This morning we all piled into the Expedition and went to Cabela's in Hamburg, PA. I figured the girls would really like the various mounted animals and the aquariums, and I wasn't disappointed.
Not surprisingly for this time of year, the store was mobbed. This in spite of the current down economy. The crowd in the gun section was especially heavy, stacked two deep in front of the gun counter. I expected this in light of last week's election results. I restrained myself and only bought a bulk pack of 525 rounds of Federal .22 LR ammo for $14.99 and a large spray can of RemOil. (I've come to like RemOil as a cleaner, but IMO it's too light for general lube or anti-corrosion protection. It's especially handy for hosing out the innards of a dirty AR-15, and the smell isn't bad.)
Aside from the ammo and oil, we got the girls stuffed horses, Judith got some clothes, and I got a new cap to replace one I lost a couple weeks ago.
While there we had lunch. I can recommend the venison bratwurst. Yum.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Range Report
Dad and I made it out to the range today for a couple of hours. Dad had his Colt AR-15A3 while I brought my Savage 93GL in .22 WMR, 1944 Underwood M1 Carbine, and my Marlin 336 in .30-30.
Dad was shooting mostly Wolf 55 grain .223 today in his AR-15 and experienced a couple failures of the action to stay open on the last shot with it. He also ran some Radway Green SS109 loads through it with no problems. He probably has less than 500 rounds through the gun so it's not broken in yet. I suggested that he stick with the hotter milspec ammo for another couple hundred rounds, after which time it should run better with the Wolf ammo, which is not as hot as American .223/5.56mm.
This was the first time shooting the Savage 93GL since I put a Nikon 4x32mm Prostaff rimfire scope on it. I did my initial zero using some Winchester Dynapoints I picked up over the summer at Wal-Mart. I've read that they are a bit less destructive on game than most .22 WMR JHPs so I wanted to give them a try. Accuracy with the Winchesters was good -- well under an inch at 50 yards -- but I had two rounds in one box of 50 which required a second strike on a different part of the rim to go off. Very dissappointing.
I also shot some CCI Maxi Mag JHPs through the Savage to confirm the zero, since this is my normal .22 WMR load of choice. I had my first ever dud with CCI rimfire ammo today. One round failed to fire even after being hit on three different places on the rim. {grumble}
This was also the first time shooting the Savage after installing a Rifle Basix sear. My rifle was made before Savage put Accu-Triggers on their rimfire bolt actions. The factory trigger was heavy and had a lot of creep. With the Rifle Basix sear most of the creep is gone and it breaks at about 2.5 lbs, greatly improving shootability.
I only put about 30 or 40 rounds of Remington UMC FMJ through the M1, but experienced no malfunctions. As expected it shot a little high at 50 yards but I kept all shots in about 2 or 3 inches, typical for an M1 Carbine in my experience. This Carbine was one of the batch imported from Israel last year. It has a fair amount of surface character but the bore is excellent. The recoil seemed a just little brisk for an M1 so I think the recoil spring may need to be replaced with one from Wolff Gunsprings.
Dad was shooting mostly Wolf 55 grain .223 today in his AR-15 and experienced a couple failures of the action to stay open on the last shot with it. He also ran some Radway Green SS109 loads through it with no problems. He probably has less than 500 rounds through the gun so it's not broken in yet. I suggested that he stick with the hotter milspec ammo for another couple hundred rounds, after which time it should run better with the Wolf ammo, which is not as hot as American .223/5.56mm.
This was the first time shooting the Savage 93GL since I put a Nikon 4x32mm Prostaff rimfire scope on it. I did my initial zero using some Winchester Dynapoints I picked up over the summer at Wal-Mart. I've read that they are a bit less destructive on game than most .22 WMR JHPs so I wanted to give them a try. Accuracy with the Winchesters was good -- well under an inch at 50 yards -- but I had two rounds in one box of 50 which required a second strike on a different part of the rim to go off. Very dissappointing.
I also shot some CCI Maxi Mag JHPs through the Savage to confirm the zero, since this is my normal .22 WMR load of choice. I had my first ever dud with CCI rimfire ammo today. One round failed to fire even after being hit on three different places on the rim. {grumble}
This was also the first time shooting the Savage after installing a Rifle Basix sear. My rifle was made before Savage put Accu-Triggers on their rimfire bolt actions. The factory trigger was heavy and had a lot of creep. With the Rifle Basix sear most of the creep is gone and it breaks at about 2.5 lbs, greatly improving shootability.
I only put about 30 or 40 rounds of Remington UMC FMJ through the M1, but experienced no malfunctions. As expected it shot a little high at 50 yards but I kept all shots in about 2 or 3 inches, typical for an M1 Carbine in my experience. This Carbine was one of the batch imported from Israel last year. It has a fair amount of surface character but the bore is excellent. The recoil seemed a just little brisk for an M1 so I think the recoil spring may need to be replaced with one from Wolff Gunsprings.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Debian Linux
One of the projects with which I'm involved at work requires me to determine how much bandwidth a streaming IP video product is consuming. To do so I wanted to run ntop, a protocol analyzer which can present data in nice pretty graphs (important for showing to PHBs).
I've used ntop off and on in the past but one thing that's always been a PITA is installing it. I first tried installing it on my CentOS 5.2 box but ran into dependency hell. Next I tried on my Dell Latituded D600, which was a dual-boot XP Pro and OpenSUSE 11 box. No dice, YAST couldn't find it or rrdtool (a dependency) in the OpenSUSE repositories. So, I decided to give Debian a try.
I haven't tried plain Debian in years, though I've used derivatives, such as Knoppix and (K)Ubuntu recently. I am pretty impressed.
To install Debian I downloaded and burned the netinstall image to a DVD (it'll fit on a CD but I didn't have any handy). The installer recognized all the hardware in my Dell and didn't screw up my XP installation, either.
To get my Intel Pro2200BG wifi NIC running, I had to download firmware, but basic support was already in the 2.6 kernel I'm running. I'm on an open network and haven't yet tried it on a network with encryption.
Aside from ntop I installed some other network monitoring tools, including nmap, Wireshar, and airsnort, all from Debian's repositories.
So far, so good. I wish I had tried Debian years ago.
I've used ntop off and on in the past but one thing that's always been a PITA is installing it. I first tried installing it on my CentOS 5.2 box but ran into dependency hell. Next I tried on my Dell Latituded D600, which was a dual-boot XP Pro and OpenSUSE 11 box. No dice, YAST couldn't find it or rrdtool (a dependency) in the OpenSUSE repositories. So, I decided to give Debian a try.
I haven't tried plain Debian in years, though I've used derivatives, such as Knoppix and (K)Ubuntu recently. I am pretty impressed.
To install Debian I downloaded and burned the netinstall image to a DVD (it'll fit on a CD but I didn't have any handy). The installer recognized all the hardware in my Dell and didn't screw up my XP installation, either.
To get my Intel Pro2200BG wifi NIC running, I had to download firmware, but basic support was already in the 2.6 kernel I'm running. I'm on an open network and haven't yet tried it on a network with encryption.
Aside from ntop I installed some other network monitoring tools, including nmap, Wireshar, and airsnort, all from Debian's repositories.
So far, so good. I wish I had tried Debian years ago.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Post Election Thought
After watching the results last night this is the first thing that came to mind:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
--Thomas Paine, Crisis In America I.
And then this:
[N]ever give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
--Sir Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941, Harrow School.
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
--Thomas Paine, Crisis In America I.
And then this:
[N]ever give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
--Sir Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941, Harrow School.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Voted This Morning
This morning I arrived at my polling place about 7:10 and had a ten minute wait. By the time I left the line went out the door. In the two decades I've been voting at this place, I've never seen such a line.
It's going to be a nail-biter.
It's going to be a nail-biter.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Obama Exposed
One last pre-election bump for my other blog, Obama Exposed. If you haven't checked it out in awhile please take a look.
McCain/Palin '08!
McCain/Palin '08!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Apple Store Visit
Yesterday I went over to the Apple Store in King of Prussia, PA with a friend, mainly to check out the new MacBooks and MB Pros. The new machines are nice, though IMHO the deletion of the FireWire 400 port from the MacBooks was a mistake. I also would like to see two FireWire ports on the MacBook Pros (Rohan, my almost two year-old MBP has FW 800 and FW 400 ports). The MBs have two USB 2.0 ports but IME, FW400 provides better sustained throughput than the supposedly faster USB 2.0.
The new trackpads are nice and address one problem (IMHO) that Apple needed to. Namely, the lack of a two button mouse. The entire trackpad acts like a mouse button, even down to the click. But if you go into System Preferences > Trackpad, you can configure either the lower left or right corner as a secondary mouse button. Voila, you now have a two button mouse. Sweet.
The other reason for taking a trip to the KoP store was to get a new power supply for my wife's G4 iBook. The iBook was issued to her by the School District of Philadelphia about 2.5 - 3 years ago and it's been great. A few days ago she noticed it wasn't charging and Friday night, I discovered that this was because the cord was frayed near where it plugs into the iBook. It was delivering enough juice to slowly charge the machine when it was off, but not nearly enough when the box was powered on. Worse, it's a fire hazard.
Luckily, I was able to use the power supply from the G4 iBook I used as my primary machine before buying Rohan. That box gets occasional use by my daughters, and the Apple power supply design could be more robust, so I didn't want to share it between the two iBooks.
Unfortunately, the school district is strapped for cash and the odds of getting a replacement power supply through it are about nil, so I reluctantly coughed up the cash for a new one. If and when Judith has to return the iBook to the school district, I'll keep the new power supply as a spare.
The new trackpads are nice and address one problem (IMHO) that Apple needed to. Namely, the lack of a two button mouse. The entire trackpad acts like a mouse button, even down to the click. But if you go into System Preferences > Trackpad, you can configure either the lower left or right corner as a secondary mouse button. Voila, you now have a two button mouse. Sweet.
The other reason for taking a trip to the KoP store was to get a new power supply for my wife's G4 iBook. The iBook was issued to her by the School District of Philadelphia about 2.5 - 3 years ago and it's been great. A few days ago she noticed it wasn't charging and Friday night, I discovered that this was because the cord was frayed near where it plugs into the iBook. It was delivering enough juice to slowly charge the machine when it was off, but not nearly enough when the box was powered on. Worse, it's a fire hazard.
Luckily, I was able to use the power supply from the G4 iBook I used as my primary machine before buying Rohan. That box gets occasional use by my daughters, and the Apple power supply design could be more robust, so I didn't want to share it between the two iBooks.
Unfortunately, the school district is strapped for cash and the odds of getting a replacement power supply through it are about nil, so I reluctantly coughed up the cash for a new one. If and when Judith has to return the iBook to the school district, I'll keep the new power supply as a spare.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
OS X Server
I've spent the past couple days at work setting up one of the two Apple XServs that we received last month. So far, I'm liking the GUI admin tools included with Leopard Server, though I am also doing some tweaking via the command line accessed via ssh. Also, to add some flexibility, I installed X11 and the XCode Developer Tools. For one thing, I need gcc.
Specifically, I want to run Cacti on the box to provide SNMP monitoring of devices in our lab network, e.g., routers, switches, and CMTSes. Cacti is basically a graphical front end to RRDTools, providing a web interface using PHP. I installed MacPorts to simplify installing Cacti and its dependencies. Unfortunately, the MacPorts install of net-snmp bombed so I wound up installing it by hand. (This wasn't a big surprise. I've had ports fail to install using MacPorts before on other boxes.) With net-snmp installed I was able to get RRDTool installed, including the MySQL dependency. Being an MySQL n00b, I'm working my way through getting that configured.
Aside from the Xserv providing network management and monitoring, I'm using it as a web server to provide a portal for our lab management group. The initial version of the portal is based on a simple, static HTML page with links to forms and informtational documents.
However, OS X.5 Server includes a wiki server to build workgroup intranets. I've managed to create a pretty decent looking wiki for our group. I still need to figure out how to enable read-only access for people not in our group, so they can view our procedures and download forms. The default workgroup wiki settings require users to authenticate before they can view the pages we create.
Future services on the box will also include file sharing, once I get an XRAID connected.
Specifically, I want to run Cacti on the box to provide SNMP monitoring of devices in our lab network, e.g., routers, switches, and CMTSes. Cacti is basically a graphical front end to RRDTools, providing a web interface using PHP. I installed MacPorts to simplify installing Cacti and its dependencies. Unfortunately, the MacPorts install of net-snmp bombed so I wound up installing it by hand. (This wasn't a big surprise. I've had ports fail to install using MacPorts before on other boxes.) With net-snmp installed I was able to get RRDTool installed, including the MySQL dependency. Being an MySQL n00b, I'm working my way through getting that configured.
Aside from the Xserv providing network management and monitoring, I'm using it as a web server to provide a portal for our lab management group. The initial version of the portal is based on a simple, static HTML page with links to forms and informtational documents.
However, OS X.5 Server includes a wiki server to build workgroup intranets. I've managed to create a pretty decent looking wiki for our group. I still need to figure out how to enable read-only access for people not in our group, so they can view our procedures and download forms. The default workgroup wiki settings require users to authenticate before they can view the pages we create.
Future services on the box will also include file sharing, once I get an XRAID connected.
Monday, October 13, 2008
New Blackberry Curve
My employer issues me a Blackberry 8330 Curve since I am one of the floor captains in our building. We have an unlimited data plan and I've never gotten any complaints about using it to surf the web outside of normal business hours, though I didn't feel comfortable putting my personal email accounts on the device. It does have a few disadvantages, though:
So, yesterday I went to the local Verizon store and bought a Blackberry Curve 8330 pretty much the same as the T-Mobile one from work. Aside from the $49.99 credit, there's also a $79.99 mail-in rebate, so the final cost of the phone, belt case, car charger, and a 2 GB Micro SD card will be only $100.
The T-Mobile phone is configured to use wifi connections when available. The Verizon Blackberry doesn't have that capability, but it doesn't really need it due to Verizon's better network coverage.
My employer has a deal worked out with Verizon for a 20% discount on cell phone plans, including data plans. So I got the 5 GB/month data plan and the $15/month tethering plan, with the first month's tethering free.
Since my laptop is a MacBook Pro I specifically asked about Mac support tethering and syncronization. The Verizonbot told that both are supported but that I'd need to download the PocketMac sync tool from Blackberry.com. The tethering software would be included on the CD in the phone box.
Nope.
After inserting the CD and finding Windows-only tethering software, I hit Google. I found two ways to tether the Blackberry to Rohan:
Oh well, bitching aside, I'm able to get about a meg down using the USB connection to Verizon's EVDO network. Bluetooth speeds are about half that. Web browsing speeds using Opera Mini are better than the T-Mobile Blackberry. Accessing my Gmail account, using Google's downloadable app, works much more smoothly. So far I've made only a couple phone calls but call quality was better than my old Motorola Razr.
- The camera is disabled for security purposes. Nevermind the fact that plenty of personally owned camera phones are allowed in the building.
- Tethering is disabled, so I can't use it to get my laptop online. Even if tethering was enabled, T-Mobile just lit up their 3G network in Philly and my device supports only their EDGE network, which is much slower.
- Our carrier is T-Mobile. We used to have Sprint, who has decent service in the Philadelphia area. T-Mobile's network coverage is much spottier.
So, yesterday I went to the local Verizon store and bought a Blackberry Curve 8330 pretty much the same as the T-Mobile one from work. Aside from the $49.99 credit, there's also a $79.99 mail-in rebate, so the final cost of the phone, belt case, car charger, and a 2 GB Micro SD card will be only $100.
The T-Mobile phone is configured to use wifi connections when available. The Verizon Blackberry doesn't have that capability, but it doesn't really need it due to Verizon's better network coverage.
My employer has a deal worked out with Verizon for a 20% discount on cell phone plans, including data plans. So I got the 5 GB/month data plan and the $15/month tethering plan, with the first month's tethering free.
Since my laptop is a MacBook Pro I specifically asked about Mac support tethering and syncronization. The Verizonbot told that both are supported but that I'd need to download the PocketMac sync tool from Blackberry.com. The tethering software would be included on the CD in the phone box.
Nope.
After inserting the CD and finding Windows-only tethering software, I hit Google. I found two ways to tether the Blackberry to Rohan:
- Via Bluetooth, which requires no additional software.
- Via USB, which required me to download Verizon's connection manager software for one of their EVDO cards.
Oh well, bitching aside, I'm able to get about a meg down using the USB connection to Verizon's EVDO network. Bluetooth speeds are about half that. Web browsing speeds using Opera Mini are better than the T-Mobile Blackberry. Accessing my Gmail account, using Google's downloadable app, works much more smoothly. So far I've made only a couple phone calls but call quality was better than my old Motorola Razr.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Gun Show Loophole
Clayton Cramer comments on the so-called "gun show loophole:"
As Clayton details, there is no correlation between gun shows and increased crime.
Most gun owners know that there is no loophole. Federal law does not currently prohibit two private parties transferring a firearm. Some states have laws about this, but the federal government does not. There is no more a gun show "loophole" than there is a newspaper advertisement "loophole" because newspapers accept ads for guns for sale.
As Clayton details, there is no correlation between gun shows and increased crime.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Red Hat Training
The Red Hat Linux training class I took this week wrapped up early on Friday, allowing me to leave and work from home the rest of the day. I'm currently on the back porch with Rohan, a glass of water (booze will wait for later), and an H. Uppman Vintage Cameroon cigar. May as well take advantage of a beautiful Fall day, before they're gone. ;-)
Overall the class -- Guru Labs GL250 Enterprise Linux System Administration was pretty good. It could have been a bit more organized the first day or two. E.g., the server in room needed the full Fedora Core 6 repository setup but otherwise it went well.
The exercises in our lab book were geared towards Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or Fedora Core 6. This was my first time working with FC and it seems decent (I am aware that FC9 is the current release).
I'm considering going for RHCT and maybe RHCE certification. I figure with the current state of the economy the more certs I have the better. That means I'll need to setup a lab here at the house. What I may do is rebuild Bagend -- currently sitting sans hard disk -- with additional RAM and a bigger disk than I had in it, loading CentOS 5.2, and installing a couple of different virtual Linux boxes under VirtualBox. Earlier this week I did setup FC6 in VirtualBox on Rohan but for the purposes of lab exercises more machines would be beneficial. Since I have limited physical space virtualized servers makes the most sense for me.
Bagend, which I build back in the Fall of 2004, currently has 1 GB of RAM, an AlthonXP at around 2 GHz, and had an 80 GB disk in it. I have some old IDE disks I could add for additional space but recently, Microcenter advertised a 1 terabyte drive for about $129. What I'll probably do is put the 80 GB disk back in and leave its XP Pro install alone, then add a large secondary disk and install CentOS on that, so I have a dual boot setup. Then I'll add another gig or so of RAM and it should be good to go.
Overall the class -- Guru Labs GL250 Enterprise Linux System Administration was pretty good. It could have been a bit more organized the first day or two. E.g., the server in room needed the full Fedora Core 6 repository setup but otherwise it went well.
The exercises in our lab book were geared towards Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or Fedora Core 6. This was my first time working with FC and it seems decent (I am aware that FC9 is the current release).
I'm considering going for RHCT and maybe RHCE certification. I figure with the current state of the economy the more certs I have the better. That means I'll need to setup a lab here at the house. What I may do is rebuild Bagend -- currently sitting sans hard disk -- with additional RAM and a bigger disk than I had in it, loading CentOS 5.2, and installing a couple of different virtual Linux boxes under VirtualBox. Earlier this week I did setup FC6 in VirtualBox on Rohan but for the purposes of lab exercises more machines would be beneficial. Since I have limited physical space virtualized servers makes the most sense for me.
Bagend, which I build back in the Fall of 2004, currently has 1 GB of RAM, an AlthonXP at around 2 GHz, and had an 80 GB disk in it. I have some old IDE disks I could add for additional space but recently, Microcenter advertised a 1 terabyte drive for about $129. What I'll probably do is put the 80 GB disk back in and leave its XP Pro install alone, then add a large secondary disk and install CentOS on that, so I have a dual boot setup. Then I'll add another gig or so of RAM and it should be good to go.
Friday, October 03, 2008
The Bailout Mess
So far I haven't commented on the bailout proposed by Bush and is working its way through Congress. Two people who's opinions I respect, Jerry Pournelle and Robert Bruce Thompson, have differing opinions (both are linked in my blogroll if you want to see what they have to say).
Jerry supports a bailout and Robert opposes it. In the end, I have to come down on Robert's side in this debate and oppose the bill in its current form, or in any form for that matter. It is a disaster waiting to happen. At best, a bailout will prop up the house of cards a bit longer, merely delaying the necessary correction. I am concerned that by doing so, the eventual collapse will be made worse. Much worse.
It is the nature of capitalism for bubbles to happen and then pop. The market needs a serious correction. Now. Actions must have consequence. The proposed bailout seeks to take private errors of judgement and socialize the poor consequnces, shifting the burden of poor decisions by investment bankers onto the backs of taxpayers.
Worse, by intertwining the Federal government even further into the market it lays the ground for fascism* or socialism. Both ideologies flourish in hard econimc times. Whether or not a completely laissez-faire capitalist system is the best can be debated among reasonable people. But fascism and socialism lead to tyranny.
Unfortunately too many useful idiots would welcome total goverment control over the market. Not me. Surely, the same people who brought us the IRS (renowned for customer service, and who couldn't run a profit at the Mustang Ranch when they seized it for back taxes), Amtrak, and No ChildGets Ahead Left Behind, couldn't possibly fuck up the economy beyond repair, could they?
* One of the biggest con jobs of 20th Century was the success of socialists and communists in getting fascism painted as a right-wing ideology. It's not. Fascism is more accurately described as socialism with a nationalist twist. Mussolini started out as a socialist. The formal name of the Nazi party in Germany was the NSDAP - the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Jerry supports a bailout and Robert opposes it. In the end, I have to come down on Robert's side in this debate and oppose the bill in its current form, or in any form for that matter. It is a disaster waiting to happen. At best, a bailout will prop up the house of cards a bit longer, merely delaying the necessary correction. I am concerned that by doing so, the eventual collapse will be made worse. Much worse.
It is the nature of capitalism for bubbles to happen and then pop. The market needs a serious correction. Now. Actions must have consequence. The proposed bailout seeks to take private errors of judgement and socialize the poor consequnces, shifting the burden of poor decisions by investment bankers onto the backs of taxpayers.
Worse, by intertwining the Federal government even further into the market it lays the ground for fascism* or socialism. Both ideologies flourish in hard econimc times. Whether or not a completely laissez-faire capitalist system is the best can be debated among reasonable people. But fascism and socialism lead to tyranny.
Unfortunately too many useful idiots would welcome total goverment control over the market. Not me. Surely, the same people who brought us the IRS (renowned for customer service, and who couldn't run a profit at the Mustang Ranch when they seized it for back taxes), Amtrak, and No Child
* One of the biggest con jobs of 20th Century was the success of socialists and communists in getting fascism painted as a right-wing ideology. It's not. Fascism is more accurately described as socialism with a nationalist twist. Mussolini started out as a socialist. The formal name of the Nazi party in Germany was the NSDAP - the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
New Security System
Yesterday I got to work from home while an experimental home security and monitoring system got installed. It's broadband-enabled, so that instead of using a phone line to contact the monitoring service, it uses my cable modem connection, with a cellular backup in case the cable modem connection goes down due to a system outage or tampering.
Included in the system are some door and window sensors, a motion sensor, a couple video cameras capable of streaming live video, a controller which can be used to automatically turn a lamp on or off, and a touch screen control panel. Everything connects back to the central hub via wireless and the door/window sensors are battery powered with an ~5 year battery life.
Overall it's pretty slick and I look forward to exploring its capabilities.
Included in the system are some door and window sensors, a motion sensor, a couple video cameras capable of streaming live video, a controller which can be used to automatically turn a lamp on or off, and a touch screen control panel. Everything connects back to the central hub via wireless and the door/window sensors are battery powered with an ~5 year battery life.
Overall it's pretty slick and I look forward to exploring its capabilities.
Some Lab PC Upgrades
Roughly six months ago I submitted a request for various items for our lab. E.g., some video cables and RAM upgrades for a few PCs and two G5 Power Macs. The request finally made its way through my employer's bureaucracy and we got the items earlier this week.
Three of the PCs which we use for evaluating software and networking hardware in my lab are boxes that we got a couple years ago from Intel. They have 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo CPUs, 120 GB SATA hard disks, and DVD burners. Graphics and sound aren't anything special, but they are solid, well-built boxes. Unfortunately, they only had one gig of RAM eachs. So, I upgraded two of them with an additional 2 GB of RAM, bringing them to a total of 3 gigs. This is the most that 32 bit XP will recognize, so maxing the boxes out with 8 GB (the maximum supported by the hardware) would be pointless.
I added another 4 GB to the remaining PC, however, for a total of 5 GB. That box will get a fresh install of 64 bit Vista Enterprise. I currently have 32 bit Vista Ultimate on it and with only 1 GB, it runs like a dog. It's currently being used for some browser testing by another groups. Installing Vista x64 will have to wait until their current project is finished, however.
The G5s only had 512 MB of RAM each. One is running OS 10.4.11 while the other has 10.5.5. Tiger was OK on 512 MB but Leopard was pretty pokey. Both boxes are noticeably snappier with 2 GB of RAM.
Three of the PCs which we use for evaluating software and networking hardware in my lab are boxes that we got a couple years ago from Intel. They have 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo CPUs, 120 GB SATA hard disks, and DVD burners. Graphics and sound aren't anything special, but they are solid, well-built boxes. Unfortunately, they only had one gig of RAM eachs. So, I upgraded two of them with an additional 2 GB of RAM, bringing them to a total of 3 gigs. This is the most that 32 bit XP will recognize, so maxing the boxes out with 8 GB (the maximum supported by the hardware) would be pointless.
I added another 4 GB to the remaining PC, however, for a total of 5 GB. That box will get a fresh install of 64 bit Vista Enterprise. I currently have 32 bit Vista Ultimate on it and with only 1 GB, it runs like a dog. It's currently being used for some browser testing by another groups. Installing Vista x64 will have to wait until their current project is finished, however.
The G5s only had 512 MB of RAM each. One is running OS 10.4.11 while the other has 10.5.5. Tiger was OK on 512 MB but Leopard was pretty pokey. Both boxes are noticeably snappier with 2 GB of RAM.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Updates at Obama Exposed
Just a reminder to check out my other blog Obama Exposed. Plenty of recent updates.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Philadelphia's Gun Laws Struck Down
A victory for the rule of law:
Full story.
Pennsylvania law is clear to anyone who can read on a 6th grade level. Only the state government is allowed to regulate firearms, localities are not. I just heard on KYW-1060 AM that the city will probably appeal to the state supreme court. Thankfully, the last time Philadelphia tried to enact its own assault weapons ban, the state supreme court smacked it down hard.
The law is so clear that Philadelphia should be forced to pay the attorneys' fees and costs of the parties challenging their patently illegal ordinance.
Commonwealth Court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit against the legislature filed last year by two members of Philadelphia's City Council (related stories). The court says several gun ordinances the council passed last year include language saying they can't take effect unless the legislature allows municipalities to enact stricter laws. That hasn't happened.
Those measures would have limited gun purchases to one a month and banned assault weapons....
Full story.
Pennsylvania law is clear to anyone who can read on a 6th grade level. Only the state government is allowed to regulate firearms, localities are not. I just heard on KYW-1060 AM that the city will probably appeal to the state supreme court. Thankfully, the last time Philadelphia tried to enact its own assault weapons ban, the state supreme court smacked it down hard.
The law is so clear that Philadelphia should be forced to pay the attorneys' fees and costs of the parties challenging their patently illegal ordinance.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
I Got to Meet Alan Gura Today
This afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Gura, Dick Anthony Heller's attorney in the Supreme Court's landmark case, District of Columbia vs. Heller. This was at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's continuing legal education program, "The Right to Bear Arms."
The program today consisted of a debate between Mr. Gura and Brian Siebel from the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun violence. The general topic of the debate was over the meaning of the Heller decision. For example, now that the Supreme Court has declared that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, what exactly does this mean? What arms are protected? Is the right limited to the home or does it extend to carrying arms in public? Will the Second Amendment be incorporated against the states? Assuming that the Second Amendment is incorporated, what state laws might be struck down as unconstitutional?
Based on Heller, Gura believes that some gun control laws will be held constitutional, but that outright bans -- including any "assault weapons bans" -- will be struck down. It's his opinion that it will eventually lead to a right to carry in some manner, maybe concealed, maybe open carry. E.g., it might be permissible for a state to bar concealed carry so long as open carry was legal (or the reverse).
Regarding machineguns, Gura does not believe that Heller will lead to getting rid of the NFA, but not because that the Second Amendment doesn't protect machineguns, but rather because he doesn't believe that we can get judges to rule that it protects machineguns. In other words, regardless of how gun rights activist view the issue, he feels that it's a loosing argument in the courts. I tend to agree with him.
Gura also feels that laws requiring background checks will probably pass consititutional muster, as long as they are instant. Waiting periods will likely be struck down.
I asked Gura was whether he thought that Heller could lead to a loosening of restrictions on lesser arms, namely switchblade knives. He thinks it may, and mentioned that in fact, some state courts have struck down laws banning certain kinds of knives and clubs based on RKBA provisions. He didn't list any specific cases, however. Siebel, in contrast, mentioned that this was the first time he'd heard of anyone applying the Second Amendment to knives, and didn't really opine either way.
I thought that Gura did a fine job of explaining the case and its potential implications. He also said a couple of times that we're in the beginning of this fight (paraphrasing here). On the other hand, Siebel did little more than rehash old, discredited prohibitionist arguments in favor of gun control, including statistics purporting to show that having a handgun in the home is more dangerous to the occupants than a potential burglar. He also placed a lot of emphasis on Scalia's wording referring to the Second Amendment protecting the right to bear arms in defense of one's home. This of course ignores the fact that in the case what was at issue was whether Heller could get a gun permit from D.C. to keep a self defense gun at home. Carrying a gun outside the home was not at issue in the case, so the court did not rule on that particular question.
As an aside, at one point in the session Siebel asked for a show of hands from the attendees indicating support for background checks as being reasonable. Of the twenty or thirty attendees, only one or two raised their hands. Heh.
After the class was over I went up to Gura and thanked him for the job he's done on our behalf. Kudos to the PBI for hosting this class.
The program today consisted of a debate between Mr. Gura and Brian Siebel from the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun violence. The general topic of the debate was over the meaning of the Heller decision. For example, now that the Supreme Court has declared that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, what exactly does this mean? What arms are protected? Is the right limited to the home or does it extend to carrying arms in public? Will the Second Amendment be incorporated against the states? Assuming that the Second Amendment is incorporated, what state laws might be struck down as unconstitutional?
Based on Heller, Gura believes that some gun control laws will be held constitutional, but that outright bans -- including any "assault weapons bans" -- will be struck down. It's his opinion that it will eventually lead to a right to carry in some manner, maybe concealed, maybe open carry. E.g., it might be permissible for a state to bar concealed carry so long as open carry was legal (or the reverse).
Regarding machineguns, Gura does not believe that Heller will lead to getting rid of the NFA, but not because that the Second Amendment doesn't protect machineguns, but rather because he doesn't believe that we can get judges to rule that it protects machineguns. In other words, regardless of how gun rights activist view the issue, he feels that it's a loosing argument in the courts. I tend to agree with him.
Gura also feels that laws requiring background checks will probably pass consititutional muster, as long as they are instant. Waiting periods will likely be struck down.
I asked Gura was whether he thought that Heller could lead to a loosening of restrictions on lesser arms, namely switchblade knives. He thinks it may, and mentioned that in fact, some state courts have struck down laws banning certain kinds of knives and clubs based on RKBA provisions. He didn't list any specific cases, however. Siebel, in contrast, mentioned that this was the first time he'd heard of anyone applying the Second Amendment to knives, and didn't really opine either way.
I thought that Gura did a fine job of explaining the case and its potential implications. He also said a couple of times that we're in the beginning of this fight (paraphrasing here). On the other hand, Siebel did little more than rehash old, discredited prohibitionist arguments in favor of gun control, including statistics purporting to show that having a handgun in the home is more dangerous to the occupants than a potential burglar. He also placed a lot of emphasis on Scalia's wording referring to the Second Amendment protecting the right to bear arms in defense of one's home. This of course ignores the fact that in the case what was at issue was whether Heller could get a gun permit from D.C. to keep a self defense gun at home. Carrying a gun outside the home was not at issue in the case, so the court did not rule on that particular question.
As an aside, at one point in the session Siebel asked for a show of hands from the attendees indicating support for background checks as being reasonable. Of the twenty or thirty attendees, only one or two raised their hands. Heh.
After the class was over I went up to Gura and thanked him for the job he's done on our behalf. Kudos to the PBI for hosting this class.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sony Shipping Rootkits Again
A couple of years ago, Sony BMG got caught shipping music CDs with "rootkits" on them, which installed software onto PCs when the buyer put the CD in to play it. A rootkit is software which allows a hacker to remotely take over a system.
Sony is AGAIN shipping products with rootkits installed. This time it's USB drives. Here's the story at Computer World, an IT industry journal.
It is not specified in the article what systems are vulnerable. Windows PCs certainly, Macs unlikely but possible based on the limited information that's been publicly released.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I regard buying Sony technology products as too risky.
EDIT 9/24/08: I had a brainfart and misread the date on the article to which I linked. It's from August 2007, not last month as I originally thought. That said, Sony still won't be getting any of my business.
Sony is AGAIN shipping products with rootkits installed. This time it's USB drives. Here's the story at Computer World, an IT industry journal.
It is not specified in the article what systems are vulnerable. Windows PCs certainly, Macs unlikely but possible based on the limited information that's been publicly released.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I regard buying Sony technology products as too risky.
EDIT 9/24/08: I had a brainfart and misread the date on the article to which I linked. It's from August 2007, not last month as I originally thought. That said, Sony still won't be getting any of my business.
Monday, September 22, 2008
New Server Is Up
Friday morning I took the old IBM 2 GHz P4 at my desk, added a second disk drive, and installed CentOS 5. My disk layout is as follows:
/hda - ~18 GB for / and ~2 GB swap
/hdb - ~ 40 GB for /home, with /home/dave shared using Samba
I'd like to have a ginormous hard disk in there and use it as a Time Machine backup destination but I'm using scrounged parts.
My original plan was to use Samba running on the Linux box to share out my home directory and use Cronosync to syncronize them. After futzing with it for far too long, and hitting Google quite a bit, I've discovered that Leopard's implementation of Samba is broken to the point where I haven't been able to get it to work with Samba running on Linux. Bah.
Rather than wasting any more time trying to get it working, I decided to sync the Documents folder on Rohan with /home/dave/Documents on the Linux box over SFTP, using Transmit's built-in syncronize function. Over my 100 Mb network, it took the better part of an hour to transfer 8.79 GB. Future syncs should be much faster since only those files which have changed will need to be copied over.
/hda - ~18 GB for / and ~2 GB swap
/hdb - ~ 40 GB for /home, with /home/dave shared using Samba
I'd like to have a ginormous hard disk in there and use it as a Time Machine backup destination but I'm using scrounged parts.
My original plan was to use Samba running on the Linux box to share out my home directory and use Cronosync to syncronize them. After futzing with it for far too long, and hitting Google quite a bit, I've discovered that Leopard's implementation of Samba is broken to the point where I haven't been able to get it to work with Samba running on Linux. Bah.
Rather than wasting any more time trying to get it working, I decided to sync the Documents folder on Rohan with /home/dave/Documents on the Linux box over SFTP, using Transmit's built-in syncronize function. Over my 100 Mb network, it took the better part of an hour to transfer 8.79 GB. Future syncs should be much faster since only those files which have changed will need to be copied over.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Follow up on why we make backups
After I got home I was able to retrieve a backup of the TrueCrypt volume from my Time Machine disk. Unfortunately, the backup was from 9/11. Time Machine does its differential backups based on the time a file was last modified. Strangely, when decrypting a TrueCrypt volume (and this one is accessed at least five days per week), the "Date Modified" for the file is not changed.
So, to ensure that the volume is backed up every time I connect my Time Machine disk, I wrote an AppleScript to run the UNIX "touch" command, then placed that script in my login items. Thus, everytime I login the volume's Date Modified attribute will be updated. The AppleScript is one line:
In my previous post I mentioned that I may implement an online backup system. Instead of doing that, I think I'll setup a backup routine to copy the volume to a Linux box at my office, saving me a few bucks but still allowing me to have an easily accessed backup at work.
That may be an interim solution, though. Yesterday I received two Apple XServes, each of which will be connected to an XServe RAID with over a terabyte of disk space. One of the intended uses for them is to create workgroups storage space and backing up Rohan fits into that perfectly.
So, to ensure that the volume is backed up every time I connect my Time Machine disk, I wrote an AppleScript to run the UNIX "touch" command, then placed that script in my login items. Thus, everytime I login the volume's Date Modified attribute will be updated. The AppleScript is one line:
do shell script "touch /Users/davemarkowitz/Documents/files.tc"
In my previous post I mentioned that I may implement an online backup system. Instead of doing that, I think I'll setup a backup routine to copy the volume to a Linux box at my office, saving me a few bucks but still allowing me to have an easily accessed backup at work.
That may be an interim solution, though. Yesterday I received two Apple XServes, each of which will be connected to an XServe RAID with over a terabyte of disk space. One of the intended uses for them is to create workgroups storage space and backing up Rohan fits into that perfectly.
And this is why we make backups
I keep confidential data on my MacBook Pro inside of a 4GB TrueCrypt volume. This morning after getting into the office, I launched TrueCrypt, attempted to open the volume, and got a file not found error.
Thinking that I may have accidentally dragged it into a different folder, using Spotlight I ran a search for the volume's name on the entire hard disk. It's gone, nowhere to be found.
{Insert sinking feeling here.}
I do have a couple backup copies of the file, the oldest dating to no older than Sunday night. So, while I've lost some data, I haven't lost much.
My backup regimen includes using Time Machine several times a week when I use Rohan at my desk at home, and a file sync every Thursday night using Cronosync. Time Machine backs up to a LaCie 320 GB FireWire drive, while Cronosync backs up to a 160 GB portable disk from Otherworld Computing. Periodically, I also copy the TrueCrypt volume to a flash drive that I always keep in my pocket.
I've been considering a fourth, online backup and this may put me over the edge. I'm leaning towards Amazon's S3 service using Jungledisk. Both my external hard disks are located at home, which means (a) I cannot access them from work, and (b) I'm SOL if the house burns down. Online backup means I'll be able to access my files from the office or anywhere with an Internet connection.
Thinking that I may have accidentally dragged it into a different folder, using Spotlight I ran a search for the volume's name on the entire hard disk. It's gone, nowhere to be found.
{Insert sinking feeling here.}
I do have a couple backup copies of the file, the oldest dating to no older than Sunday night. So, while I've lost some data, I haven't lost much.
My backup regimen includes using Time Machine several times a week when I use Rohan at my desk at home, and a file sync every Thursday night using Cronosync. Time Machine backs up to a LaCie 320 GB FireWire drive, while Cronosync backs up to a 160 GB portable disk from Otherworld Computing. Periodically, I also copy the TrueCrypt volume to a flash drive that I always keep in my pocket.
I've been considering a fourth, online backup and this may put me over the edge. I'm leaning towards Amazon's S3 service using Jungledisk. Both my external hard disks are located at home, which means (a) I cannot access them from work, and (b) I'm SOL if the house burns down. Online backup means I'll be able to access my files from the office or anywhere with an Internet connection.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
NJ vs. PA Match at LRGC
I shot in the NJ vs. PA practical rifle match yesterday at Langhorne Rod & Gun Club. The course of fire included:
1. From 10 yards, two rifle mags, 3 rounds each, followed by a transition to pistol, 2 mags of 3 rounds each. Timed.
2. From 100 yards, three rifle mags, 5 rounds each, standing, kneeling, prone.
3. From 200 yards, three rifle mags of 5 rounds each, rollover prone, prone, weak side prone.
4. From 200 yards, 10 shots on three gongs, the smallest of which is hardly visible w/o magnification.
5. From 200 yards behind a barricade, two mags of 8 rounds each on gongs, plus 15 rounds at the top half of an IPSC target. First 8 rounds on steel kneeling, then switch to a different position, i.e., sitting or prone. Alternatively, you could shoot at the same half IPSC target at 100 yards, but not from prone. 2 minute time limit.
We had a large turnout and to get everyone through took about 6 hours.
I did OK but need more practice, especially from rollover prone and weak side. When I switched to the right shoulder I had a hard time finding the exit pupil of my scope. I also need to break in my holster. I used a new Don Hume rig for my Springfield M1911 and it is still tight, which killed my time during the first evolution. (At least my raw score on that stage was 58/60.)
The rifle I shot was my Colt AR-15A3 with an IOR-Valdada 3x25mm CQB scope. I used 30 round Magpul P-Mags and Federal American Eagle .223 55 grain FMJ loads. No malfs.
Some pics here.
Kudos to the staff at LRGC for putting on a safe, fun shoot.
1. From 10 yards, two rifle mags, 3 rounds each, followed by a transition to pistol, 2 mags of 3 rounds each. Timed.
2. From 100 yards, three rifle mags, 5 rounds each, standing, kneeling, prone.
3. From 200 yards, three rifle mags of 5 rounds each, rollover prone, prone, weak side prone.
4. From 200 yards, 10 shots on three gongs, the smallest of which is hardly visible w/o magnification.
5. From 200 yards behind a barricade, two mags of 8 rounds each on gongs, plus 15 rounds at the top half of an IPSC target. First 8 rounds on steel kneeling, then switch to a different position, i.e., sitting or prone. Alternatively, you could shoot at the same half IPSC target at 100 yards, but not from prone. 2 minute time limit.
We had a large turnout and to get everyone through took about 6 hours.
I did OK but need more practice, especially from rollover prone and weak side. When I switched to the right shoulder I had a hard time finding the exit pupil of my scope. I also need to break in my holster. I used a new Don Hume rig for my Springfield M1911 and it is still tight, which killed my time during the first evolution. (At least my raw score on that stage was 58/60.)
The rifle I shot was my Colt AR-15A3 with an IOR-Valdada 3x25mm CQB scope. I used 30 round Magpul P-Mags and Federal American Eagle .223 55 grain FMJ loads. No malfs.
Some pics here.
Kudos to the staff at LRGC for putting on a safe, fun shoot.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Range Report
I'm on vacation this week and got to the range today with my Polish Tokarev pistol, Springfield 1911, and Remington 870.
I got the Remington 870 last month and shot it for the first time today. I patterned it at 12 and 25 yards with Remington 00 buck and Federal Low Recoil 00 buck with Flite Control wads. I also put a box of Federal LR Tru Ball slugs through it. The Remington buck stays on a paper plate at 12 yards, but opens up a bit at 25. Most pellets would hit a torso, though. The Federal Flite Control load is impressive. Patterns at 12 yards were about as big as my hand, while at 25 they opened up to about the size of the plate. Assuming it performs as well in my Mossberg 500 Mariner, it'll become my load of choice. Both buckshot loads shoot right to POA at 12 yards, and a bit high at 25.
The Tru Ball slugs shot well. I was able to keep them on the plate at 25 yards once I found the elevation.
I'm happy with both the shotgun and all the ammo I tested today.
I bought the Tokarev last Fall but every time I took it to the range, something happened so today was the first time I've actually fired it. The Tokarev digested 70 rounds of Yugo surplus 7.62x25 Ball without a hitch. It's more pleasant to shoot than my CZ-52, which has some trigger slap. Shooting the Tok feels like shooting a 9mm, but one that's a bit louder. At 12 yards I kept them on the plate, which is about as good as I can do with the Tok's heavy trigger and small sights. I have 70 more rounds of the Yugo ammo, and then it'll be time for me to crack open the spam can of Romanian Ball that I picked up last year.
I've had the Springfield 1911 for several years. For the first 600 rounds or so through the gun it was extremely reliable. After swapping out the FLGR for a GI type setup I started getting stovepipes. After the last time I had it at the range I detail stripped it, paying special attention to ensuring that the extractor channel was clean. That was awhile ago and I finally shot it again today. In 84 rounds, I had one stovepipe with a Springfield brand magazine, one of the two which came with the gun. The other 83 rounds ran fine through 4 Chip McCormick and one other mag marked "NM 45," which came with the gun. I am pretty certain that the stovepipe was magazine induced (it's happened before with that mag), so I junked it. I plan to run more ammo through the Springer before I regard it as reliable, but I'm confident that I've diagnosed what was wrong.
I got the Remington 870 last month and shot it for the first time today. I patterned it at 12 and 25 yards with Remington 00 buck and Federal Low Recoil 00 buck with Flite Control wads. I also put a box of Federal LR Tru Ball slugs through it. The Remington buck stays on a paper plate at 12 yards, but opens up a bit at 25. Most pellets would hit a torso, though. The Federal Flite Control load is impressive. Patterns at 12 yards were about as big as my hand, while at 25 they opened up to about the size of the plate. Assuming it performs as well in my Mossberg 500 Mariner, it'll become my load of choice. Both buckshot loads shoot right to POA at 12 yards, and a bit high at 25.
The Tru Ball slugs shot well. I was able to keep them on the plate at 25 yards once I found the elevation.
I'm happy with both the shotgun and all the ammo I tested today.
I bought the Tokarev last Fall but every time I took it to the range, something happened so today was the first time I've actually fired it. The Tokarev digested 70 rounds of Yugo surplus 7.62x25 Ball without a hitch. It's more pleasant to shoot than my CZ-52, which has some trigger slap. Shooting the Tok feels like shooting a 9mm, but one that's a bit louder. At 12 yards I kept them on the plate, which is about as good as I can do with the Tok's heavy trigger and small sights. I have 70 more rounds of the Yugo ammo, and then it'll be time for me to crack open the spam can of Romanian Ball that I picked up last year.
I've had the Springfield 1911 for several years. For the first 600 rounds or so through the gun it was extremely reliable. After swapping out the FLGR for a GI type setup I started getting stovepipes. After the last time I had it at the range I detail stripped it, paying special attention to ensuring that the extractor channel was clean. That was awhile ago and I finally shot it again today. In 84 rounds, I had one stovepipe with a Springfield brand magazine, one of the two which came with the gun. The other 83 rounds ran fine through 4 Chip McCormick and one other mag marked "NM 45," which came with the gun. I am pretty certain that the stovepipe was magazine induced (it's happened before with that mag), so I junked it. I plan to run more ammo through the Springer before I regard it as reliable, but I'm confident that I've diagnosed what was wrong.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Powerline Ethernet
802.11 WiFi is still the most common means of creating home networks for sharing an Internet connection or files locally. However, WiFi frequently runs into problems due to interference from other devices using the 2.4 GHz wireless spectrum. Also, due to the low power output of WiFi devices, it sometimes has problems with distance and intervening structures.
An alternative is powerline Ethernet. This uses your home's existing electrical wiring to extend Ethernet connections. Typically, it uses wall wart unit that plug into electrical sockets and which have an Ethernet port, working as Layer 2 devices.
I installed a powerline Ethernet system this morning at a client's home. He has three machines: a G4 Mac Mini, and Intel iMac, and a Dell PC. His Internet connection is a Comcast cable modem. A Linksys WRT-54G router is plugged into the modem to share the connection and secure his network from the Internet. The Mini is connected to the router via Ethernet, while the iMac and PC were connected via WiFi.
Unfortunately, the iMac's wireless connection has seriously degraded recently, probalby due to wireless interference from neighbors. We figured that a hard wired solution would be best.
After looking around online and reading reviews, I recommend a Linksys PLK200 kit. The system requirements specify Windows, but that's only to run a setup utility which isn't really required in a typical home environment. I brought along my old Compaq Presario laptop running XP but wound up leaving the default settings on the Linksys units.
Setup was pretty simple and the devices found each other quickly. They have built-in surge protection and for that reason Linksys recommends not plugging them into a surge protector. They are fairly blocky, so they'd take block more than one outlet on a surge protector anyway.
The Linksys kit includes two Ethernet patch cords but they are only about 3 or 4 feet long. I had a hunch this might be the case so I brought a couple of longer cords with me, one of which I needed to use. The iMac's network connection looks like this:
{Cable modem}-{Router}-{Powerline adapter 1}-{House wiring}-{PL adapter 2}-{iMac}
After installing the Linksys units I ran a couple of Internet speed tests from the iMac and saw that they were comparable with tests run from the G4 Mini connected directly to the router.
Powerline Ethernet isn't as common as WiFi but home and small office users who can't use WiFi, and who can't or don't want to run Ethernet should be aware of it as an option.
An alternative is powerline Ethernet. This uses your home's existing electrical wiring to extend Ethernet connections. Typically, it uses wall wart unit that plug into electrical sockets and which have an Ethernet port, working as Layer 2 devices.
I installed a powerline Ethernet system this morning at a client's home. He has three machines: a G4 Mac Mini, and Intel iMac, and a Dell PC. His Internet connection is a Comcast cable modem. A Linksys WRT-54G router is plugged into the modem to share the connection and secure his network from the Internet. The Mini is connected to the router via Ethernet, while the iMac and PC were connected via WiFi.
Unfortunately, the iMac's wireless connection has seriously degraded recently, probalby due to wireless interference from neighbors. We figured that a hard wired solution would be best.
After looking around online and reading reviews, I recommend a Linksys PLK200 kit. The system requirements specify Windows, but that's only to run a setup utility which isn't really required in a typical home environment. I brought along my old Compaq Presario laptop running XP but wound up leaving the default settings on the Linksys units.
Setup was pretty simple and the devices found each other quickly. They have built-in surge protection and for that reason Linksys recommends not plugging them into a surge protector. They are fairly blocky, so they'd take block more than one outlet on a surge protector anyway.
The Linksys kit includes two Ethernet patch cords but they are only about 3 or 4 feet long. I had a hunch this might be the case so I brought a couple of longer cords with me, one of which I needed to use. The iMac's network connection looks like this:
{Cable modem}-{Router}-{Powerline adapter 1}-{House wiring}-{PL adapter 2}-{iMac}
After installing the Linksys units I ran a couple of Internet speed tests from the iMac and saw that they were comparable with tests run from the G4 Mini connected directly to the router.
Powerline Ethernet isn't as common as WiFi but home and small office users who can't use WiFi, and who can't or don't want to run Ethernet should be aware of it as an option.
Lacie 320 GB Quadra Hard Drive
Earlier this week a co-worker brought to my attention a good deal on Lacie 320 GB Quadra Hard Drives at eCost.com. I had prior, good experience with Lacie drives. He's previously bought from eCost.com. At $54 plus shipping and handling it was too good of a deal to pass up. I ordered the drive on Tuesday and received it Thursday via DHL Ground.
The Quadra series of external drives are fanless and have four interfaces for connecting to a PC or Mac:
The power switch has three positions:
I connected the Quadra to Rohan, my MacBook Pro last night using the FireWire 800 port. Heretofore, that port has been unused, since my older backup drive has only USB and FW 400 ports. With 320 GB to work with, I decided to use the Quadra as a Time Machine backup disk.
As soon as I connected the Quadra to Rohan a box popped up, asking me if I want to use it as a Time Machine backup disk. After I clicked yes, it took about an hour or so to backup everything on Rohan's drive, except for my Entourage profile. (I've read that using Time Machine to back up Entourage profiles can lead to corruption, if it's attempted when the program is running. I therefore excluded it from Time Machine.) For the time being I will continue to backup the Entourage database using Chronosync.
FireWire 800 is fast. In my experience, FireWire 400 typically offers better sustained througput than USB 2.0, although the latter has a higher theoretical peak throughput (480 vs. 400 Mbps). FireWire 800 is noticeably fast than 400, but unfortunately never became as popular. It will be interesting to see how USB 3.0 does in the marketplace once it's released.
I haven't used eSATA. To do so would, Rohan would need an ExpressCard adapter. For machines which do support it, eSATA looks like it will be the connection of choice for external disks, with a raw throughput of 3000 Mbps.
As for Time Machine itself, it may be the best consumer level backup application I've seen. On Mac running Leopard, new disks are automatically recognized and the machine offers to setup Time Machine for you. It then performs a full backup, and automatically sets up hourly backups. Accessing your backed up files is virtually the same as accessing your working data in the Finder. By making it so simple Apple really encourages people to backup their data.
The Quadra series of external drives are fanless and have four interfaces for connecting to a PC or Mac:
- USB 2.0
- eSATA
- FireWire 400 (IEEE-1394a)
- FireWire 800 (IEEE-1394b)
The power switch has three positions:
- On
- Off
- Auto, which automatically turns it on or off when the drive is connected or disconnected to a host, respectively. I left it on auto.
I connected the Quadra to Rohan, my MacBook Pro last night using the FireWire 800 port. Heretofore, that port has been unused, since my older backup drive has only USB and FW 400 ports. With 320 GB to work with, I decided to use the Quadra as a Time Machine backup disk.
As soon as I connected the Quadra to Rohan a box popped up, asking me if I want to use it as a Time Machine backup disk. After I clicked yes, it took about an hour or so to backup everything on Rohan's drive, except for my Entourage profile. (I've read that using Time Machine to back up Entourage profiles can lead to corruption, if it's attempted when the program is running. I therefore excluded it from Time Machine.) For the time being I will continue to backup the Entourage database using Chronosync.
FireWire 800 is fast. In my experience, FireWire 400 typically offers better sustained througput than USB 2.0, although the latter has a higher theoretical peak throughput (480 vs. 400 Mbps). FireWire 800 is noticeably fast than 400, but unfortunately never became as popular. It will be interesting to see how USB 3.0 does in the marketplace once it's released.
I haven't used eSATA. To do so would, Rohan would need an ExpressCard adapter. For machines which do support it, eSATA looks like it will be the connection of choice for external disks, with a raw throughput of 3000 Mbps.
As for Time Machine itself, it may be the best consumer level backup application I've seen. On Mac running Leopard, new disks are automatically recognized and the machine offers to setup Time Machine for you. It then performs a full backup, and automatically sets up hourly backups. Accessing your backed up files is virtually the same as accessing your working data in the Finder. By making it so simple Apple really encourages people to backup their data.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Dealt With a Real Life Mac Trojan Horse Tonight
We all know that Macs are more secure than Windows PCs by virtue of the design of the operating system. That said, the only computer that cannot be compromised is the one that's powered off, disconnected from any networks, and locked away in a box. Case in point: tonight I helped a colleague with a Mac that was infected with the OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse.
A Trojan Horse is different from a virus. Unlike viruses, Trojans aren't self-replicating, and require some user intervention to install. They frequently are designed so that they trick and unsuspecting user into installing them. For example, going to a website and being prompted to download a video codec from the site to play content.
It started off with this email:
"My brothers DNS on his mac keeps going to 85.225.113.131 for his DNS setting regardless of what is his his DHCP server."
Googling that IP address didn't turn up anything. However, Googling for "mac dns trojan" came up with this gem, which described the symptoms perfectly. Doing a little more searching, this time for "remove mac dns trojan" led me to this.
Lessons to be learned:
A Trojan Horse is different from a virus. Unlike viruses, Trojans aren't self-replicating, and require some user intervention to install. They frequently are designed so that they trick and unsuspecting user into installing them. For example, going to a website and being prompted to download a video codec from the site to play content.
It started off with this email:
"My brothers DNS on his mac keeps going to 85.225.113.131 for his DNS setting regardless of what is his his DHCP server."
Googling that IP address didn't turn up anything. However, Googling for "mac dns trojan" came up with this gem, which described the symptoms perfectly. Doing a little more searching, this time for "remove mac dns trojan" led me to this.
Lessons to be learned:
- Macs are generally very secure. That doesn't mean they are perfectly secure.
- Only install software from trusted sites. If you're surfing the web and a site prompts you to install something, take a moment to seriously consider whether you really need to do so, especially if it prompts you for your administrative password.
Firefox for Mac PDF Plugin
I just learned about this plugin for Firefox on Mac OS X, hosted by Google:
http://code.google.com/p/firefox-mac-pdf/
It uses OS X's native PDFkit to display PDFs inside of a Firefox tab, much like Safari does. Note that if you have the PDF Download Firefox extension, you'll need to disable or uninstall it for the Google PDF plugin to work.
http://code.google.com/p/firefox-mac-pdf/
It uses OS X's native PDFkit to display PDFs inside of a Firefox tab, much like Safari does. Note that if you have the PDF Download Firefox extension, you'll need to disable or uninstall it for the Google PDF plugin to work.
New Wireless Network at the House
For the past few years I've been using a Netgear 802.11g WAP to provide the wireless portion of my home LAN. Up until recently it had been rock solid, However, it's been acting a bit flaky lately (e.g., dropped connections), requiring reboots to get it to work.
I've been evaluating WiFi routers at work and last week received two SMCWBR14-N2 v2 Draft-N Barricade boxes. So far I've like what I've seen and in doing some tests this morning with one connected to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, I was seeing good throughput on both the wired and wireless connections. Since I got two units in from SMC, I decided that I'll put one of them to a real world test. IOW, I'll be installing one at home to use for awhile. Currently, my LAN looks like this:
[Internet]--[SMC8014 gateway]--[Netgear switch]--[Netgear WAP]
My Brother HL-2070N is connected to the switch, as is my MacBook Pro when I'm working at my desk.
The new version will look like:
[Internet]--[SMC8014 gateway]--[Barricade]
Note that I needed the switch because it and the WAP are in a different room than the gateway, and I ran only one piece of CAT5e between the two, so the switch built into the gateway doesn't do me a lot of good. The Barricade has four LAN ports, so I'll be able to take out the switch.
One feature the SMC has is to put the WAN port in bridge mode. It will be connected to an SMC8014 cable modem gateway, so I do not need the wireless box to act as a router. (The 8014 has been extremely reliable, BTW. It just sits behind my TV, tossing packets back and forth.)
Unfortunately, I will have to keep the Barricade in 802.11g mode, since Judith's iBook doesn't have an 802.11n adapter, and I'm not sure about her iPod Touch, either. Still, the bulk of data transferred on my LAN is going through my Internet connection, from one local host to another. So, the 802.11g speeds won't be a bottleneck.
I'll post an update once I've pounded on the Barricade some more.
I've been evaluating WiFi routers at work and last week received two SMCWBR14-N2 v2 Draft-N Barricade boxes. So far I've like what I've seen and in doing some tests this morning with one connected to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, I was seeing good throughput on both the wired and wireless connections. Since I got two units in from SMC, I decided that I'll put one of them to a real world test. IOW, I'll be installing one at home to use for awhile. Currently, my LAN looks like this:
[Internet]--[SMC8014 gateway]--[Netgear switch]--[Netgear WAP]
My Brother HL-2070N is connected to the switch, as is my MacBook Pro when I'm working at my desk.
The new version will look like:
[Internet]--[SMC8014 gateway]--[Barricade]
Note that I needed the switch because it and the WAP are in a different room than the gateway, and I ran only one piece of CAT5e between the two, so the switch built into the gateway doesn't do me a lot of good. The Barricade has four LAN ports, so I'll be able to take out the switch.
One feature the SMC has is to put the WAN port in bridge mode. It will be connected to an SMC8014 cable modem gateway, so I do not need the wireless box to act as a router. (The 8014 has been extremely reliable, BTW. It just sits behind my TV, tossing packets back and forth.)
Unfortunately, I will have to keep the Barricade in 802.11g mode, since Judith's iBook doesn't have an 802.11n adapter, and I'm not sure about her iPod Touch, either. Still, the bulk of data transferred on my LAN is going through my Internet connection, from one local host to another. So, the 802.11g speeds won't be a bottleneck.
I'll post an update once I've pounded on the Barricade some more.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Signed up for Red Hat Training
I haven't taken any professional development training in a little while. I'd tried to get into my employer's Intro to Solaris course a couple time last year, but wasn't successful. In going through the training calendar on our intranet, I saw that we're having RHCT training in October. With my manager's approval, I signed up.
The course is scheduled to run in two sessions, a 5-day and a 3-day. I figure it'll fill in some holes in my personal Linux knowledge base, after which I should be ready to take the certification exam. I haven't picked up any new certs since 2001, so this will be a good thing.
The course is scheduled to run in two sessions, a 5-day and a 3-day. I figure it'll fill in some holes in my personal Linux knowledge base, after which I should be ready to take the certification exam. I haven't picked up any new certs since 2001, so this will be a good thing.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Update to The Shooters' Bar
A couple of updates to The Shooters' Bar(SM):
- David Weinberg of Virginia is now also admitted in Maryland.
- I fixed Marc Berris of Minnesota's email address.
Friday, August 01, 2008
NRA-ILA on the Bill to Restore 2A Rights in DC
Full press release here.
{H/T Sebastian.}
Fairfax, VA -- Today, in a bi-partisan effort, Congressmen Travis Childers, John Dingell, John Tanner, Mike Ross and Mark Souder, along with 47 of their colleagues, introduced the Second Amendment Enforcement Act (H.R. 6691). This critical legislation overturns D.C.'s recently enacted emergency laws that continue to defy the recent Supreme Court ruling by continuing to restrict District of Columbia residents' right to self-defense. This National Rifle Association-backed bill is needed to enforce the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.
{H/T Sebastian.}
Unlocked
Both this site and my Survival and Emergency Preparedness blog got caught up in the Blogger fake spam blog fiasco. Google unlocked this one sometime tonight, Survial Preps is still locked.
PITA.
PITA.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Blogging to be light for the next few days
Blogging will be light this week. I am heading off to Daleystan for a conference, and won't have Internet access during the day.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
More on the CNSF
Over on Obama Exposed, I've previously posted about Obama's proposed "Civilian National Security Force." There's more on it over at the Volokh Conspiracy.
Voluntary national service? That's great. But mandatory "volunteerism" does more than play havoc with the English language. The mere fact that a member of Congress is proposing the creation of a our own Red Guard/Obamajugend should scare the piss out of any American who loves freedom and has any historical knowledge.
Voluntary national service? That's great. But mandatory "volunteerism" does more than play havoc with the English language. The mere fact that a member of Congress is proposing the creation of a our own Red Guard/Obamajugend should scare the piss out of any American who loves freedom and has any historical knowledge.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
D.C.: Still Not Getting It After Heller
So the District of Corruption introduced a new gun law in response to the spanking it got from the Supreme Court in D.C. vs. Heller. The new law isn't a ban, but is still oppressive.
FAIL. The Court specifically addressed this.
"Oh, excuse me Mr. Burglar. Can you wait over there while I get my gun out of the safe and load it?"
I look forward to seeing this struck down, and hopefully, these clowns will be held personally liable under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983.
City leaders say the legislation goes as far as it can on gun regulations while respecting the high court's ruling. Weapons must be unloaded, disassembled or trigger-locked, except when there is a "threat of immediate harm to a person" in the home.
FAIL. The Court specifically addressed this.
"Oh, excuse me Mr. Burglar. Can you wait over there while I get my gun out of the safe and load it?"
I look forward to seeing this struck down, and hopefully, these clowns will be held personally liable under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
D.C. vs. Heller - What's Next?
Robert Levy, the man behind the D.C. vs. Heller case which reinvigorated the Second Amendment, has a piece at Cato Unbound on what's next.
Check it out.
Check it out.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Post-Heller Congressional Action On "Second Amendment Enforcement Act"
Friday, July 11, 2008
As mentioned in last week's edition of our Grassroots Alert, following the Supreme Court's favorable Heller decision, city officials in Washington, D.C. have been planning to obstruct D.C. citizens from exercising their right to keep and bear arms, despite the Supreme Court's clear statements. And some in Congress are planning to do something about it.
On Thursday, Representative Mark Souder (R-Ind.) introduced H. Res. 1331, a rule to govern House consideration of a modified version of H.R. 1399--the "District of Columbia Personal Protection Act."
H.R. 1399 was introduced in March of 2007 and has 247 cosponsors. (For more information on H.R. 1399 and on its Senate companion bill, S. 1001 by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), please go to www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=72&issue=020) This rule (H. Res. 1331) would force House consideration of H.R. 1399 if activated by a discharge petition, which will require 218 congressional signatures. It would provide for speedy consideration of legislation to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller by repealing the provisions of the D.C. Code that were at issue in that case, and by preventing the District from enacting new and burdensome restrictions on its residents' Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Among other things, H. Res. 1331 includes provisions that would repeal D.C.'s ban on many semi-automatic firearms, and repeal the District's firearm registration system, as in H.R. 1399. It would also reduce the District's burdensome restrictions on ammunition, and repeal the District's unique law that allows manufacturers of certain types of guns to "be held strictly liable in tort, without regard to fault or proof of defect," for injuries caused with those guns. D.C. has used this law to bring suits against the firearms industry, but those suits have now been blocked by the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act."
NRA-ILA is fully committed to restoring the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding residents of Washington, D.C., and will fight this critically important battle until victory is in hand.
We will be sure to keep you informed of new developments as we move forward. In the meantime, please be sure to contact your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121, and urge him or her to press Congressional leadership to bring H.R. 1399 to the House floor.
Via NRA-ILA.
As mentioned in last week's edition of our Grassroots Alert, following the Supreme Court's favorable Heller decision, city officials in Washington, D.C. have been planning to obstruct D.C. citizens from exercising their right to keep and bear arms, despite the Supreme Court's clear statements. And some in Congress are planning to do something about it.
On Thursday, Representative Mark Souder (R-Ind.) introduced H. Res. 1331, a rule to govern House consideration of a modified version of H.R. 1399--the "District of Columbia Personal Protection Act."
H.R. 1399 was introduced in March of 2007 and has 247 cosponsors. (For more information on H.R. 1399 and on its Senate companion bill, S. 1001 by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), please go to www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=72&issue=020) This rule (H. Res. 1331) would force House consideration of H.R. 1399 if activated by a discharge petition, which will require 218 congressional signatures. It would provide for speedy consideration of legislation to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller by repealing the provisions of the D.C. Code that were at issue in that case, and by preventing the District from enacting new and burdensome restrictions on its residents' Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Among other things, H. Res. 1331 includes provisions that would repeal D.C.'s ban on many semi-automatic firearms, and repeal the District's firearm registration system, as in H.R. 1399. It would also reduce the District's burdensome restrictions on ammunition, and repeal the District's unique law that allows manufacturers of certain types of guns to "be held strictly liable in tort, without regard to fault or proof of defect," for injuries caused with those guns. D.C. has used this law to bring suits against the firearms industry, but those suits have now been blocked by the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act."
NRA-ILA is fully committed to restoring the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding residents of Washington, D.C., and will fight this critically important battle until victory is in hand.
We will be sure to keep you informed of new developments as we move forward. In the meantime, please be sure to contact your U.S. Representative at (202) 225-3121, and urge him or her to press Congressional leadership to bring H.R. 1399 to the House floor.
Via NRA-ILA.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
New Blog: Obama Exposed
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Crossover Mac Bug
There's a bug in Crossover Mac v7.0.0, the latest version. For some reason, MS Visio 2003 will not run if it is installed into a bottle in which other MS Office programs are installed. Visio will install, but when launched a box will pop up stating "IOPL Not Found."
The workaround is to create a new bottle and install Visio into that. Once you do that Visio will run normally.
The workaround is to create a new bottle and install Visio into that. Once you do that Visio will run normally.
ESR on Obama
Eric Scott Steven Raymond mirrors some of my thoughts:
No, what really put me off Barack Obama was the increasingly creepy and pathological tenor of the relationship between him and his fans. I think it was in mid-February, a bit before the Jeremiah Wright story got really ugly, that I started to notice my “Never Again!” nerves tingling.
I’m not Jewish. But I read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich at an impressionable age. Years later, what I learned in that book made me into an anarchist. What it did much sooner than that was to instill in me the same sense of the Holocaust as the central moral disaster of the 20th century that the Jews feel. It left me with the same burning determination: Never again! Ever since, I have studied carefully the forms of political pathology behind that horror and attended even more carefully for any signs that they might be taking root in the West once again.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Poison Ivy, Again
It's Monday and I'm sitting at home today after a nice weekend away with SWMBO, waiting for my 11:45 AM doctor's appointment.
It seems that sometime last week I either got too near some poison ivy, or brushed against something that was contaminated. I've got a patch of contact dermatitis on the back of my left hand. Since I'm left handed this especially sucks. It's gotten a bit worse each day since Thursday, even though I've been scrubbing the heck out of it with Zanfel. The Zanfel and hydrocortisone ointment is keeping the itching under control but I don't want the rash to spread any further. Time to go get a prednisone shot, and maybe oral prednisone. The last time I had this I put on 13 pounds (~5.9 Kg) from the steroids.
Frack!
It seems that sometime last week I either got too near some poison ivy, or brushed against something that was contaminated. I've got a patch of contact dermatitis on the back of my left hand. Since I'm left handed this especially sucks. It's gotten a bit worse each day since Thursday, even though I've been scrubbing the heck out of it with Zanfel. The Zanfel and hydrocortisone ointment is keeping the itching under control but I don't want the rash to spread any further. Time to go get a prednisone shot, and maybe oral prednisone. The last time I had this I put on 13 pounds (~5.9 Kg) from the steroids.
Frack!
More Post-Heller Action
Apparently, Hawaii's A.G.Mark Bennett will review the state's gun laws in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Heller. Considering that Hawaii's state constitutional RKBA provision is a word-for-word copy of the Second Amendment, this is a good thing for Hawaiians.
Hawaii's gun laws are already onerous. E.g., you need permits to keep and acquire firearms. Both concealed and open carry are felonies. (See the link for more details.) It's likely that Heller will foreclose further infringements.
{H/T mrreynolds on THR.)
Hawaii's gun laws are already onerous. E.g., you need permits to keep and acquire firearms. Both concealed and open carry are felonies. (See the link for more details.) It's likely that Heller will foreclose further infringements.
{H/T mrreynolds on THR.)
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Crossover Mac
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.
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.
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.
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