Month: June 2020

Straight-Out Bullying

Business, Terrorism, Two-Minute Hate

Oh, this looks like fun:

Recently Breitbart News reported that six eBay employees were named in federal charges for intimidating critics of the company with a cyberstalking terror campaign, now a recent article from the New York Times outlines how many Silicon Valley companies have been using similar intimidation tactics for years.
…
The Times states that Silicon Valley companies regularly employ “trust and safety” teams staffed with former police officers and national intelligence analysts. Their work includes protecting executives and intellectual property, preventing blackmail attempts, and watching out for fraud and theft. But, in some cases, Silicon Valley’s intense focus on reputation and brand can lead these teams to take excessive action.

Read the whole article for details.  Beware the Red Curtain Of Blood (RCOB) that may come over your eyes, as it did mine.

Looks like some corporate executives need a good ball-kicking.

And by the way?  The inability of law enforcement to deal with this shit properly is what enables the Tony Sopranos of this world to flourish.  And even without that, bullying only works on fearful people.

Don’t be fearful.  Just be prepared to be enraged.

Fair Warning

Drive Time, Technology

Via Insty. I see the following announcement:

Mercedes-Benz and Nvidia are going to build a new software-defined computing architecture for automated vehicles based on the Nvidia DRIVE platform that will be installed across the fleet of next-generation Mercedes-Benz vehicles, starting in 2024.
“The entire fleet, every car from the entry A-classes to the S-classes, will have the highest-performance Nvidia AI supercomputer on board.”
Shapiro said that each of these new Mercedes vehicles will come with the full surround sensor suite installed and then, similar to how Tesla does things today, it will be up to owners to decide if they want to activate features, either when they purchase the car or after the fact with an over-the-air update. “There will be different business models, subscription service possibilities or one-time fees or things like that, depending on the region, that potentially turns the car into a fully upgradable, perpetually upgradable device, and there potentially could be be a Mercedes App Store,” he said.

Emphasis mine because Mercedes, being German, will make that particular feature disappear just as Porsche decided that drivers shouldn’t be allowed to change gears manually in their (Porsche’s) precious little Nazi pocket rockets.

My take on the above, therefore, rewords their announcement thus:

If you’re going to buy a Mercedes, buy one before the 2024 model year comes to market. 

Me being me, I’d rather buy a still-older (but rebuilt) Mercedes, like this one (for about the same end-price of a comparably-sized new Merc):

 

…or even this Mercedes (which has had all the rebuilding done — see the pic gallery):

No silly tech doodads that cause your car to stop because some sub-system software failed, or because some AI algorithm decided that you’d done enough driving for the day, or that would require the entire IT Department at Daimler-Benz to fix it.

Just good, honest driving pleasure in a car with proven reliability.  What Mercedes used to be renowned for.

My simple belief is this:  we wouldn’t accept this kind of software built into our guns, so why should we allow it in our cars?

News Roundup

Bad News

Powered by Short&Pithy Commentary Engines.


…leading to the question:  why the fuck did they get stimulus checks to start off with?  (This is the same government that the Left wants to run healthcare and pretty much everything else.)


…to which my response is:  fuck off, Dumbledore.


…which is what happens when you give low-level flunkies power over other people by over-broad restrictions.


…and whoever is making these claims should be flogged in the public square.  Especially if they’re non-Europeans wearing jeans and using cell phones.


…which is okay.  We Murkins have other places we can visit, until the Euros come to their senses and decide they can’t do without out Yankee tourist dollars.  And we may or may not come back, because if we want to see anarchist punks rioting in cities, we can do that right here by visiting Seattle, Austin or New York.

And now three related headlines:




…and to paraphrase some other smart guy:  Don’t trust Pakistan.  Pakistan is asshole.


…yeah, I know it’s satire.  Fake, but accurate.


…somebody needs to remind me why we don’t impose mandatory execution of people convicted of this.  Maybe that would shut these fucking perverts up.


…to the surprise of precisely… nobody.

And now, one example of how to do things properly:

…and another way which will lead to failure:


…which would be like going to a restaurant, but not being allowed to eat or drink anything.  Morons.

Asking The Important Questions

Gun/Ammo Tests, The Gun Thing

Key takeaway from the test:

  • The AK is the most reliable but after seeing how many have broken over the last two and half years on the range, it’s not the indestructible weapon everybody talks about (and I always thought it was).
  • This may sound crazy but it’s fair to say that they finally suffer a catastrophic failure (cracked trunion) at 80,000-100,000 rounds.

Oh.  Positively glass-like fragility, then.

Well, that means that on my current AK (obtained almost NIB), I have about 79,000 more rounds to go.  (I hardly ever shoot much through mine because a) I know how it works and can shoot it just fine,  and b) I prefer shooting my other guns.  I shoot it fairly often, but only a mag or so’s worth at a time — more a “hi there, how’re ya doin?”  kinda thing.)

I know how to fix the thing if it ever breaks — I just don’t care to.  If I were ever in a (SHTF) situation where my AK breaks, I’m sure there’d be a couple of other options lying around.

 

Monday Funnies

Funny Stuff

With all this talk of slavery going around, it means it’s time to remind all you peasants that it’s time to get back to work for The Man:

…just so you can pay taxes to the Gummint (I’m going to quit now, before people start committing suicide).  Anyway, considering my issues with Microfuckingsoft last week:

Enough of that shit.  Let’s explore more heartwarming things:


…and double the child support.

Wait, I need the Stars ‘n Bars to make this post complete.

Have fun taunting the Lefties, y’all.