Processing 300 BLK Brass

Here's one process, anyway:

The brass is first cleaned and polished including a final polish in stainless steel to get that new car shine. It is then deprimed using a Dillon Universal Depriming Die and trimmed to 300 BLK length using a Dillon RT1200. All cases are trimmed to no longer than 1.355 +/- .003 to fall within SAAMI specs, which should allow you to reload several times before having to do any trimming yourself. The cases are then swagged [sic] using a Dillon Swagging [sic] tool to remove the military crimp from the primer pocket.

mhddfs & GlusterFS

I haven't posted any links for a while.  They've been piling up.

There's a FUSE plug-in for Linux called mhddfs that aggregates storage devices into a single virtual filesystem.

I'm thinking I'd like to use a SATA port multiplier to pull together a bunch of drives.  (Such as those made by DAT Optic.)  Unfortunately, that system wouldn't have any redundancy, although one could still copy to individual drives manually to establish multiple copies.

I also found reference to a distributed filesystem called GlusterFS that appears worthy of further investigation.

Addendum: SATA-IO has an article about port multipliers and the difference between implementations, i.e. command-based switching (CBS) vs. FIS-based switching (FBS or just FIS).

Porn Face

This collection of before and after images is highly disturbing.  The power of cosmetics is truly frightening.

.300 Blackout

Looking into what it takes to make .300 BLK (7.62x35mm) from 5.56 NATO, it seems as though using a cut-off saw with a jig is preferable to using a case trimmer.  The latter is more for smaller lengths, and could be very time consuming to do.

A thread on FAL Files lists one guy's process.  I saw a jig for sale on Amazon, but another thread mentioned "the original" on 300BlkTlk, which can also trim down 5.56 NATO for conversion to 7.62x25mm.  This could be interesting.

Link Dump!!

• Crash-only software, etc.
• Eat More Fat (sitting in my reader for five months?!)
• Surviving a winter storm without power
• 10 prepper games
• Augmented reality display comparison (Oculus Rift, etc.)
• Radon mitigation (diagram included)
• StartMail (whitepaper)
• Sullivan's Travels (saw this in Nov.)

The Millenial Mentality and Work

WSJ had an article on the recent trend that businesses are doing less criticism of employees and more talking about the positives.  This reminds me of politics, where one comes off as negative when criticizing, even if true.  My hunch is that the reported shift in management attitude is because of Millennials.

Yeah, I know I'm harsh on Millennials.  As someone on the tail end of Gen X, I see a lot of people younger than me being totally vain and self-centered, expecting praise for every little thing they do, even if mediocre.  There are very few Millennials who I can say that I trust, simply because from what I've seen, they have a lame work ethic.  But yeah, they're the young people of today, so I can't totally shit on them.

The Internet Doesn't Need to Be Saved

Libertarianism.org, the Cato Institute's broad blog on libertarianism, had a piece on "Net Neutrality" earlier this month.

BaoFeng Radio Hacks

RJS sent me a link to a page with some information on hacking the BaoFeng UV5RA.

AR-15 Retractable Stocks

Recently on Facebook I saw a picture of a Remington 870 with a retractable stock, which was completely badass.  (There is a difference between retractable and collapsible.)  I then set out to find it, but didn't see anything for an 870.  It turns out that the picture was using an AR-15 stock adapter and a Nordic Components CRS (Compact Retractable Stock).  Midway used to have them for $120, but they're now discontinued.  There was a similar one made by Loki Weapons Systems, but they ran afoul of the ATF and are now defunct.

The only similar item I could find is the North Eastern Arms CCS (Compact Carbine Stock) over at Brownells.  This isn't the same since it actually has a buffer tube, whereas the CRS only worked with buffer-less systems (such as the 870).  Further, it includes a modified bolt carrier group and such, and so costs $330.  Ow.

Rare Ammo

A place I found online, Ammo-One, sells exotic and rare cartridges, such as .950 JDJ.  Sweet!

However, they don't have 20mm, probably because it's for Destructive Devices.  Somewhat related, a Federal website (FBO) has "business opportunities" for manufacturing 20mm ammunition.  That'd be sweet to get into....

Gun Parts

In addition to Numrich, another couple gun parts places crossed my path: Poppert's Gun Parts and Amherst Depot.

Targeted Display Mode

Newer iMacs have the capability to display video on the display from an external source.  I picked up a Mini DisplayPort cable and was able to get my MBP to display on the larger monitor.  To switch to external input, press Command-F2 on the iMac.  This requires that the iMac boots normally, however.

Zerocoin

Zerocoin adds anonymity to the pseudo-anonymous Bitcoin.  Sounds interesting, but isn't worthwhile unless adopted.

Chris Kyle

Recently I came across a blog post regarding Chris Kyle and his mythology.  It's quite the convincing piece.  My feeling was that Jesse Ventura was in the right, simply based on the way that part of Kyle's book was written: it smacked of self-aggrandizing.

In any case, he still wasn't the deadliest sniper in the world: that honor still belongs to Simo Häyhä, who had 505 kills in the Russo-Finnish Winter War, and with a bolt-action rifle and no optics!  Sounds like he didn't have a spotter, either.

Decoupling Capacitors

Had occasion to read up on the appropriate way to add decoupling capacitance to printed circuit board assemblies, and found a useful explanation.  One conflicting element with what I've heard at work is that the paper mentions that power pins should be connected directly to the power plane via a via (ha!), whereas here we tend to put the cap near the pin connected by a trace which then goes to a via.  Plus our component pads aren't shaped optimally according to the paper.  Why can't it be simple?

Addendum [2015.03.15]: By the way, "Manhattan routing" is routing horizontal traces on one plane, and vertical traces on another.  "Manhattan distance" is the corresponding length of a trace routed this way.

Articles

It's time for yet another link dump!!

• If Health Insurance Mandates Are Unconstitutional, Why Did the Founding Fathers Back Them? (obviously I disagree with the position, but it's insightful to see the opposition's logic)
• The IPO is dying. Marc Andreessen explains why.
• Ages of Revolution: How Old Were They on July 4, 1776?
• The Elephant was a Trojan Horse: On the Death of Map-Reduce at Google
• How To Turn One Garlic Bulb Into Lots Of Garlic Bulbs
• Make Ahead Complete Freezer Meals On The Cheap
• Buzz Aldrin @ Reddit
• American Meteorological Society Member Survey on Global Warming (the climate change bozos really hate this)
• Calling All Hackers: Help Us Build an Open Wireless Router
• NWSOFA Climate Change Team – Thorium, Molten Salt Reactors, and Green Energy
• Rich Kid, Poor Kid: For 30 Years, Baltimore Study Tracked Who Gets Ahead
• The executive order that led to mass spying, as told by NSA alumni
• Ham Radio: An "Old" Technology is a Lifesaver in the Emergency Field
• Root Cellar

Holsters

• Alabama Holster Company (Kydex)
• PJ Holsters (Kydex)
• Garrity's Gunleather (obviously)

glync

Apparently "glync" now exists as some sort of link tracker service.  Amusing, but I've been using "glync" since early 2005, whereas their usage was late 2008.  So there.

Color Test

I need to try this when I have time.  It looks like a big PITA to me!

OwnCloud on RPi

Running OwnCloud on a Raspberry Pi (tutorial) seems like a very worthwhile project.  This will be a good application of the B+, with all those USB ports.

The New Generation of 3D Printers

3D printers that are on my radar:

• Cobblebot – multi-material, large format (15” cube); $300 unassembled (additional for heated bed and enclosure), delivery Jan 2015
• RoVa3D – multi-material, multi-color (with multiple nozzles); $1500+ (5-nozzle version is $2600), delivery Feb 2015
• Micro – multi-material, auto-leveling / auto-calibration; $350, delivery, delivery Feb 2015

There’s also the Mod-T, which has a 3D object store, but it’s PLA-only and the printable volume is only slightly larger than the Micro.

Hive Components

In attempting to build my own equipment, I've found that it's necessary to be more cognizant of bee space, not just the dimensions of the frames and boxes.  One Canadian's page on hive components has most of the pertinent dimensions.

MLK & Guns

I'd posted a link on FB about Obama's recent EO banning importation of AKs.  As always, E.W. argued that it doesn't affect the average American, and I made the argument that gun rights are civil rights, and not caring just because it doesn't affect you is like a white person in the '60s saying they don't care about black voting rights, etc.

One of E.W.'s friends posted:

"I was much more afraid in Montgomery when I had a gun in my house. When I decided that I couldn't keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors." --Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (From his writings, compiled by Clayborne Carson) [source]

To which I replied:

T.F.: MLK did undergo something of a transformation in the late '50s to the early '60s, completely adopting the notion of non-violent protest. This was part of the power of his message; if he were all about an eye-for-an-eye, then it'd be too easy for his antagonists to provoke a confrontation to solidify support against him. I think he was trying to avoid the Middle East syndrome, where they've been trading blows for centuries. And indeed, the Black Panthers' blatant display of weapons freaked out the timid whites and arguably precipitated California's draconian gun laws and contributed to the 1968 Gun Control Act.

Dr. King also, in response to activists trying to get him to join sit-ins in the early '60s, said, "I think I should choose the time and place of my Golgatha"--with the implication seemingly that he realized that he was at some point going to be killed for his work. That he did it anyway was heroic. (Further, it's not clear that those around Dr. King didn't keep their weapons for his defense--I couldn't find good sources on that after his conversion to non-violence.)

However, this is non-violence to affect political change, and it seems like Dr. King had an idea where it was going to lead. In his 1967 book, he wrote:

"Finally, I contended that the debate over the question of self-defense was unnecessary since few people suggested that Negroes should not defend themselves as individuals when attacked. The question was not whether one should use his gun when his home was attacked, but whether it was tactically wise to use a gun while participating in an organized demonstration." (Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?)

The point he was making, as I interpret it, is that he wasn't against self-defense or guns; rather, he advised that when marching for political purposes, the potential for a protest to devolve when arms are present overshadows the potential advantages. Of course, the risk is that one will be defenseless, and the personal choice one must make--which Dr. King made--was whether to put the cause or one's self-preservation first. I believe that the quote that you put forth doesn't contradict that interpretation.

In those same papers, Dr. King said he only owned one gun in '56; however, some of his advisers noted that there were firearms all over the house. This would imply that perhaps Dr. King distanced himself from the image of firearms ownership, but his crew didn't necessarily.

Other related pieces:
When MLK gave up his guns [Salon]
Civil Rights Leader and Gun-Owner MLK [Guns.com]
The Secret History of Guns [The Atlantic]

20x110mm Hispano?

Apparently both Anzio Ironworks and Serbu Firearms have a semi-auto 20x110mm Hispano rifle in development.  Neither company lists it on their website, but there are videos on YouTube.  (For a second, a frivolous use of my WDC stock largesse popped into my mind....)  Those cartridges have to be like $20 a pop!
 
Anzio semi-auto 20mm
Serbu's Typhon 20 rifle - the comment says it's the Navy M21A1 round, but in other commentary I read it's 20x110mm

PiPhone and Others

Some random RPi stuff:

• PiPhone (and its maker's site)
• The RPi B+ 
• Arduino-powered LED Lighting 
• 3D-printed Gameboy look-alike

Programmable Power Switch

I've been thinking about one of these for a while...need to be able to power off devices programmatically.  Some of the comments are useful.  To wit:

1. You might consider a "zero-crossing" detector however, as switching AC during the high portion of the sine wave will eventually cause your relays to pit, scar, and fail from the internal arcing. By sampling the AC wave and switching the relay on/off only during the zero crossing of the sine wave period - that will make your relay last for years.

2. You should add a base-emitter resistor, something like 10K. If you leave the base unconnected noise(50/60Hz) might turn on the transistor - and the relay. It happened to me a while back while switching some lights with a very similar circuit.

3. Try something like a MOC3043 zero crossing detector optocoupler. If you couple it with a triac you basically get a good switching method, similar to a SSR. Don't forget the snubber for inductive loads.

Need to get my workbench in order....

Google Encryption

Wired has a superlative-laden article on Morgan Marquis-Boire, who was formerly a cybersecurity guy at Google.

In other related topics (linked from the article), Google posted info on how much of the email relays from GMail are encrypted.  Further, they released the source code to End-to-End; it would be interesting to see how that works.

GBookPro

So I don't forget, my model of MacBook Pro is the mid-2009 version.  Sure doesn't seem like I bought it five years ago.  The most amusing thing is that 20 years ago, that would've brought a sea change in computing hardware.  Now things have slowed down somewhat.

Apple's support site has a page describing how to swap out memory, which appears to cover the HDD as well.

Perhaps it's blasphemy, but I'm finally thinking about replacing the HDD with an SSD.  Even worse, I'm thinking of a Samsung, the 840 EVO, because it's got the best-in-class performance.  It ought to be a huge step up from the Fujitsu 160GB HDD currently in there.

The other update would be to expand the memory from 2GB to 4GB.  The system supports 8GB, but I'm not sure it's worth maxing out the memory in a dual-core 2.26 GHz system with a 13" display....

Lost Youth

Somehow I think most married men in this day and age, subject to all the implied lust in advertising and entertainment, have felt this at some point or another.  (Unless they've been through a lot of women prior to getting married, that is.)  It's like the single vs. married dilemma: when you're single you want a stable relationship like marriage, but then when you get married you find out it's not all about you anymore and long for your single days.  Link source: an article on the Casual Sex Project.

Local Bees

For the apiarist, some MN bee stores:

• The Bee Shed (Oronoco, MN)
• Bee's Knees Honey Farm (Oronoco, MN)
• B and B Honey Farm (Houston, MN) - lots of equipment
• Mann Lake (Hackensack, MN, as well as sites on the coasts and in the UK) - the biggest beekeeping shop
• CrossRoads Apiaries (Fertile, MN) - no website; Email: crossroads0305@gmail.com, Tel: 218-230-1146

The Southeast Minnesota Beekeepers Association has a website and a forum.