Squeeze trigger). I personally had a hard time putting forth the effort to shoot when the bobbing cursor was just right.
Imagine they had a Virtual High School game and you could do High School all over again. Wouldn't that be the crappiest game ever? Unless you've never been to high school before.
"America's Army" makes for a good recruiting tool, but definately not a good SIM or game. Have you ever fired a 40mm Automatic Grenade Launcher (MK19) off the top of a HMMWV? That will make just about anyone join and I can guarantee ammo for that is cheaper than whatever the development costs for that "game" was.
Though i cannot endorse, criticize, or make statements for the Army, this is my personal opinion.
-PFC Carnes, Delta Troop 1/16th Cavalry Regiment, Fort Knox
//why the hell can they not automatically configure the display?
Hey guy, read the little banner top left and just below "Slashdot", the part about news for Nerds. The best software is writen by Joe Smo programmer in his garage who felt like giving it to the world. If you can't take 2 minutes to RTFM, you need to stay out of threads dealing with Linux. Sorry, it's a rant, i know..
Slashdot Mirror
Has anyone tried to read their Doctor's handwriting? Just because his penmanship looks like a 5-year old's doesn't make him incompetent. You can take that chicken scratch to any other Doctor/Nurse and they'll know exactly what it says. Using Jargon and abreviations speeds up communication between like groups. Hell, in some cases abreviations and substitutions can actually improve communication. Think of using long-range radios. Someone not communicating by a writer's literacy standard in every e-mail doesn't make them an idiot.
That's terrible, having to put in the CD everytime you want to play your PC game. Good thing consoles.. wait.. what?
Mortars have waken me from my sleep more times than i can count. You know.. mortars. The kind that explode and kill people?
I saw over a hundred people die on 28 Feb 2005. They came apart like legos.
Don't be afraid of the weather.
If i was going to re-enlist at all, it would of couse be in a Tax-Free zone. Who can't use $15k tax free? I'd say there are several incentives above and beyond the norm to reup in a combat zone.
"Vets who bother to get skilled and take advantage of their service are highly employable."
Yeah, on my application it says:
-I can clear a room in under 3 seconds.
-I can carry a lot of heavy equipment.
-I can accept death in my daily working environment."
-I'm partially deaf so I can operate loud machinery easily."
-I'm ok with not eating three meals a day.
The AirForce is a great organization to transition from. Lot's of technical jobs and office experience. I personally didn't get a damn thing from my time in Iraq. If i do get a civilian job, it'll be militant in some way. Guard, Merc (Blackwater??), or a Policeman or something like that.
Award Bullet: "On [Date], [Rank Name] was part of an Iraqi Candidate Screening for the Iraqi Police at the [Province] Police Academy that consisted of 250 IP's in [City] Iraq. At 0830 approximately 20 or more insurgents attacked the Academy and the IP's outside. With bullets cracking over head, [Rank Name] reacted immediately, suppressing the attack."
What's the point? Nobody cares. Everyone back here treats me like a kid. There's no place for me here.
Bah, now i've gotten lost in a rant. It came off a bit too hard. But i truely don't think many skills transition to the civilian world very well. Attitudes and Personal traits are the best things vets can offer an employer.
Actually, that probably answers your last question. Amputee Vets return because, even disabled, it's what they are the best at.
Sorry, that kind of thing will never be in the budget. The Army doesn't care enough. What's more cost effective? Recruiting a new soldier or developing and implimenting a PTSD recovery program. Mental Health services are as good as it gets. Who want's a docter on an army salary? But you're absolutely right. It could be a great resource to use in recreating a situation or environment that has caused someone PTSD.
Well, it's what i was taught.. and it seems to work. A good example of this training is during night fire exercises when the enemy/opfor is using flares. You drop to the ground, don't move, and close your firing eye. Remain still until the flare has extinguished. Unless the flare was the light an ambush, in which case you should move VERY quickly.. but that's something different. Thanks for the comment, I'll have to look into what exactly "does" happen to the eyes when one is open and the other is closed.
It's not a big deal to have a light attached to your weapon. Typically i've seen surefire brand flashlights the most popular. Personally, in a confined space or small courtyard type situation, i'd rather flash on my light for a few seconds to determine who i'm looking at. I prefer only to use nods when mounted. Dismounted ops i keep them close at hand, but prefer TRUE depth perception than better vision. If you MUST use your flashlight and don't want to lose natural night vision, close your firing eye and look with the other eye. This can also be used to your advantage, as when you turn off the light, you still have a fully adjusted night vision eye, whereas the person you pointed your light at, does not.
Civilian HMMWVs are stupid. You can get a REAL one from an army auction and fix it up. It makes for a good hobby. Usually they go for around $9,000.
Yea.. it's a piece of shit. I really only have experience on the Cavalry Fighting Vehicle (CFV), not the IFV. But i'll cite a few problems.
The army only calculates the human factors when the vehicle is already in production. Where do the soldiers keep their gear? Tied to the outside on the skirts, there isn't room inside (especially if you have it filled up with ammo). Have you ever been doing a movement to contact and came to a tree with a pile of rucksacks next to it? I have. The Brad drove too close and ripped them all off.
Crew compartment seats 2. (Though i believe this has changed in the A2 version?)
Ammo must be assembled into giant chains to be loaded into the ready boxes. There simply isn't room for that unless you drop the back ramp (not good for a combat situation). Though.. i belive the A2 has floor paneling that can hold extra (already assembled) ammo.
Whoever invented the hellhole (passageway to driver compartment) should spend a year of his/her life practicing how to extract unconscious personnel through it.
In order to have a full combat load of ammo in it. You literally have to stack the crew compartment with it. There isn't enough assigned space. Though, you can make a really good level surface to sleep on (if you don't mind sleeping on depleted uranium).
I think the M242 Bushmaster is a beautiful weapon system. 25mm autocannon that can alternate between HE and AP rounds. Absolutely beautiful.
People under estimate it's firepower.. but we over estimate its survivablity. People see videos of it punching holes into a T72 and go.. "wow! what a great weapons platform!" They should also see what more than small arms will do to it as well.
I'd rather it be light though. No more "invulnerable tanker" mentality. Just that it should be taught as a light vehicle.. like an up-armored HMMWV.
I agree completely. People are too quick to replace an older model with something that can't fill the shoes of it's predecessor. Lately it has been armor and aero vehicles rather than weapon systems.
.50 cal machine gun. Today you can go to the Arms Room and draw a .50 cal that came off of a WWII era sherman tank. That sherman tank only had it because a bomber was downed and they needed one. The .50 cal works fine.. great design.
Look at the M2
I think the only reason they haven't replaced it yet is they haven't depleted the warehouse supplies from 30+ years ago.
The Crusader is stupid because it fires relatively slow rounds that can be interdicted in flight. Hellfire equipped UAVs on station can provide better artillery support.
There isn't a government on this earth who can "interdict" an artillery round. Perhaps you are thinking about radar systems that can trace the source of incoming rounds? While the Crusader can drop 8 rounds onto a target at the exact same time (multiple firing solutions) then move to a new location, a hellfire equiped UAV (max 2 currently) has to sit and literally watch his payloads go down range. Hellfires are NOT a fire and forget weapon.
Hellfires are good for destroying slow moving or immobile targets. A scout with a map and bino's can do the exact same thing with artillery.
I know a cadence that goes "Shoot, move, and communicate.. boom boom". I'm sure it's been around for a good long while.. and with reason.
I'm a 19D Cav Scout
You guys always call us speed bumps.
I thought it was funny until an M1 rolled over my OP/LP (Observation Post / Listening Post). Of course in the morning during the AAR, nobody could recall being in the AO. Let alone remember crushing my ruck.
Well, that's just sillyness. If they already have what they want, they're not going to come back and pay if given a choice not to.
..I proudly wear my gentoo shirt everywhere
Guess you haven't ever supported your favorite linux distro then, have you?
Linux as a server, yes.
Linux as a desktop, no.. dual booting is useful. I keep all my binaries & important media in linux. The only thing windows really does well is games. Having the ability to nuke the windows partition every few months and lose nothing feels good.
Yea, using samba is fine, but it seems windows only acts up when you're at a lanparty or something. All you wanna do is play games.. so you nuke it, recopy over a backed up fresh install.. you're playing again in minutes.
But, i do agree with you to a point. Linux is best after it's been up for 200+ days or so. Gives the feeling of true reliability.
The Army does mine for free. My guess is that's because they know for SURE that they already took enough from me.
First post quote: IMHO one of the problems with AI is that we don't even know what human intelligence is, and until there is a fundamental advance (not technological but in our understanding of our human/biological mind) then it seems to me the most we can hope for are machines that mindlessly ape intelligent behavior, but are not intelligent in any but very superficial ways or by very loose definitions.
quote: What I can see as a sort of middle ground is that it seems our cutesy, baby steps in AI have at least let us try out theories as to how the "mechanics" of the human mind work, so it's possible that the breakthrough will be simultaneos (we understand the human mind when we stumble across a way of modeling it successfullY).
We are making an attemp at reverse-engineering the mind. Until we learn more about the internal mechanics, we are stuck in "guess and check" mode. We create systems that try to mimic the minds output. Each successful program created helps propell us to the day a system can replicate human creativity and beyond.
quote: the reason AI is going nowhere is that the way we build machines right now, it is not possible to simply "program in" a mind
We are nearing a childs mind.. That will be a good place to start.
No one hates you. They hate some of the things your government has done.
I take it you've never been called "fucking american" when you didn't understand how to use a foreign nation's subway system. I don't expect ppl to like me, but i expect them to respect me as a human being.
I play violent games as an escape from the fact that I might have to kill someone in combat. After you've been training to do something for years, sometimes you leap at the chance to do it. After all, it IS what you are trained to do. But, then again.. i'm not in Iraq. I'm stuck in one of the few non-deployable Cavalry Squadrons stationed stateside.
Time to play another round of UT2003.
When "applying" to the army, you go through a full physical, and yes, they can reject you for not having all 10 fingers or toes. Anything the doctors think might prevent you from doing your job (head aches, sleep walking) will prevent you from being accepted. You are treated like a piece of meat; would you eat meat that smelled bad or had green spots on it? You are finger printed and a background check is ran. Any outstanding debt or speeding ticket and you're going to have problems. Once in the military, the commander reviews the UCFR (Unit Commanders Financial Report), which has things like, how much money you send to your divorced wife one a month, on it. If you don't pay your phone bill on time, the First Sergeant will hear of it, and he'll probably say something like "Pay it or i'll shove my boot right up your ass!" and mean it.
I love the Army, and i'd rather do this as my profession than code shit in C for a living (which i'm pretty good at). It's just a choice.
Trust me.. civilians have it good.. If you have a problem with how someone is treating you, give them the finger and keep moving. There is ALWAYS a better job out there for you.. motivation and will power can overcome any obstacle.
SPC Carnes - Delta, 1/16th Cavalry Regiment, Fort Knox, KY
I love most FPS games but i'd have to say "America's Army" sucks. Though it is one of the best games graphically i've seen in a while. It was NOT designed with soldiers in mind.
For example, Level 1: BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) What soldier has the patients to shoot at digital popup targets when his head is full of shit like BRAS (Breath, Relax, Aim, and Squeeze) and SPORTS (Slap the Magazine, Pull charging handle, Observe round eject, Release charging handle, Tap forward assist, Squeeze trigger). I personally had a hard time putting forth the effort to shoot when the bobbing cursor was just right.
Imagine they had a Virtual High School game and you could do High School all over again. Wouldn't that be the crappiest game ever? Unless you've never been to high school before.
"America's Army" makes for a good recruiting tool, but definately not a good SIM or game. Have you ever fired a 40mm Automatic Grenade Launcher (MK19) off the top of a HMMWV? That will make just about anyone join and I can guarantee ammo for that is cheaper than whatever the development costs for that "game" was.
Though i cannot endorse, criticize, or make statements for the Army, this is my personal opinion.
-PFC Carnes, Delta Troop 1/16th Cavalry Regiment, Fort Knox
//why the hell can they not automatically configure the display?
Hey guy, read the little banner top left and just below "Slashdot", the part about news for Nerds. The best software is writen by Joe Smo programmer in his garage who felt like giving it to the world. If you can't take 2 minutes to RTFM, you need to stay out of threads dealing with Linux. Sorry, it's a rant, i know..