I want to bitch about so somewhat personal and somewhat political stuff, but no one will care for someone yelling at the clouds or be able to influence the situation in any meaningful way.

Been there as well, the easiest place I've found for those complaints is an AI

@BordedDev nah, I'd rather speak to a wall or myself. Well, I already do that anyway. Just delusions rising up at random times.

I think this is what devrant is for!
Ok maybe not the political part but still.

@Lensflare it's not dev job related at all

@iiii eh, it's the interaction, rather than spiralling it mentally

@iiii you know what they say about walls and ears

Look whatever you got to say can't be any worse than half the shit ostream used to say.

And we didn't drive him out.

Though no one is immune to being laughed at or judged.

Be you. Fuck being afraid to express an opinion.

Thats how we decompress, and thats how people correct each other.

We can't know what the problem is if you don't tell anyone. And if we can't know the problem, we can't listen or help fix it.

@Wisecrack I know as a fact no one here can help me in any meaningful way. And just venting yet another time at a yet another place does not help either.

@iiii "I know as a fact no one here can help me in any meaningful way."

You don't know that as a fact, I've drove 300 miles and crossed state lines, with only enough gas money to get back in order to help total strangers.

"Be the change you want to see" is either feel-good bullshit, or an ideology to live your whole life by.

@Wisecrack can you smuggle a human across a border? Can anyone here? I very much doubt so.

@iiii "can you smuggle a human across a border?"

I am capable of accomplishing anything if I desire.

Unfortunately breaking the law is not something I wish to do.

But I can offer comfort.

Where they stuck anyway? Ukraine?

@Wisecrack you've guessed it

@iiii while I don't take sides in wars, I can say this: if the ukrainians want to handle the drone problem heres what they need to do.

Big anti-drone shotguns. The pellets should be titanium chips.

Need field recordings of russian drones to extract the infrasound for recognition.

Shotguns can be mounted on turrets to lock onto infrasound, each drone has a unique signature, and unlike thermals and visual camo, IFS is hard to mask even for military tech.

But even without automated defenses, large anti-drone shotguns will do the job, especially with titanium pellets to shred chassis.

This doesn't help your friend at all, but it does help his nation.

Why shotguns? Drones are too hard to hit with individual rounds. A lot of drones are armored, and loitering munitions often have capabilities for dodging nets and incoming rounds. Weapons that fire multiple rounds (especially shotgun shells, which are easier to make) have a spread pattern thats hard to dodge.

I could advise him how to defect and escape effectively but that would be illegal and I lack legal cover to engage in those sorts of activities, so I won't.

I WOULD, if I could, advise him to convert to Judaism which may give him an out of the war if he really believes hes not gonna make it or if he believes the war is lost. And to seek the Israeli embassy after conversion, but it has to be a real conversion, which is not trivial.

Tl;dr mandatory disclaimer, this is not advice, nor legal advice. Consult an attorney before taking any action. Not liable for any end results.

Good luck to your friend though. If he survives it hes gonna have one helluva story.

@Wisecrack Ukrainian upper management wants nothing but to steal money and dance on blood

There's not much of a story besides being a prisoner of own country which had betrayed everyone in many ways.

@iiii I'm aware, and all governments, some more than others, suffer from enormous graft.

I would advise him to, if possible and legal to do so, to trade his service weapon to another soldier who has a shotgun.

I would also advise him, if it is legal to do so, to obtain mylar blankets, and not to piss out in the open.

The mylar will block his heat signature, and pissing out in the open produces visible heat blooms which also regularly gets people killed.

And last but not least, he really should try the conversion-embassy route.

Again, mandatory disclaimer, not legal advice.

@Wisecrack why a shotgun?

@iiii "why a shotgun?"

is gonna serve him (arguably) better against loitering munitions and suicide drones. More effective in trench warfare.

As someone who has survived not one, but two street riots (didn't participate, got caught out in the open), and got stuck in (or was the target) of several gang shootings, four home invasions, and sundry other armed and dangerous situations, I am at least marginally qualified to comment on how to survive armed situations.

There is also an open legal question about whether the ukrainian government can keep him drafted, or charge him with desertion, owing to the fact they have suspended elections and are now no longer a lawfully elected government.

But again, not legal advice.

This isn't me taking sides, I wouldn't be deign to do something as boring as that. Every government has its reasons for going to war, good, bad, and ugly.

Just some food for thought.

@Wisecrack what would you find fun instead?

@iiii What would I find fun instead?

Doing what I set out to do, without resource constraints. I set out to crack RSA, and every dead line has been missed, but every subsequent deadline and breakthrough has been shorter than the last. Real breakthroughs. Converging on some near-future date.

Beyond that, camping, ruck marching, fighting, drinking, and fucking beautiful women, but who doesn't love those things.

Whats this have to do with your friend though?

@Wisecrack yeah, sounds interesting.i wish I could have such desires