Guns, Cars, and Tech

Author: wizardpc

  • Well, that was unexpected

    Just went through one of those “Corporate Safety” thingies. Basic stuff, like where to go if there’s a fire, what to do if there’s a tornado, how to use an AED, and what to do if there’s a guy gunning down your coworkers.

    They actually gave effective advice. I was shocked. In order of priority, you should:

    • RUN AWAY
    • Help others RUN AWAY
    • If you can’t RUN AWAY, then hide. Preferably behind something bulletproof.
    • If you can’t RUN AWAY, and you can’t hide, call 911 and let them know where the shooter is.

    Pretty standard, right? But then they said something I didn’t expect to hear:

    • If your life is in imminent danger, ATTACK THE SHOOTER USING WHATEVER MEANS YOU HAVE AVAILABLE.

    Granted, we are disarmed by policy here, so “whatever means you have available” is probably strangling the guy with a mouse cord while my coworkers bludgeon him with their laptops and desk phones….

    But recognizing that righteous violence can be an answer is a good start.

  • Quick notes from my first Appleseed Shoot

    I had the pleasure to shoot my first Appleseed this weekend. I’ll leave the more in-depth review to others who where there, but here are some quick things I learned.

    • When they say you need a GI Sling, they mean you need an M-1 Garand sling, not some crappy 3-point you bought 5 years ago. The GI Sling has a loop in it that I can’t really describe (due to not personally having one) that allows you to disconnect the rear sling point and wrap it around your arm so that you get good support structure in prone. I didn’t have that, so I shot hasty-sling all weekend.
    • QD Sling swivels are awesome. I also discovered that the rail-mounted sling adapter I’ve had for years actually has a QD sling point, which was neat. (It is this one, though I don’t see myself having paid $40 for it.)
    • Use a 10/22. With a scope.
    • When they say you need a shooting mat, they really mean a Shooting Mat–not a doubled-up comforter or some foam padding. My ribs started digging in about 2/3 of the way through day 1, and I have a visible bruise.
    • Bring a bore snake and some CLP
    • My abdominal muscles hurt today. I suspect that means I wasn’t doing something right
    • My shoulder also hurts. 500+ rounds of .22 with no rubber pad seems to have taken a toll, though I’m not sure I’m ready to admit that. Also: I’m not as young as I used to be.
    • From a training perspective, you can skip Day 2 if you’re on the fence about attending one of these events but don’t want to dedicate an entire weekend. There is no additional instruction on Day 2…just repetition. Go if you can, it’s useful.
    • The history lessons were awesome.

    The shoot boss told us that next year they’re planning on having some events at a range that’s about a half mile from my house. I almost qualified twice, so I really want to get back and do it.

  • Robb needs something for his birthday

    And no, it’s not pants.

  • Now I remember why I stopped doing this

    That new server I’m building?

    Won’t boot. No POST, no beeps (and I had to drive all around town looking for a PC Speaker since for some reason Gigabyte doesn’t include an on-board speaker. WTF?)

    There are rumblings on the intertubes that even though Gigabyte says the CPU I bought is compatible with this motherboard, it’s only compatible after you do a firmware update.

    Which you can’t do unless you have a compatible CPU.

    So I guess I’m going to see if Amazon will take this board back.

  • It’s like something from a crime drama

    CSI:Rural TN.

    Yesterday, the big story around here was that 4 people died in a house fire. It was a couple in their 70s and their two grandchildren. In one of the stories I read, the sheriff said that it was difficult getting to one of the children’s bodies because he was special needs. They reported that the had recovered all the remains.

    Until today.

    Now, the TBI and local law enforcement are saying they haven’t found the children and have issued a missing persons alert. The ATF is involved, presumably because the TBI found evidence of arson. Or they’re trying to justify their existence. Hard to tell.

    Note in the first article that one of the family dogs was running down the driveway on fire when the firetrucks got there. That says accelerant to me, but I’m just a layperson who liked to set fire to things as a child.

    Conspicuously absent from the coverage is any mention of the children’s parents, or why the kids had been living with their grandparents for the last five years.

  • Brown Truck of Happiness!

    I’ve gotten a couple of delivery notifications today. I think all my stuff is in for the new media server.

    Based on the comments to the last post, I’m guessing there is a desire for a write-up on how I actually put the thing together?

  • It’s been 10 years since I built my last computer

    And I’m about to do it again.

    I bought my last one about four and a half years ago for less than I could’ve built one. Quad core, lots of memory, dual head PCIx video card…$400-ish.

    Well, that one just died in less than spectacular fashion. Again. The drive I got two months ago is having the same symptoms the original drive did, meaning that while the BIOS can detect it, the controller can’t seem to see it. It’s weird, and I don’t really have time to troubleshoot it. This is the fourth hardware failure on this box this year (very glad I moved the blog from home-hosted to HostGator), so time to just get a new one.

    After off-loading my sites to HostGator, the only thing this box did was act as a media server. I have been using XBMC since it was on the original XBOX. The PC is connected to a Pioneer VSX-1020-K using a DVI cable for video and an optical cable for sound. The receiver is hooked up to a Samsung HDTV which basically acts like a big hairy monitor*. I freaking love that receiver.

    So we have this nice TV, nice receiver, and a nice entertainment center, and next to all that is a mini tower that looks out of place. Well, now I’m going to fix that. But I need your help.

    See, it’s been so long since I’ve built a computer that I may be missing something. I need gamers and other performance-minded folks to look at this and say, “Hey, wiz? That’s not gonna work and here’s why…” I’ve already had a guy at work tell me I didn’t need to buy a CPU cooler since the retail box I was getting comes with one.

    So here goes…
    (more…)

  • It’s always the gun’s fault

    What do you do when your 17 year old son is killed during a drug deal in your own home?

    Blame the gun.

    By all accounts, the “good kid” was the dealer in that case.

    Also note the journalistic malpractice committed here. They mention a man who was killed in an attempted robbery on Saturday, but not that his family participated in this–or were even aware of it.

  • KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

    So last night my wife comes in from “last call” with the dog and says that there’s a huge spider outside.

    She was right. Effer was HUGE.

    Click to embiggen. If you dare.

    That’s a 12″ square paver, for scale.

    I got brave and went close enough to take this one:

    Click to embiggen

    That abdomen is about the size of an acorn. When I got in close, I saw several tiny spiders crawling under the big one (baby spiders hitching a ride on momma?). I blew on it, trying to see if it was dead.

    It jumped, and so did I. I stepped on it and then came inside to change pants. Not sure my Glock would have been effective on that beast.

    So, what kind of spider was that? Should I be concerned about all the little ones? My son in just about to start crawling….

  • Anti-gun Fundamentalists

    Last week I mentioned that I listen to audio books when I walk the dog or run. I finished up Purple Cow and moved on to Seth Godin’s most famous work, Tribes.

    I’m about three quarters of the way through it, but the other day I heard him say this:

    A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to their faith before they explore it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first and then considers whether or not they want to accept the ramifications.

    Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

    Does that not sound exactly like Joan Peterson, the CSGV, and ubu52? Or any other virulently anti-gun person you’ve ever met?

    Joe talks about their inability to distinguish between truth and falsity. Weerd talks about how he was an anti until he came across facts that didn’t back up his beliefs.

    He changed his beliefs to match reality, not reality to match his beliefs. He was not an anti-gun fundamentalist, and once he examined the facts he became an advocate for the opposite side!

    Why? Because we hold the only position that a rational mind can hold: an inanimate object cannot be evil. Someone who would commit murder won’t be deterred by the lesser crime of gun possession. There is such a thing as righteous violence.

    You can’t talk with those people. You can’t reason with them, because they happily discard facts that don’t support their narrative. Like the guy said to Joe, “I don’t believe your facts.”

    The only reason to engage them at all is not to convince them, but to convince other people that facts are greater than emotion. Linoge and Miguel regularly engage these folks on Twitter for exactly that reason.