Friday, February 18, 2011

Damn enviros...

{I told myself that I would enjoy my break to the fullest on my last day here}
{Did you enjoy it the fullest?}
{It took and hour and a half, it's the fullest break I've had yet}
{That's not what I meant, but yeah an hour and a half is pretty long}
{Not as long as Margaret}
{Margaret is unbeatable}

...

"Hey, did you guys have to go to that meeting?"
"No, why?"
"I fell asleep"

{Margaret just slept through her meeting}
{She's unbeatable}

...

*20 minutes to quitting time*

"Have a good weekend!"

{I think Margaret just left}
{Damn}
{Unbeatable}

Thursday, February 17, 2011

When did Watson become so tank?

Last I heard of him months ago, IBM had him in the 70th percentile and was desperately trying to squeeze a few more points of performance out of him.

Anyways, job well done.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I understand now

I think a while I posted my surprise at the DDG-1000s being unable to support Standard Missiles.

Why not? They got the radar, they got the launch tubes.

Except I managed to overlook that the AN/SPY-3 is a Raytheon system and AN/SPY-1 Lockheed Martin. Oops.

It has been commentated that Raytheon has been re-inventing every wheel to avoid using Aegis.

Relatedly, the LCS platforms had (still have?) this problem of integrated weapons systems where the arguably inferior Lockheed platform couldn't possibly lose the downselect while the General Dynamics/Austal platform's got nuthin'.

Well played, defense industry, just as planned.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

One shot, one kill?

Preposterous! The winning move is clearly to launch all of your missiles at once at the first sign of provocation!



You can see where Eureka 7's choreography was inspired from at 2:22.

Incidentally the VF-1 design was based off of the F-14s, which, being designed as a fleet interceptor, was intended to dash out at high speeds, let loose its payload of Phoenix missiles and then dash back.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

I decided that I like the Steelers

I am still not going to watch the Superbowl.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Hold on a minute!

I know the Egyptian military is being criticized for standing by while protesters clash in the streets.

Well, what the hell do you want them to do?

I can see the appeal behind having some heavy armour backup when you're a rebellious teenager hurling rocks, and I would be slinging stones with the best of them if all my friends called me up and told me they were going downtown, but getting the military involved in civil matters is a bad idea because you are escalating the force. By a lot. You don't give riot police guns, you don't deploy the National Guard for security and you don't bring a grenade to a boxing match. I would hope that the people in charge are more responsible than that and I'm convinced the US administration is principal in urging restraint with their secretive backroom deals (as is their way).

So shooting is out, what's the next best thing? Well, I guess it'd be trying to segregate the violence with their armoured columns. Which is what the army is at least attempting to do through the melee in the streets, so credit to that.

7 dead? That's a papercut compared to what'll happen if some yahoo hijacks the .50 cal off an M1's turret. And when you have people outnumbering tanks a thousand to one, something is bound to happen if you give it reason.

Made in the USA, baby. Made in the USA.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Hōkago no Pleiades

Looks like Gainax is jumping on the moeblob bandwagon now:


Good thing too.

Because Fuji Heavy Industries didn't have enough magical-girl mascots before.