Over the past couple of days I got the chance to play with a 7" Samsung Galaxy tablet with WiFi and 3G from T-Mobile at work. We haven't activated the 3G so I only got to use the WiFi. This isn't a full review, just some first impressions.
The overall feel of the Galaxy is much like a large Droid phone. The OS is Android 2.2 "Froyo." I mainly used the Android browser, Firefox, Opera Mini, and Facebook.
Size of the Galaxy is almost the same as my Kindle, but it's heavier because of the glass touchscreen. Workmanship is solid and the device feels well made. The screen looks very good and the device feels pretty speedy in most applications. With a 7" screen it's larger than the big Android phones like the HTC Thunderbolt but it can still fit into a back pocket of one's jeans. However, this is small enough that you'll often want to zoom in on web pages to read what displays as fine print.
AIUI, the WiFi-only version of the Galaxy has a slower processor than the 3G/WiFi version. Something to consider if you're in the market for a tablet and considering the Samsung.
I did a little bit of reading using the Kindle app. Text displays nicely but for reading a Kindle device is still better due to the lack of a backlit screen. The Kindle's e-ink technology provides a non-glare screen that doesn't cause eyestrain like an LCD display. I found that when using the Kindle app on the Galaxy I preferred it set to have a black background and white text, since this was easier on my eyes.
The Galaxy comes with a USB charger but uses a proprietary connector on the device itself. The connector looks much like an Apple Dock connector but they are not compatible. IMO it would have been better for Samsung to have used a regular Micro-USB connection.
Other ports on the Galaxy are a microSD card slot which supports up to a 32 GB card, and a SIM card slot. The microSD card slot is the biggest advantage devices like the Galaxy has over an iPad, IMO.
The stock Android browser sucks. I didn't realize how badly it sucks until I changed my cell phone from an original Droid to an iPhone 4 back in April. In my experience, the Android browser doesn't render pages as nicely as Safari on the iPhone, or Firefox or Opera Mini on Android. It's also slower than the other browsers and scrolling on a page is frequently choppy, especially on pages with many objects, e.g., AR15.com.
The included YouTube app works well.
The stock Gmail application works as well on the Galaxy as it does on a Droid phone. Compared with the unified mail app on iPhones I like the Gmail app better. For example, I like being able to delete a message with one tap vs. two or more on the iPhone.
One advantage that Android tablets, including the Galaxy, have over iPads is that you do not need a specific application on your computer to manage the device. IPads need iTunes for device activation and management, although it's my understanding that this will change in iOS5. In contrast, an Android device can be activated by itself and if you do connect it to a computer, it mounts just like a USB drive, allowing you to drag and drop files right onto it.
Overall, my initial impression is that the Samsung Galaxy is a good tablet computing device. How it'll hold up over the long haul I can't say. Both my wife and I have experienced increasing device flakiness with our Droid phones after about a year of use. How much of that is due to hardware and how much due to software I don't know. Also, were I purchasing a tablet I'd want a 10" screen.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Another Pietta 1858 Remington Range Report
Tonight I got my stainless Pietta 1858 Remington back out the range and was able to try a few different things.
Earlier today I took my supply of Wonder Wads and relubricated them with my homemade mixture of beeswax, mutton tallow, and canning paraffin wax. I also added some more paraffin to the mix to make the lube harder for warm weather. This worked out really well and seemed to keep powder fouling down better than my first try.
The second thing I tried was using toy caps instead of percussion caps. The kind I used were the plastic ring caps, bought at a local supermarket at $2 or $3 per a couple hundred. In comparison, Remington No.10 percussion caps sell for $6.95/100 at Cabela's. To use the toy caps I had to first cut them apart with a set of dykes.
The toy caps worked well. They are a snug fit on the Pietta's nipples. Most of the caps stayed intact on firing though some split. None caused jams and it looks like it would be much more difficult for the plastic caps to cause jams anyway, compared with regular copper caps.
Out of about 30 shots I did have a couple of misfires on what I think were clogged nipples. The nipple pick I had with me -- a straightened out paper clip -- was too thick to poke all the way through the nipple flash channels. However, I put a CCI cap on the misfired chambers and they went off immediately.
They aren't as hot as CCI or Remington percussion caps but they didn't have problems igniting black powder so long as the nipples were clear. How well they work with Pyrodex or Triple 7, both of which have higher ignition points, remains to be seen. Likewise, I'll want to try them on a sidelock percussion rifle to see if they are strong enough to handle the longer flash channel. At the very least, they are a viable alternative for target shooting with black powder in a percussion revolver.
I am assuming that the toy caps are corrosive. The caps I had as kid certainly were. This isn't a big deal since I'm cleaning with water based solutions that dissolve both black powder fouling and corrosive primer residue.
The final new thing I got to test was Swiss black powder. I bought a pound of it last month with the intention of trying it after I emptied my powder flask of Goex. That happened as I was loading my last cylinder. I fired off the three chambers loaded with Goex, then refilled my flask and reloaded.
The Swiss powder is impressive, packing more of a punch per volume than Goex. Shooting a 30 grain load of Swiss 3Fg in the Remington feels like shooting a 30 grain load of Triple 7 3Fg. It's noticeably more powerful than Goex, judging by the recoil.
Even more impressive is how clean it burns. I fired only six shots with the Swiss, but when I went to clean the gun I was amazed at how clean the bore was, even though I hadn't cleaned it before switching powders. My cleaning patches came out almost entirely clean after only three patches. Based on past experience, if I'd just shot Goex it would have taken at least six or seven wet patches through the bore before they started coming out clean. It appears that the cylinder full of Swiss 3Fg blew out most of the nasty fouling left behind by the previous 39 shots loaded with Goex. I'm looking forward to my next range trip to see how clean it is, without having to deal with Goex fouling.
As a side note, I went with my dad who brought along his Ruger SR-1911. As of tonight he has 500 rounds through it with only a couple malfunctions. It looks like it's a good choice for a well made, reliable production 1911.
Earlier today I took my supply of Wonder Wads and relubricated them with my homemade mixture of beeswax, mutton tallow, and canning paraffin wax. I also added some more paraffin to the mix to make the lube harder for warm weather. This worked out really well and seemed to keep powder fouling down better than my first try.
The second thing I tried was using toy caps instead of percussion caps. The kind I used were the plastic ring caps, bought at a local supermarket at $2 or $3 per a couple hundred. In comparison, Remington No.10 percussion caps sell for $6.95/100 at Cabela's. To use the toy caps I had to first cut them apart with a set of dykes.
The toy caps worked well. They are a snug fit on the Pietta's nipples. Most of the caps stayed intact on firing though some split. None caused jams and it looks like it would be much more difficult for the plastic caps to cause jams anyway, compared with regular copper caps.
Out of about 30 shots I did have a couple of misfires on what I think were clogged nipples. The nipple pick I had with me -- a straightened out paper clip -- was too thick to poke all the way through the nipple flash channels. However, I put a CCI cap on the misfired chambers and they went off immediately.
They aren't as hot as CCI or Remington percussion caps but they didn't have problems igniting black powder so long as the nipples were clear. How well they work with Pyrodex or Triple 7, both of which have higher ignition points, remains to be seen. Likewise, I'll want to try them on a sidelock percussion rifle to see if they are strong enough to handle the longer flash channel. At the very least, they are a viable alternative for target shooting with black powder in a percussion revolver.
I am assuming that the toy caps are corrosive. The caps I had as kid certainly were. This isn't a big deal since I'm cleaning with water based solutions that dissolve both black powder fouling and corrosive primer residue.
The final new thing I got to test was Swiss black powder. I bought a pound of it last month with the intention of trying it after I emptied my powder flask of Goex. That happened as I was loading my last cylinder. I fired off the three chambers loaded with Goex, then refilled my flask and reloaded.
The Swiss powder is impressive, packing more of a punch per volume than Goex. Shooting a 30 grain load of Swiss 3Fg in the Remington feels like shooting a 30 grain load of Triple 7 3Fg. It's noticeably more powerful than Goex, judging by the recoil.
Even more impressive is how clean it burns. I fired only six shots with the Swiss, but when I went to clean the gun I was amazed at how clean the bore was, even though I hadn't cleaned it before switching powders. My cleaning patches came out almost entirely clean after only three patches. Based on past experience, if I'd just shot Goex it would have taken at least six or seven wet patches through the bore before they started coming out clean. It appears that the cylinder full of Swiss 3Fg blew out most of the nasty fouling left behind by the previous 39 shots loaded with Goex. I'm looking forward to my next range trip to see how clean it is, without having to deal with Goex fouling.
As a side note, I went with my dad who brought along his Ruger SR-1911. As of tonight he has 500 rounds through it with only a couple malfunctions. It looks like it's a good choice for a well made, reliable production 1911.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Colt 1862 and Remington 1858 Range Report
Today I took a spin up to Cabela's in Hamburg, PA. I'd hoped to be able to buy a 1,000 round bulk pack of Remington No.10 percussion caps at Cabela's, but found that they don't carry them in that quantity in the store. They only sell the 100 cap tins in the store. So, along with a few other items I picked up two tins.
On the way back I stopped at Dixon's and wound up buying an Uberti Colt 1862 Pocket Police percussion revolver. My dad had a Second-generation Colt 1862 when I was a kid that I enjoyed shooting so I recently developed a hankering for one.
The Pocket Police is one of the less common 19th Century percussion Colt revolvers. Colt made made from 1861 through 1873 and I've read different production figures given, from 20,000 to about 47,700. It's a 5-shot .36 caliber revolver built on the small frame originally used for Colt's .31 caliber guns. The originals were made in several barrel lengths; my replica has a 6.5" barrel. It weighs about 26 oz. The overall size is similar to a Ruger Single Six.
The Uberti's external finish is very nice but the action is not as smooth as older Ubertis I've handled and shot. For example, my Uberti 1851 Navy came from the factory with a very slick action. I may do a complete tear down and carefully polish the internals.
I put 20 rounds through the 1862 tonight using 12 grains by volume of 3Fg Triple 7 powder, a Wonder Wad, a Hornady .375 ball, and Remington No.10 caps. It took me about 10 rounds to get on paper at 10 yards. My target was a paper plate and it turns out that the gun shoots about a foot and a half high at that range, due to the tiny front sight.
Unfortunately, I ran into some trouble with the '62. After the 13th or 14th shot, the lug attached to the underside of the barrel, to which the loading lever is latched, fell off. It landed on the table I was shooting over and I was able to tap it back into place but after several more shots, it fell off again. I decided to call it quits with the Uberti then. I'll reattach it tomorrow after making a few divots inside the dovetail so that it stays in place. Darn annoying.
The small frame Colts seem even more prone to cap jams than the larger framed models like the 1851 Navy or 1860 Army. There's just less room for the cap fragments to fall out of the gun. I had several spent caps fall off the nipple and lodge between the hammer and frame. It's a good idea to invert the gun every time you recock it, to let cap fragments fall free. The Remingtons and Rogers & Spencer handle cap fragments much better than the Colts.
However, the Colts are much less susceptible to binding from powder fouling than the Remingtons. I attribute this to the Remington cylinder base pin that has part of it cut away to clear the screw which retains it and the loading lever. The cutaway area lets powder fouling in. The Rogers & Spencer has a cylinder base pin similar in size to the Remington, but lacks the cutaway section, and handles powder fouling very well. The Colt base pin is larger in diameter than either, doesn't have any cutaways to let fouling in, and has grooves in it to hold grease.
Because of problems with several new guns I've taken to always bringing more than one gun with me whenever I go shooting. So, after cleaning off the Uberti, I did some shooting with my .36 Pietta 1858 Remington "New Army Police" (Remington never marketed a gun with that name).
My load was the same with the Remington although I increased the powder charge to 20 grains. Unlike most percussion revolvers which shoot high from the factory, this one actually shoots a little low. One of these days I'll bring a file with me and take a little off the front sight to raise the point of impact.
To keep the powder fouling under control I pulled the cylinder base pin after every 6 - 12 shots, wiped it off, and relubed it with Ballistol. I think it might be less prone to fouling with better lubed wads. The Wonder Wads I used tonight are lubed with Bore Butter, which works fine but they could use more of it. For example, last week when I shot my Euroarms 1858 .44 I used my homemade wads with much more lube, and the gun didn't bind as much.
Overall, the Pietta Remington was a pleasure to shoot. Recoil is mild due to the light ball and the heavy gun (it's built on the same frame as their .44s.) Accuracy was good with my 10 yard, one-hand group being about the size of my palm. I was pleased to see that it shoots .375 balls well. I'd bought this box over ten years ago for use in my Uberti 1851 Navy. In the '51 .375s group like I'm shooting a smoothbore, but the gun is very accurate with .380s.
Overall a good day. I'll post a followup on the Uberti once I get the kinks worked out.
On the way back I stopped at Dixon's and wound up buying an Uberti Colt 1862 Pocket Police percussion revolver. My dad had a Second-generation Colt 1862 when I was a kid that I enjoyed shooting so I recently developed a hankering for one.
The Pocket Police is one of the less common 19th Century percussion Colt revolvers. Colt made made from 1861 through 1873 and I've read different production figures given, from 20,000 to about 47,700. It's a 5-shot .36 caliber revolver built on the small frame originally used for Colt's .31 caliber guns. The originals were made in several barrel lengths; my replica has a 6.5" barrel. It weighs about 26 oz. The overall size is similar to a Ruger Single Six.
The Uberti's external finish is very nice but the action is not as smooth as older Ubertis I've handled and shot. For example, my Uberti 1851 Navy came from the factory with a very slick action. I may do a complete tear down and carefully polish the internals.
I put 20 rounds through the 1862 tonight using 12 grains by volume of 3Fg Triple 7 powder, a Wonder Wad, a Hornady .375 ball, and Remington No.10 caps. It took me about 10 rounds to get on paper at 10 yards. My target was a paper plate and it turns out that the gun shoots about a foot and a half high at that range, due to the tiny front sight.
Unfortunately, I ran into some trouble with the '62. After the 13th or 14th shot, the lug attached to the underside of the barrel, to which the loading lever is latched, fell off. It landed on the table I was shooting over and I was able to tap it back into place but after several more shots, it fell off again. I decided to call it quits with the Uberti then. I'll reattach it tomorrow after making a few divots inside the dovetail so that it stays in place. Darn annoying.
The small frame Colts seem even more prone to cap jams than the larger framed models like the 1851 Navy or 1860 Army. There's just less room for the cap fragments to fall out of the gun. I had several spent caps fall off the nipple and lodge between the hammer and frame. It's a good idea to invert the gun every time you recock it, to let cap fragments fall free. The Remingtons and Rogers & Spencer handle cap fragments much better than the Colts.
However, the Colts are much less susceptible to binding from powder fouling than the Remingtons. I attribute this to the Remington cylinder base pin that has part of it cut away to clear the screw which retains it and the loading lever. The cutaway area lets powder fouling in. The Rogers & Spencer has a cylinder base pin similar in size to the Remington, but lacks the cutaway section, and handles powder fouling very well. The Colt base pin is larger in diameter than either, doesn't have any cutaways to let fouling in, and has grooves in it to hold grease.
Because of problems with several new guns I've taken to always bringing more than one gun with me whenever I go shooting. So, after cleaning off the Uberti, I did some shooting with my .36 Pietta 1858 Remington "New Army Police" (Remington never marketed a gun with that name).
My load was the same with the Remington although I increased the powder charge to 20 grains. Unlike most percussion revolvers which shoot high from the factory, this one actually shoots a little low. One of these days I'll bring a file with me and take a little off the front sight to raise the point of impact.
To keep the powder fouling under control I pulled the cylinder base pin after every 6 - 12 shots, wiped it off, and relubed it with Ballistol. I think it might be less prone to fouling with better lubed wads. The Wonder Wads I used tonight are lubed with Bore Butter, which works fine but they could use more of it. For example, last week when I shot my Euroarms 1858 .44 I used my homemade wads with much more lube, and the gun didn't bind as much.
Overall, the Pietta Remington was a pleasure to shoot. Recoil is mild due to the light ball and the heavy gun (it's built on the same frame as their .44s.) Accuracy was good with my 10 yard, one-hand group being about the size of my palm. I was pleased to see that it shoots .375 balls well. I'd bought this box over ten years ago for use in my Uberti 1851 Navy. In the '51 .375s group like I'm shooting a smoothbore, but the gun is very accurate with .380s.
Overall a good day. I'll post a followup on the Uberti once I get the kinks worked out.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
UNetbootin
Unetbootin is a nifty open source utility for creating bootable USB flash drives of various Linux and BSD distributions. Such drives are useful for installing an OS on a machine which doesn't have an optical drive. I've also found that doing an OS install from a flash drive is usually faster than doing it off a CD or DVD since disk read/write is faster.
Up until recently UNetbootin ran on either Windows or Linux. I noticed this morning that there's now an OS X version. I grabbed it and I'm now creating a bootable flash drive with Ubuntu 10.04 Server LTS on it for an upcoming project.
Incidentally, this is a good use for small flash drives you get as promos. The 1 GB unit I'm currently using was used to distribute the course materials for the PBI Intellectual Property Law Institute I attended last month.
It's possible to create a bootable flash drive for installing Windows, but doing so requires different tools. I'll tackle that in another post.
Up until recently UNetbootin ran on either Windows or Linux. I noticed this morning that there's now an OS X version. I grabbed it and I'm now creating a bootable flash drive with Ubuntu 10.04 Server LTS on it for an upcoming project.
Incidentally, this is a good use for small flash drives you get as promos. The 1 GB unit I'm currently using was used to distribute the course materials for the PBI Intellectual Property Law Institute I attended last month.
It's possible to create a bootable flash drive for installing Windows, but doing so requires different tools. I'll tackle that in another post.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Range Day
Today started out being a potentially very crappy day but wound up being quite good.
The past couple of days I was having problems starting the '07 Nissan Xterra that I bought back on April 23. I was also hearing some sort of noise at low speed. Yesterday I called Peruzzi Nissan, the dealer from whom I bought the truck, and made an appointment for this morning.
The starting problem turned out to be a bad battery. They told me that they checked it and it had a bad cell. The noise I was hearing was a loose heat shield that they tightened. I was at Peruzzi for about an hour and a half and got home around 10:00 AM. It seems to be starting and running fine now but I guess the real test will be if either problem recurs. I really hope this is the last time I need to take the Xterra in for unscheduled service.
Since I'd already scheduled a flex day and we had a beautiful Spring day with the temp in the low 50s, I decided to go to the range.
I brought my "Cowboy Pimp Gun," a Ruger Single Six in .32 H&R Magnum. I named it that due to the faux ivory grips and color casehardened frame. I also brought my Euroarm 1858 Remington percussion revolver.
Today I shot at 25 yards and started with the CPG. With PPU 98 grain LRN .32 S&W Longs it shoots about a foot low at 25 yards. The trigger has almost no takeup or creep, but is heavy, probably at least 8 pounds. My groups were nothing to brag about. I may look into getting a trigger job.
The Euroarms got more of a workout. Last week I'd made up 20 combustible cartridges, something I haven't tried before. They consisted of a .457 Hornady round ball and 30 grains of Goex FFFg black powder inside a cartridge case made from nitrated cigarette rolling paper. Such cartridges made from nitrated paper or intestine were very common in the 19th Century, especially during the Civil War and for several years afterward. Properly constructed they greatly aide in quickly loading a caplock revolver.
My paper cartridges, on the other hand, need some work. I need to use a mandrel with more of a taper to ease loading into the chambers and to cause the paper to rupture more when the round is rammed home. I did have several ignition problems, probably due to an excessive amount of paper at the base of the cartridge. For my last 5 shots with the paper cartridges, I put a few grains of powder from my flintlock priming flask in the chambers before loading the cartridges. These all went off on the first cap.
Note that if you are shooting a percussion revolver and on a round the cap pops but the charge does not fire, if you then fire the next round in the cylinder there is a high likelihood that you'll get a chainfire. What happens is that when the cap from the failed round fragments it unseals the back of that chamber. When you fire the next round there is flashover and it's enough to get both chambers to fire. This happened to me a couple times today until I realized what was happening. (I have actually been meaning to test this because with a properly fitting lead ball in a good condition revolver, I do not see any way it is possible to have a chainfire from the front end of the cylinder. As far as I'm concerned, the most likely source of a chainfire is from a missing or poorly fitting cap.)
One thing I noticed when shooting the paper cartridge is that they smell different from loose powder and ball. It took me awhile to figure out the aroma, but it bears a resemblance to the smell of a spent model rocket engine.
After my cartridges were used up I pulled the cylinder and found bits of paper in the chambers, which I cleaned out before continuing with loose powder, ball, and wad.
For the remainder of my shooting I used Hornady .454 balls and 30 grains of powder measured with a flask. Compared with the .457s I've used before the smaller balls load a lot easier and still give acceptable accuracy. I will probably use them from now on in the Euroarms and my Pietta 1858 Remington .44. I also plant to try them in my Rogers & Spencer to see if they are as accurate as .457s. I'll continued to use .457s in my Ruger Old Army as that is the specified size for it.
The wads I used today were from the first batch of homemade wads I made a couple weeks ago. To make them I ordered some 1/8" thick hard white 100% wool felt from Durofelt.com out of Little Rock, AR. I'd read about Durofelt on The High Road and their product came highly recommended. I also picked up a set of hollow punches from Harbor Freight. I used the 7/16" punch that I'd reamed out to about .45" using my Dremel. After punching out the wads I lubed them by soaking them in a mix of mostly beeswax with some mutton tallow, melted in a double boiler. Once the lube solidified the wads looked like little lube cookies.
Note: Melting mutton tallow on the kitchen stovetop is almost guaranteed to piss off the wife. It reeks.
I'm quite pleased with my homemade wads and don't see myself buying Wonder Wads anymore. While the Wonder Wads work fine, the homemade wads hold more lube, seem to keep the powder fouling softer, and the gun binds a bit less. I'll have to see how my lube mixture works in hot weather, as I might want to add a little paraffin canning wax to the mix to stiffen it a bit. As-is the mix might work well for lubricating the cylinder base pin of caplock revolvers.
Overall, a pretty good day.
The past couple of days I was having problems starting the '07 Nissan Xterra that I bought back on April 23. I was also hearing some sort of noise at low speed. Yesterday I called Peruzzi Nissan, the dealer from whom I bought the truck, and made an appointment for this morning.
The starting problem turned out to be a bad battery. They told me that they checked it and it had a bad cell. The noise I was hearing was a loose heat shield that they tightened. I was at Peruzzi for about an hour and a half and got home around 10:00 AM. It seems to be starting and running fine now but I guess the real test will be if either problem recurs. I really hope this is the last time I need to take the Xterra in for unscheduled service.
Since I'd already scheduled a flex day and we had a beautiful Spring day with the temp in the low 50s, I decided to go to the range.
I brought my "Cowboy Pimp Gun," a Ruger Single Six in .32 H&R Magnum. I named it that due to the faux ivory grips and color casehardened frame. I also brought my Euroarm 1858 Remington percussion revolver.
Today I shot at 25 yards and started with the CPG. With PPU 98 grain LRN .32 S&W Longs it shoots about a foot low at 25 yards. The trigger has almost no takeup or creep, but is heavy, probably at least 8 pounds. My groups were nothing to brag about. I may look into getting a trigger job.
The Euroarms got more of a workout. Last week I'd made up 20 combustible cartridges, something I haven't tried before. They consisted of a .457 Hornady round ball and 30 grains of Goex FFFg black powder inside a cartridge case made from nitrated cigarette rolling paper. Such cartridges made from nitrated paper or intestine were very common in the 19th Century, especially during the Civil War and for several years afterward. Properly constructed they greatly aide in quickly loading a caplock revolver.
My paper cartridges, on the other hand, need some work. I need to use a mandrel with more of a taper to ease loading into the chambers and to cause the paper to rupture more when the round is rammed home. I did have several ignition problems, probably due to an excessive amount of paper at the base of the cartridge. For my last 5 shots with the paper cartridges, I put a few grains of powder from my flintlock priming flask in the chambers before loading the cartridges. These all went off on the first cap.
Note that if you are shooting a percussion revolver and on a round the cap pops but the charge does not fire, if you then fire the next round in the cylinder there is a high likelihood that you'll get a chainfire. What happens is that when the cap from the failed round fragments it unseals the back of that chamber. When you fire the next round there is flashover and it's enough to get both chambers to fire. This happened to me a couple times today until I realized what was happening. (I have actually been meaning to test this because with a properly fitting lead ball in a good condition revolver, I do not see any way it is possible to have a chainfire from the front end of the cylinder. As far as I'm concerned, the most likely source of a chainfire is from a missing or poorly fitting cap.)
One thing I noticed when shooting the paper cartridge is that they smell different from loose powder and ball. It took me awhile to figure out the aroma, but it bears a resemblance to the smell of a spent model rocket engine.
After my cartridges were used up I pulled the cylinder and found bits of paper in the chambers, which I cleaned out before continuing with loose powder, ball, and wad.
For the remainder of my shooting I used Hornady .454 balls and 30 grains of powder measured with a flask. Compared with the .457s I've used before the smaller balls load a lot easier and still give acceptable accuracy. I will probably use them from now on in the Euroarms and my Pietta 1858 Remington .44. I also plant to try them in my Rogers & Spencer to see if they are as accurate as .457s. I'll continued to use .457s in my Ruger Old Army as that is the specified size for it.
The wads I used today were from the first batch of homemade wads I made a couple weeks ago. To make them I ordered some 1/8" thick hard white 100% wool felt from Durofelt.com out of Little Rock, AR. I'd read about Durofelt on The High Road and their product came highly recommended. I also picked up a set of hollow punches from Harbor Freight. I used the 7/16" punch that I'd reamed out to about .45" using my Dremel. After punching out the wads I lubed them by soaking them in a mix of mostly beeswax with some mutton tallow, melted in a double boiler. Once the lube solidified the wads looked like little lube cookies.
Note: Melting mutton tallow on the kitchen stovetop is almost guaranteed to piss off the wife. It reeks.
I'm quite pleased with my homemade wads and don't see myself buying Wonder Wads anymore. While the Wonder Wads work fine, the homemade wads hold more lube, seem to keep the powder fouling softer, and the gun binds a bit less. I'll have to see how my lube mixture works in hot weather, as I might want to add a little paraffin canning wax to the mix to stiffen it a bit. As-is the mix might work well for lubricating the cylinder base pin of caplock revolvers.
Overall, a pretty good day.
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
iPhone Battery Note
Last night I fully charged my iPhone before turning it at about 10:20. I left it on overnight with WiFi enabled to see how much of a charge would remain this morning. When I checked it at about 7:00 today I was pleased to see that it was still at 97%. My Droid would've been well below 90% even when it was new.
Nevertheless, the lack of easy access to the iPhone's battery led to me to purchase Duracell Instant USB Charger, yesterday from Amazon. I'll keep it in my bag as an emergency backup should I need it.
Nevertheless, the lack of easy access to the iPhone's battery led to me to purchase Duracell Instant USB Charger, yesterday from Amazon. I'll keep it in my bag as an emergency backup should I need it.
Monday, May 02, 2011
So does this mean that ...
... we'll no longer have to take off our shoes and get molested by TSA flunkies before boarding an airplane? No?
Thought so.
Thought so.
US Navy SEALs...
They be climbin' in yo window and snatchin' yo people up!
And in some cases puttin' a bullet in yo head!
(With apologies to Antoine Dodson.)
And in some cases puttin' a bullet in yo head!
(With apologies to Antoine Dodson.)
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Recent Black Powder Shooting
Yesterday I did something I haven't done since the 1980s, shot in a black powder rifle match. My club held our "Spring Fellowship" match. We only got a half dozen shooters but it was a really fun day and I came in third. Here's my last target of the day, with one shot fired at each bull.
Most of my range time in the past couple of months has been shooting black powder guns. My father turned 70 back in March and along with my brother, we bought him a Euroarms Rogers & Spencer percussion revolver from Dixie Gun Works. While I was ordering the revolver for him I added a second one to the cart for me. This is mine:
This is the Euroarms "London Gray" finish, which as I understand it is some sort of nickel plating. It's not stainless.
It's become one of my favorite pistols. The R&S handles powder fouling and cap fragments as good or better than a Ruger Old Army, which is the penultimate development of the cap and ball revolver. Unlike Remingtons, it doesn't bind from powder fouling, and unlike Colts, it's not susceptible to cap jams. Plus, even with the poor 19th Century service sights, it's accurate. I shot this target at 50 yards about a month ago, using a two-hand offhand hold:
Although I pulled a few shots to the right edge of the paper, most of the 25 shots were within the -1 zone of the IDPA target, with about half on the paper plate. Load was a .457 Hornady ball, a Wonder Wad, 24 grains of Goex FFFg black powder, and a Remington No.10 percussion cap.
By the time we got to this target we'd been at it for a few hours and I was pretty tired. I was having problems with my flint not sparking and managed to yank the shot on the bottom middle bull out of the black. Can't complain about the bottom left bull, though. ;-)
We shot at several targets offhand from about 30 yards. Small targets. IIRC, 4 of us shot flintlock rifles while there were a couple caplocks. I shot my customized left hand Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle. It's a .50 caliber flintlock which has been remade into a Pennsylvania-styled rifle. My load was 65 grains of Goex FFg black powder, a Hornady .490" round ball, and pillow ticking patches. This is a mild recoiling, accurate load.
Lately when shooting patched round balls, I like to cut my patches ahead of time. I found a couple of years ago that a John F. Kennedy half dollar is the same size as a patch for a .50 caliber round ball, so I use one as a template and cut and lube a bunch beforehand. Compared with cutting them on the muzzle it saves a lot of time at the range. The patches were lubed with Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow patch grease. It has a very mild smell and works really well as a patch lube and to keep fouling soft. Yesterday I mostly wiped the bore after every other shot, but a couple times went three shots between wiping. I use Windex for cleaning the black powder fouling. It's cheap and works as well as anything else I've tried.
Most of my range time in the past couple of months has been shooting black powder guns. My father turned 70 back in March and along with my brother, we bought him a Euroarms Rogers & Spencer percussion revolver from Dixie Gun Works. While I was ordering the revolver for him I added a second one to the cart for me. This is mine:
This is the Euroarms "London Gray" finish, which as I understand it is some sort of nickel plating. It's not stainless.
It's become one of my favorite pistols. The R&S handles powder fouling and cap fragments as good or better than a Ruger Old Army, which is the penultimate development of the cap and ball revolver. Unlike Remingtons, it doesn't bind from powder fouling, and unlike Colts, it's not susceptible to cap jams. Plus, even with the poor 19th Century service sights, it's accurate. I shot this target at 50 yards about a month ago, using a two-hand offhand hold:
Although I pulled a few shots to the right edge of the paper, most of the 25 shots were within the -1 zone of the IDPA target, with about half on the paper plate. Load was a .457 Hornady ball, a Wonder Wad, 24 grains of Goex FFFg black powder, and a Remington No.10 percussion cap.
A Couple of Major Upgrades for Me
I haven't posted much on this blog recently but I've had a couple of significant (to me, anyway) upgrades.
First, I finally decided to replace my 1997 Ford Expedition, which I had since 2003. The brake problems back on April 4th were the final straw. This was the second big repair bill I had on the Ford since the Fall and with a 14 year old truck, I just saw more big bills coming. Even though it was in generally good shape car parts in general start failing due to age, and I figured it was only a matter of time before I got stuck somewhere.
So, I did some looking around online and on April 23, I bought a 2007 Nissan Xterra with about 29,000 miles on it from Peruzzi Nissan in Fairless Hills, PA. I got what I think is a decent deal. I negotiated the price down to a bit over $18K, got $3K for the Ford in trade, put another $2K down, and I'm financing the rest. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have a car payment again but I should now have a reliable vehicle that gets better gas mileage than the Expedition. My new ride:
I've wanted an Xterra since they first came out about ten years ago. So far, I'm loving it.
The other upgrade was to my cell phone. I'd been using one of the original Motorola Droids since Black Friday 2009. For most of the time I owned it I was happy with it but the past couple of months it felt like it was degrading. I.e., slowing down and crashing a lot more than previously. After rooting it, I tried a couple ROMs (Bugless Beast and Cyanogenmod). Cyanogenmod was generally good at first but after a short while, the phone started misbehaving again. I considered another Android phone like a Droid X or an HTC Thunderbolt as a replacement, but last Friday I went to the Apple store on Walnut St. in Philadelphia on my lunch break to look at the iPhones. I checked out an iPhone 4 on Verizon, liked what I saw, and decided to give the Apple phone a try. I got the 16 GB VZW model, a bumper to go around the phone, and a car charger.
I've only had it a couple of days but compared with the Droid it's much faster, the UI seems smoother, and overall feels more polished. I still don't like that you need tools to get at the battery or that storage is non-expandable. OTH, I never filled the 16 GB microSD card in my Droid. As for the battery, I'll pick up an emergency cell phone charger.
A couple specific items on the iPhone which are better than the Droid are the maps application and the camera, both of which load much more quickly. The iPhone camera takes better pictures, too.
Call quality seems equivalent to the Droid. I use only a fraction of my 450 minutes each month but use the heck out of the data features, especially email. I'll be able to get ActiveSync enabled on my Exchange account at work and then iOS's native Exchange support will allow me to get my mail and calendar, without installing any extra software. A few coworkers use iPhones for their work email and calendar and reported they works well.
OTH, the Android OS's support for widgets is a point in its favor, as is the better customizability when it comes to notifications. For example, the Android phones make no differentiation between ringtones and test message notification tones. On the iPhones, ringtones are different from text message notification sounds. So, while I was able to make some customer ringtones in iTunes and copy them to the phone, I couldn't use one for text messages; I'm stuck with the sounds Apple loaded. LAME.
If you use a Mac the integration between the computer and phone is impressive. For example, when I did my initial setup iTunes read the configuration of the email accounts I had setup in Mail.app and transferred them to the phone. Likewise, you can sync Safari bookmarks on your computer and the iPhone. (I've had an on-again/off-again relationship with Safari on the Mac. I will say that Safari on the iPhone is quite a bit better than the stock Android browser.)
I still have a great deal to learn about the iPhone and will try to post about new things I discover.
First, I finally decided to replace my 1997 Ford Expedition, which I had since 2003. The brake problems back on April 4th were the final straw. This was the second big repair bill I had on the Ford since the Fall and with a 14 year old truck, I just saw more big bills coming. Even though it was in generally good shape car parts in general start failing due to age, and I figured it was only a matter of time before I got stuck somewhere.
So, I did some looking around online and on April 23, I bought a 2007 Nissan Xterra with about 29,000 miles on it from Peruzzi Nissan in Fairless Hills, PA. I got what I think is a decent deal. I negotiated the price down to a bit over $18K, got $3K for the Ford in trade, put another $2K down, and I'm financing the rest. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have a car payment again but I should now have a reliable vehicle that gets better gas mileage than the Expedition. My new ride:
I've wanted an Xterra since they first came out about ten years ago. So far, I'm loving it.
The other upgrade was to my cell phone. I'd been using one of the original Motorola Droids since Black Friday 2009. For most of the time I owned it I was happy with it but the past couple of months it felt like it was degrading. I.e., slowing down and crashing a lot more than previously. After rooting it, I tried a couple ROMs (Bugless Beast and Cyanogenmod). Cyanogenmod was generally good at first but after a short while, the phone started misbehaving again. I considered another Android phone like a Droid X or an HTC Thunderbolt as a replacement, but last Friday I went to the Apple store on Walnut St. in Philadelphia on my lunch break to look at the iPhones. I checked out an iPhone 4 on Verizon, liked what I saw, and decided to give the Apple phone a try. I got the 16 GB VZW model, a bumper to go around the phone, and a car charger.
I've only had it a couple of days but compared with the Droid it's much faster, the UI seems smoother, and overall feels more polished. I still don't like that you need tools to get at the battery or that storage is non-expandable. OTH, I never filled the 16 GB microSD card in my Droid. As for the battery, I'll pick up an emergency cell phone charger.
A couple specific items on the iPhone which are better than the Droid are the maps application and the camera, both of which load much more quickly. The iPhone camera takes better pictures, too.
Call quality seems equivalent to the Droid. I use only a fraction of my 450 minutes each month but use the heck out of the data features, especially email. I'll be able to get ActiveSync enabled on my Exchange account at work and then iOS's native Exchange support will allow me to get my mail and calendar, without installing any extra software. A few coworkers use iPhones for their work email and calendar and reported they works well.
OTH, the Android OS's support for widgets is a point in its favor, as is the better customizability when it comes to notifications. For example, the Android phones make no differentiation between ringtones and test message notification tones. On the iPhones, ringtones are different from text message notification sounds. So, while I was able to make some customer ringtones in iTunes and copy them to the phone, I couldn't use one for text messages; I'm stuck with the sounds Apple loaded. LAME.
If you use a Mac the integration between the computer and phone is impressive. For example, when I did my initial setup iTunes read the configuration of the email accounts I had setup in Mail.app and transferred them to the phone. Likewise, you can sync Safari bookmarks on your computer and the iPhone. (I've had an on-again/off-again relationship with Safari on the Mac. I will say that Safari on the iPhone is quite a bit better than the stock Android browser.)
I still have a great deal to learn about the iPhone and will try to post about new things I discover.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 04, 2011
Dammit
Yesterday I was driving on I-76 when I needed to hit the brakes because some idjit decided to pull into my lane ahead of me. As I did something felt like it popped and the pedal went almost all the way to the floor. At first I thought, “Dumb ABS” but then realized something was amiss. Aside from having to push the brake pedal all the way in, the parking brake now won’t go off.
So after getting the kids off to school I took the truck up to the service station at the end of my street. I wonder what this is going to cost to fix.
One very nice thing about having a 14 year old vehicle is that I have no car payments. On the other hand, I had to have some suspension work done on it back in the Fall. It may be time to start looking for a new set of wheels.
Crap.
ETA at 16:30:
Well, there goes another $1600. It needed a new brake booster, a seal, brake lines to the rear brakes (which required dropping the gas tank), and brake fluid flush. While the gas tank was off I also had them swap out the fuel pump since it has about 120K on it.
So after getting the kids off to school I took the truck up to the service station at the end of my street. I wonder what this is going to cost to fix.
One very nice thing about having a 14 year old vehicle is that I have no car payments. On the other hand, I had to have some suspension work done on it back in the Fall. It may be time to start looking for a new set of wheels.
Crap.
ETA at 16:30:
Well, there goes another $1600. It needed a new brake booster, a seal, brake lines to the rear brakes (which required dropping the gas tank), and brake fluid flush. While the gas tank was off I also had them swap out the fuel pump since it has about 120K on it.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Easytether
I’m spending today and tomorrow at the PBI Intellectual Property Institute. The course materials were distributed as PDFs on a thumb 1 GB drive, which is a nice alternative from a pile of the normal yellow paperback books. I brought Hobbit, my MSI Wind netbook with me but the PDFs PBI created have problems displaying in Foxit Reader. So, I wanted to tether Hobbit to my Droid and download the Adobe Reader installer.
Unfortunately there’s no WiFi and yet again, PDAnet decided to not work. Previously it’s been mostly usable under Windows but the Mac port was very flaky. Today, I couldn’t get online in Windows 7. I decided to give Easytether a try. I installed it through the Android Market, then downloaded the desktop client on my Droid and transferred it to Hobbit via USB.
So far, so good. I’ll give it a try for awhile and if it continues to work well I’ll buy it. For $9.99 if it continues to work it’ll be worth it.
Unfortunately there’s no WiFi and yet again, PDAnet decided to not work. Previously it’s been mostly usable under Windows but the Mac port was very flaky. Today, I couldn’t get online in Windows 7. I decided to give Easytether a try. I installed it through the Android Market, then downloaded the desktop client on my Droid and transferred it to Hobbit via USB.
So far, so good. I’ll give it a try for awhile and if it continues to work well I’ll buy it. For $9.99 if it continues to work it’ll be worth it.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Bought an Amazon Kindle
Up until my mid-20s I could have been classed as a "compulsive reader." Even through college, I devoured fiction and non-fiction books (mostly sci fi, fantasy, and history) constantly. As a kid, when bored I was known to pull out a random volume of the Worldbook Encyclopedia and get lost for a couple hours. (Yes, I was a nerd.) Then, I went to law school and had very little time for recreational reading. Simultaneously, I got hooked on online fora -- first via FidoNet, then the Internet. Thus, my book reading became very intermittent.
When I left my job as a field engineer for an office job back in 2004 I started commuting via train. Rather than getting back to reading books I got myself an MP3 player (Creative Labs, IIRC), and then in 2005, a 60 GB iPod. I've been rotting my brain with rock and roll ever since.
Last Friday my iPod locked up solid. It wouldn't mount as a disk on my Mac and I had to let the charge run down. In the interim, I loaded up the SD card on my Droid with a bunch of music so I have something to listen to. I currently have the iPod connected to my Mac and hopefully it'll work OK after charging.
But I've been wanting to get back into reading more and took this as a motivator to do so. This being the 21st Century, I decided on getting an e-reader, and currently the standard to judge them by is Amazon's Kindle. On Saturday, I picked up a 3rd generation WiFi-only Kindle at BJ's Wholesale Club. I went with a WiFi-only unit since I have WiFi at home and at work, and it also allows you to access AT&T WiFi hotspots for free. So I didn't feel the need to get one with 3G.
The Kindle came with a quickstart guide and a charging cable. The charging cable can be plugged into a computer's USB port for either power or transferring files, and also includes an A/C-to-USB adapter.Unfortunately, it does not use a standard micro-USB cable. See below. A spare charger is $20.
I also bought Amazon's leather case with a built-in LED reading light that gets its power from the Kindle. With the case on the device feels more like a book and seems well protected.
I. Am. In. Love. While I'd briefly considered getting a tablet, the Kindle has some advantages. First, at $139 it's a lot cheaper than an iPad or Xoom. So far, the reviews of Android-based tablets have been mostly meh. Second, with wireless turned off, a fully-charged Kindle should not need recharging for nearly a month. Third, and to me most important, the Kindle's "e-ink" display is perfect for reading text. I probably spent about 20 hours over the weekend reading books on the Kindle and I had no eyestrain. There's no way that I could say that if I'd been using a tablet with a backlit screen.
One of my favorite publishers -- Baen Books -- has been especially good about embracing e-readers and providing content for free via http://www.webscriptions.net and http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/. I downloaded several of John Ringo's novels via the latter over the weekend and so far have blown through Into the Looking Glass and Vorpal Blade, and I'm now about halfway thorugh Manxome Foe. (Links are to the paperback versions since they aren't currently available through Amazon's Kindle store. Go to the Baen sites for e-book versions.) But don't worry, I'll be buying some e-books to support Baen's authors once I get through the free stuff.
You can buy Kindle books from Amazon right on the device but so far I've used my Mac to browse the Kindle bookstore. If you have One-Click enabled for your Amazon account and you have the device connected to WiFi, you get your book within a minute or two. This morning I purchased Finland's War of Choice: The Untidy Coalition of a Democracy and a Dictatorship in World War II
. (The Winter War and Contiuation War have been of interest to me for a long time.)
The Kindle's UI is simple and very good. Reading a book on the device is much like reading a "real" book. Instead of physically turning a page you just press the right or left arrow key. If you turn the Kindle off it comes right back to where you left off, when you power it back on, no need for a bookmark. You can set book marks and make annotations. There's also the ability to access a dictionary from within a book you're reading.
The Kindle also supports MP3 format files so you can listen to music while you read, or listen to audiobooks. It includes a WebKit-based browser, but having a grayscale-only screen, browsing pages with any kind of images is going to be a less than optimal experience.
E-book files tend to be small and Amazon claims that it'll hold up to 3500 of them. The ability to carry around a library in a package which will fit into a large pocket is remarkable.
I can't recommend the Kindle highly enough.
Edit 3/29/11:
I am apparently a moron. Because the micro-USB port on the Kindle is rectangular instead of a trapezoid like normal micro-USB ports, I needed to rotate the plug but didn't notice that. It will in fact use a regular micro-USB cable. {sigh}
When I left my job as a field engineer for an office job back in 2004 I started commuting via train. Rather than getting back to reading books I got myself an MP3 player (Creative Labs, IIRC), and then in 2005, a 60 GB iPod. I've been rotting my brain with rock and roll ever since.
Last Friday my iPod locked up solid. It wouldn't mount as a disk on my Mac and I had to let the charge run down. In the interim, I loaded up the SD card on my Droid with a bunch of music so I have something to listen to. I currently have the iPod connected to my Mac and hopefully it'll work OK after charging.
But I've been wanting to get back into reading more and took this as a motivator to do so. This being the 21st Century, I decided on getting an e-reader, and currently the standard to judge them by is Amazon's Kindle. On Saturday, I picked up a 3rd generation WiFi-only Kindle at BJ's Wholesale Club. I went with a WiFi-only unit since I have WiFi at home and at work, and it also allows you to access AT&T WiFi hotspots for free. So I didn't feel the need to get one with 3G.
The Kindle came with a quickstart guide and a charging cable. The charging cable can be plugged into a computer's USB port for either power or transferring files, and also includes an A/C-to-USB adapter.
I also bought Amazon's leather case with a built-in LED reading light that gets its power from the Kindle. With the case on the device feels more like a book and seems well protected.
I. Am. In. Love. While I'd briefly considered getting a tablet, the Kindle has some advantages. First, at $139 it's a lot cheaper than an iPad or Xoom. So far, the reviews of Android-based tablets have been mostly meh. Second, with wireless turned off, a fully-charged Kindle should not need recharging for nearly a month. Third, and to me most important, the Kindle's "e-ink" display is perfect for reading text. I probably spent about 20 hours over the weekend reading books on the Kindle and I had no eyestrain. There's no way that I could say that if I'd been using a tablet with a backlit screen.
One of my favorite publishers -- Baen Books -- has been especially good about embracing e-readers and providing content for free via http://www.webscriptions.net and http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/. I downloaded several of John Ringo's novels via the latter over the weekend and so far have blown through Into the Looking Glass and Vorpal Blade, and I'm now about halfway thorugh Manxome Foe. (Links are to the paperback versions since they aren't currently available through Amazon's Kindle store. Go to the Baen sites for e-book versions.) But don't worry, I'll be buying some e-books to support Baen's authors once I get through the free stuff.
You can buy Kindle books from Amazon right on the device but so far I've used my Mac to browse the Kindle bookstore. If you have One-Click enabled for your Amazon account and you have the device connected to WiFi, you get your book within a minute or two. This morning I purchased Finland's War of Choice: The Untidy Coalition of a Democracy and a Dictatorship in World War II
. (The Winter War and Contiuation War have been of interest to me for a long time.)The Kindle's UI is simple and very good. Reading a book on the device is much like reading a "real" book. Instead of physically turning a page you just press the right or left arrow key. If you turn the Kindle off it comes right back to where you left off, when you power it back on, no need for a bookmark. You can set book marks and make annotations. There's also the ability to access a dictionary from within a book you're reading.
The Kindle also supports MP3 format files so you can listen to music while you read, or listen to audiobooks. It includes a WebKit-based browser, but having a grayscale-only screen, browsing pages with any kind of images is going to be a less than optimal experience.
E-book files tend to be small and Amazon claims that it'll hold up to 3500 of them. The ability to carry around a library in a package which will fit into a large pocket is remarkable.
I can't recommend the Kindle highly enough.
Edit 3/29/11:
I am apparently a moron. Because the micro-USB port on the Kindle is rectangular instead of a trapezoid like normal micro-USB ports, I needed to rotate the plug but didn't notice that. It will in fact use a regular micro-USB cable. {sigh}
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Quote of the Century
"How come Jimmy Carter's always going off to watch ballot boxes in Nicaragua and Liberia when Chicago's so much closer to home?"
--Tamara K.
--Tamara K.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Rooted my Droid
On Sunday I took the jump and rooted my Droid phone. "Rooting" a smartphone gets you administrative access to the device, which in turn allows you to do some neat things like
I've been running Bugless Beast now for a couple days and so far, so good. By default it overclocks the Droid's CPU to 800 MHz. This made the phone feel a bit warm so I set it back to the standard 600 MHz. At some point I may try CyanogenMod or other ROMs.
- Make a backup image of the ROM's filesystem to the SD card.
- Run applications that allow you to do things not enabled by default, such as turning your phone into a WiFi hotspot.
- Run alternative ROMs.
I've been running Bugless Beast now for a couple days and so far, so good. By default it overclocks the Droid's CPU to 800 MHz. This made the phone feel a bit warm so I set it back to the standard 600 MHz. At some point I may try CyanogenMod or other ROMs.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
According to Leftists ...
... this graphic from the Democratic Leadership Council is perfectly acceptable political discourse:
... but this is unacceptable, inflammatory rhetoric:
I guess it's OK as long as Democrats are doing it. Hypocrisy? Naaaah.
... but this is unacceptable, inflammatory rhetoric:
I guess it's OK as long as Democrats are doing it. Hypocrisy? Naaaah.
More Lies From the Mainstream Media
The blood of the victims of yesterday's shootings in Arizona was hardly dry before lefty pundits started accusing Jared Loughner of being a right-wing nut, and blaming Sarah Palin and the Tea Party for a creating a climate where such an act was inevitable. And viewing the comments on various news stories shows that these pundits do indeed have an audience willing to lap up their drivel. But jumping to such conclusions only makes you look like an idiot.
It turns out that Loughner shows many of the signs of paranoid schizophrenia, and has been described by at least one former classmate as a "left-wing radical." LEFT-WING. Loughner's list of favorite books on his YouTube page reflect his schizophrenia, including works from Ayn Rand (an odd choice for him), George Orwell (a socialist), Hitler's Mein Kampf (National SOCIALIST), and The Communist Manifesto. What Tea Partier would include that?
Oops.
Unfortunately, Loughner is only the latest in a long line of left-wing crazies to perpetrate violent acts. For example:
* The riots in 1968 at the Chicago Democratic Convention
* The Symbionese Liberation Army
* The Weather Underground
* The Animal Liberation Front
* The Earth Liberation Front
* The Unabomber
* The guy who flew his plane into an IRS building last year
* The Black Panthers and the New Black Panthers
And that's only examples from the USA. If you look beyond our borders it's clear that it's been the LEFT who has committed more murders to advance their agenda than any others in history. Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot were all left-wingers. And so was Hitler ("NAZI" is an abbreviation for National SOCIALISM.) How many millions did they murder?
The mainstream media likes to gloss over these acts because in some degree, they view the perps as being on the same side. After all, members of the MSM overwhelmingly identify themselves as left-wing Democrats. Every time the MSM puts blame for left-wing violence on the right, they are not only covering for their buddies, they are committing libel. It's disgusting.
Thank God we have the Internet today to challenge and expose the MSM's lies.
It turns out that Loughner shows many of the signs of paranoid schizophrenia, and has been described by at least one former classmate as a "left-wing radical." LEFT-WING. Loughner's list of favorite books on his YouTube page reflect his schizophrenia, including works from Ayn Rand (an odd choice for him), George Orwell (a socialist), Hitler's Mein Kampf (National SOCIALIST), and The Communist Manifesto. What Tea Partier would include that?
Oops.
Unfortunately, Loughner is only the latest in a long line of left-wing crazies to perpetrate violent acts. For example:
* The riots in 1968 at the Chicago Democratic Convention
* The Symbionese Liberation Army
* The Weather Underground
* The Animal Liberation Front
* The Earth Liberation Front
* The Unabomber
* The guy who flew his plane into an IRS building last year
* The Black Panthers and the New Black Panthers
And that's only examples from the USA. If you look beyond our borders it's clear that it's been the LEFT who has committed more murders to advance their agenda than any others in history. Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot were all left-wingers. And so was Hitler ("NAZI" is an abbreviation for National SOCIALISM.) How many millions did they murder?
The mainstream media likes to gloss over these acts because in some degree, they view the perps as being on the same side. After all, members of the MSM overwhelmingly identify themselves as left-wing Democrats. Every time the MSM puts blame for left-wing violence on the right, they are not only covering for their buddies, they are committing libel. It's disgusting.
Thank God we have the Internet today to challenge and expose the MSM's lies.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Microsoft Security Essentials v2
Without much fanfare, Microsoft has released version 2 of its Security Essentials antivirus and antispyware program. This was not an automatic update. I read about it in the Urban Commandos forum on AR15.com and downloaded the installer manually.
I’ve been running MSE on a number of machines now for over a year and it’s been both trouble free and better performing than my previous choice in free AV software, AVG.
If I notice anything weird I’ll make a note of it.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Strange VMware vSphere 4.1 Issue
I ran into a weird issue over the past couple of days while trying to deploy a couple of CentOS 5.5 virtual machines onto my vSphere 4.1 server.
I created a VM to serve as my template for future VMs, then exported it as an OVF template to my laptop. (I do not yet have a vCenter management server, so I'm stuck running the vSphere Client inside an XP VM running in VirtualBox on my MacBook Pro). Probably due to our network, the export took a couple of hours.
I then deployed two VMs from the OVF file. Import went much more quickly than the export, thankfully. When I ran the "system-config-network" tool to configure the IP address, subnet mask, gateway, hostname, and DNS settings, I noticed there was a duplicate of eth0. The dupe wasn't present in my original VM. If the dupe was not removed, running /sbin/ifconfig displayed that eth0 had all the correct info, but the machine could not reach the network.
Through trial and error, I discovered a workaround. Upon running system-config-network, if a duplicate eth0 is present, select it. Then blank out all values, save and quit. Next, reboot the VM and once again run system-config-network, and configure eth0. After doing all this networking worked properly and I was able to SSH into the VM from my laptop.
Once we get a vCenter Server I shouldn't have jump through these hoops. vCenter includes the ability to clone a VM without doing an export and import, so setting up new VMs should be much simpler and faster.
I created a VM to serve as my template for future VMs, then exported it as an OVF template to my laptop. (I do not yet have a vCenter management server, so I'm stuck running the vSphere Client inside an XP VM running in VirtualBox on my MacBook Pro). Probably due to our network, the export took a couple of hours.
I then deployed two VMs from the OVF file. Import went much more quickly than the export, thankfully. When I ran the "system-config-network" tool to configure the IP address, subnet mask, gateway, hostname, and DNS settings, I noticed there was a duplicate of eth0. The dupe wasn't present in my original VM. If the dupe was not removed, running /sbin/ifconfig displayed that eth0 had all the correct info, but the machine could not reach the network.
Through trial and error, I discovered a workaround. Upon running system-config-network, if a duplicate eth0 is present, select it. Then blank out all values, save and quit. Next, reboot the VM and once again run system-config-network, and configure eth0. After doing all this networking worked properly and I was able to SSH into the VM from my laptop.
Once we get a vCenter Server I shouldn't have jump through these hoops. vCenter includes the ability to clone a VM without doing an export and import, so setting up new VMs should be much simpler and faster.
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