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Quick! Get a PS3 before the gun-control nuts outlaw it!

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:26 am
by DerGolgo
Because, evidently, it's dual-use technology:


This video is from Russia Today, the gentlemen with the, quite honestly quite awesome, "tank" are Syrian rebels. Them guys don't give up easy, do they! I would bet that, somewhere at Syrian state television, some guy is kicking himself (or, more likely, is getting kicked) for running a MacGuyver Marathon the other week. Old American TV show about a pacifist, what could be the harm? This! :lol:
Now, with the vertical sides and what looks like a mere single-layer of steel instead of nicely sloped spaced-armor, anything bigger then most handguns or submachine guns will probably not do nice things here. Like a full size machine gun or .30ish caliber rifle, not to mention a HEAT shell. But in the battles these guys go in, they may not even face anything bigger then the lighter side of firearms, maybe the odd handgrenade. This may well save a few lives and help the noble rebel cause. And you just gotta appreciate the sheer Mad-Max-meets-MacGuyveresqueness of the thing!

EDIT: The "share" button wasn't there on the youtubes, so I don't know whether they will countenance embedding. Looks fine for me, but then again, I just loaded the proper youtube page, so they already knew my IP, could be like hotlinking images from sites that frown on such exploits, looks fine at first.
If the video isn't there, click here!

Re: Quick! Get a PS3 before the gun-control nuts outlaw it!

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:29 pm
by SpecialK
Oh hell yeah.

Re: Quick! Get a PS3 before the gun-control nuts outlaw it!

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:57 pm
by rolly
Flashback to when Playstation 2 exports were regulated as military hardware.

Re: Quick! Get a PS3 before the gun-control nuts outlaw it!

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:16 am
by DerGolgo
rolly wrote:Flashback to when Playstation 2 exports were regulated as military hardware.
True, that did happen. I also recall the latest US Air Force supercomputer ... was made form a few hundred PS3s wired together to process parallel. Say what you will about videogames, tanks? Supercomputers? Considering what a modern game console is offering - plenty of ports to plug stuff in, plenty of interfaces for different input devices, a lot of raw computing power, it's built to be networked and, soon enough, will be entirely solid-state (again...remember the 80s? :)), the manufacturers design these things to be reasonably simple to develop software for, and they are truly commodity hardware to boot, not very expensive. So apart from a sturdy metal case, what does a high-end industrial microconrtoller or embedded computer system have that a console doesn't? You could probably market that sturdy case to hardcore-gamers who'd pay extra for hardcore stuff like that, making even that cheaper by mass-production. Not fault tolerant enough? Maybe, but cheap...install three side by side and have them work triple modular redundancy. I don't think modded consoles will actually replace the industrial computers and controllers, but may just end up grabbing a market share. Heck, a PS3 would have more than enough power to control a nuclear power-station or three...


But quite apart from videogames, and Syrian MacGuyvers, you 'Mericans have to deal with some innovating people, too:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... TE=DEFAULT
the associated press on hosted.ap.org wrote:Border Patrol: Cannon used to shoot drugs into US

Re: Quick! Get a PS3 before the gun-control nuts outlaw it!

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 11:42 am
by rolly
DerGolgo wrote:
rolly wrote:Flashback to when Playstation 2 exports were regulated as military hardware.
True, that did happen. I also recall the latest US Air Force supercomputer ... was made form a few hundred PS3s wired together to process parallel.
OT, but the admins live in mortal terror that someone will inadvertently open it up to the net, whereupon it will automatically download an update from Sony that will brick their supercomputer, Sony having forcably disabled the ability to run alternate OS's a couple years ago. Lotta game consoles for the px...

Re: Quick! Get a PS3 before the gun-control nuts outlaw it!

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:45 pm
by DerGolgo
Hehe. So the US Air Force, probably the single most mighty agency in the world, able to wipe out all live on the planet in less time than it takes to get through to customer service, is existing in mortal fear of an overrated consumer electronics company that started out by cobbling together tape recorders, and actually making audio-tape in old frying pans, in the ruins of a department store bombed by the direct predecessor organization of the USAF. Oh, live, you make the greatest ironic jokes :lol: