Metal Storm

Damn, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. I remember finding that early prototype video somewhere online in the pre-youtube days.

is

🙃

Maybe it isn’t discussed because ARs are also the most common rifle in the U.S., and for at least 10 years now, the cheapest non-22LR. It’s hard to know how much of a role the psychological factors actually play when “easy to obtain” is a significant one of them.

“Easy to obtain” is also the part that is easy for legislation to address, while vaguely defined and hard to measure “psychological effects” requires significant effort just to understand, let alone implement the required social safety nets and induce cultural change to address the root causes.

My favorite is when it actually says “out for delivery” on the day it’s supposed to arrive, never shows up, then changes to “could not be delivered” after not showing up.

I called FedEx last time this happened because the delivery was a firearm, and I needed to know what’s happened. The person said it was loaded on a truck that morning, which triggered the status change to “out for delivery”, but they didn’t actually have anyone scheduled to drive the truck that day so it never even left the lot. It did arrive the next day, but I learned to not even trust “out for delivery” from them.

Awesome system, guys.

i just don’t know what keeps these guys in business.

I’ve never heard of this company in the US, but I assume they have super cheap rates. That means they will continue to be the first choice of shippers that are covering shipping costs. This is especially true for high-volume businesses that move so much product it’s cheaper to replace a couple of lost packages than to pay a better shipping company for every one.

In the past the dangerous morons sent their kids to die in war, and the people who stayed behind were the ones who were more peaceful

Historically, the number of people who have been offered a choice about whether or not their children would participate in a war is vanishingly small compared to those who have not.

WELCOME TO ERF

I think that’s because in the first case, the amp modeller is only replacing a piece of hardware or software they already have. It doesn’t do anything particularly “intelligent” from the perspective of the user, so I don’t think using “AI” in the marketing campaign would be very effective. LLMs and photo generators have made such a big splash in the popular consciousness that people associate AI with generative processes, and other applications leave them asking, “where’s the intelligent part?”

In the second case, it’s replacing the human. The generative behaviors match people’s expectations while record label and streaming company MBAs cream their pants at the thought of being able to pay artists even less.

its up to a parent to deal with it

What a nice cherry on top of the hypocrisy pie. The party of “personal responsibility” and “small government” is perfectly happy when government is used to regulate sexuality and help out the irresponsible parents that don’t want to spend time monitoring their children’s Internet usage. Now young teens are going to learn how to use VPNs or just find the shadier sites that don’t give a shit about U.S. state laws.

Both of which would be adequately addressed by parents learning how to use the tools that are probably already built into their router.

Having watched from the outside as other people make this transition, it never looks fun. At least in large organizations, it just looks like a ton of added responsibility without enough additional authority to make meaningful change.

I remember having a period of time like this when I was enlisted - I was held responsible for the completion of tasks but not given authority to reward or correct the behavior of those in my charge. I would absolutely loathe being in that position again in the civilian world.

I don’t think that’s quite accurate.

The “understand it well enough to explain it to a professor” clause is carrying a lot of weight here - if that part is fulfilled, then yeah, you’re actually learning something.

Unless of course, all of the professors are awful at their jobs too. Most of mine were pretty good at asking very pointed questions to figure out what you actually know, and could easily unmask a bullshit artist with a short conversation.

latest pew

Heh. Pew go pew pew.

…attracting criticism from lawmakers, who warn it could…

Oh my, if only there were someone with the resources and authority to do something about it.

Are we talking t-bone or ribeye?

…why not just use the CC on Amazon?

I think it’s because people think giving pure cash is thoughtless and basic.

This idea needs to die. I’d rather have $10 cash that I can stash away to save up for something that I actually want than a $25 gift card that locks me in to a single store.

I’m at a stage in my life where I can generally buy little things when I want to. But my wife and I don’t make enough to regularly drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on non-essentials, and my other family members can’t do more than $25 or maybe $50 for birthdays or Christmas.

It took me years to convince my parents and wife to just give me cash. When I finally did, it enabled me to save up for a $1k guitar over several years.

I’d much rather have one awesome gift every 5 years than a steady stream of $35 gift certificates to various stores and restaurants.

Not giving someone what they’re actually asking for is far less thoughtful than cash.

I got a Dunkin Donuts card a few years ago too. The nearest location to me is about 600 miles away. Awesome.

I’m more concerned with the transformations from customers to product.

“Hey, buy our expensive shit but also give us all your data so we can also sell it to other companies.”

A lot of unpopular “features” and behaviors used to have DISM, policy, or registry workarounds. And MS seems to love to kill those workarounds during later updates.

If MS isn’t letting people uninstall it, there’s a reason for it, and I’d be willing to bet that users will one day find that it has been magically re-enabled by an update.

They don’t care as long as they can get in, make a few bucks, and get out. Long-term stability isn’t the priority anymore, just quick profits.