Category: Side Notes

Time Off

Well it’s the holiday which means I’m going to be away from this site for the next couple of days. No I did not actually prepare things for you to read, sorry about that. Alas you’ll probably all be asleep from gorging yourselves on massive quantities of food and thus it’s irrelevant anyways. Have a good Thanksgiving.

It’s Winter

This weekend marked the first real start of the official Minnesota winter, really bad weather. Although winter technically starts on an arbitrary date here in Minnesota it’s no official until you have a single night were over a foot of snow falls or pure ice accumulates. Saturday evening we had the later and likewise the local police departments were overrun with calls of accidents that had occurred.

I present to you a remind of how to drive in the winter. First when the weather turns to ice accumulation just stay home if possible. There isn’t anything you can do that will give you acceptable traction on ice. Some people of questionable intelligence seem to think having winter tires or four wheel drive allows them to drive on ice with impunity and they’re wrong. The largest number of vehicles I saw in the ditch on Sunday morning were four wheel drive trucks and SUVs. Be smart and realize when it’s icy you’re fucked.

Deep snow is another problem around these parts. Luckily snow is a place where winter tires and four wheel drive do give you advantages, they increase your traction. This does not mean you can drive a normal highway speeds through so don’t be that guy.

Eventually the mercury will start dropping fast and your survivability will decrease on the same scale. You should have a winter survival kit in your vehicle that consists of (at the very least) extra cloths (warm winter cloths, not t-shirts), cold weather sleeping bags, a fully charged jump pack (because jumper cables require another vehicle), and a shovel (I have an entrenching tool which is both compact and a good shovel). It is also wise to ensure you fuel tank is always at least half full.

Basically don’t be that poor schmuck who gets into a ditch in the middle of nowhere with the only cold weather gear at hand being the overly light coat that he’s wearing.

At My Wit’s End with Android

It’s not secret to anybody reading this blog that I’ve developed quite the love/hate relationship with Android. On one hand I love many of the capabilities of Android but on the other hand it’s been plagued with bugs to the point of unusability in some cases. Well I just ran into another problem that’s really set me off, the Android Market appears to have lost all record of my purchased applications.

I went to apply a couple of updates a few days ago and noticed two applications wouldn’t update. I thought that was odd so went into the Market to do a manual update and noticed when I tapped the update button I was sent to the purchase page. The Market wanted me to purchase my application again. This seemed really odd so I logged into my Google checkout account and went through my purchased application history and found that everything was still in order that.

Obviously I needed to contact Google… which is impossible. Seriously, there is no technical support number for Google anywhere. Their support forums have left me with no answer but the knowledge other people have had variations of this problem without any reliable method of resolving it. Some people broke down and just repuchased the applications in essence paying for them twice. Nothing pisses me off more than getting ripped off and buying an application twice constitutes are rip off.

Basically I now have a portfolio of purchased applications that I can no longer use. Technical support is non-existent and frankly I’m pissed off. I wonder if Google actually has an competent people working on their Android platform or if they just toss shit at the wall and see what sticks.

You Don’t Need the Government to Solve Everything

Sometimes I read the Red Star because I find the letters to the editors hilarious. You really get a good feel for some of the people who read that particular newspaper. One thing I’ve noticed about the average submitter to the Red Star is their complete reliance on the government for everything. Case in point I present the following letter. The main part I find hilarious is the following:

On Sunday, the Star Tribune reported on the possibility that the new Republican-controlled state Legislature may renege on its local government aid to cities across Minnesota (“Twin Cities’ budgets built on house of cards,” Nov. 14).

If that happens, how long will a fallen tree lay there blocking the street in the next big storm?

This may come as a shock to Mrs. Ellsworth but you can actually do things yourself. Let me explains a government free way of moving a fallen tress. First you need a neighbor who is awesome and owns a chainsaw (not one of those pussy electric ones but a manly gas guzzling tree destroyer). If you lack any neighbors who own a chainsaw then you live in a shitty neighborhood and should correct the problem by purchasing one for yourself.

Once a chainsaw has been obtained the tree can be cut into smaller pieces. This follows the golden rule of computer programming; all problems can be broken down into small and manageable pieces. Once said tree has been cut into small pieces it can be moved out of the way. Through the use of team work in the community a downed tree can be easily removed by the people living in the area. What a concept! Shit it’s almost as if we don’t actually need government to get us through our everyday lives.

So to answer the author’s question the tree will remain there until the local community deals with it. If you’re all too lazy to deal with it that’s your own damned problem.

Time for Some Fear Mongering of My Own

I’m getting sick of the Theater of Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) fear mongering and molestations so it’s time to make some fear mongering of my own. Why? Because I’m a dick and sick of the TSA. Likewise what I’m about to write has potential to be true just like there is potential that you could put a bomb in your shoe.

New TSA regulations recently released require any person who refuses to go through the naked body scanner to receive an extra special pat down. This extra special pat down means the TSA molester agent will keep patting you down until they start touching your junk. Additionally the only requirement to get a job at the TSA is a GRE.

So the question is raised, what kind of people will seek employment at the TSA? Most likely molesters and pedophiles. Think about it for a second. Sexual predators like to put themselves in positions of authority over their victims. Many teachers have been charged with statutory rape and most likely went into teaching to gain access to children. We’re probably going to see a ton of pedophiles join the TSA so they have the chance to see children naked on their scanners or if the parent refuses to send their child through the agent gets to feel the little tike up.

How’s that for fear mongering? Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Wait… this Has happened.

Getting a Esduino Communicating with Mac OS X

Just a word of warning everybody, we are going down super duper mega geek territory here. If you’re not sure what a Esduino is you’ll not give two shits about this post. This is mostly a guide for myself to serve as a reminder of how to get this thing running again should I forget. Since the information has potential to be useful to others out there I figured I post it up on a public page.

I’m not going to waste time explaining what an Esduino is beyond it being a Arduino board that uses a 9S12 microcontroller as its core. If you don’t know what it is chances are this guide is useless to you.

The Esduino by Technologicalarts comes with a FT232R USB to serial port converter built in. There are no built in drivers for this chip in Mac OS X thus you need to install them. The drivers can be found here (for Windows, Mac, and Linux). The installation guides can be found here. Summed up all you need to down is download the appropriated driver (I used the virtual COM port driver instead of the D2XX driver as I’m used to working with virtual COM ports) and install it.

Once the driver is installed you can plug your Esduino into one of your USB ports. You’ll notice nothing happened, that’s normal. In truth something did happen though, two new files were created in your /dev directory (if you’re unfamiliar with the UNIX underpinnings of OS X just ignore this part, it’s really irrelevant). The two new files will be called /dev/cu.usbserial-xxxxxxxx and /dev/tty.usbserial-xxxxxxxx with the xxxxxxxx being the serial number of the device you plugged in. The Esduino will also appear in the System Profiler under USB. I’ll make a quick note that those two files in your /dev directory will only appear when you plug the Esduino in, if you don’t see them you’re device probably isn’t plugged in.

Now your computer is communicating with the Esduino board, what’s next? Well you need to interact with it. All Esduino boards come pre-loaded with an application. This application can be interacted with through the virtual COM port. First before you begin flip the switch on the microcontroller into the run position. In order to communicate with the virtual COM port I found a good program called CoolTerm. Open CoolTerm and open the options dialog (click on the toolbar button labeled Options). Under the Serial Port Options group select usbserial-xxxxxxxx from the port combo box and then click the OK button. Now that you’re back to the main window click the Connect button on the tool bar and press the enter key. A text menu should appear and you’re up and running.

Yes this is the kind of thing I do for fun. See how messed up I am?

Lock Pick Laws in Minnesota

I’ve talked a lot on here about various gun laws in Minnesota. Personally I like talking about things that directly relate to my hobbies and guns are one of my big hobbies. Another hobby I have is lock picking. Just like firearms lock picks are tools, nothing more, yet people try to ascribe motive behind them. For example in many states (Californistan for example) possession of lock picks without being a certified locksmith can land you into deep water. In other states there has to be some form of intent to commit a criminal act in order to prosecute somebody for possession of lock picks.

As lock picking is one of my hobbies I often has a set of lock picks in my possession. Not only is picking locks fun but it’s a great parlor trick at a party to boot. So what are the laws in regard to lock picking in Minnesota?

First a disclaimer, I am not a lawyer. My interpretation of the law is based on how it’s written, my limited education in regards to legal language, and of course what I read from other people. This is not legal advice.

Well we’re lucky here as possession of lock picks alone can’t get you tossed into prison. The law regarding lock picks is established in Minnesota statute 2006, Section 609.59:

609.59 POSSESSION OF BURGLARY OR THEFT TOOLS.
Whoever has in possession any device, explosive, or other instrumentality with intent to use
or permit the use of the same to commit burglary or theft may be sentenced to imprisonment for
not more than three years or to payment of a fine of not more than $5,000, or both.

Lock picks usually fall under burglar tools as do crowbars and hammers. The key phrase in Minnesota law is the line that states, “with intent to use or prermit to use of the same to commit burglary or theft.” What that means is you can’t be arrested for simply possessing lock picks, you must be showing intent. So how do you show intent when it comes to possession lock picks? Generally by either trespassing or attempting to break into a locked area. Possessing lock picks will add to your sentence in other words but won’t get you nailed for anything alone.

That means you’re free to order lock picks and use them. You won’t get into trouble when you bring them to a friend’s house to demonstrate your little parlor trick or to teach others how to partake in the fun.

Celebrate Rebellion

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reasom
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

405 years ago today a man by the name of Guy Fawkes decided to roll a few wheelbarrows of gun powder below the House of Lords and blow the kind to Hell and back again. The plot ended in failure as he was captured by one of the guards before lighting the fuse but the idea is still sound.

The problem stemmed from the fact that England had separated their church from Rome founding the Protestant Church of England. In order to get appointed to an official church position you had to swear an alliance to the monarch of England which rather clashes with the whole idea of Catholicism. The bottom line is life turned to shit for Catholics in the country who become more and more persecuted.

So what do you do when you’re a member of a group of people being persecuted in a monarchy? Well since a monarchy doesn’t lend itself well to hearing outside opinions your go to plan B which is to kill the monarch. The idea was simple, blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. This was supposed to signal a rebellion in the Midlands that would ultimately end with a Catholic princess placed upon the throne.

I’ve always found this piece of history interesting. It demonstrates quite well that you can only persecute a people so far before they’ll rise up against you. Fast forward 405 years. Our methods of rebellion have become far less violent thanks in part to the formation of democracy. But this election season the people of the United States showed the ruling party that we were unhappy with their Health Insurance Company Enrichment Act, continued bailouts, war, and all sort of other unpleasant things. Sadly the rebellion just put into place more of the same but it does who people take note of what the ruling party do and will rebel as best as they can find to.

So yes remember the fifth of November as a day to celebrate rebellion against oppressive rule.