Bad ideas in war

[Gawdzilla Sama]

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoreDakka

I used to swing twin .50 cal. HMGs. Does that count?

 

[jimbob]

I used to swing twin .50 cal. HMGs. Does that count?

If you are a fighter aircraft, probably not; if you're using them instead of a carbine, definitely.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

I used to swing a 30mm AA revolver autocannon. Granted, not in my own arms

 

[Andy_Ross]

Does these count?

 

[jimbob]

_{I've fired a .22 single shot}

 

[Andy_Ross]

_{I've fired a .22 single shot}

My first experience shooting a 'real' rifle, rather than an air rifle was with a .22 single shot Lee Enfield No.8 rifle. We used them on the shooting team at the Sea Cadets.

 

[jimbob]

My first experience shooting a 'real' rifle, rather than an air rifle was with a .22 single shot Lee Enfield No.8 rifle. We used them on the shooting team at the Sea Cadets.


View attachment 76110

Likewise, except for it being air cadets.

Oh and the somewhat unimpressive L-98. Just too young to have shot the SLR.

 

[Andy_Ross]

I shot the SLR on courses with the cadets and in the Navy.
No SLRs were ever issued to Cadets of any service. Lee Enfield Number 4s were issued for drill, then it went to the L98.
I was in my last 6 Months in the Navy when the SA80 was going in to general issue. I did a level one armourers course on them but we never had any through the workshop before I left.

 

[jimbob]

I have personally used particle beams and fairly high powered lasers as well as specifying the plasma beams for others to implement for me.

I have never done any alchemy, but colleagues have

At least that's what I like to think the turning of Silicon atoms into Phosphorus via neutron transmutation doping

 

[Jack by the hedge]

I have personally used particle beams and fairly high powered lasers as well as specifying the plasma beams for others to implement for me.

I have never done any alchemy, but colleagues have

At least that's what I like to think the turning of Silicon atoms into Phosphorus via neutron transmutation doping

It pleases me to imagine they work overnight while you sleep, and you waken to find a whole wafer has magically been spun into devices.

 

[jimbob]

It pleases me to imagine they work overnight while you sleep, and you waken to find a whole wafer has magically been spun into devices.

It's a bit like that, only several weeks usually.

But many fabs are "lights out, now"

Oh and one of the emerging markets at the moment is "physical AI"

And I don't mean "artificial insemination"

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Does these count?

No idea, tbh, since you didn't quote any post or provide any other context. So, no idea.

Not as a revolver autocannon, tho, far as I can tell. That one is basically like a minigun, except the rotating part is basically just the chambers loading and ejecting the ammo, and it has only one barrel in front of the chamber being fired. You know, kinda like a revolver on crack. Saves weight, I guess, and since the revolving part is lighter I guess it might spin and fire faster, at the cost of that barrel getting hot faster. But f me if I actually know. I'm not a mechanical engineer or anything.

But yeah, even a 23mm one had enough recoil to physically warp a Soviet aircraft's frame or even stall it, depending on aircraft model. No way in any alternate reality version of hell that you'd be able to fire THAT from the hip. That gun and your arms would just fly back and smash into a rock a mile behind you. Pretty much like if you tried to fire an A-10 rotary cannon from the hip, really.

 

[Dave Rogers]

I have personally used particle beams and fairly high powered lasers as well as specifying the plasma beams for others to implement for me.

I have never done any alchemy, but colleagues have

At least that's what I like to think the turning of Silicon atoms into Phosphorus via neutron transmutation doping

I didn't know you were a semiconductors guy too. Neutron transmutation was a bit more exotic than any of the processes I used in photonics R&D and pilot production, but I certainly struck the best part of a fair few plasmas over the years. Lasers were as much what we made as what we used, but for me a 1mm cavity and a few dBm milliwatts was more typical.

Dave

 

[jimbob]

I didn't know you were a semiconductors guy too. Neutron transmutation was a bit more exotic than any of the processes I used in photonics R&D and pilot production, but I certainly struck the best part of a fair few plasmas over the years. Lasers were as much what we made as what we used, but for me a 1mm cavity and a few dBm milliwatts was more typical.

Dave

I used a UV laser in my masters, which actually was involving fibre optics.

My supervisor told me that GaAs broke if you touched it, and InP broke if you looked at it.

I now mostly work with GaN

There are a few of us in this group.

 

[Andy_Ross]

I had a 100w CO₂ laser cutter with several sets of different focal length zinc selenide lenses for cutting and engraving different thicknesses of materials. I sold it when I retired my business.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

If you are a fighter aircraft, probably not, if you're using them instead of a carbine, definitely.

We used to drop off and pick up our little pinniped friends as they came bag-assing out of the sticks. I often saw Mr. Charles slam on the brakes as he realized he was in the open. Our Heros knew to go flat when our horn sound. The air six feet above them was ... rather unhealthy. The one legged Marine that trained me* got a commendation from the USMC twenty years after he retired. I was offered one, but bargained into getting a week in Olongapo.

I died happy. Several times.

*I was a high school boy when he moved into our area, and I took his son under my wing at school. Them country-f*** boys didn't know what hit 'em.

_{I've fired a .22 single shot}

I used to fire black powder rifles. A friend, "WOODY", built them from kits. Did I mention that he wasn't good with written material? He skipped a few steps. Now Tennessee Valley Arms (TVA) used to be pretty solid in the gunsmithing department. BUT no gun is idiot proof. Or Woody proof. We were out a local quarry once his toys were a LOT louder than mine. Someone else noticed too. And they called the mounties. Highway Patrol officer appeared behind us one time.

"Ahem, guys, what you shooting?"

We showed him our toys and he asked to shoot one. Woody handed him his kit, "cause you gotta load a muzzle-loader yourself, damn-it!"

The trooper looked at the offered kit and noticed that the powder measure hadn't been shortened for muzzle-loading long guns. Woody had been using five times the powder recommended by TVA. I sent a note to TVA telling them to supply individual powder measures for "those idiots who don't read your manuals."

 

[Dave Rogers]

My supervisor told me that GaAs broke if you touched it, and InP broke if you looked at it.

Wuss. We handled 3" InP thinned to 125um, and even that you have to look at quite hard to break.

Dave

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

If you are a fighter aircraft, probably not; if you're using them instead of a carbine, definitely.

Bow gunner on a PBR. SEAL taxi service.

 

[jimbob]

Wuss. We handled 3" InP thinned to 125um, and even that you have to look at quite hard to break.

Dave

A colleague told me that he had been working on GaAs chips and he couldn't get any devices to work and he couldn't understand it. Eventually he threw the wafers in the sharps bin and they didn't break.

He then realised that someone had put silicon wafers down the GaAs process route.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Well, it's probably been said before, but here's a bad idea in war: ignoring all past knowledge of how things work. For example, thinking that air attacks alone will make a country give up. Well, ask the Brits if they gave up because of the Blitz.