Side Notes – Page 11 – A Geek With Guns

Nothing To See Here

Instead of typing posts for your reading pleasure I spent last night replacing networking equipment. For the last several years my network has been running off of a Netgear router. Last week I could hear the bearing in the router’s fan starting to go to Hell so I started looking for a replacement (admittedly I could have replaced the fan but that device is so old it doesn’t even have IPv6 support so it was a good excuse to upgrade).

For AgoraFest we’ve been using Ubiquiti access points to build our mesh network. I’ve really enjoyed working with the hardware so I decided to look into Ubiquiti’s wired options. As it turns out their wired networking equipment is pretty nice so I ordered an EdgeRouter Lite and EdgeSwitch Lite (the Lite versions lack Power over Ethernet, which I didn’t need). They’re now up and running. I still have to fine tune the configurations but you can see this site so the important work is done.

Screw Your Politics

As I’m sure most of you have heard by now there was a shooting yesterday. This one was different because it happened on live television and the shooter tweeted about it. There isn’t much to say about the event itself. Two people, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, were gunned down by a piece of shit who shall go unnamed here. But the event itself lead way to disgusting politicking.

Before the blood had a chance to dry I saw anti-gunners swooping in to exploit everybody’s emotions to demand gun control. I saw pro-gun people bitch about the two victim’s lack of situational awareness. Some neoliberals first blamed the event on racism and some neocons responded by posting #WhiteRightsMatter (I’m not even fucking shitting you).

Nobody could wait even one goddamn day before exploiting this tragedy for personal gain. If you were one of these people I have only one thing to say: fuck you.

There’s no need to insert your political bullshit into this and there’s no reason you need to rebut your opponent’s political bullshit with your own.

3D Printers and Mesh Networks And Rockets. Oh my!

As some of you are probably aware I’m one of the organizers for AgoraFest. Most of us who organize the event are huge fans of technology and science fiction. That’s the reason we’re focusing a lot of technology at AgoraFest this year. We’ll have 3D printers, drone races, model rocketry, and a mesh network there. Some are probably curious what all of those have to do with AgoraFest. I decided to do a quick write up explaining how those things, well everything besides the drones (I’ll explain that later), relate to agorism as a whole. Feel free to head over to the link and read it in lieu of an actual article here.

Nothing To See Here

Some fuckstick hit me with a car while I was out biking Friday night. Although I’m fine, nothing was broken because I actually wear quality gear, I’m still store as hell and not feeling the blogging. Check back tomorrow.

Nothing To See Here

Last night’s CryptoPartyMN meeting, as is usually the case, ran late. I didn’t get a chance to write anything for you dear readers but I can tell you that the next CryptoParty is likely to be on either the second or third weekend in August. It will depend on venue availability though.

Nothing To See Here

My evening was spent at last night’s CryptoParty meeting so I didn’t have time to write anything for all of you.

If you’re in the Twin Cities area and you’re interested in learning about computer security keep an eye on the CryptoPartyMN website though. We generally have meetings every other Tuesday.

CryptoPartyMN Website is Up Again

You probably noticed that posting has been sparse this week. That’s because I’ve been focusing my efforts on setting up the new website for CryptoPartyMN. For those of you who haven’t heard of CryptoPartyMN, it’s a group of us in the Twin Cities region that are organizing periodic meetups with the intention of teaching people who to utilize string crypto to protect online anonymity and security communications. We hosted a CryptoParty at The Hack Factory on May 9^th and B-Sides MSP and are planning more in the future.

Admittedly the website is pretty bland right now. Unfortunately the theme we were using was on the other server that I don’t have access to. It’ll be improved in time. Likewise now that the site is up and will remain up regularly we’ll make sure to post meetup notifications on it (we usually meet every other Tuesday). Add it to your RSS feed if you want to know when the next CryptoParty event is.

Darwin in Action

How do you check to see if one of your firearms is loaded? If you answered, Put it against my head and pull the trigger,” you may want to reconsider your life:

MIMS, Fla. — Police say a man who was checking to see if a bullet was still in the chamber of a pistol has died after he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, accidentally shooting himself.

Authorities say 49-year-old Charles Cooper shot himself at 1:50 a.m. Sunday during a weekend fishing trip and a cookout in Mims.

I have a hard time considering that accidental. Accidents usually imply the actor wasn’t purposely taking action to cause the result. Our brilliant specimen here pretty deliberately put the gun to his head. It probably won’t surprise anybody to hear that alcohol was likely involved. Once again it’s worth noting that alcohol and firearms, or any other weapon for that matter, don’t mix well.

With that said I believe he should be awarded nn achievement in excellence for saving future generations from his prodigy.

Nothing to See Here, Move Along

My evening was spent finalizing the setup on my new mail server and cursing Xcel energy for failing to actually provide power to my residence. There’s nothing to see here but if you send an e-mail to me you can experience my fancy new server.

Nothing to See Here

Last night’s panel discussion (which was awesome by the way) went pretty late and the after party went later. I’m too tired to write anything of substance.

As a brief summary I just want to say it was a privilege and an honor to be part of a panel with both William Binney and Todd Pierce. Everybody involved in organizing the event did a stellar job as well. I’ll write up a more detailed aftermath later but if you want a good overview of the event now the fine folks at MNAnarchy put up a podcast immediately after the panel concluded.