Earlier this month I downloaded an evaluation version of Crossover Mac from Codeweavers. This is a commercially supported version of WINE for Intel Macs. WINE is a reverse engineered implementation of the Win32 APIs, which allows you to run some Windows applications on a Mac or other *NIX box without having a copy of Windows installed.
Although I have Parallels Desktop, the idea of being able to run a few Windows apps on Rohan without having to actually fire up XP was attractive. For example, I sometimes need to access web sites which require Internet Explorer for full functionality. Starting XP just to do that is clunky.
Crossover for Mac installs easily and the software installation wizard allows you to download and install IE6 SP1 with two or three mouse clicks. AAMOF, I am actually posting this using IE6 on Rohan. One thing I can do in Crossover that I cannot do in Parallels Desktop 2.5 (not the most current version, but the version I have) is paste text from an OS X application into a Windows application. E.g., a URL from TextWrangler into IE's address bar, or a URL from Firefox into the hyperlink box of Blogger's composer.
Crossover isn't perfect. It doesn't let me run any and all Windows applications. For example, I was able to install Sprint's Blackberry connection manager in Crossover but it does not detect my Blackberry when I connect it. Codeweavers maintains compatibility lists, which are worth consulting to see if it's worthwhile for you to try.
I currently have IE6, MS Project 2003, and Visio 2003 installed under Crossover. So far, so good. For someone with minimal Windows software needs it's worth a look. Codeweavers gives you a 30 day free trial, and if you decide that it does what you need, the cost is $39.95. Of note, any improvements the Codeweavers team makes to WINE make it back to the open source project, so by purchasing Crossover, you help WINE development.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Chicago Gun Case
The SAF has launched a new website covering the suit filed against Chicago, seeking to overturn the city's handgun ban, in light of yesterday's SCOTUS decision in Heller.
Linky.
Linky.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
First Post-Heller Suit Already Filed
The Illinois State Rifle Association has already filed suit, seeking to overturn Chicago's decades-old handgun ban, based on the Supreme Court's ruling in Heller v. D.C.
Way to go, ISRA!
Way to go, ISRA!
Thoughts on the Heller Decision
Now that I've done a quick read-through of the Heller decision, I offer some observations:
1. The Court held that the 2A protects an individual right, one not dependent upon membership in an organized militia. The right exists for otherwise lawful purposes, specifically noting that self defense is one of the bases for the right. The Court recognized the pre-existing nature of the right, as well.
2. Some restrictions of the RKBA are permissible. E.g., licensing is not forbidden by the 2A, but only when imposed in a manner that is not arbitrary or capricious. That would seem to disallow much of the discretion typically exercised by issuing officials in places like New York.
3. Outright bans of classes of arms in common use by the people are forbidden. This is a key point because it disposes of the frivolous argument that even if the 2A protects an individual right, it only protects the right to keep and bear arms of a type common in use during the 18th Century. In particular, the Court notes that handguns are in common use and overwhelmingly chosen by Americans for self defense. In dicta, the Court noted that machineguns could possibly be banned. However, it left open the argument that the reason machineguns are not in common use is because they have been so heavily regulated since 1934.
4. The Court declined to specify a standard for review in 2A-based challenges to gun control laws. For example, it will leave the matter of whether gun control laws must pass rational basis or strict scrutiny to later challenges. This wasn't unexpected.
5. The Court did not explicitly incorporate the Second Amendment against the states. However, it did cite several state cases in its decision supporting the idea that the 2A protects an individual right. This leads me to believe that the Court would be open to incorporation in a future case where a state law is challenged, e.g., Chicago's handgun ban. Again, this isn't totally unexpected, since the D.C. law which was struck down was a Federal matter, not a state law. The Court tries to craft most decisions narrowly.
More comments later as I think of them.
1. The Court held that the 2A protects an individual right, one not dependent upon membership in an organized militia. The right exists for otherwise lawful purposes, specifically noting that self defense is one of the bases for the right. The Court recognized the pre-existing nature of the right, as well.
2. Some restrictions of the RKBA are permissible. E.g., licensing is not forbidden by the 2A, but only when imposed in a manner that is not arbitrary or capricious. That would seem to disallow much of the discretion typically exercised by issuing officials in places like New York.
3. Outright bans of classes of arms in common use by the people are forbidden. This is a key point because it disposes of the frivolous argument that even if the 2A protects an individual right, it only protects the right to keep and bear arms of a type common in use during the 18th Century. In particular, the Court notes that handguns are in common use and overwhelmingly chosen by Americans for self defense. In dicta, the Court noted that machineguns could possibly be banned. However, it left open the argument that the reason machineguns are not in common use is because they have been so heavily regulated since 1934.
4. The Court declined to specify a standard for review in 2A-based challenges to gun control laws. For example, it will leave the matter of whether gun control laws must pass rational basis or strict scrutiny to later challenges. This wasn't unexpected.
5. The Court did not explicitly incorporate the Second Amendment against the states. However, it did cite several state cases in its decision supporting the idea that the 2A protects an individual right. This leads me to believe that the Court would be open to incorporation in a future case where a state law is challenged, e.g., Chicago's handgun ban. Again, this isn't totally unexpected, since the D.C. law which was struck down was a Federal matter, not a state law. The Court tries to craft most decisions narrowly.
More comments later as I think of them.
VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We won in Heller. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed the lower court's decision that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.
The decision, by Justice Scalia, is available HERE. (PDF format).
More later after I've read the opinion.
The decision, by Justice Scalia, is available HERE. (PDF format).
More later after I've read the opinion.
Update to The Shooter's Bar
This morning I added David Goldman of Florida to The Shooter's Bar(SM). Among other things, Mr. Goldman practices in the area of NFA trusts.
I have a bit more discussion of NFA trusts over on the Keystone State Lawyer Blog.
I have a bit more discussion of NFA trusts over on the Keystone State Lawyer Blog.
Friday, June 20, 2008
GOA and National CCW
Over at Snowflakes in Hell, Sebastian has a good post on GOA getting behind national CCW. It's worth a look.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Bush to Congress: Expand Offshore Drilling
It's about damn time.
Unfortunately, the Democrats in Congress said, "No." Just like they've said no to building new refineries, building nuclear plants, or allowing us to tap into the vast reserves of clean coal in Utah (thanks, Bubba).
I guess they're OK with $4+ per gallon gasoline.
Let's get ready to party like it's 1899.
Unfortunately, the Democrats in Congress said, "No." Just like they've said no to building new refineries, building nuclear plants, or allowing us to tap into the vast reserves of clean coal in Utah (thanks, Bubba).
I guess they're OK with $4+ per gallon gasoline.
Let's get ready to party like it's 1899.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Updates to The Shooter's Bar
This morning I made several updates to The Shooter's Bar(SM), including my own listing. We now have representation from Utah and Tennessee.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Playing with iMovie and iDVD
Last Friday I got the chance to use iMovie and iDVD 08 for the first time. Friday morning we had Alexandra's pre-school graduation,* which I taped using our Sony Handycam. Judith also took some stills using my Sony DSC-P50 digital camera. (Both cameras are vintage 2001 but still work fine.)
After getting home I used iMovie to get the video off the Handycam onto Rohan via FireWire, then arranged the clips into a movie. I didn't do any editing, my skills aren't there yet. I did add several of the best still shots to the end of the movie. They fade in and out using a "Ken Burns" effect. Also, I added a couple of Allman Brothers songs to the movie: Blue Sky at the beginning and Little Martha at the end. It's amazing what a difference a soundtrack can make.
Once the movie was done I had to export/render it so I could burn it to disc using iDVD. The latter also enabled me to add a menu screen to the beginning, offering a choice of several different themes.
All in all the result came out great for my first home movie. I'm not going to post it to YouTube, but it made the wife happy. And when Momma's happy, everyone's happy. ;)
* {Grumpy Old Fart: When I was a kid we didn't have graduation for pre-school. Grumble. Grumble.}
After getting home I used iMovie to get the video off the Handycam onto Rohan via FireWire, then arranged the clips into a movie. I didn't do any editing, my skills aren't there yet. I did add several of the best still shots to the end of the movie. They fade in and out using a "Ken Burns" effect. Also, I added a couple of Allman Brothers songs to the movie: Blue Sky at the beginning and Little Martha at the end. It's amazing what a difference a soundtrack can make.
Once the movie was done I had to export/render it so I could burn it to disc using iDVD. The latter also enabled me to add a menu screen to the beginning, offering a choice of several different themes.
All in all the result came out great for my first home movie. I'm not going to post it to YouTube, but it made the wife happy. And when Momma's happy, everyone's happy. ;)
* {Grumpy Old Fart: When I was a kid we didn't have graduation for pre-school. Grumble. Grumble.}
More Thoughts on the Election
I've been thinking more about the upcoming presidential election (and who hasn't?) of late. It pains me a great deal to say this, but I think I'll vote for John McCain. I may then go directly to the head and puke.
One of two men will be sworn in next January: John McCain or Barak Obama. Sure, Bob Barr is running on the Libertarian ticket, there will be someone from the Constitution Party on the ballot, and there may be a Green candidate. But it will be either McCain or Obama with his hand on the Bible.
Knowing this, I feel it's my duty to cast my vote for the man -- of the two with a realistic shot -- who'll be the best for the country. Or, more precisely in this case, the man who will do the least damage to the country. I have no faith that either McCain or Obama will actually be good for the US.
Right now the two greatest external threats to the USA are Islamic fundamentalism and illegal immigration. McCain has been a strong proponent of the war against the Islamics. Since its creation in the 7th Century, Islam ("submission") has been at war with the non-Muslim world, AKA the Dar al-Harb ("House of War"). Unless we're content to submit to Islam as a convert or live in a state of dhimmitude, we have no choice but to fight. Negotiation is not an option when your opponent isn't willing to compromise. There is no middle ground, it's us or them.
McCain realizes this. Obama exhibits Carter-like simplicity and thinks we can negotiate with people who seek absolute dominion over us and who believe with every fiber of their being that it's perfectly acceptble to blow up women and children as a way to achieve their goals.
Sadly, McCain has also been a proponent of "immigration reform," which is D.C.-speak for amnesty. Historically, no nation has survived long if it failed to maintain the integrity of its borders. The current state of allowing in tens of millions of illegal immigrants to do scut work mirrors the latter years of the Roman Empire, which allowed large numbers of barbarians in to perform work deemed too menial to be done by Roman citizens. No society is static but this is changing the very nature of our nation, and I'd argue in a bad way.
In a more short term, mercenary view, flooding the market with cheap unskilled labor depresses wages for everyone in the lower economic classes, increases competition for jobs, thereby hurting those American citizens least able to adapt to a changing economy. American blacks are particularly hard hit.
The influx of illegals also presents a great strain on our infrastructure. For example, illegals tend to rely on hospital emergency rooms for medical care. Since people are required to be treated even in the absence of medical insurance or the ability to pay out-of-pocket, the rest of us foot the bill. In some areas (e.g., California) the load has been so great that many hospitals have closed.
With neither McCain, Obama, nor Congress willing to tackle the illegal immigrant problem I expect the problem to get worse.
Aside from immigration, I expect McCain's domestic policies to be somewhat better than what Obama has promised. Obama will seek to raise taxes and implement gun control. McCain is a supporter of Bush's tax cuts and though his records on guns is far from 100%, it's a damn sight better than that of a man who wants to ban assault weapons and concealed carry.
If we look at their respective levels of experience, there's no contest. Obama has no record of achievment. None. Zero. His vacuous promises of "change" and "hope" ring hollow. If you're going to promise change, you damn well better have a record of accomplishing things before claiming that you're going to step into the Oval Office and break down walls. He hasn't even served a full term in the Senate, and spent what, one term in the Illinois state Senate? What a remarkable record. In contrast, while McCain doesn't have executive experience, he's at least been a leading member of the Senate for over twenty years.
Obama's domestic policies include:
We also need to examine their character. McCain served his country and was a POW. He could have received preferential treatment from his Vietnamese captors due to his being the son of a US Navy admiral. He turned that down. Unfortunately, he was a member of the Keating Five in the 80s. I'm hoping he's learned his lesson and moved beyond that. His biggest failure since then was his sponsorship of the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Campaign Finance Reform Act. This is a serious transgression against the Constitution.
In contrast, Obama worked in academia and is a product of the Chicago political machine, one of the most notoriously corrupt in the country. To whom is he beholden? Mayor Daley? {shudder}
Obama's long-term membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ is at least as disturbing. Yes, he's recently thrown his "mentor" under the bus but if you can't tell this is purely from political expediency, I have a bridge you may be interested in buying. Obama listened to Jeremiah Wright's sermons filled with hatred for whites and Jooooos for decades, and looked up to the man. The church's newsletter printed propaganda screeds from Hamas. You know, that group of whackos who wants to wipe Israel off the map? The church regards Louis Farrakhan as a friend and a great man. And now that some light has been shined on these cockroaches, we're supposed to believe that Obama doesn't approve of their message? BULLSHIT.
You don't sit through hate-filled rants for a couple decades without at a minimum tacitly approving of them. It's a lot more likely that Obama agree with Wright's anti-American, anti-white, and antisemitic remarks. There's precisely zero difference between Obama standing by Wright, etc. for decades and an Austrian saying to you, "Oh, meet my Uncle Adolf. He wants to exterminate the Jews and enslave the Russians, but really he's a great guy. He's so nice. He loves dogs and children."
If you vote for Obama, you're voting for a racist. Period.
Aside from the president, we also get a First Lady, who does wield some influence. Something to consider. (Thankfully, the prospect of Bill Clinton as First Dude is now off the table.) On the one hand we have Cindy McCain, a successful businesswoman who's maintained a relatively low profile. On the other hand, we have Michelle Obama, another member of the TUCC and a spoiled product of a privileged upbringing, with an Ivy League education, who for some reason only now feels proud of her country. A first class BEOTCH, right there.
The longest lasting impact the president will have will be in the judges he appoints to the Federal bench. While Founding Father Alexander Hamilton thought of the Federal judiciary as the "least dangerous" branch, history has proven him wrong. Once sworn in, a Federal judge has a lifetime appointment. Unless he's caught accepting bribes or committing some other heinous offense, it's damn near impossible to get rid of a bad Federal judge until he decides to retire or dies in office. Only six Federal judges have ever been impeached and removed in American history. (And then for some reason we allow them to be elected to Congress. look up Alcee Hastings.)
So, with that in mind, we need to consider what kind of judges each candidate is likely to appoint. Typically, presidents nominate judicial candidates who share at least some of their own views. Therefore, it's likely that McCain will appoint moderates, maybe conservatives, while Obama will appoint leftists. We could get luck with McCain, and get an Alito or Roberts. On the other hand, with Obama, we're more like to get Jack Weinsteins or Ruth Bader Gunsburgs. Gag.
In closing, as I noted above, I think neither McCain nor Obama will be good for the country. But I know which man will be worse. I am sick of voting for the lesser of two evils. I don't want to put McCain in office. I want to keep Obama OUT. If we can't make any positive strides I'll settle for slowing down the rocket ship to Hell for a little while. Let's keep it on impulse power instead of warp drive. I'd like some more time to prepare for when the house of cards finally comes apart.
One of two men will be sworn in next January: John McCain or Barak Obama. Sure, Bob Barr is running on the Libertarian ticket, there will be someone from the Constitution Party on the ballot, and there may be a Green candidate. But it will be either McCain or Obama with his hand on the Bible.
Knowing this, I feel it's my duty to cast my vote for the man -- of the two with a realistic shot -- who'll be the best for the country. Or, more precisely in this case, the man who will do the least damage to the country. I have no faith that either McCain or Obama will actually be good for the US.
Right now the two greatest external threats to the USA are Islamic fundamentalism and illegal immigration. McCain has been a strong proponent of the war against the Islamics. Since its creation in the 7th Century, Islam ("submission") has been at war with the non-Muslim world, AKA the Dar al-Harb ("House of War"). Unless we're content to submit to Islam as a convert or live in a state of dhimmitude, we have no choice but to fight. Negotiation is not an option when your opponent isn't willing to compromise. There is no middle ground, it's us or them.
McCain realizes this. Obama exhibits Carter-like simplicity and thinks we can negotiate with people who seek absolute dominion over us and who believe with every fiber of their being that it's perfectly acceptble to blow up women and children as a way to achieve their goals.
Sadly, McCain has also been a proponent of "immigration reform," which is D.C.-speak for amnesty. Historically, no nation has survived long if it failed to maintain the integrity of its borders. The current state of allowing in tens of millions of illegal immigrants to do scut work mirrors the latter years of the Roman Empire, which allowed large numbers of barbarians in to perform work deemed too menial to be done by Roman citizens. No society is static but this is changing the very nature of our nation, and I'd argue in a bad way.
In a more short term, mercenary view, flooding the market with cheap unskilled labor depresses wages for everyone in the lower economic classes, increases competition for jobs, thereby hurting those American citizens least able to adapt to a changing economy. American blacks are particularly hard hit.
The influx of illegals also presents a great strain on our infrastructure. For example, illegals tend to rely on hospital emergency rooms for medical care. Since people are required to be treated even in the absence of medical insurance or the ability to pay out-of-pocket, the rest of us foot the bill. In some areas (e.g., California) the load has been so great that many hospitals have closed.
With neither McCain, Obama, nor Congress willing to tackle the illegal immigrant problem I expect the problem to get worse.
Aside from immigration, I expect McCain's domestic policies to be somewhat better than what Obama has promised. Obama will seek to raise taxes and implement gun control. McCain is a supporter of Bush's tax cuts and though his records on guns is far from 100%, it's a damn sight better than that of a man who wants to ban assault weapons and concealed carry.
If we look at their respective levels of experience, there's no contest. Obama has no record of achievment. None. Zero. His vacuous promises of "change" and "hope" ring hollow. If you're going to promise change, you damn well better have a record of accomplishing things before claiming that you're going to step into the Oval Office and break down walls. He hasn't even served a full term in the Senate, and spent what, one term in the Illinois state Senate? What a remarkable record. In contrast, while McCain doesn't have executive experience, he's at least been a leading member of the Senate for over twenty years.
Obama's domestic policies include:
- Nationalized health care (let's have our health system run by the same people who brought you the IRS, Amtrak, and our current schools).
- Raising taxes.
- Against border security.
- Giving corporate shareholders a direct say in corporate governance (Corporations are baaaad, we should cripple them. Oh, I can't get my Nikes? Doh!)
- Has a 100% perfect record of towing the Brady Bunch's line on gun control legislation.
We also need to examine their character. McCain served his country and was a POW. He could have received preferential treatment from his Vietnamese captors due to his being the son of a US Navy admiral. He turned that down. Unfortunately, he was a member of the Keating Five in the 80s. I'm hoping he's learned his lesson and moved beyond that. His biggest failure since then was his sponsorship of the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Campaign Finance Reform Act. This is a serious transgression against the Constitution.
In contrast, Obama worked in academia and is a product of the Chicago political machine, one of the most notoriously corrupt in the country. To whom is he beholden? Mayor Daley? {shudder}
Obama's long-term membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ is at least as disturbing. Yes, he's recently thrown his "mentor" under the bus but if you can't tell this is purely from political expediency, I have a bridge you may be interested in buying. Obama listened to Jeremiah Wright's sermons filled with hatred for whites and Jooooos for decades, and looked up to the man. The church's newsletter printed propaganda screeds from Hamas. You know, that group of whackos who wants to wipe Israel off the map? The church regards Louis Farrakhan as a friend and a great man. And now that some light has been shined on these cockroaches, we're supposed to believe that Obama doesn't approve of their message? BULLSHIT.
You don't sit through hate-filled rants for a couple decades without at a minimum tacitly approving of them. It's a lot more likely that Obama agree with Wright's anti-American, anti-white, and antisemitic remarks. There's precisely zero difference between Obama standing by Wright, etc. for decades and an Austrian saying to you, "Oh, meet my Uncle Adolf. He wants to exterminate the Jews and enslave the Russians, but really he's a great guy. He's so nice. He loves dogs and children."
If you vote for Obama, you're voting for a racist. Period.
Aside from the president, we also get a First Lady, who does wield some influence. Something to consider. (Thankfully, the prospect of Bill Clinton as First Dude is now off the table.) On the one hand we have Cindy McCain, a successful businesswoman who's maintained a relatively low profile. On the other hand, we have Michelle Obama, another member of the TUCC and a spoiled product of a privileged upbringing, with an Ivy League education, who for some reason only now feels proud of her country. A first class BEOTCH, right there.
The longest lasting impact the president will have will be in the judges he appoints to the Federal bench. While Founding Father Alexander Hamilton thought of the Federal judiciary as the "least dangerous" branch, history has proven him wrong. Once sworn in, a Federal judge has a lifetime appointment. Unless he's caught accepting bribes or committing some other heinous offense, it's damn near impossible to get rid of a bad Federal judge until he decides to retire or dies in office. Only six Federal judges have ever been impeached and removed in American history. (And then for some reason we allow them to be elected to Congress. look up Alcee Hastings.)
So, with that in mind, we need to consider what kind of judges each candidate is likely to appoint. Typically, presidents nominate judicial candidates who share at least some of their own views. Therefore, it's likely that McCain will appoint moderates, maybe conservatives, while Obama will appoint leftists. We could get luck with McCain, and get an Alito or Roberts. On the other hand, with Obama, we're more like to get Jack Weinsteins or Ruth Bader Gunsburgs. Gag.
In closing, as I noted above, I think neither McCain nor Obama will be good for the country. But I know which man will be worse. I am sick of voting for the lesser of two evils. I don't want to put McCain in office. I want to keep Obama OUT. If we can't make any positive strides I'll settle for slowing down the rocket ship to Hell for a little while. Let's keep it on impulse power instead of warp drive. I'd like some more time to prepare for when the house of cards finally comes apart.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Dech Flintlock Range Report
In my last post I descibed the GL Dech-restocked flintlock Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle which I purchased a couple of weeks ago. I got to shoot it yesterday up at Wicen's Range.
Since this was the first time out with a new rifle, I initially setup my target at 25 yards, to see where it was shooting. My starting load was a Hornady swaged .490" round ball, pillow ticking patch lubricated with Ox Yoke Wonder Lube, and 70 grains of FFg Goex black powder.
Point of impact with this load at 25 yards was just to the right of my point of aim. Elevation was right on. Since I hope to go deer hunting with this rifle I increased the powder charge to 80 grains, which didn't seem to affect of the POI. At this point my group was one ragged hole.
Having established that the rifle was on paper, I moved my target back to 50 yards. POI didn't change much. I'd expect to see more drop starting around 75 yards. I tapped the rear sight over in its dovetail but still need to do a little more tuning. I'm thinking about choosing 75 yards for the final zero but I'll have to see what difference is between 50 and 75.
The rifle is reliable. I intentionally did not clean the flash hole between shots (I did run a pipe cleaner through it before I loaded it the first time). I had no ignition problems until about the 15th shot, when I got a flash in the pan. After running a pick through the hole and repriming, the rifle fired as expected.
Overall, I am very pleased with my acquisition. I need to fine tune the zero. I also want to see if it will shoot .485" balls well, because they will be easier to load without cleaning between shots.
Since this was the first time out with a new rifle, I initially setup my target at 25 yards, to see where it was shooting. My starting load was a Hornady swaged .490" round ball, pillow ticking patch lubricated with Ox Yoke Wonder Lube, and 70 grains of FFg Goex black powder.
Point of impact with this load at 25 yards was just to the right of my point of aim. Elevation was right on. Since I hope to go deer hunting with this rifle I increased the powder charge to 80 grains, which didn't seem to affect of the POI. At this point my group was one ragged hole.
Having established that the rifle was on paper, I moved my target back to 50 yards. POI didn't change much. I'd expect to see more drop starting around 75 yards. I tapped the rear sight over in its dovetail but still need to do a little more tuning. I'm thinking about choosing 75 yards for the final zero but I'll have to see what difference is between 50 and 75.
The rifle is reliable. I intentionally did not clean the flash hole between shots (I did run a pipe cleaner through it before I loaded it the first time). I had no ignition problems until about the 15th shot, when I got a flash in the pan. After running a pick through the hole and repriming, the rifle fired as expected.
Overall, I am very pleased with my acquisition. I need to fine tune the zero. I also want to see if it will shoot .485" balls well, because they will be easier to load without cleaning between shots.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
New Pennsylvania Flintlock Rifle
Last Saturday I was at Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop, in Kempton, PA when a Pennsylvania flintlock longrifle caught my eye. It started out as a left handed Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle.
According to Greg Dixon, the original owner wanted something different, so he took the rifle to G.L. Dech, a 'smith who lived a bit North of Allentown. Dech retained the original barrel, lock, trigger, and ramrod. He then turned the barrel to a half-octagon, half-round profile. He may have coned the muzzle as well. The metal was then mounted into a new stock made of what appears to be curly maple.
Whereas the original cherry stock the rifle came with as shipped from Dixie reflected Southern mountain styling, the new stock is definitely Pennsylvania-style. Based on looking through Kaufman's The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle and Kindig's Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age, I'd say it looks like a gun from either Lancaster or York County. This is my favorite type of longrifle, along with rifles from Maryland and Virginia.
The barrel remains at the original length of 41", but because of the metal removed when turning it down, the rifle balances much better than the stock TMRs (I had one so I know).
It's a .50 caliber. Based on the TMR I had about 15 years ago, it should shoot well with a .490 ball, pillow ticking patch, and 70 to 80 grains of 2Fg Goex.
I put a post up over on TRP with pictures, here. Or, you can view it without any more commentary in my Photobucket album.
Since taking the pictures, I've cleaned up the brass furniture a bit, and hand rubbed a coat of tung oil on the stock. The stock looked good before but the extra coat helped bring out the grain some more.
According to Greg Dixon, the original owner wanted something different, so he took the rifle to G.L. Dech, a 'smith who lived a bit North of Allentown. Dech retained the original barrel, lock, trigger, and ramrod. He then turned the barrel to a half-octagon, half-round profile. He may have coned the muzzle as well. The metal was then mounted into a new stock made of what appears to be curly maple.
Whereas the original cherry stock the rifle came with as shipped from Dixie reflected Southern mountain styling, the new stock is definitely Pennsylvania-style. Based on looking through Kaufman's The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle and Kindig's Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age, I'd say it looks like a gun from either Lancaster or York County. This is my favorite type of longrifle, along with rifles from Maryland and Virginia.
The barrel remains at the original length of 41", but because of the metal removed when turning it down, the rifle balances much better than the stock TMRs (I had one so I know).
It's a .50 caliber. Based on the TMR I had about 15 years ago, it should shoot well with a .490 ball, pillow ticking patch, and 70 to 80 grains of 2Fg Goex.
I put a post up over on TRP with pictures, here. Or, you can view it without any more commentary in my Photobucket album.
Since taking the pictures, I've cleaned up the brass furniture a bit, and hand rubbed a coat of tung oil on the stock. The stock looked good before but the extra coat helped bring out the grain some more.
IO Gear GUH227 USB 2.0 Hub
Since I setup my home office desk to use Rohan, my MacBook Pro, everytime I settled in to do some work I was surrounded by a morass of cables. My webcam (since I run Rohan closed at home I bought a USB webcam), keyboard, Canon MP160 printer/scanner, and mouse all use USB connections. In addition, an Ethernet cable and a DVI video cable are connected.
I had the webcam connected directly to Rohan. The printer and mouse were connected to USB ports on the keyboard, while the keyboard was connected to Rohan's second USB port. This was getting out of hand, and required me to unplug something in the event I wanted to connect another device, e.g., a flash drive or camera.
Since Apple doesn't sell docking stations or port replicators for their laptops, I figured the easiest and cheapest way to get the spaghetti under control was to get a USB hub.
After going through reviews on NewEgg, I ordered an IO Gear GUH227 USB 2.0 hub. One key feature that I was looking for was that the hub support external power, since I'd be connecting my webcam to it. The IO Gear unit met that requirement, providing seven powered USB ports for devices. Five ports are on the back of the unit with two on the front. It comes with a small rubber stand for upright use, but it's not very stable. Instead, I have it resting on the four rubber feet it has on its bottom.
I currently have it setup so that the keyboard, Canon printer, cable for my digital camera, and webcam are connected to the hub. My mouse remains connected to the keyboard. Now, I have one free USB port on Rohan and another on the keyboard, along with three free ports on the hub. It's also easier now to setup or takedown Rohan when I use it at my desk.
I had the webcam connected directly to Rohan. The printer and mouse were connected to USB ports on the keyboard, while the keyboard was connected to Rohan's second USB port. This was getting out of hand, and required me to unplug something in the event I wanted to connect another device, e.g., a flash drive or camera.
Since Apple doesn't sell docking stations or port replicators for their laptops, I figured the easiest and cheapest way to get the spaghetti under control was to get a USB hub.
After going through reviews on NewEgg, I ordered an IO Gear GUH227 USB 2.0 hub. One key feature that I was looking for was that the hub support external power, since I'd be connecting my webcam to it. The IO Gear unit met that requirement, providing seven powered USB ports for devices. Five ports are on the back of the unit with two on the front. It comes with a small rubber stand for upright use, but it's not very stable. Instead, I have it resting on the four rubber feet it has on its bottom.
I currently have it setup so that the keyboard, Canon printer, cable for my digital camera, and webcam are connected to the hub. My mouse remains connected to the keyboard. Now, I have one free USB port on Rohan and another on the keyboard, along with three free ports on the hub. It's also easier now to setup or takedown Rohan when I use it at my desk.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Some Pitfalls of Using Form Contracts Without Review by an Attorney
I've been posting again over at Keystone State Lawyer. My most recent post is Some Pitfalls of Using Form Contracts Without Review by an Attorney.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Skype Call Quality Issues
Up until last Friday night Skype gave me excellent audio quality. All of a sudden during the middle of a call from my brother in-law in Okinawa, Japan, quality went down the tubes. To help troubleshooting, I went into Skype's preferences and turned on "Display technical call info," which shows that I am experiencing about 50% packet loss during my Skype calls. I am not experiencing packet loss for any other application.
I am running Skype on Mac OS 10.5.2 on my MacBook Pro. I have tried downgrading from the latest version of Skype to v2.5.x and v2.6.x, doing clean installs. I am on wired 100 meg Ethernet connections. I've tried this from home on my cable modem and from the office, on a separate cable modem. ISPs at both sites is Comcast.
It may be an Intel Mac or a Leopard problem. After I started experiencing packet loss on my call, my wife was able to carry on a call with her brother just fine. She's running a G4 iBook on OS 10.4.11, and was connected to our home network via wifi.
I logged a help request with Skype, since I'm a paying customer, and got a canned reply suggesting that I check my firewall settings, that I'm running the latest updates to all my software, etc. Having verified everything Skype support suggested I informed them that nothing worked to improve my call quality.
I also put a post up on forum.skype.com in the Communication section. If any of you reading this are experiencing poor call quality on Skype, please log a support request and put something up on the forum. The more people that report it, the more likely it'll get resolved in a timely manner.
I am running Skype on Mac OS 10.5.2 on my MacBook Pro. I have tried downgrading from the latest version of Skype to v2.5.x and v2.6.x, doing clean installs. I am on wired 100 meg Ethernet connections. I've tried this from home on my cable modem and from the office, on a separate cable modem. ISPs at both sites is Comcast.
It may be an Intel Mac or a Leopard problem. After I started experiencing packet loss on my call, my wife was able to carry on a call with her brother just fine. She's running a G4 iBook on OS 10.4.11, and was connected to our home network via wifi.
I logged a help request with Skype, since I'm a paying customer, and got a canned reply suggesting that I check my firewall settings, that I'm running the latest updates to all my software, etc. Having verified everything Skype support suggested I informed them that nothing worked to improve my call quality.
I also put a post up on forum.skype.com in the Communication section. If any of you reading this are experiencing poor call quality on Skype, please log a support request and put something up on the forum. The more people that report it, the more likely it'll get resolved in a timely manner.
OpenSUSE 10.3 is a GO
After downloading the ISO for the OpenSUSE 10.3 DVD, I got installed on my lab laptop. The install not only went smoothly, but it restored my ability to dual boot the box with Windows XP Pro. The failed Ubuntu installations had deleted Grub's config files, so I was not able to boot into XP. OpenSUSE's installer detected the Windows partition and automatically setup Grub so that I can choose XP as an option when booting. Nice!
So far, everything seems to be working OK except for wifi, which I still need to do some tweaking on. It may require a different driver from what SUSE detected (it seems to think I'm running a Latitude D400, while it's really a D600). For the interim, I'm online via Ethernet connected to an SMC8014 cable modem/router.
My low end ATI video card isn't in XGL's database, but I was able to enable 3D acceleration and desktop effects anyway. XGL's spinning cube, wherein each virtual desktop is on one side of a cube, is simply awesome! As a Mac user I'm used to impressive eye candy but XGL is at least on par with OS 10.5, in my opinion.
Aside from that, OpenSUSE comes with a good selection of applications, ranging from Firefox, Pidgin, OpenOffice, and a nice assortment of games. I installed it as a Gnome-based system but will probably add KDE soon.
The one app I've downloaded and installed from a third party source so far was Skype. I first tried installation using SUSE's GUI tool but that unceremoniously quit with no informative error message. I dropped to a terminal and did it manually using RPM. That revealed some missing dependencies which I then installed from the DVD. I was then able to install Skype. This needs some work. The GUI installer needs to give you feedback on installs which fail for lack of certain dependencies. For OpenSUSE to be a user-friendly system it shouldn't just die on you with no troubleshooting info.
That bobble aside, I'm looking forward to playing with OpenSUSE.
So far, everything seems to be working OK except for wifi, which I still need to do some tweaking on. It may require a different driver from what SUSE detected (it seems to think I'm running a Latitude D400, while it's really a D600). For the interim, I'm online via Ethernet connected to an SMC8014 cable modem/router.
My low end ATI video card isn't in XGL's database, but I was able to enable 3D acceleration and desktop effects anyway. XGL's spinning cube, wherein each virtual desktop is on one side of a cube, is simply awesome! As a Mac user I'm used to impressive eye candy but XGL is at least on par with OS 10.5, in my opinion.
Aside from that, OpenSUSE comes with a good selection of applications, ranging from Firefox, Pidgin, OpenOffice, and a nice assortment of games. I installed it as a Gnome-based system but will probably add KDE soon.
The one app I've downloaded and installed from a third party source so far was Skype. I first tried installation using SUSE's GUI tool but that unceremoniously quit with no informative error message. I dropped to a terminal and did it manually using RPM. That revealed some missing dependencies which I then installed from the DVD. I was then able to install Skype. This needs some work. The GUI installer needs to give you feedback on installs which fail for lack of certain dependencies. For OpenSUSE to be a user-friendly system it shouldn't just die on you with no troubleshooting info.
That bobble aside, I'm looking forward to playing with OpenSUSE.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Ubuntu Weirdness
A week or so ago I wiped the drive on the test PC I have at my desk and installed Ubuntu 8.04. The install went very smoothly and I haven't run into any issues. Today, I decided to replace the CentOS 5 partition on my lap laptop, a Dell Latitude D600, with Ubuntu.
About 2/3 of the way through the installation, the installer choked with an error indicating that there might be a problem with the CD. So, I rebooted, ejected the CD, used some compressed air to clean the disc and the DVD-ROM drive's laser. I then ran the CD verification app that's an option when you boot the Ubuntu disk. No problems found, so I proceeded with the install.
The same error popped up in about the same place the second time around.
Since the CD is OK I think it may be an Ubuntu issue. So, I'm now downloaded OpenSUSE 10.3 and will give that a try later.
About 2/3 of the way through the installation, the installer choked with an error indicating that there might be a problem with the CD. So, I rebooted, ejected the CD, used some compressed air to clean the disc and the DVD-ROM drive's laser. I then ran the CD verification app that's an option when you boot the Ubuntu disk. No problems found, so I proceeded with the install.
The same error popped up in about the same place the second time around.
Since the CD is OK I think it may be an Ubuntu issue. So, I'm now downloaded OpenSUSE 10.3 and will give that a try later.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Misleading PA Gun Transfer Website
This morning, I caught a commercial on WMMR promoting an apparently-new website, www.guntransfer.org. I thought to myself, "Cool, someone is running an ad for FFL transfer services on 'MMR!" Such services are often used by gunnies purchasing firearms from out-of-state, since such transfers must go through a licensee per Federal law. When I checked it after getting into the office I was disgusted to find that it's a site to promote transfer of guns through licensed dealers, as opposed to private party sales. The whois data shows the registrant for the domain as Commonwealth Media Services, which is a state entity.
What I find troubling about it is that it promotes transfers through FFLs, and makes it seem that any face-to-face private sale is illegal in PA. That is not the case. Private transfers of rifles and shotguns between PA residents is perfectly legal, only handgun sales, NFA transfers, and transactions with out of state residents must go through an FFL. The only reference to private rifle/shotgun sales being actually legal is buried on the Q&A page.
What makes this misleading is that in Pennsylvania, only "firearms" must be transferred through an FFL, per 18 Pa. Con. Stat. Sec. 6111. In PA, the definition of a firearm is this:
See 18 Pa. Consolidated Statutes Sec. 6102.
The statutory definition of firearms specifically does not include most guns which do not fall under the restrictions of the Federal National Firearms Act of 1934. In other words, the vast majority of rifles and shotguns in private possession are not "firearms" for the purpose of this law. For example, the hypothetical hunting rifle and shotgun described on guntransfer.org's Home page generally do not meet the legal definition of a "firearm" in Pennsylvania.
So why the dissimulation?
Guntransfer.org clearly reflects the Philly-centric antigun bias. By fooling people into thinking that private party transfers of any gun are illegal in PA, they are looking to create a paper trail. All gun transfers which go through a licensed dealer first require the transferee to pass a background check conducted in Harrisburg by the Pennsylvania State Police. As you may be aware, a few years ago they were sued for creating an illegal registry of gun owners. As it turned out, the State Police won their case when the court ruled that the records which they were compiling did not meet the statutory definition of an illegal database. Nevertheless, it is still a de facto database of gun owners in Pennsylvania. And we know that historically, gun registration has lead to confiscation in Germany, Britain, and closer to home in New York and New Jersey.
This stinks on ice and they need to be called on it. I plan to voice my displeasure with our "leaders" and hope you will, too.
What I find troubling about it is that it promotes transfers through FFLs, and makes it seem that any face-to-face private sale is illegal in PA. That is not the case. Private transfers of rifles and shotguns between PA residents is perfectly legal, only handgun sales, NFA transfers, and transactions with out of state residents must go through an FFL. The only reference to private rifle/shotgun sales being actually legal is buried on the Q&A page.
What makes this misleading is that in Pennsylvania, only "firearms" must be transferred through an FFL, per 18 Pa. Con. Stat. Sec. 6111. In PA, the definition of a firearm is this:
Any pistol or revolver with a barrel length less than 15 inches, any shotgun with a barrel length less than 18 inches or any rifle with a barrel length less than 16 inches, or any pistol, revolver, rifle or shotgun with an overall length of less than 26 inches. The barrel length of a firearm shall be determined by measuring from the muzzle of the barrel to the face of the closed action, bolt or cylinder, whichever is applicable.
See 18 Pa. Consolidated Statutes Sec. 6102.
The statutory definition of firearms specifically does not include most guns which do not fall under the restrictions of the Federal National Firearms Act of 1934. In other words, the vast majority of rifles and shotguns in private possession are not "firearms" for the purpose of this law. For example, the hypothetical hunting rifle and shotgun described on guntransfer.org's Home page generally do not meet the legal definition of a "firearm" in Pennsylvania.
So why the dissimulation?
Guntransfer.org clearly reflects the Philly-centric antigun bias. By fooling people into thinking that private party transfers of any gun are illegal in PA, they are looking to create a paper trail. All gun transfers which go through a licensed dealer first require the transferee to pass a background check conducted in Harrisburg by the Pennsylvania State Police. As you may be aware, a few years ago they were sued for creating an illegal registry of gun owners. As it turned out, the State Police won their case when the court ruled that the records which they were compiling did not meet the statutory definition of an illegal database. Nevertheless, it is still a de facto database of gun owners in Pennsylvania. And we know that historically, gun registration has lead to confiscation in Germany, Britain, and closer to home in New York and New Jersey.
This stinks on ice and they need to be called on it. I plan to voice my displeasure with our "leaders" and hope you will, too.
Sony Vaios Suck
Holy hell do Sony PCs suck. Or maybe Microsoft sucks. (OK, Microsoft DOES suck.)
I have been working on a new Windows image for the Sony Vaio Media Center PCs in our lab. They were purchased several years ago, used to test many different programs, and as you'd imagine, Windows bit rot has set in. So, we wanted to reformat the drives and rebuild them from bare metal.
Unfortunately, while we have the Windows XP Media Center 2005 discs, we don't have any driver discs for the hardware. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a problem but for some reason, after reinstalling XPMC, the Intel NIC driver installer won't see the onboard Pro 1000 MT Gig-E NIC.
I even downloaded DriverMax and used it to backup the existing drivers on an identical Vaio but when I restored them to the NICless box, the Ethernet card still wouldn't work.
I tried a couple different versions of Intel's driver software to no avail. To try and narrow down the problem to hardware or software, I wiped the hard disk again and installed XP Pro. Now I was able to get the NIC running. WTF?
At this time I've got all the hardware installed except for sound, which like the NIC, XP won't recognize. Tomorrow I'll boot up one of the Vaios which I haven't touched yet to ID the sound card, then see if I can download a driver from the Internet.
Once I do finally get a good image with all the Vaio's hardware working as it should, I will do a backup with Ghost, so that future rebuilds will take minutes, rather than days.
I may initially save the Ghost image to DVD, but soon I should have network storage in our lab. We have two Apple XRAID storage arrays with 11 terabytes each. Currently, they are idle, since we don't have a spare server with a Fibre Channel card to drive them. I'm hoping that will change in the near future, as yesterday I spec'ed out a shiny new Apple Xserve. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on that.
I have been working on a new Windows image for the Sony Vaio Media Center PCs in our lab. They were purchased several years ago, used to test many different programs, and as you'd imagine, Windows bit rot has set in. So, we wanted to reformat the drives and rebuild them from bare metal.
Unfortunately, while we have the Windows XP Media Center 2005 discs, we don't have any driver discs for the hardware. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a problem but for some reason, after reinstalling XPMC, the Intel NIC driver installer won't see the onboard Pro 1000 MT Gig-E NIC.
I even downloaded DriverMax and used it to backup the existing drivers on an identical Vaio but when I restored them to the NICless box, the Ethernet card still wouldn't work.
I tried a couple different versions of Intel's driver software to no avail. To try and narrow down the problem to hardware or software, I wiped the hard disk again and installed XP Pro. Now I was able to get the NIC running. WTF?
At this time I've got all the hardware installed except for sound, which like the NIC, XP won't recognize. Tomorrow I'll boot up one of the Vaios which I haven't touched yet to ID the sound card, then see if I can download a driver from the Internet.
Once I do finally get a good image with all the Vaio's hardware working as it should, I will do a backup with Ghost, so that future rebuilds will take minutes, rather than days.
I may initially save the Ghost image to DVD, but soon I should have network storage in our lab. We have two Apple XRAID storage arrays with 11 terabytes each. Currently, they are idle, since we don't have a spare server with a Fibre Channel card to drive them. I'm hoping that will change in the near future, as yesterday I spec'ed out a shiny new Apple Xserve. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on that.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Tor
I'm taking the day off to unwind after our weekend trip to Virginia, so naturally I'm playing around on the 'puter. ;)
Anyway, today I installed Tor on Rohan the MacBook Pro. As described by its developers:
Compared with going directly to the Internet, web traffic through Tor is markedly slower. Since you're routing your traffic through a network of onion routers to obscure your trail, that stands to reason. So, I don't plan to use Tor by default.
However, there may be times when I need to research or relay sensitive information, on behalf of myself or others. Tor will help me do that in a more secure fashion. Another reason for me to try it is to see how Tor traffic looks on a LAN, so that I can recognize it (if that's possible).
Anyway, today I installed Tor on Rohan the MacBook Pro. As described by its developers:
Tor is a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world use Tor for a wide variety of reasons: journalists and bloggers, human rights workers, law enforcement officers, soldiers, corporations, citizens of repressive regimes, and just ordinary citizens. See the Who Uses Tor? page for examples of typical Tor users. See the overview page for a more detailed explanation of what Tor does, why this diversity of users is important, and how Tor works.
Compared with going directly to the Internet, web traffic through Tor is markedly slower. Since you're routing your traffic through a network of onion routers to obscure your trail, that stands to reason. So, I don't plan to use Tor by default.
However, there may be times when I need to research or relay sensitive information, on behalf of myself or others. Tor will help me do that in a more secure fashion. Another reason for me to try it is to see how Tor traffic looks on a LAN, so that I can recognize it (if that's possible).
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Checking In
I haven't been posting much here lately, though I have posted some over at the Survival and Emergency Preparedness Blog. Time to drop in here with some comments. This will be a bit rambling.
Not much interesting on the work front, except that last week I got my biannual CPR/AED refresher training. (I get this training because I am a floor captain.) This time they also included a section on choking. As someone who has personally had the Heimlich maneuver performed on himself (when I was a kid), I thought this was a great idea. I would like to see first aid training added as well.
I had a bit of a nibble for some legal work a couple weeks ago, but the matter apparently got resolved without my intervention.
Last week well and truly sucked. Judith and both the girls got sick. Alexandra had to stay home all week. I was feeling a bit under the weather a couple days, myself. Everyone is feeling much better now, thankfully.
The weekend had its own share of problems. Gory content follows.
While cutting the container off some flowers I was planting out front, I managed to perform an avulsion on my right index finger. I.e., I cut myself and removed all the skin from a spot on top of the last joint of the finger. So I now have a 1/4" hole where I can see what's supposed to be covered by skin. This was the result of getting careless with a very sharp knife, a Victorinox Explorer Swiss Army Knife I picked up last month, on which I had touched up the already sharp blade with a Spyderco Sharpmaker. I felt just a bit a pressure as it sliced through -- no pain. It's a very clean cut and no dirt got in it. Any dirt that might have gotten into it would probably have been flushed out by the copious amounts of blood, anyway.
I stopped the bleeding with pressure and elevation, and kept it bandaged with gauze pads for a day and half until I felt comfortable covering it with just a Band Aid. For the first couple days I cleaned the wound and surrounding skin with a benzalkonium chloride antiseptic towelette each time I changed the dressing. I also put triple antibiotic ointment on the Band Aid before I wrap it around my finger. I let the wound air for awhile each day and it appears to be healing. So far there are no signs of infection, and it doesn't hurt unless I apply pressure to the wound. I haven't done anything this stupid with a knife in about 25 years. At least I'll get a nifty new scar out of the experience. ;)
Sunday I was supposed to get together with a friend from TRP to do some shooting, which would've been very therapeutic. I wanted to wring out my stainless Ruger Mini-14GB, on which I've replaced the rear sight and put it back into the factory stock. I also wanted to try a 1944 Underwood M1 Carbine and a Polish TT-33 Tokarev pistol, both of which I bought last year but have yet to fire. Unfortunately, when we got to the range we discovered that it was closed until 13:00 due to an archery event that was being held. Insert pic of banging head against wall here.
Monday night I had to clean corrosion from the battery terminals on my truck, because I had a few incidents when it wouldn't start until I jiggled the negative cable. Not a big deal and it gave me a chance to get my hands dirty. ;) To protect my finger with the cut, I bought a box of finger cots. These look like extra-small sized rubbers, and go over a bandaged finger to keep it clean and dry. I'm using them when I shower, do dishes, or anything else which might result in contamination of the wound. For a few bucks, they are an excellent addition to one's home first aid kit. In an emergency you can use duct tape over the bandage, but the finger cots are much more convenient.
This coming weekend we'll be driving down to my uncle's in Arlington, VA for Passover. We're planning to take the truck, in which I had a new Yaesu FT-7800R ham rig installed a couple weeks ago. I am using the same Diamond MR77 mag mount antenna I used with my VX-5RS handy talkie, but the difference in Rx between the two radios is dramatic. As expected, the FT-7800R is a much better receiver, and the controls are much easier to use. I have it programmed with about 230 repeaters located in PA. I've created a repeater list for the trip to VA and need to get that uploaded before Saturday.
Not much interesting on the work front, except that last week I got my biannual CPR/AED refresher training. (I get this training because I am a floor captain.) This time they also included a section on choking. As someone who has personally had the Heimlich maneuver performed on himself (when I was a kid), I thought this was a great idea. I would like to see first aid training added as well.
I had a bit of a nibble for some legal work a couple weeks ago, but the matter apparently got resolved without my intervention.
Last week well and truly sucked. Judith and both the girls got sick. Alexandra had to stay home all week. I was feeling a bit under the weather a couple days, myself. Everyone is feeling much better now, thankfully.
The weekend had its own share of problems. Gory content follows.
While cutting the container off some flowers I was planting out front, I managed to perform an avulsion on my right index finger. I.e., I cut myself and removed all the skin from a spot on top of the last joint of the finger. So I now have a 1/4" hole where I can see what's supposed to be covered by skin. This was the result of getting careless with a very sharp knife, a Victorinox Explorer Swiss Army Knife I picked up last month, on which I had touched up the already sharp blade with a Spyderco Sharpmaker. I felt just a bit a pressure as it sliced through -- no pain. It's a very clean cut and no dirt got in it. Any dirt that might have gotten into it would probably have been flushed out by the copious amounts of blood, anyway.
I stopped the bleeding with pressure and elevation, and kept it bandaged with gauze pads for a day and half until I felt comfortable covering it with just a Band Aid. For the first couple days I cleaned the wound and surrounding skin with a benzalkonium chloride antiseptic towelette each time I changed the dressing. I also put triple antibiotic ointment on the Band Aid before I wrap it around my finger. I let the wound air for awhile each day and it appears to be healing. So far there are no signs of infection, and it doesn't hurt unless I apply pressure to the wound. I haven't done anything this stupid with a knife in about 25 years. At least I'll get a nifty new scar out of the experience. ;)
Sunday I was supposed to get together with a friend from TRP to do some shooting, which would've been very therapeutic. I wanted to wring out my stainless Ruger Mini-14GB, on which I've replaced the rear sight and put it back into the factory stock. I also wanted to try a 1944 Underwood M1 Carbine and a Polish TT-33 Tokarev pistol, both of which I bought last year but have yet to fire. Unfortunately, when we got to the range we discovered that it was closed until 13:00 due to an archery event that was being held. Insert pic of banging head against wall here.
Monday night I had to clean corrosion from the battery terminals on my truck, because I had a few incidents when it wouldn't start until I jiggled the negative cable. Not a big deal and it gave me a chance to get my hands dirty. ;) To protect my finger with the cut, I bought a box of finger cots. These look like extra-small sized rubbers, and go over a bandaged finger to keep it clean and dry. I'm using them when I shower, do dishes, or anything else which might result in contamination of the wound. For a few bucks, they are an excellent addition to one's home first aid kit. In an emergency you can use duct tape over the bandage, but the finger cots are much more convenient.
This coming weekend we'll be driving down to my uncle's in Arlington, VA for Passover. We're planning to take the truck, in which I had a new Yaesu FT-7800R ham rig installed a couple weeks ago. I am using the same Diamond MR77 mag mount antenna I used with my VX-5RS handy talkie, but the difference in Rx between the two radios is dramatic. As expected, the FT-7800R is a much better receiver, and the controls are much easier to use. I have it programmed with about 230 repeaters located in PA. I've created a repeater list for the trip to VA and need to get that uploaded before Saturday.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Numerous Updates to The Shooters' Bar(SM)
Tonight I made several updates and additions to The Shooters' Bar(SM), the Internet's oldest list of pro-RKBA attorneys.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
iChatAV Desktop Sharing
Yesterday before heading down to Microcenter I spent a couple hours over at my parents' house showing my mother how to do various things on her Mac. E.g., how to setup rules in Mail and installing a few programs in her XP virtual machine. I also set her up with an AIM account, mainly so she could see my daughters when my folks are away on a trip.
After I got home she called me with a few more questions. I started explaining things to her when I remembered the desktop sharing feature added to iChatAV with Leopard. So, I initiated a sharing session by sending her a request, and was able to get her issue squared away in about half the time that it would otherwise take.
I've used a variety of remote control programs on Mac, Windows and Linux, including telnet, ssh, pcAnywhere, Remote Admin, and several flavors of VNC. IMHO, iChatAV's desktop sharing feature is by far the easiest remote control tool to use for someone who is calling someone else for technical support. Neither party needs to know the other's IP and it seemlessly worked through two firewalls which do NAT and SPI. On top of that, it automatically opens up a voice chat session so you don't need to keep a phone call going during the course of the support call.
If you're a Mac user and you support other Mac users frequently, or need to get remote support help frequently, this feature by itself looks like it could justify upgrading to Leopard.
After I got home she called me with a few more questions. I started explaining things to her when I remembered the desktop sharing feature added to iChatAV with Leopard. So, I initiated a sharing session by sending her a request, and was able to get her issue squared away in about half the time that it would otherwise take.
I've used a variety of remote control programs on Mac, Windows and Linux, including telnet, ssh, pcAnywhere, Remote Admin, and several flavors of VNC. IMHO, iChatAV's desktop sharing feature is by far the easiest remote control tool to use for someone who is calling someone else for technical support. Neither party needs to know the other's IP and it seemlessly worked through two firewalls which do NAT and SPI. On top of that, it automatically opens up a voice chat session so you don't need to keep a phone call going during the course of the support call.
If you're a Mac user and you support other Mac users frequently, or need to get remote support help frequently, this feature by itself looks like it could justify upgrading to Leopard.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
New Monitor and Keyboard for my MacBook Pro
For some time I've thought about redoing the desk in my office, where I have my XP box Bagend situated. Bagend has seen hardly any use since I bought my G4 iBook back in December 2004. I much prefer working on the Mac platform and a laptop's ability to be used anywhere in the house is very appealing. This opinion was only magnified when I bought Rohan, my MacBook Pro back in January 2007.
However, sometimes I'd like to be able to use a full sized keyboard and a larger monitor with a higher resolution. The monitor on Bagend was my old ViewSonic GS771. I've had it for at least 10 years and it's been a workhorse. I got my money's worth out of it, but decided it was finally time to get something with a larger screen that would take up less desk space than a CRT. One of my goals was to setup Rohan with the external screen, keyboard, and mouse, and use the laptop with its cover closed.
So, today at Microcenter I picked up an Acer AL2016W 20" widescreen LCD display and a Macally Icekey Mac keyboard.
Initially, I was leaning towards a 20" widescreen ViewSonic, but it was about $100 more than the Acer and I didn't really want to spend the extra money. One of my clients has a similar Acer LCD and it looks nice, so after seeing the display model I decided to give it a chance.
The Acer has DVI and VGA inputs, and comes with cables for both. It's connected to Rohan via DVI. The Mac automatically detected it and set it to the max resolution of 1680x1050. The refresh rate is 60 Hz, which I'm hoping will be OK. Text and graphics look good so far.
The Macally keyboard came with a driver CD for OS 9 and OS 10, but I don't think the driver has been updated for several years. It may not be fully compatible with Leopard. For example, the volume control and eject buttons don't seem to work. If I can't get them working soon I'll return it and get something else. I do like the feel of the keyboard. It's somewhat reminiscent of the G4 iBook keyboard, though the keys take a bit more effort to depress.
While I was at Microcenter I checked out one of the new Apple keyboards, which was connected to an iMac. I hated it. I might be able to get used to it but I think there are better options available for less money.
The mouse I'm using is the same Logitech laser wheel mouse which I had connected to Bagend. I've found that my favorite mice are low-end Logitechs which sell for about $15.
Since Rohan's cover is closed I would like to have an external webcam and mic to use with iChatAV and Skype. I had a Logitech USB webcam connected to Bagend but neither IM program is recognizing it. I'll see if there's a Mac driver available, but I doubt it.
However, sometimes I'd like to be able to use a full sized keyboard and a larger monitor with a higher resolution. The monitor on Bagend was my old ViewSonic GS771. I've had it for at least 10 years and it's been a workhorse. I got my money's worth out of it, but decided it was finally time to get something with a larger screen that would take up less desk space than a CRT. One of my goals was to setup Rohan with the external screen, keyboard, and mouse, and use the laptop with its cover closed.
So, today at Microcenter I picked up an Acer AL2016W 20" widescreen LCD display and a Macally Icekey Mac keyboard.
Initially, I was leaning towards a 20" widescreen ViewSonic, but it was about $100 more than the Acer and I didn't really want to spend the extra money. One of my clients has a similar Acer LCD and it looks nice, so after seeing the display model I decided to give it a chance.
The Acer has DVI and VGA inputs, and comes with cables for both. It's connected to Rohan via DVI. The Mac automatically detected it and set it to the max resolution of 1680x1050. The refresh rate is 60 Hz, which I'm hoping will be OK. Text and graphics look good so far.
The Macally keyboard came with a driver CD for OS 9 and OS 10, but I don't think the driver has been updated for several years. It may not be fully compatible with Leopard. For example, the volume control and eject buttons don't seem to work. If I can't get them working soon I'll return it and get something else. I do like the feel of the keyboard. It's somewhat reminiscent of the G4 iBook keyboard, though the keys take a bit more effort to depress.
While I was at Microcenter I checked out one of the new Apple keyboards, which was connected to an iMac. I hated it. I might be able to get used to it but I think there are better options available for less money.
The mouse I'm using is the same Logitech laser wheel mouse which I had connected to Bagend. I've found that my favorite mice are low-end Logitechs which sell for about $15.
Since Rohan's cover is closed I would like to have an external webcam and mic to use with iChatAV and Skype. I had a Logitech USB webcam connected to Bagend but neither IM program is recognizing it. I'll see if there's a Mac driver available, but I doubt it.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Ubuntu Musings
Last week I setup an old PC (2 GHz P4 with 512 MB RAM) at the office with Kubuntu 7.10. The PC was a Cisco MCS7800 but actually made by IBM.
I've been using it for web surfing on our lab network, mainly keeping Firefox open to my iGoogle and Google Reader pages. I wanted to install Gnome on it aside from KDE and was able to do so, but for some reason the default "human" theme would not load properly, even after I manually reinstalled it.
After much dicking around I decided to reimage the box with Ubuntu 7.10. While it worked better on my hardware than Kubuntu, I still couldn't get video to work like I wanted. The PC has an ATI Rage XL video card and is connected to a ViewSonic VA702b 17" flat panel monitor. I should be able to set screen resolution to 1280x1024 but couldn't get (K)Ubuntu to go higher than 1024x768. Unfortunately, at that resolution the display looks fuzzy.
The other day I finally said to heck with it, and loaded XP Pro on the machine. It went on smoothly, although I did have to manually download and install a driver for the Broadcom NIC. XP didn't properly detect the sound card so it's not working, but that isn't a big deal.
Certainly, I'd rather have some flavor of Linux on the box but I'm not going to waste time trying to get it configured if the hardware isn't easily supported. If it was easily configurable that would be different. I've got the box secured with AVG, a firewall, a hosts file, Spybot Search & Destroy, and run Firefox instead of IE. I don't engage in unsafe Internet usage, so I'm not worried about the box getting rooted.
The productivity apps which I've installed include OpenOffice.org, PuTTY, Cygwin, Pidgin, Core FTP Lite, Foxit Reader (for PDFs) and PDF Creator.
I've been using it for web surfing on our lab network, mainly keeping Firefox open to my iGoogle and Google Reader pages. I wanted to install Gnome on it aside from KDE and was able to do so, but for some reason the default "human" theme would not load properly, even after I manually reinstalled it.
After much dicking around I decided to reimage the box with Ubuntu 7.10. While it worked better on my hardware than Kubuntu, I still couldn't get video to work like I wanted. The PC has an ATI Rage XL video card and is connected to a ViewSonic VA702b 17" flat panel monitor. I should be able to set screen resolution to 1280x1024 but couldn't get (K)Ubuntu to go higher than 1024x768. Unfortunately, at that resolution the display looks fuzzy.
The other day I finally said to heck with it, and loaded XP Pro on the machine. It went on smoothly, although I did have to manually download and install a driver for the Broadcom NIC. XP didn't properly detect the sound card so it's not working, but that isn't a big deal.
Certainly, I'd rather have some flavor of Linux on the box but I'm not going to waste time trying to get it configured if the hardware isn't easily supported. If it was easily configurable that would be different. I've got the box secured with AVG, a firewall, a hosts file, Spybot Search & Destroy, and run Firefox instead of IE. I don't engage in unsafe Internet usage, so I'm not worried about the box getting rooted.
The productivity apps which I've installed include OpenOffice.org, PuTTY, Cygwin, Pidgin, Core FTP Lite, Foxit Reader (for PDFs) and PDF Creator.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Live Coverage of Oral Arguments in DC v. Heller
Heads up...
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Modern Times
One of the first albums I bought was Modern Times
, by Jefferson Starship. I got it shortly after it came out and wore out the record well before I got out of high school (this was several years before CDs came out). It's probably been 20 years since I last listened to it, but for some reason it came to mind a couple of weeks ago. So, I wound up ordering it on CD from Amazon.
, by Jefferson Starship. I got it shortly after it came out and wore out the record well before I got out of high school (this was several years before CDs came out). It's probably been 20 years since I last listened to it, but for some reason it came to mind a couple of weeks ago. So, I wound up ordering it on CD from Amazon.Modern Times rocks. Before Jefferson Starship morphed into Starship and put out crap like "We Build This City," they were a hard rocking band. Modern Times contains two songs which were hits in '81 - '82: Find Your Way Back and Stranger. The videos for both songs saw heavy rotation in the early days of MTV, back when they actually played music.
Check it out if you like late '70s/early '80s rock from before the age of hair metal.
Migrating the Parents Over to the Mac
As I posted last week, my parents' PC died last week. Gondor was a PIII/733 which I built when that chip was right at the sweet spot for price vs. performance.
The day after I used the System Rescue CD to pull their data off the box a coworker informed me that he'd snapped a couple 120 GB WD 2.5" SATA notebook drives at Best Buy for $25 each, and asked me if I wanted one. Since my folks' MacBook came with an 80 GB disk I took him up on the offer.
I had my father pick up a USB external enclosure at Microcenter for the original disk in the MB, to be used for Time Machine backups. (I prefer FireWire for external disks since it seems to handle sustained transfers of many small files better than USB 2.0, even though the latter has a higher peak throughput. But the USB enclosure will suit my parents' needs and was only about $15.)
On Saturday I went over and swapped out the drives, installed Leopard on the new disk, and used the OS 10.5 installer to import all their old data and settings off the original disk. Once I'd confirmed that the machine was up and running with the new drive, I reformatted the original disk and configured Time Machine to back up to it. All told, it took me about three hours.
Interesting Info From Last Weekend's Gun Show
Last weekend there was a gun show in Valley Forge. I didn't go, but a couple friends did. What they each told me confirmed my belief that people are concerned about a Democrat victory in November, and are stocking up accordingly.
#1 told me that he saw no more than 1,500 rounds total of 7.62x39 ammunition, as used in AKs and SKSes, at the show. #2 said that he saw exactly three AKs there (all Yugos, two underfolders and one fixed stock).
From the 80s up until a couple of years ago 7.62x39 was as common as dirt and not much more expensive that it. Supplies have fluctuated as people become concerned that it may not be easily available. This was especially true in the run-up to the 2006 election when gun owners were worried that the Dems would gain control of Congress.
However, AKs have been plentiful for most of the past 10 years, even during the Assault Weapons Ban. Since the AWB sunset in 2004, the number and variety of available AKs has increased. If there were only three at a large gun show it means that people are snapping them up in record number. I suspect that many folks are buying more than one. There are two main reasons why this is so:
- Folks are worried about a Dem president in January 2009 followed by another AWB and are counting on a grandfather clause to allow them to continue possession after a ban is enacted.
- With the economy in poor shape and apparently getting worse, people are worried about unrest. An AK -- even the neutered, semiauto-only AKs we can buy in the US -- is a perfect gun for defending the homestead if the SHTF.
Either way, it's an interesting peek into how people are viewing the near future.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Firefox 3 Beta
Today I downloaded and installed on Rohan, my MacBook Pro, the latest beta version of Mozilla Firefox 3.
As expected, a couple themes and extensions weren't compatible. One of the themes was iFox, which makes older version of FF appear more Mac-like. However, the new default FF theme for Macs which is debuting in FF3 is more Mac-like than previous defaults. So, I'll stick with that for the time being.
The extensions I had which don't yet work with FF3 include del.icio.us, DownThemAll, and Linkification. However, AdBlock Plus does work with FF3, which is great.
I'm not sure if it's having fewer extensions or if it's due to better code, but FF3 Beta is faster on Rohan than FF2. I've actually been using Safari 3 for the most part since I upgraded Rohan to Leopard, because it's quite a bit faster at page rendering than FF2, even when it has to display ads.
A neat new feature which I immediately noticed is an entry in the bookmarks bar: "Smart Bookmarks." FF3 automatically adds the bookmarks which you frequently visit to this folder, which makes it quicker to access them. It's not a killer app but it's a nice touch.
I think I'll stick with FF3 for a bit to see how it works. If anything blows up I'll post a followup.
As expected, a couple themes and extensions weren't compatible. One of the themes was iFox, which makes older version of FF appear more Mac-like. However, the new default FF theme for Macs which is debuting in FF3 is more Mac-like than previous defaults. So, I'll stick with that for the time being.
The extensions I had which don't yet work with FF3 include del.icio.us, DownThemAll, and Linkification. However, AdBlock Plus does work with FF3, which is great.
I'm not sure if it's having fewer extensions or if it's due to better code, but FF3 Beta is faster on Rohan than FF2. I've actually been using Safari 3 for the most part since I upgraded Rohan to Leopard, because it's quite a bit faster at page rendering than FF2, even when it has to display ads.
A neat new feature which I immediately noticed is an entry in the bookmarks bar: "Smart Bookmarks." FF3 automatically adds the bookmarks which you frequently visit to this folder, which makes it quicker to access them. It's not a killer app but it's a nice touch.
I think I'll stick with FF3 for a bit to see how it works. If anything blows up I'll post a followup.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
System Rescue CD
Tonight I was glad I have a copy of the System Rescue CD. ("SRCD")
My mother called me tonight to let me know that Gondor, my old P-III/733 that I built about 8 years ago, would not boot. After turning on and displaying the POST messages it displayed a disk read error. (Naturally, she didn't say that "it halted after POSTing.") So, I headed over after dinner.
Sure enough, it wouldn't boot. I'm not sure if the master boot record just got hosed or something worse. The SRCD was able to boot the system and mount both internal hard disks, so it's probably the MBR. The XP install on Gondor is about 4 years old, so if it shit the bed I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
Earlier this week my father picked up one of the 8 GB USB flash drives Microcenter has for about $30 and had started to copy some of his data to it. Unfortunately, he hadn't yet backed up all his stuff to it, even after all my nudging. I was able to copy over their My Documents folder using Midnight Commander running off the SRCD. (FWIW, the SRCD recognized the first internal disk as sda, the second disk as sdb, and the USB stick as sdc.)
Incidentally, my mom fitted Gondor with a Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard. Aside from hating those things with a passion, it would not work properly with the SRCD. Not all of the function keys worked properly, which made using Midnight Commander near impossible. My work around for this was to login to Gondor via SSH from Rohan, my MacBook Pro.
While the data was copying over, I went online using my Rohan and ordered a NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter from Other World Computing. This will allow me to yank the drives from Gondor, plug them into my laptop or my folks' MacBook, and more easily recover data and run diagnostics on them. (I've been thinking of purchasing one of these for awhile and this gives me an excuse.)
Before leaving I stressed the necessity of copying the contents of the flash drive over to their MacBook, seeing as how easily a thumb drive could get lost. As it is, they will probably have to recreate things like browser bookmarks and email addressbooks.
I'm trying to convince them to dump the PC entirely and migrate over to the MacBook as their primary computer. They can plug in their Sony flat panel monitor to make it easier on their eyes, and use an external mouse and keyboard. Additionally, I want them to upgrade the Mac to Leopard, buy an external hard disk, and use Time Machine so they don't have to think about backups. One less Windows machine for me to maintain would be damn nice.
My mother called me tonight to let me know that Gondor, my old P-III/733 that I built about 8 years ago, would not boot. After turning on and displaying the POST messages it displayed a disk read error. (Naturally, she didn't say that "it halted after POSTing.") So, I headed over after dinner.
Sure enough, it wouldn't boot. I'm not sure if the master boot record just got hosed or something worse. The SRCD was able to boot the system and mount both internal hard disks, so it's probably the MBR. The XP install on Gondor is about 4 years old, so if it shit the bed I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
Earlier this week my father picked up one of the 8 GB USB flash drives Microcenter has for about $30 and had started to copy some of his data to it. Unfortunately, he hadn't yet backed up all his stuff to it, even after all my nudging. I was able to copy over their My Documents folder using Midnight Commander running off the SRCD. (FWIW, the SRCD recognized the first internal disk as sda, the second disk as sdb, and the USB stick as sdc.)
Incidentally, my mom fitted Gondor with a Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard. Aside from hating those things with a passion, it would not work properly with the SRCD. Not all of the function keys worked properly, which made using Midnight Commander near impossible. My work around for this was to login to Gondor via SSH from Rohan, my MacBook Pro.
While the data was copying over, I went online using my Rohan and ordered a NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter from Other World Computing. This will allow me to yank the drives from Gondor, plug them into my laptop or my folks' MacBook, and more easily recover data and run diagnostics on them. (I've been thinking of purchasing one of these for awhile and this gives me an excuse.)
Before leaving I stressed the necessity of copying the contents of the flash drive over to their MacBook, seeing as how easily a thumb drive could get lost. As it is, they will probably have to recreate things like browser bookmarks and email addressbooks.
I'm trying to convince them to dump the PC entirely and migrate over to the MacBook as their primary computer. They can plug in their Sony flat panel monitor to make it easier on their eyes, and use an external mouse and keyboard. Additionally, I want them to upgrade the Mac to Leopard, buy an external hard disk, and use Time Machine so they don't have to think about backups. One less Windows machine for me to maintain would be damn nice.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Busy Weekend
We had a busy weekend. Saturday morning I got myself to the optometrist for the first time in 10 years. Yes, I was way overdue. That said, my eyes have barely changed since the last time I went. I am getting new glasses with the revised prescription, the main benefit of which is that I'll no longer have specs with scratches on the right lens.
Afterwards I went over to client to do some onsite server updates and discuss future needs. We have several things to do in the coming year: upgrade their LAN to a gigabit Ethernet core, replace an aging file server, and possibly install a VPN between two sites. To this we're adding a disk-based backup system to replace the Dell tape loader they're currently using. The problem with tape based backup for them is that it's too slow. They're a custom print shop which deals with a large amount of data in the form of graphic files. They've reached the point where a weekend doesn't contain enough hours to do two sets of full backups, as they want to do. Moving to external hard disks that are swapped out, with one kept offsite, will allow them to do so.
Aside from working, one my aunts was in from NY. It was nice to see her. While she was here we managed to get ahold of my cousin, currently on an assignment with IBM over in Milan, Italy. We chatted for awhile via Skype. It never ceases to amaze me how good the quality usually is, and the fact that it isn't costing me anything to talk to someone on the other side of the planet.
It looks like I'm going to make another Mac convert in the form of my aunt. She wants to get a laptop and I spent some time explaining the benefits of Apple's platform. My cousin is supportive of the idea, since there aren't any Windows-only apps she needs. Of course, what he's really excited about is no longer being her tech support person. Anyway, I will be pricing out a MacBook Pro (she wants a larger screen than the MacBooks) and related accessories for her. We may go up and visit her for a weekend so that I can help move her off her old PC onto the Mac when she gets it.
Afterwards I went over to client to do some onsite server updates and discuss future needs. We have several things to do in the coming year: upgrade their LAN to a gigabit Ethernet core, replace an aging file server, and possibly install a VPN between two sites. To this we're adding a disk-based backup system to replace the Dell tape loader they're currently using. The problem with tape based backup for them is that it's too slow. They're a custom print shop which deals with a large amount of data in the form of graphic files. They've reached the point where a weekend doesn't contain enough hours to do two sets of full backups, as they want to do. Moving to external hard disks that are swapped out, with one kept offsite, will allow them to do so.
Aside from working, one my aunts was in from NY. It was nice to see her. While she was here we managed to get ahold of my cousin, currently on an assignment with IBM over in Milan, Italy. We chatted for awhile via Skype. It never ceases to amaze me how good the quality usually is, and the fact that it isn't costing me anything to talk to someone on the other side of the planet.
It looks like I'm going to make another Mac convert in the form of my aunt. She wants to get a laptop and I spent some time explaining the benefits of Apple's platform. My cousin is supportive of the idea, since there aren't any Windows-only apps she needs. Of course, what he's really excited about is no longer being her tech support person. Anyway, I will be pricing out a MacBook Pro (she wants a larger screen than the MacBooks) and related accessories for her. We may go up and visit her for a weekend so that I can help move her off her old PC onto the Mac when she gets it.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
My First Experience With AppleCare
Since I returned to the Mac platform back at the end of 2004* I have not had the need to call Apple for tech support. However, I noticed recently that the battery life on my 2.16 GHz Macbook Pro, purchased in January 2007, was deteriorating drastically. I can pretty much watch the battery life percentage indicator in the menu bar drop second-by-second. I'm lucky to get an hour and a quarter out of it, and that's with the Bluetooth module and AirPort turned off, and screen dimmed.
Because my MBP is my primary machine, back in December I sprung for the AppleCare extended warranty. While I mostly used the machine while plugged in, I do sometimes need to run it off battery power. So, I called AppleCare on Thursday afternoon. It turned out to be one of the most pleasant experiences I've had with tech support from any vendor.
First, I was greeted by an automated system which asked me a few questions which required a "Yes" or "No" answer. After about a minute on hold I was then forwarded to Colin. It's a sad sign of the times that I was happy to get a native English speaker rather than someone claiming to be "Steve" or "Bob" but who's real name is probably something like "Mujibar."
Anyway, after getting my name and MBP's serial number, Colin walked me through a few troubleshooting steps and decided that I should get a replacement battery. He needed to get a supervisor's override to put in the order, which required me waiting on hold for about 5 minutes. But at the end of the call he confirmed my shipping address and put in the order. I should get the new battery Monday along with a return shipping label for the old battery.
To my surprise, the battery arrived yesterday, one day after my call to Apple.
Note that under the terms of AppleCare, laptop batteries are considered consumables so unless they are defective, Apple isn't obligated to replace them. But based on the reported behavior and information in System Profiler, it wasn't difficult to convince them to replace mine.
It was refreshing to get a competent tech support representative who spoke English well, and not have to throw a fit to get good service. I'm impressed.
* My first Mac was a Mac Plus bought in January 1997, but I primarily used PCs running Windows, Linux, or FreeBSD from 1992 through 2004.
Because my MBP is my primary machine, back in December I sprung for the AppleCare extended warranty. While I mostly used the machine while plugged in, I do sometimes need to run it off battery power. So, I called AppleCare on Thursday afternoon. It turned out to be one of the most pleasant experiences I've had with tech support from any vendor.
First, I was greeted by an automated system which asked me a few questions which required a "Yes" or "No" answer. After about a minute on hold I was then forwarded to Colin. It's a sad sign of the times that I was happy to get a native English speaker rather than someone claiming to be "Steve" or "Bob" but who's real name is probably something like "Mujibar."
Anyway, after getting my name and MBP's serial number, Colin walked me through a few troubleshooting steps and decided that I should get a replacement battery. He needed to get a supervisor's override to put in the order, which required me waiting on hold for about 5 minutes. But at the end of the call he confirmed my shipping address and put in the order. I should get the new battery Monday along with a return shipping label for the old battery.
To my surprise, the battery arrived yesterday, one day after my call to Apple.
Note that under the terms of AppleCare, laptop batteries are considered consumables so unless they are defective, Apple isn't obligated to replace them. But based on the reported behavior and information in System Profiler, it wasn't difficult to convince them to replace mine.
It was refreshing to get a competent tech support representative who spoke English well, and not have to throw a fit to get good service. I'm impressed.
* My first Mac was a Mac Plus bought in January 1997, but I primarily used PCs running Windows, Linux, or FreeBSD from 1992 through 2004.
Monday, February 04, 2008
A USB Thumb Drive for Emergencies
Like many people nowadays, my life involves dealing with a lot of data. Especially important items include the many usernames, logins, and account numbers for loans, credit cards, and various websites which I use. I keep a spreadsheet in an encrypted file on my laptop to keep track of them. But what happens if my laptop is stolen, lost, or destroyed?
For awhile I've carried a copy of the spreadsheet along with other important info in encrypted form on a USB flash drive on my keyring. This way, it's always with me even if the SHTF. The drive I've been using has been a Microcenter bulk 1 GB stick, and it's worked just fine.
The prices on USB thumb drives have plummeted over the past year. So, over the weekend I bought an 8 GB USB flash drive at Microcenter. Like my old stick, it's one of their bulk, house-brand units and the cost was only $29.99 + tax.
I keep only the most essential data on the USB stick, and I formatted the stick as FAT32 so that it can be read in any PC or Mac I may need to use. It's organized like so:
Root directory
-A plain text file with contact info, including next of kin and the number for my childrens' daycare.
Documents folder
-Backup of my Safari browser bookmarks
-Backup of my OS X Addressbook
-Backup of my iCal database
-Separate encrypted images for financial data, logins, client data
Installer files folder
-Contains installation files for several Windows programs (AVG Antivirus, Firefox, Foxit PDF reader, Spybot, and the anti-spyware hosts file from MVPS.org)
Mac Portable Apps folder (apps that can run directly from the USB stick when connected to a Mac running OS X)
-Portable Firefox
-Portable AdiumX instant messenger client
Windows Portable Apps folder (apps that can run directly from the USB stick when connected to a Windows PC)
-PuTTy (a telnet and SSH client)
-Portable Firefox
-Pidgin Portable instant messenger client
Over 6 GB are still free.
Running applications from the USB drive is quite a bit slower than from a hard disk, but this isn't for regular use. Since flash memory has a limited number of read/write cycles, and because I don't want potentially sensitive information saved in an unencrypted folder on the thumb drive, I configured both Firefox installations to not cache files locally.
The new thumb drive has replaced my old one in my pocket. It rides on a keyring along with a Victorinox Rambler SAK, a Countycomm.com Peanut Lighter, and a Countycomm.com SO-ARES LED light.
For awhile I've carried a copy of the spreadsheet along with other important info in encrypted form on a USB flash drive on my keyring. This way, it's always with me even if the SHTF. The drive I've been using has been a Microcenter bulk 1 GB stick, and it's worked just fine.
The prices on USB thumb drives have plummeted over the past year. So, over the weekend I bought an 8 GB USB flash drive at Microcenter. Like my old stick, it's one of their bulk, house-brand units and the cost was only $29.99 + tax.
I keep only the most essential data on the USB stick, and I formatted the stick as FAT32 so that it can be read in any PC or Mac I may need to use. It's organized like so:
Root directory
-A plain text file with contact info, including next of kin and the number for my childrens' daycare.
Documents folder
-Backup of my Safari browser bookmarks
-Backup of my OS X Addressbook
-Backup of my iCal database
-Separate encrypted images for financial data, logins, client data
Installer files folder
-Contains installation files for several Windows programs (AVG Antivirus, Firefox, Foxit PDF reader, Spybot, and the anti-spyware hosts file from MVPS.org)
Mac Portable Apps folder (apps that can run directly from the USB stick when connected to a Mac running OS X)
-Portable Firefox
-Portable AdiumX instant messenger client
Windows Portable Apps folder (apps that can run directly from the USB stick when connected to a Windows PC)
-PuTTy (a telnet and SSH client)
-Portable Firefox
-Pidgin Portable instant messenger client
Over 6 GB are still free.
Running applications from the USB drive is quite a bit slower than from a hard disk, but this isn't for regular use. Since flash memory has a limited number of read/write cycles, and because I don't want potentially sensitive information saved in an unencrypted folder on the thumb drive, I configured both Firefox installations to not cache files locally.
The new thumb drive has replaced my old one in my pocket. It rides on a keyring along with a Victorinox Rambler SAK, a Countycomm.com Peanut Lighter, and a Countycomm.com SO-ARES LED light.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thoughts on the Election
I was certainly disappointed but not surprised when I read that Thompson dropped out of the 2008 race yesterday. For the first time since I was able to vote, I actually had a candidate who I wanted to vote for, not just vote against. Unfortunately, the candidates left don't include anyone I can give my vote to in good conscience. Who's left?
Republicans:
McCain: Gun grabber. Has used the First Amendment for toilet paper. Pro-amnesty for illegals.
Romney: Has all the trustworthiness of the slimiest used car salesman you can imagine. Unlike Hillary Clinton, he has actually implemented socialized health care and an assault weapons ban.
Huckabee: Jimmah Cahtuh with an "R" after his name. Pro-amnesty for illegals. No offense intended to my Christian friends, but I don't want a preacher for a president (nor would I want a rabbi for a president, either).
Paul: I like his domestic policy agenda but his foreign policy would be a disaster. Shrink the military to 20% of its current size? WTF? Really, WTF?
Ghouliani: Mussolini on the Hudson.
Democrats:
Clinton: Two power-mad socialists who know better than you for the price of one. Gun grabber. Thinks we should look at Africa of all places as a source for inspiration on child rearing.
Obama: An empty suit. "Change." What change? How about something more than platitudes for the people? Gun grabber. Came out of the Chicago Machine, which should scare the crap out of anyone.
Edwards: Stinking rich populist, the epitome of the limousine liberal. Tear down the man. Prettier than Clinton, though.
Kucinich: The mothership is calling and will be here shortly to take you home.
With Thompson out of the race we're left with a bunch of candidates who -- except for Paul -- want to increase the Federal government's role in your daily life and sellout to illegal aliens, who are by definition criminals. Neither side is espousing fiscal responsibility, as we lurch into a recession. Paul and Huckabee are solidly pro-RKBA, but the former's foreign policy is more suitable to 1808 than 2008. He has next to no chance of even getting the nomination anyway. The latter is a tax and spend liberal.
The strongest argument I've read for voting Repbulican is so that a Democrat president doesn't get to appoint Federal judges, including one or two vacancies on the Supreme Court. However, I'm not swayed. Why should a liberal Republican appoint conservative judges? Look at Bush I, who gave us David Souter, for example. Granted, Bush II gave us Alito and Roberts, but hpoing for another Scalia is naive.
Unfortunately, most of the obnoxious legislation that emanates from DC won't even go to the Supreme Court to get the chance to be tossed out. The best we could hope for is a conservative Republican president, not afraid to use his veto power, to provide a check against the crooks in Congress. It ain't happening this time.
I am beginning to believe that the way we found ourselves in this predicament is due largely to the philosophy of voting for the lesser of two evils. We've been forced to do so for so long that we are left with no choice but evil. Even worse, the electorate has been conditioned to seek out those candidates who promise the most largesse from the public trough. We have an ever increasing mass of voters who contribute nothing yet influence policy which ends up being redistributionist. Remind me again why universal suffrage is a good thing?
It looks to me that we're heading for a repeat of the 1970s and the fiasco of the Carter presidency. We got Reagan out of that mess but there was a lot of pain while the Peanut Farmer was in the White House. I can only hope that after the next four years of pain there's enough backlash that we get some true statesmen, not just politicians, as candidates in 2012.
Republicans:
McCain: Gun grabber. Has used the First Amendment for toilet paper. Pro-amnesty for illegals.
Romney: Has all the trustworthiness of the slimiest used car salesman you can imagine. Unlike Hillary Clinton, he has actually implemented socialized health care and an assault weapons ban.
Huckabee: Jimmah Cahtuh with an "R" after his name. Pro-amnesty for illegals. No offense intended to my Christian friends, but I don't want a preacher for a president (nor would I want a rabbi for a president, either).
Paul: I like his domestic policy agenda but his foreign policy would be a disaster. Shrink the military to 20% of its current size? WTF? Really, WTF?
Ghouliani: Mussolini on the Hudson.
Democrats:
Clinton: Two power-mad socialists who know better than you for the price of one. Gun grabber. Thinks we should look at Africa of all places as a source for inspiration on child rearing.
Obama: An empty suit. "Change." What change? How about something more than platitudes for the people? Gun grabber. Came out of the Chicago Machine, which should scare the crap out of anyone.
Edwards: Stinking rich populist, the epitome of the limousine liberal. Tear down the man. Prettier than Clinton, though.
Kucinich: The mothership is calling and will be here shortly to take you home.
With Thompson out of the race we're left with a bunch of candidates who -- except for Paul -- want to increase the Federal government's role in your daily life and sellout to illegal aliens, who are by definition criminals. Neither side is espousing fiscal responsibility, as we lurch into a recession. Paul and Huckabee are solidly pro-RKBA, but the former's foreign policy is more suitable to 1808 than 2008. He has next to no chance of even getting the nomination anyway. The latter is a tax and spend liberal.
The strongest argument I've read for voting Repbulican is so that a Democrat president doesn't get to appoint Federal judges, including one or two vacancies on the Supreme Court. However, I'm not swayed. Why should a liberal Republican appoint conservative judges? Look at Bush I, who gave us David Souter, for example. Granted, Bush II gave us Alito and Roberts, but hpoing for another Scalia is naive.
Unfortunately, most of the obnoxious legislation that emanates from DC won't even go to the Supreme Court to get the chance to be tossed out. The best we could hope for is a conservative Republican president, not afraid to use his veto power, to provide a check against the crooks in Congress. It ain't happening this time.
I am beginning to believe that the way we found ourselves in this predicament is due largely to the philosophy of voting for the lesser of two evils. We've been forced to do so for so long that we are left with no choice but evil. Even worse, the electorate has been conditioned to seek out those candidates who promise the most largesse from the public trough. We have an ever increasing mass of voters who contribute nothing yet influence policy which ends up being redistributionist. Remind me again why universal suffrage is a good thing?
It looks to me that we're heading for a repeat of the 1970s and the fiasco of the Carter presidency. We got Reagan out of that mess but there was a lot of pain while the Peanut Farmer was in the White House. I can only hope that after the next four years of pain there's enough backlash that we get some true statesmen, not just politicians, as candidates in 2012.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to all my readers. May 2008 bring you health, wealth, and happiness.
Today was the final day of my vacation. I got the chance to sleep in a bit, spend time with family and friends, and do some shooting. I managed to make it to the range on 12/24, 12/27, and 12/30.
On the 30th I participated in the "Red December" practical carbine match at Langhorne Rod and Gun Club. The theme of the even was a Kalashnikov match. A couple people showed up in Soviet regalia and a Russian-type lunch of kielbasa and borscht was provided.
The course of fire at the match was:
- 10 shots in 5 double-taps at 25 yards.
- 6 shots fired from 3 magazines with 2 rounds each, requiring two mag changes, at 25 yards. This stage was timed.
- 10 shots prone at 200 yards.
- 15 shots, 5 each from standing, kneeling, and prone at 100 yards.
- 15 shots, 5 per magazine requiring two mag changes, fired from the muddy 100 yard berm at targets posted at the 200 yard berm.
- Prone 200 yard gongs, maximum of 10 shots to hit all three.
- There was also a "casualty drag" and "Molotov cocktail throw" (water-filled soda bottles). I didn't participate in this stage because I didn't want to throw out my back.
Results are posted here. Pictures here. I placed third amongst the Kalashnikov and SKS shooters, and was the top scoring iron sight shooter. The guys who took first and second place with AKs both used magnified scopes. Three AR-15 shooters using magnified optics also scored higher than I did. Not bad for an "inaccurate AK" and iron sights, if I do say so myself.
I used my Arsenal SLR-101SG, which last week I fitted with an Ace side folding stock, and which has a Mojo peep rear sight. The ammo I used was Golden Tiger 7.62x39, which shoot pretty well. Of course, I had no malfunctions.
It was a lot of fun, more fun than I've had at the range in ages. I hope to make future practical carbine matches at LRGC.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Thumbs Up for LA Computer Company
Because I use my MacBook Pro everyday and plan to keep it for a couple more years, I decided to buy an Applecare Protection Plan for it. An APP can be added to an Apple product either at the time of purchase or within one year of same.
If I bought the APP for the MacBook Pro directly from Apple, the cost would be $349 plus PA's 6% sales tax. My employer has an agreement with Apple so that I can get a discount roughly equivalent to an educational discount, but even that would be $307 plus tax.
In contrast, LA Computer Company sells the same APP for $235, plus about $9 shipping.
I placed my order from LACC on 12/21/07 and it arrived this morning via FedEx Ground. And no worries that the deal is too good to be true, as I was able to register it on Apple's website with no problems.
If I bought the APP for the MacBook Pro directly from Apple, the cost would be $349 plus PA's 6% sales tax. My employer has an agreement with Apple so that I can get a discount roughly equivalent to an educational discount, but even that would be $307 plus tax.
In contrast, LA Computer Company sells the same APP for $235, plus about $9 shipping.
I placed my order from LACC on 12/21/07 and it arrived this morning via FedEx Ground. And no worries that the deal is too good to be true, as I was able to register it on Apple's website with no problems.
Mini-14GB and Marlin 336 Range Report
I went out yesterday with my Mini-14GB (pics) and my Marlin 336 (pics), which is pictured earlier in this thread. The GB gave me no end of trouble but the Marlin of course ran like a top. This was my first chance to get it out since putting a Williams Firesight and FP-336 receiver sight combo on it.
The Firesight works really well. It was overcast but the red fiber optic front sight showed up very well. It has a soft glow that makes it more visible than a plain bead.
I ran two kinds of ammo through the gun. First, a couple boxes of Wolf Gold (Prvi Partizan) 150 grain JSP to zero it. Then some Remington 170 grain JSP to verify the zero, because it's my go-to load. I think the Remingtons feed a little more smoothly. Anyway, when I did my part, the rifle will put them all in the 10 ring of an SR-1 target at 100 yards.
One change I made was to remove the Eagle Shooter's Stock Pack shown in the pics. It includes a cheek pad which made getting a proper cheek weld. (I may put it on my FAL if I scope that rifle.)
What a darn fine rifle this Marlin is.
The Firesight works really well. It was overcast but the red fiber optic front sight showed up very well. It has a soft glow that makes it more visible than a plain bead.
I ran two kinds of ammo through the gun. First, a couple boxes of Wolf Gold (Prvi Partizan) 150 grain JSP to zero it. Then some Remington 170 grain JSP to verify the zero, because it's my go-to load. I think the Remingtons feed a little more smoothly. Anyway, when I did my part, the rifle will put them all in the 10 ring of an SR-1 target at 100 yards.
One change I made was to remove the Eagle Shooter's Stock Pack shown in the pics. It includes a cheek pad which made getting a proper cheek weld. (I may put it on my FAL if I scope that rifle.)
What a darn fine rifle this Marlin is.
Ruger 10/22 For Defense
Over on THR, a member posted about getting a Ruger 10/22 as his first gun and its suitability for home defense. This is my reply:
A 10/22 is a viable home defense weapon, if not the ideal one.
Keep it simple, don't go crazy accessorizing it if you're going to use it for HD. (Adding accessories can come later once you get something better suited for HD.) There are a few accessories that could be beneficial:
1. A clamp-on weapon light. Most HD situations occur at night and target ID is paramount.
2. Williams Firesight front sight. It's a fiber optic bead that captures ambient light and makes it much more visible. I would avoid a scope or even an inexpensive red dot sight for a defensive gun. A scope's magnification reduces your field of view and slows target acquisition. A cheap red dot make break, the battery may die, or you may forget to turn it on in a SD situation. A peep rear sight coupled with a Firesight bead up front will give you fast target acquisition but good precision as well.
3. RELIABLE 25 round mags. Generally, Ruger 10 rounders are the most reliable but Butler Creek Hot Lips and Steel Lips mags can be very reliable. You'll need to try them in your rifle. Don't rely on any mags until you've put a hundred rounds through them, though.
For SD ammo, avoid the cheap bulk pack stuff. It's often not reliable enough in either functioning the weapon and will have a greater number of duds. My first choice for .22 LR SD ammo would be CCI Mini Mag SOLIDS. .22 LR has marginal penetration so I wouldn't use hollow points. CCI Mini Mag ammo is very high quality. I've shot a lot of it, never had a malfunction in various semiauto .22s, and never had one that was a dud. Mini Mags are more expensive than the bulk packs, so use the latter for practice.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Thompson Calls for High Fences, Wide Gates
Some highlights from THIS article:
"When I am president, I will build a fence," Thompson declared. Amnesty and illegal immigration, he said, are not healthy for the U.S. or Mexico. "We need to be a nation of high fences and wide gates."
"When I am president, I will build a fence," Thompson declared. Amnesty and illegal immigration, he said, are not healthy for the U.S. or Mexico. "We need to be a nation of high fences and wide gates."
When someone asked about what the government could do about AK-47s and the Westroads Mall shooting, Thompson said that assault weapons are not the problem, it is the people using them inappropriately; and it is not the government's place to remove guns from rightful citizens.
"Look at those church shootings," he said, in reference to the Colorado Springs, Colo., shootings that killed five and wounded five on Dec. 9. "That armed volunteer saved countless lives."
Thompson added, "My idea of gun control is a good, steady aim."
Friday, December 21, 2007
"Red December" Kalashnikov Match 12/30/07
Come join the fun at Langhorne Rod & Gun Club in Langhorne, PA on 12/30/07 for their Kalashnikov Match.
Arfcom thread HERE.
TRP thread HERE.
Arfcom thread HERE.
TRP thread HERE.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Stormy Weather
Saturday night the nor'easter that hit the NE part of the US blew into town. We got wind and rain, no snow. Yesterday was pretty crummy; this morning was dry and cold.
Yesterday afternoon I went out back and noticed that one of the arbor vitaes which has been threatening to fall over was leaning a bit more than it has been. Last Fall it blew into the power line from the pole to the house, causing an outage. After that, PECO came out and replace the line, running it on the other side of the tree. A few months ago I had the cable drop redone on the other side of the tree, so the only wire that would be affected if the tree fell would be the Verizon line, which is unused since we have Comcast Digital Voice phone service. Since the line was unused but I didn't want it to pull anything off the pole or my house, I cut it yesterday using a pole saw.
Good thing, too. This morning as I was leaving I noticed that the tree fell last night in the wind. Now I need to cut it up and dispose of it. I figure that letting nature take care of it saved me a few hundred bucks compared with using a tree surgeon.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Parallels 2.5 Build 3214 Under Leopard
This morning I decided I'd better verify that Parallels was still working, post-upgrade. Good thing, too, because it wasn't.
When I clicked on the Parallels Desktop icon in my Dock, I got an error message indicating that it could not connect to one of its drivers, and should reinstall.
Build 3214 was still in my ~/downloads folder, so I reinstalled it which fixed the problem. I verified I could open my XP virtual machines, and also that I was able to tether my Blackberry 8703e to the MacBook Pro for use as an EVDO modem, using Sprint's Windows-only connection manager software.
I still need to see if I'll be able to use my Keyspan USB-to-RS232 adapter in XP running in Parallels, which I have so that I can program my ham radios.
Brother HL-2070N Printer Under Leopard
The primary printer I used at home is a Brother HL-2070N monochrome laser, which is connected directly to my LAN via Ethernet. This setup has worked very smoothly for me since I got the printer last year.
I didn't notice it until this afternoon when I went to print for the first time since upgrading to OS 10.5, but the archive and install did not migrate over my printer settings. So, I had to reinstall the Brother.
Only problem is that the Printer Setup utility didn't detect the Brother on my network, even after I installed the updated driver from the Leopard install disc and disabling my MacBook Pro's firewall. Even though it's a Bonjour-enabled printer, it just didn't show up.
Luckily, the HL-2070N also supports the IPP printing protocol and can be printed to using CUPS. So, I entered the IP address of the printer and selected the correct CUPS driver, and was now able to print.
This was a bit annoying but I was able to deal with it. Most Mac users probably don't understand what IPP and CUPS are, so this might be a bit more of a challenge for them. Also, if you need to use this workaround, I recommend configuring the printer with a static IP address. Out of the box it's a DHCP client which means its IP can change, which would required you to reconfigure your Mac with the printer's new IP.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Running Leopard
My Leopard install went pretty smoothly. The process of verify the DVD before doing the actual installation took about a half hour to 45 minutes. Overall, the installation took about an hour and a half.
After booting into Leopard for the first time I got a couple error messages. One was from the applet CoreDuoTemp, which is not OS 10.5-compatible, and apparently hasn't been updated for the new OS. The second error told me that LittleSnitch, the outbound firewall I installed, needed to be updated for 10.5.
After clicking through the error mesages, I ran Software Update and got the machine up to OS 10.5.1. I then downloaded the latest version of LittleSnitch, which seems to be running OK. Now I'm in the process of exploring Leopard. A few early observations:
One of the big new features touted by Apple is Spaces, OS X's implementation of virtual desktops. I used virtual desktops a lot when running Linux but didn't really miss them on OS X, due to Expose. However, Apple's implementation is neat. For example, pressing F8 brings up thumbnails of each virtual desktop, and you can then drag and drop applications between them.
I use Mail.app as my email client. My installations of GPGMail and Letterbox weren't compatible with the new version, so I need to check for updates.
One very cool feature in Mail is the ability to recognize certain kinds of data in the text of messages. For example, I was reading a message which included the phrase "Monday at 9:00 AM." When I moved my cursor over the phrase it was highlighted with a drop down arrow. Clicking on the arrow gave me the option of creating an iCal event based on the phrase. Too cool!
Reminders created in iCal now show up in Mail. You can also write notes in Mail. Both of these features make Mail more of a PIM than it's been in the past.
The Finder looks quite a bit different, more like iTunes. At this point it's OK but I haven't decided if I like it as much as or better than the old version.
The new Dock is OK, but I already miss the little black triangles which appeared under open applications in Panther and Tiger. The triangle has been replaced with a little blue ball, which isn't nearly as conspicuous.
That's just scratching the surface. I'll probably post more as I use the OS.
Installing Leopard
As I write this, I'm installing Mac OS 10.5 Leopard on my MacBook Pro, with my trusty old iBook G4 online in case something happens and I need to access the Internet for a fix.
Before commencing the install, I fired up OnyX and had it run all the maintenance scripts and clean out the various caches on the box. Only after that finished and the machine rebooted did I pop in the Leopard disc. To be on the safe side, I made backups of my Address Book, Firefox bookmarks, and my iCal database. Yesterday I did a full backup of my data to a Firewire drive. I'm doing an "Archive and Install," rather than an upgrade. This option makes copies the old OS to an archive folder, then installs the new OS. Should anything go wrong this should mean an easier restoration to Tiger.
I started the Leopard install at 19:22. I'll post a follow up after it's done.
Before commencing the install, I fired up OnyX and had it run all the maintenance scripts and clean out the various caches on the box. Only after that finished and the machine rebooted did I pop in the Leopard disc. To be on the safe side, I made backups of my Address Book, Firefox bookmarks, and my iCal database. Yesterday I did a full backup of my data to a Firewire drive. I'm doing an "Archive and Install," rather than an upgrade. This option makes copies the old OS to an archive folder, then installs the new OS. Should anything go wrong this should mean an easier restoration to Tiger.
I started the Leopard install at 19:22. I'll post a follow up after it's done.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Pennsylvania “Castle Doctrine” Bill Set to be Heard in House Judiciary Committee!
Friday, December 07, 2007
"Castle Doctrine" legislation, House Bill 641, introduced by State Representative Steven Cappelli (R-83), will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, December 11 at 10:00 a.m. in Room G50 of the Irvis Office Building.
This critical legislation will ensure that law-abiding Pennsylvanians have the ability to defend themselves and their loved ones from violent attack without fear of criminal prosecution or civil action.
Please contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee and strongly encourage him or her to protect our right to self-defense by supporting and voting for HB 641!
Members of the House Judiciary Committee:
State Representative Thomas R. Caltagirone (D-127), Chairman
(717) 787-3525
tcaltagi@pahouse.net
State Representative Daylin Leach (D-149), Secretary
(717) 783-9114
dleach@pahouse.net
State Representative Kathy Manderino (D-194)
(717) 787-1254
kmanderi@pahouse.net
State Representative John E. Pallone (D-54)
(717) 783-1819
jpallone@pahouse.net
State Representative Don Walko (D-20)
(717) 787-5470
dwalko@pahouse.net
State Representative Ron Marsico (R-105), Chairman
(717) 783-2014
rmarsico@pahousegop.com
State Representative Lisa Bennington (D-21)
(717) 705-7011
lbennington@pahouse.net
State Representative Dan Frankel (D-23)
(717) 705-1875
dfrankel@pahouse.net
State Representative Harold James (D-186)
(717) 787-9477
hjames@pahouse.net
State Representative Deberah Kula (D-52)
(717) 772-1858
dkula@pahouse.net
State Representative Bryan R. Lentz (D-161)
(717) 787-8574
blentz@pahouse.net
State Representative Joseph A. Petrarca (D-55)
(717) 787-5142
petrarca@pahouse.net
State Representative Sean M. Ramaley (D-16)
(717) 787-4444
Sramaley@pahouse.net
State Representative Greg Vitali (D-166)
(717) 787-7647
greg@gregvitali.com
State Representative Chelsa Wagner (D-22)
(717) 783-1582
repwagner@pahouse.net
State Representative Jesse White (D-46)
(717) 783-6437
jwhite@pahouse.net
State Representative Jewell Williams (D-197)
(717) 772-2004
jwilliam@pahouse.net
State Representative Tom C. Creighton (R-37)
(717) 772-5290
tcreight@pahousegop.com
State Representative Craig A. Dally (R-138)
(717) 783-8573
cdally@pahousegop.com
State Representative John R. Evans (R-5)
(717) 772-9940
jevans@pahousegop.com
State Representative Will Gabig (R-199)
(717) 772-2280
wgabig@pahousegop.com
State Representative Glen R. Grell (R-87)
(717) 783-2063
ggrell@pahousegop.com
State Representative Kate Harper (R-61)
(717) 787-2801
kharper@pahousegop.com
State Representative Beverly Mackereth (R-196)
(717) 783-2655
bmackere@pahousegop.com
State Representative Carl W. Mantz (R-187)
(717) 787-3017
cmantz@pahousegop.com
State Representative Bernie O'Neill (R-29)
(717) 705-7170
boneill@pahousegop.com
State Representative Tina Pickett (R-110)
(717) 783-8238
tpickett@pahousegop.com
State Representative Todd Rock (R-90)
(717) 783-5218
trock@pahousegop.com
State Representative Katie True (R-41)
(717) 705-7161
ktrue@pahousegop.com
Copyright 2007, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.
LINK.
"Castle Doctrine" legislation, House Bill 641, introduced by State Representative Steven Cappelli (R-83), will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, December 11 at 10:00 a.m. in Room G50 of the Irvis Office Building.
This critical legislation will ensure that law-abiding Pennsylvanians have the ability to defend themselves and their loved ones from violent attack without fear of criminal prosecution or civil action.
Please contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee and strongly encourage him or her to protect our right to self-defense by supporting and voting for HB 641!
Members of the House Judiciary Committee:
State Representative Thomas R. Caltagirone (D-127), Chairman
(717) 787-3525
tcaltagi@pahouse.net
State Representative Daylin Leach (D-149), Secretary
(717) 783-9114
dleach@pahouse.net
State Representative Kathy Manderino (D-194)
(717) 787-1254
kmanderi@pahouse.net
State Representative John E. Pallone (D-54)
(717) 783-1819
jpallone@pahouse.net
State Representative Don Walko (D-20)
(717) 787-5470
dwalko@pahouse.net
State Representative Ron Marsico (R-105), Chairman
(717) 783-2014
rmarsico@pahousegop.com
State Representative Lisa Bennington (D-21)
(717) 705-7011
lbennington@pahouse.net
State Representative Dan Frankel (D-23)
(717) 705-1875
dfrankel@pahouse.net
State Representative Harold James (D-186)
(717) 787-9477
hjames@pahouse.net
State Representative Deberah Kula (D-52)
(717) 772-1858
dkula@pahouse.net
State Representative Bryan R. Lentz (D-161)
(717) 787-8574
blentz@pahouse.net
State Representative Joseph A. Petrarca (D-55)
(717) 787-5142
petrarca@pahouse.net
State Representative Sean M. Ramaley (D-16)
(717) 787-4444
Sramaley@pahouse.net
State Representative Greg Vitali (D-166)
(717) 787-7647
greg@gregvitali.com
State Representative Chelsa Wagner (D-22)
(717) 783-1582
repwagner@pahouse.net
State Representative Jesse White (D-46)
(717) 783-6437
jwhite@pahouse.net
State Representative Jewell Williams (D-197)
(717) 772-2004
jwilliam@pahouse.net
State Representative Tom C. Creighton (R-37)
(717) 772-5290
tcreight@pahousegop.com
State Representative Craig A. Dally (R-138)
(717) 783-8573
cdally@pahousegop.com
State Representative John R. Evans (R-5)
(717) 772-9940
jevans@pahousegop.com
State Representative Will Gabig (R-199)
(717) 772-2280
wgabig@pahousegop.com
State Representative Glen R. Grell (R-87)
(717) 783-2063
ggrell@pahousegop.com
State Representative Kate Harper (R-61)
(717) 787-2801
kharper@pahousegop.com
State Representative Beverly Mackereth (R-196)
(717) 783-2655
bmackere@pahousegop.com
State Representative Carl W. Mantz (R-187)
(717) 787-3017
cmantz@pahousegop.com
State Representative Bernie O'Neill (R-29)
(717) 705-7170
boneill@pahousegop.com
State Representative Tina Pickett (R-110)
(717) 783-8238
tpickett@pahousegop.com
State Representative Todd Rock (R-90)
(717) 783-5218
trock@pahousegop.com
State Representative Katie True (R-41)
(717) 705-7161
ktrue@pahousegop.com
Copyright 2007, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.
LINK.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Happy Channukah
Today is the first full day of Channukah; the holiday started last night at sundown. As has become my custom, I will link to my Channukah 2004 post, here.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
How to Help Win Heller
Academics for the Second Amendment
Post Office Box 131254
St. Paul, Minn. 55113
http://AcademicsSecondAmendment.blogspot.com
Post Office Box 131254
St. Paul, Minn. 55113
http://AcademicsSecondAmendment.blogspot.com
Academics for the Second Amendment ("A2A") will be filing an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court in support of Mr. Heller (and urging the Supreme Court to affirm the Court of Appeals decision that the DC gun laws are unconstitutional). Our brief will be written by attorneys David Hardy and Joseph Olson with historical assistance from Clayton Cramer. As one of the several pro-gun amici, we'll be taking an approach that focuses on the ratification process in 1791 and the meaning and usage of terms found in the Second Amendment. We will show that no one in America, at that time, could have understood the amendment to preserve a state or government organization's "right" and that everyone who did speak out did so in the context of a meaningful individual right to keep and bear arms.
District of Columbia v. Heller will decide whether or not the Second Amendment protects any American from gun bans and confiscations.
Preparing and filing the amicus brief will take thousands of additional dollars. A2A will be facing attorney fees, printing expenses, filing fees, travel and lodging expenses, etc. We have some money but not enough.
A2A is a tax-exempt educational organization recognized under IRC §501(c)(3) [that makes your contributions tax-deductible]. Our primary goal is to give the “right to keep and bear arms” enshrined in the Bill of Rights its proper, prominent place in Constitutional discourse and analysis.
A2A was formed in 1992 by a number of present and former law school teachers, joined by historians, political scientists, and philosophers of government, who believe it is time to stand and be counted in support of a complete Bill of Rights which includes an individual right under the Second Amendment. The organization seeks to foster intellectually honest discourse on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and, of course, the environment in which academics, judges, politicians, and the public place the rights preserved by the Second Amendment.
A2A has filed friend-of-the-court briefs (A2A was an amicus in the U.S. Supreme Court in Lopez and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Emerson), sponsored academic symposia, encouraged media commentary, supported research and publication, and challenged the legal profession and the public to appreciate the place of the individual right to keep and bear arms in the American constitutional scheme. A major endeavor has been a series of “Open Letter” advertisements signed by groups of University and College professors. The signers cannot be dismissed by the media as “gun nuts” nor can their statements be ignored as without foundation. Their academic records and reputations are too strong for that to occur. The message is simple – the Second Amendment is there, it does preserve a meaningful individual right for responsible persons, and it cannot, without duplicity, be overlooked or interpreted into meaninglessness.
We need your help. If you believe in full and fair discourse on the Bill of Rights, A2A should receive your support. A2A is open to all. You don’t have to be “academic” in order to join. Your contributions are tax deductible. Please don’t ignore this request --- copy this post for a friend, forward it on, and send in your check or use our PayPal account.
Very truly yours,
Joseph Olson
Professor of Law
President
-----
Note from Dave: A2A now has a PayPal donation button at their site. Yes, PayPal is antigun. However, this lets us use their service to our advantage. If you don't want to use PayPal, please consider a donation via check.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Firefox 2.0.0.10 vs. Safari 3.0
Ever since Apple released OS 10.4.11, which included the non-beta version of Safari 3.0, I've been using it as my deafult browser. Overall, it's worked very well. Compared with the beta, the released version is more stable and works with more web sites. E.g., the Haloscan comments on GeekWithA45's blog no longer crash the browser.
Safari's integration with the OS X Keychain is a big plus in my book. It's more secure than the manner in which Firefox stores passwords. Safari integrates with other Apple software as well, e.g., right-clicking on an image on a web page allows you the option of adding it directly to your iPhoto library.
My one major problem with Safari 3.0 has been incomplete compatability with Blogger's post compostition window. Specifically, I often like to compose posts (like this one, AAMOF) offline in TextWrangler, then paste them into the Blogger composition window. That doesn't work in Safari, the pasted text appears on the page below the text entry block.
Safari also lacks a few extensions which I like, to wit:
So, today I downloaded the latest update to Firefox, v2.0.0.10. None of the extensions seem to have been broken. Just as noteworthy, this version seems to be a bit faster than 2.0.0.9.
I'll putz around some with Firefox 2.0.0.10 before deciding whether to keep it as my default, or go back to Safari.
As an aside, now that the first patch was made available for Leopard, I do plan to upgrade to 10.5.1. Just as soon as I get a roundtuit.
Safari's integration with the OS X Keychain is a big plus in my book. It's more secure than the manner in which Firefox stores passwords. Safari integrates with other Apple software as well, e.g., right-clicking on an image on a web page allows you the option of adding it directly to your iPhoto library.
My one major problem with Safari 3.0 has been incomplete compatability with Blogger's post compostition window. Specifically, I often like to compose posts (like this one, AAMOF) offline in TextWrangler, then paste them into the Blogger composition window. That doesn't work in Safari, the pasted text appears on the page below the text entry block.
Safari also lacks a few extensions which I like, to wit:
- Linkification,
- DownlThemAll, and
- AdBlock Plus.
So, today I downloaded the latest update to Firefox, v2.0.0.10. None of the extensions seem to have been broken. Just as noteworthy, this version seems to be a bit faster than 2.0.0.9.
I'll putz around some with Firefox 2.0.0.10 before deciding whether to keep it as my default, or go back to Safari.
As an aside, now that the first patch was made available for Leopard, I do plan to upgrade to 10.5.1. Just as soon as I get a roundtuit.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Kubuntu 7.10
In my lab I have a Dell Latitude D600 which is setup to dual boot Windows XP Pro and Linux. At first, I had SUSE but sometime last year I installed Kubuntu 6.10 on the Linux partition. Yesterday, I decided to upgrade to the latest version of Kubuntu -- 7.10.
Upgrading from one version of Kubuntu to the next should be fairly straightforward. You go into the K menu > System > Adept Manager and select Full Upgrade. Since I was on 6.10 and the next step up was 7.04, I had to get to 7.10 in two steps.
The upgrade to 7.04 went fairly smoothly. However, the upgrade program overwrote my /boot/menu.lst file, so Windows XP was no longer an option in Grub's boot menu. Making a note of that I went and upgraded to 7.10.
This morning I went into /boot and found an older version of menu.lst and copied the entry for XP into the new file, then rebooted. "Microsoft Windows XP" appeared in the list of OSes to boot, and when selected, I was able to load it. Whew.
Aside from upgrading the OS, I wanted to check out the Enlightenment window manager. Enlightenment, or "E," is not a full desktop environment like KDE or Gnome. It supports some neat eye candy, but its main attraction is that it's lighter weight than the full desktops, so runs better on lower end hardware. (The Dell runs KDE or Gnome just fine, but I wanted to check out E's usability.)
To install Enlightenment using apt-get from a CLI, I first had to enable additional package repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list. Then, do apt-get update, and finally, apt-get install enlightenment.
E is kinda neat and I'll continue to mess with it, but on systems that can handle a full desktop environment I do find it easier to work in KDE.
So far, Kubuntu seems to run OK on the Dell. I don't use it heavily but it remains one of the more user-friendly Linux distros I've tried. I prefer it over Ubuntu, since it defaults to KDE rather than Gnome for the desktop, though it's simple to install KDE on Ubuntu or Gnome on Kubuntu. For that matter, I may go ahead and install Windowmaker on the Dell, for a NeXTish experience. ;)
Upgrading from one version of Kubuntu to the next should be fairly straightforward. You go into the K menu > System > Adept Manager and select Full Upgrade. Since I was on 6.10 and the next step up was 7.04, I had to get to 7.10 in two steps.
The upgrade to 7.04 went fairly smoothly. However, the upgrade program overwrote my /boot/menu.lst file, so Windows XP was no longer an option in Grub's boot menu. Making a note of that I went and upgraded to 7.10.
This morning I went into /boot and found an older version of menu.lst and copied the entry for XP into the new file, then rebooted. "Microsoft Windows XP" appeared in the list of OSes to boot, and when selected, I was able to load it. Whew.
Aside from upgrading the OS, I wanted to check out the Enlightenment window manager. Enlightenment, or "E," is not a full desktop environment like KDE or Gnome. It supports some neat eye candy, but its main attraction is that it's lighter weight than the full desktops, so runs better on lower end hardware. (The Dell runs KDE or Gnome just fine, but I wanted to check out E's usability.)
To install Enlightenment using apt-get from a CLI, I first had to enable additional package repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list. Then, do apt-get update, and finally, apt-get install enlightenment.
E is kinda neat and I'll continue to mess with it, but on systems that can handle a full desktop environment I do find it easier to work in KDE.
So far, Kubuntu seems to run OK on the Dell. I don't use it heavily but it remains one of the more user-friendly Linux distros I've tried. I prefer it over Ubuntu, since it defaults to KDE rather than Gnome for the desktop, though it's simple to install KDE on Ubuntu or Gnome on Kubuntu. For that matter, I may go ahead and install Windowmaker on the Dell, for a NeXTish experience. ;)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
PA Update: WE WON
Yesterday I went to Harrisburg along with GeekWithA.45 and Egregious Charles to attend the meeting of the PA House Judiciary Committee, which was considering three gun control laws. The primary drivers of the proposed legislation were from Philadelphia, and Governor Ed Rendell (D). In an unusual move, Rendell appeared before the committee to testify in favor of the bills. He gave a 45 minute passionate speech, full of the usual anti-gun cliches: "If it saves one life ...," "Common sense ...," "We dont' want to take guns away from hunters...." Blah, blah, blah. Nowhere in his speed did he provide real reasons why the proposed laws would reduce crime.
HB-18 would allow local municipalities to enact their own gun control laws, repealing state preemption which was enacted in 1995. Its supporters contend that this is needed to fight crime.
HB-22 would enact one gun per month legislation. It was put forth as a means of fighting straw purchases.
HB-29 would make it a crime for a gun owner to fail to report to the police the loss of theft of a gun. This was proposed as a means of assisting law enforcement in tracing guns later used in crimes.
HB-18 failed by a vote of 19-10. HB-22 failed 17-12. HB-29 was tabled for later consideration. It is expected to be reintroduced later after its sponsors "fix" certain provisions which other members of the committee had previously expressed reservations about. The motion to table came from the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jewell Williams (D-Philly), who saw that otherwise it was about to go down in flames.
One bill did make it out of committee. It would enhance penalties for killing or attempting to kill police officers.
Afterwards, Rep. Ronald Marsico (R - Dauphin County) reamed Rendell, "Public safety has not been a priority for this governor," and proceeded to catalog a list of ways in which the governor has failed to take meaningful steps to fight crime, such as putting more police on the streets.
Also afterwards, a rep who's name I didn't catch pleaded with the committee for limited gun control measure, such as enacting laws with a 1 or 2 year sunset provision. His desperation was evident.
The NRA and local PA RKBA groups had blitzed PA gun owners with warnings about these bills. There was a decent turnout of pro-liberty folks, not much turnout from the gun banners except for the usual police officers sent for Rendell's photo-op.
Except for a few areas in Pennsylvania (most notably Philadelphia), gun control remains very unpopular. Voting in favor of gun control legislation in most of PA is considered a sure way to get fired by the voters. We'll have to work to keep it that way.
HB-18 would allow local municipalities to enact their own gun control laws, repealing state preemption which was enacted in 1995. Its supporters contend that this is needed to fight crime.
HB-22 would enact one gun per month legislation. It was put forth as a means of fighting straw purchases.
HB-29 would make it a crime for a gun owner to fail to report to the police the loss of theft of a gun. This was proposed as a means of assisting law enforcement in tracing guns later used in crimes.
HB-18 failed by a vote of 19-10. HB-22 failed 17-12. HB-29 was tabled for later consideration. It is expected to be reintroduced later after its sponsors "fix" certain provisions which other members of the committee had previously expressed reservations about. The motion to table came from the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jewell Williams (D-Philly), who saw that otherwise it was about to go down in flames.
One bill did make it out of committee. It would enhance penalties for killing or attempting to kill police officers.
Afterwards, Rep. Ronald Marsico (R - Dauphin County) reamed Rendell, "Public safety has not been a priority for this governor," and proceeded to catalog a list of ways in which the governor has failed to take meaningful steps to fight crime, such as putting more police on the streets.
Also afterwards, a rep who's name I didn't catch pleaded with the committee for limited gun control measure, such as enacting laws with a 1 or 2 year sunset provision. His desperation was evident.
The NRA and local PA RKBA groups had blitzed PA gun owners with warnings about these bills. There was a decent turnout of pro-liberty folks, not much turnout from the gun banners except for the usual police officers sent for Rendell's photo-op.
Except for a few areas in Pennsylvania (most notably Philadelphia), gun control remains very unpopular. Voting in favor of gun control legislation in most of PA is considered a sure way to get fired by the voters. We'll have to work to keep it that way.
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