Rotary Jails • Hacker News Board

Re: Rotary Jails

#11

Post by forgotmypw » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:46 PM UTC

ljp_206 wrote: post #4

There's some kind of sickening scroll acceleration applied to this page, making it exceedingly frustrating to use with a magic mouse. Not surprised due to level of shit shoveled onto the site, but I have no idea why anybody would want to subject their users to this.

It works pretty well with JS disabled.

Re: Rotary Jails

#12

Post by anonu » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:57 PM UTC

ljp_206 wrote: post #4

There's some kind of sickening scroll acceleration applied to this page, making it exceedingly frustrating to use with a magic mouse. Not surprised due to level of shit shoveled onto the site, but I have no idea why anybody would want to subject their users to this.

A quick look at the code: it appears that theres javascript keeping the top-bar "sticky" instead of good ol' CSS. So every time you scroll some new computation kicks in. The jerkiness may be the massive amount of computation thats taking over your browser. Im by no means an expert on web stuff - so this is just my guess.

Re: Rotary Jails

#13

Post by tyingq » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:10 PM UTC

"Why Brown and Haugh went the convoluted route and chose to rotate the cells instead of the circular cage, is a mystery."

Any guesses? It does seem like a dumb idea to rotate the massively larger/heavier cells.

Re: Rotary Jails

#14

Post by cardiffspaceman » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

I was reminded of the panopticon [1] prison design paradigm. The rotary controls the prisoners physically by only allowing one cell door to be open at once, while the panopticon doesn't necessarily limit how many doors are open at once. The rotary jail doesn't make it easier to watch the prisoners, while the panopticon allows the wardens to convince the wards that they are always watched.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Re: Rotary Jails

#15

Post by ocdtrekkie » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #13

"Why Brown and Haugh went the convoluted route and chose to rotate the cells instead of the circular cage, is a mystery." Any guesses? It does seem like a dumb idea to rotate the massively larger/heavier cells.

Would the cells and prisoners actually be heavier? If you have a giant cage of iron bars, I imagine the interior structure, which just needs the walls between cells, and the floor, would be lighter actually.

Re: Rotary Jails

#16

Post by ivanbakel » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #13

"Why Brown and Haugh went the convoluted route and chose to rotate the cells instead of the circular cage, is a mystery." Any guesses? It does seem like a dumb idea to rotate the massively larger/heavier cells.

Maybe because they are so much heavier. Prisoners would probably be able to make the door revolve much more easily. The cells, even if it is possible turn them with a hand crank from somewhere, wouldn't be movable from the opening by hand.

Re: Rotary Jails

#17

Post by ocdtrekkie » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

brnt wrote: post #6

johngalt wrote: post #2

It's always interesting to see the weird things that are designed after technology advances but before it is optimized.

Or, alternatively, horrible over-engineering for only a very slight benefit (fewer guards), with huge externalized cost (prisoners feelings about living in such a concoction, fire safety).

The externalized cost doesn't seem so bad if you don't care about prisoners' feelings or if they die in a fire. Unfortunately, I think that mindset is probably more common, especially historically, than many realize.

Re: Rotary Jails

#18

Post by jontro » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:33 PM UTC

ljp_206 wrote: post #4

There's some kind of sickening scroll acceleration applied to this page, making it exceedingly frustrating to use with a magic mouse. Not surprised due to level of shit shoveled onto the site, but I have no idea why anybody would want to subject their users to this.

Also an ad appeared over the "I accept" cookie banner right before I was going to click it.

Re: Rotary Jails

#19

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:35 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #13

"Why Brown and Haugh went the convoluted route and chose to rotate the cells instead of the circular cage, is a mystery." Any guesses? It does seem like a dumb idea to rotate the massively larger/heavier cells.

[deleted]

Re: Rotary Jails

#20

Post by lilyball » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 9:40 PM UTC

ivanbakel wrote: post #16

tyingq wrote: post #13

"Why Brown and Haugh went the convoluted route and chose to rotate the cells instead of the circular cage, is a mystery." Any guesses? It does seem like a dumb idea to rotate the massively larger/heavier cells.

Maybe because they are so much heavier. Prisoners would probably be able to make the door revolve much more easily. The cells, even if it is possible turn them with a hand crank from somewhere , wouldn't be movable from the opening by hand.

Mount the central cage on a heavy millstone such that you still need the hand crank and leverage provided by a gearing system to rotate it.