Fear and Loathing in D.C.

...

And thus speaketh a president who, for all his rhetorical gifts, can’t seem to muster the words that would give the American people the one thing desperately needed at this point in American history — hope.

That’s right. The candidate of “Hope and Change” has decided to be a president who espouses “Fear and Loathing.” Fear of financial Armageddon unless we do as we are told and blindly give in to his $900 billion panic panacea for the economy and loathing of the opposition — an opposition Obama unfairly portrays as opposing him out of spite and because a popular talk radio host is telling them what to do.

...

At PJM.

Barach Obama is a Novice

... and it shows.

During last year's epic election campaign, Hillary Clinton said that in the White House "there is no time for on-the-job training". Joe Biden, too, remarked that the presidency was "not something that lends itself to on-the-job training". Both were aiming barbs at their then primary opponent. Mrs Clinton has since brought what she would refer to as her "lifetime of experience" to the role of Secretary of State, while Mr Biden has traded 36 years in the Senate for the vice-presidency. And the rookie they derided is President.

Now, the words of his former rivals are returning to haunt President Obama. After a distinctly rocky start to his presidency, he has admitted he "screwed up" and is returning to one thing in his political career that he has perfected – campaigning.

...

In the early days of his presidency, Mr Obama has seemed passive and uncertain. Instead of drawing up his own economic stimulus bill, he sub-contracted the job to Democrats on Capitol Hill. They opted to spend money on projects for contraception and beautifying the National Mall – their doorstep – and gave Republicans an plenty of ammunition against the package.

...

Governing, as Mr Obama is finding out, is not like an election campaign. Mr Bush's failures will give him some leeway and his transformative appeal remains potent. But making decisions and operating the levers of power is something completely new to him. And it shows.

Obama Admin Cancels UT Oil and Gas Leases

I'm sure this is just part of Obama's plan to help make the US more energy self-sufficient.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday canceled leases held by energy companies for oil and natural gas drilling on 130,000 acres of federal lands in Utah.

"I have directed (the department's) Bureau of Land Management not to accept the bids," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters on a conference call.

Link.

Vote Scheduled to Change PA Game Code to Allow Crossbows

From the NRA:

Vote Scheduled to Change the Pennsylvania Game Code to Include Crossbows! Friday, January 16, 2009 Please Contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission Today! Over the last several years, there has been a growing debate concerning the use of crossbows in Pennsylvania. At its upcoming meeting, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will be voting on a proposal that would make Pennsylvania the twelfth state to allow the use of crossbows during the state archery season. This meeting will be held from Sunday, January 25 to Tuesday, January 27. To view a copy of the agenda, please click here. NRA strongly advocates for any expansion of hunter opportunity and choice when there is no biological reason to oppose the expansion. In fact, states that have allowed the use of crossbows have been able to maintain healthy wildlife populations. Additionally, the recruitment and retention of hunters has improved by removing crossbow restrictions. At a time when the number of hunters is declining, nothing is more important than the ongoing effort to preserve and strengthen our hunting heritage. The Pennsylvania Game Commission has received input on both sides of the issue from stakeholders concerning this proposed change. It’s time the Pennsylvania Game Commission hear from the very sportsmen and hunters they represent. There is little doubt that non-hunters and “animal rights” forces will be active in making their voices heard, so it is vital that sportsmen speak loudly. Please contact the members of the Pennsylvania Game Commission TODAY and respectfully ask that they act to preserve our cherished hunting heritage by voting for the inclusion of crossbows during the state archery season. Contact information for your Game Commissioner can be found below. Roxane Palone, President vrpalone@windstream.net Greg Isabella, Vice-President secommissioner@aol.com Jay Delaney, Jr., Secretary PGCDistrict7@aol.com Russell Schleiden reschleiden@intergate.com Tom Boop tboop@verizon.net Dave Schreffler c-dschreff@state.pa.us Ron Weaner pgc6@superpa.net

Copyright 2009, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action. This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.

Here's the email I sent in support of this effort:

I am writing to express my support for the PA Game Commission to legalize the use of crossbows during archery deer season. I also ask that you legalize crossbow use during gun season, because this would appeal to hunters who have to hunt in areas which have heretofore been shotgun, muzzleloader, or archery-only.

There is no real game management reason to oppose the change, and states that have allowed the use of crossbows have been able to maintain healthy wildlife populations. Additionally, the recruitment and retention of hunters has improved by removing crossbow restrictions.

Legalizing crossbow use during archery deer season would also help Pennsylvania's sporting goods stores because it would increase demand for crossbows and accessories by people who might not otherwise purchase archery gear.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Feel free to plagiarize. ;-)

Edit at 20:07:

I received a reply from Mr. Isabella that this measure passed.

How Government Prolonged the Depression

From the WSJ:

...

The goal of the New Deal was to get Americans back to work. But the New Deal didn't restore employment. In fact, there was even less work on average during the New Deal than before FDR took office. Total hours worked per adult, including government employees, were 18% below their 1929 level between 1930-32, but were 23% lower on average during the New Deal (1933-39). Private hours worked were even lower after FDR took office, averaging 27% below their 1929 level, compared to 18% lower between in 1930-32.

...

Meanwhile back in 2009, Obama and the Democrats want to lead us down a similar path.  Moreover, much of the proposed bailout is to get Americans spending again.  Folks, a major contributor to the current mess is that people and instiutions were spending money they didn't have.

This is like rubbing snow on yourself to cure frostbite.

Dilbert on the Economy

I figure when Dilbert posts a strip like this, we are in for a rough ride.  (Click the comic if the full strip doesn't display.)

MSI Wind WiFi Upgrade

As mentioned in a prior post, I ordered an Intel 4965AGN card to replace the OEM RealTek RTL8187SE WiFi adapter in my MSI Wind netbook.  It arrived today and was quick work to install.  The card had a sticker with an HP part number on it so apparently it was built as a spare for HP laptops.

After removing the bottom of the Wind's case, I found the OEM card next to the VGA-out port.  Removing it required disconnecting two antenna leads and one screw.  The new card is a bit longer than the original card, so installation required rerouting the antenna leads but was otherwise the same as if I'd replaced it with another RTL8187.

To get the Intel card recognized in Windows I had to manually install a driver from Intel's website.  (I downloaded it on my Mac and sneakernetted it to the Wind on a USB stick.)  With the driver installed, Windows Wireless Zero Configuration was able to see a pile of WiFi networks and after I reentered my WPA2 key, I got onto my WLAN.

Getting the card running under Ubuntu 8.10 was actually simpler.  From the Intel Wireless WiFi Link driver site:

Note: The iwlwifi driver has been merged into mainline kernel since 2.6.24. If you are using kernels after this release, please use the intree (drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi) driver directly. After 2.6.26 the intree driver iwlagn also supports the new 5100BG, 5100ABG, 5100AGN, 5300AGN and 5350AGN series hardwares.

The RTL8187 lacks similar support, so every time I upgraded the kernel I'd have to upgrade the wifi card driver.  That's no longer a problem.

Incidentally, the Technician's Pocket Screwdriver from Countycomm is perfect for dealing with the screws on the Wind.

MSI Wind Dual Boot XP Home / Ubuntu Linux 8.10

My MSI Wind netbook ("Hobbit") has a hard disk with a lot of free space, and is already partitioned into two logical drives.  I bought it largely so I could run Windows programs without having to deal with the annoyances of trying to access USB ports while in a virtual machine.  As anyone who's read this blog knows, I'm more of an OS X or Linux guy than a Windows guy.  So I decided to turn it into a dual boot XP Home/Ubuntu 8.10 system.  This gives me the ability to run Windows apps when needed but do most of my work in Linux.

Because the Wind lacks an optical drive I needed an alternative way to load Ubuntu.  So, I created a bootable USB stick running Ubuntu 8.10 Live, and ran the installer from it.  The bootable USB drive works just like a live CD, and like a live disc, can be very handy if you need to recover data from a system which won't boot.

To create the bootable USB drive, I first took my old 1 GB Microcenter flash drive, stuck it in a Windows box at work, and used Unetbootin (unetbootin.sourceforge.net), and told it to download and install Ubuntu 8.10 on the stick.  To get this done in a reasonable amount of time I connected the Windows PC to an SMCWGBR14-N router*, which has its WAN port connected to a Motorola SB6120 DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem, provisioned at 160 GB down x 120 up.  (It's good to work for the ISP.)

Unfortunately, the Microcenter USB stick wouldn't boot, so I tried again with a Kingston Data Traveler 8 GB stick that I keep at the office.  I normally use it for sneaker-netting files between machines, and keep it loaded with various apps and utilities.  Before blowing it away to make an Ubuntu stick I copied them off to my MacBook Pro.  The Kingston drive booted my test PC just fine.  Compared with a live CD, the USB stick is definitely faster.  There's still plenty of room leftover on the Kingston, so I'll be copying the installer files I had on there back into a new folder so I can continue to use it in its old role, in addition to being a bootable recovery system on a stick.

As an aside, the reason for choosing Ubuntu is that there seemed to be a good amount of online documentation covering how to get it up and running on the Wind.

Since I'd been storing my data on the D: partition of the Hobbit's hard disk, I had to first move it over to C:, as I'd be installing Ubuntu onto D:.  With that out of the way, I proceeded to boot the Wind from the USB drive by rebooting the box and holding down F11 to get a boot menu.

Ubuntu installed easily on Hobbit.  The RealTek 8187SE WiFi card is not supported in the Ubuntu 8.10 kernel, so I downloaded a driver for it from forums.msiwind.net (http://forums.msiwind.net/debian/rtl8187se-drivers-for-ubuntu-and-deb-packages-t4954.html) using my Mac, sneakernetted it to Hobbit using a flash drive, and installed it using the GDebi GUI package installer (you can use dpkg from the CLI).  After a reboot was able to get onto my WiFi network using WPA2 encryption.

The RTL8187SE card is OK at best.  Compared with better cards is slower, not as sensitive, and has poorer support in Linux.  In particular, the driver for the Realtek device is kernel-specific, so if I install a new kernel as a security update, WiFi will break.  To improve stability, speed, and range I've ordered an Intel 4965 AGN card and plan to replace the Realtek card.

During the initial setup, going back and forth between a wired and a wireless network did not always go smoothly.  For example, if Hobbit is connected to a WiFi network and I then connect it to Ethernet, the box has problems acquiring an IP address.  I tried dropping to single user mode (# sudo init 1) from a terminal, but Ubuntu is configured to put you back at runlevel 5 when you do this.  I even tried setting the IP address statically, but wound up having to reboot the box before I could get the box back online.  Hopefully this issue will be improved with the Intel WiFi card.

I've been using Hobbit as a Linux box for a few days now and it's been quite a good experience once I tweaked the UI to my specifications.  I used the Synaptic package manager to install the XFCE desktop environment.  With a lighter footprint than Ubuntu's default Gnome desktop, it's ideally suited to netbooks IMO.  I still have access to the various Gnome programs but XCFE is less obtrusive than Gnome.  (In fact, were I starting over I'd be tempted to install Xubuntu, which uses XFCE as its default desktop.)

One thing to be aware of if you create a similar dual boot setup on an MSI Wind, is that when Ubuntu sets up the GRUB bootloader, it creates an entry in the GRUB menu called MS Windows XP/2000 (or thereabouts), in addition to the Windows XP Home entry.  The XP/2000 entry launches MSI's system recovery utility which restores the box to factory defaults.  I therefore went into GRUB's menu.lst file and changed the entry to "MSI WIND SYSTEM RECOVERY" to prevent confusion.

One of my bete noirs with Linux has been configuring printers.  Naturally, non-GDI printers are much easier to get working.  My Brother HL-2070N was automatically detected by Ubuntu's printer setup utility although a driver for that particular model was not included.  I configured the box with a Brother HL-2060 driver and it worked fine when I printed a couple of test pages.

Skype is one of the IM programs I use and it worked fine using the Ubuntu packages they provide.  The webcam worked with no special tweaking although I haven't tried any voice chats yet.  I have read but not yet confirmed that the input level using the Wind's internal microphone is too low, so to use it for voice chats or phone calls I may need to use an external mic or headset.  We'll see.

If you have an MSI Wind don't hesitate to give Ubuntu Linux a try.  With the exception of the WiFi card, everything worked with minimal tweaking.  The major change I made was to switch desktop environments from Gnome to XFCE, but that was purely a matter of personal preference.


* If you need an 802.11n router, this is the one to get.  It's fast and stable.

Michael Steele on the Second Amendment

The new RNC chairman is soft (to put it mildly) on the RKBA:

“…Society should draw lines. What do you need an assault weapon for, if you're going hunting? That's overkill. But I don't think that means you go to a total ban for those who want to use gun for skeet shooting or hunting or things like that. But what's the point of passing gun laws if we're not going to enforce them? If you want to talk about gun control, that's where you need to start. We've got 300 gun laws on the books right now. At the end of the day, it's about how we enforce the law.”

Once again we see a focus on objects instead of behavior.   Gun control has never and will never work to curb crime because it purports to regulate inanimate things instead of human activity.  Furthermore, one should never have to prove a need for something, so long as possessing it doesn't infringe on the rights of others.

It appears that the GOP is seeking to paint itself as a moderate party.  Once again it's failed to learn the lesson that when it cultivates conservative values, it wins elections, but when it tries to appeal to moderates and liberals, it loses.

"The Stupid Party" moniker is apt.

Why the Peaceful Majority is Irrelevant

From Celestial Junk:

I used to know a man whose family were German aristocracy prior to World War Two. They owned a number of large industries and estates. I asked him how many German people were true Nazis, and the answer he gave has stuck with me and guided my attitude toward fanaticism ever since.

“Very few people were true Nazis” he said, “but, many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”

Read the whole thing.

The Idiossey

At Iowahawk: The Idiossey, The Not-Really-That-Epic Poem of Obamacles.

{H/T Larry Correia.}

Messing with Virtualization

In my ongoing quest to improve the efficiency of how I maintain my lab, I'm looking into virtualization as a way to setup test PCs.  This will probably work OK when testing applications, though it won't work when testing connectivity issues.  E.g., if I need to test tweaks for Windows XP's TCP setting to optimize throughput, I need to be running XP right on the hardware.

This morning I downloaded VMWare Server 2.  It's free-as-in-beer, always a plus when one's budget is limited.  For a host OS I'm using CentOS 5.2, running on one of my 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo boxes.  I figured I'd get better performance using Linux as the host, vs. using a Windows host.  The box has 3 GB of RAM so I should be able to run a couple of VMs concurrently, as long as I'm not doing something requiring significant disk I/O or network access.

For my first guest OS I loaded the Windows 7 Beta.  I'd previously run it directly on an identical PC, and was quite impressed.  Rather than an entirely new OS, it feels to me like Vista SP2 or Vista SE.  In other words, Vista without the suck.  It's a lot lighter than Vista and seems to run about as fast as XP does on this hardware.  Installing W7 into a VM went smoothly.

I'm now building a second VM, this time using Solaris 10 x86 (32 bit) as the guess OS.  Not being conversant with Solaris I'm using the default settings in VMWare and the Solaris install, except that I allocated more RAM than VMware asked for, 1024 MB vs. 540 MB.

VMware Server 2 uses a web interface.  Frankly, I'm not thrilled with this as compared with a non-web interface as it's sluggish.

After I use this setup for awhile I intend to replace VMware with Sun's VirtualBox to see how it compares.

Verizon 8330 Blackberry Bluetooth Tethering Working

After last night's firmware upgrade on my Verizon Blackberry 8330, tethering on my Mac wasn't working via either USB or Bluetooth.  This morning I got into the office and googled for the instructions on how to setup Bluetooth tethering (which isn't officially supported by VZW, but works anyway).

This post by "sirforce" on Crackberry Forums describes how to configure Mac OS X.5 to get onto VZW's EVDO network using a Blackberry 8330 and Bluetooth.  I am reproducing it here in the interest of spreading the knowledge, and in case the forum should disappear.

1. Added tethering your Verizon service plan for an additional $15/month.

2. Pair your phone with your Mac/MacBook via BlueTooth This worked on my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro workstation.

3. Add a new dial up modem in the networking preferences panel-
Configuration: Default
Telephone Number: #777
Account name: 3015551212@vzw3.com (change the number to your verizon mobile #)
Password: vzw

3a. Under advanced options:
Vendor: Other
Model: Verizon Support (PC 5220)
Check Enable error correction and compression in modem

Dial Mode: Wait for dial tone before dialing
Dial: Tone
Sound: On
The remaining tabs: DNS, WINS, Proxy, etc are all set to default settings no changes are necessary

4. Turn off your AirPort or disconnect your ethernet then press connect to dial up and enjoy near broad band surfing via Verizon -

If you're not on the EVDO network then your speeds will be more "dial up" classic like.

Once connected, your phone should have a notice at the top of the screen "Modem Mode Enabled"


On a side note:
I setup a friends modem without tethering on his plan and once the internet was connected and then attempted to load google.com. The web page that appeared was a verizon page that would allow the addition of tethering to the users account for $15 just by clicking the yes I agree, pretty cool!

GPS on Verizon Blackberry 8330

After getting annoyed that I couldn't tap into my Verizon Blackberry 8330's internal GPS, I did some searching on the Internet to see if there was a way to open access to it.  It turns out that a recent firmware upgrade allows you to use the internal GPS without shelling out for Verizon's Navigator service, which would incur a monthly fee.

I downloaded the updater from blackberry.com, following a link from Verizon's site.  Unfortunately, the updater is Windows-only, so I copied the 68 MB file to Hobbit, my MSI Wind netbook, and used it to update the Blackberry.

The whole process took about 20 - 25 minutes, and at one point I thought it stalled.  I left it alone and it eventually finished, putting me on v4.5.0.77, vs. 4.3.x which came with the unit.

Once the upgrade was finished I checkd the GPS functionality by opening the Blackberry Maps app, and saw that it was able to get my location.  Unfortunately, Google Maps hasn't been updated to take advantage of the internal GPS on this device, so I can't use it for accurately locating myself.  I'll survive.

On a side note, this sort of intentional crippling of firmware features on their phones is one of the things that really bugs me about Verizon.  It's done purely as a way for them to charge more for features that are natively supported by their cell phones.  The only reason that I stick with them is that in my area they have the best network, by far.  If another cell provider had a comparable network and didn't intentionally cripple their phones, I'd be sorely tempted to jump ship when my contract expires.

Edit:

Well, either the Blackberry firmware update or the OS X software update that I ran earlier today borked my ability to tether the BB to Rohan my MacBook Pro for EVDO Internet access.  I can tether it to Hobbit, but a couple different versions of the Verizon Access Manager fail to see the BB when it's connected via USB.  My Bluetooth tethering setup wasn't working, either.

I'll need to putz around with this more.

Refocusing

I've decided to refocus my blogging efforts on this site, rather than maintaining separate blogs for Survival & Emergency Preparedness and Obama.  Separating them was an interesting experiment, but it'll be easier for me to manage one site instead of multiple blogs.  I won't delete the other sites, but for the foreseeable future, topics which may have appeared on them will instead appear right here.

California at the Tipping Point

From the Chicago Boyz:

I think a threshold or tipping point exists in the ratio between the political power of those who pay taxes and those who consume taxes directly. After that tipping point is reached, those who pay taxes become the economic slaves of those who consume taxes.

I think California has passed that point.  Tax consumers now control the state government and can vote themselves almost any level of personal income and benefits they wish while taxpayers cannot muster the political capital to defend themselves.

Read the whole article, and the comments.  CA is in deep financial shit, and unfortunately the state is frequently a forerunner of the rest of the nation.

Obama Huffy with Press Corps

So Obama dropped in on the White House press corps, gets asked a substantive questions, and replies thusly:

"Ahh, see," he said, "I came down here to visit. See this is what happens. I can't end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I'm going to get grilled every time I come down here."

WTF?  You're the POTUS.  Or are we not allowed to question the Obamessiah?

Paterson Picks Gillibrand to Replace Clinton

Well, well, well.

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson has selected Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, a 42-year-old congresswoman from upstate who is known for bold political moves and centrist policy positions, to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a person who spoke to the governor early Friday.

Although she's a Democrat, Gillibrand has a solid pro-RKBA voting record.

It'll be refreshing to not see another member of a polical dynasty in the Senate.

Update to The Shooter's Bar

The Shooters' Bar(SM) has been updated, adding Brian Toder of Minneapolis, MN.

Round up of Gun Bills in the new Congress

Over at SaysUncle.

Though for Inauguration Day

"After a time, you may find that 'having' is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as 'wanting.' It is not logical, but it is often true."

--Mr. Spock

Remember the Deacons for Defense

Why are these men forgotten?

In November 1964, a group of black American citizens in Jonesboro, Louisiana led by Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick founded a militia to protect civil rights workers against the violence of the Ku Klux Klan. They called it the Deacons for Defense and Justice. Most of them were war veterans with combat experience from the Korean War and World War II, and they armed themselves with military pattern semi-automatic rifles, carbines and pistols. Ironically, these are the same types of firearms that liberal politicians (including Barack Obama) are seeking to ban today as so-called "assault weapons."

Islamist Nazis

Periodically we hear that Muslim opposition to Israel and the US has nothing to do with antisemitism.  That's bullcrap.  Take a look at this:

 

And Obama wants to talk to these people?! 

Link.

Contact your Senators in opposition to Eric Holder

Obama's nomination for Attorney General of the US has a terrible anti-RKBA record and was also a proponent of issuing Presidential pardons to Puerto Rican terrorists.  His anti-freedom record makes him an awful choice for A.G.

Please go here to send emails to your senators expressing opposition to his confirmation.

Updates to The Shooters' Bar

Today I made several updates to The Shooters' Bar(SM).  A couple new members and a few updated entries for old members.  TSB is the place to go on the web if you're looking for a pro-gun attorney.

Received my new battery

I received the replacement battery for Rohan yesterday.  Apple FedExed it to me, even though they informed me the other day that it would take 7 to 10 business days.  To condition it I charged it last night, while today I'm running it down to about 10% remaining charge before plugging Rohan into A/C power.

Hopefully I'll get more than a year out of this one.

John Lott on Eric Holder

Despite a huge Democratic Senate majority, Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings are going to be difficult. He has a long record to defend. Whether it is his involvement and inconsistent statements about Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich’s or his pushing Clinton’s clemency of the FALN terrorists or his failure to disclose his work for troubled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich after Blagojevich's legal problems surfaced, he faces tough questions.

Link .

From the WSJ :

...

Jews around Europe are increasingly under attack since Israel decided two weeks ago to defend itself after years of rocket fire at its civilian population. There have been arson attempts on synagogues in Britain, Belgium and Germany. Police last week arrested Muslim protesters who wanted to enter the Jewish quarter in Antwerp. Several Danish schools with large Muslim student bodies say they won't enroll Jewish kids because they can't guarantee the children's safety. In France, a group of teenagers attacked a 14-year-old girl last week, calling her "dirty Jew" while kicking her.

...

Most of the anti-Jewish violence and protests in Europe come from immigrants. In what may have been a Freudian recognition of the changing face of Europe, CNN two weeks ago used footage of anti-Israeli protesters in London in a report about the growing anger in the "Arab and Muslim world." The mythical Arab Street now reaches deep into Paris, London, Berlin and Madrid.

...

The depth of anti-Semitic propaganda in Palestinian and other Muslim societies is one of the most underreported facts about the Middle East. It is this anti-Semitism that predisposes Muslims in Europe to attack Jews and fuels the Mideast conflict. The hatred predates Israel's creation. To illustrate this point: The Palestinian leader during World War II, Hajj Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, conspired with Hitler to bring the Holocaust to Palestine. Luckily, the British stopped the German troops in Africa. The Mufti spent the war years in Berlin and was later indicted for war crimes but with the help of the Muslim Brotherhood escaped to Egypt. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Religion of Peace," my ass.  European Jews need to stop supporting politicians who let in the riff raff and fail to condemn antisemitism.  And it's not just in Europe.  The Palestinians and their supporters in the US have become bolder lately.  Last week we saw a Palestinian protestor in Fort Lauderdale calling for Jews to "go back to the ovens."   Given the willingness of our "leaders" to let virtually anyone immigrate into this country, I expect that Jewish Americans will face this more frequently in the coming years.

S.F. Housing Authority agrees to let tenants own guns

They blinked.

The San Francisco Housing Authority has agreed to allow its residents to own guns in a settlement of a National Rifle Association lawsuit that followed last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the right to bear arms.

In papers filed Monday with a federal judge, the Housing Authority agreed not to enforce a provision it added to tenant leases in 2005 prohibiting the possession of guns and ammunition. The ban will now apply only to illegal gun ownership, like possession of a machine gun or possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for more precedent, possibly incorporation of the Second Amendment. It should come in time, though.

Obama's Climate Czar Is Board Member of Major Carbon Offset Company

Via Gateway Pundit.

It was reported yesterday that Barack Obama picked a radical socialist as his climate czar. Carol Browner belongs to organizations that call for "global governance" and demand that rich countries shrink their economies to address climate change. But since her pick, Mrs. Browner'sname and biography had been removed from these socialist websites.

Now, it was discovered that this same radical eco-socialist is a board member of one of the leading carbon offset trading companies, APX!

This couldn't create, you know, a conflict of interest.

The Lapdog Press

"We don't even bother raising our hands anymore."

In order for a democratic republic to properly function, the populace needs to be educated.  The media has consistently fallen down on its responsibility in this regard.  Change?  More like the same old crap.

Californication Spreading

Having fouled up California with their failed socialist policies, the locusts are abandoning ship.

...

Since the days of the Gold Rush, California has represented the Promised Land, an image celebrated in the songs of the Beach Boys and embodied by Silicon Valley's instant millionaires and the young men and women who achieve stardom in Hollywood.

But for many California families last year, tomorrow started somewhere else.

The number of people leaving California for another state outstripped the number moving in from another state during the year ending on July 1, 2008. California lost a net total of 144,000 people during that period — more than any other state, according to census estimates. That is about equal to the population of Syracuse, N.Y.

...

Unfortunately, they tend to bring their voting patterns with them.

Healthcare SNAFU in Massachusetts

More proof socialism does not work.

To much fanfare from both right and left in 2006, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to require all residents to buy health insurance. A new state health insurance clearinghouse was created, with taxpayers subsidizing those who couldn’t afford to buy coverage. Then Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, promised that “every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance.” Yet just two years later, Romney’s much-heralded “solution” — touted by many as the model for a national program — has become an embarrassing flop.

Just a year after the universal coverage law passed, The New York Times reported, state insurers were already jacking up rates to twice the national average. According to Dr. Paul Hsieh, a physician and founding member of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, 43 mandatory benefits — including those that many people did not want or need, such as invitro fertilization — raised the costs of coverage for Massachusetts residents by as much as 56 percent, depending upon an individual’s income status. So much for “affordable” health care.

Link .

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html From the Wall Street Journal:

Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity. The left, naturally, hated her. But as recently as 1991, a survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

Read the whole thing .

Dems Not Waiting on an Assault Weapons Ban

From the Firearms Coalition:


1. Gun-ban list proposed

Slipping below the radar (or under the short-term memory cap), the Democrats have already leaked a gun-ban list, even under the Bush administration when they knew full well it had no chance of passage (HR 1022, 110th Congress). It serves as a framework for the new list the Brady’s plan to introduce shortly.

I have an outline of the Brady’s current plans and targets of opportunity; we’re working on getting that news out ASAP after these ban lists and will probably be ready in the next few days. It’s horrific. They’re going after the courts, regulatory agencies, firearms dealers and statutes in an all out effort to restrict We The People. They’ve made little mention of criminals.

Now more than ever, attention to the entire Bill of Rights is critical. Gun bans will impact our freedoms under search and seizure, due process, confiscated property, states rights, free speech, right to assemble and more, in addition to the Second Amendment. See what 250 of your peers thought during our recent Bill of Rights Day event at the Wrigley Mansion in Phoenix: http://www.gunlaws.com/BOR-Day-2008-Report.htm

The Democrats current gun-ban-list proposal (final list WILL be worse): 

Rifles (YES and copies and duplicates):
• M1 Carbine, Sturm Ruger Mini-14, AR-15, Bushmaster XM15, Armalite M15, AR-10, Thompson 1927, Thompson M1;
• AK, AKM, AKS, AK-47, AK-74, ARM, MAK90, NHM 90, NHM 91, SA 85, SA 93, VEPR;
• Olympic Arms PCR; AR70, Calico Liberty, Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle or Dragunov SVU, Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, or FNC, Hi-Point Carbine, HK-91, HK-93, HK-94, HK-PSG-1, Thompson 1927 Commando, Kel-Tec Sub Rifle;
• Saiga, SAR-8, SAR-4800, SKS with detachable magazine, SLG 95, SLR 95 or 96, Steyr AUG, Tavor, Uzi, Galil and Uzi Sporter, Galil Sporter, or Galil Sniper Rifle (Galatz).

Pistols (or copies or duplicates):
• Calico M-110, MAC-10, MAC-11, or MPA3, Olympic Arms OA, TEC-9, TEC-DC9, TEC-22 Scorpion, or AB-10, Uzi.

Shotguns (or copies or duplicates):• Armscor 30 BG, SPAS 12 or LAW 12, Striker 12, Streetsweeper.

Catch-all Categories (for anything missed or new designs):
A semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and has
(i) a folding or telescoping stock, (ii) a threaded barrel, (iii) a pistol grip (which includes ANYTHING that can serve as a grip, see below), (iv) a forward grip; or a barrel shroud.
Any semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds. (except tubular magazine .22 rimfire rifles-unlike New Jersey which bans these too!).
A semiautomatic pistol that has the ability to accept a detachable magazine, and has (i) a second pistol grip, (ii) a threaded barrel, (iii) a barrel shroud or (iv) can accept a detachable magazine outside of the pistol grip, and (v) a semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
A semiautomatic shotgun with (i) a folding or telescoping stock, (ii) a pistol grip (see definition below), (iii) the ability to accept a detachable magazine or a fixed magazine capacity of more than 5 rounds, and (iv) a shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
Frames or receivers for the above are included, along with conversion and/or completer kits.


Attorney General gets carte blanche to ban guns at will:
Under the proposal, the U.S. Attorney General can add any “semiautomatic rifle or shotgun originally designed for military or law enforcement use, or a firearm based on the design of such a firearm, that is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General.” Note that Obama’s pick for this office (Eric Holder, confirmation hearing set for Jan. 15) wrote a brief in the Heller case supporting the position that you have no right to have a working firearm in your own home.

In making this determination, the bill says, “there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any federal law enforcement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, and a firearm shall not be determined to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes solely because the firearm is suitable for use in a sporting event.”

In plain English this means that ANY firearm ever obtained by federal officers or the military is not suitable for the public.

That presumption can be challenged only by suing the federal government over each firearm it decides to ban, in a court it runs with a judge it pays. This virtually dismisses the principles of the Second Amendment.

The last part is particularly clever, stating that a firearm doesn’t have a sporting purpose just because it can be used for sporting purpose -- is that devious or what? And of course, “sporting purpose” is a rights infringement with no constitutional or historical support whatsoever, invented by domestic enemies of the right to keep and bear arms to further their cause of disarming the innocent.

If these near-total bans aren’t enough, the most dangerous part may be the phrase “pistol grip” because: “The term ‘pistol grip’ means a grip, a thumbhole stock, or any other characteristic that can function as a grip.” In other words, any semi-auto long gun with a grip (that’s ALL semi-auto long guns) would be banned under the existing proposal. It’s not clear what they hope to achieve by deceptively banning guns with grips instead of just calling to ban the guns -- even an idiot can tell it’s the same thing.

I didn’t cover here all the magazine bans, transfer bans, dealer record-keeping and centralized reporting, and a host of nuisance details -- there will be time enough for that when the new lists are released soon: “As soon as President-elect Obama is inaugurated and the 111th Congress is sworn in,” according to Ms. Brady. Congress is set to be sworn in on Jan. 6, Inauguration Day is Jan. 20.

No one expects the new proposal to be less abusive than the current one supported by the party of the Democrats. Remember -- these bans were proposed when the congressional anti-rights crowd had no chance of success. Now they are ready to run wild, or according to Sarah herself, “I have never been so confident.” The “news” media has failed to report on any of this, preferring instead to blare that the incoming president supports the Second Amendment and commonsense (gun) laws.
To see the whole bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and search for HR 1022, (switch to the 110th Congress if the 111th has begun).

The excellent Firearms Coalition started by the late Neal Knox and now run by his family members makes these important points about the upcoming Judiciary hearings for AG nominee Holder:

“The Democrat members of the Judiciary Committee are all sworn enemies to the Second Amendment and are unlikely to be swayed at all by any firearms related arguments, but might hesitate to confirm based on Holder’s participation in the pardons of 16 Puerto Rican terrorists and billionaire financier and arms merchant Marc Rich [and perhaps the Elian Gonzalez abduction by federal agents Holder authorized]. Any letters to Democrats should focus on those issues.

“On the Republican side, Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the committee has never been a friend to gun rights, but he owes his reelection to NRA support and has expressed concern over the pardon issues. Among the other Republicans, most are relatively reliable votes, but only Coburn has routinely taken a leadership role on Second Amendment matters. All of them need to be pressed hard to do everything they can to block the appointment.

“For more information about Eric Holder and why his appointment must be fought tooth and nail, go to our web site at http://www.FirearmsCoalition.org.”

Replacing Rohan's Battery. Again.

A little while ago I got off the phone with Apple support.  Once again I am in need of a replacement battery for Rohan, my MacBook Pro.  Rohan's current battery is a replacement for the original one.  I got it last February.  According to the OS X System Profiler, it has a cycle count of only 35, and is in "Check Battery" condition.

The call to AppleCare was pretty painless.  Having gone through this before I had the System Profiler up before I dialed.  Once I gave the tech information about the current battery's state, he put it in for a return.

Last time I did this the replacement was sent to me overnight.  This time I was given a 7 to 10 business day time frame.  I let him know that I'm not happy about that but didn't make a stink.

While I had the AppleCare rep on the line I also told him that if Apple adopts the non-user replaceable battery model of the new 17" MBP for the 15" MBP or the MBs, I won't be buying one.  My G4 iBook's battery was recalled.  My MBP is now going to be getting its third battery.  If I need to replace the battery in my next laptop I do not want to have to schlep it to an Apple Store or ship it overnight somewhere, losing the use of my computer for however long it takes for Apple to repair it and return it to me.  Depriving a customer of the use of his laptop for something that should be user-replaceable is inexcusable.  If it comes to that, my next laptop will be either a Lenovo Thinkpad or Dell Latitude running Linux.

First Look at Windows 7 Beta

Last night I downloaded the ISO of the Windows 7 Beta installation disc from MSDN.  This morning I installed it on a fairly generic Intel PC with a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, 3 GB of RAM, a 160 GB hard disk, DVD burner, with an Intel DQ965 chipset.

Installation was a snap on this hardware, taking about 20 minutes.  Compared with Vista, the most noticeable differences upon first logging in are (a) the gadget bar on the right of the screen is absent, and (b) a new task bar.  Gadgets can be setup on the desktop but the gadget bar isn't loaded by default.  The new task bar merits some comment.

I've seen in various articles online how the new task bar is similar to the OS X Dock.  It does bear some resemblance.  E.g., you can drag an application icon to the Task Bar to create a launcher.  When you click on it, the app opens.  When you minimize the app, it does so to the icon, which is then surrounded by a box.  If you have more than one instance of an app open, the icon appears as a stack.  If you hover the cursor over the icon stack, you'll get a popup with previews of each window.



So far it runs faster on my hardware than Vista does.  User Access Control seems a bit less obnoxious, and it's less bloated.  For example, Windows Live Mail and Messenger are no longer part of the installation, but you can download them through Control Panel.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta is the stock browser and it runs very quickly.


Like Vista, if you press Windows Key-Tab, you can see all of your open apps.


There is still no built in SSH client, and the telnet client needs to be enabled through Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off, which is just dumb.

Oh, the default desktop background is a painting of a Siamese Fighting Fish, AKA a Beta Fish.  Cute.

Back to the Old Grind and a Range Report

Back to the old grind.  Yesterday was my first day of work since December 23rd, and it was hard getting up at 0610.  I'm not complaining, since I'm grateful to have a job in this economy.

Since my last post about the LRGC Kalashnikov Match (at which I did lousy because my rifle's sights were off), I spent time with the family, made it to the range a couple of times, and picked up a new toy.

The new toy is a Century Arms VZ-2008 Sporter, a semiauto clone of the Czechoslovakian assault VZ-58 rifle.  It bears a superficial resemblance to the AK, but there are no interchangeable parts.  Aside from having some technical difficulties with it when I brought it to the range Sunday, I'm going to hold off on posting about it, since I've pitched an article on it to a gun magazine.

My goal on the first range trip was to break in a new-to-me SAR-1 which I got from my dad.  The last time he'd shot it he experienced several malfunctions due to the fire control group (hammer, trigger, and disconnector).  He ordered a Tapco G2 FCG to replace the factory parts, but had never gotten around to installing it.  He also ordered an "L" shaped trigger and hammer pin retaining spring, which I used in lieu of the factory Shepherd's Hook.  The "L" spring is a lot easier to remove and install.

Tapco makes some good stuff and some bad.  The G2 FCG is one of their good products, this was third one I've installed in an AK.  It provides a light trigger pull with minimal creep, and little to no trigger slap.  (Trigger slap is when the action resets, pushing the trigger back forward, slapping your finger in the process.  This can be painful, especially in cold weather.  It's common on AKs.)

I ran a couple hundred rounds through the SAR-1 without any problems.  I needed to do some minor sight adjustments to zero the iron sights.  With the Wolf Military Classic FMJ ammo I was shooting, I was able to keep most shots within the black of an SR-1 target at 100 yards when shooting from a solid rest.  This is about as good as I can do with an AK and open sights.

After getting the SAR-1, I ordered a set of K-Var plastic handguards with a heat shield, and a Polish Tantal folding stock.  The wood furniture which came with the rifle looks good but the handguard heats up quickly in rapid fire.  I want a folding stock for storage and transport.  Unfortunately, I received the handguards but not the folding stock, because the merchant's online inventory wasn't updated before I put in my order, and by the time I did so it was out of stock.  so for now I have mismatched furniture on the gun.  So yesterday I ordered an East German folder from WhatACountry.com.  Once I get that squared away the next thing I want to do is get the muzzle threaded and install either a muzzle brake or flash hider.

Something else I acquired over vacation was a three pack of Finnish Valmet M62 magazines, which fit other AKs in 7.62x39.  They all fit fine in my SAR-1 but a couple are snug in my MAK-90.  I ran about 300 rounds through them with no problems, and posted a report on a couple of boards.  One reply from a Finn indicated that the OD mags, such as those I received, were for trials and can bulge when left loaded.  Graphite colored M62 mags are good to go, however.  In any event they seem to be good range mags and a neat collectible.

Red, White & Blue December at LRGC

Another great practical rifle match at Langhorne Rod & Gun Club today.  The theme today was Kalashnikovs.  Most participants shot one AK variant or another.  I saw a couple Bulgarian Arsenal AKs (including mine), several Yugos (fixed stocks, folders and RPKs), a Norinco underfolder, a custom AK-105 clone, and a Saiga converted into an AK-104 clone, and some Romanian rifles.  There were also a few AR-15s and one Chicom SKS which took AK magazines.  There were a few shooters in the "war horse" class, with Garands, an SVT-40, and one Swiss K-31 Schmidt-Rubin.

The course of fire included:

1. From about 10 yards, 20 rounds in two double taps.  Then 3 magazines of 3, followed by a transition to pistol with 10 rounds.
2. From 200 yards, 3 magazines of 10 from prone.
3. From 100 yards, 3 magazines of 10 from standing, kneeling, and prone.
4. From 100 yards, one mag with 30 rounds to get 9 hits on 3 steel targets.

Part of the crowd:



The firing line:




Some of the hardware:



As always, the crew at Langhorne put on a fun, safe shoot.

Edit:  I forgot to mention that I met Sebastian of Snowflakes In Hell.  He's posted his impressions of the event here, with some pics, including a couple of yours truly.

MTV on the Holocaust

Coming from MTV, I find this to be remarkable.  Very well done.

Happy Chanukah!

Happy Chanukah!

Time for my now-traditional link to my 2004 post on the subject.  I find it particularly topical, given the level of Jewish support for Obama/Biden in the recent election.

MSI Wind 9 Cell Battery

Since I was dissatisfied with the short battery life of the OEM 3 cell battery which came with my MSI Wind netbook, last week I ordered a 9 cell replacement from Battery1Inc.com, through Amazon.com.  The battery arrived on Friday.

The 9 cell battery is physically larger than the OEM 3 cell.  It protrudes from the bottom of the case about an inch and adds about a half pound to the machine's weight.  It's still quite compact and portable, and the increased battery life is worth the increased weight and bulk IMO.

Battery1Inc.'s website states that they are shipped in a discharged state.  However, when I plugged it in XP showed the battery as being 100% charged.  I ran the netbook for about 2.5 hours on battery power, with the remaining life shown by XP fluctuating.  So, I plugged it back in to ensure a full charge, with the intention of testing the battery later.

It's late.  I unplugged the machine and fired it up at 0945 this morning.  XP's battery monitor reported 7:31 remaining.  A few minutes later it reported 5:30 remaining.  A few minutes after that it showed 6:10.  I'm wondering if XP is not able to accurately estimate battery life over a certain period, or it if there's some problem communicating with the battery.

In any event, I'm going to try using the Wind today until I get a low battery warning.  I'll post an update later.

Edit at 1906:  After using the Wind off and on throughout the day, I finally got a low battery warning at 1835. If this kind of performance lasts, I will be very happy, indeed.

Edit:  Here's the battery I purchased:

Replacement Netbook Battery for MSI laptop Wind U100/ BTY-S11, BTY-S12, 3715A-MS6837D1, 14L-MS6837D1, 6317A-RTL8187SE, TX2-RTL8187SE /9-cells Black 7200mAh High Capacity

MSI Wind PC

Last night I put together a new PC for my MIL.  It's based on an MSI Wind small form factor barebones system.  As usual, NewEgg delivered that parts I ordered very quickly.  It took two days to receive my order, even though I'd selected 3 - 5 business shipping.

The Wind barebones system comes with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, an external power supply, and the SATA II data and power cables already attached to the motherboard.  Also included in the box were a Windows driver CD, a short User's Guide booklet, and screws to mount the hard disk and optical disk.

The Wind comes with 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on the front), audio in/out on front, a speaker jack on the rear, along with jacks for surround sound speakers, and a flash card reader in front.  The card reader can handle compact flash and Sony Memory Sticks.  Dimensions of the SFF system are a scant 11.8" x 9.5" x 2.6".  Here are a couple of pictures of the Wind sitting on my desk next to my 20" widescreen monitor, with a coffee mug and my Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Ed. for scale.  (Click on the thumbnails for full size pics.)






For networking there's an onboard Realtek Gigabit Ethernet adapter.  The Intel GMA950 video adapter is onboard, as is the Realtek ALC858 sound card.

Rounding out the parts of the system are:

1. A Samsung SATA DVD-RAM drive.
2. A Western Digital 160 GB SATA hard disk.
3. A 200 pin SODIMM, 2 GB stick of Kingston DDR2-533 RAM.

The system is cooled by an exhaust fan mounted on the back which draws air in from vents on the right side (if you have it laying flat) of the box.  These vents are on the bottom of the case if you prop the system vertically, so MSI includes a stand which elevates the box off the floor.  (One could put the case on the other side but then the system would not take advantage of the fact that hot air rises.)  One thing that helps system cooling is that the 65W power supply is external.

Assembly of the system was straightforward.  Remove two screws on the back and you can remove the top/side of the case.  You then need to remove the front bezel, take out the filler for where optical drive goes, and mount the disks, using the screw holes on the bottoms of the disk drives.

Inserting the stick of RAM was a bit trickier.  The motherboard has one slot for a 200 pin DDR2-533 SODIMM.  The slot is tight and the latches securing the end of the SODIMM took some persuasion to allow the stick in, but after a few minutes I got it seated.

The motherboard also has two slots which remain unused in this system: a mini PCI-E slot for a wifi or TV tuner card, and a Compact Flash slot.  The latter can be used for building a completely solid state system, installing the operating system on a CF card.  Somewhat annoyingly, even when empty the CF slot shows up as Disk 0 in the system, which results in Windows being installed onto E:.  This caused one post-installation problem, which I'll discuss below.

Windows XP Professional SP3 installed easily after I got the system put together.  Note that the system does not have PS/2 ports for the mouse and keyboard, so you must use USB.  Keep this in mind if installing a pre-SP2 version of Windows or other OSes which don't support USB keyboards and mice during installation.

During installation I partitioned the hard disk, creating a 50 GB system partition with the remained to be used for data.  This will simplify reinstalling Windows if I need to do so down the road.  Post install, I created an account for my MIL and pointed her "My Documents" desktop shortcut to a folder on the second partition, the F: drive.

Once XP was installed I popped in the disc to load the drivers for sound, video and the network.  The sound driver required a reboot but IIRC, the video and NIC drivers did not.  I currently have the box connected to my Acer 20" widescreen LCD monitor, and the Intel GMA950 has no problems running it at 1600x1050 resolution, in 32 bit color.

The applications I installed are:

1. Anti-malware HOSTS file from MVPS.org.
2. AVG Antivirus
3. Ad Aware
4. Firefox 3.0.5 with two extensions, Adblock Plus and Linkification
5. Foxit Reader (PDF reader that's much lighter than Adobe's)
6. PDF Creator
7. VLC for viewing videos and listening to audio files
8. MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher 2007
9. CPUID Hardware Monitor
10. Nero Burning ROM
11. CCleaner
12. Skype, to be used with a webcam she already has

As mentioned above the system sets up the internal CF reader as Disk 0, and Windows sees this as C: in Disk Manager.  I thus wound up with the DVD burner as D: but the system partition on the hard disk as E:, and the data partition as F:.  Not having XP installed on C: caused the installation of Adobe's Flash Player to fail with an insufficient disk space error.  After hitting Google I found a workaround: connect a USB flash drive to the system.  Then, go into Disk Manager and change the CF reader to an unused drive letter (Z: in my case), change the USB flash drive to C:, then rerun the Flash player installer.  Upon doing so it ran.  My MIL will be happy now that she'll be able to watch videos on Youtube. ;-)

I was a bit concerned about system cooling.  The intake vent is right next to the RAM which partically blocks airflow, since the SODIMM protruded at right angled to the motherboard.  In laptops the RAM would be flat against the board.  I fired up CPUID Hardware Monitor and then watched several Youtube videos, an activity which warms up other systems I've used.  CPU temp stayed around 104* to 106* F.  I followed this up with the first two tracks from Derek and the Dominos Live at the Fillmore, played in the DVD-RAM drive.  CPU temp remained around 103* to 104*, so as long as the vents remain clear cooling should be adequate.  (I haven't tried ripping CDs or DVDs, which might stress the system more, raising temperature.)

The Derek and the Dominos CD played fine using VLC.  When I put in a Star Wars DVD and tried to watch it I got audio and a bunch of pixelated junk, however.  Another DVD player might work better, I'm not sure.  My MIL won't be watching DVDs on this system, in any event.

Since my MIL doesn't know yet that I've built this system for her, it's a bit tempting to throw Ubuntu or OpenSUSE on the box to see how it would handle Linux.  From how it works with XP, I think it should have plenty of power, especially with a lightweight desktop like XFCE.

The Wind is low powered by today's standards.  However, it does have enough processing power to handle light office tasks, web browsing, email, viewing online video, and listening to music.  Compared with a more powerful system, it's green, using less electricity and generating less heat.  The small dimensions make it easy to fit into cramped spaces.  In a sense, it could be viewed as the PC world's equivalent of a Mac Mini, but easier to work on and less expensive.  For users in need of a system which will do the tasks listed above, and who don't need a more powerful system for sophisticated audio/video processing, the MSI Wind barebones PC is a good option.  With disk space being cheaper than ever, the Wind could be the basis for an inexpensive, low power home server.  Finally, the onboard CF slot also offers interesting opportunities, such as building a flash based system for use as a web or X terminal.

New PC for MIL

Being the resident computer geek in my extended family, end user support naturally winds up being my responsibility.  So, when it comes time for someone in the family to get a new home computer either I put it together or they ask me for a recommendation.

For example, my mother in-law (henceforth “MIL”) currently has a PC I built up for her about 5 or 6 years ago.  It’s an MSI minitower, one of the PCs WalMart was selling sans OS several years ago.  It worked OK for awhile but it’s long in the tooth now and in dire need of replacement.  It has a 900 MHz AMD Duron CPU, 256 MB of RAM, and a 10 GB hard disk.  This afternoon, I ordered the parts from NewEgg to build her a new PC.

Based on the good results with her existing MSI PC and my Wind netbook, I chose an MSI Wind barebones PC as the basis for the new box.  The Wind barebones apparently takes a motherboard very similar to the one in the Wind netbook and puts it into a small form factor desktop/minitower case.  Like the netbook, it comes with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU and takes a maximum of 2 GB of laptop RAM.  There’s space for a 3.5” hard disk and a 5.25” optical drive.

To complete the machine I also ordered the following hardware:

• 2 GB stick of Kingston RAM
• 160 GB Western Digital SATA hard disk
• Samsung SATA DVD burner
• Logitech USB keyboard and mouse

This is low end by today’s standards, but her most important applications are Firefox, Skype (for talking to my brother in-law in Okinawa), and Office.  My Wind netbook handles these with aplomb so the desktop should be just fine.

Other reasons for choosing the Wind barebones is that its small form factor will fit into MIL’s cramped bedroom easily and it has low power consumption.   It didn’t hurt that NewEgg had it on sale and there’s a $10 mailin rebate.

The software load with be XP Pro SP3 with IE6 (IE7 sucks up too many system resources even when you’re not using it), MS Office 2003, Firefox, AVG antivirus, and Skype.

So why not a Mac?  Two words: low budget.  This setup is costing less than $300 (we already have the XP and Office licenses).   Even a low end Mac Mini would cost at least $300 more.

And why Windows instead of something like Ubuntu Linux?  If MIL didn’t use MS Office, I’d be perfectly happy to load Ubuntu  on it.  A few years ago I had my parents using SuSE 7.3 at home and it worked fine until they had a few windows programs they really wanted to run. For MIL, Firefox and Skype would work just fine on Linux.  MS Office, not so much.  (No, for her OpenOffice.org is not good enough.  OO.o does not perfectly translate heavily formatted Office docs, which she sometimes brings home from work.)  I’m able to configure XP so that it needs relatively minimal attention, and the only networking she does is Internet access from behind a router.  She doesn’t live with us so being around to help her learn a new OS isn’t really feasible.  YMMV.

I’m hoping my order will arrive next week so I get to move her to the new machine by the end of the year.  I’ll post a follow up once it’s up and running.  Assuming it works out well, I may wind up getting a second one for use as a home server here.

MSI Wind Netbook Review

I bought an MSI Wind U100-420US netbook at Microcenter just before Thanksgiving. They had it on sale for $299; their regular price is $349. My intended uses for the box include ham radio programming, PSK-31 once I get my General Class license, and portable computing when I don't feel like schlepping around my 15" MacBook Pro. It will also fill a role as a commo and navigation box in the event of an emergency and we need to evacuate.

The Wind hardware is pretty slick. Mine has a black case but it's also available in white, pink, and a "Love Edition" which is white with hearts on it. (Barf.) It weighs 2.6 lbs., came with a 120 GB hard disk, 1 GB of RAM, and a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU. It has 802.11g wifi, a 10/100 Ethernet port, a 56k modem, A/V input/output, VGA out, 3 USB ports, and a card reader. I bumped the RAM to the maximum supported, 2 GB (a Kingston 1 gig stick was $13.99 + free shipping from NewEgg). The keyboard is good for the size of the unit, just a bit cramped. A few months ago I had the chance to play with a 7.5" Asus Eee PC 4G which while handier, is much harder to type on. Also, the 10" 1024x600 screen of the MSI is much better for web browsing. Based on using the Wind I've decided that it's as small as I want to go. To demonstrate how small the Wind is, I've posted some pics of it along with my 12" G4 iBook and my copy of Black's Law Dictionary here .

By pressing Fn-F10 you can put the Wind into "Turbo mode." Contrary to what you might think, this actually underclocks the CPU to 800 MHz, to save battery power. Similarly, you can enable or disable the wifi radio to save power by pressing Fn-F11. In fact, wifi was disabled out of the box and it took me a little while to figure this out, which was annoying. For some reason, I had to reenable wifi after I upgraded the RAM.

The Wind came with XP Home SP3 and was surprisingly free of crapware, unlike most consumer PCs. While I prefer OS X or Linux, I'm leaving XP on it so I can run a few Windows programs. Specifically, the two apps to program my ham radios -- FTB7800 from G4FHQ and ADMS-1E from RT Systems -- require Windows and I had problems getting them working properly in a Pareallels Desktop VM on OS X (mainly due to the need to use a USB-to-RS232 adapter). Aside from those apps I spend the bulk of my time in a web browser, so the OS is just in the background. And like it or not, having a copy of Internet Explorer is sometimes useful when dealing with web sites designed by clueless webmasters who don't abide by Internet standards. I am leaving it at IE6, as I don't want the performance hit incurred when loading IE7.

Another Windows app I'm using is MS MapPoint 2009. Although I have a GPS in my truck, and can take it with me if I have a rental car, MapPoint provides me with more advanced mapping capabilities, including finding nearby restaurants or other businesses while traveling. Since MapPoint includes maps for the entire continental US in its highly compressed database, it's useful even without an Internet connection. (MS Streets and Trips would provide the functionality I need, but I got MapPoint through our MSDN subscription.) However, if I'm in a Verizon area, I can connect the Wind to my Blackberry and get online using Verizon's EVDO network, with DSL-like speeds.

I've been running the Google Chrome web browser on the Wind, with the "phone-home" features disabled. (I confirmed it wasn't sending data back to Google home by running a packet trace using Wireshark.) Chrome is very fast and can be configured with minimal toolbars to make best use of the Wind's small 10" screen.

Upgrading the RAM involved removing 9 screws and pop off the bottom half of the case. Doing so requires you to punch through a sticker warning you that by opening the case you're voiding the warranty. Before I did this I googled and found several references to MSI NOT voiding the warranty if all you're doing is upgrading the RAM, and possible the hard disk. Both the RAM slot and the hard disk are easily accessible with the case open.

A 1.3 megapixel webcam is positioned in the bezel at 12 o'clock. Picture quality is about what I'd expect for such a webcam (not very good), but it'll be good enough for use with Skype if I'm traveling. My kids will be able to recognize Daddy. There's also a microphone for use with messenger programs, and of course a couple of speakers. The mic and speakers worked OK during a test phone call made with Skype. The speakers really aren't adequate for listening to music but the sound when using external headphones is fine, so the sound card is decent.

MSI's standard software load for the Wind includes a Bluetooth manager, even on Winds like mine which ship with no Bluetooth module. With the case open the slot to connect a Bluetooth module is accessible, so I may add one if I can do so cheaply, though I have no pressing need for it. The software load also includes Ulead disc burning software which will come in handy if I connect an external burner. I have an unused Plextor dual layer DVD-RW drive in an old PC which could fill the bill, using a USB-to IDE adapter that I have. (This is OK for home use but would be clumsy for travel.) MSI also installed a full version of WinRAR, which aside from being useful for dealing with compressed archives can also open .ISO disc images.

Out of the box the hard disk was divided into a 40 GB C: drive labelled "OS_Install," a small hidden restore partition, and the remainder as D:. I will be keeping my data on D: so that in the event I need to reinstall the OS, I shouldn't need to restore my data. Among the data I'll keep on the box will be a backup copy of the TrueCrypt volume storing all my important stuff on my MacBook Pro, various USGS topo maps, reference materials including a copy of FM 21-76, a first aid manual, and other documents which would be useful in an emergency. For more on the usefulness of a laptop in an emergency situation, check out Shane S's excellent site, Listening to Katrina  .

Other software I've installed includes MS Word and Excel 2007, OpenOffice.org 3.0, Wireshark for packet sniffing, VLC, AVG antivirus, Ad Aware, MVPS.org's anti-malware hosts file, CCleaner, Verizon's connection manager, Firefox 3, Opera 9, Pidgin, Skype, and TrueCrypt. Keeping in mind the travel uses for the box, I've also downloaded some USGS topographical maps for my local area, along with others to which I travel, in PDF format.

The Wind did not come with any kind of a carrying case, so along with it I bought a Case Logic netbook sleeve made of neoprene. This will provide some cushioning when it's carried inside of my pack.

So far the only thing I'm dissatisfied with is battery life. It has a 3 cell battery so it only lasts about 1.5 - 2 hours before needing to be plugged into A/C. This is barely adequate for around the house use, much less while traveling, in the field, or during a disaster. I'm therefore looking at getting a 6 cell or 9 cell battery. (Performance in the battery saving Turbo mode is noticeably slower than when the unit is running at full speed, so I haven't tested it to see how much it will extend battery life.)

Aside from the short battery life the MSI Wind is a great little PC. It makes a nice secondary computer for desktop PC owners or those with large "desktop replacement" laptops looking for a machine that's easier to tote around.


Edit:  Well, this afternoon I hit Amazon and ordered a 9-cell battery for the Wind.  It'll be shipped from an Amazon affiliate, Battery1Inc, and I should get it before Christmas.  I'll post a follow up once it arrives.

Edit: The battery I ordered:

Replacement Netbook Battery for MSI laptop Wind U100/ BTY-S11, BTY-S12, 3715A-MS6837D1, 14L-MS6837D1, 6317A-RTL8187SE, TX2-RTL8187SE /9-cells Black 7200mAh High Capacity

Clonezilla for PC Backups

One of the reasons I wanted to get our XRAIDs up and running is to use them as storage space for backup images of our lab PCs. Since we use the lab PCs to test all manner of programs, and since Windows tends to develop bit rot over time, the PCs periodically need to be wiped and rebuilt. Doing this manually is tedious, to put it mildly.

With a big, network accessible storage space, I can build up a PC, get it into good working order, then create an image of the hard drive and save it on the XRAID. Then, the next time I need to rebuild that particular box I just wipe the drive and reapply the image.

Using disk images to backup PCs is of course nothing new. Several commercial products can do this, e.g., Symatec Ghost. However, we only have one license for Ghost even though we have over ten lab PCs. Open source to the rescure.

I recently downloaded Clonezilla , which is based on a live version of Debian Linux. I used Clonezilla to create a compressed hard disk image of one of my lap PCs, a Dell Latitude D600. The image was saved via SCP to a network accessible directory on the XRAID.

To test the restore function, I then reformatted the Dell's hard disk using GParted, running on a System Rescue CD , another bootable Linux distro. Next, I booted the PC using the Clonezilla CD and did a restore.

It appears to have worked perfectly, restoring my XP Pro partition, Debian partition, and the MBR.

Aside from PCs, Clonezilla's web page indicates that it supports Intel Macs.  I plan to test this using our department's MacBook.  Assuming that it works on the Mac platform I'll also create an image of Rohan, my MacBook Pro.

This is going to make my life easier.

ZOMG!

How I spent last Saturday:



I put up some of my own pics here , and a couple of crappy low-resolution videos taken with my Blackberry here .

Langhorne Rod and Gun Club put on yet another fun and safe shoot.

Remington Responds on H-S Precision

Remington uses a lot of H-S Precision stocks in build some variants of their Model 700 rifle.  Over at The War on Guns, David Codrea has a response from Remington's CEO, Tommy Milner .

Remington did the right thing when faced with Jim Zumbo so I'm optimistic they'll do the right thing regarding H-S Precision.

HS Precision Gets Endorsement by Lon Horiuchi

{Via AR15.com.)

This should be enough to make every freedom loving American vomit.  HS Precision, manufacturer of stocks and other parts for precsion rifles, is featuring an endorsement of their products by Lon Horiuchi on the back of their catalog.  Here's a scan (click on the thumbnail for a full size image):

For readers unfamiliar with Horiuchi, he is the FBI sniper who shot Vicki Weaver during the the standoff at Ruby Ridge 1992.  He was also present at the 1993 Waco siege where he was again suspected of misconduct.  He charged with manslaughter for Weaver's death but the charge was eventually dismissed in a Federal court, the basis for which was the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.  (Note that this ruling doesn't go to the merits of the case.)  In gun owner circles, he is regarded as a murderer.

As pointed out by Arfcommer "dedfella," this is akin to having a fertilizer company get an endorsement by Timothy McVeigh.  Poor taste, putting it mildly.

The owners of HS Precision would have to be living under a rock to not understand the revulsion this would incite among gunnies.  Obviously, they don't give a shit about us and are only concerned with securing .gov contracts.  Screw 'em.

Edit: If you click on the link at the top of this thread, a couple of AR15.com members have spoken with people at HS Precision and confirmed this.


Edit 11/27/08: Well, this post has certainly attracted a lot more visitors than normal.  Welcome, and please poke around my site.  If you're interested in the subject matter of this post there's a lot more shooting and RKBA content.

Weekend Update

Saturday morning I went over to my MIL's condo to work on her old XP PC.  I built it for her a few years ago using one of the PCs Wal-Mart was selling w/o an OS.  I give it a tuneup about once a year and generally it's been OK for her light use.  However, recently it became unusable.

The box has a 900 MHz Duron CPU and 256 MB of RAM.  Not bad for when I built it but obviously considered slow by current standards.  Anyway, I saw that she'd let Windows Update install IE7.  Even though she uses Firefox, just having IE7 on it caused the machine to slow to a crawl.  I uninstalled it, cleaned up the registry and got rid of a lot of junk with Crap Cleaner, and got it to the point where it's usable.

The other problem she'll have soon is lack of disk space.  The box has a 10 GB drive with only a couple gig free.

At this point I don't feel that it's cost effective to sink any money into the PC.  I'm considering getting her a cheap laptop, possible a refurbished Dell Latitude from somewhere like eCost.com, and moving her over to that.  One nice thing about a laptop would be that instead of me having to schelp to her condo if it needs attention, she can bring it to me.  We'll see.

Yesterday I was able to get out to the range for a couple of hours.  I ran about 80 rounds of .45 ACP through my Springfield M1911 without a bobble.  I'm confident now that the functioning issues I had a little while ago were magazine-induced.  The last time I had the gun out I identified the bad mag and junked it.  I currently have one 7 round Springfield factory mag, four Chip McCormick 8 round Shooting Star mags, and two 10 round CMC Power-Mags.  (I generally use the latter in my Marlin Camp Carbine because I don't like how the pistol feels with the extra-capacity magazine.)  I need to pick up some more of the 8 round Shooting Stars.

After using up all my .45 ACP I went to the 75 yard range and put about 40 rounds through my 1944 Fazakerly No.4 Mk.I Lee-Enfield.  I bought this rifle back around 1985 or '86 and shot it quite a bit through the early '90s.  I haven't shot it much lately and decided it would be fun to give it a workout.  Watching some videos of Lee-Enfield rapid fire on Youtube whetted my appetite.  E.g., this one .

The .303 I show was a mix of my last 3 rounds of HXP Greek surplus, some Sellier & Bellot, and some 1981 Winchester.  It wasn't a problem to keep all my shots inside the black of an SR-1 target from 75 yards, from the bench, shooting pretty rapidly.  I was able to hold the 10 ring if I shot slow fire.  I used to be able to keep them all in the black from 100 yards offhand, slow fire, but I'm out of practice.  Need to fix that.