Archive for July 2011
Italian firearms manufacturers sell out Italian black rifle enthusiasts
Read the details here. Basically, an Italian trade association worked to prevent the import of black rifles into Italy; this action happened with the assent of basically all Italian manufacturers. When pressed, the association’s rep is quite proud they did this; much like Zumbo, HS Precision, and Ruger all rolled into one. Email addresses are provided.
As pointed out in-thread, this is basically the same thing US manufacturers did to prevent inexpensive import pistols from flooding the market in reverse; apparently, an Olympic Arms rifle costs 2500€ after importing.
Class action riches
As settlement for some past sin (having been a Verizon subscriber in 2005), I am getting either 25 additional minutes or 40 calling units. That isn’t 25 minutes a month, that’s 25 minutes total. Considering I use about zero of my plan minutes a month, the first option is worthless. Given that I never use calling units (which are apparently for long distance or overseas calls), the second option is worthless.
At least the lawyers made out.
On Mecca
I’m working on getting Mecca built; after getting no return calls for a long time, I started calling ports in the area, which lead to a referral to a company that can build and deliver what we need. The plan is still to get it in place after harvest. The old saying, “neophytes argue tactics, adepts debate strategy, experts discuss logistics”, is true here. One would think getting a truck to deliver a 40′ container would be easy, but many of the companies I contacted were only licensed in Washington state; I called heavy towing firms around Tacoma, only to get the cold shoulder.
One guy that I talked to was able to do the delivery, but didn’t want the deadhead half. I asked what his deadhead rate was (we had planned on paying deadhead anyway) and he just said he didn’t want to deadhead 400 miles.
This is far more frustrating than getting the Taj built.
The end of 50 caliber uppers? The end of belt fed uppers?
We have been notified by ATF Industry operations that The BOHICA MKIV and the Saftey Harbor Upper in particular (With more more to come as I was told) Have been determined to be GCA firearms by the tech branch. We are still waiting on the actual tech branch finding, but have been issued administrative notice that we are no longer allowed to mfg uppers. We have been in a holding pattern for the last 4 months due to notification of a pending finding. I would ASSUME that this will aslo extend to the Ferret, ALS, Tactilite and the Blackthorne as well ( This is MY speculation)
This carries dire consequences for the entire AR15 community as this is no doubt a start of more controls. I was also told that this will extend to the Belt Fed Razorback and LM7 from Lakeside as well as the Ares Shrike.
Laid off.
Bummer.
Droid 3 annoyances
Two changes that really annoy:
- the order of the buttons at the bottom of the screen changed, so I’m constantly exiting apps when I meant to pop the options dialog open.
- the power button is so thin and so deep in the fascia that I have to use a fingernail to actuate it. I liked the old Droid’s larger button; you just had to find the corner of the device to turn it on. The Droid 3 required seeking the exact middle of the top, lining up your nail, and pressing carefully.
Droid 3 first impressions
I upgraded from the original Droid to the Droid 3. My options were an iPhone 4, Droid 3, Incredible 2, Bionic, or stay with my current phone. iPhone 4 is right out; the more I use the work ones, the more I loathe them. Arden got an Incredible 2, which is a tiny thing, but no keyboard is a killer for me. The Bionic also doesn’t have a keyboard, but I was willing to entertain it for the 4G – but it’s like, the size of an iPad. My original Droid is in great shape, but the lack of OS updates is really pissing me off.
Since I had the Droid backing up everything to Google, I had an easy time setting up the Droid 3 – even my wireless network settings and ringtones came over. Once all the apps downloaded OTA, I went through and set them up – too bad so many of the apps don’t back up to Google in any way.
The screen is nice, and the dual cores really help for games (no more lag in Angry Birds!). It’s slightly larger in all ways than the original Droid, but the five row keyboard makes it worth it. It does not come with a micro SD card, which is lame; it also comes with a HUGE FUCKING CARRIER DECK of bloatware you can’t uninstall. The social media shit Motorola wedges in is worthless and uninstallable, as well. Look! Flickr integration that never works! Kickass!
The GPS is far more responsive than the original, and the camera quality is amazing – easily on par with the iPhone 4. Call quality is marginally better than the Droid – talk about faint praise, though. It’s really a portable computer with some phone functions strapped on, so you know, get used to it.
The dead spot in the middle of my building is now small enough that I could probably walk through it and not drop a call, where it used to be about 80′ long.
Overall, nice upgrade from the Droid. Now to find a use for my original Droid! Time-lapse wifi-enabled camera, maybe.
What caliber for snow shovel?
Seriously, fuck this guy. His son got killed over a bottle of cologne; hope it was worth it.
I am the top result for yet another search
however, you won’t get any closer to the cheddar. Explains the comment I got this morning.
