The Blag Switch

So for part of my working day I’m tied to an ancient, under-powered laptop which isn’t THAT much more powerful than the handheld devices I develop for.  This poor old machine is decrepit enough that running WinAmp and a basic development environment at the same time is a MAJOR CHORE.  (Enough so that WinAmp, a DevEnv and Firefox at the same time is right out of the question.)  So out of curiosity, I consulted Google for a lightweight Windows audio player so that I can play CDs and still do my job effective.

It turned up foobar2000.  If you’re in need of such a program, I highly recommend it.  Small, free (as in beer), extensible, and in its basic configuration uses up next to know resources.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to cut code, consult firefox, AND listen to CDs, all at the same time…

I’ve been meaning to blog this for awhile: a great-good friend of mine from way back (well, freshman year of undergrad) has a new blog.  She’s crazy-smart and basically taught me everything I know about Africa, poverty, and a slew of other topics.  Plus she’s just generally awesome.  So you should go give her a read.  She’s doing fieldwork in Madagascar and, knowing her, there is no way that could turn out to be anything other than fascinating.

I was just talking on the phone to my *ahem* venerable Aunt.  (She’s my dad’s older sister and my dad is, well, not-young.)  There’s something vaguely surreal about hearing an octogenarian utter the phrase “well dear, it’s been nice talking to you, but my cell phone is almost out of minutes, so I should go.”

Hey folks: word on the internewts is that the Word Press install here-abouts is going to be upgraded, so if the blog explodes in the near-ish future, you can safely blame Word Press.

In a word? Brilliant. Joss Whedon’s a friggin’ genius. All three acts are still free for another 55 minutes (which is just long enough to watch them all), so if you haven’t seen it, go watch.

Doesn’t “Starting Samba Daemons” sound like the beginning of a GREAT party?

So I’d been having some problems with a Linux install I’ve been working on. No matter what I tried, Ubuntu refused to recognize or use my network connection. Well, it turns out that the onboard ethernet connection on my server’s motherboard is dead. So, of course, I do what any self-respecting geek would do: I go right to my spare parts box, dig down and eventually dredge out the PCI network card that I’ve been saving for just such an occasion.

Now this card has been sitting in that box, with a bunch of other junk thrown on top of it for years. I really shouldn’t work. But apparently it does. My years and years of hoarding techno-junk have paid off! All those years of getting more and more boxes of assorted junk (need an old PS/2 trackball mouse? I can hook you up!) have finally been justified.

This gives me all the excuse I need to keep holding on to that old ISA soundcard. Just, uh, in case I need to listen to tunes on a machine from the late 80s…

Ever have “one of those days”? I’m definitely coming down off of “one of those weeks.” And apologies all around for dropping off the map during it. But between the car breaking, busting my ass on a long week at work, and various time-intensive projects and snafus, I’ve been pretty short on time.

Today was good, though. It’s about time I had a nice, relaxing day. My folks were in town for my great aunt’s 80th birthday, so we took the birthday girl out to lunch. It was nice to see my aunt again. I’ve never been particularly close to her, but she’s a sweet woman, and incredibly sharp. It was also good to see the folks again. I’m re-learning just how easy it can be to get wrapped up in work at the expense of neglecting important people in one’s life.

After lunch, dropped my aunt off and went out to the range. I’ve been wanting to try out the Spokane Rifle Club range for awhile, and with Dad in town and the weather a gorgeous 80 degrees, it seemed like the perfect day for it.

So Mom, Dad, Becky and I headed out there with my Sig-556 and my Mosin-Nagant, neither of which I’ve really shot for lack of a good range. The Sig’s proving to be fun, but the BUIS on it suck. The Mosin, on the other hand, is a LOT of fun. And I’m pretty decent with it, too. My first 5 shots were on paper and my second five were not only on paper but decently grouped.

Tomorrow, Mom, Dad, and I are off to breakfast before they head out of town, which will be great. Even though my parents DO get up at 4am every morning, so breakfast with them will mean me rolling my lazy but out of bed by 8am or so. Which honestly, is probably a good idea anyway, since I’m trying to be more of a morning person. (Not an easy task when my biological clock seems to think that “bed time” falls somewhere around 4am.)

And on that note, I think it’s reading and sleep-attempting time.

Well, I’m off to try my hand at IPSC-style practical shooting for the first time. Wish me luck. It’s not an actual competition, just friendly practice at my local range. But still, I have to admit, I’m kinda nervous.

UPDATE: I’m really happy with how I did.  I did two runs and got a 1.86 and a 1.91.  (The runs are scored as the ratio of accuracy to time.  So the better you shoot and the less time you take, the better your score.)  I didn’t hit any of the no-shoots and all the guys there who had done it before said my muzzle control was excellent. 

Sorry, couldn’t resist the Myth Busters reference. Anywho: take a look at this slick video of a guy shooting a sealing-breach 1895 Nagant Revolver with a silencer.

Yes, it does in fact silence the gun. With conventional revolvers this isn’t possible. The gas escaping out of the gap between the cylinder and the barrel will still have a significant report. The Nagant can only be silenced because of an amazingly clever mechanism by which the cylinder, cartridge, and barrel conspire to make a totally enclosed breech. Pretty cool stuff.

It’s interesting to me that here in the States we have our own pantheon of firearms innovators.  Samuel Colt, Christian Sharps, John Moses Browning, et al.  But we don’t much hear about all the amazing innovators and innovations abroad.  I mean, the above is a product of the Nagant brothers, originally of Belgium, and it’s a brilliant design.  Mikhail Kalashnikov is the father of the assault rifle in the same way that Browning is the father of the semi-auto pistol.

Not to denigrate the works of domestic firearms designers, but I just think it’s interesting that the revolutions in firearms design abroad are so often either ignored or adopted quietly and that their designers so seldom get the credit they deserve here in the States.  My Sig 556 uses a gas-piston system which is, in concept, identical to the one which Kalashnikov invented for the AK-47 and yet I’ve met many people who treat the notion with a “gee what will they think of next” sense of novelty.