asciilifeform: most of what we think of as 'high tech' was created by people who never lived to see a plastic bag.
asciilifeform: the first oscilloscope wasn't even electronic in the usual sense (mirror on a rope, deflected by electrostatic charges, candle, projects on wall)
asciilifeform: it's merely a voltmeter with a time axis.
asciilifeform: and you can usually find the manual on the net.
asciilifeform: i think most people (who have any dealings with such matters, at any rate) own at least 2 scopes - a chinese trambo, and a vintage american analogue unit.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: not banned as such. but the 'holy grail' that could have eradicated the virus, a pocket-sized instant electronic gizmo, sat in a glass case at one of my old employers' facility
asciilifeform: when the usg banned the instant 'hiv' tester device, the argument, if i recall, was that people would kill themselves on learning the result, if no surrounded by government-approved shrinks☟︎
asciilifeform: pLambert: 'barrels per man' includes 'man' and not merely 'barrels'
asciilifeform: i would guess (by no means an expert guess, but that of armchair general) that the 'most barrels per man' is somewhere in the arab world
asciilifeform: granted their arms might still be buried in the ground, as ore, at the moment
asciilifeform: Mats_cd03: the well-armed are the folks with the industrial capacity. and that would be who - if not china ?
asciilifeform: Mats_cd03: 'lead standard' (currency of a country in civil war) is rarely about military/technological superiority, except in degenerate case (e.g. british 'maxim' vs. zulu spear)
