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KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Buttcoin purse posted:

Don't knock it, this was an amazing upgrade from Windows 3.x. Not like now when you get a new version of Windows and it just makes everything worse. Am I just saying that because I'm the relic?

Oh no, not at all. I was 10 when Windows 95 came out, and it was such a mind-blowing experience when you were used to Win 3.x and MS-DOS.

Everything was new and shiny and multimedia and everything, it was pretty good. Of course, the Mac users would argue that Mac OS 7.5 came out first with most of the fancy features in 1994, but Windows 95 did a lot of things better, such as having pre-emptive instead of cooperative multitasking.

It's only when we look back at Windows 95 now that we mostly think of the stability issues and bugs, but it was a huge leap forward at the time. And when most of the bugs and issues were ironed out by the OSR2 release, it was pretty good overall. And Windows 98 mostly improved on that, but also introduced a lot of crap, including the integration of Internet Explorer into the shell.

I think I still have the install floppies in a drawer somewhere. Ah yes, the good old days when a complete OS could fit on a handful of floppies, and the fact that Atomic Bomberman required 32 megs of RAM for the full experience was absolutely outrageous.

KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 11:11 on Mar 16, 2016

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Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

Shady Amish Terror posted:

Let's not let rose-tinted glasses get in the way of recognizing that most Windows OS rollouts were pretty garbage
Universal Windows OS truths:

- Every other OS release will be garbage. Intel has their tick-tock release cycle, Microsoft has a tick-gently caress cycle.
- Every OS is essentially a beta version until the first service pack.

Buttcoin purse
Apr 24, 2014

I look at it this way:

When I upgraded from Windows 3.x to 95, it enabled a huge number of things, and also came with a stability improvement. Yes, looking back, it wasn't that stable, but it was a lot better than 3.x.

When I upgraded from 95/98 to 2000/XP, it didn't immediately enable a lot more things that I cared about but it was way more stable, it seemed amazing.

Sure, none of those upgrades were painless, there were always compatibility issues - need new drivers, some apps need replacing, sometimes new hardware needed - but it was worth it.

I can't think of any great features that have come after XP, and XP was pretty rock-solid for me so I can't see stability improving. I did notice on Windows 10 that it seems to be able to recover from the video driver crashing, but I guess I was spoiled with not having lovely video drivers on previous machines! I suppose there are security features like Data Execution Prevention that have come along, but that's not that exciting for me since I don't tend to get viruses/worms. The main features I see are stuff I don't want like the ability to sign into a Microsoft account, and continuous fights to get the machine to do what I want instead of spending its time doing stuff like downloading Windows 10.


Collateral Damage posted:

Intel has their tick-tock release cycle, Microsoft has a tick-gently caress cycle.

:lol:

And they skipped Windows 9 so they could go straight to another gently caress, right?

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

Isn't W10 just "8 but we're sorry about that Metro poo poo"? It's comparatively not terrible.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

I'll withhold judgement on Windows 10 for now since I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard some pretty mixed reviews. From what I've heard it's at least not as terrible as Windows 8.

Also, I don't know if it's true but I've read that one of the reasons they skipped Windows 9 was that many poorly coded older programs would check Windows version by looking for the string "Windows 9", which would then match both "Windows 95" and "Windows 98". Personally I think they just wanted to avoid the inevitable "Windows Nein" jokes.

HaB
Jan 5, 2001

What are the odds?

Collateral Damage posted:

I'll withhold judgement on Windows 10 for now since I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard some pretty mixed reviews. From what I've heard it's at least not as terrible as Windows 8.

Also, I don't know if it's true but I've read that one of the reasons they skipped Windows 9 was that many poorly coded older programs would check Windows version by looking for the string "Windows 9", which would then match both "Windows 95" and "Windows 98". Personally I think they just wanted to avoid the inevitable "Windows Nein" jokes.

I saw code samples illustrating that, so I believe it's actually true.

I switched over to Macs entirely except for the box powering my MAME cabinet. I setup a new laptop for my dad this past weekend which was running Windows 10. I didn't stare at it for more than a few minutes, but it did seem less annoying than 8, so that's....something.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Windows 10 is OK from a user point of view. I don't like that automatic updates are mandatory now, and all of the phone home and advertising stuff MS is adding is pretty sucky.

I still think Windows 7 has been the high point so far, but since I basically only use 10 for playing games, I can't be too harsh on it.

Croccers
Jun 15, 2012
Only thing stopping me from rolling over to 10 is that 7 is god-like at running games from the 1995-2008ish era.

Kidney Stone
Dec 28, 2008

The worst pain ever!
Was looking in my hard- and software cabinet the other day, and found a DVD that I got from eBay.

It contains every version of MS-DOS and WIndows (from 1.01 up to a early build of WIndows Vista - named Longhorn), there's also some version of OS/2.

Quite fun to play around with :)

Lincoln
May 12, 2007

Ladies.
I thought 7 was fine, and apparently I'm the only guy in the world who had no problems with Vista. I bought the PC with it pre-installed, which may have been part of the issue, as everyone I know who had stability/compatibility problems did an upgrade from XP or whatever.

8 was trash, and was what finally got my wife to abandon PCs altogether and join me in the Mac cult. I officially became an Old Man when I wrote my first-ever complaint letter, explaining to Microsoft in angry detail why Windows 8 was awful and why I --an infamous cheapskate-- was willing to pay triple to purchase a Mac just to avoid using their product. Never heard back. Fuckin' kids.

"Windows 8" should be added to the title of this thread. Please write me and I will send you my screed literature.

Shugojin
Sep 6, 2007

THE TAIL THAT BURNS TWICE AS BRIGHT...


A bunch of why Vista was considered bad was just an extra-bad launch. It was extremely happy to use RAM, there were some driver compatibility issues with video cards IIRC, and of course UAC was uh... zealous to say the least.

I used it like two-ish years after it came out and it was fine and good and did not give me any poo poo. I upgraded to 7 later and that has also been fine and good.

Windows 10 from what I have been told works fine but it makes me angry that you need to turn off a bunch of datamining crap in the install and I know all computer-confused people won't know to do that :negative:

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

The worst sin of Windows 8 that they looked at Metro and said "Yep, this looks like a good UI for a server" and made it the default UI of Windows Server 2012 too. :commissar:

GreenNight
Feb 19, 2006
Turning the light on the darkest places, you and I know we got to face this now. We got to face this now.

I thought 8 was pretty good. Just took a minute to learn if you're an IT dude. We gave it to all our execs with no training and they got it pretty quick.

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



Really nothing wrong with Windows 8(.1) but cosmetics. Comparing that to the sort of problems I see pop up in the Windows 10 thread, that doesn't seem that much of a big deal, honestly. As a platform to launch desktop programs on, it works well and pretty much problem free.

edit: I'm sure Windows 10 will get there too, but now's not the time yet imo.

Krispy Wafer
Jul 26, 2002

I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat

Grimey Drawer
I'll admit I really didn't try to figure out 8, but the few times I had to use it were mind blowingly terrible. Like when I needed to open a PDF and the default Metro app opened it in it's own full screen window so I couldn't set it side by side with the document I needed to reference the PDF with.

I'm sure there's a way to do that, but the time it would've taken me to figure it out exceeded my level of patience. The fact Microsoft thought that was a good default mode really says something. Great for tablets, terrible for desktops.

Lowen SoDium
Jun 5, 2003

Highen Fiber
Clapping Larry

Shugojin posted:

A bunch of why Vista was considered bad was just an extra-bad launch. It was extremely happy to use RAM, there were some driver compatibility issues with video cards IIRC, and of course UAC was uh... zealous to say the least.

I used it like two-ish years after it came out and it was fine and good and did not give me any poo poo. I upgraded to 7 later and that has also been fine and good.

Windows 10 from what I have been told works fine but it makes me angry that you need to turn off a bunch of datamining crap in the install and I know all computer-confused people won't know to do that :negative:



Vista wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. It was just that it was about 7 years of changes rolled in to 1 update. Had MS been doing OS updates ever year or 2, Vista wouldn't have been received too bad. RAM usage was higher than XP, but PCs had more memory. Driver compatibility issues are normal for a new OS. And UAC was a long overdue tightening of security and administrator privileges. It took a while before old apps were updated to not expect administrator privileges. (you can argue that UAC is a sloppy implementation, but windows running everything as Administrator by default was a HUGE part of all the security issues associated with Windows).

Windows 7 wasn't that much different than Vista, but people received it better because by the time it was released, PC makers started using more RAM, drivers had been updated, and most apps had been updated to play nice with UAC.

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



Krispy Kareem posted:

I'll admit I really didn't try to figure out 8, but the few times I had to use it were mind blowingly terrible. Like when I needed to open a PDF and the default Metro app opened it in it's own full screen window so I couldn't set it side by side with the document I needed to reference the PDF with.

I'm sure there's a way to do that, but the time it would've taken me to figure it out exceeded my level of patience. The fact Microsoft thought that was a good default mode really says something. Great for tablets, terrible for desktops.
It's pretty trivial in Windows 8 to go to a 50-50 or a 75-25 split screen mode with the Metro apps, if you know how (just drag it down and to the left or right) and like it had been for many years before, you could have installed your own desktop pdf viewer. Windows 7 didn't include a pdf viewer at all, but we were used to that, nobody would have considered that a negative of Windows 7.

But I get the whole "where is everything, why did they change this, I feel lost and not in control" moments thing, that I'm sure is the same thing that's coloring my negative perception of Windows 10 now.

BOOTY-ADE
Aug 30, 2006

BIG KOOL TELLIN' Y'ALL TO KEEP IT TIGHT

Flipperwaldt posted:

Really nothing wrong with Windows 8(.1) but cosmetics. Comparing that to the sort of problems I see pop up in the Windows 10 thread, that doesn't seem that much of a big deal, honestly. As a platform to launch desktop programs on, it works well and pretty much problem free.

edit: I'm sure Windows 10 will get there too, but now's not the time yet imo.

I had the same feeling about 8, once 8.1 came out and gave users the option to boot direct to desktop it was pretty nice. That, and I still use it with Classic Shell, since the latest CS version integrates with the Start menu button instead of creating its own separate one, so it's kinda the best of both worlds. I think MS ended up jumping on the touch/tablet bandwagon too hastily and didn't think about how 8 would affect users with a standard desktop - I always wondered how difficult it would be to have had the option to choose Desktop or Tablet/Touch during install so it would automatically add a full-function Start menu for people without a touch display.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

I think Microsoft assumed that everyone would jump onto using tablets and the desktop PC would be dead by now.

Mad Hamish
Jun 15, 2008

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.



I never heard a bad thing about Vista until those awful "I'm a Mac" "I'm a PC" ads came out. Part of me is amazed they made it to broadcast as they seemed almost libelous.

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

Even then, they hosed up massively. The idea of having a single system for desktop and tablet is great - the hardware is definitely there as demonstrated by Surface. But instead of coming up with a flexible interface system, like reactive design, that would adapt to the way the device is being used, they just said "people hated using desktop interface on touch devices - let's make everyone use touch-oriented interface instead".

Windows 10 is kind of getting there where 8 should've been, but it's still not there yet.

Krispy Wafer
Jul 26, 2002

I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat

Grimey Drawer

Flipperwaldt posted:

It's pretty trivial in Windows 8 to go to a 50-50 or a 75-25 split screen mode with the Metro apps, if you know how (just drag it down and to the left or right) and like it had been for many years before, you could have installed your own desktop pdf viewer. Windows 7 didn't include a pdf viewer at all, but we were used to that, nobody would have considered that a negative of Windows 7.

But I get the whole "where is everything, why did they change this, I feel lost and not in control" moments thing, that I'm sure is the same thing that's coloring my negative perception of Windows 10 now.

I installed a 3rd party PDF viewer, but I couldn't figure out how to make it the default program. For whatever reason right clicking to Properties wasn't working (it might have been an email attachment). It took forever to find the control panel once I got into desktop mode (swipe from the left wtf).

8 was a disaster for me. I pre-ordered it from Microsoft, but I could never get it to properly activate. To the extent that Microsoft support didn't have an answer. I eventually just pirated it even though I owned a completely legit copy. That (and Steam games for Mac) finally pushed me into the Apple ecosystem for good. I guess 10 is better. The licensing system certainly makes more sense.

And speaking of horrible out dated Windows technology - is there a reason Microsoft never updated their terminal console? Sure I can download 3rd party software, but I have to remote login to a Windows server that has no outside internet connectivity and trying to troubleshoot a lab network issue using circa 1980's tools is mind numbing.

Sweevo
Nov 8, 2007

i sometimes throw cables away

i mean straight into the bin without spending 10+ years in the box of might-come-in-handy-someday first

im a fucking monster

Collateral Damage posted:

Also, I don't know if it's true but I've read that one of the reasons they skipped Windows 9 was that many poorly coded older programs would check Windows version by looking for the string "Windows 9", which would then match both "Windows 95" and "Windows 98". Personally I think they just wanted to avoid the inevitable "Windows Nein" jokes.

HaB posted:

I saw code samples illustrating that, so I believe it's actually true.

It's not.

The Windows version string is "Windows NT x.xx", so checking for strings starting with "Windows 9" wouldn't match because there's no "NT" in the middle.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.
Windows 7? More like Windows 6.1

The_Franz
Aug 8, 2003

Sweevo posted:

It's not.

The Windows version string is "Windows NT x.xx", so checking for strings starting with "Windows 9" wouldn't match because there's no "NT" in the middle.

Not if you check by pulling the ProductName key from the registry. Windows 7 is just "Windows 7".

There certainly is horrible code out there which does this.

Fo3
Feb 14, 2004

RAAAAARGH!!!! GIFT CARDS ARE FUCKING RETARDED!!!!

(I need a hug)
I hated vista because my only exposure to it was on a laptop. Yeah, they're usually slower than a desktop anyway, especially when using a top of it's day AMD CPU and winXP. But the laptop was a core 2 duo that runs quite nicely on linux to this day.
It just made me hate vista.
I still have a win7 desktop, and another I've run win10 on. Besides the update problem which sucks, everything else is OK, and you can get rid of a lot on win10 crap, so it's not that bad.

As far as obsolete storage, well anything sony, from betamax to memory sticks, man that company drops the ball all the time in order to control it's lines (making people buy into their own closed standard), shooting itself in the foot. I think the only successful standard they ever produced was with philips (spdif), or their partnership with ericsson back in the day. Since the walkman the only thing that has stuck is the playstation.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Fo3 posted:

As far as obsolete storage, well anything sony, from betamax to memory sticks, man that company drops the ball all the time in order to control it's lines (making people buy into their own closed standard), shooting itself in the foot. I think the only successful standard they ever produced was with philips (spdif), or their partnership with ericsson back in the day. Since the walkman the only thing that has stuck is the playstation.

Uh, you may be forgetting one of Sony's biggest successes (another collaboration with Philips). It's the compact disc

And Bluray seems to be doing OK, as well.

Code Jockey
Jan 24, 2006

69420 basic bytes free

Collateral Damage posted:

The worst sin of Windows 8 that they looked at Metro and said "Yep, this looks like a good UI for a server" and made it the default UI of Windows Server 2012 too. :commissar:

Oh god seriously, what a dumb decision.

I remember begging for Classic Shell to be distributed to all of the 2012 servers, but I don't think that ever went anywhere. It certainly made my Windows 8 laptop much better.

loving Metro.

Exit Strategy
Dec 10, 2010

by sebmojo

Code Jockey posted:

Oh god seriously, what a dumb decision.

I remember begging for Classic Shell to be distributed to all of the 2012 servers, but I don't think that ever went anywhere. It certainly made my Windows 8 laptop much better.

loving Metro.

I went from being a Linux server admin to being a Windows 2012R2 admin, and the sheer lack of intelligible scripting and task automation in what's supposedly a server-grade OS is astounding. Making that migration actually made me quit IT forever.

In really, really specific obsolete tech I'd like to raise the prospect of the Gyrojet. My dad gave me his presentation-grade set of the MBA Gyrojet, a carbine and a pistol. Pictures aren't mine, of course, the set's in North Carolina still.





The Gyrojet was an experimental weapon using self-propelled ammunition. The advantages are obvious: Velocity doesn't drop after leaving the bore, you can reach longer distances much more easily with no real added weight, and rockets are loving awesome. The reasons it didn't "take off", as it were, are simple: If the rocket's spin-stabilized, it's because of angled nozzles in the rear. It doesn't spin fast enough to stabilize until it's well underway, meaning that your accuracy is about minute-of-city-block instead of minute-of-angle. Also, its possible to stop a Gyrojet round with your finger placed over the bore, as the velocity isn't there yet by the time it reaches the end of the pistol barrel.

Exit Strategy has a new favorite as of 17:01 on Mar 16, 2016

Jedit
Dec 10, 2011

Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

Mad Hamish posted:

I never heard a bad thing about Vista until those awful "I'm a Mac" "I'm a PC" ads came out. Part of me is amazed they made it to broadcast as they seemed almost libelous.

"I'm a Mac."
"I'm a PC."
"What are you doing, PC?"
"I'm playing a great new game."
"Which game?"
"Any game."

On the other hand, any goodwill Microsoft earned by giving away their new iteration of the OS for a year was erased when it began acting like a virus. I left my PC running a file transfer one day and came back to find it installing Win10, in the process disabling all my Internet security software.

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


This may be skewed since I work in an IT field, but the vast majority of criticism of Windows 8 I've heard boils down to whining that there isn't a "Make it look like Windows 98" button. That and it's terrible at managing multiple monitors.

Dewgy
Nov 10, 2005

~🚚special delivery~📦

Exit Strategy posted:

Also, its possible to stop a Gyrojet round with your finger placed over the bore, as the velocity isn't there yet by the time it reaches the end of the pistol barrel.

So Looney Tunes were right! :aaaaa:

GOTTA STAY FAI
Mar 24, 2005

~no glitter in the gutter~
~no twilight galaxy~
College Slice

Jedit posted:

On the other hand, any goodwill Microsoft earned by giving away their new iteration of the OS for a year was erased when it began acting like a virus.

This situation is absolutely ridiculous and I'm honestly surprised there hasn't been more public backlash about it. There are myriad reasons you might not want to change the OS on a machine--give us a goddamn "no thanks" button instead of making us screen updates one at a time and loving google their numbers to make sure they're not Windows 10 trying to sneak in for the millionth time.

Fo3
Feb 14, 2004

RAAAAARGH!!!! GIFT CARDS ARE FUCKING RETARDED!!!!

(I need a hug)

KozmoNaut posted:

Uh, you may be forgetting one of Sony's biggest successes (another collaboration with Philips). It's the compact disc

And Bluray seems to be doing OK, as well.

I could be a smart arse and say cd is obsolete, but to be honest even though I knew sony was involved, I forgot they were a major partner.
As far as bluray, yeah forgot about that entirely. My memory says they pushed that with the playstation, and a quick google answers that's all sony. Oh well, I don't have a bluray disc or player, and never will.
DVDs taught me only buy the poo poo if you want unskippable previews, piracy warnings and long intros. If you want to watch a program or movie without hassle, for gods sake don't buy it on disc.

Nutsngum
Oct 9, 2004

I don't think it's nice, you laughing.

Exit Strategy posted:

I went from being a Linux server admin to being a Windows 2012R2 admin, and the sheer lack of intelligible scripting and task automation in what's supposedly a server-grade OS is astounding. Making that migration actually made me quit IT forever.

In really, really specific obsolete tech I'd like to raise the prospect of the Gyrojet. My dad gave me his presentation-grade set of the MBA Gyrojet, a carbine and a pistol. Pictures aren't mine, of course, the set's in North Carolina still.





The Gyrojet was an experimental weapon using self-propelled ammunition. The advantages are obvious: Velocity doesn't drop after leaving the bore, you can reach longer distances much more easily with no real added weight, and rockets are loving awesome. The reasons it didn't "take off", as it were, are simple: If the rocket's spin-stabilized, it's because of angled nozzles in the rear. It doesn't spin fast enough to stabilize until it's well underway, meaning that your accuracy is about minute-of-city-block instead of minute-of-angle. Also, its possible to stop a Gyrojet round with your finger placed over the bore, as the velocity isn't there yet by the time it reaches the end of the pistol barrel.

It was definitely a pretty interesting piece of design the Gyrojet but ultimately was an attempt to answer a question that didn't exist. The major problem it and every other type of alternative weapon (say laser/energy and magnetic based etc..) is that bullets and guns are just a very simple, efficient and very cheap way of killing someone.

If you study how guns actually work you begin to see just how well engineered most are and exactly why there has basically been barely any true improvements to them for a hundred years. Seriously, a modern army rifle is basically all technology designed at the turn of last century.. just refined immensely.

Platystemon
Feb 13, 2012

as a person who never leaves my house i've done pretty well for myself.
Gyrojet exists so that science fiction writers can have a gun that behaves itself in microgravity.

old bean factory
Nov 18, 2006

Will ya close the fucking doors?!
The next big thing will probably be a thing like case-less ammunition. One more step towards the M4A1 pulse rifle :3:

Iron Crowned
May 6, 2003

by Hand Knit

Exit Strategy posted:

I went from being a Linux server admin to being a Windows 2012R2 admin, and the sheer lack of intelligible scripting and task automation in what's supposedly a server-grade OS is astounding. Making that migration actually made me quit IT forever.

In really, really specific obsolete tech I'd like to raise the prospect of the Gyrojet. My dad gave me his presentation-grade set of the MBA Gyrojet, a carbine and a pistol. Pictures aren't mine, of course, the set's in North Carolina still.





The Gyrojet was an experimental weapon using self-propelled ammunition. The advantages are obvious: Velocity doesn't drop after leaving the bore, you can reach longer distances much more easily with no real added weight, and rockets are loving awesome. The reasons it didn't "take off", as it were, are simple: If the rocket's spin-stabilized, it's because of angled nozzles in the rear. It doesn't spin fast enough to stabilize until it's well underway, meaning that your accuracy is about minute-of-city-block instead of minute-of-angle. Also, its possible to stop a Gyrojet round with your finger placed over the bore, as the velocity isn't there yet by the time it reaches the end of the pistol barrel.

That's actually pretty neat. I'm guessing there really isn't a recoil to it. Although I can't exactly tell what is initially propelling it out of the barrel.

Smoke
Mar 12, 2005

I am NOT a red Bumblebee for god's sake!

The_Franz posted:

They are far from going obsolete:

The Milk-O-Matic which sells fresh raw milk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7CVGn19q_I

The Meat-O-Matic which sells, yep, meat products:


Belgium has a ton of vending machines like this for bread, and recently people have been trying to find new possibilities. There's machines for potatoes, strawberries, flowers, chocolate, and near where I live I've seen one for rotisserie chicken(for your late night chicken cravings) Usually a bit more expensive than store-bought though.

Kinda useful considering stores here tend to close at 8 PM at the latest(and there are no signs of this changing anytime soon), although I kind of doubt it's a good idea to get chicken out of a machine at like 3 AM, no matter how much they advertise that it's hot and fresh.

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Bumblefuck!
Jan 20, 2007

Exit Strategy posted:

I went from being a Linux server admin to being a Windows 2012R2 admin, and the sheer lack of intelligible scripting and task automation in what's supposedly a server-grade OS is astounding. Making that migration actually made me quit IT forever.

In really, really specific obsolete tech I'd like to raise the prospect of the Gyrojet. My dad gave me his presentation-grade set of the MBA Gyrojet, a carbine and a pistol. Pictures aren't mine, of course, the set's in North Carolina still.





The Gyrojet was an experimental weapon using self-propelled ammunition. The advantages are obvious: Velocity doesn't drop after leaving the bore, you can reach longer distances much more easily with no real added weight, and rockets are loving awesome. The reasons it didn't "take off", as it were, are simple: If the rocket's spin-stabilized, it's because of angled nozzles in the rear. It doesn't spin fast enough to stabilize until it's well underway, meaning that your accuracy is about minute-of-city-block instead of minute-of-angle. Also, its possible to stop a Gyrojet round with your finger placed over the bore, as the velocity isn't there yet by the time it reaches the end of the pistol barrel.

These were so novel that they showed up in a Bond film, You Only Live Twice


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