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The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

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Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#511

Post by pfannkuchen »

krisoft wrote: post #297
pfannkuchen wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what your first sentence means. Do you say “killing” to mean “eliminating the job of”? I don’t see anywhere that mentioned “killing”. If your second sentence is correct, then let’s allocate taxes to digging holes and filling them in? Ad absurdum but I think it applies? Like it seems reasonable to have an opinion on whether a function should continue to be funded by tax dollars. In a properly operating ec…

> Do you say “killing” to mean “eliminating the job of”? No. They mean killing as in ordering a pilot to fly an airplane with less cautious testing resulting in a crash and the death of the crew. > I don’t see anywhere that mentioned “killing”. It is there. This is what stackskipton said “Your primary concern is not spending a ton of money and not getting a bunch of people killed.” They even use the example of the F-…

Oh wow I completely misread that, I missed the subroot comment of that subtopic and my reading of the exchange in isolation produced a different but still coherent interpretation.

I withdraw my comment, I don’t feel that way, sorry everyone.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#512

Post by pfannkuchen »

exe34 wrote: post #283
pfannkuchen wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what your first sentence means. Do you say “killing” to mean “eliminating the job of”? I don’t see anywhere that mentioned “killing”. If your second sentence is correct, then let’s allocate taxes to digging holes and filling them in? Ad absurdum but I think it applies? Like it seems reasonable to have an opinion on whether a function should continue to be funded by tax dollars. In a properly operating ec…

The argument was literally about pilots dying because of war-time cutting of costs to ensure fast deployment of new tech. Then somebody misread the room and suggested office work was just as much of a waste of life as dying in a horrible accident due to canning of safety testing.

You are right, I misread, my apologies. Wasted productivity being equated with pilots dying is too out there even for me.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#513

Post by jacquesm »

Centigonal wrote: post #378
Y-bar wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> James J.D. Vance and Colin Greenspon have co-founded a new venture firm called Narya Capital and have already raised $93 million toward a target of $125 million. That's not employee status.

Thiel gave Vance his first real job. Thiel introduced Vance to Colin Greenspon (who was the managing director at Thiel's VC firm and now runs Narya with Vance). Thiel supported Vance's book. Thiel supported Vance's governor run. Thiel introduced Vance to Donald Trump. Thiel supported Vance's VP run. It's not an employer/employee relationship, so maybe patronage is a better word.

Maybe 'in his pocket' is the better term.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#514

Post by Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #434
djoldman wrote: post #387

My understanding is that one of the huge barriers to a lot of DoD projects is seemingly unending feature creep: 1. let's make the "next-gen airplane" 2. (work 5 years) 3. ok now we want it to have better radar cloaking 4. (work 5 years) 5. ok now we want it to be faster 6. (work 5 years) 7. ok now we want it to lift off vertically Eventually every vehicle has all capabilities as opposed to focusing on some limited nu…

Yep. No matter what industry, you cannot make a miracle product that accounts for every use case and is amazing at everything. You can burn trillions trying and still come up short. The better way is focused products/specialization. Make something that fills a specific niche very well at a good price. You'll might need more products to get complete (or close to complete) coverage, but you'll end up paying FAR less in…

Well. Feature creep happens because the project is not modular enough that any addition has to be a feature instead of an external addon. But modularity would not be compatible with locking in the government.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#515

Post by kragen »

jacquesm wrote: post #513
Centigonal wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thiel gave Vance his first real job. Thiel introduced Vance to Colin Greenspon (who was the managing director at Thiel's VC firm and now runs Narya with Vance). Thiel supported Vance's book. Thiel supported Vance's governor run. Thiel introduced Vance to Donald Trump. Thiel supported Vance's VP run. It's not an employer/employee relationship, so maybe patronage is a better word.

Maybe 'in his pocket' is the better term.

Maybe "minion", "mole", or "henchman".

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#516

Post by p_l »

mmooss wrote: post #481
p_l wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "special casing" of "operational capability" is public fact - USMC decided to claim initial operational capability on aircraft that didn't even have complete SMS (stores management system), something that was missing even after first "front line" USAF units got theirs. Block 2 software had only minimal air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities implemented. Block 3 was the infamous one with constant reboots, with…

Thanks. I do know about most of that but I'm not sure it distinguishes the F-35 from any very large, very complex, bleeding edge technology project. > the road there was more painful than it should be See above - it's so hard to say. The conception was such an enormous project: build a bleeding edge system, higher performance than anything to be built for decades, even a new concept of fighter planes (as a sensor nod…

My point was not that it was a painful road, but that merging replacement of Harrier into what is ultimately a wildly different set of requirements ensured Lockheed win. Especially since the addition of VTOL was before any non-USMC operator got involved. UK only agreed to plan on continuing with STOVL design in 2002. Canada was not interested in -B. Of the non-USMC buyers of -B, there's only UK (decided in 2002), Japan, Singapore, and South Korea is trying to acquire some. All of those joined the project only after the design was finalized (except for all the bugs).

The entire pathway of F-35 in fact starts with Lockheed lobbying that their VTOL project could be stripped of some VTOL parts and serve as cheaper "addendum" to F-22, followed with merging the USMC-driven CALF with USAF/USNavy JAST.

As for ODIN, it's still done by the same people at Lockheed. And who used products from that division of Lockheed, does not laugh in the circus, as the polish saying goes.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#517

Post by hereme888 »

array_key_first wrote: post #398
hereme888 wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a fact the democrats shut down government because they wanted to hide irrelevant provisions in the funding bill. Enough shady business from democrats!

> Enough shady business from democrats! Okay what is with this style of writing? I see it in Trump tweets, on Fox news, and in other conservative circles. Are you guys made in a fucking lab or something?

Wherever we were grown, we have our head still sitting between our shoulders, buddy.

Democrats were trying to undo a prior GOP law and extend bigger Obamacare subsidies as well as extending the enhanced ACA premium tax credits ($350 billion over a decade), which would have funneled several hundred billion dollars in healthcare subsidies that could have been apportioned to illegal immigrants rather than Americans who need it. Read section 2141 rather than CNN articles.

It's widely known why Democrat politicians funnel money to them: votes.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#519

Post by philwelch »

philipallstar wrote: post #425
philwelch wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tolkien was right-wing even in his own time, for instance he was a supporter of Franco.

From the internet: > J.R.R. Tolkien had a complex relationship with Francisco Franco, as he expressed some moral support for Franco's Nationalist side during the Spanish Civil War, primarily due to concerns over the destruction of churches by Communists. However, Tolkien's views were not strictly political and were influenced by his personal connections and Catholic beliefs. It is maybe considered right wing to not w…

My point isn’t that Tolkien was wrong to support the Nationalists or that he didn’t have good reasons to. Personally I agree with him on the point, but then again I’m right wing.

Re: The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

#520

Post by Night_Thastus »

Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe wrote: post #514
Night_Thastus wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. No matter what industry, you cannot make a miracle product that accounts for every use case and is amazing at everything. You can burn trillions trying and still come up short. The better way is focused products/specialization. Make something that fills a specific niche very well at a good price. You'll might need more products to get complete (or close to complete) coverage, but you'll end up paying FAR less in…

Well. Feature creep happens because the project is not modular enough that any addition has to be a feature instead of an external addon. But modularity would not be compatible with locking in the government.

Trying to make a product that is both modular and at the absolute cutting edge of technology in multiple fields is nearly impossible.
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