Got the candy ready and some spooky music playing on the home theater receiver.
And the living room scanner is running on the local PD frequencies so I'll know if anything hinky is going on in the area.
We don't get a lot of visitors. Usually one big bag from Costco is more than enough.
And the neighbors across the street are having a party tonight, so I expect we'll have some extra visitors this years.
Have a safe one!
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
What In The HELL Happened To "WIRED" Magazine?
I've been reading WIRED (I refuse to link to them, that's how pissed I am) since about 1995, a couple of years after it first started up.
It used to be a cutting edge-of-technology magazine for telecommunications, computers, and the computer/hacker culture.
They broke stories, started trends, and influenced the hacker culture to some extent, and had excellent articles.
Over the years, I noted a left-leaning drift, and within the last 12~18 months they went all East Coast/Beltway/Metrosexual/Global Warming/bullshit/Democratic Party/Renewable Energy/Obama-is-god bat-shit crazy.
Long gone are articles and interviews with the movers and shakers of the PC and Technology Industries.
No more "Japanese Schoolgirl Watch" column, either.
The newest issue came the other day, and who's on the cover as a "guest editor"?
Serena Williams, the freaking tennis player!
I have no problem with Ms. Williams as an athlete, as she's proven her prowess repeatedly. But as a guest editor of a TECH magazine?
Fuhgeddaboutit.....
And then there's the headline, in red print, on the cover....
"Let's Change The Future.......Race, Gender, and Equality in the Digital Age"
What a crock of CRAP!
With this issue, WIRED has finally crossed the line from being an interesting tech magazine, to being just another East Coast, Big City "Lifestyle" rag, as if there aren't enough of those out there already.
I didn't look inside the "magazine", even for curiosity value. It went right in the dumpster, and so will all the others I get until my subscription expires.
I'm just glad it comes in a plastic wrapper so I don't have to soil my hands with it......
It used to be a cutting edge-of-technology magazine for telecommunications, computers, and the computer/hacker culture.
They broke stories, started trends, and influenced the hacker culture to some extent, and had excellent articles.
Over the years, I noted a left-leaning drift, and within the last 12~18 months they went all East Coast/Beltway/Metrosexual/Global Warming/bullshit/Democratic Party/Renewable Energy/Obama-is-god bat-shit crazy.
Long gone are articles and interviews with the movers and shakers of the PC and Technology Industries.
No more "Japanese Schoolgirl Watch" column, either.
The newest issue came the other day, and who's on the cover as a "guest editor"?
Serena Williams, the freaking tennis player!
I have no problem with Ms. Williams as an athlete, as she's proven her prowess repeatedly. But as a guest editor of a TECH magazine?
Fuhgeddaboutit.....
And then there's the headline, in red print, on the cover....
"Let's Change The Future.......Race, Gender, and Equality in the Digital Age"
What a crock of CRAP!
With this issue, WIRED has finally crossed the line from being an interesting tech magazine, to being just another East Coast, Big City "Lifestyle" rag, as if there aren't enough of those out there already.
I didn't look inside the "magazine", even for curiosity value. It went right in the dumpster, and so will all the others I get until my subscription expires.
I'm just glad it comes in a plastic wrapper so I don't have to soil my hands with it......
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
Friday, October 23, 2015
TGIF....maybe....
Took care of getting a whole bunch of hams checked out on the ham gear on the Iowa Wednesday, and did a bunch of housework yesterday.
Today I'm (finally!) finishing up the wiring on the little Harbor Freight trailer I built a few years ago so I can sell it, and be rid of it.
I was going to mount my 8' mini-tower on it so it would be easier to move the mini-tower to Field Day and other events, but when I got the whole shebang finished (except for the wiring) I found out it wasn't quite stable enough for me to comfortably pull behind the Jeep.
And I've also got a pair of Dahlquist DQM-9 speakers in the garage that I'm going to pull out and sell. I got them from a friend of mine, BUT (there's always a but...) the wife say's they're "too big" for the living room, even though they're furniture quality cabinets, and look really nice. They also just had the foam surrounds replaced, so they should be good for many more years.
And The Great eBay Clearance is still going on, although I missed selling things for a couple of weeks due to the Supra event I went to. I pride myself on shipping as quickly as I can, and I lost the two weekends on each end of the event to list/sell/ship things.
And a good friend of mine recently became a gun owner (Glock 17 and Remington 870), so I'll be getting in some range time with him to help him learn about The Modern Technique of the Pistol.
And......well, that's about it. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Today I'm (finally!) finishing up the wiring on the little Harbor Freight trailer I built a few years ago so I can sell it, and be rid of it.
I was going to mount my 8' mini-tower on it so it would be easier to move the mini-tower to Field Day and other events, but when I got the whole shebang finished (except for the wiring) I found out it wasn't quite stable enough for me to comfortably pull behind the Jeep.
And I've also got a pair of Dahlquist DQM-9 speakers in the garage that I'm going to pull out and sell. I got them from a friend of mine, BUT (there's always a but...) the wife say's they're "too big" for the living room, even though they're furniture quality cabinets, and look really nice. They also just had the foam surrounds replaced, so they should be good for many more years.
And The Great eBay Clearance is still going on, although I missed selling things for a couple of weeks due to the Supra event I went to. I pride myself on shipping as quickly as I can, and I lost the two weekends on each end of the event to list/sell/ship things.
And a good friend of mine recently became a gun owner (Glock 17 and Remington 870), so I'll be getting in some range time with him to help him learn about The Modern Technique of the Pistol.
And......well, that's about it. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Ballistic Gel Ammo Test by Lucky Gunner
Very interesting test by the folks at Lucky Gunner.
And they have a nice table at the end of the test giving the results.
Thanks to Anthony at Lucky Gunner for sending this to me!
Sunday, October 18, 2015
The Mechanical Universe
Just on a lark this evening, I punched in the name of one of my favorite science programs into my favorite search engine, and came up with a stupendous (for me, anyway...) find.
The entire series is available for free streaming directly from Annenberg Learner.
It's also available on YouTube, but my first search came up with the episodes all scrambled up.
ANYWHO........if you were ever curious about Physics, this is an excellent series to watch, and I highly recommend all 52, half-hour, episodes.
The entire series is available for free streaming directly from Annenberg Learner.
It's also available on YouTube, but my first search came up with the episodes all scrambled up.
ANYWHO........if you were ever curious about Physics, this is an excellent series to watch, and I highly recommend all 52, half-hour, episodes.
Saturday, October 17, 2015
JOTA on the Iowa
Totally forget to mention we had the Scouts aboard today for JOTA.
It went much smoother this year than in years passed, although the count was down.
Last year we had over 160 Scouts when we expected about 100, and this year we had about 65 when we were expecting 60.
Basically, we have three or four stations set up out on the fantail, and give the Scouts their "Air Check" portion of what they have to do to earn their Radio Merit Badge.
Some of the "kids" (from 10 to 17 today) are natural at it, and very comfortable talking on the radio, while others barely speak two or three words each time they transmit.
And this year, the second group had mostly done their "On Air" portion (they had an active Ham station at the campsite), so out of the second group of 30 or so, only 8 needed to use the radio.
And then it was over!
We'd run everybody through by 1430, when we had expected to go to 1500 or beyond, and the afternoon session was only the 8 Scouts, so we were done early, and packed up by 1500.
I think one of the reasons this went so fast was the Scouts were on a very strict schedule. The last couple of years they marched from the campsite to the Iowa, and this year they had a bus, with a strict cut-off time. Everybody HAD to be back on the bus by 1500 to get them back to the campsite, -OR- the cost of the charter bus went up significantly.
As usual, the Iowa staff (besides the radio guys) was magnificent in their support of the event, having pop-ups, tables, and chairs out on the deck for us to set up this morning, and it's always a pleasure working with them.
It went much smoother this year than in years passed, although the count was down.
Last year we had over 160 Scouts when we expected about 100, and this year we had about 65 when we were expecting 60.
Basically, we have three or four stations set up out on the fantail, and give the Scouts their "Air Check" portion of what they have to do to earn their Radio Merit Badge.
Some of the "kids" (from 10 to 17 today) are natural at it, and very comfortable talking on the radio, while others barely speak two or three words each time they transmit.
And this year, the second group had mostly done their "On Air" portion (they had an active Ham station at the campsite), so out of the second group of 30 or so, only 8 needed to use the radio.
And then it was over!
We'd run everybody through by 1430, when we had expected to go to 1500 or beyond, and the afternoon session was only the 8 Scouts, so we were done early, and packed up by 1500.
I think one of the reasons this went so fast was the Scouts were on a very strict schedule. The last couple of years they marched from the campsite to the Iowa, and this year they had a bus, with a strict cut-off time. Everybody HAD to be back on the bus by 1500 to get them back to the campsite, -OR- the cost of the charter bus went up significantly.
As usual, the Iowa staff (besides the radio guys) was magnificent in their support of the event, having pop-ups, tables, and chairs out on the deck for us to set up this morning, and it's always a pleasure working with them.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
"Supras in Vegas 2015" Pictures
Here's the better pix from the show.
I wasn't watching some of the settings on my camera, and wound up with some that are WAY overexposed.
I'll see if I can fix them with The GIMP, as they're nicely composed shots of the engine compartments of some of the heavy hitters.
And as usual, Photobucket transposed the order I uploaded them in, so the first is last, and vice versa.
Enjoy!
I wasn't watching some of the settings on my camera, and wound up with some that are WAY overexposed.
I'll see if I can fix them with The GIMP, as they're nicely composed shots of the engine compartments of some of the heavy hitters.
And as usual, Photobucket transposed the order I uploaded them in, so the first is last, and vice versa.
Enjoy!
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