Busy weekend

Yesterday I made a site visit to one of my clients to install antivirus software on their file and mailservers. The fileserver runs W2K3 SBS Edition; I loaded AVG Fileserver Edtion on it. It's set to do daily updates and scans. I went with AVG based on my experience with their free, non-commercial-use version. I've found it to provide good protection on several Windows boxes and it cause much less of a performance hit than Norton Antivirus, which has grown into a bloated pig.

The mail server, which runs SuSE and CommuniGate Pro, got ClamAV installed. For integration with CGP I'm using cgpav. Since I didn't remember to bring my SuSE 9.0 discs I had to grab the RPMs from ftp.suse.com. By doing so I wasn't able to rely on YaST's dependency checking, so I first made a detour through dependency hell and had to also grab gmp to proivde a required library. Freshclam checks for updates every couple of hours, then installs them if available. Since a lot of spam is the product of various worms, I'm hoping that this will cut down on the amount of junk mail they get.

While onsite I also looked at a couple of their PCs. They use Outlook Express (blecch) and Norton Antispam. The latter is causing an odd error the first time OE is started. If they try to right-click on an email to view it's properties, or to move an email to a different folder, OE craps out, but only the first time you do this after booting the PC. If you go into the details provided by Dr. Watson, you see that a DLL being called by Norton Antispam is the culprit. I'm doing another site visit in March and we've already discussed giving Thunderbird a try. We'll also get Spybot Search & Destroy on all their PCs. They are rightly concerned about malware and I'm wondering if a proxy server setup to filter out a lot of the junk wouldn't be a bad idea.

Last night my MIL was kind enough to babysit while Judith and I went out to dinner. She was in the mood for steak so we went to Outback. Unfortunately, the wait was on the order of 75 - 80 minutes. Their steak isn't worth that long of a wait, so we wound up at Ichiban, a local Japanese restaurant that's pretty good. Judith was able to get her steak and I got shrimp and scallops.

Today I watched Amanda in the morning while Judith went out with Alexandra to the supermarket. After they got back I went out to Lowe's, back to the supermarket for stuff Judith forgot, and then the bank. One of the drawers in our kitchen was falling apart so I needed to buy supplies at Lowe's. While there I picked up a Black & Decker jigsaw for all of $25. It came in handy cutting the wood which I used to replace the bottom of the drawer. Yeah, it's a cheap saw but for my light occasional use, I don't need Porter Cable.

"Humanizing Gun Nuts"

Taking a look at the flip side of the gun control issue, Reason magazine has published a review of the book, Shooters: Myths and Realities of America's Gun Cultures, by Abigail Kohn.

In Shooters, anthropologist Abigail Kohn argues that both sides of the debate have become so alienated from one another that they effectively form subcultures, and she studies them accordingly. Kohn calls Shooters an ethnography, an anthropological study conducted from within a culture to gain the “natives’ point of view.” Rather than studying gun enthusiasts though literature and statistics, or from behind a duck blind to ensure “objectivity,” Kohn spent time with enthusiasts, interviewing them, taking classes with them, and shooting with them.

The book looks promising.

What kind of person supports gun control?

Find out here.

Not the crowd I'd want to be associated with.

Astaro Follow Up

I got permission to use a Dell Dimension P4 for testing so this morning I was able to load Astaro Secure Linux 5.1 to kick the tires. The text-mode installation went as smooth as can be, finishing in a little over 10 minutes.

The box has only one NIC so all I was able to do was explore the GUI, but so far I am very impressed. Aside from a full feature set, Astaro's interface is well-designed and pretty intuitive.

I'm going to see if I can round up a second NIC so that I can do a real test. I'm not sure if this will require a reinstall although given how easy the install is, I don't really mind if that's required.

Obviously this isn't a real review but I thought I'd share my favorable initial impression.

System Rescue CD

Knoppix is often touted as a good choice for using as a bootable rescue disc. There's nothing wrong for using it as such but a more specialized live CD is available. Strangely enough, it's called System Rescue CD. A complete list of the tools available on the CD is available on the project's home page.

One tool found on the System Rescue CD which I've used in the past is Darik's Boot and Nuke. If you select DBAN at the boot prompt, you'll boot into a very specialized live Linux system which allows you to securely erase the contents of a hard drive by overwriting it repeatedly with other data. (Merely reformatting a hard drive does not erase existing data.) DBAN is especially useful for companies or individuals decommissioning and selling off or donating old PCs. They can be booted into DBAN, the drives wiped, and then the you don't need to worry about confidential data being disclosed.

New Linux distros to try

My research of content filtering applications led me last week to Astaro Security Linux. Aside from enabling one to easily setup an x86 box as a Linux firewall, Astator offers a content filtering option which might be useful for our situation at work. It certainly bears investigating, so I downloaded the ISO for it last Friday and burned a CD. I have a box at home on which to try it, although I plan to see if I can scrounge something up at the office, too.

Today I grabbed the ISOs for Slackware 10.1 CDs 1 and 2. I first tried getting them via Bittorrent using Azureus installed on my SuSE laptop, but it kept crashing. It's possible that's because I'm behind a firewall and port 6661 isn't open. In any event that meant I needed to get it using a browser.

I was able to get the ISOs for both CDs using Firefox but I'm glad that I checked the MD5 sums before burning them to disc. Neither file was good. I went back and got them using Opera and this time the downloads were not corrupted. Interesting.

To burn the discs I used K3B, which is by far the best GUI burning app I've used on Linux. It compares favorably with Nero Burning ROM on Win32. Indeed, the developers appear to have taken cues from Nero. Since my laptop doesn't have a burner, I used an old LaCie USB CD-RW drive I found in a closet. The combination works well.

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to throw the latest version of Slackware on, but rest assured that I'll post a writeup once I do.

I'm not dead

I just haven't posted since last Wednesday.

We had a nice weekend. Saturday morning we visited with friends who just moved into a new (to them) house over in Lafayette Hill. Judith and I like it a lot -- 4 bedrooms, a den, full basement, a room they'll make into a library/study and a 2 car garage. To be candid, we're a bit envious. (A garage would be great but what I really miss not having is a basement.)

After moving into our home in 2001 neither of us thought we'd want to move again until we're ready to retire. However, we've been feeling a bit cramped in our house, especially since Amanda arrived. Due to the way the real estate market has been the past few years we've already built up considerable equity in the place. It's worth real consideration of moving into a bigger place in this area. But we won't jump into anything, that's for sure.

Followup on tax stuff

Feedback from readers Al and Paul have caused me to reconsider the Quicken/Quickbooks choice. For my needs Quicken may be enough. Since I already have it I'll check it out.

Thanks, guys.

NOD32 Antivirus

I am looking at installing NOD32 Antivirus on the SuSE/CommuniGate Pro mailserver and Windows 2K3 SBS file server at one of my clients. I'd welcome comments from anybody who's used NOD32 for a mail or fileserver.

TIA.

Tax stuff

Tonight I finished putting together the materials needed to file our 2004 income taxes. Since I do some side work I need to put my expenses and revenues into intelligible form, which I do in the form of an OpenOffice.org spreadsheet. I then print this out and give it along with all my receipts to our accountant.

What I really need to do is start using something like Quicken or QuickBooks to keep track of all this stuff. Quicken is meant for personal finances but a lot of small business use it. Still, I'd rather use something that adheres to GAAP, which means I should shell out for Quickbooks. It's a shame that I need to do that, since my iBook came with Quicken already loaded.

Anyway, Judith will be dropping off all of our stuff with our accountant next Saturday, so we should find out what sort of refund we'll be getting soon.

Saturday Night's Alright For Shooting

I'm back home enjoying a Newcastle Brown Ale after spending a couple of hours with my dad at the range. I ran 150 rounds of Winchester-USA .38 Special 150 grain LRN through my 4" S&W Model 15. This was the first time in quite awhile I shot the Model 15, which was the first decent handgun I ever bought, back in 1996.

My shooting tonight was ok, though not as good as I can do. I was having problems focusing on the front sight, which is attributable either towards fatigue, having been sick for almost a week, or being closer to 40 than 30. Anyway, I was still keeping all my shots on a paper plate from 7 yards, firing double action only, shooting rapidly.

I think I'm going to change the grips on it. It currently wears a set of Pachymar Gripper Pros. They leave the backstrap exposed and don't fit quite flush. This leaves an area with a bit of a protruding ridge which digs into my palm, which bothered me even with the mild loads I was shooting tonight. I think I'll get a set of Butler Creek rubber grips which cover the backstrap. They should make shooting the Model 15 more comfortable.

After 150 rounds, the S&W was filthy. That's ok, I don't mind a little cleaning. Lately when shooting one of my pistols I've taken to a quick wipedown and a couple passes through the bore and chambers with a BoreSnake, but I felt that the Model 15 needed a more thorough cleaning. So, I broke out the cleaning kit while Dad was still banging away and used a rod, bronze bore brush, and patches. I swabbed out the bore and chambers several times and left them wet with Hoppe's No.9. I'm going to let the gun soak overnight and run dry patches through tomorrow, then leave it with a coat of FP-10 to prevent any rust.

I also got to shoot one of Dad's Russian Nagant revolvers (he has more than one, they're cheap). This one was made in 1919 at the Tula Arsenal, then later rebuilt. To sum up my opinion of the Nagant as a military service weapon: It's a good gun for the other guy to have. While an interesting historical curiousity, it's fires an anemic round and the trigger, even in single action, sucks. With serious concentration a Nagant can actually be quite accurate, but it's not what I'd regard as being easily shootable. Honestly, I'd rather be armed with a .36 caliber Colt Navy percussion black powder revolver if I had to defend myself. I might even take a .31 Colt Baby Dragoon or Wells Fargo model. The ballistics would be aboutt as good and I'd be more confident I'd actually hit what I was aiming at.

"Women will get sterile just looking at you."

On Krautboy's blog:

Okay, I like Star Wars as much as the next person who was a child during the late 70's/early 80's, but there are some people who are just a little *too* into it. These people go to conventions. They dress up. Some better than others. I of course choose to share with you the latter group. These are all pictures from a Star Wars convention from a site my co-worker decided would be a good idea to share with me. Now, I share with you.

ROTFLMAO!!!

Vonage

Home sick again today.

Judith and I have been paying about $50/month to Verizon for telephone service, just for local and Philly Metro. (For long distance we've been using our Verizon cell phones.) Having spoken with several people who've switched to Vonage and with one exception, have been extremely satisfied, we decided to look into VOIP to save some money. (My employer is in the process of rolling out VOIP service but I was told by the local engineering manager that my area won't get it for quite some time, due to the amount of plant reconstruction that's going to be needed to support it.)

Vonage has two plans for residential customers: Basic w/500 minutes anywhere in the USA and Canada, or Premium Unlimited. Basic costs $14.99/month while Premium is $10 more. We signed up for the Basic plan on Saturday. The box with a pre-configured Linksys RTP31 VOIP router came today.

Most users would connect the Linksys to a cable or DSL modem. However, since I already have a router, and need that router to keep my static IP, I hooked it up behind my SMC8013 modem/router, leaving the WAN port to pick up its IP via DHCP. It's generally recommended to have as few hops between you and the VOIP callee, so we'll see how this works. If necessary I can reconnect my old Motorola modem and plug the Linksys into it.

I made a few test calls from the Vonage connection to my cell phone. Until we get our number switched over from Verizon we have a temporary number for receiving calls on the Vonage line. However, calls from the Vonage line show up with my home number on caller ID. Interesting. Since Verizon hasn't switched us over to Vonage, the POTS line still works as normal.

Sick again

The sinus infection I've had since Sunday had me feeling like total crap this morning so I called in sick. This sucks.

After breakfast I plopped myself in front of Bagend and did some playing around. Since I'm hadly using Mozilla Composer anymore I installed Firefox and Thunderbird. (Actually, I had them installed but they were FF PR-1 and TB 0.8. I upgraded both to 1.0.) Then I spent some time adding a few extensions to FF, namely, Forecast Fox, Adblock, and Bookmarks Sync.

I took a break from rotting my brain online :) to install the Wolff extra power springs in my two Okay-brand 30 round AR-15 mags. When I ordered them I'd intended to get new springs for my old 20 round AR-15 Colt mags, but clicked the wrong button. Since I have the two Okays I let the order stand, although I still do plan to replace the springs in the old Colt mags. Hopefully after doing so they will be reliable in my AR-180B.

While farting around with gun stuff I ran a couple patches wet with FP-10 through the bores on my AR-15 and my AR-180B, using the Otis cleaning kit I picked up last month from Cabela's. The AR-180B lacks a chromed bore and I wanted to ensure that it had a good coat of oil.

I did the AR-15 more for shits and giggles than a real need to do so, but it showed me that I could've done a better cleaning job after the last time I shot the rifle. It was by no means filthy, but it could've been cleaner. So, I broke it open and wiped down the innards with FP-10 on a patch, paying particular attention to the locking lug recesses in the receiver, and under the extractor claw on the bolt.

The Otis cleaning kit is pretty damn neat, beating the old USGI buttstock kit hands down. The only advantage the GI kit would have is in driving out a stuck bullet or maybe a stuck case. Were I headed to the sandbox, I'd definitely include an Otis M-16/M-4-specific kit with my stuff.

More lab time

I spent another couple of hours this morning in our lab trying to test new firmware for our Blonder-Tongue Megaport Gateways and Outlets. We needed to upgrade the firmware on the outlets. To do so, you first login to the MPG using the BT management app, then select the upgrade option for the MPOs from a menu. Doing so pops up a dialog box prompting you for the file path on a TFTP server, from where it'll pull the firmware file and put it on the MPOs.

It appeared to work for one MPO but not the other. Rather than using the same app previously used to login to the MPG, to connect to an MPO to see what firmware it's running, you need to use a different program which does its communication on Layer 2. Unfortunately, I can't get that application to run on the Dell Latitude D600 I'm using. I've tried it using the onboard Broadcom Gig-E NIC, and an old 3Com PCMCIA 10/100 NIC. We also tried it on another Dell with a Broadcom Gig-E NIC, also without success. Both laptops are running XP Pro SP2, and I'm thinking that's the problem. Yet my boss was able to get the app to run on his Apple Powerbook running Windows 98 in a Virtual PC emulator. Arrgghh!

Maybe if we become a large enough customer for BT's MPGs/Os, we can get them to write a single app that will allow one to do the initial setup, ongoing config, and MPO upgrades. As it is now, initial setup needs to be done through a browser, then the two other Win32 apps are needed for ongoing maintenance. That's ridiculous.

Shortly after bagging it in the lab, I caught a train home. Judith had a professional development course tonight so I had to be home early to pick up the kids at 16:00.

One result of dumbed-down education

This should scare you:

One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.

The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

Asked whether the press enjoys "too much freedom," not enough or about the right amount, 32% say "too much," and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten percent say it has too little.

The survey of First Amendment rights was commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and conducted last spring by the University of Connecticut. It also questioned 327 principals and 7,889 teachers.

That's appalling, but I suppose it shouldn't be surprizing. Civics education has been downplayed for decades in the US and the results are coming home to roost. Instead of being taught about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, kids these days are subjected to indoctrination about diversity and self-esteem. I was graduated from high school in 1986 and remember how Voter Preparation was regarded as a blow-off class.

One has to wonder if this isn't intended. The state-run schools are producing graduates who are increasingly eager to turn over to the state their freedoms.

It sure is frustrating, especially since I have two little ones at home.

(Thanks for GeekWithA45 for the pointer.)

Lab day

I spent most of this morning in our lab with my boss, getting more familiar with the Blonder-Tongue Megaport equipment we use to deliver Internet access to hotel rooms. It's pretty neat stuff, allowing us to bring in Internet access using one of our cable modems, then make it accessible from each room over existing CATV wiring. In essence, it's like setting up a small-scale CMTS and cable modem system within the hotel.

Slow

Things have been a bit slow, hence the lack of extensive updates. Here's a roundup of what I've been up to:

Tuesday was a half day for me. Judith was taking a professional education course so I needed to be available to pick up the kids from daycare. It was nice being to spend more time than usual with them. Nothing is as cool as walking into a room, having Alexandra notice me, then have her run up to me screaming "Daddy!"

Yesterday I had a meeting with one of the vendors who handles our outsourced email. We want to consolidate with a single vendor, and naturally they want to be it. After the meeting I got a chance to review our existing contract with them. If nothing else, they have better attorneys than our other vendor, who's proposed contract looks like hell.

Gmail was acting up a bit yesterday afternoon. I wasn't able to login to it using Firefox on either of two PCs on two separate networks. IE worked OK, though. Wierd. It seems to be back to normal, now.

BTW, I have 5 Gmail invites. If you want one email me at davemarkowitz at gmail.com.

Last night I got home and had to immediately run out to get prescriptions filled for both kids. Alexandra has a sinus infection, while Amanda has an ear infection. Both are now on Augmentin. In light of this, I am pretty sure that Amanda will get tubes in her ears, like Alexandra. After taking care of that and making myself a sandwhich for dinner (neither Judith nor I felt like coooking), I flopped down in the living room with my iBook to do some surfing.

This morning I installed Ping Plotter and Multiping, both from Nessoft, onto my test laptop. I'm sure they'll come in useful at some point.

I continue to work my way through Jonathan Hassell's book RADIUS. It's not long, but it isn't light reading. It is well-written and I do recommend it for an overview of the protocol.

There's a new version of Trillian out, which I installed on my test laptop under XP today. I hadn't used Trillian in awhile. So far it works quite well, and feels more like a Windows app than does GAIM. I think I'll stick with it for now. Kopete remains my preferred IM client when running Linux.

Finally, I subscribed to the MacAttorney mailing list. I still retain some interest in the practice of law and should I resume it, I'm leaning in the direction of using my iBook. The mailing list will help me get up to speed on what Macintosh apps are out there suitable for using in a law firm.

Seen today online

"In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal."

Keeping it up

Not that, you pervert. I logged into my mail/fileserver this morning and ran uptime. Here's the results:

Welcome to the Mitel Networks SME Server.
bash-2.05$ uptime
11:21am up 366 days, 15:22, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01

Now that I can say it's been online for a year+ without a reboot, I can get serious about migrating off the e-Smith platform.

A Day on the Border in California

If you're an American concerned with national security in general and the situation along our border with Mexico, this will piss you off:

Three of us volunteers captured 40 (FORTY) of them (illegal aliens -- Dave) in the past day (Jan 21 to 22, 2005) on this one mile wide property. The volunteers only come once in a while to help the rancher. The rest of the time, his ranch is a wide open path into the USA, not much different from any other mile of border. If they make it 1-2 miles inland, there are lots of houses/shacks/trailers which are "pick up sites." There are only a few Border Patrolmen to cover each 20 mile sector of the actual border, which is only a token effort, just minor window dressing, to show the sheeple that "Uncle Sam is on the job." They basically don't catch anybody, maybe 2% of the crossers by actual truthful and frank (not official PR) Border Patrolmen's estimates. Anyone they catch in this sector is by pure blind luck, or they are the ones which private citizens stop, hold and call in, and they pick up and count as captures. This 2% true catch rate is meaningless, since the illegals just get taken to the border, and cross again tomorrow or the day after, with a fresh 98% chance of success. Pretty pitiful, huh?

Note: "Travis McGee" is the THR username of Matthew Bracken, author of the excellent novel Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Snow day

We got dumped on good yesterday and this morning, about a foot total. Not much compared with a lot of other places in the country but that's a good snowfall for SE Pennsylvania. So I finally got to use the Troybilt snowblower I got before Thanksgiving.

It works great and beats the heck out of shovelling. After cleaning my driveway and sidewalks I took care of my neighbor, a widow who lives alone and who appreciated the help. I'm glad I got a two stage unit. Even so, the bottom of my driveway was plowed in and it required multiple passes in each spot to clear.

The temp was in the teens with a good wind, so the wind chill factor was in the low single digits. It made me glad that I'm sporting a beard now. My face never got cold. :-)

Firefox bookmarks sync extension

Now this is seriously cool. It's a Firefox extension which allows you to sync your bookmarks across multiple computers. You need an FTP or WebDAV server to store an XML file of your bookmarks, but then it's quite easy to use. It's also a great way to have an offsite backup of your bookmarks.

Camino

Last night I spent some time playing around with Camino 0.8.2, Mozilla.org's web browser for Mac OS-X. Of course, since the full Mozilla suite and Firefox are available for Mac, one might wonder why there's yet another Gecko-based project for this platform.

The difference with Camino is that is uses the Cocoa user interface, so it looks like other apps written for Aqua, Mac OS-X's GUI. It fits in better with the Mac desktop aesthetically.

I used it for about 45 minutes or so last night on my iBook and Camino appears to be a competent browser. It has tabbed browsing and a built in popup blocker, like Firefox. Pages rendered similarly to those viewed in Firefox, although items like drop down boxes had the Aqua widget look.

Unfortunately, Camino seems to lack the customizability of Firefox. I didn't see any way to install extensions, which is a killer feature in Firefox. For example, I really like the Adblock extension which allows me to filter out a lot of crap. Hopefully, this is a feature that will make its way into Camino in the future.

What a day

The site survey I went on yesterday was educational. My background is on the Ethernet and fiber side of things. The survey, on the other hand, was basically a walk-through of the RF (CATV) installation at the hotel, in order to gather data on how to design a proper MDU Internet solution, using the existing CATV wiring to feed Internet access to each hotel room.

That took about three hours and we finished by 1310. By that time a minor snowstorm was moving into the Philadelphia area. I ran into it on the way home while still in Eastern NJ. Unfortunately, as soon as the first snowflake falls around here half the people turn into total morons.

Once I hit Route 42 outside of Philly traffic slowed to a crawl. I saw several cars and trucks pointing the wrong way by the side of the road. It took me until about 1745 to get home, by which time I was completely fried.

The weather liars are calling for a real snowstorm this weekend, starting Saturday afternoon and running into Sunday. They're calling for anywhere between 4 inches and a foot of snow, so it looks like it's finally time to go get some gas for the snowblower. Yeah!

It'll be slow today

I'm going on a site survey for our hospitality product at a hotel in Beach Haven, NJ, so there won't be much of interest until tonight at best.

Plastics

OK, not the line from The Graduate, but can one of my readers recommend a source for Lexan sheets? I have a window next to one of the doors in my home that I want to put a sheet of Lexan about 1" behind, for improved insulation and security. The piece of Lexan will need to be about 11" wide by 79" long.

TIA.

Neal Knox Passed Away 1/17/05

Posted by Jeff Knox on THR

-------------------------------------

A Message from Neal
Dad wrote this message to the troops after the doctors gave up on him. Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated so rapidly that it didn't get sent out. Mom has attached comments as well.

A memorial service will be held this Thursday at the Manassas Church of Christ at 10:30. Details available at www.NealKnox.com.

Jeff
-----------------------------------------------

From the Desk of
Neal Knox

The Firearms Coalition
PO Box 3313
Manassas, VA 20108


Dear Friends,

I’ve always made it a point to deliver the news to you straight – good or bad. Now I’m afraid I have some unpleasant news. As you’re aware, I have been fighting colon cancer for the past year. The doctors tell me that my fight is almost over.

I believe in miracles. I believe in God’s healing power and eternal life through Jesus Christ. I know it will take nothing short of a miracle for me to win this battle.

Should that miracle be granted, I will rejoice; but I rejoice nonetheless, for I’ve been blessed with a wonderful life, a great family, work that I love, and many wonderful friends. Most of all, I thank God for my long-suffering wife Jay Janen who not only put up with me, but has actively supported my efforts for the Second Amendment for nearly forty-nine years.

It’s been a great run!

I had always assumed that long life was my birthright. My father passed away just this past fall at the age of ninety-two.

I counted on the same sort of life-span and was planning accordingly. We’ve barely settled into that house in the country that I’ve been promising Jay for so long. I started rebuilding her classic Mustang convertible and have it in pieces in the basement garage. I’ve laid out a 100- yard range next to the house, and was looking forward to having my dear friend Ken Oehler help me set up a ballistics lab in the basement.

Time for those projects was budgeted into the next generation of the Firearms Coalition. The plan was to have sons, Chris and Jeff, take more prominent roles in the fight, freeing me up to do other things like shooting and writing books. Jeff moved out here for that purpose over a year ago but my illness sidetracked those plans.

I have long wanted to evolve the Firearms Coalition into a resource for grassroots activists and organizations. The goals of the Coalition would be to provide activists with the resources, training, and technology they need to be more effective in the fight.

Now, I hope you will help Jay and the boys as it looks like they will be taking on this important task without me.

There will be more details in the weeks and months to come, including a new book that Chris, Jeff and I have been collaborating on. I regret that I am unlikely to see it in print, but I am confident in their ability to see it through.

I am thankful for you and the many other friends that have blessed my life making me a truly wealthy man. There have been disagreements, even fights, but the goal of freedom has been a unifying force.

I ask your prayers, both for me and for my family, especially for Jay who never expected to see me go first.

I urge you to continue the fight. Continue your support of the ongoing efforts of the Firearms Coalition and keep the grass roots growing.

Thank you for keeping me in the fight for all these years.

As always: Yours for the Second Amendment,


Neal

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neal passed away early this morning, January 17. He was surrounded by our children and his brothers and went quickly without pain.

A memorial service has been scheduled for Thursday, January 20, at the Manassas Church of Christ, 8110 Signal Hill Road in Manassas, Virginia. The service will begin at 10:30 AM with a luncheon to follow.

It was Neal’s wish that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Firearms Coalition or to Rainbow Children’s Home in Gainesville, VA.

Neal’s condition deteriorated so rapidly that there wasn’t time to get the above- letter out before his death. He very much wanted to let you, as a faithful friend, know what was going on. We will post more information on the web site, www.NealKnox.com.

I can’t tell you how much Neal has loved the difficult work to which he has dedicated his life. It has cost us much while at the same time being extremely rewarding in so many ways. The greatest reward has been the love and friendship that we have found along the way. You’re an important part of that.

Thank you so much,

Jay
Jay Jannen Knox

Neal Knox in ill health

This was posted on 1/14/05 by Tom Gresham ("Guntalk") over on THR:

Many of you know or know of Neal Knox, who has been a tireless fighter for the Second Amendment for more than three decades. Today I received this from Jeff, his son.

-------------------

Tom,

You probably know that Dad has been fighting cancer
for the past year... He's taken a serious turn for the
worse.

At this point, the doctors have given up and sent him
home with hospice care. We're doing what we can but
mainly it's controlling the pain and praying. Unless
God decides that He has more for him to do here, the
end could come any time.

I wanted you to know.

You're welcome to let people know about this and
prayers are encouraged.

Jeff

---------------------------------------------

__________________
Tom Gresham, Host
Tom Gresham's Gun Talk radio show

This is truly sad news. During the last three decades, Neal Knox fought more than any other one person for our Second Amendment rights. I got the chance to meet him and shake his hand at the 1998 NRA Convention, shortly after the "Winning Team" disgracefully refused to let him speak.

IMO, the best way we can honor Neal Knox's memory is to be as vigilant in the defense of our RKBA as he was.

Ruger Police Service Six Range Report

Last night I finally got to shoot the Ruger Police Service Six that I picked up cheap last Fall. This is a stainless steel revolver chambered for .357 Magnum, with a 4" barrel, and fixed sights. It wears a set of Pachymar Presentation grips. It was probably a police trade-in.

The Security/Service/Speed Sixes were Ruger's first generation of double action revolvers, replaced by the GP-100. The Sixes are roughly comparable to a S&W K-Frame, but a little beefier. With a lot of use, they can develop smooth actions, but by and large a K-Frame will have a better trigger pull.

I put 132 rounds of Winchester white box 150 grain LRN .38 Specials through the Ruger, while my dad ran 18 of his .38 Special handloads which push a 148 grain cast wadcutter at around 850 FPS through it. (We shot at the Lower Providence Rod & Gun Club's indoor range, which doesn't allow magnums.)

All shots were fired double action. As one would expect the Ruger functioned perfectly. Accuracy was OK with the Winchesters but I found it hard to shoot one-hole groups at 7 yards. In contrast, when I shot my dad's S&W Model 10 with the same ammo, I got one ragged hole. It could be the ammo, but it may also be the Ruger's trigger, which while pretty decent isn't as good as a broken-in K-frame like Dad's Model 10. I found that shooting the Ruger well required a lot more concentration than the Model 10.

That said, the Ruger exhibited accuracy more than sufficient for its intended use -- as a sidearm for policemen. Likewise, it would do just fine as a self defense piece for Joe Citizen. It will be interesting to see how well it can shoot with different ammo, though.

As a stainless gun, cleanup was a snap. I ran a BoreSnake with FP10 on it through the barrel a couple of times, and then once through each chamber. I then wiped down the Ruger's outside, including the frame recesss, with a patch wet with FP10, then stuck it in a pistol rug. I repeated the exterior wipedown this morning, following up with a dry paper towel to get rid of the excess FP10.

Mac Mini

Unlike RBT, when I saw the Mac Mini and was impressed. Yes, expandability is limited. Yes, the specs don't "wow" me. Yes, you can get an equivalent PC cheaper. But, this is the cheapest way to get a box that will run Mac OS-X.

Let's say you get a cheap PC with Windows. It still needs an antivirus program, multiple antispyware apps, and a lot of ongoing maintenance to ensure it doesn't get rooted by viruses, trojans, and other assorted crap out there. And while Linux has made huge strides in usability (in many ways it's better than Windows), many specialized commericial apps won't run on it but are available for Mac. Also, Linux printing often remains a real bitch and a half to get running.

A Mac Mini, on the other hand, basically allows you to unbox the unit, hook everything up, and it all just works. The form factor of the Mini gives greater flexibility in where you stuff it, and compared with an eMac or iMac, you won't be tossing a perfectly good display when you replace the box in a few years. For a power user a Mini Mac isn't the right solution but as a second computer or a computer for a kid's room it looks like it would do nicely.

Clueless

Shortly after I transferred into my current position I sent out requests for info to various vendors of content filtering, domain registration, and web hosting serivces. I did so either by sending an email to an address given on the respective vendors' web site, or by filling out an online "contact me" form.

The other day I got into work and there was a message in my inbox which just floored me. It was a reply to an online RFI form that I filled out on 7/27/04. This vendor replied to me nearly six months after I clicked the submit button on his website. I was just floored. How clueless can you be?

One of my coworkers had a great idea. I should save his email and reply to this moron sometime in June or July.

Multiple updates to The Shooters Bar(SM)

While home, I took advantage of the time to post multiple updates to The Shooters Bar(SM), my list of pro-RKBA attorneys.

Additionally, I've started a Yahoo! Groups mailing list for TSB. To subscribe visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theshootersbar/.

Blecchhh Part 2

I made it into work this morning but only lasted until about 1130. I hate head colds.

Blecchhh

Between a nasty head cold and Amanda waking up at 0330 this morning, I didn't get much sleep last night. So, I called in sick and spent most of the day sitting in front of Bagend reading THR and AR15.com.

I did get to install the new Eagle rosewood grip panels on my Springfield M1911 which I got from Cabela's. The Pachymar rubber grips which the gun came with were functional, but oogly. The Eagle grips needed a little fitting, for which I used my Dremel with a sanding drum set on 1,000 RPM. One of these days I'll post a pic, since the Springer much nicer looking now.

Along with the 1911 grips, I also got an Otis "Tactical" (I hate that marketing term) cleaning kit. It's a pretty neat concept. Instead of a rigid cleaning rod, it's basically a pull-through system using nylon-coated stainless steel cables. You can attach to the pull-through a slotted tip to hold Otis's special cleaning patches , or a bore brush. The cable is rigid enough to be used for clearing obstructions from the bore, something you can't do with a BoreSnake. I don't view the Otis kit as a replacement for a proper cleaning rod, but it's a good kit for field use.

Blogroll

You may have noticed the beginnings of a Blogroll down on the right. I'll add more as time permits.

Meanwhile, any reciprocal links are of course most welcome.

PC install

This morning I went down to a client's office in Wynnewood to install two PCs he picked up during the week. This is the same client I visited last Monday.

The PCs are HP Pavilions running XP Home. Yeah, they're consumer-grade but he's had very good luck with Pavillions in his small office for several years. The new boxes have P4/3GHz CPUs, 512 MB of RAM, a DVD+RW and CD-ROM drives, and 200 GB hard disks. He got them for about $800 each.

After he physically installed them, I got them on the LAN, removed a lot of the crap HP loads on the hard disks, and installed stuff like MS Office, antispyware apps, and created limited user accounts for the two girls working for him.

I also setup a Maxtor One-Touch 200 GB USB hard drive on one of his existing PCs. It's going to be used for offsite backups of the data on his e-Smith 5.5 Linux fileserver. For backup software we're using SyncBack, a nifty, free program I found last year and which I have running every night at another client.

A couple of the PCs needed updated to their antivirus software as well as Windows, so after taking care of that I automated much of that with the AVG and Windows Update schedulers.

While we worked, I mentioned to my client -- who's company does commerical property management -- that along with a partner I do network cabling. So he may be able to use us for jobs on sites he's renovating. A few cabling jobs each year the size of the one we did last Fall would be a nice supplement.

Had my lawyer hat on

One of the projects I'm involved with at work is reviewing the contract to renew our outsourced email service. Although my boss asked me to review the contract from a business standpoint, it's be wasteful to ignore my legal background. So, yesterday afternoon and this morning I put on my lawyer hat.

We are getting closer to an acceptable contract, but let me tell you, this thing started out as a real POS. I know that had I drafted such a contract back when I was practicing law, my boss would've torn me a new one. For example, the section of the contract dealing with material breach was some of the worst, unintelligible legalese I've had the misfortune to read. It was a paragraph consisting of two or three run-on sentences which ran for about a third of a page. Ugh. So, I broke it down into a couple of subsections and used sentences which wouldn't have resulted in a big red "F" in 10th grade English class.

Hard work, but actually pretty interesting.

I'm being quoted

After asking me if it was OK and getting approval from his boss, reader Geoff Timm, who is a geek for Uncle Sam, emailed out a document to his colleagues based on my previous posts, 10 Steps for Securing Your MS Windows PC and Secure That Wireless Network. On top of my contributions, Geoff added a listing of assorted residential gateways from NewEgg.com. The general idea is to get it into the hands of end users who are experiencing problems on their home computers.

Thanks, Geoff. It's good to be recognized. I hope the piece does some good for you.

More laptop fun

I got my new Dell D600 setup as a dual-boot XP Pro/SuSE 9.2 Pro box today. When I first tried this, YaST was able to resize the disk's single NTFS partition fine, but after creating the partitions to be used under Linux it bombed while trying to format them. It may or may not have been something I did. So, I rebooted into XP, deleted the Linux partitions, and rebooted into the SuSE installer. It was then able to create my swap and / partitions.

The rest of the installation went smoothly, including the setup of GRUB to default to SuSE, but with an option for booting Windows. (And yes, I made sure it works. XP comes right up after you select it.)

YaST pretty much automagically set things up so that I have read only access to the NTFS partition. I was able to set my home page in Firefox to my portal page saved under My Documents on the NTFS partition.

The onboard 802.11g wireless NIC was also properly recognized and after installing KWiFiManager, it's easy to setup the adapter to access different WLANs.

Based on this experience I don't hesitate to recommend SuSE 9.2 if you're looking to dip your toes in the Linux waters but aren't ready to discard Windows entirely.

New AOL IM Name

For anyone who cares, I'm now using dmarkowitz527 when I login to AOL Instant Messenger. My Yahoo! Messenger ID will remain the same at dave_markowitz.

Back to the grind

The longest vacation I've taken in years ended today. Nobody likes to return from vacaction, but today was a pretty good day.

First off, I had my annual performance review, which went quite well.

Secondly, the Dell Latitude D600 laptop which we ordered for use as a test box came in while I was on vacation. w00t! It's basically an upgrade version of my daily use machine. Same CPU (P4M @ 1.4 GHz) but with 1 GB of RAM, an 80 GB hard disk, and a DVD-ROM drive. It was supposed to have a DVD burner but our purchasing department fouled up. (We got a second, identical unit for my co-worker, and his also came with the DVD-ROM, so I don't think it's a Dell SNAFU.)

The only software that came on the Dell aside from XP Pro was WinDVD, so I spent the afternoon installing stuff like antivirus, antispyware, IM clients, Ethereal, and various other utilities. Since I'll eventually need something on the box for taking notes, I decided to give Abiword a try, since it's so lightweight. I've putzed around a little bit with it on Linux, but not in quite some time. I'll probably load it onto Bagend at home.

I'll add some more stuff on the Dell tomorrow, as well as turning into a dual boot machine with SuSE 9.2 Pro.

Countries I've visited

Found this morning via a link from Ramble On!, Dave T.'s blog, is a site (link below) which will make a map showing which countries you've visited. Pretty neat. Here's where I've been:



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Edited to correct the link to Dave T.'s blog.

Updates to The Shooter's Bar(SM)

Today is a company holiday, so I get one more day for my vacation. Back to the grind tomorrow.

This morning I added J. Michael McCormick of PA to The Shooter's Bar(SM). I currently have close to 40 pro-gun rights attorneys listed on TSB. It's one of the (possibly the) biggest online lists of pro-gun lawyers, but I'm always looking to add more.

While I had Mozilla Composer open, I also did some long overdue cleanup of the index page for my Shooting & RKBA pages, as well as the Building-tux.com home page.

A rodent for the iBook

I shot down to Microcenter this afternoon and picked up a Logitech optical mouse to use with my iBook. It didn't come with a mouse, and I don't care for Apple's one button mice, so I got another Logitech. There are a couple reasons I don't like Apple mice: they're only one button and they don't have a scroll wheel.

I've always had very good luck with their mice, this is probably the fourth or fifth one I've bought. None has ever worn out, I've just moved on to newer and better models every few years.

Tsunami relief

I haven't mentioned the tsunami that's taken so many lives (135,000 as of now according to CNN.com) What could I say?

However, there is something you can do. A monetary donation, no matter how small, to a relief organization like the Red Cross can help.

Amazon.com has made it easy for you to donate to the Red Cross using your Amazon account.

Give a little, if you can.

So much for doing it yourself to get it right

It turns out that I needed to call my plumber to complete the dryer install after all.

A few hours after running the second load of wash I smelled some gas. After getting Judith to confirm that I wasn't having olfactory hallucinations I shut off the supply via the cutoff. This morning I called my plumber, who luckily, was able to make it out today.

It turns out that the source of the leak was the old gascock itself. If it had been left alone it would've been fine but by using it, we caused a leak. So, he wound up replacing the gascock and also added another extension pipe to get the rigid gas line closer to the dryer. While he was here I also had him replace the water shutoff valves and the lines to the washer. We also shut off the supply of gas to the fireplace in our den, since it provides next to no heat and we haven't used it this winter. Since it is old enough to have a pilot light, that'll be a little less gas we have to pay for each month.

I'm happy to give my plumber an unsolicited plug, btw. His name is Lawrence Pizzico and he can be reached at 610-279-8111. He works out of Norristown in SE PA.

Changes

In contrast to the Sears experience, we had a good one with Sleepy's, a bed retailer. The deliverymen just left after having brought in and assembled a new bed for Alexandra. Tonight she'll be sleeping in a bed for the first time. It's going to be interesting to see her reaction.

When you want something done right...

... you often need to do it yourself.

Sears came back this morning to finish the dryer install. They couldn't do it because they didn't have a long enough gas line. This despite the fact that it was the same guys who delivered the thing. At this point I said "fuck it" and decided to do it myself.

So after Dumb and Dumber left I went to Lowe's and bought a two foot black iron gas pipe, a coupler to join it to my existing gas pipe, a can of pipe joint compund (I looked at several and bought one which mentioned use on gas lines), and a four foot flexible gas line, which I wound up not needing and will return.

After getting home I slathered all the threads with pipe joint compound and screwed everything together, using the section of flexible line Sears had left me. I turned the gas cutoff on this line back on and waited about 20 minutes. Not smelling any gas, I gave Judith the OK to put in a load of wash.

Tomorrow I'll call Sears customer service and give them an earful.

Monday update

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Being Jewish, Saturday was pretty much just another day for us, although we did induldge in what's become a tradition for a lot of Jewish folks on that day: have Chinese food for dinner. Around here, if you go to a Chinese place on Christmas it'll be packed with us Hebes. Since we have two small kids, we had takeout, which is a lot easier than sitting in the restaurant.

Yesterday after breakfast Judith and I took the girls up to the Plymouth Meeting Mall to look for Alexandra's first bed (didn't buy anything) and to kill some time before their naps. Alexandra really likes the water fountain. She also likes the merry go 'round, but apparently only if Mommy rides it with her. I took her on it and she flipped out. Luckily, nobody else was on the ride so they were able to stop it early. Oh well.

We got about an inch of snow last night and it's largely melted by now. All the snow I should be clearing with my new snow blower is getting dumped elsewhere.

Both Judith and I are on vacation this week, so after dropping the kids off at daycare we were able to enjoy a nice breakfast by ourselves at the local Cracker Barrel. Since everything they serve is pretty much a heart attack on a plate, we don't go very often.

At about 1100 our new Sears clothes dryer -- replacing the one which died a couple weeks ago -- was delivered. Unfortunately, they couldn't complete the hookup because they didn't have the correct male/female coupling for the gas line. They left it up to me to get the right coupling and call back to schedule completion of the job. I was able to find the right coupler at Lowe's and schedule an installer to come out but not before Wednesday. (I could probably do it myself now, but there are certain things I don't do around the house, preferring a professional to handle them. These include anything to do with A/C current, plumbing, or gas lines. IOW, stuff that can get me killed if I foul up.)

And you can bet Sears is going to hear from me about putting the onus on me for getting the right coupler.

Secure that wireless LAN

One of the prks of my job is that vendors send us equipment to play around with. They often send us several copies of the same unit, so we can take one home and use it on a daily basis to wring it out. Hence the new Netgear WG602 wireless access point I installed this morning. Setup was pretty straightforward, although you do need to connect to the box with an Ethernet cable to login and configure the wireless settings before you can connect wirelessly.

This brings me to the main point of this post: Secure that wireless LAN!

When my iBook booted up, it detected a wireless LAN belonging to one of my neighbors. It is wide open. I was not only able to get an IP and get onto the Internet, I was able to login to his wireless router because it still had the factory default settings.

Tips for securing a wireless network:

1. When setting it up, change the default administrative password.
2. After you have your clients associated with the access point, disable SSID broadcast.
3. Enable WPA or WEP encryption.
4. Enable MAC filtering, which limits what wireless cards can associate, using their hardware addresses.
5. Disable DHCP and manually configure the IP settings of your wireless clients.
   

A wireless network by its very nature won't be as secure as a wired Ethernet, but you can make things a lot more difficult for would-be interlopers.

Optics shuffle

I had a $50 gift certificate to Cabela's and a $30 coupon good on orders for $100 or more, so last week I ordered a Bushnell Trophy red dot sight, which arrived today. The regular price was about $110, but with the gift cert and the coupon I wound up paying only about $40 after shipping.

The Bushnell sight has four different reticles: a 3 MOA dot, a 10 MOA dot, crosshairs, and a 3 MOA dot surrounded by a 65 MOA circle. So far I'm liking that last option. It looks like it'll give me a relatively recise aiming point for smaller or more distant targets, while giving me something large for fast acquistion on close-in targets.

Aside from the sight itself, the Bushnell box contained a set of vertically split 30mm rings, a sun shade extension, a lens cleaning cloth, and a polarizing filter for the objective lens. I have the sun shade on, but not the polarizer.

I decided to mount the Bushnell on my ArmaLite AR-180B and move the PK-01V over to my Bulgarian SLR-101. Since the range was closed the one time I took it out to sight it in, it's not like I'm losing a good-to-go setup.

Hopefully I'll get both rifles out to the range during next week. I'm on vacation and with the exceptions of Monday and Wednesday, I don't have anything planned yet.

More pistol packin'

To continue the packin' heat theme of this week, I found a new site of interest via Geeks With Guns. Check out OpenCarry.org for information on which states allow open (i.e., not concealed) carry of a firearm.

10 Steps for Securing Your MS Windows PC

On an email list to which I subscribe we're having a disucssion about spyware. I contributed a post with ten things you can do to prevent your PC from getting infected with malicious software. Here's the meat of that post:

1. Run Windows Update regularly; if your version of Windows support automatic update checking, make sure it's enabled.
2. 2. Do not use Internet Explorer as your browser, unless you are viewing a site which requires it. Use Mozilla, Firefox, or Opera instead. I use Firefox. By not using IE, you'll prevent most spyware and web-borned viruses from getting onto your system.
3. Install the Google Toolbar for IE, because it includes an excellent pop-up blocker, for when you must use IE.
4. Run an antivirus program and keep it updated. I use and recommend the free personal version of AVG Antivirus.
5. Use a hosts file to prevent your PC from loading spyware sites.
6. If you are on broadband use a hardware firewall. Routers that sit between your PC and a cable modem or DSL connection can do a lot to protect your machine. I've had good luck with Netgear equipment.
7. Don't use Outlook Express for email. It's a virus trap. Use something else -- Mozilla Mail, Thunderbird, or Eudora.
8. Don't open unexpected file attachments which you receive in email.
9. Install and run Spybot Search & Destroy and Lavasoft Ad-Aware to clean up spyware. Spybot includes an "immunize" feature which can prevent known spyware from getting installed in the first place. Both can be downloaded from download.com.
10. If you are using a PC with Windows NT, 2000, or XP, your regular user account should not be a "computer administrator." Rather, setup a separate account as a "limited user." That way if malicious software does get onto your computer its impact will be minimized.
    

Top States in Absolute Numbers of CCW Permits

We've done percentages, now let's do actual numbers. The top 5 states for number of adults with licenses to carry a concealed firearm are:

1. Pennsylvania: 525,600
2. Florida: 332,400
3. Indiana: 302,000
4. Washington: 225,200
5. Tennessee: 160,000

Source.

Go PA!

If you think a 12 gauge pump isn't enough...

...check out this:



To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson, "When you absolutely, positively need to kill every MFer in the room, accept no substitute!"

Supposed Amazon.com/Million Moms Link

There's a rumour floating around that Amazon.com has somehow "joined" with the Milliom Mom March this holiday season and is supporting the MMM's goals. The origin of this appears to be an Amazon.com affiliate link on the MMM's home page (which I won't deign to link to).

The Amazon affiliate program is open to any person or organization that signs up for it and places the links to whatever they're selling on their web page. It's a big part of Amazon's business model. I can do it, pro-gun groups can do it, and so can anti-gun groups.

If Amazon was "joining" with MMM, then certainly there would be a press release to that effect on Amazon's site. There isn't one; I checked.

Examples of pro-RKBA sites who participate in the Amazon.com affiliate program:

http://www.lneilsmith.com/

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/

http://www.keepandbeararms.com/

So does this mean that Amazon is "joining" with pro-RKBA forces?

Unless someone can point me to something more concrete, I'm calling B.S. on this one.

Edit: Doh! I forgot I already posted about this. Oh well. I'll leave this up since I go into more detail in this post. I plead too much Knob Creek tonight.

Follow up on CCW %s

Here's a follow up post by Ken, breaking the figures down by "red" and "blue" states.

Here's a Red and Blue assessment of those numbers.

7.45% - Red - South Dakota
6.79% - Red - Indiana
6.76% - Blue - Pennsylvania
5.23% - Blue - Connecticut
x.xx% - Red - Georgia (guessed in)
x.xx% - Blue - New Hampshire (guessed in)
5.12% - Blue - Washington
4.34% - Red - Idaho
4.10% - Red - Utah
3.86% - Blue - Oregon
3.45% - Red - Tennessee
3.15% - Red - Alabama
2.72% - Red - Florida
2.71% - Red - Kentucky
2.67% - Red - Wyoming
2.41% - Blue - Maine
2.18% - Red - Arkansas
2.11% - Red - Virginia
1.94% - Red - West Virginia
1.76% - Red - Arizona
1.75% - Red - Oklahoma
1.70% - Red - Montana
1.70% - Blue - Michigan
1.62% - Red - Texas
1.39% - Red - South Carolina
1.34% - Red - North Dakota
1.00% - Red - North Carolina
0.86% - Red - Mississippi
0.62% - Red - Louisiana
0.58% - Red - Nevada
0.45% - Blue - Minnesota
0.36% - Red - Missouri
0.33% - Red - Ohio
0.20% - Red - Colorado
0.17% - Red - New Mexico

Now the REALLY interesting stuff.

Red States

Total licensees among the Shall Issue states:
1,870,368

Total population living in True Right To Carry states:
648,818 (0.22 percent)

Total population living in Shall Issue states:
141,766,564 (48.84 percent)

Total population living in May Issue states:
2,944,062 (1.01 percent)

Total population living in No Issue states:
4,462,798 (1.54 percent)

Blue States

Total licensees among the Shall Issue states:
1,208,878

Total population living in True Right To Carry states:
619,107 (0.21 percent)

Total population living in Shall Issue states:
43,272,643 (14.91 percent)

Total population living in May Issue states:
78,406,558 (27.01 percent)

Total population living in No Issue states:
18,125,843 (6.24 percent)

Ken Grubb
Bellevue, WA

Bogus Amazon.com/Million Moms Rumor

Earlier today I was forwarded an alert from the "US Sportsmen's Alliance" containing the statement that Amazon.com has "joined forces with the Million Mom March" for the holiday season. This didn't pass my smell test, so I checked both Amazon's and the Million Misguided Mommie's websites and found no reference to Amazon "joining" with the MMM. The Amazon link on the MMM site is an affiliate link.

Among other organizations which I've seen with an Amazon affiliate link is JPFO.

Spreading rumors like this one does our cause no good whatsoever.

Welcome InstaPundit Readers

w00t! I got Instalanched!

Welcome InstaPundit readers. I hope you poke around some more and come back.

Percentage of Adults With Carry Permits in "Shall Issue" States

I am reproducing in its entirety a post by Ken Grubb which appeared this morning on the PA-CCW mailing list. This ranks each of the "shall issue" CCW states by the percentage of adults who have a permit to carry a concealed firearm.

After crunching through the 2000 Census and 2003 Census estimates, the numbers in Chris Bird's Fourth Edition "The Concealed Handgun Manual", some official sources online which are a little more current, and filling in a few gaps from a 1998 CCRKBA report, the winners are:

Percent of Adults with a License to Carry in each Shall Issue State

7.45% South Dakota
6.79% Indiana
6.76% Pennsylvania
5.23% Connecticut
5.12% Washington
4.34% Idaho
4.10% Utah
3.86% Oregon
3.45% Tennessee
3.15% Alabama
2.72% Florida
2.71% Kentucky
2.67% Wyoming
2.41% Maine
2.18% Arkansas
2.11% Virginia
1.94% West Virginia
1.76% Arizona
1.75% Oklahoma
1.70% Montana
1.70% Michigan
1.62% Texas
1.39% South Carolina
1.34% North Dakota
1.00% North Carolina
0.86% Mississippi
0.62% Louisiana
0.58% Nevada
0.45% Minnesota
0.36% Missouri
0.33% Ohio
0.20% Colorado
0.17% New Mexico <-- Slight correction 12/22/04, per Ken Grubb

Honorable mentions go to Georgia and New Hampshire. These are "old wave" Shall Issue states--IOW, pre Florida. Because issuance is scattered among many local agencies, no one in either Georgia or New Hampshire is collecting statewide numbers on how many folks are packing. Seems reasonable to place 'em somewhere between the two statistical extremes among the other "old wave" states (South and North Dakota). However, if I were a bettin' man I'd put 'em near the top, and probably above Washington.

Total licensees among the Shall Issue states (excluding Georgia and New
Hampshire):
3,079,246

Total population living in True Right To Carry states (Alaska and Vermont):
1,267,925 (0.44 percent)

Total population living in Shall Issue states:
185,039,207 (63.75 percent)

Total population living in May Issue states:
81,350,620 (28.03 percent)

Total population living in No Issue states:
22,588,641 (7.78 percent)

Ken Grubb
Bellevue, WA

Edit: Welcome to new readers coming in via Instapundit (and thanks to Mike for suggesting I edit this post). If you liked this post, you may also find these older posts interesting:

• Happy Chanukah
• Five days to go ....

Also, I'd like to draw your attention to The Shooter's Bar(SM), my online list of pro-RKBA attorneys. I hope you enjoy your time here and stop back again.

Static IP Back Online

Whatever routing problem I experienced on Sunday appears to have worked itself out for now. Last night I reconfigured the SMC to use the static IP and got back online.

I ran some ping tests from my iBook and saw some packet loss and the occasional duplicate packet. The latter is an indication of hardware problems. When I re-ran the ping tests from Mail, which is on 10/100BaseT, I had no packet loss or dupes. I'm willing to bet a chocolate chip cookie that the cause of the packet loss and duplication is the craptacular Linksys Wireless-B router which I use as a WAP. (I'll keep it until is croaks, then get either an Apple AirPort or a Netgear 802.11g unit.)

10 more Gmail Invites

I got 10 more Gmail invites to give away. Previous batches of invites came in blocks of 6, perhaps the completely public debut of Gmail is in the wings. Anyhoo, if you want one, drop me a line at davemarkowitz at gmail.com.

Static IP Problems

Yesterday at about 1430 my Internet connection dumped. The modem appeared to be online -- the cable light was solid green -- but I couldn't get out. I rebooted my SMC gateway (which has the modem built-in) but this made no change.

My next step was to do a factory reset on the gateway, which changed the config from my static IP to looking for a public IP via DHCP. Once it rebooted and the changes took effect, I was able to pull a DHCP IP and get back online.

Another tester in my department experienced major packet loss on his SMC on Friday night/Sat. morning, but only when using his static IP config. When set to pull an IP via DHCP it worked fine.

Apparently, some kinks in our network still need to be hammered out.

Tonight I'll try reconfiguring my unit with the static IP config to see if I can get back online. Hopefully, whatever was causing the problem will have been resolved by then.

Valley Forge Gun Show

After the kids went down for their afternoon naps this afternoon, I snuck out to the Valley Forge Convention Center, where a fun, err, gun show was being held.

The last show I attended was a week or two after the Assault Weapons Ban sunset, and I noticed a lot more rifles with all the evil features (flash hiders, folding stocks, etc.) there today. Some vendors are still smoking dope when it comes to prices, though. For example, I saw a stainless Mini-14 GB with a $975 price tag, and another selling beat-to-hell Colt AR-15 20 round mags for $25.

I limited my purchases to some accessories:

• A pair of 1945-dated GI shoulder strap pads for my musette bag. I don't think they are repros even though they look new. They don't smell new, if you know what I mean. I wish I'd had these when I was using a musette bag as my book bag in grade school, because the unpadded straps are not too comfortable.
  
• A pair of GI M1965 trigger finger mitten shells. They should be nice and toasty this winter (I already have liners).
  
• A pair of GI 20-round M-16 mag pouches; they hold 3 each and I currently have 6 20 round M-16/AR-15 mags.
• Two NHTMG AR-15 mags dated 9/04, right after the sunset. NHTMG is the company which OEMs AR-15 mags for Colt. They were $16 each.
  
• Two boxes of American Eagle .45 ACP ball.

I was tempted by some $85 Mosins but kept my desire for more new/old rifles under control.

SMC Wireless Access Points

Yesterday and today I spent some time testing out a pair of SMC 2586W-G wireless access points. These are WAPs, not wireless routers. The main reason we're looking at them is for use with our commercial MDU product as a way to extend Ethernet coverage.

The SMCs include bridge functionality. I.e., you can create a wireless link between a pair of them in order to extend the size of a WLAN. My setup wass follows:

(Router) - (Patch cord) - (WAP) - (~75' through a couple walls) - (WAP) ---- (Laptop)

I first established the range of a single WAP then placed the second unit near the periphery of it's coverage. I then connected my laptop wirelessly to the LAN created, hopping on using the second unit. To test how robust the link would be I slammed it with traffic: SMTP; IMAP, HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP. It handled the load pretty well but I found that the units overheat easily if placed near warm equipment. When they overheat, they lock up.

If deployed with their environmental limitations kept in mind, they seem like pretty decent little boxen.

A Nation of Wimps

From Psychology Today:

Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they're breaking down in record numbers.

It's a long article but well worth reading.

Bill of Rights Day

Today, December 15th, is the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Many folks today don't realize that without the BoR, the US Constitution would never have been ratified. During the debates over the ratification of the Constitution, opponents of a strong Federal government (the Antifederalists) were concerned that without some written declaration of rights, the Federal governement's power would grow to an oppressive extent. In contrast, the Federalists worried that by enumerating specific rights, other unenumerated rights would be seen as free to trample upon.

I'd say the Antifederalists were optimistic. Even with the safeguards enshrined in the BoR, the Federal government has morphed into something the Framers would probably rebel against, largely due to Congress's abuse of its power under the Commerce Clause, and the Federal judiciary's acquiesence. So much for a government of "limited and enumerated powers."

With that rant out of the way, I present to you the text of the Bill of Rights, including the oft-overlooked preamble:

THE PREAMBLE TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS

Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Amendment I - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II - A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III - No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV - The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V - No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI - In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII - In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII - Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX - The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X - The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Some days you're the windshield...

...and other days you're the bug. I feel like the bug today.

It started at about 0230 when Amanda -- who generally sleeps through the night -- decided she was hungry. Although Judith got up and fed her I didn't get back to sleep for over an hour.

When my alarm clock went off at 0600 I had to drag my butt out of bed. I didn't bother shaving as I got ready for work (maybe it's time for a beard again, anyway).

As I was driving up my street to take Alexandra to daycare, I realized that I'd left my wallet at home. (Insert long string of expletives here.) So, I turned around and went back to the house to get it. I left the truck running while I went inside.

After coming back out to the truck I found that I had locked myself out, with Alexandra still inside. (Insert really long string of foul language here.)

I called Judith, who was at the daycare having just dropped off Amanda. She got home in about three minutes (the daycare is around the corner) and unlocked the truck. I was then able to drop off Alexandra and get to work without further incident.

This is the first time I ever locked myself out of a car. And yes, I'm going to get a spare key to put in my wallet.

iChat Audio Chat

iChat is the AIM-compatible IM client included with Mac OS/X. It includes an audio chat feature which I just got done using. My boss, who is a big Mac fan, saw that I was logged on and "called me." The sound quality is very good, as good as a regular phone, although I had headphones on because I'd been listening to some Allman Brothers MP3s when he called; the sound from my iBook's onboard speakers wouldn't have been as good.

"'It looks like the end of the world. Hell has come to earth"

The endgame of the Nazi soldiers in Warsaw was brutally clear: "By 1945, there will not be one Jew left in Europe." Yet, as the residents of the city's Jewish Ghetto began their desperate, doomed 27-day uprising against systematic slaugher, one young woman hiding in a lice-infested, bomb-blasted bunker bagan to record a diary of the last days.

Written from her underground hideout, while fighting raged all around, the six-page journal has only just been unearthed from archives in an Israeli museum. It is now being put on display for the first time at the Ghetto Fighters' House in western Gaililee as the sole surviving contemporary chronicle of life during the 1943 urban insurrection. It begins five days into the revolt and describes in harrowing detail how she and 45 fellow Jews in the shelter are starving, terrified and awaiting certain death.

Read the rest here.

Never Again.

It followed me home

Honest, I just followed me home.

My Compaq laptop has been having problems charging its battery lately. I need a laptop when I do my side consulting work. So ... I picked up an Apple G4 iBook today at Microcenter, where they were running some good deals.

The iBook that followed me home has these features:

• 12.1" screen
• 256 megs of RAM, upgradeable to 1.25 GB
• 1.2GHz G4 CPU
  
• 30 GB HDD
• DVD-ROM/CD-R drive
• Airport Extreme 802.11g wireless NIC
• 10/100 Ethernet
• 56k modem
• Mac OS 10.2.3 Panther

It's nice and light and the keyboard is pretty good. The layout is taking some getting used to, as is the UI. But it's extremely nice to have the killer Mac OS GUI but still be able to drop to a Bash prompt.

So far, I've installed several familiar apps: Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org 1.1.3, Gimp, and X11 (upon which OO.o and the Gimp rely). The Mac came with AppleWorks and a 30 day demo of MS Office for Mac which I'll probably delete, plus the various Apple iThings like iTunes, iPhoto, etc.

Since the Compaq is still useful as long as there's an AC outlet handy, it will be re-purposed as Judith's "upstairs PC." I just need to clean some stuff off it first. And Bagend will remain used as my desktop but I'm thinking of also making it my mail and file server. It has plenty of horsepower for the server job and can be kept secure, since it's running SuSE Linux.

Limiting the tenure of Federal judges

Federal judges receive lifetime appointments to the bench. The rationale behind this is that once they are confirmed they will be no longer beholden to political influence, since they don't have to worry about impressing either their appointors or the electorate.

The down side to lifetime tenure is that it's damn near impossible to get rid of a bad judge. The sole remedy for doing so is impeachment. When was the last time you heard of a Federal judge getting impeached? I thought so.

Also, because judges naturally want to be replaced with someone ideologically similar when they retire, they often stay on the job longer than they should, hoping for a president who shares their political philosophy to be elected and who can then appoint a successor.

So, this morning on Findlaw, I read with interest the article "Life Tenure for Federal Judges: Should It Be Abolished?," by Edward Lazarus. He discussed this issue in more detail than I have here, and proposes a Constitutional amendment to replace lifetime appointments with terms lasting 18 years, which cannot be renewed. If you have the slightest interest in this, check it out.

Penn State recommends against IE

Wow. Penn State's IT department is now recommending that you use something other than Internet Explorer, due to the unending flow of IE vulnerabilities. When a major university is telling its students to not use a Microsoft product, you can tell there is a real backlash brewing.

Babylon5 Theatrical Movie

I just saw this courtesy of /. The first B5 theatrical movie begins filming in April.

Best. Sci-fi. Series. Ever.

Happy Chanukah

Today is the first full day of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, commemorating the successful rebellion of the Jews against their Hellenic overlords and the subsequent miracle in which the Temple's one day supply of oil lasted for eight days. (There's a good overview here.)

At least in the US, Chanukah has largely become the "Jewish Christmas," a commercialized holiday devoted to giving and receiving gifts. But there is a much deeper significance to the story, even if you don't believe in the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days.

The Maccabees -- the Jewish rebels who tossed the Greeks out on their posteriors -- didn't win with pleas for tolerance or even harsh language. It was an armed rebellion. Too many Jewish Americans gloss over this fact during all the holiday shopping, menorah lighting, and wolfing down potato pancakes.

The point that American Jews need to take to heart from Chanukah is that sometimes the government is not here to help and the only way left to preserve our freedom is through force. That means the willingness and means to use force. In 2004, the means of force are firearms and that's why it pisses me off to no end that so many Jewish Americans support gun control, especially in light of the most blatant act of antisemitism in history -- the Shoah (Holocaust) -- being a mere 59 years ago.

Obviously not all Jews in the US support gun control (me being an obvious example) but I'd say the majority of us do, and that kind of historical blindness will only serve to come back and bite us in the rear end.

Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 Available

The hackers at Mozilla.org released Thunderbird 1.0 to the world today. Since Mozilla.org wasn't as bogged down as it was when Firefox 1.0 was released, I downloaded and installed it on my Dell Latitude this afternoon. If I run into anything funky I'll make note of it here.

Remember Pearl Harbor

Never forget.

Feedback on 1&1

Reader Brett E. sent me the following email:

Hi Dave,

I have had a vanity site up for a few weeks on their Linux Hosting - Home package. I was primarily attracted to cheap too. $5/month and it included a domain registration. So far, no problems.

Hope this helps a little.

Brett E.

Thanks! Anybody else? Post a comment here and share your experiences.

It was only a matter of time

I noticed the other day that I'm starting to receive a bit of spam in my Gmail account. So far, Google's filters are catching them all and dumping them into the spam folder. Hopefully, it won't become the torrent that I get in my other accounts at Yahoo!, building-tux.com, and davemarkowitz.net.

Speaking of Gmail, I have one invite left. If you want it send a message to me at davemarkowitz at gmail.com.

Blocking ads and parasites with a HOSTS file

My friend Todd sent me a copy of the HOSTS file that you can download here. In the creators' words:

The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. This prevents access to the listed sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local machine. Another feature of the HOSTS file is it's ability to block other applications from connecting to the Internet, as long the the entry exists.

I loaded it onto my work laptop and will use it for a little while, then see what Spybot and Ad Aware turn up. But it looks promising.

1And1 Internet?

Anybody out there use 1And1 Internet for their web hosting? I'm happy with Pair but 1And1 is cheap. A guy at work has some stuff hosted with 1And1 and is happy, but I'm looking for a larger sample.

Rats, foiled again

Not only was I less successful last night that I'd hoped for, today I got screwed out of a good time at the range. I called up the place where I shoot and got their ansering machine. It said their winter hours were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 9:00 - 4:30. So, I expected they'd be open.

Wrong. I got there only to find a sign on the door to the range house indicating that they are closed during the week during buck season. I.e., today and next week. (Insert long string of expletives here.)

I figured that since I was already halfway there, I might as well take a ride up to Cabela's in Hamburg, since I knew there'd be things I need that I could pick up. I walked out of the store with:

• A spare magazine for my Savage 93GL .22 Mag.
• A .30 caliber Bore Snake
• Two .50 caliber ammo cans
• Two boxes of Ultramax .223 55 grain FMJ remanufactured ammo
• A Cabela's teddy bear for Amanda
• A chocolate bar

So the day wasn't a complete waste.

Forget Lysol, get out the Raid

After much dicking about last night with Spybot, Ad Aware, Norton Antivirus, and even Knoppix, we would up using the HP system restore option to clear up my neighbor's PC.

I'd had high hopes for Knoppix using the captive-NTFS option to give me r/w access to the hard disk, which would've allowed me to delete the corrupted Temporary Internet Files, but I couldn't get it to work. I need to experiment with it on my own hardware and see what I need to do to get it running, because it's potentially a very valuable tool.

Time to break out the Lysol

After dinner tonight I'm going over to a neighbor's house to disinfect his PC. It's been infected with Download.Trojan and who knows what else. Apparently, NAV has detected it but can't delete it. So today I updated my PC Toolkit USB flash drive with the latest versions of Spybot, Ad Aware, Trend Micro's system disinfection tool, among other things. I'll also bring over my Knoppix 3.6 CD to run f-prot, in case the box is really fouled up. This should be interesting.

Coincidentally, Slashdot is running a couple of pertinent articles today, here and here. In light of some of the comments posted to the second article, I think I need to print up some flyers and do some advertizing. I can always use a few more bucks.

Time off

The end of the year is rapidly approaching and I have five and a half vacation days that I need to use or I'll lose them. So, I'm starting off by taking off on Friday, seeing as the weather forecast looks decent. Naturally, I intend to go to the range.

I have several guns that need shooting:

• The Ruger Police Service Six revolver which I bought a few months ago but still haven't put a single round through.
• The AR-180B and its newly installed brass deflector and red dot sight.
• My Savage Mark IIGL .22 LR and 93GL .22 Mag bolt actions, both with newly-mounted scopes.
• The Bulgarian AK.

I'll probably limit myself to the Ruger, AR, and AK this range trip. I'll try to fit in another trip later in the month so I can sight in the rimfires. It looks like my load of choice for the .22 Mag will be CCI Maxi-Mag JHPs. They shoot accurately in my rifle, are readily available, and should work well on varmints; I'm hoping to take the rifle woodchucking sometime. (A friend's in-laws have a farm where they need to keep the 'chucks under control and he said I can come help.)

For the Mark IIGL, I bought a couple boxes of CCI .22 LR subsonic HPs which I'm hoping shoot well. If they do shoot accurately, they will make nice, quiet small game loads, should I ever get back into hunting.

Uh oh

I tried to make a backup of my mail server last night using e-Smith's built-in "backup to desktop" utility. It's supposed to backup all your data in a .tgz file that gets downloaded onto the desktop machine you're logged into the admin interface from. Well, it didn't work. I have about 7 GB of data on the box and after running for a few hours, the utility crapped out on me.

So, it looks like I'll need to build a replacement mail server sooner rather than later. My initial plans are to setup another machine running a fairly stripped-down SuSE 9.2 Pro with Postfix as the MTA and an as-yet-to-be-chosen IMAP implementation. As I mentioned recently, I'm considering running a Citadel BBS on the new box, but that will probably come later, after I had more time to experiment with it.

Still, mail's current uptime as of this writing is 312 days, 17 hours, and 45 minutes. The box has been quietly humming along since the last power failure we had that outlasted my UPS.