Posts by Psyx

"Android is very much the phone as a computer, and that's good. the iPhone is the phone as an appliance and that's good too. Both of there things have their markets and their uses."

I think that's a bit of a blanket-all statement. Tech users certainly *often* prefer Android phones and many Android phones are used by the technically astute, but that doesn't encapsulate even 20% of their user base; it's simple perception bias (from reading stuff on techie sites about them and those sites being used by techies who tend to favour them) coupled with them being good for that role. I think it's pretty safe to say that the majority of Android users *don't* tamper with it excessively and just use them. That rather belies the Apple "It just works" thing, because for a large number of Android users "It just works" too.

"Or rather: We are not like other companies, launching a range of products to give people a choice, which would make us popular."

I think he's conveniently forgetting the half-dozen flavours of MP3 player that they make.

"40% more expensive - yes an iPhone 5 is more an a Galaxy S3 but factor in the superior service / support"

One could argue that it'd better to have a product that doesn't NEED support and after-sale service. Like by... y'know: Not making something out of glass.

But I'm glad you're getting such great value by spending 40% more and getting that extra support.

*pats £100 Wildfire, which has never needed anything more than fingermarks wiped off it*

Re: I'm no expert, but...

"BMW X5 is a better car"

Coincidently, people who own those are usually considered idiots with more money than sense, too.

Re: 9mm?

"The P90 is used by a few branches of DHS"

Feck: I'd better pay for that sofa!!!

Re: You honestly think

"Yep, the range issue turned out to be quite a problem for the yanks in Afghanistan as the shiny M4 replacement for the venerable M16s..."

I'd be very impressed if an individual rifleman could tag a target at 800m with an iron sighted M-16! I think the M-4 is rated at 400m or less, isn't it? Certainly I've never known Americans to train at 500m+ with them. The L85A1 used to be rated to 400m (w/ SUSAT) for individual fire.

But yeah: Conflicts for the last 50 years have been pretty short-ranged affairs, and that - coupled with mechanisation - brought down the perceived need for a long-range clout. Then we get something that goes against the grain and designated marksmen and sniper weapons at squad level are all the rage.

"Still better than a pistol, expensive toy or not - your Desert Eagle has an effective range of around 50m"

To be fair, I expect they're better ranged than that, given that long-range target shooting is what they are designed for.

"the pistol would`nt jam if you never used it"

Oh, so that's the key to reliability: If one carries a fragile, civilian, over-complicated piece of chrome-plated trash around in a desert long enough without using it, it'll definitely work when you really, really, really need it to.

Sweet. If only we'd have thought of doing that with the IW/LSW.

"the desert eagle is a sidearm"

...That weighs 2kg unloaded. I can hear the PBIs squealing with glee at the prospect of carrying more useless, heavy, unreliable sh!t already!

Re: 9mm?

"Simpler to invade Belgium again."

The problem with doing that is that it's easy to over-shoot, go through the whole place, and not realise until you're just outside Paris.

Re: Where and by whom?

"First sales of P90 were made to Saudi Arabia..."

I didn't see any mention of regular US forces though, as was cited. Non-military divisions of the US government procure their own bits and bobs and are outside of the NATO logistical chains. The British military aren't going to start using new ammo just because the US Secret Service have adopted it and have a few thousand rounds of it kicking around somewhere.

The only NATO military that uses them is Belgium, and they own less than 200 is a Spec Ops capability.

"(no, its not from Wikipedia)"

For once Wiki seems to be a good source on the matter, giving a break-down of ownership and even specific numbers purchased.

"if you have to buy your own boots and hats, you might as well go all out and buy your own sidearm, from a irish smuggler"

Or 'terrorist' as we call them here. Seriously: What kind of jack-ass military do you think we run that lets squaddies wander around with illegally obtained and owned firearms that were never intended for anything other than target shooting and posing with?

"the army should still have them to give to special OPs, they are better then carrying a shotgun in 2 hands"

I hate to break this to you, but the only time you should use a pistol in one hand is when you throw it at someone if it jams. I mean it's great that you want to keep a hand free for picking your nose or whatever while firing a .50 Action Express rapidly in one hand, but I think that I'd rather stick to holding the weapon correctly and being able to hit the side of a barn.

And .50AE has hell of a lot less energy than a shotgun does anyway.

Re: 9mm?

"Well yes that's right but as they aren't issuing side-arms to everyone, just those that are judged to need them"

10mm is better, but simply not in the logistics chain. It would cost a ton of cash and a whole bunch more testing and pen-pushing in order to deviate from the 9mm as common issue. And 25,000 is a vast number of sidearms, given the size of the UK military, so it's not really a particularly special issue weapon.

"(I don't know if its particularly common but the Five-seveN uses the same round as the P90 which is in use already with the US military at least)."

Where and by whom? [citation needed!]

If it's only by a T1/T2 spec-ops team, then that doesn't really count as being an influential part of the logistics chain. It was twenty years after the SAS were first seen swaggering around with M203s before anyone else ever got to play with anything similar.

"why not give them the best tool for the job."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Man, that's funny. Since when has the UK military EVER had the best tool for the job? We still had boots that gave people trench foot until after the Falklands! We've never had a decent field radio, and it took twenty years of "Do we forward assist this week" to sort out the basic service rifle.

"zmodem is right."

No he's not.

"if you are in a combat situation you need to hit hard, hit fast and move on. for that you generally want a big fucking gun."

Yes: It's called a 5.56mm assault rifle. The Glock is a back-up piece. No soldier is going to use it or a stupid-ass IMI .50AE poser-piece instead of a real firearm as a matter of preference. Because pistols aren't for actual fighting.

"hit hard, hit fast "

On what planet is a gas-operated 2kg pistol with a 6 shot capacity firing heavy ammunition 'faster' to operate in CQB than a 9mm 650g Glock? And 'hard' is mooted by the fact that unlike the video games, actual people don't have 100 stamina points they can take before falling over.

"buy your own desert eagle and pop heads like a melon"

a) Handguns are illegal here. To stop kids being mown down by psychopaths. It works pretty well.

b) The Desert Eagle is a gas operated civilian target pistol. Pretty much the last thing you want from a back-up weapon is non-ruggidisation and questionable in-field reliability.

c) Where are you getting your spare ammunition from? I don't believe .50AE is NATO standard.

d) Why the hell would you aim for the head when you were pulling a back-up piece anyway?

e) Aiming at the head rather moots the point of a powerful round. You can kill just as well with a 9mm if you hit them there.

f) Dead is dead. You get no extra points for creating a mess; just a bunch of post-traumatic nightmares.

Re: Correlation != causation

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say you don't live in an American city."

Was it stating a drink price in pence that was the give-away?!

In any case, [bottled] water > diet drinks. There really is no good reason to pour over a litre of fizzy chemical crap into your system every day*.

*Including lager.

Re: Correlation != causation

"forced into drinking drinks that taste crap by society."

Pressured into losing weight by society...maybe. But I'm not seeing how anyone is 'forced' to pay 50p for a tin full of fizzy aspartine when they have perfectly good (free) drinking water available.

Re: Correlation != causation

Yup.

"People who drank more than four cans or cups per day of soda " ... [tend to be lower on the socio-economic totem pole, so are indeed more likely to get depressed]

Not to mention the startlingly obvious point that people who drink diet drinks are already much more likely to be in the "I'm not happy with how I look" camp than those who drink full-fat.

Re: he's a traitor

"Didn't Guy Fawkes get hung, drawn and quartered?"

If you think it's cool that someone got/should get tortured to death who didn't even kill anyone, then you are a very sick child.

Re: Evolutionary mischief

"It might be in a few million years that certain species of shark develop"

If sharks are famous for one thing, it's NOT moving with the times.

They are the living embodiment of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

"Not very fuel efficient"

The military don't really give a crap, given that the Abrams uses 10 gallons of fuel just to start!

Plus, Gas turbines can run on anything and are reliable.

Re: batteries won't be an issue

I thought it was a Microwave?

Garfield Goes Camping or similar, right?

"There's no point in putting a human life in danger when a skilled operator can be safely in a bunker or nearby hidden armoured vehicle."

One could argue that the point of putting a human life in danger is the prevention of trivialisation of warfare.

When one side has literally nothing to lose, it has no reason not to wage warfare.

Re: Iron man calling his attacks

"Only one of them runs around with rubber nipples, yet..."

I'm pretty sure that's not the reason. If it were, fetish clubs would be very popular.

At first glance Batman has it because Black>Red. But a brief look at their motivations, successes and general levels of happiness shows Stark to be far less deluded, miserable and criminally insane.

Re: Iron man calling his attacks

"Wayne is a self controlled ninja, that thinks of himself as batman 1st and Bruce second, who fights crime becuase its the right thing to do, not to get the chicks."

Except he does it so poorly, failing to solve the actual problem at the cost of countless lives due to a 'moral code' which is mere self-justification and self-actualisation. If he actually gave a damn about crime rather than himself and his own ego, he'd spend some of his vast swathes of money buying some better locks on Arkham's cells.

Everyone's parents die. Wayne needs to grow a pair and get over it. Both characters are ultimately totally egotistical. It's just Stark is honest about it.

Stark>Wayne.

Re: Iron man calling his attacks

"Batman & Iron Man are just rich intelligent people with good R&D and an exercise program."

And one of them is an angsty pillock who is pathetically hanging on to a couple of deaths forty years ago instead of appreciating his good fortune. What's the point of being a multi-billionaire superhero if you're always so damned miserable?

Stark>Wayne.

Re: FFS

So: A bat-shit paranoid egomaniac with a fondness for the ladies and column inches.

Pretty much the same as Assange then, but with more hallucinogenics.

Re: Alternatively...

A good way of figuring out if your society has gone too far with something:

Imagine showing a bunch of starving kids in the third world a TV advert for it and watching their reaction.

Re: "Such moves have given Al Jazeera a spotty reputation among Americans..."

It's simpler than that: It has an Arabic name, ergo it must be anti-American and supportive of terrorists to many minds.

Stupid minds, but let's not forget that half the population is of below-mean intelligence!

Re: Good "news", pardon the pun

"Sure, they are anti-US, anti-western, anti-freedom, anti-Semitic, pro-Islam and so on but they may still be way more truthful than..."

How about you sit and watch some of it or read the webpage before spouting off a load of total cobblers about it?

They're actually pretty good. Far better than Fox or 90% of newspapers, and not Western-centric.