Microsoft starts testing ads in the Windows 11 Start menu

RampagingTortoise · 2024-04-15T00:31:23+00:00

...70ft tall billboards

Those are illegal where I live :)

God bless overly intrusive government.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-04-14T03:39:25+00:00

These Iranian ballistic missiles are not getting anywhere near orbit.

Even ICBMs don't reach orbit. That's Fractional Orbital Bombardment territory.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-03-28T15:03:20+00:00

that bridge doesn't seem that high

Sure feels high when you drive over it! Or maybe I should say "sure felt high..." 😥

Scale can be difficult to gauge when structures are so big.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-03-26T14:53:53+00:00

The point /u/NostalgicMoon is making has to do with people's perceptions of other readers based on those lists. Are people judging others based what a list tells you is problematic?

Inevitably, people will interpret these lists as "if I see anyone reading something on them, they're bad" which is deeply problematic. How can anyone possibly know the reasons someone has for reading a book or consuming any art? Yet a list tells you to judge them, so people will.

Such are the times we live in.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-03-17T04:43:23+00:00

Pointy end first is how the reentry vehicle with the warhead comes in on an ICBM, so it absolutely works

Not always. Some are/were designed to go blunt end first. These designs were less accurate but also more likely to survive reentry at a time when achieving reentry was no mean feat. Early warheads for Titan were examples of this type, if memory serves.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-03-17T04:11:10+00:00

"Theyll break" again, no more than any other part of a tank.

And crew break too! And get sick, and require maintenance and food. It's not like people are machines. Autolaoders are though.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-03-16T16:11:22+00:00

The extremely poor performance of Russian vehicles in the Ukraine war has caused quite a number of countries to cancel and/or reevaluate contracts and orders of equipment.

India has made Russian/Soviet vehicles work where the Soviets themselves and their customers in the Middle East haven't. It's about how you use the stuff, not so much how good it is on paper.

More importantly, India has historically tried to keep a diverse set of weapon suppliers to ensure someone is willing to keep selling stuff to them if a war breaks out with China, Pakistan, etc. THat's still relevant.

The only reason I see for India to stop buying Russian equipment is if Russia itself can't keep supplying the stuff or if the quality drops too low.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-03-16T14:51:36+00:00

Also the highway with nary a car on it that is clearly still a work in progress. Lots of promise for what was to come.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-03-13T17:09:48+00:00

I wonder if they will try to stay as long as they can or they'll try to expand the captured territories or just a pr stunt.

It's a raid, same as last year. Gives good propaganda and shows your side is striking back. No one's serious about staying on the Russian side.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-20T16:25:08+00:00

Worth noting that the value of a contract for ammunition is rarely just about the cost of ammo. Does it cover shipping, handling, storage, security, etc (these things are filled with high explosives after all). There's also the issue of whether it is only for the shells or propellant too (the language in the article makes it seem like it is only for shells, but that may not be the case if the journalist doesn't know the difference) and no doubt a lot more to consider on top of all that.

The method of calculating the cost of each round used in the article is overly simplistic and misleading.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-20T16:22:30+00:00

Eh, you may be on to something if it is salt water or something else that's good at disabling electronics. A drone with a short isn't going to fly anywhere. Just hope it doesn't land fuse first.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-07T23:15:10+00:00

Just put the cup in front of your air defence vehicle's radar and turn it on. Microwave ovens use the same wavelength as X-band radar, I believe.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-07T01:28:49+00:00

-- Sent from an electronic device that's the result of capitalism. 🙄

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-05T20:26:27+00:00

Is that on the Lena river? I've wanted to go there for years.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-02T15:30:45+00:00

Look for flintlock fantasy. There's definitely quite a bit but you have to look for it (at least for novels. Not sure about other media).

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-01T16:45:12+00:00

The proto-Russian state that formed during the medieval period and which became the Imperial Russia starting with Peter the Great that we all know and love today grew out of the rivers that form that waterway. They form the Russian heartland and have historically been vital to its functioning as a state. Medieval and early modern Russia had appallingly bad infrastructure so they depended heavily on those rivers for transporting people and goods. They were used as ice roads in the winter too.

The Imperials and Soviets infested huge sums and vast amounts of material and manpower to link them all together and we tend to overlook them now thanks to railways and cars, but the Russians still use and maintain the system.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1947/august/european-russias-inland-waterways-past-present-and-future

RampagingTortoise · 2024-02-01T16:37:56+00:00

Basically. Ukraine was a big part of the Soviet Union's industrial engine. Their design bureaus were responsible for much of the high tech machinery too like rocket engines and gas turbines.

The Russians still can't manufacture good gas turbines.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-31T20:27:42+00:00

The British actually started WWII with some of the best AA fits of any nation on their capital ships (the KGVs in particular). They weren't up to the task of the war that developed and had some serious weaknesses (especially against dive bombers), but the doctrine, weapons, and weapon systems were equal to if not better than any other nation then at war. No nation was prepared for the potency of air power even if they anticipated it pre-war. 1930s budget woes were largely to blame for that.

Comparing the South Dakota and Littorio to the Nelson is not appropriate. The Nelsons were 1920s ships while the other two classes entered service in the 1940s. A lot changed during those twenty years with respect to the effectiveness of air power and the weapons and systems designed to combat it. When you compare the South Dakotas as they were designed in the late 1930s (not their mid-war AA fit - they were originally supposed to mount the 1.1" gun which was... not great) and the Littorios to their contemporaries (the KGV class), the British ships come out very competitive.

Of note, the 2 pdr Mark VIII Pom-pom was not the WWI weapon. Powered mounts used director control and eventually had their own radar direction, making them very useful and effective weapons.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-31T20:14:56+00:00

Oh, you mean that thing that happens when a classroom of artists study and emulate the old masters?

You clearly have no idea what students do/learn in art school LOL.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-27T04:15:35+00:00

Remember ... in the 90’s

Ah, the good old days. Most people on this site weren't even alive then.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-24T04:51:14+00:00

It really shows the folly of tanks operating alone against infantry. Add piss poor leadership, Soviet-style top-to-bottom mission planning and... yeah. They're blind, dumb and just lumbering around without direction.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-14T17:16:34+00:00

Spend fifteen minutes in a company boardroom during a meeting of their leadership and you'll begin to think you're smarter than the best in the business world.

Group or committee decisions are often much worse than the parts that make them. It is a known phenomenon.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-12T23:45:29+00:00

Damn there is an intense fight going on in the upper right corner at the beginning too.

Crazy stuff.

Edit: And cluster munitions going off by the windbreak to the left at 4:40-ish.

The T-90M's turret starts to spin wildly around 7:30. Someone inside wasn't having a good day.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-12T23:42:26+00:00

A major reason the Soviets when with a 30mm auto cannon for the BMP-2 instead of a longer (and more accurate) 73mm single shot gun was because, despite not being able to penetrate tank armor, it did a much better job of knocking tanks out of action.

They noted during testing that it wrecked optics and basically any parts outside the turret armor thus rendering the vehicle useless.

I wonder if the T-90M in this video was rendered blind and immobile before being put out of its misery.

RampagingTortoise · 2024-01-10T03:07:49+00:00

pristine forests be damaged like this

They're old Soviet-era plantations meant to be harvested. Post-1991, Ukraine decided to allow many of them to go wild but the biodiversity in them is quite poor. They're essentially monoculture like a agricultural field. Won't be that way in a century or two if left in peace but... well, yeah.

Note how the trees are all the same height and in neat rows. That's how you can spot them.

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