#1 Sniper

I found an article online about the current record holder for longest distance confirmed kill, Cpl. Rob Furlong, a sniper in the Canadian Army. Shooting a man 2.43 km away is impressive, even if it took two shots to make the kill.

The weapon used was a McMillan TAC-50. The TAC-50's cheaper than a CheyTac M-200 by a long shot!

Japanese Gun Law

I was reading what Wikipedia has to say about the Satsuma Rebellion (Seinan Sensou), which had a link to the Meiji Haitourei, and from there I jumped to the Japanese version, which had a link to information about the current Japanese weapons law (Teppou Toukenrui Shoji Tou Torishimarihou, established in 1958). Talk about a convoluted path.

Pro-Firearm Commentary

Posts to the Pro-Firearm discussion board on Facebook:

Reasons for having firearms:

Any organism has only two directives: to survive and to reproduce. It's been observed that humans are distinct from other animals in that they use tools. Firearms are tools used to survive. Note that technology, once created, cannot be destroyed, so arms now can only be regulated by a monopoly of force (whether we're talking about firearms or nukes). A person who doesn't own his own arms when given the opportunity, abdicates control of his personal well-being, and surrenders himself to the benevolence of his neighbors. Not everyone is moral, so this isn't a good idea.

In a capitalist society, possession of means is power—the power to get what one wants. Rather than work for material wealth, some people acquire it by force. Therefore, a successful capitalist will necessarily possess the capacity to keep his wealth secure. A person who does not believe in bearing arms is not a true capitalist. Such a person, who expects the government to regulate his life, is really a socialist or a communist.

Anyone who believes in stocking away gold or food for a SHTF scenario, which is a wise diversification, needs to be able to protect those resources.

That was a sort of tongue-in-cheek answer, but I believe it. The truth is, I just like guns. Some people dig fast cars or gold watches or whatever, but to me, guns are more interesting (not that I don't like cars or watches). I don't trust the government, and I refuse to rely on the police to come to my rescue if I get robbed—cops are only there as a deterrent and to clean up the mess after the fact. I believe that the only freedom one has is the freedom one is willing to fight to hold on to.

Opinion on "no infringement" of the 2nd Amendment:

There should be no infringement. Anyone of the age of majority should be able to obtain a firearm. Background checks presume that you may be denied the right to purchase. That only happens when the government decides to exclude certain types of people. Currently that is felons (note that unauthorized computer access [!!] in many states is a felony) and people with psych issues, including veterans with PTSD. Consider that both of these groups are very subjective—I would call them arbitrary. Therefore NO individual should be disbarred the possession of arms, unless they are 1) a minor without parental approval, 2) in retention for the commission of a crime, or 3) serving a criminal sentence.

However, that applies to one's property only. Bearing arms in public is a separate matter. While Vermont Carry is admirable, not all places would like to have people carrying openly and unlicensed. Therefore, each state should be able to institute licensing of CCW as they see fit. People need a license to drive on public roads—but NOT private roads—so the analogy makes sense. Socially, that makes sense, too.

Another bit of food for thought: much of the argument about the right to bear arms centers around the value of human life. Personally, I think the life of someone who would kill another to steal his stuff is worth less than dirt. The ACLU would have you believe differently, but they're crazy. In the case where a bad guy took a gun on rampage, the armed good guys would shoot him dead, and that would be a GOOD thing. The Bible's "Thou shalt not kill" is a mistranslation: it really is closer to "Thou shalt not murder". Unprovoked killing is bad. Killing in self-defense is good. Until people agree on such value judgements, the argument about the right to bear arms won't get any less contentious.

Bin Laden in 1998

From a PBS interview with Bin Laden in 1998:

The American government is leading the country towards hell. ... We say to the Americans as people and to American mothers, if they cherish their lives and if they cherish their sons, they must elect an American patriotic government that caters to their interests not the interests of the Jews. If the present injustice continues with the wave of national consciousness, it will inevitably move the battle to American soil, just as Ramzi Yousef and others have done. This is my message to the American people. I urge them to find a serious administration that acts in their interest and does not attack people and violate their honor and pilfer their wealth. ...

AR-15 Maker

Found a site, AR-15 Plus (actually a company called Vida Rica, Inc.), selling kits of partially-completed receivers for AR-15 lowers. Apparently an 80% completed receiver doesn't require an FFL to receive, but is less work to 'smith than a flat or similarly raw part. At the price they're selling the lowers, though, it'd be cheaper and easier to just buy finished receivers, such as DPMS's, for about $210. The only advantage, as I can see it, is for someone who wants to build their own—or to fly under the gov'ment's radar.

曖昧3センチ

最近嫁はあるアニメのテーマソングにハマっていて、よく歌う。でも俺は歌詞の意味が全然理解できず、ネットで調べた。そんで、こんな面白いスレを発見。その「曖昧3センチ」ってのは「スカートの裾上げ」、「ウェストが伸びた」、「おっぱい」の隠喩などの説が伸びてある。実際は何の意味かまだ不明だが、わけ分からないのは俺だけじゃないのでひょっとした。

郵便番号検索

年賀状を出すために郵便番号を調べることがあり、検索サイトを探して日本郵便のページに辿り着いた。後で使うかもしれないからリンクを保存。

HK G3/91 Resources

Lately I've been consumed with the Heckler & Koch G3/91, and have read up extensively on it. Here are some of the fruits of my labor:

Parts Stores:

• Numrich - the best for general parts
• RTG - the cheapest source for mags, surplus parts, and some new parts
• HKParts - expensive, has the MagPul stock, rear sight adjustment tool, and MSG-90 buffer
• HKSpecialist - expensive, has the vented handguard, bipod, PSG-1 parts
• PTR - manufactures HK-91 clones on HK tooling from Portugal, and they also sell some parts
• HKPartsOnline (not very useful)
• Arizona Response Systems - HK refinishing and parts (no pictures)
• Hi-Vel (parts list, no pictures)
• POF-USA - manufactures some parts on HK tooling, like PTR, but their website is slightly broken
• Copes Distributing - has a good price on the Hensoldt scope with mount

Build Information:

• HK-91 disassembly/reassembly
• G3 build using Century Arms receiver
• G3 trigger disassembly

Mod Information:

• Williams' custom set trigger
• 'Smiths for G3 clones
• C&P for SEF grip frames
• Rail mod for the HK wide handguard

Specific Part Info:

• BufferTech's plastic buffer
• Picture of the famed heavy bipod (which I can't find for sale anywhere)
• Here's a good price on HK's mag loader/unloader
• Knight's Armament makes a RAS for the HK-91 (see the bottom of the link), sold here
• Brugger & Thomet Tri-Rail Handguard - The picture shows a brass catcher on a G3, but all DSArms has is one for the MP5
• Smith Enterprise makes a version of their Vortex flash hider for the HK-91 (spec), sold only by Brownell's
• Compensator
• "Recoil Eliminator", aka "tank brake/comp"
• PSG-1 style Ergo Grip for metal grip frames

List of Surplus Ammo

As for forums, HKPro is pretty cool. Useful posts:

• How to check the bolt gap
• Installing a heavy 2-stage buffer
• Picture of the different buffer options (G3, MSG-90, G3 heavy, HK-21)
• How to bend an HK flat
• How to avoid marks from attaching a claw mount (more info also on mg-42.net)

Manuals and such:

• G3 Armorer's Manual (found here)
• G3 Green Book

I may update this post as I find new stuff. Last update: 2008.04.13 20:25.

Blogger enabled OpenID

Interesting. OpenID looks cool, but is too insecure. There should be a middle-ground between OpenID and separate login.

Internet Crime Complaint Center

The IC3 handles complaints of Internet fraud, etc., for the FBI.

Gun Laws

Over on the Guns Network, I found a post with some links to gun law information. Notably, the 922(r) "foreign parts" law—which is total and utter gestapo bullshit—is detailed. One majorly useful piece is the state gun law summaries, which are better than the cut-and-paste ones that are on the BATFE site. Some of the links in the post above are outdated, but once you know what you're looking for, it's easier to find.

Comment on CNN Blurb to Ron Paul Donations

I posted a comment on the article, since I couldn't leave some asshole troll's comment alone.

To Robert of Pensacola, those comments are misguided and factually inaccurate. Dr. Paul's core base are middle-class individuals, not rich special interests, unlike donors to major campaigns who can afford to dump the maximum $2300 into their candidates' coffers. (Check FundRace for details.)

I'm a middle-class working stiff who's sick of government bloat and incompetence, and I've donated what I can. There are plenty of people like me who support Dr. Paul. Don't talk about things you don't know about or understand.

Furthermore, I've been a registered Republican for as long as I've been able to vote, and I'm disgusted with the current crop of "Republicans" who are closer to neo-cons than Republican. Dr. Paul's as close to a classical Republican as I've seen.

Vote Ron Paul!

FundRace 2008

When looking for fundraising information, after donating to Ron Paul's campaign, I found this site that shows all donors over $200 by name, zip code, company, and employer. This could be useful. Maybe I should donate an extra $100 so I get listed.

Riviera Maya

Don showed me a diving magazine that had a list of dive spots, and the Riviera Maya was one of them. Perhaps after going to Cozumel, that should be the next on the list for Mexico.

100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time?

From Rolling Stone, ca 2007. I haven't even heard of most of this shit! But, uh, Utada Hikaru is definitely not rock.

Military Optics

Some gear that would be cool to have, although since it's produced for the military, naturally it's expensive.

• Trijicon ACOG [ MFG, Wiki ]
• AimPoint CompM2 [ MFG, Wiki ]

Bruce Schneier Q&A

The Freakonomics site has a great Q&A session with security guru Bruce Schneier (blog).

Import/Export-Related

International Trade & Transportation Glossary - A very useful glossary to international trade jargon, including a chart of ocean/air container dimensions.
US Customs FIRMS Codes - "A US Customs FIRMS code is a four digit alpha-numeric identifier for a container freight station, warehouse deconsolidator, or other US Customs Service bonded facility."

ATF P 5300.5: State Laws and Published Ordinances on Firearms

Useful reference to firearms laws in all 50 states plus territories.

Supreme Court Showdown

Found a couple recent articles (1, 2) regarding the Supreme Court considering a ruling on whether the right to bear arms of the 2nd Amendment is an individual or collective right. I'm a bit nervous since if it doesn't go the right way, things may go downhill. We'll see.

Frame of Mind

Another article from Oprah.com featured on CNN that has some enlightening content. The "three key markers of pessimism": personal, permanent, and pervasive. Of course, being a pessimist, I like to think that I'm being realistic. At the same time, overestimating the extent of the badness is unhealthy as well. Wish I could find the right balance.

Charts and graphs of rap song lyrics

Got this link from Russ. My favorite was "Feeling of Well Being Based on Occupation"—friggin' hilarious!!

Stop Dwelling On It

Rare sage advice from Oprah's clique?

It's 5 p.m., the deadline for an important work project is at 6, and all you can think about is the fight you had with the next-door neighbor this morning. You're dwelling, says Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Yale and author of "Women Who Think Too Much."

"It's natural to look inward," she says, "but while most people pull out when they've done it enough, an overthinker will stay in the loop."

Ruminating regularly often leads to depression. So if you're prone to obsessing (and you know who you are), try these tactics to head off the next full-tilt mental spin cycle ...

Distract yourself

Put on music and dance, scrub the bathtub spotless, whatever engrosses you --for at least 10 minutes. "That's about the minimum time needed to break a cycle of thoughts," says Nolen-Hoeksema, who's been studying rumination for more than 20 years. Or choose something to focus on. "A friend told me that she once started counting the number of times the speaker at her conference said 'like,'" Nolen-Hoeksema recalls. "By the time he finished, she'd stopped ruminating."

Make a date to dwell

Tell yourself you can obsess all you want from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., but until then, you're banned. "By 6 p.m., you'll probably be able to think things through more clearly," says Nolen-Hoeksema.

Take a 3-minute dose of mindfulness

For one minute, eyes closed, acknowledge all the thoughts going through your mind. For the next minute, just focus on your breathing. Spend the last minute expanding your awareness from your breath to your entire body.

"Paying attention in this way gives you the room to see the questions you're asking yourself with less urgency and to reconsider them from a different perspective," says Zindel Segal, Ph.D., co-author of "The Mindful Way Through Depression."

Ask yourself ..

"What's the worst that could happen?" and "How would I cope?" Visualizing yourself handling the most extreme outcome should alleviate some anxiety, says Judith Beck, Ph.D., director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Then consider the likelihood that the worst will actually occur.

Next, imagine the best possible outcome; by this point, you'll be in a more positive frame of mind and better able to assess the situation more realistically.

Call a buddy

Ask a friend or relative to be your point person when your thoughts start to speed out of control.

Say "Oh, well."

Accept that you're human and make mistakes -- and then move on, says Beck. Be compassionate. It's harder than it sounds, so keep practicing.

Title II

A site with BATFE forms.

Freedom Under Siege

I found a copy of Ron Paul's Freedom Under Siege on his Wikipedia entry. From a quick glance, it looks very reasonable. Ron Paul may be one of the few decent candidates in the running—I hope he does well.

CNN Health-Related

A few days cold, but interesting and useful.

Five ways to stay fit on business trips
Healthful breakfast tips
The CDC's MRSA warning

USB Pendrive Howto

Some random thoughts and links regarding USB memory. Of moderate usefulness. I was looking for information on accessing USB storage devices from the BIOS. Well, the BIOS must recognize the device for it to be accessible, so this would be highly dependent on the BIOS itself.

LPI Certification Self-Study Guide

Interesting Linux-related training materials for the "Linux Professional Institute" certification exams. Much of the sections are as of yet unwritten, though.

Forged M14SA

LRB Arms makes a forged M14SA (semi-automatic) receiver, unlike the investment cast receivers on Springfield Armory's M1A. Seeing how expensive M1As have gotten, I think spending a few extra hundred and picking up a forged receiver makes sense.

Forging vs. Casting

I'd been looking for more information about firearm manufacturing processes. This is a fair summary, albeit for 1911s:

FORGED: Forgings are made from bar stock which is almost universally round stock. The bar is heated in a furnace to a pecific temperature for the type metal. It is then removed and placed between two dies. In the drop forging process the upper die is weighted (can be several tons) and is literally dropped onto the bottom die forming the softened steel into the shape desired. There are usually 3 or more different dies and the bar is moved from a rough forging to the final die which is very close the exact shape of the part. A good hammer operator can usually forge the part (or strip of parts) with one blow per die and one for the cutoff. Sometimes the forging spec will call for multiple blows per die. Drop forgings get their strength by this hammering process, just like how the old blacksmiths did it. There are other forging "hammers" which use other means than dropping the upper die. The raw forging will need the flash cut off the edges (usually with a punch press) and the part will need to be machined to the exact shape. Small parts like 1911 hammers will have several parts in a strip and separated in the press. If necessary further hardening is done to the part after machining using any of several methods, from heat-quenching to cryogenic freezing.

CAST: Molten steel is poured into a mold that is the size and shape of the final part to be made. Once cooled the mold is broken away leaving the rough-cast part, which is then machined or given further hardening treatment as necessary. Cast parts are much cheaper to make than forged ones, but are somewhat less durable due to having a lower density and no grain structure. Investment casting is simply another method of casting parts. A wax duplicate of the part to be made is created, then encased in densely-packed sand. Molten metal is poured in, which displaces the wax and results in a part much closer in final shape to the finished part. This results in less final shaping or machining being required to produce the finished part.

MIM: Stands for Metal Injection Molded. This is a relatively new process of making small parts for less cost than machined, while making them denser than cast. There are four primary steps to the metal injection molding process (per www.phillipsplastics.com):

1. Feedstock Formulation – very fine metal powders are mixed with polymeric binders.
2. Molding – parts are molded in specially-equipped injection molding machines. These as-molded components are known as "green" parts.
3. Debinding – 90% of the binder material is removed from the green part. These parts are then referred to as "brown" parts.
4. Sintering – brown parts are sintered using controlled temperature and atmosphere profiles for final densities between 96-99% of theoretical.

In other words, the end product results in no more than a 1% variation in its final size. Done correctly the resulting part is nearly as dense as one made from forged steel, yet is much cheaper to make. Done incorrectly the process can leave small voids in the metal, creating a weak part.

STAMPED: Some metal parts are made from large pieces of flat steel, which are punched out using a die then pressed and formed using bending/forming dies. As with the other parts, heat treating or final shaping is done after the item has been stamped out. Normally the finished part needs no shaping or machining, only polishing to remove burrs caused by the stamping or forming die.

Early 1911 pistols up until the end of World War Two used forged steel parts exclusively, as the technology of that time often didn't result in acceptable cast or stamped parts. During World War Two stampings were used on an increasing scale to save time and materials, but the only 1911 part to become made from stampings was the trigger assembly. Heat-treating methods were still in their infancy, however. Most parts were only flame-hardened in critical wear areas. As a result early guns are more prone to cracking, stress failure, and peening damage than later ones. The quality of the steels and their alloy content wasn't as refined as it is today, either. Following WW2 the Austempering method of hardening metal parts was perfected, which hardens even large parts like slides and barrels correctly along their entire surface.

By the 1970's cast and stamped manufacturing methods were further phased in by Colt and other 1911 manufacturers as a means of reducing production costs. The 1911 has never been a cheap gun to produce, requiring many complex milling operations during the course of manufacture. A number of makers who had been offering investment cast replacement frames and slides soon began making complete pistols by the late 70's. Colt and other high-end manufacturers continued to use forged slides and frames, but the smaller internal parts were now often being made from cast or stamped steel. A few non-critical parts such as the mainspring housing and trigger pad were even made from molded polymer to further reduce costs. In 1996 Kimber's 1911-type pistols were introduced, and they were the first to use MIM manufacturing for their small parts, resulting in a well-fitted 1911 that was still relatively inexpensive to make. Kimber still uses forged steel for their major parts such as the slide and frame. Colt also has continued to use forged major components, with a mixture of forged, cast, stamped, or MIM internal parts. Most other makers (such as Springfield Armory and Smith & Wesson) use mostly cast or MIM small parts depending on model, although they too use forged steel for the slides and frames. The higher-end custom makers (Wilson, Ed Brown, etc.) will normally use forged slides and frames with either cast, MIM, or forged steel small parts as the price point requires. Some pistols continue to be made using investment cast frames and slides, but this shouldn't automatically dissuade the buyer. Caspian Arms for example is known for their quality 1911 components, despite the fact that they now use castings almost exclusively. All of these methods have their place, and they can all result in a quality pistol as long as the various processes are done correctly. There is a common belief that anything other than forged steel is inferior. While that may be true with parts subjected to high stress levels such as barrels, with many 1911 parts the other methods are just as durable and result in a more affordable final product. For example, a stamped or plastic trigger pad is every bit as durable as a machined steel one. It just doesn't look as nice in the eyes of many 1911 purists, hence the reason why many will replace such a part with one made of steel.

CheyTac

After watching the Shooter movie, I had to go check out CheyTac's website. The M-200 is pretty sweet, but $14k for the civilian model? Probably for just the rifle? Ouch!

Bad Motivational Posters

Sma sent me this great link to a parody of a parody, the Demotivators series of posters. Remember, "None of us is as dumb as all of us."

Encrypted Mail on OS X

Found a couple links on how to get OS X (1, 2) working with Thawte's free encryption certificates.

Hitachi GST News

The Reuters article, in English (print version) and Japanese, reeks of authenticity. Maybe some good will come of it, who knows.

More on the Eee PC

Ars Technica has some more details about the Asus Eee PC (previous news). I'm tempted to buy the $299 model. $100 for another 2GB of flash is a bit steep, especially since there's an SD slot. The one downer is the battery life: 3 hrs is paltry. I'd expect more since there's no optical drive or HDD.

Pimp My Rice Paddy

Real or Photoshopped, I'm not quite sure. But they look convincing....

ふもふもさんメキシコ版

かわいいじゃんか。

Notary Publics

Since reading about the Thawte CA's Web of Trust, and becoming a notary in their network, I was curious how to become a real notary public. There's an organization called the National Notary Association that has a how-to. eHow also has instructions on how to become a notary public.

Ready?

Here's that disaster preparedness website I'd seen before. I could use the list of stuff to have. Sheesh, they left guns and gold off the list? That's a disservice!

Baby Names

Was looking for some information on issuing of SSNs for a friend and came across a list of top baby names on the SSA's website. Also has a breakdown by year.

Men Want Hot Women

Yeah.

Mental Floss

The past week, CNN's feature "Mental Floss" feature has had interesting articles.

A couple days ago was a list of five nasty parasites. That was pretty intriguing, if not more than a little gross.

Today was a bit on Latin phrases used in American English. Featured were:

Caveat Emptor
Persona Non Grata
Habeas Corpus
Cogito Ergo Sum
E Pluribus Unum
Quid Pro Quo
Ad Hominem
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Sui Generis

The last two I actually didn't know. Perhaps I should take up Latin.

Asus Eee PC & Cute Taiwanese Girl

Slashdot had a post on Palm's announcement of the withdrawal of their Foleo PC handheld from their product plan. Actually, I hadn't paid any attention to this, but the Asus Eee PC that was mentioned in the same post is sort of interesting.

Even more interesting still was that a girl in Taiwan had posted some pictures of a marketing prototype. Never mind the handheld, this girl's cute in some of the pictures! I like her smile, anyway.

Blade Runner Box Set

Noel sent me this link about the upcoming Blade Runner box set. I may just have to splurge. Thing is, I don't know about the Blu-Ray version—will it actually provide any additional fidelity over DVD since the movie's so old? Hopefully this won't incite me to finally buy a PS3....

neomarxisme

Noel sent me a link to this site.

The most recent post was regarding a commercial I'd seen while in Japan, so I posted a comment.

グリソの足跡

ネット検索で「マーティングリーン　ミネソタ」を入れたらこんなのが出てきたよ
気まぐれダイブログ（マンタ）
気まぐれダイブログ
写真付きだ。いろんなところで現れるなぁ、グリソは。

π型人間

今日「π型人間」という言葉をはじめて聞いた。説明として白倉さんはリンクを送ってくれた。自分で見つけたのはこれ。

Corn Syrup is Badness

Yeah, I knew I was right, beeotch! Actually, I probably got the idea reading Neanderthin. Still, I realized that some drinks didn't really quench one's thirst, and from looking at the ingredients I figured out that the common one was corn syrup. That it messes with one's metabolism I didn't learn until later.

PVR

Since I've got digital cable, I've been thinking I need to put together a PC-based video recorder. Subscription-based ones like TiVo just mean another monthly bill, and since I don't watch all that much TV to begin with (the wife does sporadically), it's not worth it. So far I haven't been able to find any Japanese DVR-like devices, so I may have to roll my own.

Hot Deals Club had a blurb about a device called HDHomeRun, which is a networked DVR. The downside is that it requires coax inputs, and with my setup, I'm not sure if it'll work. Furthermore, SiliconDust's website doesn't have any specs or other information that would help me decide whether to buy it, so I'm going to pass.

DVICO, on the other hand, has a product, the Fusion HDTV5 RT Gold, that caught my eye. It at least has an S-Video input, so I could hook up my cable box to it. At $150, it's not too spendy, either. The problem is, it doesn't support Linux. I guess I have to keep looking.

Hide & Go Poop

Joel sent me this one. Crazy vid on YouTube.

PC 'Scope

Following on to the mixer thing, I was wondering how hard it'd be to make some oscilloscope-like hardware that plugs into a PC. Wikipedia has an article on test probes that's enlightening.

Maxim also has an article on designing a low-jitter clock, which can be used to drive high-speed ADCs. 1 GHz should be achievable. Using a USB interface would be too slow to do real-time processing, but by capturing into memory on a trigger and transferring the data, the PC could handle high-speed captures. Real-time could use less bandwidth to approximate the signal to the limit of USB 2.0.

Audio Mixer Circuit

I was looking at building a simple mixer circuit to mux two PCs' 5.1 audio sources to 5.1 speakers. My current KVM switch only has two minijacks, so it can't handle 5.1.

Googling "simple audio mixer circuit" turned up a page of links to mixer projects. Some ones I liked:

Simple Mixer
FET Audio Mixer
Six-Channel Mixer and Amp

Water Guns & The Glock FAQ

Noel sent me a link to a Wired News article about underwater weapons. Interesting, but of limited depth.

The more interesting thing was mention of The Glock FAQ, which has a lot of details about Glock pistols.

Lotus Notes on OS X

If I were really intent on getting away from Windows: There's a version of Lotus Notes for OS X, as well as the AT&T Global Network Dialer necessary to tunnel to the company network. Hmm.

Fading Photos

More on archival of photos. All the more reason to archive important images to film!

lhaca

Just in case I forget where to get a decompressor for LHA/LZH, here one is. The URL is amusing, "buttya" looks like "butt yeah!" Wonder if it's supposed to be "butcher" or something.

Optimus Maximus

The OLED-topped keyboard is finally reaching production in limited quantities.

But who's going to pay $1560 for keyboard, and a non-ergonomic one at that? Not I, sir. Though I must admit that it's kinda cool.

C&R FFL

Found this helpful link regarding obtaining a Curio & Relic Federal Firearms License. The main useful bit:

What is a C&R or Cruffler?
C&R is nothing more than a way to facilitate collecting.
You may have certain firearms shipped to your C&R FFL address, just like a FFL business.
The easy definition is firearms that are 50 years old or more.
-There are also some collectible firearms allowed.
You can write to the ATF asking them to determine a firearm a C&R.
-It looks a little difficult; requiring you to demonstrate why the firearm is collectible.
It is not a business.
-It MAY NOT be a business or it will be taken away fom you.
If you can own a gun you can get a C&R license.
The ATF determines who may have a C&R.
-Cities have little to no say in whether you may get one.
It does require you to keep a logbook.
-You must record EVERY C&R purchase.
You don't have to record non C&R firearms purchases in your C&R bound book.

One of my old roomies got a C&R, way back when, hence my lingering interest.

Also found a couple articles, one mirrored from Shotgun News with more info, another on importing, and then there's C&R Buds that has a bunch of useful C&R info.

"Last Ditch" Arisakas

Info on identification of the Arisaka so-called "last ditch" model.

STEREO Pictures of Earth

My Dad sent me this link to the STEREO website. Actually, he probably sent it a couple weeks ago. Anyway, the site's got some pretty sweet pictures of the sun. In stereo. Bitchin'!

祇園での遊び方

「一元さん」についてもうちょっと知りたかったので、ネット検索したらこの記事が出た。かなり面白い。行った御茶屋は「今後もどうぞ来てください」って言ってくれたっけ？

Lee Iacocca on Chrysler and the Future of Detroit

CNN Money had an interesting interview with Lee Iacocca. A couple interesting blurbs:

AT: Do you blame the Japanese for Detroit's decline over the past couple of decades?

LI: I've taken on the Japanese forever. Toyota's a great competitor. Nissan's coming on strong. Honda's always been great on engineering. They're good companies, but they had advantages. It's unfair competition. Their market is closed to us. They still manipulate currency. When they come to this country they don't have unions, and that's tough to compete against. Sometimes I think their trade practices are predatory.

AT: In the '80s you suggested raising the gas tax.

LI: Yes. I went to see Reagan and said, "Let's put a 50-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline. That's $50 billion. We can cut the deficit in half." He said, "You've got to be out of your mind. You don't tax gasoline." And he laughed. So we never did it. Our state and federal taxes add up to about 46 cents a gallon, compared with $5 in Europe.

A 50-cent gas tax? Why not? There's nothing that says people have a god-given right to cheap transportation. Of course, our economy depends on it. And in general more taxes are bad. Still, by having artificially low gas prices, we encourage its waste.

OS X Safe Sleep

I've often wondered why OS X doesn't have an analogue to Windows' hibernate mode. Turns out that newer Macs have the feature, called Safe Sleep, and that it can be enabled on some older Macs as well.

• A how to enable Safe Sleep on legacy Macs.
• An Apple help document depicting a Mac coming out of Safe Sleep.
• A description of the feature.

Minute Man Range

Back on 3/31 I ventured over to the Minute Man Range. Mostly because I wanted to shoot and it was raining, and I wasn't aware of any other indoor ranges near town. It took about 30 minutes to get there, driving through some real country. The drive was kind of nice, actually, except that would've been about a gallon and a half one way in my car.

I took one of my guns and rented a Glock G21 from the shop. Previously I was skeptical about Glocks, but the one I'd shot before was a G19, and 9mm I've found is pretty lame for accuracy, at least relative to .45. The G21 was nice. The range was nice, except their ventilation could've been better. That's a perennial problem with indoor ranges, though.

Seattle Mariners

The wife's father wants to go see Ichiro play at the Mariners' home ground. Thus, we're doing some checking into tickets and such. First there's the Mariners' website. A map of the Safeco Field seating helps pick out where to park it. The "Terrace Club" area looks good, if not spendy. Maybe one game in the lower box and another in the Terrace Club would do. There's a Field A-to-Z Guide, a collection of FAQs about the field. Interesting tidbits include the custom jerseys available for purchase, and that if one shows up during batting practice before the game one might be able to get an autograph. Cool!

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

I had occasion to look up on Wikipedia Chris Rock's No Sex (In the Champagne Room), for background on all that good advice. (I particularly liked the part about "don't go parties with metal detectors", and the humor of the pierced tongue part.)

What I didn't realize that was it was a parody of the "Wear Sunscreen" song. I'd heard that on the radio before too, but either had forgotten about it or figured the latest trend was to give random advice accompanied by music. The column that song was based on, apparently often the target of Internet hoaxes, is actually quite good. Especially for a column. Thus, I bookmark it here.

Anna Nicole Smith's Autopsy

I'm sure that this is in poor taste, but CNN posted Anna Nicole Smith's autopsy on the web. Out of sheer prurient interest, I checked it out. It's pretty twisted.

Most Digital Content Not Stable

Further rationale for doing analog backups of select material, e.g. photos to negatives or slides. Gotta keep collecting these articles....

File Sharing a Threat to Children and National Security

Actually, yes, it is. Parents these days don't teach their kids right and wrong, and file-sharing is definitely in the gray area. You just know that even 50% of files swapped are legal! Plus, less than bright employees could put such applications on government machines, and misconfigure them such that confidential material gets shared. (Of course top secret machines shouldn't be connected to the Internet, but still.)

I haven't read the paper yet, though. It's rather long.

The No Asshole Rule

Now this looks like an interesting book. There used to be an asshole in my group at work, but fortunately, he's gone now. Now only if my job were better....

Wisdom from Chris Rock

"Those are the choices in life: You can be married and bored or single and lonely," Rock said in his 2004 HBO special "Never Scared." "Ain't no happiness nowhere."

Amen, brother. ;-)

Sarah McLachlan Lyrics

I've been a mini-fan since college, but I only bought a couple of her CDs, notably Mirrorball, which is close to a best compilation, just live. Anyway, some of the lyrics are open to interpretation so it helps to have the lyrics handy. I just found out that on Sarah McLachlan's website, the discography contains links to lyrics pages. That's rather nice of her.

Trust and Attachment

The Four Stages of Trust
Attachment in Adults
Jealousy

Not Quite Mr. Fusion

On /. a few days ago, there was a bit about a mobile biorefinery that takes garbage and produces electricity. Sounds cool, but how's it for pollution?

Censorship Alive and Well at Universities

Apparently it's not acceptable to have a conservative-leaning viewpoint at some schools. City Journal has an article regarding this phenomenon. The piece is long, but worth the read.

Seems like the Right and Left in this country keep getting more and more polarized. We're heading for serious conflict, possibly civil war. This time, it's not going to be about slaves, it's going to be about freedom: whether you can say what you want without censorship, or keep weapons to keep the government in line.

Minute Man Gun Range

I'm going to have to go check out this range one of these days. This time of year, it's hard to go shooting at an outdoor place!

Found the link via Packing.org. They don't list SMSC among the area gun ranges. Odd.

Here's an omake link. It came up in the search for "minuteman", with a rather unfriendly quote by Ahnuld.

Faux Weed and "Tokyo Mango"

Check out this artificial marijuana plant for sale in Japan at Nodaya Denki.

Actually, I got that from Lisa Kitayama's "Tokyo Mango" blog, linked to from Wired News. Pretty funky, but just being in Japan leads one to lots of funky stuff. Something's wrong with one who can't find junk like that over there!

Lately

Recently I've been blogging more political items on my link blog. That's largely because the commentary is news-driven. Sometimes I need to just jot down what I thought when I read a given article. Furthermore, on my main blog, I don't use as much profanity, whereas I don't have such restrictions on my link blog. Here, I can call it like I see it!

Sick Educators

This country's in the toilet and ready to be flushed. Or at least Massachusetts is. First read the article, then my diatribe.

People can do that stuff in private—they're free, at least to the extent people are "allowed" now. But try to shove it down my kid's thoat as normal, and I rip them a new one to play with.

What really pisses me off is that these are the kind of idiots who bitch about teaching kids about guns, but then they force their own ultra-liberal agenda on 5 year olds. Well, I suppose hypocrisy on the part of the political correct fools is to be expected. The right to bear arms is a demonstratably important freedom; further, it's in our Bill of Rights. The "right to teach kids how to be homosexual" is not.

Lest I come off as a homophobe, I do know some gay people, and have no problem with them choosing to live their lives in the way they decide—as long as the effects on others are acceptable (i.e. no torture, homicide, etc.). They can present their ideas to me, and of course I have the right to refute them. (Democracy is about open discussion, not censorship according to a politically-correct agenda.) When the ultra-left crowd starts dictating education to birth future supporters of their agenda, however, is where the shit hits the fan. The whole concept of "King and King" is just fucked up. If we have to quit using romantic fairy tales in the classroom entirely so be it: the genre is too sappy anyway!

Who's to Blame?

CNN had a link to an article from Time regarding what should be considered rape. Out-and-out sexual assault is pretty clear: man wants woman, woman doesn't want man, man takes woman anyway. Consent on the part of the woman is central in this case. But what if the woman initially gives consent, then withdraws it during the act?

The Time article notes a case where a man and woman began sex consensually, then she asked him to stop, which he did. The article made it sound like that although the guy stopped almost immediately and did not ejaculate, he was found guilty of rape and sentenced to five years in jail. If the facts are correct, that's just wrong. Guy and girl start banging, girl says stop, guy does without blowing his load, and yet that counts as rape? Bullshit!

Obviously, true rape is a brutal mala in se crime. However, "withdrawal-of-consent rape" doesn't seem to be of the same level. A woman has the responsibility of judging who she lets in her bed. If she changes her mind partway through, then she's relying on the man to be honorable enough to stop. She did the screening, and should accept responsibility for such decisions. From a moral perspective, if a man doesn't stop, I'd say that makes him a scumbag, but not necessarily a criminal.

Of course that's discussion at a theoretical level. Saying that a woman is fully responsible is not acceptable because men could easily claim that she gave initial consent. I've read that some rapists seem to actually believe that their victims wanted the act. Plus, not punishing the man for continuing after 'stop' would accentuate the date rape problem. On the other hand, making it too easy for women to blame men after the fact, i.e. having consensual sex and then due to some later event, such as the discovery of other sexual partners, changing her story and declaring rape, is a disservice to men as well. (Promiscuity may be immoral, but it is not a crime.)

Ejaculation doesn't seem like a good criteria, either, because in the case of a "minute man", the woman might stay stop just a second too late; or in the case of a "marathon man", going against the woman's will would be a protracted assault!

The notion of a "consensual sex contract" is legally on-target, but practically absurd. Who would have sex with someone that asked for a signature first?

The bottom line is, in my opinion, that rape should only be used to describe a forced non-consensual sexual act, where the whole affair is from the start against the victim's will. If initial consent is given and later retracted, then it becomes simple assault. The former should carry much greater penalties than the latter, because the intent behind each act is very, very different. Of course either way, as with any disagreement between a couple, the issue will degenerate into a bout of he-said, she-said.

Ellen Feiss & Street Fighter

Another /. piece of news: an interview with Ellen Feiss, the "stoner" in the Apple "Switcher" ads. She's kind of cute now that she's 18. But now that she's shot down the stoned-while-shooting rumor, people going to latch on to comments she made in the interview that imply that she might be gay. That's what she gets for going to France! Just kidding. From the interview, she sounds pretty cool, actually.

There was a post about some Street Fighter thing on /. also, but what I found hilarious was the link to an amateur flick parodying the SF characters, like "where are they now?" The shorts are pretty well done—I want to see more! (Although predictably they mispronounced "Ryu" and he appears to be played by a Chinese guy.)

Chavez is a Turd

When I first heard about his antics in the news, I thought it was kind of funny, like a cheap circus act. Then I realized he was serious.

While it'd be nice if one of his own citizens would cap him in his fat head, if Chavvie wants to play hardball with expelling the U.S. envoy and reallocating other countries' investments to "the people" (i.e. him), then he can have it his way.

We pull out our people, and embargo the country. If they start procuring WMD, then we have license to go in and kick their asses!—after we pull out of Iraq?

Yeah, the Iraq war has been a fiasco not in that it got some soldiers killed—callous to say, but those are the casualties of war and the consequences of soldiering—it's reminded the world of the U.S.'s previous failure in meddling with another country's politics: Vietnam. It's also been a reminder that the American Military Might isn't all that it's cracked up to be, and all of a sudden all these little shitty governments like Iran and Venezuela are clamoring for a piece of the spotlight. As long as they're waving their cheap AK-47 clones, I don't really care. It's all about the nukes. If they decide they want to dance, maybe the world needs another demonstration of what happens to stupid dictators and their followers when they mess with their betters.

The Bridge HT and Why Consoles Discolor

Fringe news from /.
Where No Home Theater Has Gone Before
Plastic Discoloration in Classic Machines

Kiuchi Beer

MRG just sent me another note with a link to an article about a Japanese beer called "Hitachino". Looks interesting, but the price tag is pretty steep.

Hotel California

MRG forwarded me a note by a Japanese guy asking what the lyrics to Hotel California mean. How the hell should I know? Does anyone? Here are some opinions:

From Song Facts,
From The Straight Dope,
From Niniane,
And there's always Wikipedia.

Travelstar

From the intranet front page at work there was a link to an article on Hitachi infringing on a Chinese trademark. An older article gives more info about the battle. What they didn't say was when the BTHC registered their trademark and when IBM/HGST first used the mark in China—seems to me that would be most saliently relevant.

In Japan, the U.S. maker Logitech has to use the mark "Logicool" because another maker in Japan has the name "Logitec". Certainly if Logitech didn't enter the Japanese market before Logitec was formed, then they don't have the right to use the mark.

Law is fraught with peril.

Pizza Deliverators

I think I was looking for info on how much to tip the pizza guy online, and came up with these links to the adventures of "pizza deliverators". (Think Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash.) [1] [2]

Not sure whether to pity them for enduring pitiable treatment, respect them for bringing me fresh za, or to think that I've probably got it worse!

And every time I hear "pizza man", I think of the song "Super Orgy Porno Party", which starts out with a dude delivering pizza....

Japanese ok on Windows Mobile 5

I was looking at MDAs, thinking Sachie could use something more like a Japanese cell phone rather than one of the lame setups we have in the U.S. The Danger Hiptop (Sidekick) is cool, but doesn't support Japanese according to Katie and what I've read. T-Mobile had a couple phones that use Windows Mobile, which seems much more likely to support Japanese add-ons.

After some searching, I found out that it is possible to install a Japanese IME on Windows Mobile 5. Sweet! Now it's a matter of plunking down for a $400 phone and signing an onerous contract....

Condom Depot

B&E got the wife and I a condom sampler for Christmas. Apparently it was purchased at Condom Depot, in case someone out there needs to make a gift purchase.... "Condom Depot"—like Office Depot, except for condoms instead of office supplies!