1. VIDEO: WORLD'S SMALLEST FIRE TRUCK PUTS OUT WORLD'S ADORABLE FIRES.
2. Another VIDEO: The real lyrics to The Safety Dance. (h/t to Borepatch). If you are not or never were into 80's music this probably doesn't make sense.
3. Pestering MSgt B: I now have his cell phone number if anybody wishes to send him lewd texts while he is at work. The correct timing of a salacious message is sure to make him drop a wrench or strip a nut or something.
4. Operation AdWords: Secretary Hillary Clinton touted a clandestine US cyber operations that turns out to have merely been the US government buying anti Al-Queda online advertisements.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Your Network Reachable IP
I have to admit, this is one clever little trick to allow a program to get the local IP address of an interface that is network reachable (i.e. not localhost).
In one line in Ruby:
UDPSocket.open {|s| s.connect(’64.233.187.99′, 1); s.addr.last }
Of course, it can be done in other languages too. The trick is to setup a socket connection to something real that requires no handshake (UDP) and then look at the socket address given back by the OS. You could do this with TCP too, but then you'd be sending packets and trying to setup a connection and all manner of nonsense could occur.
In one line in Ruby:
UDPSocket.open {|s| s.connect(’64.233.187.99′, 1); s.addr.last }
Of course, it can be done in other languages too. The trick is to setup a socket connection to something real that requires no handshake (UDP) and then look at the socket address given back by the OS. You could do this with TCP too, but then you'd be sending packets and trying to setup a connection and all manner of nonsense could occur.
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Last Full Measure of Devotion
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| Korean War Memorial, Washington, DC |
"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." -- President Abraham Lincoln; Gettysburg, PA; November 19, 1863
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Amazing Grace
If this doesn't bring a lump to your throat and a tear to your eye, well...
Everyone have a safe and blessed Memorial Day weekend. Take it in and remember.
Everyone have a safe and blessed Memorial Day weekend. Take it in and remember.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Five Guns That Changed History
A Girl is continuing a blogmeme about the five guns that have changed history. I don't always go in for the blogmemes, but this one I cannot resist.
5. The AR-15. The standard infantry arm of the U.S. military for 50 years now, this rifle makes the list and edges out contenders such as the AK-47 because it is the very definition of a "firearms platform". While people have been customizing firearms since their invention, the AR-15 ecosystem of parts, add-ons and customizations is unparalleled.
4. The M1 Garand. Named for its inventor, John Garand, this rifle was adopted by the U.S. military after decades of conceptual designs and trials. At the time of its adoption, it was the most advanced infantry battle rifle. We would know this firearm as being chambered in .276 today if it were not for the insistence of Gen. Douglas MacAuthor that only a .30 calibre round was good enough for U.S. troops. Today, direct descendants of the M1 Garand serve in the Afghanistan theatre of war with U.S. troops.
3. The Colt Single Action Army (Colt Peacemaker). This iconic firearm of the "Wild West" gave rise to the saying, "God created man. Samuel Colt made them equal." A popular civilian firearm, it was used by the U.S. Army until 1892 when it was replaced with a Colt revolver of a smaller calibre. The replacement for the Single Action Army was unsatisfactory and led directly to the development of the Colt 1911, another iconic firearm.
2. The Colt Paterson Revolver. It was not the first revolver, but it was the first successful and commercial revolver. A decade later it was the inspiration for the Colt Walker, putting into motion the Colt firearms company we have today.
1. The Kentucky Long Rifle. An American invention of necessity, these rifles made snipers out of backwoodsmen. So feared by the British, Gen. George Washington gave to outfitting his regular troops in backwoodsmen buckskins both for protection and extra psychological punch.
Yes, it is a very U.S. centric list. So sue me, I'm American!
5. The AR-15. The standard infantry arm of the U.S. military for 50 years now, this rifle makes the list and edges out contenders such as the AK-47 because it is the very definition of a "firearms platform". While people have been customizing firearms since their invention, the AR-15 ecosystem of parts, add-ons and customizations is unparalleled.
4. The M1 Garand. Named for its inventor, John Garand, this rifle was adopted by the U.S. military after decades of conceptual designs and trials. At the time of its adoption, it was the most advanced infantry battle rifle. We would know this firearm as being chambered in .276 today if it were not for the insistence of Gen. Douglas MacAuthor that only a .30 calibre round was good enough for U.S. troops. Today, direct descendants of the M1 Garand serve in the Afghanistan theatre of war with U.S. troops.
3. The Colt Single Action Army (Colt Peacemaker). This iconic firearm of the "Wild West" gave rise to the saying, "God created man. Samuel Colt made them equal." A popular civilian firearm, it was used by the U.S. Army until 1892 when it was replaced with a Colt revolver of a smaller calibre. The replacement for the Single Action Army was unsatisfactory and led directly to the development of the Colt 1911, another iconic firearm.
2. The Colt Paterson Revolver. It was not the first revolver, but it was the first successful and commercial revolver. A decade later it was the inspiration for the Colt Walker, putting into motion the Colt firearms company we have today.
1. The Kentucky Long Rifle. An American invention of necessity, these rifles made snipers out of backwoodsmen. So feared by the British, Gen. George Washington gave to outfitting his regular troops in backwoodsmen buckskins both for protection and extra psychological punch.
Yes, it is a very U.S. centric list. So sue me, I'm American!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Gun deaths in Virginia
The Violence Policy Center has scored a pretty good coup with a recent press release of data showing "gun deaths" surpassing vehicle deaths, toaster oven deaths, death by chocolate, etc... They have broken it up by state, and various lapdog media outlets are simply regurgitating the VPC press release with sensationalist headlines such as "Gun Deaths Surpass Car Deaths in Indiana Race When Drivers Fiddle With the Radio", "Arizona Gun Deaths Up EleventyBillion", and "Gun Deaths, Blood In the Streets, Wild West in Nevada: Please For the Love of God Buy Our Newspaper Because We Are Going Broke!"
This is an old, tired trick as "gun deaths" is a nebulous term intended to mix in all sorts of death rates, not just gun homicides by criminals. Anyway, Virginia as usual is one of the targeted states. Stranger at Extrano's Alley does the debunking so you don't have to: The Lying Liars At The “Violence Policy Center” Are At It Again. So if you get into an argument with anybody, just point them over there.
Also over at Extrano's Alley: The WaPo Does Not Seem To Understand Why Americans Get Upset At “Internment Camps”. Yup, that whole Trail of Tears is just a knee slapper for the libs at the WaPo. But heck, they're justjournalists opinion writers, they are not exactly suppose to know about this thing the rest of us call "history".
This is an old, tired trick as "gun deaths" is a nebulous term intended to mix in all sorts of death rates, not just gun homicides by criminals. Anyway, Virginia as usual is one of the targeted states. Stranger at Extrano's Alley does the debunking so you don't have to: The Lying Liars At The “Violence Policy Center” Are At It Again. So if you get into an argument with anybody, just point them over there.
Also over at Extrano's Alley: The WaPo Does Not Seem To Understand Why Americans Get Upset At “Internment Camps”. Yup, that whole Trail of Tears is just a knee slapper for the libs at the WaPo. But heck, they're just
The Mash Potatoes are Gone Too
I gotta a busy day today, so no time to post anything meaningful. So if you have nothing to do, watch this:
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
No Stuffing Today
Anyway, my boss and I are taking one of the chicken sacrificers shooting at Clark's Brothers afterwards. Yeah, I know... its a tough life, hard job, and all that but somebody's got to do it.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Book Review: To End All Wars
Last month I found myself about to hop a transcontinental flight with a major problem, I forgot to buy any reading for the trip. Popping into the "book store" at IAD's C Concourse can be depressing because the selections are so bad, but I did find Adam Hochschild's To End All Wars.
I have to be honest in that I know very little about World War I, probably because I'm American. In comparison to WWII, "The Great War" doesn't play on the American psyche as much because the United States entered the war very late nor was it a major factor in the Allied victory. Though To End All Wars doesn't come right out and say it, WWI was won by the British and more specifically their naval blockade which led to the collapse of Germany from within.
Now if you are looking for a book about military tactics or how the battles played out or even how the overall strategy of the major powers worked out, this is not the book for you. Instead, Horchschild track's many individuals, almost all British, through the war and shows the connections they have with other. The connections are interesting in that some are ardent socialists or suffragists related directly to the imperial war establishment figures, brothers and sisters and husbands and wives on opposite sides of the political fight.
And while there is some writing about the general misery and hardship of the soldiers on the Western front, a good bit more of the book is spent on the hardship of the conscientious objectors imprisoned in Britain. Of the specific plights of soldiers, perhaps the books most tragic story is that of the British Bantam soldiers Joseph Stones, John McDonald, and Peter Coggins. Each was a victim of shell shock convicted by the British army for dereliction of duty and sentenced to death by army generals, most of whom had never witnessed shelling or even been to the front. But the story of these soldiers only enters into the web of connected individuals through the conscientious objector Albert Rochester, made to dig the holes for the execution posts.
The importance of World War I is probably understated in the narrative of modern world politics. Not only did it setup the circumstances for World War II, but of more importance it directly led to the introduction of communism on the world stage (by the time WWII broke out, Stalin had already killed more of his countrymen than all the victims of the Nazis). If you are interested in "The War to End All Wars", then this book is a great companion to other material. But as a single read on the subject, I do not find it compelling.
I have to be honest in that I know very little about World War I, probably because I'm American. In comparison to WWII, "The Great War" doesn't play on the American psyche as much because the United States entered the war very late nor was it a major factor in the Allied victory. Though To End All Wars doesn't come right out and say it, WWI was won by the British and more specifically their naval blockade which led to the collapse of Germany from within.
Now if you are looking for a book about military tactics or how the battles played out or even how the overall strategy of the major powers worked out, this is not the book for you. Instead, Horchschild track's many individuals, almost all British, through the war and shows the connections they have with other. The connections are interesting in that some are ardent socialists or suffragists related directly to the imperial war establishment figures, brothers and sisters and husbands and wives on opposite sides of the political fight.
And while there is some writing about the general misery and hardship of the soldiers on the Western front, a good bit more of the book is spent on the hardship of the conscientious objectors imprisoned in Britain. Of the specific plights of soldiers, perhaps the books most tragic story is that of the British Bantam soldiers Joseph Stones, John McDonald, and Peter Coggins. Each was a victim of shell shock convicted by the British army for dereliction of duty and sentenced to death by army generals, most of whom had never witnessed shelling or even been to the front. But the story of these soldiers only enters into the web of connected individuals through the conscientious objector Albert Rochester, made to dig the holes for the execution posts.
The importance of World War I is probably understated in the narrative of modern world politics. Not only did it setup the circumstances for World War II, but of more importance it directly led to the introduction of communism on the world stage (by the time WWII broke out, Stalin had already killed more of his countrymen than all the victims of the Nazis). If you are interested in "The War to End All Wars", then this book is a great companion to other material. But as a single read on the subject, I do not find it compelling.
Mulligan on Tracy Thorne-Begland and Constitutional Rights
Elwood Sanders makes the case that the Commonwealth should reconsider the judgeship for Tracy Thorne-Begland, the former Navy pilot and openly-gay prosecutor denied a seat in the General District Courts. I agree, this is turning out to be nothing but a black-eye for Virginia. As Sanders points out, there's not a whole lot of acting to do in the General District Courts to become an activist judge, and if Thorne-Begland says he would recuse himself from gay issues then we have nothing but to take his word for it. Should he actually go off the reservation, well there's always the re-up in 6 years.
So far the only argument given for this denial, other than being gay, is that Thorne-Begland violated his oath when joining the Navy. I googled up the Oath of Enlistment and didn't find "I swear on my heart I'm not gay." I don't find this a compelling argument.
But gosh-golly jeepers haven't I learned something new today: sodomy is a Constitutional right. I thought unwarranted searches of my shithole were off-limits (I'm looking at you, TSA) but apparently its the other way around.
Ok. Ok. I get it. Our Constitutional rights are not all enumerated in the Constitution, but how is it that sodomy was ruled a Constitutional right FIVE YEARS BEFORE our individual right to keep and bear arms, something the Constitution actually does say!? One gay guy in a lowly state court can't possibly queer-up our legal system any more than it already is.
So far the only argument given for this denial, other than being gay, is that Thorne-Begland violated his oath when joining the Navy. I googled up the Oath of Enlistment and didn't find "I swear on my heart I'm not gay." I don't find this a compelling argument.
But gosh-golly jeepers haven't I learned something new today: sodomy is a Constitutional right. I thought unwarranted searches of my shithole were off-limits (I'm looking at you, TSA) but apparently its the other way around.
Ok. Ok. I get it. Our Constitutional rights are not all enumerated in the Constitution, but how is it that sodomy was ruled a Constitutional right FIVE YEARS BEFORE our individual right to keep and bear arms, something the Constitution actually does say!? One gay guy in a lowly state court can't possibly queer-up our legal system any more than it already is.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Bufferbloat
Ever get the feeling that this Internet thing isn't performing as well as it should, especially since you have faster computers and more bandwidth than you did just 5 years ago but things seem to be just as slow or even slower. If you have, you're not alone. In fact, some Internet gurus have noticed the problem too and they think they may have found the source: too many good intentions and the human ability to sometimes be too clever for our own good, resulting in this thing called "buffer bloat".
Over the years your PCs and laptops and smart phones have gotten cheaper while simultaneously getting more memory (RAM, FLASH, etc...). It's been a great thing. But the same has been happening to the network infrastructure; everything from your home WiFi router to big iron routers interconnecting huge networks have also benefitted from reduced memory prices resulting in more and more memory on-board.
As it turns out, this memory increase in network routing equipment might not be a good thing. Network routers have always had some sort of memory for buffering network traffic, but the answer for smoothing out network traffic flows and congestion has always been in the computers on the sending and receiving ends. The protocols have built in mechanisms for closing the valves when the pipes are overflowing, so to speak. When a computer sends out data, at some point it knows to shut up and send no more until it has heard from the other side. But with the network routers buffering more and more of that data, the computer and the router get into this game of waiting on each other to act.
Jim Gettys, the guy credited for finally articulating the problem, has a video demonstrating the problem. He can actually get better network performance by tuning down buffer sizes.
As he states in a blog post on the topic:
So there. It's not you. You are not crazy. Things are not as they should be. But don't worry, your friendly, neighborhood Internet gurus are working on the problem.
Over the years your PCs and laptops and smart phones have gotten cheaper while simultaneously getting more memory (RAM, FLASH, etc...). It's been a great thing. But the same has been happening to the network infrastructure; everything from your home WiFi router to big iron routers interconnecting huge networks have also benefitted from reduced memory prices resulting in more and more memory on-board.
As it turns out, this memory increase in network routing equipment might not be a good thing. Network routers have always had some sort of memory for buffering network traffic, but the answer for smoothing out network traffic flows and congestion has always been in the computers on the sending and receiving ends. The protocols have built in mechanisms for closing the valves when the pipes are overflowing, so to speak. When a computer sends out data, at some point it knows to shut up and send no more until it has heard from the other side. But with the network routers buffering more and more of that data, the computer and the router get into this game of waiting on each other to act.
Jim Gettys, the guy credited for finally articulating the problem, has a video demonstrating the problem. He can actually get better network performance by tuning down buffer sizes.
As he states in a blog post on the topic:
The buffers are confusing TCP’s RTT estimator; the delay caused by the buffers is many times the actual RTT on the path. Remember, TCP is a servo system, which is constantly trying to “fill” the pipe. So by not signalling congestion in a timely fashion, there is *no possible way* that TCP’s algorithms can possibly determine the correct bandwidth it can send data at (it needs to compute the delay/bandwidth product, and the delay becomes hideously large). TCP increasingly sends data a bit faster (the usual slow start rules apply), reestimates the RTT from that, and sends data faster. Of course, this means that even in slow start, TCP ends up trying to run too fast. Therefore the buffers fill (and the latency rises).It has been a particularly devilish problem to diagnose because isolating the variables, something any good scientists would do, actually exasperates the problem. The more you try to take out interference and noise and other things that are hard to account for, the worse the problem gets. Again, Jim Gettys:
Ironically, I have realized that you don’t see the full glory of TCP RTT confusion caused by buffering if you have a bad connection as it reset TCP’s timers and RTT estimation; packet loss is always considered possible congestion. This is a situation where the “cleaner” the network is, the more trouble you’ll get from bufferbloat. The cleaner the network, the worse it will behave. And I’d done so much work to make my cable as clean as possible…And its not just your home route that has the problem. The problem is everywhere, even in the big iron in your ISP's data center and the even bigger iron used to connect your ISP to other ISPs. Here's a video where researchers isolate the problem and show that backing off the buffer size actually makes things better.
So there. It's not you. You are not crazy. Things are not as they should be. But don't worry, your friendly, neighborhood Internet gurus are working on the problem.
Community
I had lunch with JB Miller yesterday. He's a very fun guy to talk with. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that our very own Nancy R. is mentioned in one of the Monster Hunter International books. How cool is that! (also, they are available on the Kindle all for only $6... another reason to get a Kindle)
BTW, Nancy is hosting a kids shoot in a couple of weeks. If you are interested, drop her a note. And JB Miller has a blogmeet scheduled to coincide with the Nation's Gun Show in September.
And seeking some help from CTone, I exchanged email with him yesterday in which he gave some rather detailed help to me about ARs, all done ad-hoc. Very generous of him to take the time to do that.
All of this makes me think... wow, don't we have a great little gunblogger community around here.
BTW, Nancy is hosting a kids shoot in a couple of weeks. If you are interested, drop her a note. And JB Miller has a blogmeet scheduled to coincide with the Nation's Gun Show in September.
And seeking some help from CTone, I exchanged email with him yesterday in which he gave some rather detailed help to me about ARs, all done ad-hoc. Very generous of him to take the time to do that.
All of this makes me think... wow, don't we have a great little gunblogger community around here.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Kindle Bleg
So I'm leaning toward the Kindle Touch 3G, though the color Kindle Fire looks cool too. One thing I don't know about is how I might get clippings or quotes from the Kindle over to my computer, such as if I'm reading something and want to highlight a passage that I will later put in email or a blog post or something.
Anyway, if you have any advice on the subject I'd welcome it.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
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