Guns, Cars, and Tech

Author: wizardpc

  • QOTD: Fanboy Edition

    In an IRC room where fellow geeks hang out:

    11:12 <@FamilyBusinessITGuy> our check scaner at the bank requires ie9
    11:15 <@HardCoreLinuxGuy> I refuse to use IE, most of the time the shit will work if you fake the useragent string.
    11:17 <@FamilyBusinessITGuy> HardCoreLinuxGuy: when its what puts your check into the bank you grow to love it
    11:18 <@HardCoreLinuxGuy> I’d think about a different bank then.
    11:18 <@FamilyBusinessITGuy> yes we should totally move 6.7 million dollars in funds because we dont like internet explorer

    I LOL’d

  • Maybe WEERD can explain this to me

    Because apparently I’m not smart enough to understand this. A marine researcher is clearly needed.

    So some scientists in Australia discovered that a shark native to the tropics has mated with a shark that is very similar (both are called black tip sharks) and produced a hybrid. That I get.

    What I don’t understand is this:

    The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.
    It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

    Let me see if I follow: A shark that can only survive in warm waters mates with a shark that lives in cool waters due to rising temperatures?

    And this counts as a valid scientific hypothesis because….why exactly?

  • I’m having a hard time following the logic here

    First off, let’s remember that the reason the economy is in the crapper is because people who shouldn’t have gotten loans to buy houses got loans to buy houses, cars, jacuzzi tubs, and jetskis and ridiculously low interest rates based on nothing more than “I want it and deserve it because I breathe air!” When those people didn’t repay the loans, it started a cascade of trickle up poverty. I was writing mortgage underwriting software at the time, so I had a front row seat to the entire thing.

    I went to Starbucks over the weekend and saw this new campaign they’re having: Create Jobs for USA

    The display they had asks for donations to help create jobs. I’m pretty sure the best way for me, as a consumer, to create jobs is to buy products or services that I find useful. Donating money just so that someone can have a job seems like busywork. Or government.

    Me, being me, asked the manager “So how many positions are you hiring for?”

    “Oh, at this store? None.”

    Wait, what?

    So I decide to look a bit further into this, and it turns out that the donations don’t go to help people get jobs. The donations go to banks, who then lend out the money to small businesses that are on the verge of failure. Plus they cart out the “created or saved” mantra as a success metric.

    So here’s how it works: You donate $5 to the program. That program then gives the money to a bank as a grant. That bank then loans the money out, collecting interest and fees. It’s a great gig for the bank, because there is ABSOLUTELY NO RISK TO THEM. Anything they charge for interest or fees (closing costs, application fees, etc) is pure profit. The borrower, on the other hand, is more screwed now than he was before. He was already struggling, and now he has another bill to pay and another creditor breathing down his neck.

    I don’t begrudge the banks for trying to turn a profit. More power to them, but debt is not a blessing, and charity shouldn’t be a profit center unless you’re up front about it. I once gave a truck to a guy I worked with because he heard I was trying to get rid of it and he told me he wanted a project that he and his sons could work on. He was in his mid 20’s and his boys were at that age where they were getting curious about mechanical things. For me, this was win-win: I get rid of the truck, he gets some father-son time. A few days later, his “brother in law” came to pick it up.

    I found out a year or so later that he had immediately put the truck on craigslist after I agreed to give it to him. The guy that came to pick up the truck was the guy he sold it to.

    I was completely willing to give up the truck for free to a good cause, but I was furious when I found out what really happened. I felt cheated and taken advantage of.

    This program is a lot like that.

  • I know who to blame!

    Over the weekend, a 24 year old vet with PTSD and a restraining order (read: Prohibited Person) shot a bunch of people at a party and then took off to Mt Ranier National Park. When he ran a snow chain checkpoint, Rangers followed him. He killed one of them before evading the other.

    Clearly, this is the NRA’s fault:

    The shooting renewed debate about a federal law that made it legal for people to take loaded weapons into national parks. The 2010 law made possession of firearms subject to state gun laws.

    Bill Wade, the outgoing chair of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, said Congress should be regretting its decision.

    “The many congressmen and senators that voted for the legislation that allowed loaded weapons to be brought into the parks ought to be feeling pretty bad right now,” Wade said.

    Wade called Sunday’s fatal shooting a tragedy that could have been prevented. He hopes Congress will reconsider the law that took effect in early 2010, but doubts that will happen in today’s political climate.

    Calls and emails to the National Rifle Association requesting comment were not immediately returned on Monday.

    The NRA said media fears of gun violence in parks were unlikely to be realized, the NRA wrote in a statement about the law after it went into effect. “The new law affects firearms possession, not use,” it said.

    The group pushed for the law saying people have a right to defend themselves against park animals and other people.

    The shooter died from exposure.

  • Your biased headline of the day

    Photo ID, anti-immigration measures among new laws

    Anti-immigration, eh? That’s funny, because state’s aren’t allowed to enforce immigration laws, nor are they allowed to write their own.

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennesseans will be required to have photo identification in order to vote and state employers will have to make sure their employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. under new laws that take effect January 1.

    Oh. You meant “measures to curb illegal immigration,” not “anti-immigration measures.” If they immigrate legally, there will be no problem.

  • Talk to me about rechargeable batteries

    I had an epiphany yesterday while assembling lilwizard’s baby swing. We are going to go through a TON of batteries.

    Now, rather than heading to Target and buying whatever Energizer Rechargeables they might have in stock, I’d like to tap the hive mind and see what you guys can come up with. I know that there are plenty of flashlight geeks out there who school me on what to look for and what to avoid. Tenergy seems to be fairly popular and has high Amazon ratings. What about chargers? Low self drain? We’ll probably need some in every size, including 9v and CR123 (for me, not for lilwizard).

    So much to learn! HALP!

  • Coming soon…

    image

  • I’ve seen that movie

    Isn’t this how the Terminator movies all start off?

  • Movies!

    Bad news: Strep throat

    Good news: 2 days of watching movies! Some short reviews

    Colombiana: like any other film by Luc Besson. Think “The Professional” and “La Femme Nikita” with a latin flair.

    Rise of the Planet of the Apes: pretty good. CGI was done very well and there was actually a pretty good storyline.

    Planet of the Apes: The 1968 Charlton Heston version. I decided to finally watch it to maybe fill in some gaps in the prequel. Knowing how the movie ends was not helpful.

    Scream 4: When will Sidney Prescott buy a freaking gun? Otherwise it was as good as a Scream movie can be. I like the franchise mostly because it makes fun of itself while scaring the crap out of you. Also its not torture porn.

  • Christmas Bounty

    Alternate title: Why Amazon Wish Lists have made Christmas so much better.*

    I didn’t get anything that made me say “Why the heck would you think I might use that?” Here are the highlights:

    Belkin F8Z492-P Bluetooth Music Receiver: I haven’t listened to the radio in months…probably nearly a year. I download podcasts to my Nexus One and then plug in to auxiliary jack and listen to them on my commute. I wanted this little guy to help me with a little alternator whine problem I’ve been having and generally make my dashboard appearance less cluttered (There are currently cables for my phone’s power and the 1/8″ audio coming out of the top of my AC vents). My only disappointment with this device is entirely in the marketing photos. All the photos show a single wire coming off the device while it’s in operation, leading me to believe it is powered by a rechargeable battery. It is not. You have to have an external power supply, which I’m going to make. Stay tuned 😀

    Fenix E21 Flashlight: This thing is awesome. I’ve never had a “tactical flashlight” that wasn’t attached to a weapon, so I didn’t know what I was missing. I got the AA model since, well, everything else I have uses AAs. That might have been a mistake since the 2AA model is significantly longer than the more expensive CR123A model. It’s brighter than my M6 that lives on my Glock. I used it last night and this morning while walking Casey and it is really, really bright.

    The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated): I talked about the audio version a couple of weeks ago and how I needed to get the book for reference. Really glad I got this.

    Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work: Someone, I can’t remember who, recommended this book to me recently. My life is almost entirely digital and I have this yearning to work with my hands. It’s almost a spiritual need for me but I haven’t really done much.

    Atlas Shrugged: Part One [Blu-ray]: My liberal college professor aunt bought me this. I didn’t love the movie, but I threw it on my wish list anyway for the special features and to maybe get them to finish out the series.

    The Expendables (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy): I don’t care who you are, this movie was fun.

    So how’d you guys make out?

    *[Yes, I know Christmas is about celebrating Christ’s birth and spending time with family, but this isn’t a blog about that. As a teenager, I got really turned off by people “sneaking” proselytizing into my life and it probably delayed my acceptance of Him by a decade. If I’m going to blog about my faith here, it’ll probably be on Easter since that’s a much bigger deal to me.]