From the Hoax Forum: An Indiana company called Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems is developing a stun gun called the StunStrike that it boasts will be able to stun people at a distance, kind of like a taser without the wires. The company president, Pete Bitar, explains that the weapon will fire "a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep." Sounds a little sci-fi, but certainly not implausible. At least until you check out the company's website, and then the credibility meter drops way down. The website looks kind of like something a high school student would slap together for his 'intro to the internet' class, and it's hosted on a free server. So here you have a hi-tech company that evidently hasn't mastered the complexities of html. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Plus, the picture of the weapon looks phony. Posters at Slashdot have been all over this, dubbing the company a 'homeland security scam' and declaring that the weapon doesn't exist. In the company's favor, it has been awarded a small grant from the navy. Plus, they've been written about in the New Scientist. The Slashdot criticism is evidently making the company nervous, because on its website it now announces (in all capital letters) that:
Comments
If they were really, truly not worried about what the web site looked like, why'd they put it up in the first place? And why'd they change it?
We are not a publicly traded company, nor do we sell to the public, so there's really no point in a website, but we did reserve the domain name for the future, and with it came a "free web page", on which we threw up something just as a place-holder.
We never expected to get all the criticism.
Also, we didn't get just a small grant, but we received two SBIR Contracts, one Phase 1 for $100,000, and one Phase 2 for up to $750,000 to develop a family of prototypes. Two of the three prototypes are done.
We will be doing a big "unveiling" in the early fall, probably mid-late September. So far NBC Nightly News will be there, as will BBC Television. We may have more coverage as well.
Our Congressman (Mike Pence) knows about our technology and supports us and our efforts, as does our Mayor (Kevin Smith). We have significant community support for what we're doing.
It's not smoke and mirrors, and the question is, what's the point of creating smoke and mirrors on a large public scale if we're not selling anything to the public?
We were reluctant to release anything, but New Scientist called us, and did an interview on the phone from London about 3 weeks before the article came out. We never imagined it would go this far...
Thanks for your interest in what we're doing, but the least someone from your organization could do is actually contact us and ask questions before implying the accusations you have against us.
We're a small company, and are doing the best we can to help make the world a better place. Non-lethal weapons of this nature are a far better answer than the lethal options military and law enforcement go to.
The technology is real, but we're not going to ask for competition from one of the big defense contractors by putting everything out there. One step at a time.
We're working on the website, and hopfully in a few weeks, we'll have something a little more interesting, but don't expect to see everything until the demo on TV.
Until then STFU!
so all they are gona do is deride it.
[Keyboard Commandos!!!]
Remember kids, the Wright flyer was a hoax six years after it's maiden flight according to the Navy.
And to any "Authorities" out there, saying it is impossible, throw out your degrees and quit your snotty-know-it-all jobs, because your knowledge of electrical fundamentals are sadly lacking.
[maybe take up jobs as clowns instead]
Pessimists in technology just bog down innovations
due to their own intellectual shortcommings amongst other inadequacies.
Why don't you guys ask how the Stunstrike works before you insist it doesn't.
end transmission!
Nay-saying "experts" out there should quit their snotty Know-it-all jobs because their pessimism just slows down any innovation.
I hope you enjoy the show when the time comes! I know the inventor personally and his integrity is beyond reproach...
The crowd at /. is more technical than most bulletin board groupies, but most of them are IT geeks and don't know a cap from resistor.
There are issues of phone numbers and addresses being faked as well. Blah.
Call this one out Alex, where was the test in the fall? yep.
-E
Right.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/23/AR2005082301227.html
Since then, we have developed StunStrike into a device which destroys roadside bombs, and is now in production for the DoD. XADS has already brought in over $6 million in contracts on StunStrike, and are becoming a leader in electrical discharge, directed energy weapons designed to save lives.
Not only does the technology work, it exceeds expectations and we hope it makes a difference in the world.
For those of you who are very quick to criticize new things, be careful. There are indeed a lot of hoaxes out there, but wisdom dictates that you look into things before declaring it a hoax. Don't be blind. Being duped by calling something a hoax which is not one is as or more stupid than being duped by an actual hoax.
The problem is that these "hoax" accusations show up online on Google searches and causes negativity and doubt toward potentially life-saving technologies. False accusations, though they would never hold up in a court of law, do incredible damage in the court of public opinion.
Be very careful before you shoot your bullets at a target you are not sure about.