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#21

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by grumbler - October 14, 2025, 03:12:50 PM

At what level does optimism turn into smugness?

Optimism is when you read someone's contributions on Languish,  Smugness is when you post your own.

#22

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by grumbler - October 14, 2025, 03:07:46 PM

How much can EM jamming fuck up controls of modern aircraft?

Against a modern manned, tethered, or completely autonomous aircraft, very little.  They are shielded from EM interference.

Against a non-tethered remotely piloted vehicle, the impact would depend on how "frequency agile" (able to shift frequencies when detecting jamming or spoofing) the link is, and how powerful and frequency-agile the jammer is. A jammer with a lot of power and a lot of frequency coverage would be a problem (but it trades power on a frequency for power across frequencies).

#23

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - October 14, 2025, 03:06:20 PM

GPS spoofing has been around for a while.  It's coming up on 14 years since Iran did it to one of our drones.  Without some sort of GNSS data, it's really hard for anything autonomous to navigate.  Even high-quality inertial navigation systems drift.  The best a drone could do if it lost GNSS (and knew it) is aim for home and land kinda nearby.

#24

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Tonitrus - October 14, 2025, 02:59:24 PM

At what level does optimism turn into smugness?

#25

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Tonitrus - October 14, 2025, 02:58:32 PM

How much can EM jamming fuck up controls of modern aircraft?

I assume the lack of human-operated controls is important...so am assuming it would be analogous to the problems that drones have had (forcing the use of fiber-optic lines in some cases). 

Including autonomous drones?

I am not a drone expert, but I would presume so...whether that is a case of jamming Starlink/GPS signals.

Now, if it is a case of the drone using pre-loaded/onboard mapping/data, perhaps it could theoretically be immune to jamming...but that might still be a bit risky to use anywhere outside pretty secure areas.  I assume  that for such a high-value asset, they'd want a human at least monitoring the vehicles progress remotely (which would be vulnerable to jamming, but still not necessarily a mission-killer).

#26

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by grumbler - October 14, 2025, 02:57:58 PM

I have seen nothing that really warrants the sort of smugness some Democrats are displaying re: "the next administration".

True, but I have also seen nothing that really warrants the sort of smugness some Republican are displaying re: "the next administration."

Smugness is always a mistake.

#27

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by garbon - October 14, 2025, 02:38:58 PM

Reading Waitrose product reviews? Bougie!

#28

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by mongers - October 14, 2025, 02:30:51 PM

Just came across this 'bonkers' product review for waitrose budget loose tea:

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/no1-kenyan-loose-leaf-tea/767044-773396-773397

Kenya Tea Why Have you changed the colour from Ye?
10 months ago

Great Tea. Really great taste. Fantastic tea. Why hide it? You changed the packaging colour from Yellow which was easily identified and hid the product with purple which was used for Assam? Then you obviously decided that was not enough and you changed the package to dark grey or black. What were you thinking? Maybe I am being too presumptive. You probably were not thinking at all. It looks like you were wedded to change regardless of any consideration of you customers. Not a strategy to engender loyalty, more a policy to alienate. Congratulations on your flagrant disregard. You evidently regard your loyal customers with contempt and your product has been designed to inhibit their purchasing'habits' and clearly t telegraph your opinion that your customers anre entirely irrelevant. Bravo

#29

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by The Brain - October 14, 2025, 02:27:40 PM

How much can EM jamming fuck up controls of modern aircraft?

I assume the lack of human-operated controls is important...so am assuming it would be analogous to the problems that drones have had (forcing the use of fiber-optic lines in some cases). 

Including autonomous drones?

#30

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Valmy - October 14, 2025, 02:26:22 PM

It is encouraging to see a little optimism but it is hard to see a way out now. Even if the Democrats win some elections they are just not in a state to lead us anywhere good. They can stem the bleeding for a bit.

Considering we are currently winning elections and the Republicans are just refusing to let them into the House, I am not entirely optimistic about the future. Things are likely only to get worse from here.