Discounted Gadget

05/11/2026

The Gilded Age robber barons have gone down in history as the epitome of private avarice, but at least they believed in democracy

The tech lords today are weakly committed to democracy at best—and at worst, they’re millenarian nutcases who would dispense with government altogether. https://trib.al/0uFaVVZ

05/11/2026

Allan McDonald declined to sign.
He had led Thiokol's booster program for years.
He knew the O-rings would fail in cold weather.
He had cautioned them.
They did not heed.
His boss signed the launch approval instead.
The following morning the Challenger exploded seventy-three seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts perished. Christa McAuliffe. Dick Scobee. Michael Smith. Ellison Onizuka. Judith Resnik. Ronald McNair. Gregory Jarvis.
McAuliffe was the initial schoolteacher to fly in space.
School children across America were watching live.
Here is what nobody was told.
The night before the launch Thiokol's engineers had begged NASA not to fly.
The temperature was predicted to fall to 18 degrees overnight.
Coldest launch in program history up to then.
Previous coldest had been 53.
The O-rings sealed booster joints tightly. Stopped hot gas from escaping.
They were elastomer. They had never undergone testing in temperatures below 53 degrees Fahrenheit.
Engineer Roger Boisjoly issued warnings about this in writing seven months earlier. July 1985 memorandum. Said cold weather damage on the O-rings could kill astronauts. Filed document. Watched it be ignored.
Now engineers were on a teleconference begging Thiokol management to halt the launch it.
NASA pushed back strongly. One manager snapped. "When do you want me to launch, next April?"
Thiokol requested a break for. Senior VP Jerry Mason turned to his engineers. Told them they had to make a management decision. Engineers said do not launch. Mason overrode them.
Then he turned to his engineering VP and spoke the line that killed seven people.
Remove your engineering hat and put on your management hat now.
Engineering VP signed off. The launch got approved.
McDonald observed it all happen. Then he declined to sign the form himself. Said if something went wrong he did not want to stand before a board and explain why they launched. His boss signed it instead.
McDonald returned back to his hotel. Could not rest. Called his wife and told her to pray.
Seventy-three seconds.
That is how long the shuttle was in the air before the right booster joint failed. Hot gases blew through. Burned the fuel tank. Explosion. Debris fell for an hour.
Reagan formed a commission. William Rogers led it. Neil Armstrong was on it. So did Sally Ride. So did Richard Feynman.
First public hearing. February 1986. NASA officials testified. Made it appear like Thiokol had some doubts but approved it. Made it seem routine.
McDonald was seated in the back of the auditorium. Hearing the lie unfold.
He lifted his hand. He started walking toward commission table.
Rogers inquired who he was. McDonald introduced himself and said Thiokol had recommended NOT launching below 53 degrees. Had put it in writing. Had been overruled by management.
Rogers was shocked. He pulled him to witness table. McDonald revealed everything. The teleconference. The data. The engineering hat line. The overrule.
The investigation changed on the spot. Boisjoly testified next. Showed his 1985 memo. Showed he had predicted exactly what happened.
The final report blamed O-rings. Blamed the management decision. Blamed NASA's safety culture.
Then Thiokol punished the men who had told the truth.
McDonald was demoted. Moved to an empty position with no team. Punishment was disguised as a transfer.
Boisjoly suffered it worse. Shunned by peers. Resigned within months. Spent the rest of his career teaching ethics. Died 2012.
Then something occurred that had never happened in American history before.
Congressman Edward Markey proposed a resolution. Threatened to cut Thiokol off from federal contracts unless McDonald was restored. Both the House and Senate passed it. An actual law.
Thiokol gave in. Promoted McDonald to Vice President of Engineering. Put him in charge of redesigning the very joint that had failed.
He did. Three O-rings instead of two. Heaters added. Better sealing. The redesign flew on every shuttle from 1988 until the program ended in 2011. The booster joints never failed again.
But McDonald kept warning. Said NASA had not changed its safety culture. Said another disaster was coming if they did not listen to engineers.
Nobody listened.
Seventeen years later it happened again.
February 1, 2003. The Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas during reentry. Heat shield damage at launch. Engineers had spotted it on video and warned management. Management overruled them. Said it was nothing. Seven more astronauts dead. Rick Husband. William McCool. Michael Anderson. Kalpana Chawla. David Brown. Laurel Clark. Ilan Ramon.
Same pattern. Same override. Same deaths.
McDonald watched it happen and said he had been warning them for seventeen years.
He spent the rest of his life teaching engineers to speak up. Wrote a book in 2009. Truth, Lies, and O-Rings. Required reading in engineering ethics classes. Went to military bases, NASA, corporations, schools. Told the story hundreds of times.
Said he hated the word whistleblower. Said the right word was truth teller.
Netflix made a four-part documentary about him in 2020. He was the central voice. Reached millions.
He died March 2021. Age 83.
One engineer.
One refused signature.
One special act of Congress.
The only person in American history whose job has ever been restored that way.

05/09/2026

I need y’all to understand that one of the reasons that the Third Reich fell was because literally nothing worked correctly anymore. Regular people, doing tiny, little, unnoticeable things, brought their whole military-industrial complex to a grinding, frustrating halt. This was written for a time when a lot of people worked in factories and in heavy industry, but you can apply these lessons in your own life.

It’s time. You know your job, your department and your company procedures. Shut it all down, one paperclip at a time.

Link below

05/06/2026

05/03/2026

A raid by Ukraine's Security Service in Vinnytsia uncovered an operation of extraordinary scale: 3,800 PlayStation 4 consoles stacked on industrial racks from floor to ceiling, each running FIFA 21 continuously on autopilot. The investigation initially targeted suspected cryptocurrency mining following reports of electricity theft, but revealed instead a sophisticated gaming currency farm.

The warehouse contained rank upon rank of PS4 systems with FIFA 21 game discs, all configured to autonomously grind FIFA Ultimate Team for in-game currency and player cards. The consoles were networked to operate as a unified system, generating consistent output through repetitive, automated gameplay. Every device was optimized to extract maximum value from the game's mechanics.

FIFA Ultimate Team allows players to build virtual soccer squads by acquiring player cards through in-game purchases and auctions. The most desirable cards—representing elite players—carry significant value for competitive advantage. While players typically earn the required currency through extensive manual gameplay, the operation bypassed this time investment entirely through automation.

The investigation exposed a black market economy surrounding FIFA's in-game currency. Generated FUT coins and rare player cards were sold through secondary markets at real-world prices, with high-tier players commanding substantial sums. Users seeking shortcuts could purchase pre-built accounts loaded with elite squads at a fraction of the grinding time required through legitimate play.

The operation demonstrates how gaming infrastructure can be repurposed as production systems. By combining hardware at scale with automation software, operators transformed time-based gameplay mechanics into consistent revenue generation. The setup showed sophisticated understanding of both gaming systems and industrial logistics, treating consoles as specialized factory equipment rather than consumer products.
All trading in FUT coins and accounts violates Electronic Arts' terms of service, but the operation had generated sufficient revenue to justify the capital investment in hardware, electricity, and infrastructure before police intervention.

Source: Delo (July 2021). Ukraine warehouse raid reveals 3,800 PS4 FIFA farm. CommsRisk (2021). Police raid on suspected crypto farm finds 3,800 PS4s. PushSquare (2021). Police raid Ukraine warehouse filled with 3,800 PS4 consoles.