My wife and I have been really happy leasing through Mercedes Benz. Her last car was a 2012 C300 Sport, and she had a fairly good lease rate on it, owing to her very good credit, and favorable lease terms (including interest rate and residual value). We traded that in, about five months early, on a 2014 GLK350, and…

Well, it's painted. The color they chose for its standard camo scheme is a variation of the standard low observable gray that is used for all Navy surface ships.

Yeah, I know and have read about them, but they're a long ways away from even an initial deployment, or even a ship-based test phase, perhaps as much as ten years. A huge factor is ship's power, and the radars needed to conduct AAW and BMD search and tracking, as well as engagement, draw a LOT of power. Simply…

Yep, and their capabilities are pretty non-existent; they can't fulfill the BMD role, they're not great at air search and AAW, ASW capabilities are poor, and like you said, they're ungodly expensive!

The LCS-2's trimaran hull is mostly made of aluminum, and they are not designed to be extremely survivable in case of heavy damage. The LCS-1 has a steel hull with aluminum superstructure, but is likely lightly armored. Compared to a destroyer or cruiser, they're meant to be extremely fast and nimble, light on their…

The AEGIS Combat System, deployed on the US Navy's Ticonderoga-class Cruisers, and Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers, was the first operational shipboard system to adequately defend against fast-moving missiles, and has been continually upgraded throughout the years to include sea-skimming missiles and ballistic…

Stealthy, maybe, but not stealth. The DDG-51 class was arguably the first class with significant radar cross section reductions, and that was improved upon with both LCS designs, probably culminating with the Visby-class and the DDG-1000 class of ships.

With regards to the laser systems, no, they aren't anti-missile, though they may serve a purpose against slower moving aircraft, such as helicopters. The anti-missile systems in the fleet are all currently missile based (SM-2, SM-3, SM-6, Sea Sparrow, ESSM, RAM) or gun based (Phalanx CIWS). Eventually, I'm sure…

The Note phones are just too big for me. I see my coworker's Note 2, and couldn't imagine carrying that in my pocket. It's only like a half inch taller and a half inch wider, but damn, that thing is massive!

If you're on T-Mobile or AT&T, I'd highly suggest checking out the Nexus 5, or the upcoming Nexus phone, whatever if may be called. Also, I checked out the LG G3 last weekend, and it's pretty damn slick. I'm not a fan of the plastic on Samsung phones, and couldn't stand my wife's SGS4, so I got her out of that, and…

Every single one of these ships (save the carriers, which are in a different class altogether, and have an embarked air wing) are completely outclassed and outgunned by a twenty-year-old Destroyer, the DDG-51 Flight IIA ships, especially those with the AEGIS Baseline 9 software loadout and SPY-1D(V) updates. In five…

This is a LCS, which is about 20% smaller, by length, than a DDG-51 class ship, and about a quarter of the tonnage.

As a Mets fan, I was just thinking this! We're no longer the laughing stock of the NL East! SMALL VICTORIES!

A ChromeCast, but that's not really what you were asking...

Since you seem to know everything about information security, you must obviously know about HBSS, which is configurable to disable all USB ports, monitor for suspicious network and host traffic, unauthorized logins, etc. You must also know that isolated networks are configured and built according to TEMPEST…

Actually, each agency or system that connects to a US DOD information system (IS) is required to have an accreditation, that is, that the system has been configured to meet the IS controls required of its MAC and confidentiality level, and the risk has been assessed by the government. DOD does NOT just allow anyone…

It won't actually, if all you're talking about are shipping manifests, emails, etc. Anything that would be useful in reverse engineering the missile, radar, command and control, weapons control loop, et al, would be classified, and would not be available on a public-facing server. Speaking from ten years of industry…

As I've said time, and time again, secret and top secret data, that which has been classified at some level above confidential, is not stored on ANY publically-facing server, and is regulated heavily by numerous DODI and DODM publications. If, perhaps, they were able to find some series of documents that had secret…

All I can say is this - T-Mobile's CSRs are the absolute best in the business. I never have an issue with them, and they're worth the worse coverage. You couldn't pay me to go back to Verizon.

In South Carolina, the sales tax would be capped at $300. Of course, the yearly use tax...