Posts by GrumpyKiwi

Re: turrets, autoloaders etc are electric anyway

The Abrams was given an APU to handle idle ekectrical requirements post the 1991 first Gulf War (or really the second Gulf war because the Iran/Iraq one deserves to be called the first). The APU means that you don't have to run the turbine engines to generate power for boiling a cup of coffee or running the thermal sights while holed up. As a result the fuel consumption of the Abrams in the field is now pretty much on a parr with that of contemporaries like the Challenger 2 and the Leo 2.

Re: The unthinkable option...

Err the whole point of that video was that someone was easily able to make a full auto SMG out of just plumbing supplies. He DIDN'T have a semi-auto in the first place, just access to the local Plumbing World.

In Australia about a decade back there was someone in NSW making copies of the MAC-11 SMG in their basement to sell to the various biker gangs.

You don't have to be a rocket surgeon.

Re: rose tinted glasses

I worked on Bath Road just outside Heathrow during the Concorde era. The building was very well insulated, you'd barely notice a 747 taking off. But we all got to enjoy listening and seeing Concorde do its thing, there was no missing it.

Re: Earthquakes...

It depends on where in the country it is. Some places are a lot more vulnerable to earthquakes than others. For example I'm in Auckland, the last earthquake I experienced was in 2014... in Melbourne. Never felt one here in the past 25 years.

Re: Price?

If you have a $10 million system that is knocking down multiple $20 drones and in doing so defends a system worth 30 million, is that a worthwhile exchange? I'd suggest that the answer is yes. There is always more to a cost analysis than just what flies out the barrel.

Last time I checked, sellers of useless tat didn't claim the right to use a drone fired Hellfire to kill you if they mistakenly ID'd you as a terrorist (or military aged male within 500 meters of someone we've ID'd as a terrorist). I've never heard of Baidu sending a poorly trained SWAT team into someone's house to shoot their dog and look for drugs. Never had Amazon charge me with crimes for using eBay to buy something.

Maybe that whole "legally able to kill you" is the kind of thing whereby a Government should have to work A LOT harder to gather information and use it than "sellers of tat". Dunno? Just me??

Re: Singtel rules push

Singtel are (according the Singaporian folks I talk with) notoriously crap at such things as testing, backup plans, DR and so forth. I could totally believe that they tested things on their much smaller network and said "do it, no need for testing".

Re: Cost centre round robin

$500 toilet seats come because when HMS Sheffield takes a missile hit you don't want the burning toilet seat to create toxic fumes that kill more crew, nor to shatter into splinters that slice and dice body parts.

(Also because government accounting rules demand approx. 100 m^3 of documentation to go with said toilet seat purchase that cannot be stored digitally and must be stored in a location guarded by people who've passed the Secret level security clearance).

Re: Where does the time go?

Worked just outside Heathrow (on the Bath Road) in a heavily soundproofed building in the late 1990s. Never noticed a 747 taking off or landing, but we always knew when Concorde took off and many many times I'd race to a window to see her leave the runway. Great stuff.

Re: New Zealand lost its way

The NZ Police got all excited about getting to use their helicopter to raid a "James Bond" level villain. So much so that they forgot to do the very basic paperwork (and for most cops here paperwork is very hard indeed, and it's easier just to go harass brown skinned youth).

It could be argued that if Kim was in fact a James Bond supervillain then they went in massively undermanned and underprepared and unready for an army of ninjas. Or that if he was in fact just an overweight nerd with an ego then all it would have taken was 3 cops showing up at the front gate with a warrant.

Either way, the Police and Crown Prosecution service were both massively inept and as a result we've had the 11 year clown show.

Re: Well

Apart that is from the predictions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, being foretold 4 months in advance. And the various other public comments on the failures of the Russian forces in said invasion. All of which were extremely accurate. To the point where they either have a mole deep in the Kremlin or their surveillance systems are light years ahead of Russian counter intelligence efforts.

Re: So they finally understood the Horten Ho 229

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnrauXbC7yM

Magical Luftwaffe 46 imaginary aircraft.

Re: "those that happen during wars, beginning in seven months' time"

Russian Army Accounting Rules:

50% for the Defence Minister

25% split among the Generals

10% split among lower ranked officers

5% split for the rear echelon logistics staff

10% for actual equipment purchases, maintenance, soldiers wages etc.

Result: "Super" power.

Re: Too Often...

NZ's economy at the time was HEAVILY managed. There were quotas for how much could be imported for any one category of the economy. These were written into regulation and law, hence the OP's comment on getting the government to change the regulation to allow the extra amount of wire in.

All part of an attempt to control how much foreign currency left the country. At one stage you had to get permission from Treasury if you wanted to subscribe to a foreign magazine or newspaper that wasn't already available incountry - e.g. The Economist or NY Times - because you'd be sending $$dollars out of NZ.

Needless to say, for the properly connected there were always many ways and means around such stupidity (e.g. spare parts were imported as "samples"), but the basics persisted throughout the 1970's and up until the 1984 election tossed such things out.

Re: "more agile methodology"

The Salesman is a specialised subclass of the Thief class.

Re: Once upon a time

I think I worked for the same branch, although mine was responsible for all the housing at various establishments around the country. I certainly encountered many of the same types of people.

Re: it does not have a valid license

Germany has been contaminated by the "move like a snail on valium and still break things", hence Berlin Airport.

3 year cycle

I run most of my laptop fleet on a 3 year cycle because they are with retail or sales people. Which means I get back a laptop with a cracked screen, keyboard missing 2-5 keys and at least one USB port non operational. Stains/spillage/crumbs are all just bonuses.

They banned HoI III as it showed China as divided up during the warlord period. So IV is probably on the shitlist too.

Re: Dark Monitor

Back in the mid 90's when contracting for a part of Brutish Rail I got sent to Bletchley (no not the park) to the depot where a terminal had "stopped working".

Got there, wiped the inch thick layer of dust off the screen that was preventing it from being viewable and job done. Even got a nice cup of tea out of it, so I considered that a pretty decent result.

Re: An ex GCHQ bod once told me never to use GMail

All the ex-GCHQ people I worked with were dodgy-as scumbags who thought nothing of cheating on their spouses and taxes and several of whom were heavily involved in a corporate fraud liquidation/phoenix rebirth scheme that cost several of my friends and ex co-workers a lot of money.

GCHQ could tell me that the sky is blue and I wouldn't trust a word they said.

The US armed forces are strictly amateurs compared to those of Australia and NZ.

There has never once been a campaign where they didn't head home with more equipment than they arrived with.

Re: Site Installation

Have a +1 for the Girl Genius reference. One of the better web comics out there for sure.

Re: Its very easy to detect ground based broadcasts

Yes that would explain why in 1997 I got them thumping on my front door telling me I had a TV and no license. At the time I had no TV and told them to go f*** right off.

Clearly it was very "easy" to detect. So easy one might suspect that they were in fact just making it up on the fly.

Probably the FIB who are apparently notorious in the US LE community for their computer illiteracy. I have a recollection that it took them two or three tries to get a working email system for example.

Re: Supreme Court

The weapons of mass destruction of the day were canons. Many many of which were privately owned by ship owners and the like. And a great many of these privately owned canons had been donated to the cause of the revolution.

I wonder where that all came from

Ex-GF (from a very long time ago) youngest brother worked there too until it was closed down. When I visited him his house was full of all the latest and greatest in IT tech of the time with WANG logos slapped on everything. He said that when the place closed down everyone grabbed an empty shopping trolley and walked out with a full one.

Dunno about you, but when I tried just throwing a WAP into the middle of a road, it didn't provide me with any wireless. I ended up having to attach it to a pole, provide it with electricity and an ethernet connection to the internet. Which might have some costs associated with it like labour/permits/materials. Just saying.

Re: Uggghh

***The argument is that drugs are expensive to create, so they need to be priced high to recoup the cost. Well, some free time on the world's biggest supercomputer (x600) should knock off a bunch of development costs.***

The biggest chunk of costs are getting FDA approval - something that can take up to 10 years. No amount of super/ultra/mega-computing time will cut that type of paperwork.

Re: Cockroach syndrome

Hammer or .308 (7.62 NATO) data erase?

Re: Ireland?

Yes those 10 armoured cars and five aircraft would make a real difference.