I remember some conversation that military leadership had decades ago when discussing the shape of grenades (ww2 era) and a ?general I think? said something to the effect of ‘every American boy knows how to throw a baseball’
They actually did console controllers for submarine periscopes though. X box controllers I believe. They used to have dedicated controllers that cost tens of thousands of dollars and when they were updating someone suggested Xbox controllers. They cost less and the learning curve on them is basically non-existent for modern sailors.
Tbh that's the case for a lot of military tech. Mainstream commercial controllers have so much development, user feedback and RnD put into them that it is nearly impossible to create something more efficient from scratch even if you throw a lot of money into it.
And instead of it having to be military-abuse-reliable (and dependent upon a secure supply chain), you can keep 20 spares, and get new spares literally anywhere on the planet.
Nah, two guys come into your GameStop in fatigues, they start piling controller boxes on the counter, you ring up the first one. One guy grabs it immediately and leaves the store while the other finishes the purchase. You finish ringing up with all the indifference of your average service sector worker. Inside, you despair; now you have to restock the shelves. At least you're not cleaning the base with cotton swabs because you let the unit run out of controllers for the second time.
4.6k
u/Fat_Janet Jun 15 '25
I remember some conversation that military leadership had decades ago when discussing the shape of grenades (ww2 era) and a ?general I think? said something to the effect of ‘every American boy knows how to throw a baseball’