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A bullet is a bad comparison because guns are uniquely fantastic maximisers of the damage potential of explosions. What a gun does is take the entire explosion

by fwlr 4y ago

A bullet is a bad comparison because guns are uniquely fantastic maximisers of the damage potential of explosions. What a gun does is take the entire explosion and concentrate it into one particular direction, it’s like a laser chamber for an explosion. Consider that the 5 milliwatt LED in a cheap laser pointer can cause permanent harm to the retina in seconds, while we light our houses with 5 watt LED bulbs all day and they don’t cause any harm to our retinas. This does raise another, perhaps more ethical idea. The shape of a thumb drive lends itself to building a shaped charge directing the explosion through the usb port into the internals of the computer. You could probably get reliable computer destruction with this method.

hilbert42 4y ago
Time, unfortunately, will likely tell. I claim no great expertise in these matters but I do know C4 is a more powerful charge. I also know how much potential energy is locked up in a bullet cartridge. When the army instructed us in the absolute necessity of pull-through procedure and barrel cleaning it was drilled in by showing us a rifle with its breach blown to bits because the barrel was blocked. It was pointed out that breach explosions had killed many.
- PhasmaFelis 4y ago
  If you set off a small explosion in a confined space, then likely something is going to get propelled at high velocity. If it's not the bullet you meant to launch, it'll be whatever side of the casing fails first, which is reasonably likely to be deadly if you're holding the casing next to your head, as you do when using a rifle. A USB stick is not normally held next to your head while being plugged in, and it doesn't have a heavy metal casing strong enough to channel an omnidirectional blast into penetrating directional shrapnel (nor any way to aim it if it did). It could put your eye out or slash an artery if you're unlucky, but barring major advances in chemistry, a couple of grams of unaimed, unchanneled explosive at arm's length is never going to be a really effective way to kill people.
  - hilbert42 4y ago
    I would not normally reply to this except I know I'm right in is instance. If you line a USB stick with a titanium or nickel sealed container and fill it with RDX or C4 or any other such compound and it explodes only a few feet away from you then you will likely be severely mamed or killed. 1. I was nearly killed when a small primary Li-ion cell short-circuited, it blew a milk crate size plastic box to bits and what was left of its nickel case embedded itself in the brick wall about three meters away—and that battery wasn't designed to kill people. Had the case traveled directly at me it's probable I would have. 2. Keep this in mind, SanDisk used to make titanium-cased USB sticks—I still have about a half dozen of them. Enterprising people who mean harm could make their own lookalikes. 3. In my early 20s I had a miner's right (permit) and friends and I would go prospecing in old gold mines. For most work, we'd cut a stick of gelignite into between 4 to 6 pieces because one stick was far too powerful for our needs. 4. Before that, I made black powder with my schoolmates and even now many decades later I won't admit how we nearly killed ourselves. (Also, if you want to search, you'll see that ages ago I posted on HN the fact that I had made nitroglycerin in the school science lab—that time I was very careful and everything went well). What I can tell you from that experiment is that a fraction of a gram can do much more damage than one would expect. 5. When I was in primary school we had the police come and lecture us on the dangers of railway detonators as kids had been killed by them (but not from my school). These devices (dummies of which were shown to us) were hardly bigger than a USB stick. As I said, I don't claim great expertise (although one of my mining buddies did a Mines Department course on the subject and we had lots of advice from him)—but I do have enough experience to know that if you put even few a few grams of mercury, or silver fulminate or picric acid or similar in a sealed metal case and you detonate it near yourself then you will likely be killed. I've had too many close shaves to know that that is fact. Please speak from fact and not hypothetically, More importantly, keep away from any of this stuff unless you've been properly trained in using it and are authorized to do so.
    - fwlr 4y ago
      For what it’s worth, I agree with you. If you manage to include shrapnel in your thumb drive bomb design it becomes much more lethal.

by fwlr 4y ago

hilbert42 4y ago

Time, unfortunately, will likely tell. I claim no great expertise in these matters but I do know C4 is a more powerful charge. I also know how much potential energy is locked up in a bullet cartridge. When the army instructed us in the absolute necessity of pull-through procedure and barrel cleaning it was drilled in by showing us a rifle with its breach blown to bits because the barrel was blocked. It was pointed out that breach explosions had killed many.

PhasmaFelis 4y ago
If you set off a small explosion in a confined space, then likely something is going to get propelled at high velocity. If it's not the bullet you meant to launch, it'll be whatever side of the casing fails first, which is reasonably likely to be deadly if you're holding the casing next to your head, as you do when using a rifle. A USB stick is not normally held next to your head while being plugged in, and it doesn't have a heavy metal casing strong enough to channel an omnidirectional blast into penetrating directional shrapnel (nor any way to aim it if it did). It could put your eye out or slash an artery if you're unlucky, but barring major advances in chemistry, a couple of grams of unaimed, unchanneled explosive at arm's length is never going to be a really effective way to kill people.
- hilbert42 4y ago
  I would not normally reply to this except I know I'm right in is instance. If you line a USB stick with a titanium or nickel sealed container and fill it with RDX or C4 or any other such compound and it explodes only a few feet away from you then you will likely be severely mamed or killed. 1. I was nearly killed when a small primary Li-ion cell short-circuited, it blew a milk crate size plastic box to bits and what was left of its nickel case embedded itself in the brick wall about three meters away—and that battery wasn't designed to kill people. Had the case traveled directly at me it's probable I would have. 2. Keep this in mind, SanDisk used to make titanium-cased USB sticks—I still have about a half dozen of them. Enterprising people who mean harm could make their own lookalikes. 3. In my early 20s I had a miner's right (permit) and friends and I would go prospecing in old gold mines. For most work, we'd cut a stick of gelignite into between 4 to 6 pieces because one stick was far too powerful for our needs. 4. Before that, I made black powder with my schoolmates and even now many decades later I won't admit how we nearly killed ourselves. (Also, if you want to search, you'll see that ages ago I posted on HN the fact that I had made nitroglycerin in the school science lab—that time I was very careful and everything went well). What I can tell you from that experiment is that a fraction of a gram can do much more damage than one would expect. 5. When I was in primary school we had the police come and lecture us on the dangers of railway detonators as kids had been killed by them (but not from my school). These devices (dummies of which were shown to us) were hardly bigger than a USB stick. As I said, I don't claim great expertise (although one of my mining buddies did a Mines Department course on the subject and we had lots of advice from him)—but I do have enough experience to know that if you put even few a few grams of mercury, or silver fulminate or picric acid or similar in a sealed metal case and you detonate it near yourself then you will likely be killed. I've had too many close shaves to know that that is fact. Please speak from fact and not hypothetically, More importantly, keep away from any of this stuff unless you've been properly trained in using it and are authorized to do so.
  - fwlr 4y ago
    For what it’s worth, I agree with you. If you manage to include shrapnel in your thumb drive bomb design it becomes much more lethal.