Two news reports caught my eye, both illustrating how dependent we've become on technology rather than older, mature methods.
Fridges in French supermarkets hit by cyber attack
Hundreds of French supermarkets have been hit by a cyber attack that caused their fridges and freezers to heat up, spoiling fresh and frozen food estimated to be worth millions of euros.
Hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units, forcing some to warm to 50C (120F) overnight, according to one supermarket chain affected.
The chief executive of Coopérative U said several of its supermarkets had been hit by the "extremely serious and unprecedented" attack.
More than 100 of the chain's supermarkets were targeted, while 180 stores from Intermarché and its Netto brand were affected, with a spokesman saying that another 100 shops were urgently disconnected from the internet to prevent the same thing happening to them.
Britain urges ships to prepare for life without reliable GPS
Britain has warned shipowners that satellite navigation can no longer be taken for granted in some of the world’s busiest shipping regions, urging crews to practise navigating without GPS as jamming and spoofing become increasingly widespread ... interference across the Baltic, Black Sea, Middle East Gulf and parts of East Asia means satellite-derived positioning, navigation and timing information can no longer be relied upon everywhere.
The warning extends well beyond electronic charts. The agency identifies a long list of potentially vulnerable equipment, including ECDIS, AIS, autopilots, dynamic positioning systems, radar, gyrocompasses and GMDSS communications equipment. Ashore, vessel traffic services, pilotage systems, port management platforms and automated logistics systems are also exposed.
That navigation warning applies to any and every form of transport, of course, not just ships. Some airlines now routinely double-check at least two, if not more, global navigation satellite systems such as GPS, GLONASS, BDS and Galileo against each other while in flight. If too many of the systems show errors, they go back to taking star sights and navigating by what they can see on the ground.
As for the Internet-linked refrigerators . . . I can see that a large commercial enterprise might want to monitor its refrigerators and freezers in real time, so that repairs can be ordered immediately if something goes wrong. However, what about security? Isn't a major business vulnerability like that something that should have attracted serious attention long ago? I'm sure it will get that attention now, but it's too late to avoid substantial losses.
I'm not by any means opposed to technology, provided it remains a reliable servant. If it becomes a master instead of a servant, or if it can be corrupted and misused by criminals or other hostile actors, its usefulness has to be reassessed. I can remember being taught navigation off the coast of South Africa back in the '70's, using compass bearings on shore objects, sextants, star sights, and the good old Decca Navigator system, first used to mark and sweep German minefields off Normandy prior to D-Day in 1944. Decca has long gone now, of course, but there may come a time when something old but reliable like that will be sorely missed.
FIREARMS QUESTION
With the recent relaxation of regulations for the purchase and use of suppressors, I'm considering getting one or two of them to safeguard what's left of my hearing. However, I note that most .30-caliber suppressors list their bore diameter as .308-inch. That works fine for standard American ammunition, but several overseas equivalents (including the British .303-inch and the Soviet 7.62x39mm) are sized to .311-inch. Can anyone tell me whether American .30-caliber suppressors have sufficient "safety margin" in their bores to allow their use with .311-inch bullets? If not, do you think US manufacturers could supply their models slightly "bored-out" as a special order? Alternatively, if one went up a bore size in the suppressor, what alternatives are there? I don't know if suppressors are made for (say) the 8mm Mauser round, which would be .323-inch bullet diameter, and I'm not sure what the barrel threading would be. What others might be suitable?
Peter
26 comments:
Given the US has been decomm'ing the Loran stations "because GPS has replaced it", what are they going to fall back to?
Sextant?
https://jkarmament.com/products/vsx-configurator/
That would be a great question for the folks at https://silencerco.com/, they have a large selection of american made suppressors.
Hope they can help!
Pete ,several companies list suppresors that include 7.62X39 as rounds can handle.
You do depending on time/tools have ability and desire(?) can build your own,a lot of plans etc. on the net.
I would hold a month,let the crowds do their buying and then buy if that is route you desire,we have till at least Jan.,that decision could change with pols raising the tax again,was not total victory but a battle won.
Ask if the model you're looking at will handle .338 caliber rounds - that covers a half dozen hunting rounds that they should be able to recommend a suppressor for.
Dead Air Silencers makes the "Wolverine" suppressor which is specifically designed for AKs and has a "generous" bore size due to the variability of AK muzzle threading. Using the HUB mounting system it should be adaptable to any firearms platform. I have not used this particular model from them but I have other Dead Air suppressors and they are great.
There are also .338 suppressors which should also work for what you want as the .338 bore is popular with hunters. You'd be giving up a bit of flash suppression and noise reduction with an oversized suppressor but I use .308 suppressors on 5.56 rifles occasionally and it works fine.
Hope that helps a bit, good luck shopping!
I have encountered the same thing and I just stepped up to a 45 caliber suppressor and it works fantastic
I would send an e-mail in to the customer service or support e-mails for the specific manufacturer to be 100% sure. I suspect you would be okay on the 311 in a 308, but I haven't purchased one yet myself. I do know that several manufacturers make suppressors for .338.
30 cal cans are .350 bore
https://libertycans.net/suppressor-bore-size/
.338 can for 8mm rifle
DallasAnesth
Great question.
I cannot put together an answer at this second because of stuff we need to do today.
I will either get back to you later, you could email me via Old NFO, or I could email you via Old NFO.
When I was in the Air Force nearly half a century ago, a pilot told me that the inertial navigation system he used was so good that he could fly a mission, and when he got back, it would tell him which parking slip he'd started from.
This was long before GPS, and such a system today could only be much more robust and reliable. It could also cross reference the existing GPS navigator and detect any error instantly.
When I upgraded the panel in my Cessna 172, I installed what was then a state-of-the-art Garmin GPS. It updated its position 5 times per second, and the readout of the moving map showed my position within 60 feet. 60 feet in a wide open sky is astounding overkill. BUT... I still carried paper maps, and I still know how to use my E6-B. There is no excuse for not having backup systems and the skill to use them.
Submarines, airliners, spacecraft and others use Inertial Navigation System computers. INS uses accelerometers and gyroscopes to sense movement in three dimensions. When powering up, an airliner pilot tells the INS its exact lat/lon, and the unit finds true north by sensing the rotation of the earth. During flight, the INS shows its location, altitude and speed with remarkable accuracy.
Keep in mind that the law requiring registration is STILL on the books just not being enforced. If and when the other party takes office, they can start enforcing the law and you now have an unregistered silencer.
Kurt in Texas
The Navy is teaching Cel Nav again... And E-LORAN stations are being stood up in a number of places...
GPS has always been under government oversight. If considered necessary, accuracy can be changed to where the closest known position is withing dozens of miles. Surveyors would take a big hit if the accuracy is reduced. A single individual would have to be replaced by a crew, and simple surveys could take days instead of hours.
Hi Peter
For "Holiday horror" contemplation
FWIW
"California Police Make Arrest Over Jankiest .50 Cal Rifle You'll Ever See"
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2026/10/14/california-police-make-arrest-over-jankiest-50-cal-rifle-youll-ever-see-n1234132
The change was to federal law so also check state laws to be sure you are good. Seen several articles on Virginia discussing issues there.
In the 1990s, I think, a friend had a dialup connection to the major supermarket refrigeration system where he worked. It had monitoring and management ability.
What sort of "freezer" can heat up to 120F overnight? At best, it can turn the cold off and allow it to warm, but a well built freezer is also insulated and would take days just to warm up to ambient. I'm not buying that story. Sounds embellished.
As a retired nuclear test engineer, I often questioned all the "cloud control".
Went to a technical seminar in Research Triangle Park, myself and my coworker were the only two from the nuclear industry there, everybody else was chemical and pharmaceutical.
They were all amazed when I questioned the cloud controls, I was amazed to find that a lot of their control functions were actually off site of their facilities.
At Vogel everything controls specific was air gapped from the internet.
No connection allowed.
As to remote access, I was using remote access to PLCs back in the 80s.
A dedicated landline to my office, a copy of PC Anywhere on my desktop computer, login and link to the plc data highway.
It definitely wasn't high speed (remember modems?).
And I would question actually doing much in the way of controling except for startups and shutdowns.
I used it for troubleshooting stoppages.
Don't think that cloud computing as far as controls applications is a very bright idea.
Have a good day
The law requiring registration requires *registration of the tax having been paid*. In absence of the tax, there is no payment to register. Will they try anyway? Sure. But (1) the supreme court will laugh in their faces, and (2) the more people that buy suppressors, sbrs, and other "NFA" items in the interim, the more impossible it becomes for them to try to reinstitute the NFA, much less retroactively prosecute people with a thoroughly documented affirmative defense.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GeZcPCCyVPE
pS, to people who blather about "bese carefulll!!1! The feds can change their minds and start infringing thisnoaetnof constitution that they infringe by breathing again!!1! Then what'll you do?!"
Well. The Founding Fathers risked a lot worse for their freedoms, with not just less, but absolutely zero "defense" to fall back on
It's your choice, but if you live in a free state, without additional unconstitutional restrictions on the 2nd Amendment rights that the Constitution explicitly emphasizes shall not be infringed, and the only thing stopping you from exercising your 2A right to buy a friggin hearing protection device, or build your own 2A celebrating, lead throwing noisemaker is fear that the ATF will eventually change its mind, and people will try to infringe on these rights again? Thankfully a whole bunch of people with enormous testicles have already jumped in front of that hypothetical train for you, so you can take comfort in knowing someone else will probably suffer before they ever get to you. Heck, if it makes you feel better, you can even inform on them, like a good little boy. K?
Okay. Maybe that last line is and was unfair, but I cannot sufficiently articulate how tired I am of performative cowards and concern trolls. Yes, the ATF is an unconstitutional organization. Yes, they can change their minds. No, that won't make it less unconstitutional. Yes, more people taking advantage of this moment will strengthen the effort to fully overturn this despicable, unconstitutional law. And yes, it's possible that fighting in this way, by doing something that you have multiple legal defenses for doing, in the event a future administration tries to strike back, may cause you some inconvenience. But it's not nearly as dangerous as it was for John Hancock to sign the Declaration of Independence. So choose. If you'd like a suppressor, and live in a free state, get one. Or tell John Hancock (and his peers) that you're a wuss, when you get to meet them someday.
Don, I sometimes wonder if my faith in humanity is too high. Thank you for your work. Your obstinate refusal to literally type your first sentence into Google, instead indirectly asking others to do so, has proven my suspicion correct. I have entirely too much faith in humanity. It was the defrost cycle, Don. God in Heaven, Don, does it make you feel good to force someone else to answer questions you could answer for yourself? Gah. But more fool me for falling for it, no?
Apologies. I'm exhausted and running on the fumes from my fumes, and Grace is not flowing from me. My sarcasm stinks of the Pit.
Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, is Lord of all Creation, and He rose from the dead on the third day. Hallelujah, all Creation, even the rocks, cry out! And He loves you in particular, reader. Yes, you. And He will never leave you nor forsake you, unless you genuinely want Him to. If you're afraid He has, or will? He won't, and hasn't. If you're unconcerned, and doing wicked things? He is Faithfulness, but He is also Holiness. If you're trying, even if you think you're failing, or you feel hopeless, He is with you. And He does not abandon those who try to love Him, however stumblingly. Take heart. This wasn't copied and pasted. It's the Truth of our wonderful Father's promise and very Nature. How does not give a snake or a stone to a child that asks Him for bread. Ever. So take heart, reader. Despair is a lie, I promise you. Christ is the victorious Truth
Dead reconning, one way or the other.
If there was sufficient security between the dialup connection and the network on which the refrigeration system was on, that would have been sufficient. What isn't sufficient, these days, is putting your company on the internet without any sort of firewall between the internet and your company network. A NAT router isn't sufficient any more. If you have a firewall, but no remote access software, you can get away with forcing users to pay for static addresses (from their ISP) and whitelist those addresses. Otherwise you need a remote access solution. There are some free open source solutions, but they aren't exactly simple or polished, and on the other end of the spectrum are the very expensive commercial solutions (cisco, fortinet, ivanti, etc.)
If you work for a company, and your internal systems are accessible from outside of the office with just a web browser and username/password, you should find somewhere more security-focused to work. If you're the one-man IT operation, get help! You can make do with free software and a Raspberry PI computer, but it won't be a turnkey solution.
> I can remember being taught navigation off the coast of South Africa back in the '70's, using compass bearings on shore objects, sextants, star sights, and the good old Decca Navigator system
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The SR-71 predated GPS, so it used a combination of inertial and celestial guidance. It had an upward-looking sensor array that kept track of stars radiating in the ultraviolet. It was a digital system, but bulky and heavy, since the SR-71 also predated microprocessors.
Though very fancy, it wasn't that much different from the system you learned in South Africa.
This comment may be a little late, but regarding suppressors for .303 Brit, a 36 cal (9mm) can will work just fine. Just get your barrel threaded correctly. You can find suitable and economical units such as the CMMG Zeroed 36K at many reputable dealers. Their actual website is cmmg.com. I'm not shilling for them, I just recently purchased two CMMG units and am very happy with them.
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