461–470 of 582 posts
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Doing anything remotely means using radio signals to control the thing, and that becomes the main weakness: radio signals can be jammed. You could try other means of communication, like lasers, though, but those too have their own weaknesses.
line of sight laser pulses would work.
In fact, as far as I know, they are a one-weather system: clear.
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Who are you selling to? Anybody with a budget. That could be other contractors. Any enduring units. Any commands. A JavaScript application could be anything that loads in a webpage but not necessarily from a server or domain. That could mean pasted into the console as you suggested, a SharePoint utility, any web page that does not sending data to the server, as well as pages opened from the local file system. The pri…
The primary requirement outside of the necessary JS skills would be a security clearance I assume, correct?
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Fun fact about the Javelin bit. I know it was just a throwaway example but something to tickle your brain about it: Phone camera parts would be overkill. The Javelin sensor isn't nearly that high-resolution, we're talking low triple digits in "pixels". It does however refresh its readings very fast, a necessity given its speed. The old Javelin used active cryo and a filtered IR imager, the new one is passive like the…
One thing I’ve been thinking about re: Javelin (and MANPADS)—would it be better to be able to fire them remotely? ie let soldiers put a set of launch tubes in a bush or behind a rock, then use the targeting system from a separate location. That way, the solders’ location isn’t revealed by firing the missile. Better yet if you can strap the tubes to a robot dog. Another idea: drone AWACS. I mean, a drone with radar to…
"...that is connected to the firing unit by a cable, allowing it be used at distances up to 50 metres (160 ft) away"
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skif_(anti-tank_guided_missile...
To those who think this list will help them get into YC, or lament "why didn't I get into YC when my idea was squarely on this list": The YC application is a sales pitch, and you're not selling your idea, you're primarily selling your charisma and capacity to spin vision and sell. Second, you're selling your chemistry with your cofounders and stability of your relationship. Third, you're selling your capacity to buil…
We've never been accepted, but my experience with application process indicates this isn't strictly true. We're not getting any more charismatic, but they have continued to show interest in us applying. Not sure if that's what everyone gets or not.
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More or less all of these yes. I always found it ironic how the new Javelin is believed to be cheaper because the components are less mechanical and easier to source. The continued support especially. Military systems can be designed (and warrantied) to last decades if maintained properly - and that costs the big bucks.
During wartime, it may be better to design for a short lifespan. Build the seeker with ordinary AA batteries welded in instead of thermal batteries with a standby life of decades. If it's intended for Ukraine or Taiwan, skip the part temperature range that would allow the thing to sit in the sun for a year in Iraq. Seal up the unit and stencil it "NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE" and "USE BEFORE 2026-12-31". It will…
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Mass manufacturing is cheap because of economiea of scale, that means large volumes. The best a small shop can achieve, and that can be highly profitable if done right, is small batches, prototyping or serving as a sub-contractor for the big ones. None of which actually drives final product prices dibe, and is already done extensively.
This is only true with the current level of technology adoption. The economic lot size will trend towards a single unit as technology adoption improves.
And even then, we talk about the lot size of one production order. Economies of scale apply to the overall output of a plant, not individual production orders...
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They really talked about ML-automated robotics in that blog... I swear, I dodn't read it before commenting. This line >> Companies like SpaceX and Tesla have trained an entire generation of engineers in how to build an American company that makes physical products but operates like a startup. is sending chills down my back so. After all, Tesla was almost bankcrupted by their drive to automate everything. And Tesla's…
Whatever you say about the rest of that, dethroning SAP would be a noble goal.
- Assessing applications for a mortgage or a business loan
Really? Are we really giving these things as prime examples of what LLMs can automate.
I do not want my mortgage application or business loan rejected because some un-auditable, non-deterministic, inference decided so.
The tech upper classes really are sheltered from the real impact on real people that trusting IT can have.
There's countless scandals of faulty algorithms (which are tractable) causing people real pain, often with suicides resulting.
Using a black-box inference machine instead is MUCH worse.
Man, it's pretty sad looking at this list. I feel the world's just rocketing out of reach of understandability. My background's in education. I always wonder whether a solid bet would be on overhauling the system totally so the foundations of these new 'future trades' are solidly grounded from 4 years old somehow. It seems our knowledge is an abstraction layer upon an abstraction layer upon... There's just so much sh…
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One thing I’ve been thinking about re: Javelin (and MANPADS)—would it be better to be able to fire them remotely? ie let soldiers put a set of launch tubes in a bush or behind a rock, then use the targeting system from a separate location. That way, the solders’ location isn’t revealed by firing the missile. Better yet if you can strap the tubes to a robot dog. Another idea: drone AWACS. I mean, a drone with radar to…
Doing anything remotely means using radio signals to control the thing, and that becomes the main weakness: radio signals can be jammed. You could try other means of communication, like lasers, though, but those too have their own weaknesses.