Preorders For This Electromagnetic Rifle Are Being Taken For $3,775:
The U.S. Navy may have shelved its railgun program, but that doesn't mean you can't get a similar futuristic weapon for yourself. One ambitious company is offering what it is calling "the world's first and only handheld Gauss rifle" for pre-order for the price of $3,375. The rifle is claimed to be capable of shooting a wide variety of metal projectiles using powerful magnets. Obviously, there are outstanding questions about how well the Gauss rifle works and how safe the system is, but the company's CEO tells us that military and law enforcement agencies have already expressed interest in the weapon.
The GR-1 Anvil Gauss rifle is made by Arcflash Labs, LLC, the co-founder of which, David Wirth and Jason Murray, are "Aerospace Engineers, former US Air Force officers, and experts in pulsed power supply development with 20 years of combined experience," according to its website. The company says the weapon is "capable of accelerating any ferromagnetic projectile (under 1/2″ in diameter) to 200+ fps [feet per second]" and can produce up to 100 Joules of force, or 75 foot-pounds, similar to the muzzle energy of some .22 rifles, making it the "most powerful coilgun ever sold to the public, and also (very likely) the most powerful handheld coilgun ever built."
There are some limitations such as being limited to up to 50 full-power rounds per minute (or 1.16 seconds per round) and up to 100 (50% power) rounds per minute. And it weighs 20 pounds (9 kg).
Manufacturer's video on YouTube (2m01s).
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @03:16AM (2 children)
So much for explosive/weapon detectors that work on detecting low concentrations of explosives. Same for gunpowder sniffing dogs...and their trainers/handlers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Monday August 09 2021, @02:08PM (1 child)
You're going to smuggle a RIFLE (not a handgun) and BIG power supply on an airplane? Classic case of panicking and not reasoning. You would need a really big capacitor for each shot as well. Quite a bit harder than smuggling a plastic gun.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @08:34PM
You wouldn't need a big power supply, but yes on the big capacitors.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @03:18AM (6 children)
More gun nut stuff on SN? When will it end? Please make it stop.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @07:13AM (2 children)
Doesn't the first amendment guarantee discussion about the second?
Nutter country.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Tork on Monday August 09 2021, @04:24PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @08:31PM
Sigh. This is a private website, not the government. Neither amendment applies here.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday August 09 2021, @02:10PM
I take it you never played DOOM or Quake? Turn in your nerd card.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @05:57PM (1 child)
Only murderous government henchmen in costumes should have guns! Shut up, you dumb fuck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 10 2021, @01:40AM
My guess is that was a troll comment based on the repeated "why are people posting about [idea I don't like] all the time?"
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @03:26AM (13 children)
"Quick Joe, we've got a hostage situation. Go get your 20 lb pistol that shoots bottle-caps."
This is going to be one of those "just wait and see the improvements in the next version" kind of thing where they hope they will be able to convince the groups who bought some to buy the upgrades because its performance will always be underwhelming.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday August 09 2021, @09:03AM (11 children)
It's not a "wait and see" thing, unless you're prepared for a wait part that lasts decades, or possibly forever. The reason why the Navy abandoned it is because even with a complete nuclear reactor to drive it it's just not an efficient or effective way of getting something from A to B. The tech is cool, and I guess that's the appeal for SN readers, but it's not particularly novel or groundbreaking, just a minor incremental improvement on existing designs.
If you're interested in this tech, there's a huge number of Youtube videos of people who have made them, everything from simple DIY stuff to exotic ones like the one described here.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 09 2021, @01:45PM (10 children)
To the contrary, it's a lot more efficient than chemical propellant. In each case, ultimately, the gun is the reaction mass for the projectile (unless you have some sort of recoilless design like a tube rocket launcher). But chemical propellant (even for the recoilless design) requires that you accelerate a bunch of propellant as well as the projectile - with faster speeds requiring exponentially more propellant (it's the rocket equation, every fixed unit of increase in projectile velocity requires the same factor more propellant to achieve). In the case of the Gauss rifle, the momentum transfer is directly from projectile to firearm.
Sure, higher speeds are a complex problem for the Gauss rifle, but you just need to provide more energy to get higher speed. You don't need to pack in an exponentially growing amount of propellant or worry about exponentially growing recoil. You don't need to engineer rifle barrel to handle exotic pressures and temperatures.
(Score: 2) by number11 on Monday August 09 2021, @05:22PM
This gadget seems to be more a "proof of concept" than an actual weapon. An actual .22 rifle (which you might use to shoot a squirrel, but not anything much larger) has a muzzle velocity of ~1200fps compared to this gadget's 200 fps, a muzzle energy of ~130 ft-lbs vs. 75 ft-lbs., and weighs 4 lb vs. 20 lb. https://www.mcarbo.com/22LR-Ballistics-Chart [mcarbo.com] And maybe weighs a few pounds for several hundred rounds of ammo, vs. some unspecified (but probably quite large) weight for the power supply. (That's the same issue battery powered cars have, chemical energy is so far much lighter to carry than electrical energy.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @05:25PM (6 children)
I'm not sure what you are getting at with this physics argument.
A conventional gunpowder round of ammo is not propelled by shooting a jet of fast gasses behind it like a rocket. A gun relies on pressure built up inside the gun barrel to push the bullet forward and out the end of the barrel. To show the difference between the 2 mechanisms (rocket ejecting fast gasses versus pressure in an enclosed cylinder (barrel) pushing a bullet forward), consider the different fate of a loose round of ammo roasting in a campfire vs. a round fired out of a gun barrel. In the case of the campfire round, the heat will ignite the primer, and the bullet will shoot off, but with very low velocity because there is no enclosed space (barrel) to focus the pressure of the expanding gas onto the bullet. The pressure is mostly wasted in a "pop" to the sides, with only some going to the bullet. If the round reacted like a rocket, it wouldn't result in any difference in speed to the bullet if it were roasted in a fire vs. shot out of a gun.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 09 2021, @06:56PM (5 children)
Sorry, yes it is. Consider for example, what happens when the propellant is ignited adjacent to the bullet rather than the opposite end. You get less muzzle velocity because the bullet gets pushed away from the propellant and experiences considerably less pressure and thrust. But in the usual ignition approach (such as center fire), not only is the bullet pushed along, so is the propellant, even as it ignites and expands.
The enclosed space of the barrel directs the force of the propellant just like a rocket nozzle does for rockets. The physics is somewhat different, but the results are similar. If you didn't have a nozzle on a rocket with the exhaust going out in all directions, you would have an oversized example of the campfire round.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @07:36PM (4 children)
You do not "accelerate" the propellant in a gun because YOU are not doing work on the propellant. You are not "accelerating" an inert mass of gas molecules. INSTEAD, what happens in a gun is that the ignition releases CHEMICAL ENERGY bound in the solid gunpowder by triggering a chemical reaction. This reaction PERFORMS WORK by creating gas molecules having a high velocity which laymen call a pressurized gas. This gas presses on all wall containing it. The bullet happens to be a wall that can move when pressed upon. Pressure alone is responsible for making a bullet shoot out of a barrel.
This has nothing in common with a rocket. A rocket EXPELS hot gas out its rear (har har) to move it forward. A bullet is the opposite: hot gas is THROWN AT IT (pressurized gas) to move it forward. A rocket can work in the vacuum of space with no barrel. A bullet requires a barrel to contain the gas that pushes the bullet forward.
A rocket pushes itself. A bullet is pushed on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @07:47PM
I was thinking I need a simpler physical example to illustrate rocket vs bullet.
(Gas being involved is the only thing they really have in common.)
A rocket works by EJECTING mass at high speed. If I am on a frozen pond on ice skates, and I throw rocks horizontally toward shore, each throw will push me backwards a little bit on the ice. That's a rocket. A bullet has its rear pressed by the pressure of a gas. That's the same as a strong wind blowing me across the pond.
Now if you argue those are the same thing, really, all you are stating is the law of conservation of momentum.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 09 2021, @07:54PM (2 children)
I already described the mechanism by which work is done on the propellant and which wouldn't happen, if the propellant were ignited adjacent to the bullet rather than at the rear of the cartridge.
Using your pressure narrative, the rocket flies by the differential in pressure between the combustion chamber and the nozzle vent. The hot gas is in that chamber and is THROWN at every wall of that chamber. The nozzle contains the hot gas that is vented outside the chamber. Seriously, it's not that different.
And a typical firearm can work in vacuum because there's not much difference in pressure between one atmosphere and zero atmospheres.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @10:44PM (1 child)
Parent said:
"I already described the mechanism by which work is done on the propellant and which wouldn't happen, if the propellant were ignited adjacent to the bullet rather than at the rear of the cartridge."
It wouldn't matter if the powder were ignited next to the bullet base or at the casing base. Either would cause the bullet to fire out the barrel because it is solid, stationary powder, chemically converted into high pressure gas within an enclosed barrel, which causes pressure to be applied everywhere. The barrel I suppose might swell on a microscopic level at most (certainly nothing of practical importance), and will thus remain immobile. The bullet base gets pressed on as well, but not being held in place by much of anything, is free to push forward in the barrel.
Now, there are other engineering reliability and manufacturing considerations for where to ignite the powder in the cartridge, but as far as the basic concept of moving a bullet forward: either place (near or far from bullet) would work.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 10 2021, @02:10AM
My point is not that this somehow won't work, but you get more muzzle velocity from ignition at the casing base. The propellant is only solid for a moment, and it's definitely not stationary when that shockwave travels through the material - which does take some time. And pressure is not equally applied everywhere. There will be more pressure opposite the point of ignition - yes, due to that rocket effect. This difference gets more pronounced as the cartridge increases in size spatially.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @08:40PM (1 child)
Guns are not rockets, khallow. If you are accelerated your propellant, it is just muzzle-flash, and useless. Propellant should be completely ignited by the time the projectile leaves the barrel.
Gawd, I love discussing guns on SoylentNews in the morning! It smells like, moronity!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 09 2021, @10:24PM
Why don't you review my explanation [soylentnews.org] first? It's especially relevant when you try to increase the speed of the bullet from high speed systems. If you're not accelerating your propellant, the theoretical max velocity from it is limited to the speed of the shock wave through the propellant. But you can get faster velocities than that by igniting at the base and by staged ignition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 10 2021, @12:40AM
It's clearly not a particularly practical weapon right now. It's a bit like buying the first television, or the first fax machine. You are mainly buying one of these things to brag to your friends about having it, and to support the market in hopes that some of the money will be used to build a better one.
That said, there may be a market among wacky doomsday prepper types. If you think society is about to collapse any minute now, there would be something practical about having something that takes inert ammunition that's easy to hand manufacture with no special chemicals. Paired with an off-grid solar setup for recharging, you could have a sustainable apocalyptic gun for indefinitely scaring off Mad Max or whatever.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @03:30AM
They should come with backpack style battery pack, like ghostbusters' ghost incinerators.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ChrisMaple on Monday August 09 2021, @04:28AM (11 children)
200 fps is 136 mph. That's about 35% faster than a good major league fastball. Not impressive.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday August 09 2021, @04:53AM (2 children)
Doesnt sound like much of a railgun really. More like that "flamethrower" Elon sold.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday August 09 2021, @05:20AM (1 child)
Can it shoot brad nails? Maybe one can find something useful to do with it.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday August 09 2021, @06:43AM
Does it at least look cool [youtu.be] when you fire it?
(Score: 5, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday August 09 2021, @05:26AM
Actually, 200fps is a quite impressive frame rate. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @05:29AM (3 children)
When I can throw 50 MLB pitches in a minute, this will be laughable.
In the meantime, suggesting 200kph metal is sublethal is disingenuous, or stupid.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @05:50AM
It should also be noted that the ammunition they recommend weighs from 20-44 grams per shot, far heavier than anything being fired from a pistol.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Monday August 09 2021, @09:15AM (1 child)
It is if you're standing right in front of it. However since you're firing projectiles designed to be fired from a railgun rather than designed to travel accurately over long distances, both range and accuracy will suffer greatly. I'd feel more comfortable defending myself with a framing nailer than one of these things, probably about the same range and accuracy but a much larger magazine and I don't have to worry about running out of juice after 50 rounds, or waiting 1.16 seconds between shots.
Plus, I can get a framing nailer for under $100, not $3,775.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday August 09 2021, @09:18AM
Forgot to add: "I love the smell of Paslode gas in the morning...".
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday August 09 2021, @06:16AM (1 child)
metal pellet like a sharpened button/disc would still hurt
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @06:45PM
So do paintballs; I've dialed a paintball gun up to 190 fps. It cost $350.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @04:28PM
It's rare, but a pitched baseball to the head has killed. Not sure how the kinetic energy of this compares to the ball. It might be less, but concentrated in a smaller package could make it a wash. I'm definitely not interested in standing down range to test it out.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @05:36AM (46 children)
It's just a glorified air gun. So many other gun-not-gun weapons out there. This might be good to teach kids science in middle school. The price is about right for schools to buy it. They love dumping $'s into stupid teaching tools so they don't have to really teach.
Side note: fuck you mods.... You suck.. I dare you to mod me down. Make sure nobody sees this. Ba an asshole and censor everything!...
You fucks that run this website need to stop using IPs to mod people. Your just trash. You have no brains. Just shit. Bite me. Your all full of it.
And you assholes who want to start a thread about this post: fuck off. Post something new/smart. Don't spend your little brain cells fighting this post. It's just a post. Move on and live your life.
after 15 seconds....
So.. slow to post after preview button. Humm.... somebody reviewing it? Just back up and try again....
If servers this slow.... Throw your PI's in the trash and buy a real server.
Don't chase away your good sysadmins just because you don't like their political view.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @06:10AM
OK.
Hmm, TMB posting AC? Double down mod.
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Monday August 09 2021, @08:00AM (2 children)
It didn't happen that way. TMB was massively overloaded (building a new home which was taking over a year longer than anticipated, major site updates and bug-fixes were accumulating, etc). He decided to move on in good and friendly fashion and he assisted us when we had a system crash a few weeks ago. When a voluntary task becomes a chore it is time to move on.
There was a discussion at that time about what to do with the level of trolling and site abuse but nothing had been decided or actioned (look for yourself - what has changed?). Every social media site in the world is having the same discussion where the few are able to spoil the site for the majority. He didn't like some of the possible solutions being suggested but that can be said for everybody involved. And we have lost both staff and community members because of the level of site abuse that we have suffered.
He left of his own accord and nobody has been chased away because of their political views. TMB was a much bigger person than that. You didn't have to agree with his views to respect him for his contribution to this site, and he would not have been put off by somebody disagreeing with him. Regardless of your own political leanings, you probably have community members with whom you agree and others that you vehemently disagree with. That is just life - we all learn to deal with it.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @08:45PM
Except for that fucker aristarchus, who was trying to paint him with a broad brush.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 11 2021, @03:57AM
don't feel like direct contact, so I'll post here.
I think metamod was the solution on /.
It might help here. The time it was done on /. Many trolls/whatevers didn't have access to multiple IPs.
So maybe not gonna work now, but I think it might be an improvement anyway.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @11:06AM (40 children)
In general, moderation does not work. Too easy to abuse. Soylent would do well to just drop it entirely and only block crapflood posts.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Monday August 09 2021, @11:56AM (38 children)
In general, moderation seems to work just fine. Yes, there are badly moderated posts (in both directions). But those are the exception, not the rule.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @02:10PM (33 children)
When you have one broken member of the community stating this (the quoted part is quoted directly out of an Azuma post about its moderation decisions):
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
Then saying "moderation seems to work just fine" is indicating blindness. Whether it is deliberate blindness or simply unaware blindness, it is still blindness.
When "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" is modded "troll" -- then moderation on the site is broken beyond repair.
--
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday August 09 2021, @03:09PM (32 children)
Then it's not much of a problem, right? Shouldn't we be waiting till there's an actual outcry first?
And? You might not have noticed, but there's more than one person on this site.
What I find remarkable about this is the incredible weakness of the argument. Azuma said something, therefore moderation is broken. But there's plenty of other people on this site than just her. Shouldn't their opinions matter too when we're speaking of changing site policy?
Presently, I have someone consistently modding down my posts. They've been doing it for the past few weeks. Eventually they'll tire of it, or they'll cross a line and the admins will get involved. Either way, moderation will return to what it was for the past seven years - which works pretty well.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @03:49PM (30 children)
Except, it seems far too easy for one user missusing their mod abillties (i.e., the Azuma troll) to create this result:
When one Azuma troll can create those lockouts, moderation is broken.
--
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @04:06PM (3 children)
Then grow up.
Spam racism and get modded accordingly. Ain't nobody got time for that!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @04:20PM (2 children)
Except, Azuma, the fact that you don't like a comment does not make it racist.
There's been no racism, and no spam, other than in the twisted mind of Azuma.
--
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 10 2021, @01:43AM
poor troll seeing Azumas everywhere! run and hide, we're coming for yer guuuuuuunnnnsssss
(Score: 0, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday August 10 2021, @07:06PM
That wasn't me, you pathetic autism-screeching little snowflake. This is. I don't post AC, because unlike you, I don't *need* to. Eat your shriveled cirrhotic liver!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 09 2021, @04:38PM (25 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @04:45PM
Yes, but I've no way to show it, because I've no way to get to my AC posts to show which ones were incorrectly modded.
And of course, just like the complaints with Twitter or Youtube or the others and their 'mods', a generic "you did wrong" message without any indication of what rule, or which post, means no way to find out what happened. It is just a magic bear trap that sometimes snaps closed for no apparent reason.
--
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @04:56PM (23 children)
And, given the fact that the message makes this additional, generic, statement: "IP or Subnet" how am I to know I'm not being shat upon because someone else at my ISP caused a 'subnet' block bear trap to snap?
--
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @08:55PM (22 children)
It's called "Website auto-shadow-banning". We get the down-modders to ban enough subnets, with all the collateral damage that implies, and soon no one will be able to post to SN, and the site will wither away. Or run away.
Besides, IP bans are for newbies.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @09:05PM (21 children)
You are probably on to something there. The abusive down-mod brigade is trying to kill Soylent.
The part that I find interesting is that my ISP IP got hit with the block, so I let it expire, which took about a week. In the interim I posted via an alternate IP. But, I kept using the alternate IP, and about another week later, snap goes the bear trap on my ISP IP again (even though I'd posted nothing via it once it had unbanned).
So it does look like the downmod brigade is on a push to simply kill soylent off, by causing everyone to be shadow IP/subnet banned.
Which is, likely, an unintended consequence of the abuse of mod-points.
--
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Monday August 09 2021, @10:57PM (20 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 10 2021, @01:55AM (19 children)
However, if the downmod brigade is simply trying to kill soylent, they would not care, they just downmod everything, everywhere, to the extent their downmod points allow, with the intent of eventually getting nearly everyone shadow banned.
--
'Zumi often mods "actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" as troll.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday August 10 2021, @02:15AM (18 children)
Indeed. So where are they? What I see, for example, could be explained by a single person. And if we thumb through the posts, there just aren't many downmods (nor signs that people are systematically downmodding good posts). That's not much of a brigade.
I suppose we could go through some stories and look at the modding, but I'm just not seeing this brigade in action. Where are they?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 11 2021, @07:40AM (17 children)
What I see, is about a hundred autistic incel-smelling posts and rants, hyper fixation, and sometimes panic and ritalin-induced AC posts. And all of those can be explained by a single person - you.
I suppose we could look at modding. But why bother to even have scores take up screen space when I, like any sane person, reads at -1. I am not seeing a brigade in action either. Just a lot of your autistic incel spam. Where is your asian rubber doll today? She misses your unwashed cocktail weenie.
P.S. Have you considered that what you see could be explained by a single perl script?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 11 2021, @11:26AM (16 children)
Which would be written and executed by someone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 11 2021, @06:54PM (15 children)
Different AC here, but I'd have to disagree. That's like saying a hacker is attacking you when all they did was point a botnet at you and forget about it. These scripts, mostly written by the GNAA for slashdolt two decades ago, were not written for you, or at a time soylent existed. There are probably a hundred different ones out there that work fine for this site because it's a codebase fork. Someone taking a list of users and pointing a script at them is not the same as executed by someone anymore than the fact that someone created a botnet to hack accounts is . It's a cron job.
Now, I'm making all this up - you could be right and you've personally been targeted by a user. Or it could be that you've been spewing garbage here for a year from yours and the many obviously yours spam and offtopic AC posts, and a bunch of people have had enough. Whatever makes you feel important about yourself though. Now enjoy my downvote.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 11 2021, @10:26PM (14 children)
Well, it is accurate to say that though - so I'm not seeing your point.
Actually it is. Really, where are you going with this?
Let's take an over-the-top example. Suppose I run some sort of super-Hollywood AI script, written by someone else, that will assassinate the US President in ten years. Even if I do nothing more, even if I'm in a coma by then, it's still an assassination by me because I'm the one who made it happen - I pulled that trigger no matter how simple it was to pull.
Just because something is easy, doesn't mean it's not an action.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 13 2021, @07:03AM (13 children)
I follow your logic, and you are absolutely correct. In fact, I feel you shouldn't be paying much attention to it - you got bigger people after you, physically trying to kill you with prions. Yes, those wacky proteins brought to you by a mad cow. A long time ago, some tainted beef didn't pass inspection, but they looked the other way.
There is a chance you got a bad steak, ate it, and now a decade later are starting to feel the debilitating degradation of the brain. This would explain the way you are instead of the goto suggested cause of undiagnosed autism. I suggest you take a trip to the UK and hunt down those fuckers who targeted you. It's probably the same ones who wrote the slashdot perl script that caused the autism.
In fact, here's a goodie I took a *very* small part in back in the day. Maybe it'll still work w/ the soylent IRC and flood the submission queue with ASIAN spam. Which will likely result in better stories on the front page. You want to give it a go shallow? I would, but I do have a wife and a job. Fun with old code is funner than fun with your realdoll. https://github.com.cnpmjs.org/acidvegas/muhstik/tree/master/muhstik [cnpmjs.org]
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Friday August 13 2021, @11:49AM (12 children)
If someone deliberately fed me a prion-infected burger, then yes, the analogy would be the same. The problem with your analogy is that this script or whatever didn't spontaneously organize from some prehistoric who-knows-what and randomly start downmodding, abetted by some people who looked the other way. Someone acted to make it happen.
I get the impression, you might be that someone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 14 2021, @06:28AM (11 children)
I get the impression that you're into conspiracy theories that make you feel you matter and are important. Like when someone tells you they did work on an IRC spambot over a decade ago, your first thought is I'm being personally attacked by this person. "If someone deliberately fed me a prion-infected burger, then yes, the analogy would be the same" - but they didn't. Again you are changing the reality of the scenario to make it about yourself.
FYI, I'm not the first AC that replied to you. "Someone acted to make it happen." Someone acted to personally single you out and attack you with a script. Again, changing reality. My experience is with old slashdot-era scripts. They ran against the site. They picked random users and did random negative mods. They picked random comments and replied with random spam.
Again, I understand. The reality your mind paints is you are at the center of attention. All I was saying in my original reply, is if it's one of the old-style scripts, then you are not.
But now that I've been talking to you, I get why someone might want to single you out. It seems to be a lot of fun driving your brain down an uber-fixation of a rabbit hole. I'm jumping aboard the "you have diagnosed autism train now." I don't talk to the mentally disabled, so good day to you sir. Remember to wash behind the ears.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 14 2021, @12:23PM (10 children)
"Picked random users" == targeted. There are a number of things that are just broken about this narrative, but consider this. Because you allegedly know of code that can randomly target and attack people, you thus, know of code that can target specified people. All it requires are simple alterations of the code. I don't know if other people have been "randomly" attacked by this code, but I'm not seeing other complaints at the present time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 14 2021, @09:15PM (6 children)
>"Picked random users" == targeted
Alright, different dumbass AC here who forgot his password a year ago and entered a fake email during signupp.
No, random users by definition means not targeted. Picking specific users, not at random, would be targeted. As with the rest of this mind-numbing thread, as well as your other responses to other threads, you lack very basic logic.
You are not seeing any other people complain about random in appropriate downvotes? Then reading comments helps, because there are plenty of people modded weird and complaining. Of course, you could be simply complaining that you are being downmodded at all. Which, honestly, looking at your comments is not surprising. You however assume this is because someone took some old code and modified it to specifically target you?
Here is the more plausible explanation. No one gives a crap enough about your comments to modify any script. You post illogical bullshit all day long. You get downvoted by people. The only thing that is targeting you is your very obvious mental illness. Now let's hear your views on the moon landing - fake, right?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 15 2021, @03:54AM (5 children)
Again, that's just silly. Picking means targeting. Randomness doesn't change that. Further, there remains no evidence that anyone was randomly targeted.
At this point, we're probably talking well over 50 excess downmods since I get a fair number of upmods too. And prior to the past few weeks, I've never been below oh, 35 karma for going on seven years. It's not hard for a single person to take me down to the present level, which is what I stated way back when. But it's definitely happening FWIW.
Ok, why is that plausible explanation more plausible? Remember we've gone from some dude spending some time expressing their ire to this narrative about a script. How little work does that script have to do before it's plausible that someone could run a script?
(Score: 1) by fakefuck39 on Sunday August 15 2021, @05:59AM (4 children)
There remains no evidence anyone was targeted. There is evidence of autism: conspiracy theories. Looks like you got a bunch of downvotes for what I can only call low quality borderline shitposting. The evidence is you think someone is "after you". Which may be true, but is not the default assumption. The default assumption is, you post shit all day and people downvote you. The other two possibilities are a random script, or your little conspiracy theory.
"we've gone from some dude spending some time expressing their ire"
"We" did not go from anywhere. "We" which excludes you, downvote you for very annoying very dense very dumb comments. The script was offered to you as a possibility by someone (not me) who used to write random scripts to downvote people. In a thread about bots downvoting people. This thread. Idiot.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 15 2021, @11:58AM (3 children)
Aside from my karma being single digits for the first time since I joined SoylentNews back in 2014. If you can't accept evidence, then what is the point of you being here?
Why? What part of "first time in seven years" are you not getting? It takes a large increase in downmodding to cause that effect.
Nobody had any trouble keeping up with the thread. I was just reporting what happened to me perhaps with some light speculation about what it would take. That's all. Then the idiots came out. The semantics game about why "targeting" somehow doesn't apply as a term merely because the targeting might be random is an example.
(Score: 1) by fakefuck39 on Sunday August 15 2021, @06:21PM (2 children)
to call you an autistic incel while I'm taking a shit. not only is that the point of me being here - it's the only point for your entire existence.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 15 2021, @10:42PM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by fakefuck39 on Sunday August 15 2021, @11:53PM
in other words, the butt of the joke doesn't like the joke. i'm always here to laugh at the autistic incel. it's my thing - laughing at autistic incels. why else would anyone bother replying to you - to have a conversation? that would be like talking to an autistic incel sitting there with his rubber woman tracking his magic internet points. who the fuck would want to do that. but you are prime beef to shit on, and you're always wanting more.
(Score: 1) by fakefuck39 on Sunday August 15 2021, @06:04AM (2 children)
You fucking retard. Seriously.
This is very likely a script targeting random users. Which is different than a person targeting random users. Once in a blue moon I get like 10 posts modded negative randomly. It's most likely a script. Other people have mentioned it too. But yeah, it's you, you're special, you're a victim, you're "targeted" by a perl cron job picking random users from the site.
whatever makes you feel important, you autistic loser.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 15 2021, @12:05PM (1 child)
Scripts don't magically start on their own. They just don't have that agency, bub.
So not the same situation I described [soylentnews.org].
I also find it interesting how you've changed [soylentnews.org] your story in five minutes from
Now it's "very likely" a "script targeting random users" even though scripts that target random users would look no different to you than scripts targeting specific users.
(Score: 1) by fakefuck39 on Sunday August 15 2021, @06:23PM
the only story I'm telling here is how your autism caused you to be an incel, and is not curable. it has never changed.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday August 09 2021, @06:01PM
You might not have noticed, but there's more than one person on this site.
That's a first then!
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 1, Redundant) by aristarchus on Monday August 09 2021, @09:06PM (3 children)
I am constantly amused by the outrage over modding. Snowflacks cannot handle someone suggesting they are not doing it right? Or is it the implication that they might be wrong? We need a safe-space for conservatives! But with that in mind:
I often mod Ironically. Like this.
Modding someone "offtopic" in their own journal.
Modding a disturbingly racist and violent post as "funny".
Modding incoherent rants as "disagree" (rare).
Modding unique and special opinions as "redundant".
Modding honest and serious objections as "Troll".
Modding appeals for moderation in modding as "flamebait".
And, all racist and anti-semitic posts get a spam mod, regardless of what the poster thinks.
Thank you for your participation! Now mod me up! I need the points (but I am not sure what for?).
(Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday August 11 2021, @07:30AM
I see you keep getting modded redundant, offtopic, flamebait and troll.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 11 2021, @09:55PM (1 child)
& this folks is the problem. Without meta mods you get abuse like this.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Wednesday August 11 2021, @10:28PM
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @02:12PM
Indeed, when we have the Azuma troll clearly stating that it, and I quote:
"actual interesting, germane, and relevant point" is modded as troll
then yes, indeed, moderation on this site "does not work" and is "too easy to abuse".
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Tork on Monday August 09 2021, @04:40PM
Heh. This reminds me of a country fan ranting about how techno is nothing but a buncha computer noises.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Monday August 09 2021, @02:59PM (1 child)
Spring loaded pellet guns can do 1k fps. In the event this thing did 1k fps, I wouldn't be quite so worried, but 200 fps, that's low powered bb-gun status. Things bounce all over the place. Case in point, my father-in-law taking a pot shot at a sign and busting my car window. Now, that car was essentially going to a junkyard anyway, but it sure didn't help it's possible resale value. Sure, part of the reason a bb ricochets easily is because it's a nice round ball, but that electromagnetic rifle is going to have all manner of junk shoved in it. I'll let someone else be the guinea pig. $3k+ fancy electric powered rifle, $80+ simple pellet gun. You do the math.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Monday August 09 2021, @11:04PM
Yeah, this is a rich person's novelty junk cannon.
Air and spring pistols are smaller, lighter, cheaper, more powerful, more easily available, and probably more accurate too. Other than the neat technology behind it, there's really not much appeal to this product.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 10 2021, @03:00AM
I'd rather dump 3k into building one of these myself than to pay some guys, despite the nifty video.
You basically get a huge .22 short... but it all has to start somewhere.