Month: April 2010

New MacBook Pros Released

Well in one fell swoop my laptop went from top of the line super computer to… wait a minute my laptop was never the top of the line model. Anyways Apple has released new models of their MacBook Pro series of laptops. The main changes are new processors (Intel i5 and i7), new graphics cards (nVidia GeForce with better power management), and tout better battery life.

Overall it doesn’t look like any external changes were made (obviously no easily swappable battery because Steve Jobs hates seams). Hopefully they get the hard drive performance corrected in the new models (that’s the only but rather annoying issue I’ve had with mine).

I continue this love hate relationship with Apple. Seriously I really like their computers and the old iPod hasn’t failed me yet. It’s just everything else they make seems to be an adventure into locking people into their platform as tightly as possible while giving both users and developers roughly the same freedom as a dictatorship.

Update 2010-04-13 10:26: I missed a rather major feature that has been thrown in. On the 15″ MacBook Pros you now have the option of getting a higher resolution screen (1680×1050 instead of 1440×900). I’m always looking for more screen real estate (I seriously never close any application I have running which means I like lots of RAM and lots of screen space). It’s not worth the cost of getting a new laptop for me but it’s worth the extra $100.00 if you’re buying a new laptop.

Remember These People Make Regulations

I’m always harping on government interference in our every day lives. Lately I’ve been looking at peoples’ desire to get the government further involved in Internet regulations. Well I’ve already shown the United States government’s incompetence in selecting people to work on Internet regulations when they put Mr. Series of Tubes, Ted Stevens, in charge. Well the latest episode of No Agenda shows us that Britain isn’t any more competent at finding people to work on Internet regulations:

The Right Honourable Stephen Timms is the UK’s “Minister for Digital Britain.” He’s the guy behind the Digital Economy Bill, which makes the US DMCA look good by comparison. Seriously, this is some terrible, terrible lawmaking.

OK got that? Here’s his disqualifications:

Here’s what appears to be a letter the DigiMini sent to another MP, explaining why the Digital Economy Bill needs to go forward. It reads, in part, “Copyright owners are currently able to go on-line (sic), look for material to which they hold the copyright and identify unauthorised sources for that material. They can then seek to download a copy of that material and in so doing capture information about the source including the Intellectual Property (IP) address…”

Yup that’s right. Mr. Minister for Digital Britain himself believes IP in the term IP address stands for intelectual property not Internet protocol (which is actually is). Remember these are the kinds of people making decisions in government. Think about that for a good long time when you decide the government should get involved in regulating anything.

Reinforcements Have Arrived

A while ago Montana passed this country’s first Firearms Freedom Act. So under Montana law any gun produced in and made exclusively for sale and use in Montana are exempt from federal laws. Well the ATF decided to have none of that and brought legal repercussions against the state. Well Says Uncle let us know that reinforcements have arrived in the form of Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota. All three states, who also have firearms freedom acts of their own, filed friends of the count briefs on the side of Montana.

Although I wouldn’t put money on Montana winning (after all states have no sovereignty anymore) I would absolutely love it if they did. The federal government has been using the interstate commerce clause to strip the states of rights for a long while now. It’s about time the states stood up and said if goods and produced and sold within their borders it’s not interstate commerce and the federal government should keep their noses out of it.

Condolences to Poland

Although it’s probably old news to everybody here I didn’t get a chance to blog this over the weekend so alas I’m offering my condolences to the people of Poland. A good chunk of their government was recently wiped out in a plane crash on April 10th. From the article:

As well as the president and his wife, Maria, a number of senior officials were on the passenger list.

They included the army chief of staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.

I also noticed that this event has sparked a look into Poland’s travel policy for government officials. One of the first questions I had about this crash was why so many high ranking government officials were on the same flight at the same time. Apparently Poland has no policy preventing that which I hope they change soon.

Castle Doctrine Bill in Wisconsin

I just saw this come over the NRA-ILA site this morning. A bill has been presented in Wisconsin that would enact castle doctrine.

Currently the bill, AB 193, is sitting in the Assembly Rules Committee. I know little about Wisconsin politics but those of you living there may want to find out who’s on that committee and urge them to vote yes on this bill so it can get out to a vote by the state representatives.

In case you’re new to the self defense terminology castle doctrine means you are able to defend your home from invaders without fear of legal repercussions. In states without castle doctrine (such as Wisconsin and Minnesota) if a criminal breaks into your home and you injure him (in other words you defended your home) the invader can take legal action against you (although it’s not a guarantee that the invader will win it’s still legal headaches for the home owner regardless).

On iPhone OS 4.0

I’m sure almost everybody here has heard that Apple unveiled iPhone OS 4 yesterday. If you didn’t I’m surprised being it was “the news.” Anyways I’m here to give my initial and patented cynical overview of it.

All in all Apple claims to have added seven new major features. In reality I only give a shit about two of them. The first finally corrects one of my biggest gripes with the iPhone, lack of multi-tasking. Well it sort of fixes it. iPhone OS 4.0 finally introduced multi-tasking for third party applications. Let me rephrase it introduces a rudimentary form of multi-tasking for certain third party applications. Instead of doing like Palm and Google with their respective operating systems Apple has going the route of ancient Palm OS. Ancient Palm OS allowed some things to run in the background. They called it threading. The main two items that could be run in the background were open network connections and sound. This was accomplished by calling an operating system provided service. And that’s exactly what iPhone OS 4.0 does. It introduces seven services for running background tasks. My problem is the services appear to be very specific instead of generalized.

Like Palm OS of yesteryear the iPhone has a service for sound. It also provides a background service for location (GPS), a mechanism for applications to provide notifications when they’re not running, and a VoIP services (there are a few others but they’re mostly meaningless to me). There is no generic networking background service though. This means Skype can run in the background so you can take calls. But if you write an IRC client it will not be able to run in the background meaning you’ll get disconnected when you change to another applications (unless one of the mentioned services can be shoehorned into a generic networking services). That severely limits the application possibilities again. Apple proves yet again that they can offer a feature available in other operating systems for almost a decade while spinning it as something unique, new, and innovative. I’m not impressed but it’s certainly better than what they’ve had in the past (nothing).

The final note about multi-tasking is if you have an iPhone previous to the 3GS you won’t get it. Sorry Apple has decided previous models of the iPhone don’t have the required hardware even though jailbreakers have been multi-tasking on every iPhone model that has ever existed. It’s nice to know you’re loved right? Nothing makes me happier than companies denying features based entirely on the fact that they want you to buy a new product.

Let’s talk the other feature I took notice of, iAd. Apple has pretty much included adware directly into the OS (much to the bane of many like myself who avoid getting a system infected with adware). This is a feature that can be included in applications and allows easy advertisements. Apple controls the actual adds so the developer simply collects a paycheck from it (they get 60% while Apple keeps 40%). All in all I’m not as hysterical as many are about this feature. Currently many free applications already have advertisements in them so not much is changing. My main issue is since it’s easy to implement advertisements in an application more and more developers will be doing it (I had advertisements in my applications, if you want to make money just sell the damned thing). But my biggest fear is advertisements will start being included in pay applications (to offset the “subsidized price” of $1.99 of course). Not that big of an issue overall as you can just avoid applications with advertising in them.

The real problem with iAd in my opinion is how it makes the product feel cheapened. Let’s face it nobody likes adware getting onto their computer (as evident by applications like Adaware existing who’s sole purpose is to remove adware). So knowing an advertisement service exists inside of the operating system itself just makes the entire system feel chintzy. It’s a psychological thing but alas it’s what it is.

Overall iPhone OS 4.0 is an improvement but not nearly as good of one as I was hoping.

Initial Impression of Ameriglo Night Sights

The previously mentioned night sights I ordered for my Glock 30SF came last night. I’m glad to say installation was a breeze.

When I ordered the sights I also ordered the <a href="http://www.mgwltd.com/firearms.shtml"MGW rear sight tool for Glock pistols. I decided to spend the money and get that instead of going through the fun and entertainment of using a punch and hammer to remove the factory rear sight and install the new Ameriglo. The punch and hammer method is generally not a good idea on tritium filled night sights as you risk cracking the glass vials that hold the tritium. Also the punch and hammer method is the easiest way to really mar up the sight if nothing else. Needless to say I figured since I have three Glock pistols already I could easily justify the price for the tool (and I’m a man who likes to have a lot of tools).

The tool has a plate on the bottom that you put the slide in. The plate is the same width as the rails on the pistol so you slide the slide (redundant no?) onto the plate and tighten the plate down. After that you should apply some oil to both sides of the actual sight pusher and from there you simply remove the old sight. Simple.

After removal I took some Gunzilla to the dovertail and areas in front of and behind the dovetail. I also applied some gun Gunzilla to the bottom of the rear sight. This was to ensure the surface was clean and also provide some lubrication to make sight installation easier. Just make sure you start the rear sight by pushing it into the dovetail as far as you can without the tool. This will avoid headaches I believe.

Installation of the front sight was dead simple for the most part. The Ameriglo sights came with a small brass hex screw driver that allowed for removal of the stock front sight (which was screwed on, not staked on as Glock used to always do) and installation of the new sight. The front slight didn’t fit perfectly right into the hole on the slide and had a hair of left/right play. The first time I tightened it on it was slightly crooked facing towards the right (left/right is based on looking at the pistol as if you were holding it). It was a simple correction though as I just had to unscrew the front sight screw, turn the sight slightly, and hold it in place as I tightened it.

Did I say easy? Oops I meant to say difficult. Not because of the sight but because I learned a lesson I should have already known. Only apply Loctite after you’ve done an installation run without it. Yeah I put Loctite Threadlocker (the blue stuff) on the front sight screw to it wouldn’t become loose during shooting. Well when I saw the front sight was crooked I had a fun time removing the screw again (I eventually got it with a combination of the front sight tool and a vice grip). So word to the wise, install the front sight, ensure it’s on correctly, and then take it off, apply Loctite, and install it again. Just save yourself some headaches.

So installation was dead simple (like everything else on a Glock thankfully).

I haven’t gotten the gun to the range so these initial impressions of the sights are from looking at them only. First the sights I got were a combination of a front green sight and yellow rear sight. I really like this color scheme now that I’ve seen it in the dark. The front sight is slightly brighter than the rear sight dots making it stick out well. This is accomplished by the fact the vial in the front sight is slightly larger but also the front sight is picked up a bit better since it’s green (the human eye is most sensitive to green, which is why night vision goggles display in shades of green).

The sights are quite bright but not harshly bright. The dots are very crisp and clear. One added advantage that I wasn’t expecting was in the dark I can actually sort of make out the three sights without my glasses on (my right eye, the dominant one, has the worst case of nearsightedness that I think you can have without being declared legally blind). The dots are horribly blurry but I can line them up properly.

The white circles surrounding the tritium vials really stand out in a lighted area. I feel I can acquire a target much faster with these than the stock Glock sights (which I’ve never really been a fan of).

I’ll have more after I actually get them out to the range (hopefully this weekend). But initial impressions are very good.

Who Watches The Watchmen

Some hilarity was pointed out over a Bruce Schneier’s blog. Apparently the number of Federal Air Marshals that have been arrested is greater than the number of arrests made by Federal Air Marshals (the link goes to a Tennessee congressman’s website, I don’t know who he is nor should this be taken as my promoting him):

And listen to this paragraph from a front-page story in the USA Today last November: “Since 9/11, more than three dozen Federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.”

Actually, there have been many more arrests of Federal air marshals than that story reported, quite a few for felony offenses. In fact, more air marshals have been arrested than the number of people arrested by air marshals.

We now have approximately 4,000 in the Federal Air Marshals Service, yet they have made an average of just 4.2 arrests a year since 2001. This comes out to an average of about one arrest a year per 1,000 employees.

That’s just funny. This on the other hand isn’t:

Now, let me make that clear. Their thousands of employees are not making one arrest per year each. They are averaging slightly over four arrests each year by the entire agency. In other words, we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest. Let me repeat that: we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest.

That’s your tax money at work ladies and gentlemen. The scariest part about government is the fact that there is no accountability. If they’re spending far more money than they take in that’s just too bad. If their agents who are tasked with upholding the law are corrupt that’s just too bad. We either have to wait for the government to take care of their own corrupt personnel or… never mind there is no or here.