Shoot Different
January 21, 2009 10:30 AM Subscribe
What, no "killer app" joke? I'm disappointed.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:41 AM on January 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:41 AM on January 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
What, no "killer app" joke? I'm disappointed.
They already made that one on Slashdot, where they were also joking about how awesome it would be to have it say "HEAD SHOT" at appropriate moments.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:52 AM on January 21, 2009
They already made that one on Slashdot, where they were also joking about how awesome it would be to have it say "HEAD SHOT" at appropriate moments.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:52 AM on January 21, 2009
Not as cool as the CheyTac ballistics computer. Which was just a stock PDA with their software, and Kestrel 4000 linked to it. Do they have a temp/weather/pressure sensor you can link to the iPod Touch?
posted by MrBobaFett at 10:54 AM on January 21, 2009
posted by MrBobaFett at 10:54 AM on January 21, 2009
This HRT Titanium watch with ballistic computer is a bit easier to handle in the field.
posted by meowzilla at 10:58 AM on January 21, 2009
posted by meowzilla at 10:58 AM on January 21, 2009
Oh, Slashdot ... and I thought I was being a bit tasteless....
At any rate, it doesn't strike me as a completely bad idea; if you're looking for a palmtop platform to run some custom software on, you could probably do worse than the Touch. For any application it's probably never going to be quite as good as developing a purpose-built hardware platform would be, but if it's even half as good, you've just saved a huge amount of development costs by using an inexpensive COTS component.
The Touch is a bit limiting because it's a very closed architecture, but I suspect there aren't too many other competitors offering the interface and processing power (not that you really need it for a ballistic computer; hell you can do it with a fancy slide rule) that it has, at the same price per unit.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:15 AM on January 21, 2009
At any rate, it doesn't strike me as a completely bad idea; if you're looking for a palmtop platform to run some custom software on, you could probably do worse than the Touch. For any application it's probably never going to be quite as good as developing a purpose-built hardware platform would be, but if it's even half as good, you've just saved a huge amount of development costs by using an inexpensive COTS component.
The Touch is a bit limiting because it's a very closed architecture, but I suspect there aren't too many other competitors offering the interface and processing power (not that you really need it for a ballistic computer; hell you can do it with a fancy slide rule) that it has, at the same price per unit.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:15 AM on January 21, 2009
Maybe if the software were available for the Blackberry it might have been a bit more apparent just how distasteful and alarming it is to unveil such a product at such a time.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:16 AM on January 21, 2009
posted by Sys Rq at 11:16 AM on January 21, 2009
In Soviet Russia, Beowulf cluster imagines, and gets Netcraft to confirm that, Stephen King is dying.
posted by DU at 11:25 AM on January 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by DU at 11:25 AM on January 21, 2009 [1 favorite]
So I wonder- Do they have to jailbreak it? Does Apple get to make a call saying that software designed for killing people isn't allowed on their platform?
Ahh, but it's all about the money. Of course they'll OK it.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:29 AM on January 21, 2009
Ahh, but it's all about the money. Of course they'll OK it.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:29 AM on January 21, 2009
Does Apple get to make a call saying that software designed for killing people isn't allowed on their platform?
D00d, it's about hunting.
posted by jmd82 at 11:56 AM on January 21, 2009
D00d, it's about hunting.
posted by jmd82 at 11:56 AM on January 21, 2009
Maybe if the software were available for the Blackberry it might have been a bit more apparent just how distasteful and alarming it is to unveil such a product at such a time.
Yes. I was going to make a "Yo dawg we put an iPod on your gun so you can-" joke but couldn't think of a single way to finish that sentence that would be funny.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:21 PM on January 21, 2009
Yes. I was going to make a "Yo dawg we put an iPod on your gun so you can-" joke but couldn't think of a single way to finish that sentence that would be funny.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:21 PM on January 21, 2009
UI design is terrible. Perfect opportunity for a one-screen system - all that's needed is a few horizontal sliders/wheels at the top for parameter entry.
posted by dickasso at 12:28 PM on January 21, 2009
posted by dickasso at 12:28 PM on January 21, 2009
Does Apple get to make a call saying that software designed for killing people isn't allowed on their platform?
I have a dim recollection of some software that was released a few years back under a pseudo-free-software license that basically prohibited it from being used for any military purpose, and there's an existing license available that attempts to prohibit the use of licensed software to violate human rights or spy on the user. Since they aren't compatible with more traditional Free Software licenses, they aren't very popular.
Having read Apple's EULA (I don't recommend it; kind of a snoozer), I don't recall anything in there along the lines of a no-killing clause. There is, however, a section about not using the Mac OS for running critical life-support software or systems, or in the control systems of nuclear powerplants and such, which I thought was interesting. Windows has a similar clause, I think, at least in consumer/desktop versions.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:40 PM on January 21, 2009
I have a dim recollection of some software that was released a few years back under a pseudo-free-software license that basically prohibited it from being used for any military purpose, and there's an existing license available that attempts to prohibit the use of licensed software to violate human rights or spy on the user. Since they aren't compatible with more traditional Free Software licenses, they aren't very popular.
Having read Apple's EULA (I don't recommend it; kind of a snoozer), I don't recall anything in there along the lines of a no-killing clause. There is, however, a section about not using the Mac OS for running critical life-support software or systems, or in the control systems of nuclear powerplants and such, which I thought was interesting. Windows has a similar clause, I think, at least in consumer/desktop versions.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:40 PM on January 21, 2009
I'm surprised that they don't use the internal rotation sensors to calculate the angles.
posted by klangklangston at 1:23 PM on January 21, 2009
posted by klangklangston at 1:23 PM on January 21, 2009
Cute.
Sometimes the tools use you tho. (Not to get Neil Postman here)
Though the environmental sensors are handy. I can do the calculations but I can’t calulate the pressure and temperature (as accurately). But paper doesn’t run out of battery power. (And you should have your ballistic data doped out before you get into the field)
Human rights violations?
...er, you folks do realise firearms are used for hunting and competition targeting, things like that, right?
It’s not like there’s some sort of ban on doing trig. Like a circle having 6283.2 milliradians is classified information.
(Ok, granted, some folks are still taught based on a circle with 6400, blah de blah)
Anyone can learn to shoot very, very well. It just so happens they often don’t.
Any calculator isn’t going to change that. There's no substitute for practice.
posted by Smedleyman at 1:27 PM on January 21, 2009
Sometimes the tools use you tho. (Not to get Neil Postman here)
Though the environmental sensors are handy. I can do the calculations but I can’t calulate the pressure and temperature (as accurately). But paper doesn’t run out of battery power. (And you should have your ballistic data doped out before you get into the field)
Human rights violations?
...er, you folks do realise firearms are used for hunting and competition targeting, things like that, right?
It’s not like there’s some sort of ban on doing trig. Like a circle having 6283.2 milliradians is classified information.
(Ok, granted, some folks are still taught based on a circle with 6400, blah de blah)
Anyone can learn to shoot very, very well. It just so happens they often don’t.
Any calculator isn’t going to change that. There's no substitute for practice.
posted by Smedleyman at 1:27 PM on January 21, 2009
The app is a bit overkill. It might be handy for plotting artillery, but it's not going to help you hit a target unless you're firing at upwards of 1,000 yds. with some seriously high end rifle and ammunition. Anything less than that, and you're not going to notice the difference between this software and rough mental calculations. The actual customer base for this is miniscule; on the other hand, you should never underestimate the number of folks who buy any fancy gadget that shows up in Soldier of Fortune or Guns and Ammo.
posted by Nahum Tate at 1:49 PM on January 21, 2009
posted by Nahum Tate at 1:49 PM on January 21, 2009
That's pretty neat. I'm more of a handgun person, where this isn't quite as useful, but if I had a scoped rifle I'd love an app like this for Android, if just to play around with.
And yeah -- I don't see anywhere on these sites that talks about killing (other than iSnipe saying it could be useful for law-enforcement officers, which I suppose is a ref to that), these are clearly for precision geeks, which is much more of a competitive shooting thing. There aren't that many serious snipers outside of the military and SWAT teams. Even most hunters aren't doing anything remotely this sophisticated.
However, the hardcore competitive shooters are naturally into all sorts of micro-optimizations, and would probably find this very interesting.
posted by wildcrdj at 1:51 PM on January 21, 2009
And yeah -- I don't see anywhere on these sites that talks about killing (other than iSnipe saying it could be useful for law-enforcement officers, which I suppose is a ref to that), these are clearly for precision geeks, which is much more of a competitive shooting thing. There aren't that many serious snipers outside of the military and SWAT teams. Even most hunters aren't doing anything remotely this sophisticated.
However, the hardcore competitive shooters are naturally into all sorts of micro-optimizations, and would probably find this very interesting.
posted by wildcrdj at 1:51 PM on January 21, 2009
Just to clarify: I wasn't implying that the use case for this device is a violation of human rights, just that the license that I linked to (in reply to someone pondering whether Apple could or would prevent military use, an admittedly different issue) has an anti-human-rights-violations clause.
I own more than a few long-distance paper punches myself, so I'm certainly not one to imply that anything about them necessarily implies violence or illegality.
Personally, I'd love to have access to a range that was long enough to be able to shoot something that required a ballistic computer...
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:26 PM on January 21, 2009
I own more than a few long-distance paper punches myself, so I'm certainly not one to imply that anything about them necessarily implies violence or illegality.
Personally, I'd love to have access to a range that was long enough to be able to shoot something that required a ballistic computer...
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:26 PM on January 21, 2009
What dicasso and Nahum Tate said. There's a New Yorker cartoon that would be perfect here - a caveman spear-fishing, with his thought bubble spilling over with trigonometry, algebra, refraction angles, etc. You don't aim a gun using alphanumeric characters.
posted by anthill at 3:26 PM on January 21, 2009
posted by anthill at 3:26 PM on January 21, 2009
I’m sorry Kadin2048. I just took a broad read of the ‘for killing’ gist comments and hyperbolically added yours. My mistake. I bitch about cursory reading and simplistic thinking and here I am going and ... ooh, there’s a cardinal outside!
...what was I saying?
Oh, yeah, I’m stupid too sometimes. Sorry.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:19 AM on January 22, 2009
...what was I saying?
Oh, yeah, I’m stupid too sometimes. Sorry.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:19 AM on January 22, 2009
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posted by resurrexit at 10:39 AM on January 21, 2009 [3 favorites]