Russia - threadbanned users in OP

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Someone has been working extra overtime

But the chips aren't consumer and that's the point. It's not like someone could walk out with a load of Arduino chips or some raspberry pi's. They are "specialised" in that they're built by foundries for industry. A washing machine will have chips for everything from touch screens to wifi, fault detection and other stuff. You might be able to repurpose an consumer chip to do some but it will take a lot of coding to rewrite everything for different silicon. You have to make sure it works with all the other components. It has to be able to withstand the physical strains of use (washing machines for example will have a lot of vibrations). And even if you're successful, most retail places don't carry huge amounts of them. It's a niche hobbyist market.

There was even a point near the end of the pandemic where western car makers were scavenging appliances for chips. If it was as simple as just popping into a shop or ordering them from a hobbyist shop, then they would have done it. This way they get the same or very similar chip that they're already using. And they can pop it in. And it will work with everything else that's in the car.

There is this, and it's a far wider problem for them than just stripping over devices for their boards. Russian tech (especially military tech) produced since the end of the Cold War had access to Western components and had been designed to use them. Now that suppily is either gone, or very tightly restricted to the point of making supplies a logisitical challenge...and this in a state where logistics does not appear to be their strong suit.

They have to settle for whatever the Chinese will throw at them, and China is going to probably just give them what they normally produce for their domestic market. Quality there, as I've mentioned before, is piss poor. Russia is an ideal captive market for them now, and they know well they can get away with sending any crap they want.

Russia really need to produce their own micro-technologies, but with their brightest either escaped the country or rotting as corpses in the fields around Bakmut, I don't see that happening soon or frankly at all.

After the orc propaganda assault of Bakhmut falling, it's still in the hands of Ukraine.

I think Taiwan was on the cards soon for China if Russia had actually succeeded in taking Kyiv in that first week. But since they have failed, and more importantly since Ukraine has been able to fight back as a NATO-armed proxy, I feel the plan to take Taiwan may have been binned for now.

Ukraine has sort of underlined that NATO troops don't nessisarily need to be present to hold back Soviet-derived forces. The PLA are certainly motivated, and well armed, but a lot of that is just updated versions of cloned Soviet tech. Tactical culture within the PLA's command is also not really tested in actual battle. It could be that they are little better in a fight than the Russians have been and previous wars have shown the PLA to also prefer human wave attacks. An assault like that against beaches defended with NATO-grade tech & tactics are the ingredients for a potental PLA bloodbath.

The US has been more open than usual about their support for Taiwan lately, so I suspect that they'll remained armed to the point of not needing US troops to defend themselves.

As for Russia; I feel that their capacity overall is being worn down by this war. Not just supplies, but also manpower to keep things going and to maintain things. You see a lot of fires reported at factories across Russia, but I feel that these aren't sabotage, that they are result of abandoned maintainence and the elimination of a safety culture that was barely there to begin with. I get the impression of a nation that is in a mad scramble to throw anything and everything it has at Ukraine (and damn the consquences) in the hope that they'll win before it's too late and they have nothing left to back up that fight.

The Russian Federation is not the Soviet Union, and unless they get their act together soon (or *yesterday*) you can probably lob off "Federation" from that name in the future.

Nice short summary of what happened in Vuhledar

16 % if I remember correctly .

An army that barely existed a few years ago is holding off the 2nd biggest military power in the world,and in a lot of cases defeating them, embarrassing them is a better word.

Save the alternative views

Dunno, Ukraine haven't done badly at all. They are still David to Russia's Goliath.

The "West" delivered far more economic aid and arms into both Iraq and Afghanistan, including lots of their own soldiers to work the weapons and that did not seem to have anything like the same positive effect (as regards supporting "friendly" govts. there + maintaining them in power).

The classes of weapons being given to Ukraine (so far) are quite limited, and there's no prospect of hordes of Western "advisors" alighting in the country to fly aircraft, drones. etc., drive tanks, or fire long range missiles at Russia.

That's some impressive mental gymnastics to put down the AFU.

Ukraine never claimed to be a major military power; russia did. Ukraine has 28% of the population of russia. Wrap your head around those facts and try to post the same nonsense again.

To Paraphrase The Simpsons:

Meat Assault?

I thought they closed that place down?!

Will there even be a Russian Federation after the Ukrainians drive the Russian army back to the internationally recognised borders?

Putin's grasp on power looks shakier than ever and a military embarrassment this large (where most of the canon fodder has come from the provinces) on top of almost inevitable total economic collapse is surely going to lead to some member states deciding they're better off looking West towards the EU or East towards China than remaining in the Federation with a dictator who's wasted most of his military power.

It'll be hard to feel sympathy for the Russians if/when it falls into civil war with it's various political leaders (i.e. warlords and mafiosi) slaughtering all around them in an attempt to seize control of elements of the nuclear arsenal.