Guns, Cars, and Tech

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  • Recall box from Remington is on its way

    Eight weeks after I submitted my brand-new Remington 700 for the trigger recall, I got confirmation that the box I’m supposed to use to ship my rifle back to them is on it’s way to me.

    Should be here by Tuesday.

    I’ve been meaning to post about the recall but been kinda busy.

    I hope that commenter bigcatdaddy feels somewhat vindicated after his experience, but being told by Remington Customer Service that the glue was totally working as designed only to have them recall that exact thing later has got to be really frustrating.

  • Gun Porn: AR SBR

    mmmm sbr
    mmmm sbr

    Magpul CTR Stock
    Magpul MOE Grip
    Magpul MOE RVG
    Aimpoint CompM2 (?)
    LaRue M68 CCO mount (Discontinued?)
    YHM Phantom 5.56 Flash Suppressor
    I can’t readily ID the rails but I assume they’re free floated

  • yay!

    So… my dad just ordered something for me from a certain holster maker for my birthday.

    Now to patiently wait for August to arrive.  Apparently these things take time and Dennis is a busy guy.

  • Conversation with an Apple Fanboy

    Yesterday there was some conference or something. Guy that sits next to me spent most of the morning reading Engadget and watching some presentation by that guy that’s not Steve Jobs.

    Him: OMG! The new versions of iOS and OSX will allow you to answer phone calls on your computer!!!

    Me: Oh, like Google Voice?

    Him, somewhat indignantly/sarcastically: You mean if I call your cell phone, your computer will ring?

    Me: Yes.

    Look, I’m sure that iProducts are nice and all, it’s just that Apple doesn’t innovate fast enough for me.

  • Protip: Web Developer Edition

    If you’re going to limit your password field to 12 characters on your login page, you should probably also limit your password field to 12 characters on your registration page.

    Related: As a general rule, if you’re going to have criteria for passwords, it’s probably best to let the user know that.

    That way you don’t have someone who uses a password manager–like me–input a random 16 character password during registration, only to immediately have to use the “reset my password” feature because I can only put 12 of my 16 characters in the box.

  • A lot has happened

    I went almost a month between my last two posts. Hopefully that won’t happen again (although I’m two sentences in to this and have already had to stop a half dozen times to deal with either the tactical dog or lilwizard, or both).

    Mostly I’ve been chasing down a problem at work that had a June 1st deadline for resolution or it’ll cost us several million dollars. I love you guys, but you don’t buy my groceries.

    I sold the WRX and bought this:

    IMG_4255

    For those of you keeping score at home, that’s my third Cherokee, not counting the three my dad had when I was growing up. I pretty much started looking for one again about the time the guy who bought my last one rounded to corner out of sight. At the time, I needed the extra money more than I needed a third vehicle, especially since my daily driver was a 4×4 Excursion.

    I’d been hardcore looking for one for about 8 months. I really wanted one withe the NP242 (Selec-Trac) transfer case, but about six months in to my search I had seen exactly one for sale within a hundred miles of here, and it sold before I could get to the guy and buy it. It was a 92 XJ Wagoneer, for those who know what that is. So I resigned myself to buying one with the NP231 and doing a swap.

    Well I finally got tired of being treated like a 17 year old while driving the WRX so I put it up on craigslist. Basically, within 90 seconds I had two soccer moms SCREAMING at me for going too fast–first in a parking lot where I was backing out of a parking spot and then again while sitting at a stoplight not moving at all. So I started remembering all the times where the crossing guard on my way to work would wave for me to slow down when I was 30 ft from the guy in front of me and all the times I’d been pushed into oncoming traffic by merging minivans who either didn’t see me or didn’t care.

    It sold in about a week.

    On Sunday a couple came and looked at it. Sunday night they let me know they’d be coming by Monday evening to pay me and pick it up. Monday morning on my way to work I said to myself, “Self, if you see that Cherokee you’ve been admiring for the last year today, and you can turn around and follow the guy to his office, you should see if he’ll sell it to you.”

    So that happened.

    The previous owner had done just about everything I would have wanted to do to any XJ that I picked up, and hadn’t done any mods that I would not have done. The only thing wrong with it was a bad driver window regulator and some flaky wiring (ON A JEEP? YOU’RE KIDDING!) in the rear hatch, both of which I fixed on the first weekend. It does have the 231 so I want to do a swap but I need to wait until I get another vehicle to do that. See, doing that with 3″ of lift may cost a mere $200 for just the transfer case, or it may cost upwards of $2000 for the case, axle shims, and a new driveshaft with a slip yoke eliminator. You don’t know which it’ll be until you replace the transfer case and then get it on the interstate. If there are vibrations, you have to send off the output shaft to get it machined. So that’s going to wait a little bit.

    Next week I’m picking up these bumpers locally.

    Also, I’ve had it for a couple of weeks now and even though I really liked the way the rims and tires looked on it, I may replace them with Cragar Soft D‘s and some BridgeStone Dueller’s. We’ll see.

  • That moment when you know things might go sideways

    Had one of those “fun” experiences last night.

    We had a buddy of mine over last night for some bad movies and dinner.  This particular friend has never bothered to get a driver’s license, which means that I picked him up and dropped him off at his place.

    He lives in a lower income neighborhood.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt worried about being in that neighborhood, but it’s also not exactly the best part of town.  His house is near the end of a dead end street in a fairly quiet sub-division.  While there are street lights, they’re few and far in between.

    I’m driving him home sometime between 10:30 and 11pm.  As we were driving down his street, we pass a guy (I’ll refer to him as idiot #1) walking down the middle of the street with a big wheel slung over his back.  He doesn’t really seem to pay much attention to the fact that there’s a car coming up behind him, and starts twirling the big wheel around and generally acting like a goofball as we pass him.  I conclude that it’s probably some idiot teenager that’s decided to ride his kid sister’s (it was pink) big wheel down the hill and is walking back up for another go.

    As we’re driving up the hill, we pass another guy about the same age (idiot #2) standing in middle of the oncoming lane of the road.  Doesn’t seem to really give a shit whether I’m there or not, and is looking at idiot #1.  Something in the back of my head tells me to keep an eye on this one.

    About half a block or so later, I pull over in front of my buddy’s house and let him out.  All the time watching the rear view mirror to keep an eye on the two idiots.  As my buddy gets out and heads for the house, idiot #1 meets idiot #2, and they start walking down the middle of the street in our direction.

    I try to keep them in site as I turn the car around while also keeping an eye on my buddy entering his house.  As I finish turning the car around, I notice that idiot #2 has slung his backpack around and is reaching into it for something.  And this is where all sorts of warning bells start screaming in my head.

    Quick assessment time.  There are kids playing in the street about half a block behind me (yes, it’s late for that, but it’s the Friday of Memorial Day weekend), my buddy has opened the door to his place and is walking in, idiot #1 is still acting like a goof ball, and idiot #2 has his hand in his backpack and a very serious expression on his face.  The street in front of me is clear and straight, and I’m in a big ass Cadillac with damn near 300HP under the hood.

    The thing running through my mind at the time “looks like I may have to run over someone tonight.”

    I slowly drive by the two idiots, and I swear idiot #2 and I were staring at each other.

    They kept walking and I kept driving.  Never did see what idiot #2 had in his bag.  Oh… and I called my buddy up to tell him to be on alert.

    Everyone stay safe out there, and keep your eyes peeled.

  • Dumb criminal of the day

    We often see failures in the victim selection process, but this one really takes the cake.

    You see, our intrepid young entrepreneur decided to get some capital for his new street corner pharmacy by using an online ad to lure unsuspecting citizens into a robbery.

    Now normally this would be a pretty good business plan. Every week I see stories where someone shows up with $3,000 cash to buy a two year old SUV with 14,000 miles on it, only to be robbed of the money when they get there. Likewise, smartphones are stolen on a fairly regular basis when the seller hands the phone to the prospective buyer while the buyer is sitting in his car with the engine running and the car in gear.

    This genius decided to rob people selling…guns:

    A teenager was arrested Wednesday night in connection to two gun-sales related robberies this week.

    Jeffery Duncan III, 18, allegedly committed both robberies in the 1300 block of Quail Valley Road, not far from the Elm Hill Marina.

    The victims told police they posted handguns for sale online and were contacted by a potential buyer to meet at specific addresses on the road.

    Police said the first robbery occurred Sunday afternoon when the victim arrived at the predetermined location where Duncan allegedly robbed him of two firearms at gunpoint.

    After the first one went well, he decided that he had a viable business opportunity here. The second one didn’t go so well:

    The second robbery occurred Monday afternoon when the victim fired one shot in self-defense and Duncan reportedly returned fire.

    The victim was not struck. Duncan drove himself to a nearby hospital with a gunshot wound, was treated and released.

    Authorities stated Duncan admitted to partaking in both robberies.

    I mean, really. Out of all the people to rob, you chose people you know, for a fact, are armed? I get that there are some people who might just have the one handgun, or don’t have carry permits, but seriously?

    One of the stolen guns was recovered inside his Quail Valley Road residence.

    I give up.

  • TeeHee

    Looks like Linoge is at it again with the funny T-shirts.  Seems to be leveled at about my level of blogging.

  • Bidet shoot news

    I’ve just sent an email out to folks that have shown interest in coming to the shoot.  If you want to come and haven’t seen anything in your mailbox by this afternoon, check your spam filter and then let me know.