UK’s Gun Ban in Action

Ah yes the UK’s gun ban the single reason that the island is a perfect utopia where nobody is ever murdered or violently attacked. I wish I lived in the UK where there are no shooting.

Wait I hear reality calling, give me a second here.

You won’t believe this reality just called to inform me that the UK’s gun ban isn’t work. In fact a shooter just murdered four people using and offed himself with a gun. I just don’t get how this could happen though; guns are illegal there! Also the government will protect you!

AT&T Decides You’re Not Shafted Enough on Data

AT&T likes to prove HK isn’t the only company that thinks you suck and thus hates you. They just announced changes to their data plans. First and foremost they are finally going to allow tethering on their oh so precious network. They are only going to gouge you an additional $20.00 a month for the tethering option.

But that’s on top of their new data plan options. The first one comes in at $15.00 for 200MB of data and the other comes in at $25.00 for 2GB of data. If you go above the cap on the first plan you have to pay an additional $15.00 for each 200MB while the second plan charges $10.00 for each additional GB. That means if you want to use 5GB of data you’ll be looking at $55.00 a month. Ouch.

Oh and as a final note that unlimited data plan for the iPad, it’s not unlimited anymore. Nope that plan was moved to the $25.00 for 2GB a month plan. Sweet deal huh?

With customer service like that I’m glad I’m not a customer.

A Potential Solution for Shortened URLs

I’m not a fan of URL shortening services such as TinyURL. In my eyes they are nothing more than a security risk as you have no idea where a shortened URL is actually going to take you. That’s a huge problem and hence why I will not click on a URL from one of those services and automatically delete any comments containing shortened URLs. For a while now I’ve been hoping somebody would create some kind of plug-in for Firefox that would automatically expand shortened URLs.

Well somebody has released a plug-in that offers exactly this service. The plug-in is called Long URL Please. Simply put when a page loads Long URL Please replaces all the shortened ULRs with the URL that the URL shortening service redirects to. I installed it and am testing it on a virtual machine to see how well it works. So far it’s doing a pretty decent job although it seems to require knowledge of each shortening services and will only work with those known services. Either way if this plug-in pans out it will be one of those must installs for Firefox.

E Ink Advancements

Well it appears as though the company that makes the e-paper displays used on e-book readers I’m so fond of is making some real advancements. E Ink just showed off some of their new displays at the Society for Information Display conference. The linked article includes a video demonstrating some color displays (nowhere near as rich of color as current LCDs produce of course) as well as flexible displays. By the looks of the opening demonstration they have upped the refresh rate (the display was showing what was being written is damn near real-time).

It’s pretty cool stuff. I would love to see color displays come to e-book readers in the near future.

Just Kidding

Let’s say you want to setup an emergency preparedness drill for a hospital. As part of the planning committee do you:

A – Create a list of potential emergency situations and hold a training day for hospital staff on how to prepare for such situations?

B – High an outside group to prepare a detailed report on mechanisms the hospital can implement to best survive likely emergency situations?

C – Hire an armed man to run into the emergency room one random day to terrorize the staff by aiming a firearm at them?

If you answered C you may be the exact type of person St. Rose Dominican Hospitals-Siena Campus hospital is looking for. Via Bruce Schneier’s blog we learned this was what the above mentioned hospital decided to do for terrorism preparedness:

How’s this for an ill-conceived emergency preparedness drill? An off-duty cop pretending to be a terrorist stormed into a hospital intensive care unit brandishing a handgun, which he pointed at nurses while herding them down a corridor and into a room.

I can’t imagine how this could possible go wrong.

But in Monday’s incident, which occurred in a unit that houses the hospital’s sickest patients, nurses, patients and their families did not know it was a drill, said Renee Ruiz, organizer of the California Nurses Association, which represents staff at the hospital.

So nobody present knew this was a drill. Although it was reported by the Las Vegas Sun the incident took place in Nevada where people are allowed to carry a firearm through licensing. Imagine if one of those doctors or a patient had been carrying a firearm and decided to shoot the person he or she believed was a terrorist (I’d say a man running into a hospital brandishing a firearm at people would be good grounds for a self-defense case).

These kinds of acts have consequences. The hospital which designed and enacted the drill should have thought this through a little more thoroughly. Likewise the off-duty officer they hired should be brought this potential problem to their attention. There are simply layers of stupidity here that can’t be overlooked.

Memorial Day

Well it’s Memorial Day. I’m not going to be doing much blogging due to the holiday.

Yes it’s an actual holiday, not just a day off of work. So take a few minutes to remember all those soldiers who have fallen in battle.

I Know Mayor Daley is Dumb But… Wow

So an 80 year-old man banished a demon back to Hell with a firearm. Of course most of us cheer the fact that the elderly man was able to have a mechanism of self defense at hand and thus preserve his life. Unfortunately this happened in Chicago and a handgun was used thus making what the elderly man did illegal. Apparently Sir Sodomy isn’t saying if the 80 year-old man will be charged but chances are he will.

But one of the quotes made by Sir Sodomy really stuck up at fucking stupid:

“I think everybody understands the frustration that people have in regards to guns, and that’s an instance, and I think we understand that,” Daley said. “But again, the access to guns in America, the access today is higher today than at any period of time in America.”

Wow. Access to guns is higher today than any period of our history? Really? Access generally means your ability to obtain something. You have access to a car if you are able to get a car to drive. Access in America today is not at it’s highest in our history.

In the past Americans could purchase any firearm they wanted. During the Civil War many people owned private cannons which were the artillery pieces of the day (for those morons who claim the Second Amendment only applies to flintlocks). Before the passing of the National Firearms Act any American could legally go into a store and purchase a machine gun, short barreled rifle, or short barreled shotgun without paying any BATFE transfer tax. Now thanks to the Hughes Amendment to the Firearm Owners Protection Act we can’t legally transfer any machine gun made after May 19, 1986. In order to purchase a firearm you need to go through an instant background check. No ammunition considered by the BATFE to be “armor piercing” can be imported into the country. Hell no gun not approved by the BATFE can be imported into the country. So tell me again how access to firearms in this country is at an all time high.

Man Chicago really needs a new mayor. Their current one is a complete dumb ass.

Obama Really Can Bring People Together

So Obama showed up in San Francisco to help raise money for Barbra Boxer’s campaign (apparently she’s with the program and does what she’s told). One thing I will say about Obama I may not like the man or his policies but he does bring people together:

While wealthy people who had paid as much as $2,000 each lined up to enter the Fairmont, across the street was a large and raucous protest against Obama and Boxer. And it wasn’t just one group, or even one half of the political spectrum. Obama was whipsawed, pummelled from all sides simultaneously. Left-wingers, right-wingers, pacifists, libertarians, communists, conservatives, people angry about the BP oil spill, people angry that Obama’s healthcare reform bill didn’t go far enough, others angry that it went too far, extremists, moderates, and everyone in between on both sides of the aisle.

I love it when people unite.