tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68310664440248379512023-11-16T11:13:33.423-05:00Efpophis on ...My rantings on various things. Lots of politics for sure, some nerdy-tech stuff, and who knows what else?Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-25319190938312532562020-12-18T14:02:00.000-05:002020-12-18T14:02:33.274-05:00Never Tell Me the OddsThe other day I thought it would be fun to look up some numbers. After all, I kind of like math, so why not? I also like thunderstorms and firearms, and there was a severe thunderstorm warning at the time, so I decided I wanted to know how likely any one person is to be killed by a lightning strike versus being shot with an AR-15, the scary-looking boogie-man rifle that Americans either love or hate. As it appears to turn out, you're a LOT more likely to be killed by that thunderstorm brewing than by an AR-15. Here come the facts and math.<div><br><div><div>Fact: between roughly 2007 and 2017, about 17 people per year were shot and killed with AR-15 type rifles in the USA. </div><div><br></div><div>Source: <a href="https://fee.org/articles/are-ar-15-rifles-a-public-safety-threat-heres-what-the-data-say/" target="_blank">https://fee.org/articles/are-ar-15-rifles-a-public-safety-threat-heres-what-the-data-say/</a> which quotes a New York Times article for that piece of data.</div><div><div><br></div></div></div></div><div>Fact: in roughly the same time period, lightning strikes killed, on average, about 27 people per year in the USA.</div><div><br></div><div>Source: <a href="https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds" target="_blank">https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds</a></div><div><br></div><div>So, on the surface, it looks like you're about twice as likely to be struck by lightning and killed than you are to be shot and killed by an AR-15. But, as someone pointed out to me, don't you also have to take into account the total number of lightning strikes and the total number of AR-15s in the USA? Well, yes, I suppose you do. So back to Google, I went.</div><div><br></div><div>In the interest of full disclosure, I'm doing some rounding with these numbers to make them nice to work with. You can check the source articles if you want to be more precise.</div><div><br></div><div>Fact: the annual average number of lightning strikes that reach American soil is around 19 million.</div><div><br></div><div>Source: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2019/01/10/u-s-lightning-decreased-11-in-2018-why-and-who-gets-the-most/" target="_blank">https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2019/01/10/u-s-lightning-decreased-11-in-2018-why-and-who-gets-the-most/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Fact: the NSSF estimates that there are between 5 and 10 million AR-15s (not counting other semi-automatic rifles) owned by American civilians.</div><div><br></div><div>Source: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15_style_rifle#:~:text=Estimates%20vary%20as%20to%20how,million%20firearms%20owned%20by%20Americans." target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15_style_rifle#:~:text=Estimates%20vary%20as%20to%20how,million%20firearms%20owned%20by%20Americans.</a></div><div><br></div><div>So, 27 deaths per year from lightning divided by 19 million strikes per year gives a death rate per strike of 0.00000142. That's about 1.42 deaths per million strikes.</div><div><br></div><div>17 deaths per year from being shot with an AR-15 divided by 10 million AR-15s in the USA gives 0.00000170, or about 1.70 deaths per million AR-15s. If you go with the lower estimate of 5 million, you get about twice that or 3.4 deaths per million AR-15s. Still not a lot, but perhaps more deadly than lightning? No, not really.</div><div><br></div><div>If you're going to compare how likely you are to get shot with an AR-15, you need to know how often those 5-10 million AR-15s are actually fired. After all, it's the firing of them that kills, not their mere existence, right? Come on, you know that's right.</div><div><br></div><div>Unfortunately for our little exercise here, that number is nigh unto impossible to know. On one hand, you have guys like me who are raising 4 kids and holding down a full-time job and into other hobbies, and .. well, you get the idea. I maybe make it to the range every couple of years with my AR-15. However, on those trips to the range, I easily expend a few hundred rounds of ammunition. There are guys who burn a few thousand rounds every weekend on the range like it's no big deal. So can we guestimate a good average? Maybe. If we assume that most guys make it to the range once a year and fire 100 rounds out of each of their AR-15s, that seems reasonable. Maybe on the low end. Now, if you multiply that by the number of AR-15s, you get a low estimate of 500 million rounds fired per year, up to 1 billion (with a B) if there are 10 million AR-15s in America. Now, I understand that this is only guesswork at this point, but I hope you're still with me in accepting that it's a fairly reasonable guess.</div><div><br></div><div>So, let's look again at how deadly gunfire from AR-15s is versus lightning:</div><div><br></div><div>17 deaths per year divided by 500 million rounds fired gives a shockingly low number of 0.000000034 deaths per round fired. That's orders of magnitude lower than the number of deaths per lightning strike. Look at the numbers on top of each other to see what I mean:</div><div><br></div><div>0.000001420 lightning deaths per strike</div><div>0.000000034 AR-15 deaths per round fired</div><div><br></div><div>So let's figure this out in percentages, shall we? We can forget about the decimal points for this and just do 100 - (34 / (1420+34)) to get a rough percentage of how much more likely you are to be killed by lightning than by someone shooting you with an AR-15. That number comes out to 99.97 percent, meaning you are 99.97% more likely to be killed by lightning than by an AR-15.</div><div><br></div><div>So maybe the time you spend worrying about people having AR-15s would be better spent worrying about the weather. Just sayin' ...</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-74708899689143913052020-12-18T13:53:00.001-05:002020-12-18T13:53:34.481-05:00REBLOG: An Open Letter from an American Coward<p id="2c48" class="hg hh fq hi b hj hk hl hm hn ho hp hq hr hs ht hu hv hw hx hy hz di dz" data-selectable-paragraph="">The following is copied verbatim from https://sarah-chamberlain-42954.medium.com/open-letter-from-an-american-coward-c60530a7a8e9</p><p id="2c48" class="hg hh fq hi b hj hk hl hm hn ho hp hq hr hs ht hu hv hw hx hy hz di dz" data-selectable-paragraph="">-- </p><p id="2c48" class="hg hh fq hi b hj hk hl hm hn ho hp hq hr hs ht hu hv hw hx hy hz di dz" data-selectable-paragraph=""><strong class="hi cv">Please save, screenshot, etc., then boost.</strong><br>I don’t usually ask for my content to be shared. What I a<span id="rmm">m</span> about to say though is perhaps the most important thing I will ever say in public, and in the present landscape of the internet, there is a very high probability that it is being silenced or erased even now as you read it. So, I am asking you to please, save an offline and/or archived copy of this letter RIGHT NOW.<br><br>If, once you’ve read this letter, you feel that it has any value or interest whatsoever, please, as a personal favor, send it on through whichever channels, to whichever people you feel safe doing so.<br><br>If you think what I say is absurd, please share my letter with your friends so you can all laugh at me.<br><br>If you think that what I say is evil, please share it with your friends so you can all rage at me.<br><br>If you think I deserve to be punished for what I say, please send my letter on to the “authorities” or to any person you think might hurt me for writing it. At least then, those people will have a chance to read it.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">I am</strong><br>an American, a New Hampshirewoman, a lover of liberty, and a happily married mother of four beautiful children. I have a wonderful life, a bright future, and could not ask for any greater blessing than those I have already received.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">My enemies are</strong><br>in a word, communists. Modern communists do not usually call themselves such. They do not talk about workers rising up and seizing the Means of Production.<br><br>Instead, modern communists adopt a rhetorical stance where they assume that all people and all property are ALREADY COLLECTIVIZED, then calmly discuss what WE should do:<br>- What WE should ALLOW people to own.<br>- What WE should ALLOW people to do.<br>- What WE should ALLOW people to say.<br>- How WE should ALLOW people to use their property.<br>- How WE should ALLOW people to conduct their businesses,<br>- … and WHO should be ALLOWED,<br>- … and WHERE.<br>- How WE should ALLOW people to raise their children.<br>- Who should be GIVEN which roles within society.<br>- etc.<br><br>The issue under discussion is always something sympathetic, something most decent people would like to see fixed: Intergenerational poverty, police brutality, environmental degradation, bigotry, violence.<br><br>But the solutions modern communists put forward are rarely passive, and they are never liberating. If a problem can be solved by individual action, voluntary charity, by the free market, or by the passage of time, that is never seen as good enough. In fact, nothing that fails to increase the power and control of governments or certain institutions (or to grow the people’s dependence on them) is ever regarded as a solution at all.<br><br>The people who do the work of modern communism, debating and voting on these “issues of the day” are mostly not aware of what they are doing. A majority of them are decent people who want real problems addressed. But their thinking is confined to a multiple choice question presented by prestige media and schools where only oppressive proposals are listed as options.<br><br>Even those higher up the food chain, the ones who create the policy proposals or set the bounds of debate around them are not usually conscious of the way they are manipulating the public. They are hobbled by a theory of history (care of the school system) where the past is merely a series of dragons slain by government policy, where everything is “systemic”, and where the free choices and conscientious actions of individuals have no meaningful effect.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">This is how the enemy operates.</strong><br>In order for modern communists to have the latitude to execute their plans, they need every citizen to be as weak and dependent as possible. They especially need the middle tiers of management, professions, and bureaucracy to be filled with minimally competent placeholders who owe their position to political and institutional favor. These sorts of people, since they are only able to achieve their present position through the system, are more pliable to coercion and less likely to see freedom in any aspect of life as promising or beneficial.<br><br>As a consequence, modern communists wage eternal war against every wholesome and sustainable aspect of life, society, and culture which gives people or communities strength and independence. They see it as desirable to destroy the natural optimum which people discover through freedom and competition and replace it with fragile, orchid-like solutions which could not thrive without government and/or institutional intervention:<br>- Those with demonstrable skills must be replaced by those with credentials.<br>- The self-employed must be reduced to the status of employees.<br>- Property must become regulated or burdened with tax and debt, and wherever possible, wealth must be rendered intangible as abstracted financial fictions constructed of laws.<br>- People must come to rely on government programs for security where they previously relied on themselves and each other.<br>- The traditional family and organic communities it forms, such as churches, must be invaded, defanged, and delegitimized to leave people at the mercy of authorities.<br><br>To a modern communist, “freedom” means the opportunity for individuals to choose some fundamentally maladaptive way of life and be protected from consequences, encouraged and subsidized by power.<br><br>The weaker you are, the more useful you are to those in power. Those who choose to be weak and dependent where they could be healthy and independent are collaborators.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">This is what I see happening.</strong><br>The American public has come to accept all the components of totalitarian states.<br>- We have come to accept a militarized police.<br>- We have come to accept ideological indoctrination in schools.<br>- We have come to accept mass surveillance.<br>- We have come to accept speech codes.<br>- We have come to accept the rewriting of history to serve the interests of the ruling party.<br>- We have come to accept the tarring of political dissidents as “terrorists”, “extremists”, and “White Supremacists.”<br>- We have come to accept the State telling us when and where we can meet.<br>- We have come to accept the State shutting down our places of worship.<br>- We have come to accept the idea that parents should have no special authority over their children.<br>- We have come to accept the manipulation of thought through the manipulation of language.<br>- We have come to accept the radical reordering of society by government in the name of crisis.<br><br>In the 2016 election, the full-throated manipulation by the mainstream press, academia, and the political establishment was so intense, and so obvious, that many people (myself included) who did not consider themselves “conservative” voted for Donald Trump just to poke a finger in the eye of Leviathan. So many people did so that his margin of victory exceeded the margin of cheat, and he was actually able to become president.<br><br>In the intervening years, the modern communists of both parties (though more so the Democrats) and those same media and academia mandarins have only doubled down on their commitment to subjugating the public and clamping down on our personal freedom and political prerogatives. Somehow, in losing electorally, we are to believe that their mandate for runaway collectivism and authoritarianism was strengthened.<br><br>Now, in the 2020 election, the fraud and manipulation became so glaringly obvious that, at the time of writing, at least 47% of all Americans, regardless of party loyalty, understand that the election was stolen and Joe Biden is illegitimate. Somehow though, it is still a long shot that Donald Trump, the person who has done more to expose the mendacity and incompetence of the ruling party and institutions than anyone else, will be seated as President.<br><br>Every one of those Americans who understands this must realize that this is it. This is the last moment for the American Republic, the last time we will even have a glimmer of a chance of an honest election result, and the last time any opposition to modern communism will be afforded space in the public square. And yet, neither I nor most of you are going to do anything about this situation that might risk our present status or comfort.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">This is why I won’t yet act.</strong><br>Unfortunately for me, the crisis has come either too late or too early. Our family has four young children, a single income, and a base of assets which could be easily lost but probably never replaced. We are maximally vulnerable to the sorts of attacks which collectivists bring against those who fight back.<br><br>Even so, if the fight were on, if the majority of Americans who this past election shows are opposed to creeping collectivism were on the march, I would risk it all to join them. No comfort, no wealth, not even life itself is as important as preserving the possibility of human freedom. The hive-society prison which is being built around us must be demolished at any cost.<br><br>But when I look around me, I see many people who are paralyzed as I am. We know that the fight for our republic is unavoidable, and that the time is now, but do not see a nucleus of resistance to which we can pledge our lives, fortunes, and sacred honors without it being tantamount to suicide. We are watching and waiting for someone else to be that nucleus.</p><p id="2f15" class="hg hh fq hi b hj ia hk hl hm ib hn ho hp ic hq hr hs id ht hu hv ie hw hx hz di dz" data-selectable-paragraph="">Most people who have not committed to the cause of freedom are not conscious supporters of modern communism. Some hold out the futile hope that things will all go back to normal, others have convinced themselves that what is happening is inevitable and cannot be opposed. Both are dead wrong. As open struggle against collectivism, communism, authoritarianism, and globalism rises, both of these positions will weaken, and support for freedom will grow.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">If you have the courage to act where I do not,<br></strong>here is what I WILL do:<br>- If you speak out against them, I will listen.<br>- If you act against them, I will not stand in your way.<br>- If they portray you as uncool, cringey, old-fashioned, unintelligent, or low-class, I will not laugh at you or think less of you.<br>- If they call you a racist, sexist, xenophobe, homophobe, Nazi, granny killer, etc., I will not believe them, nor will I care.<br>- If they call you a terrorist or an extremist, I will not assume that you are in the wrong.<br>- When they ask me questions, I will lie, forget, or evade as I am able.<br>- When they tell me their version of history, I will smile and nod and know they are liars.<br>- If they dispossess you, I will share what I can.<br>- If they martyr you, my children will learn your name as that of a hero.<br>- If you have the courage to be shameless in opposing them, you will be honored in my house.</p><p id="a0cd" class="hg hh fq hi b hj ia hk hl hm ib hn ho hp ic hq hr hs id ht hu hv ie hw hx hz di dz" data-selectable-paragraph=""><strong class="hi cv">This is what I will remember.<br>1. </strong>The universities and the class of “experts” and “professionals” to whom they grant legitimacy have no constitutional role in the American Republic. No amount of schooling grants one authority over others, and no consensus among the educated should have the force of law.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">2.</strong> The guarantee in the Constitution of “Freedom of the Press” is not a grant of authority to the legacy media or to professional journalists. It is, in fact, a right belonging to the people: WE have the right to publish and disseminate views and information the same as those who work for newspapers or television networks.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">3.</strong> The Intelligence and Defense establishments of the US exist to secure the rights and liberties of the American people. The US has constructed a vast apparatus to deploy force, subvert or overthrow governments, and disseminate propaganda, but these activities are only legitimate when they are directed OUTWARD. When the geopolitical capabilities of the US government do not act to empower the American people and sustain our Constitution, they are just as criminal as the same actions taken by private citizens.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">4.</strong> Law enforcement and defense against violence is the responsibility of each and every person. Even though we have become accustomed to having these services provided by professionals, they remain our right and our personal responsibility.</p><p id="1013" class="hg hh fq hi b hj ia hk hl hm ib hn ho hp ic hq hr hs id ht hu hv ie hw hx hz di dz" data-selectable-paragraph=""><strong class="hi cv">5.</strong> Education of the young is the responsibility of parents and natural communities. Even though we have become accustomed to having this service provided by professionals, it remains our right and our personal responsibility.</p><p id="35e8" class="hg hh fq hi b hj ia hk hl hm ib hn ho hp ic hq hr hs id ht hu hv ie hw hx hz di dz" data-selectable-paragraph=""><strong class="hi cv">6.</strong> Provision of necessities such as food and shelter is the responsibility of each and every person. Even though we have become accustomed to these goods being delivered by a vast and interconnected economic machinery over which we have little control, it remains our right and our duty to provide for ourselves and those we care about.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">7.</strong> Though peace, prosperity, happiness, and a long life are all wonderful conditions to experience, they are not what makes a human life worthwhile. Humans have dignity and value insofar as they are free agents struggling and striving to obtain these ends. “Treating someone as a human being” does not mean coddling them and providing for them like you would a child or a pet. It means getting out of their way and leaving them the freedom and latitude to provide for themselves.<br><br><strong class="hi cv">8.</strong> Whoever relinquishes their freedom to obtain comfort or security is not acting as a human, but as an animal. Because our fates are all intertwined, such a person is betraying all of us, and does not deserve our concern or regard.<br><br>— Sarah Chamberlain</p>Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-26437713381375172062019-02-05T15:13:00.000-05:002019-03-04T09:51:28.187-05:002018It's been a while, hasn't it?<br />
<br />
After it was all said and done, 2018 turned out to be a little more interesting than I would have liked. Some key events from last year are:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I served on a <a href="https://blog.efpophis.net/2018/08/jury-duty-and-duty-of-jurors.html" target="_blank">jury</a> for the first time.</li>
<li>My son was diagnosed with autism. His twin brother will likely be diagnosed this month.</li>
<li>My grandmother passed away at age 94. She was my last remaining grandparent.</li>
<li>I re-started martial arts training again, briefly.</li>
<li>I had a brain haemorrhage that could have easily killed me or left me permanently disabled.</li>
<li>I stopped martial arts training, most likely permanently.</li>
<li>I've been completely caffeine free since the brain event.</li>
<li>I've been making significant changes to my lifestyle and eating habits, and have lost about 30 pounds since the summer of 2018.</li>
</ul>
Yeah ... 2018 was pretty crazy.<br />
<br />
Of course, the event that holds the most attention in my thoughts at present is the brain haemorrhage, and so I want to give some more details on that in this post. It also precipitated the events in the list that followed, so that plan kind of makes sense, I guess.<br />
<br />
Sometime around noon on December 4th, 2018, I experienced what I later discovered was called a "thunderclap headache." It came on very suddenly and was the worst headache I have ever had. I have never had a true migraine headache before, so I thought that was what was happening. I took some ibuprofen and lay down for about an hour to let it kick in. That didn't help, and it kept getting worse. At one point, it was so bad I started to feel a little nauseated, and so I panicked due to my latent emetophobia.<br />
<br />
At that point, I suggested maybe I should go to the emergency room and get checked out, just to make sure it was really a migraine and not something worse. I figured they'd laugh at me for going to the ER for a headache, maybe give me some medicine, and send me home. Well ... that's not exactly what happened.<br />
<br />
I was immediately taken back for a CAT scan of my head, which is standard procedure when someone presents with "the worst headache ever." Much to my surprise and fright, the scan showed evidence of a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage near my left vertebral artery. A Sub-Arachnoid Haemorrhage (SAH from now on) is a life-threatening condition and a form of stroke that can put massive amounts of pressure on the brain and cause severe damage to it. From what I read later, most people who have them don't survive, and most who do survive are permanently disabled.<br />
<br />
The small hospital where I had gone was not equipped to handle my condition, so I was taken via ambulance to a bigger, better-equipped facility in Dearborn. So far, I hadn't had any other symptoms besides the headache, but by now I was pretty worried. At the Dearborn hospital, I had another CAT scan, this time with an IV delivering an iodine-based contrast solution to help light up the blood vessels on the scan. This one confirmed there was, indeed, blood leaking into my brain.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfD33sIfoINy98ff1d0IN_2uR8GUT4FcIeVlcZ0unhvBocQ-uNdd5-Ae00lIe7RDxUDdGaGjSXsBF98i1ZTq8EtpZrO8rxAh064yBZhY52BvrTJ2NwW2HsVv4JlsY42442pV4PhFIrOkY/s1600/IMG_20181207_210805.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfD33sIfoINy98ff1d0IN_2uR8GUT4FcIeVlcZ0unhvBocQ-uNdd5-Ae00lIe7RDxUDdGaGjSXsBF98i1ZTq8EtpZrO8rxAh064yBZhY52BvrTJ2NwW2HsVv4JlsY42442pV4PhFIrOkY/s320/IMG_20181207_210805.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All Wired Up</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now, I had seen people who had brain bleeds before. In hospitals and rehab facilities, they lay paralyzed, unable to speak, some unable to see or possibly even think. I was now pretty terrified to think that I might end up in a similar situation, and I can't even imagine what was going through the mind of my poor wife who had followed me to the Dearborn facility.<br />
<br />
By this time, several hours had passed since the start of the event, and the doctors at Dearborn told me they, too, were not equipped to handle my condition. I was taken to another ambulance and transferred to Henry Ford Hospital in downtown Detroit, and that's where I'd stay for the next 10 days.<br />
<br />
The next few days were kind of a blur, partly because they started giving me morphine and Dilaudid for pain management. For those that don't know, that's the "good stuff" that makes you pretty loopy. Since I am opiate naive, meaning I don't have opiates in my system on a regular basis, they had a pretty strong effect on me.<br />
<br />
After several procedures, including more CAT scans, an MRI, and an angiogram, they confirmed that there was bleeding in the brain, but it appeared to have stopped on its own. They couldn't tell whether I had an aneurysm that burst, or a small cut on the artery in question. In any case, whatever had caused the bleed was too small for any kind of surgical intervention, so the plan became "wait and see what happens." Since I was still not showing any neurological symptoms, that was the path of least risk.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYy8dHDe_11VlYCBwUfRF02mRzjkW_BSMO0IMQJyh3lw4FDA5ctFgM_nwflY0JczrpWBp12Ctwzm7AJcdCdMOtCSgzyRxxWtcQ-Q1YBLoM3hWVtz-khCdd4ERlgpWkdGCl5x74QD5M8q0/s1600/IMG_20181211_222257_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYy8dHDe_11VlYCBwUfRF02mRzjkW_BSMO0IMQJyh3lw4FDA5ctFgM_nwflY0JczrpWBp12Ctwzm7AJcdCdMOtCSgzyRxxWtcQ-Q1YBLoM3hWVtz-khCdd4ERlgpWkdGCl5x74QD5M8q0/s320/IMG_20181211_222257_01.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Human Pin Cushion</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Well, basically, nothing happened. After a few days, the headaches went away. I later realized that these headaches, unlike the one that precipitated this whole thing, were the result of my body detoxing from caffeine. I hadn't had a cup of coffee since the morning of the event! In light of that, I decided to stick with it and stay off of caffeine permanently. "After all," I told one of my nurses, "if the zombie apocalypse ever happens, I won't have time to feel like crap for a week. Besides, most of the zombies will probably be hanging out at Starbucks, anyway."<br />
<br />
When I wasn't being wheeled off for the next procedure, or poked with a toothpick in various places to make sure my central nervous system was still operational, or being quizzed about the current year, where I was, who was president, and what color his hair is, I had a lot of time to think about things. Truthfully, I was terrified (I kind of still am). I kept thinking that, in spite of being okay now, I could suddenly slip away. One wrong move of my head or neck could re-open the artery that had bled, and this time it could kill me before I even realized what was happening. Then, I'd imagine my wife and kids having to attend my funeral with Christmas just around the corner. Since I'm the sole income provider to our household, I wondered if I had enough life insurance for them to get by for a while.<br />
<br />
I spent a lot of time thinking about what would happen to me, and what I'd experience if I died, or if I became paralyzed or lost my cognitive abilities. I'd love to say that, as a Christian, I wasn't too worried about where I'd go if I died, but to be honest, that's not entirely true. I've had my doubts before, and now, when it looked like the rubber was about to meet the road, they were popping up again. For many years, I have not been as devoted a follower of the Messiah as I should have been. Sometimes I've wondered if God is even real at all, or if I've just deluded myself as my atheist friends would suggest. Well, let me tell you, dear readers (yes, all ten of you): laying in a hospital bed in the ICU and hearing "code blues" being announced several times a day for some of your fellow patients is not a comfortable place to be having a crisis of faith, but it's probably one of the more effective ones.<br />
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One of the things I wrestled with the most was my apparent abject terror at the thought of dying versus the faith I claim that is supposed to give me peace and conquer the fear of death. I still don't think I have fully come to terms with it, but I did work out a few things in my mind. Mainly, the difference between being prepared and being ready. If I were 95, like my grandma who had passed away in August, I reasoned, I'd be a lot more accepting of all this. I'd be saying "ok, Jesus, let's do this thing." I'd be ready. I have my faith - a precious gift from God in its own right. I have placed my complete trust in Christ alone, and believe that when my time comes, He will have mercy on me, forgive whatever sins I've committed, and allow me into His kingdom. In that sense, I am prepared for death.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6NHXjNDnItXe7r5CogDYPLzMiUhMgNGQA-FN8UM5Kx9q6nAeu4fK5_QILwTdZzYzDYn33DYWQC_Z1Y1GjxmQJ5an00ijql5bCBc5hMbE3NADx9Xb5DtI1RSd403VbSLM4Dee-W5ye5DI/s1600/IMG_20190201_200703.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6NHXjNDnItXe7r5CogDYPLzMiUhMgNGQA-FN8UM5Kx9q6nAeu4fK5_QILwTdZzYzDYn33DYWQC_Z1Y1GjxmQJ5an00ijql5bCBc5hMbE3NADx9Xb5DtI1RSd403VbSLM4Dee-W5ye5DI/s320/IMG_20190201_200703.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and My Girls</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
However, I'm "only" 43 years old. I have a young family that depends on me. I still want to have as many years as I can with my wife and kids because I love them all so much. They depend on me for their livelihood, and I don't want to leave them in that state. There are still a lot of things I want to do and experience in my life. I want to see my grandchildren. I want to have many years together with my wonderful wife after all the kids have established their independence and moved out. I don't want to miss any of that ... I may be prepared, but I am not ready to die, and you know what? That's okay. What I do need to work on is to trust that, if my time does come prematurely, God will look after my family and they will be okay eventually, too. That's pretty hard for me right now, if I'm being honest, but I feel like it's the next step in my spiritual growth that I need to take.<br />
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Two weeks ago, I had my 30-day followup appointment with the neurologist who oversaw my care in the hospital, and everything was still looking great. We came to the conclusion that I had come through the incident unharmed, with the exception that I seem to have lost that irrational sense of immortality that had carried over from my youth. The SAH had done nothing to me except scare the crap out of me, jolting me into making some much-needed changes in my life, both physically and spiritually. Among them, I'm monitoring my blood pressure closely, making smarter food choices, studying my Bible on a regular basis again, and looking to drop another 50 or so pounds in a healthy, gradual manner. Unfortunately, my doctor has suggested that martial arts training may be too risky for the time being so I will have to find something else to do for exercise. I'm still working on that, and trying to come to terms with the idea that I may have to settle for a green belt instead of a black one.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoQCBZnqQSH1aFvjtN0TlNRvhcLhoVRThnBPTK2lXnf-jh8kxIBwr3of8pJZhiE4qfTB_OSnjHdfLFuBNhvmRMD7-bpzB-UYpIhoY620l_5FdKQ-Loa2MBTWQDJLm7wV8YwHlIem9cPg/s1600/IMG_20190127_170701.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoQCBZnqQSH1aFvjtN0TlNRvhcLhoVRThnBPTK2lXnf-jh8kxIBwr3of8pJZhiE4qfTB_OSnjHdfLFuBNhvmRMD7-bpzB-UYpIhoY620l_5FdKQ-Loa2MBTWQDJLm7wV8YwHlIem9cPg/s320/IMG_20190127_170701.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Booga Booga!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A week ago today, I had a follow-up CAT scan, again with the contrast fluid, to make sure everything is still okay. I got the final results yesterday and was very surprised. It turns out, they can't even find evidence that anything happened. There are no signs of aneurysms, no signs of any blockages, no evidence of dissections. There isn't even any evidence that any of those conditions existed and then healed. It's literally as if nothing ever happened at all. All the blood vessels in my brain are as normal as can be, and all my functionality is 100 per cent intact. Neither I, nor my doctor, can explain this, but the results are clear and have been triple checked .. and I'm not about to argue with them!<br />
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If you're still with me, dear readers, I thank you. Even if you're not, that's okay, too. I needed to get this down on "paper" somewhere, so thank you for sharing in my mini-catharsis. Now, get off my lawn.Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-21638277236158578172018-08-10T10:55:00.000-04:002018-08-10T11:41:21.212-04:00Jury Duty and the Duty of JurorsYesterday, I received the "dreaded letter" in the mail - a summons to report for Jury Duty. This is the second time I've been summoned this year. The first time resulted in me being seated as a juror and delivering a verdict in a civil trial.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrIUgyL6adevdiFEd4Ie6xk1Ea2nmQKCrK2Oh6qFry7bJtL4WeFFzwNryn20WWPtHAjBHewqNI8EyXmnoLUk8q7Jx4PwYN0gVNmbZ_yTtOtzKpij2skd5fZ4Ldf6Vus_hCi51QR2La-0/s1600/IMG_20180809_131428.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="720" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrIUgyL6adevdiFEd4Ie6xk1Ea2nmQKCrK2Oh6qFry7bJtL4WeFFzwNryn20WWPtHAjBHewqNI8EyXmnoLUk8q7Jx4PwYN0gVNmbZ_yTtOtzKpij2skd5fZ4Ldf6Vus_hCi51QR2La-0/s320/IMG_20180809_131428.jpg" width="320" /></a>My first service as a juror was in federal court and dealt with corporate negligence vs a family who had lost their child, ostensibly because of said negligence. It was a very difficult case on an emotional level. Besides having a great deal of empathy for the family, and feeling their loss deeply, I think the worst part of it was not being able to talk about it at all with anyone - not even my wife - while the evidence was being presented. It took a lot to keep it all inside, and at the end of the two-ish week trial, I was emotionally exhausted. While I'm glad to have had the experience, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to do it again.</div>
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This time, I've been summoned for a Michigan state court. Of course, I have no idea if I'll get picked again or what the case will be about, and even if I did, I couldn't discuss it at all. However, at this point, all this jury duty stuff has driven me to blog about an aspect of it that I think is very important, but not very well-known: the right of jury nullification.<br />
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Judges and prosecuting attorneys really don't like jury nullification. They rarely, if ever, inform jurors of the right. In fact, most of the time they will tell jurors that they do not have the right and must find solely based on the facts of the case. This, however, is not entirely true.<br />
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Juries also have the right to judge not only the facts of the case against the defendant but also the justness of the law itself, and whether that law is being applied justly in the case. In other words, a jury may refuse to convict an obviously guilty defendant who's only crime is breaking a law they believe shouldn't exist in the first place, if they believe the law is being applied unjustly against the defendant, or if they believe the defendant was justified in breaking the law under the circumstances.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBnImpQrpxblGQyI93gl07tGffhJckVAKJe29R_jjAwi18ZWl9YMOFmyqj9vDyli6PnNTpop1wv9o3tBBeJq5moUMpJlBChE414f9jxd-rmnoHSjgxXdjbO5q3Pkul18vQ1McMBYS_a5A/s1600/jury_nullification.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="164" data-original-width="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBnImpQrpxblGQyI93gl07tGffhJckVAKJe29R_jjAwi18ZWl9YMOFmyqj9vDyli6PnNTpop1wv9o3tBBeJq5moUMpJlBChE414f9jxd-rmnoHSjgxXdjbO5q3Pkul18vQ1McMBYS_a5A/s1600/jury_nullification.jpeg" /></a></div>
For example, a sympathetic jury could acquit a person accused and obviously guilty of stealing food to keep his family from starving to death - this would be an instance of a just law being applied un-justly to the defendant. For another example, a jury who disagreed with marijuana prohibition laws could acquit the guy caught "green handed" with a bag of weed. In this way, juries - composed notably of randomly selected, ordinary people - stand in judgment over the laws and activities of the state and the exercise of its power.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxDZjzJfkWMIV0HzYsyrg-KldslvqRYS69u6PhFSpUydh4TfxsTTnN_Yrblr8AhHLTCtWefRQO8x9-hoCgBQ30n0wLeEGjskeBiSzXBhYEjIowaICoQA0Omksd_ySdTExuTkepN6MgXo/s1600/mlk_unjust_law.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxDZjzJfkWMIV0HzYsyrg-KldslvqRYS69u6PhFSpUydh4TfxsTTnN_Yrblr8AhHLTCtWefRQO8x9-hoCgBQ30n0wLeEGjskeBiSzXBhYEjIowaICoQA0Omksd_ySdTExuTkepN6MgXo/s1600/mlk_unjust_law.jpeg" /></a>In my mind, this makes the right to trial by jury, the right and duty to serve on a jury, and the right of jury nullification some of the most important safeguards of liberty we, the people possess. It's also probably the same reason our government doesn't want us to know we have them. I'm not even joking about this - people have actually been arrested and thrown in jail for nothing more than distributing copies of the US constitution and pamphlets on jury nullification to potential jurors on their way into the courthouse. These actions by the state are in flagrant violation of the right to free speech, among other things, but far too few seem to care. It's getting pretty scary out there, folks.<br />
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So, my dear readers (yes, all 12 of you, ha ha), you may now consider yourselves informed. If nothing else, it may provide you with an easy way to get out of jury duty if the case is a criminal one and involves a controversial law.<br />
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Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-83528865877683521232018-03-24T14:31:00.000-04:002018-03-24T14:31:07.784-04:00An Open Letter from an NRA Member to those Marching Today and their SupportersDear March For Our Lives participants and supporters:<br />
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We have a common goal. We want to see an end to gun violence just as much, if not more, than our detractors. I firmly believe that every time a firearm is used for evil, it is an affront not only to civilized society but also to the rights and freedoms we have in this country. We want it to stop, too. We do not want to see one more drop of innocent blood spilled. Every time one of these horrible tragedies occurs, we hug our own children a little tighter and long for a day when we, and of course you, can not only feel safe but actually BE safe.<br />
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With that in mind, I ask you to consider a few things.<br />
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First, we stand ready, capable, and equipped to protect you. There are hundreds of thousands of us out there who would gladly stand between you and those who would do you harm, risking our lives to save yours. We are parents, teachers, first responders, engineers, etc. While being willing to take a bullet on your behalf is a noble sentiment, we feel our efforts to protect you would be far more effective if it was the criminals who were taking the bullets, and that is the beginning of our ire over these things.<br />
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Yes, we stand ready, willing, and equipped to protect you. But, by law, we are not able to do so. You see, federal law prohibits us from being where we would need to be while we're equipped to protect you. Think for a moment about that. The reason you don't see stories in the news of people like me stopping these school massacres is that, by and large, we aren't allowed to.<br />
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Think about that for a while as you wave your "NRA blood on your hands" signs today. The fact is that the NRA has done more than anyone else to actually try to halt gun violence in this country, and we desperately want to do more.<br />
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You can argue that our ideas may not work. The fact is, though, that gun control hasn't worked - in fact, it has arguably made things worse. We did not see school shootings with nearly the frequency and high body counts that we see recently until the "gun free schools" act was passed in 1994. Once people like me were no longer allowed to have their self-defense tools in schools, the killers knew they wouldn't face resistance. The fact is, gun control has made you sitting ducks, and our ideas have largely been dismissed.<br />
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Now, there are some places, some schools, where teachers and staff are allowed to carry their guns. Two things should be considered in those cases. First, you may not have known that those places exist - why? Because the dire predictions of what would happen there have not come to pass, and so it is not news that fits the agenda. Second, consider that you have not heard of mass shootings at those places since those policies went into effect.<br />
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Third, consider what did actually happen recently in one such place. An armed school resource officer was able to stop a school shooting in Maryland, and the only person who died was the perpetrator. What stopped him? Did Maryland's strict gun laws stop him? Did their ban on weapons like the AR-15 stop him? Did their waiting periods and age restrictions and countless other restrictions stop him? No. An armed and NRA-trained person with his own gun stopped him.<br />
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Further, consider why we always hear calls for MORE gun control after a school shooting. I suggest it's not because it works, but it's because gun control itself is the agenda. It's not about saving your lives, it's about keeping people like me from being able to do so in the future. It's about stripping you of your freedoms now so that you won't be able to resist while this country moves closer and closer to fascism.<br />
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Think about which side actually has more of an interest in ending gun violence. I suggest that it's not the side who's political agenda gains more strength and traction for every one of you who dies in this manner. I submit to you that the gun control crowd - at least those at the "top" - don't actually want to stop these things from happening. Why would they? The more of you die in mass shootings, the more their political agenda benefits. Think about that for a while.<br />
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Conversely, people like me who support the right to keep and bear arms most definitely have a strong interest in stopping gun violence, and for much the same reason. We grow weary of being blamed for things we haven't done - for things we abhor and would never consider doing. We grow weary of being blamed for things we could and would prevent if we were only allowed to do so.<br />
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Now, I do want to acknowledge that there are many March supporters who are on board purely out of concern for their kids' safety, and I do not want to vilify you. What I do want to do, though, is educate you about what will actually make your kids safer and what won't. What I want you to ask yourself is, "who is volunteering to actually stand in harm's way to protect your kids effectively? What is preventing them from doing so?"<br />
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Instead of vilifying the NRA and the second amendment, you should be demanding that your parents and teachers' right to protect you be restored. Instead of demanding that your own freedoms be taken away, you should be demanding that your rights to protect yourselves and your own children be sacrosanct.Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-81688289201471986842017-12-16T14:39:00.003-05:002017-12-18T15:37:00.098-05:00Net Neutrality: What it is, What it Isn't, and Why You Should CareI've seen a lot of .. stuff .. from both sides of the political aisle lately regarding Net Neutrality, so I figured I should chime in. Why? Because I've been tightly coupled with the internet for just about as long as it existed, developing software that uses it, and using it myself. I remember when the internet was nothing more than a way look at other universities' libraries using a tiny, text-based terminal. I remember when the World Wide Web didn't exist. I remember how exciting it was when people figured out a way to actually look at pictures using a new graphics-based browser, and I remember how cool it was when a Pizza Hut in New York City or somewhere set up a home page where you could actually order a pizza over the internet! From that time to the present, the internet has been an integral part of my career as a software engineer - indeed, my job today wouldn't exist without it!<br />
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Further, I have written code that implements the communications protocols upon which the internet is entirely based. To say that I have a good understanding of how the internet works at its deepest technical levels would not be an understatement.<br />
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So now you have my "credentials," and hopefully enough information to establish that I know what I'm talking about, and that, regardless of your current opinion on Net Neutrality, you should pay attention to what I'm going to say.<br />
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Net Neutrality Is Not New</h2>
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Contrary to what a lot of conservatives are saying, Net Neutrality is not new. I do understand why they say that, though, so I will explain what they are actually talking about, and how that came about.<br />
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In 2015, the FCC adopted Title 2 rules for the internet. This did, in fact, codify some of NN's principles into law, and this is what was recently repealed by the FCC. However, Net Neutrality itself existed for a long time before that as a founding principle of how the internet operated. To understand this, we must first understand what the internet actually is. I will try to avoid boring my readers with anything terribly technical, but some nerd-speak will be necessary.<br />
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At its core, the internet is a network of interconnected computers that allows those computers to send chunks of data (called "packets") to each other. The Internet Protocol (IP for short - this is where we get the term IP Address) is a well-defined communications protocol that every computer on the internet must speak. It provides, at a minimum, a source IP address and service (or port) number, a destination IP address and service/port number, the payload of data being transferred, and some overhead to ensure that the data doesn't get corrupted along the way.<br />
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Notice how the IP protocol doesn't care what is in that data payload? That is the essence of Net Neutrality - the protocol that enables the connection is content neutral. Only the source and destination computers need to care about what's actually in the payload. This is the level at which your ISP is supposed to operate. They provide your computer with its IP Address, and they move the data packets between your computer and the rest of the internet - that's all.<br />
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Everything else, from your email to your shopping on Amazon, to the dirty pictures your creepy uncle likes to download, to your favorite YouTube videos, to your video conference at work, to the text you're reading right now, is all built on top of that very simple method of moving packets of data from one computer to another.<br />
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When the internet began, it was inherently neutral. The computers that handled the data transfers were not fast enough to bother with inspecting the actual data, and so internet service providers left it up to their customers to decide what they would send back and forth. This is what allowed for all of the innovation and growth we saw in the 1990s and 2000s and today as people imagined and implemented new and exciting things that could be sent back and forth. That simplicity is what allowed the internet to become the free and open marketplace of ideas it has been and continues to be to this day.<br />
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<h3>
So what happened in 2015, then?</h3>
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Prior to the FCCs 2015 rulemaking, there was trouble in paradise. Computers were getting faster, the internet was getting bigger, and more people wanted in on the action. Netflix and streaming video became popular, as did things like Facetime and online video conferencing. Big internet service providers like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc, realized that people would pay good money for some of these services, and they wanted people to pay that good money to them. So, they started manipulating the internet traffic that went through their networks in order to artificially give preference to their own services.<br />
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As an example, AT&T blocked its users from using Apple's FaceTime software, forcing them instead to use AT&T's proprietary (not to mention inferior, which some of its users pronounced the same as "shitty") video streaming service, for which they charged a premium. Their customers, however, who were accustomed to being able to use their internet connections for whatever they wanted (which is what Net Neutrality is) complained, and rightfully so, that AT&T was unfairly interfering with their choices as consumers.<br />
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Around the same time, Comcast was caught red-handed disabling certain file sharing protocols that many of their customers were using for legitimate purposes, like providing software downloads, etc.. Again, customers complained, and rightfully so.<br />
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In another example, Comcast (again) began artificially lowering the speed at which Netflix videos reached their customers, demanding that Netflix pay what amounted to a ransom in order to reach customers on Comcast's network. Netflix and customers both complained, but eventually, Netflix had to give in and pay the ransom in order to stay in business.<br />
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Eventually, these and many other well-documented cases of abuse reached the ears of the federal government, and action was taken in 2015 to protect Net Neutrality in the form of new FCC rules that made those abusive practices illegal. Those protections were the ones recently repealed by the FCC.<br />
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<h2>
Net Neutrality is not "Obamacare for the Internet"</h2>
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So, contrary to what the opponents say, Net Neutrality didn't just show up in 2015 as a result of government overreach. Rather, it is a founding principle and the way things have always worked and operated. The concept is much the same as that of free speech, which pre-existed the first amendment but was codified into law because people in power tried to violate it, to the detriment of everyone. Now, imagine if, 2 years after the adoption of the bill of rights, someone said they ought to repeal the first amendment because, after all, we were all just fine without it. I imagine anyone, regardless of their political affiliations, would be highly suspect of such a move.<br />
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Well, so it is with Net Neutrality. In reality, we've had it all along, and it's what made the internet work as well as it does. It needed to become law because unscrupulous people decided they wanted to exert more control over what you and I do on the internet and turn it to their financial advantage. But, there's something even more nefarious than that at work, and I'll show you what that is eventually.<br />
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<h2>
Net Neutrality IS Freedom</h2>
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Contrary to what opponents will tell you, it is not at all difficult to provide a Net Neutral connection to consumers. In fact, it's a lot easier than providing one that isn't neutral.<br />
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Read again the examples of neutrality abuse that I pointed out before. What needs to be understood is that, in order to do those things, your ISP has to implement something called Deep Packet Inspection, or DPI. That means they need to have their computers take apart and examine the payload of each IP data packet that goes through their network, determine what it is, and then apply a bunch of checks and filtering to it before deciding whether to send it along, block it, re-route it, or whatever. Not only does this take up a lot more computing power, but it also introduces unnecessary complexity into the network - complexity that can produce failures, introduce security holes, and, in general, make the network less reliable and less secure. Therefore, it's easy to see that a Neutral Net is less expensive to provide, more secure, and more reliable than a non-neutral net. So why do big ISPs want to have this non-neutral overhead if it makes their job more difficult?<br />
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The answer is two-fold. The first part is plain and simple - money. They have the money to invest in computers powerful enough to do DPI now, and they know they can use that technology to artificially limit their customers' internet access, and then sell them the same stuff at a premium. But that's not even the worst of it. Suppose you start your own video streaming company. Today, with Net Neutrality in place, you would only have to get a good enough connection to the internet, put your servers online, and let customers and search engines find you. If your product is good, you will get customers and make piles of money, maybe even one day becoming big enough to compete with YouTube. However, without Net Neutrality, big ISPs like Comcast, Verizon, etc, will be allowed to force you to pay them a pile of money in order for your servers to be reachable at all by their customers. Now, in order to compete with YouTube, your streaming service will have to pay a premium to be included in the same list of available content, and your customers would have to pay the same ISPs extra money in order to get to your content. I cannot understand for the life of me why people who normally support a free market would be ok with this, yet many conservatives and libertarians seem to be. Since I usually run in those same circles politically, I can only assume that they just don't get it.<br />
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The second answer is not as simple, but far more nefarious - control. DPI will allow ISPs, and, by extension, governments, hackers, etc, to inspect and control what you do on the internet. Sending a saucy text to your wife or husband? Your ISP and Uncle Sam are watching. Reading blogs that are hostile to the current political climate? Not only will they know what you're reading, but without Net Neutrality, your ISP can legally prevent you from accessing it, or even knowing its there to begin with. The fact that you're even reading my blog now is actually brought to you by Net Neutrality .. without it, my ISP could say "hey, we don't like what you're publishing in your blog, so we're not going to let you do that on our network." So now you see how Net Neutrality isn't only about consumer protection, but it's also about fundamental liberties like freedom of speech. At least, I hope you do.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Net Neutrality is Not Government Overreach</h2>
<br />
<br />
Now, normally, I'm all for limited government and as few regulations as possible, both economic and social. I don't like taxes. I REALLY don't like gun control. I don't like laws that create victimless crimes. I believe people should be allowed to pursue whatever interpersonal relationships they want between consenting adults without the government interfering with or favoring any of them. I don't think the government should force me to buy health insurance if I don't want to. I think that gay married couples should be allowed to defend their marijuana fields with machine guns that have silencers on them. I believe that businesses, for the most part, have the right to set their own business practices as they see fit, and to succeed or fail on their own merit. I also believe that neither my government nor my ISP has the right to dictate or observe what I do or see on the internet if I don't want them to.<br />
<br />
However, one must concede that certain regulations are necessary in order to maintain both individual freedoms and a functioning free market economy. This is why we have the bill of rights, and this is why we have laws against harmful business practices like false advertising, medical malpractice, etc.. After all, if a right is infringed, does it matter whether it's a government or a company that's doing the infringing? It shouldn't...<br />
<br />
In the US Declaration of Independence is found the familiar phrase, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness..."<br />
<br />
What people don't usually remember is what comes right after that: "<i>And that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men</i>, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed .." [emphasis added by me, obviously]<br />
<br />
Did you catch that? The purpose of government is to secure the rights of the people by law. So that must mean that some laws are good and necessary and not contrary to freedom. I say this because I get the feeling that my more libertarian friends seem to think that every regulation is a bad regulation. Well, I disagree - regulations that harm consumers or make it harder to start a business are bad. Regulations that encourage innovation, prevent consumers from getting screwed over with no recourse, or keep us from destroying our planet are good and necessary regulations to have - they secure our rights, our freedoms, and even in some cases our lives.<br />
<br />
Net Neutrality is one of those necessary regulations. It secures and enhances our rights to free association, free speech, our online freedom. It encourages small businesses and creates room for innovation. It promotes fair free-market competition. It enhances consumer choice and the availability of information to everyone. This is one of the few things I feel the political left has gotten right ... if you'll pardon the expression. Net Neutrality should be one thing both sides can agree on, even if we're still going to fight over gun control, taxes, marriage, etc..<br />
<h2>
Why You Should Care</h2>
We should care, because to some extent, Net Neutrality is what allows us to use the internet as a way to engage in those other debates freely. It ensures that my voice, and yours, too, are able to be heard just as loudly as those of Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Donald Trump, Netflix, Everytown, the NRA, etc.. To lose Net Neutrality is to risk losing your own voice on the internet. It's equivalent to losing your freedom of speech, losing your ability to make informed choices, losing your ability to access the information you want to consume. Losing Net Neutrality would be catastrophic. I only hope it's not too late already.Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-6015164129463710102015-10-09T10:40:00.003-04:002015-10-10T11:45:12.965-04:00Sensible Gun ControlIt's happened again. Some whack-job has slipped through the cracks in the system and killed a bunch of people. The "no guns allowed" sign in front of the crime scene was either blatantly ignored, or taken as a favorable indicator by the killer when selecting his target (after all, with no one able to return fire, he was basically free to do what he wanted). Then, before the bodies were even cold, the call came out once again for "sensible gun control" from our nation's leaders, the media, etc.. Safe, responsible gun owners, the NRA, and other groups who represent them once again find themselves the subjects of misplaced blame, even though we grieve for the victims and celebrate the heroes as much, or even more, than anyone else. Time and time again, we're called to "compromise" and acquiesce to "sensible" gun control measures. Time and time again, the only things that are ever proposed make no sense, infringe on our rights, and usually only serve to make it easier for the whack-jobs to kill more people the next time around.<br>
<br>
Frankly, I'm sick of the whole damned thing - every aspect of it. I'm sick of these nut-jobs killing people, first and foremost. I'm sick of being blamed (as part of the responsible gun-owning collective) for their abominable actions. I'm sick of the calls to restrict my ability to defend myself and my family because of them. So, rather than just rant and rave about how sick and tired I am in a blog post, I'm going to propose an actual solution. This is going to be fairly radical, and I expect no one will be happy with it, but isn't that what "compromise" is all about? Are you listening, politicians and candidates? Yes? No? Who am I kidding?<br>
<br>
The calls for "sensible" gun control usually come in a several different forms, some of which I'll capture here:<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>calls to ban certain types of firearms and accessories (like semi-auto rifles and magazines)</li>
<li>calls to further restrict where anyone, including licensed individuals may carry a weapon</li>
<li>calls for "universal" or "expanded" background checks prior to any gun sale</li>
<li>calls for mandatory licensing of gun owners / buyers</li>
<li>calls for mandatory training of gun owners / buyers</li>
<li>calls to register all guns and the people who own them</li>
<li>calls for some way to keep the whack-jobs in check</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
Side note: we almost never hear calls to try and fix the root cause of these issues, which, I believe is our completely failed mental health system. I think that if we were better at finding and treating the crazies BEFORE they picked up a gun, we'd see better results - regardless of what we try to control on the AFTER side. We also need to stop making these idiots famous. Their names and likenesses should be erased from public discourse and consigned to the dung-heap of forgotten history rather than broadcast 24/7 on the "news." This is not really something that can be legislated, though, since there's that other amendment that guarantees free speech and a free press. Rather, it's something we should just do as a society. I also think most sensible people agree on that, so I'll simply gloss over it here. </div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
Meanwhile, most law abiding gun owners feel there are enough, or even too many restrictions in place already, and that our second amendment rights should instead be expanded (or restored, if you're into splitting hairs). We'd like to see:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>an end to restrictions on what kinds of guns and accessories we can own (i/e: "assault weapons," suppressors, big magazines, etc.)</li>
<li>the right to legally carry, for self-defense purposes, wherever we have a right to go, including across state lines</li>
<li>minimal to no hassle when buying a new or used gun or accessory</li>
<li>not having to ask permission from government officials or pay exorbitant licensing fees before exercising our rights</li>
<li>some way to keep the whack-jobs in check <i>that doesn't negatively impact us</i></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
From dictionary.com (emphasis added by me):</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Compromise (n): 1. a settlement of differences by <i><b>mutual </b></i>concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by <b><i>reciprocal </i></b>modification of demands.</blockquote>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
Note that "compromise" does not mean "I give up more of my rights and get nothing in return. Again." Nor does it mean "'shall not be infringed,' motherf***er, deal with it."</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
So, let's take an honest look at both lists and see what we can each live with and without, OK? I can select a few things from the first list that I would be willing to support in order to gain a few things from the second list, and there are a few things on the second list that I wouldn't be terribly upset to lose in order to keep some of the first-list things from happening.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
My proposal, therefore, consists of a couple key components, each of which I will present with a brief(?) rationale. Through this, the gun control crowd will get the following:<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>Get: "expanded" background checks prior to any gun sale</li>
<li>Get: mandatory licensing of gun owners / buyers</li>
<li>Get: mandatory training of gun owners / buyers</li>
<li>Get: registration of gun owners / buyers</li>
<li>Give: restrictions on types of guns and accessories that can be owned</li>
<li>Give: restrictions on where licensed people can carry</li>
<li>Give: registration of guns themselves</li>
</ul>
<div>
The gun rights crowd will get the following:</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Get: an end to restrictions on what kinds of guns and accessories we can own (i/e: "assault weapons," suppressors, big magazines, etc.)</li>
<li>Get: the right to legally carry, for self-defense purposes, wherever we have a right to go, including across state lines</li>
<li>Give: now have to be licensed and registered</li>
<li>Give: have to submit to mandatory training requirements</li>
<li>Give: more hassle when buying a gun in the form of background checks </li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
We would all get, hopefully, an improved way to keep the whack-jobs in check that doesn't place too heavy a burden on the rest of us. In some cases, both sides should be able to get close to what they want - i/e: instead of outright bans on guns, there are some reasonable hurdles to clear prior to ownership that are designed to ensure everyone's safety - including the owner.<br>
<br>
The big problem I've had with the calls for tighter gun control laws and "compromise" is that they aren't really proposing a compromise - they're just proposing more restrictions and requirements, with no concessions in return. Anyway .. here's how I think this could play out to everyone's benefit:<br>
<br></div>
<div>
1. Federal preemption for firearms laws - meaning state and local governments do not get to make their own gun laws. Rationale: The right to bear arms is guaranteed by the federal constitution, therefore its regulation should be a federal matter. This will eliminate the confusing and loop-hole-ridden patchwork of laws on the books now, which is part of the reason there are so many cracks in the current system. I am ordinarily a fan of States' rights, but I don't for a second think that constitutional rights are the domain of the states.<br>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
"If the words 'congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion .. ' can be interpreted such that 99.9% of the population of some tiny little village in the middle of nowhere can't decide they want a manger scene on the town hall lawn, then ' .. the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed' should prevent the NYPD from being able to throw me in prison for simply bringing my handgun into the city."</blockquote>
</div>
<div>
2. Open up the NICS system so that private individuals could run a quick, anonymous background check prior to selling a firearm without having to seek out a dealer. Someone could even write an app for it. If item 4 is implemented, they could just enter the buyer's gun license number and get a quick go/no-go decision. Do away with the NICS backdoor registration scheme, though.<br>
<br>
3. It should be blatantly obvious that a background check system is only as good as the data behind it, right? How many times has a mass-shooter passed a background check before the event? It happens more often than it should. So, we need to figure out a way to fix that system and ensure timely, accurate data is available. The federal preemption idea will help with this by doing away with the current hodge-podge of state laws and state level systems, some of which feed their data into NICS, and some that don't. This will need to be balanced with a way to quickly correct erroneous data in the system, and to prevent abuses. We also need to start prosecuting felons who try to buy guns and who are caught by a NICS background check - something the government has only done a dozen or so times.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
4. Establish a federal licensing scheme for gun owners such that:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>No one without this license would be allowed to purchase or possess any firearm.</li>
<li>No one with a violent criminal history, nor anyone judged (in a court of law) to be mentally defective in such a way as to pose a danger to themselves or others would be allowed to obtain a license.</li>
<li>Anyone with a license who is convicted of a violent crime, or who is likewise judged to be mentally defective would forfeit their license and their firearms immediately. There should also be a process whereby they could petition a court to have their rights re-instated (and their guns returned) after meeting rigorous requirements to prove the restriction is no longer warranted.</li>
<li>If a person is merely suspected of a crime, or suspected to be an immediate danger to self or others, then the license may be suspended and the person's firearms temporarily held in a sort of escrow status by an order of a court. This would be done in a similar manner to obtaining a search warrant. If the suspicion turns out to be false after due process, then the license is reinstated immediately, and all firearms returned.</li>
<li>No exemptions for law enforcement or government officials, etc., either. Not even secret service. Everyone and anyone who wants a gun has to follow the same process.</li>
</ul>
<div>
5. Establish better accountability and responsibility across the board. Parents who own firearms are legally responsible for what their kids do with them should they obtain access to them, legally or otherwise. Junior gets daddy's gun and shoots up his school? Mom and dad are looking at some criminally negligent homicide charges, at least. Some court clerk forgot to do their job and didn't submit a felony conviction to NICS and the felon is able to obtain a gun later on and do some mayhem? Guess who's getting fired and brought up on criminally negligent homicide charges. You sold a gun to a shady dude in the Wal-Mart parking lot who turned out to be a drug dealer getting supplies for his next drive-by? Well, you better be ready to explain why you didn't use the new open NICS to background check the guy or prove that you were duped in some way, or you're in some hot water, too. Now, there would need to be some moderation in place here. If the gun owner has done his due diligence, but his gun is still stolen from him and used in a crime, then he should not be held any more liable than he would if his car was stolen and driven drunk through a farmer's market or something. A judge and jury should be able to figure this out in a reasonable way.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
I'll now expand on the licensing scheme, since it's really the core of this proposal.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
There could be different "levels" or "classes" of license. I propose a tiered approach, something like this:</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
1. Learner's Permit for Minors: the first stage. This allows the holder to handle firearms under the supervision of a licensed parent or guardian, or a licensed and qualified firearms instructor, provided the parent or guardian has given consent. The firearms allowed would be equal to the ones allowed by the accompanying Full License plus endorsements. No age restrictions, but the parent or guardian assumes full legal responsibility for the licensee's actions. Available for people under 18 years of age after a basic written exam and background check. Parent or guardian must have a valid Full License. Firearms instructors would need to be certified / qualified by the NRA or some other accredited organization, much like they are today.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
2. Learner's Permit for Adults: the first stage for people over 18. Allows you to handle firearms under the instruction of a licensed and qualified firearms instructor and/or holder of a Full License after a basic written exam and background check. This is basically the same thing as item 1, but since the holder would be a legal adult, the requirement for parental consent and responsibility is not present.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
3. Full License - this would be available to any holder of a Learner's Permit for Adults (kids have to wait until they're 18) after they have demonstrated proficiency and safety with, at minimum, single-shot rifles. Without endorsements, this would allow the licensee to purchase and possess any single-shot rifle anywhere in the country. Holders of full licenses may only handle firearms for which they do not have an endorsement while under the direct supervision of another full licensee who does hold an appropriate endorsement - this is so they can legally participate in practice and instruction activities in order to obtain their own endorsements.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
4. Endorsements - the full license would have a number of endorsements that could be gained by training and/or passing an exam relevant to the endorsement. An exam should also include some reasonable amount of instructor observed "trigger time" with a firearm appropriate to the endorsement being sought. These would include endorsements for:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>handguns</li>
<li>semi-automatics (rifles/shotguns)</li>
<li>fully automatics</li>
<li>public carry (concealed and open)</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
<div>
So, basically, if you want a handgun, you have to take the training (or test out of it) and show that you're competent and safe with a handgun. If you want a semi-auto, you have to do the same for that. If you want to carry in public, you have to be trained for that. Let's go ahead and say that any time you apply for an endorsement, you have to pass another background check, too. There could be dependencies between endorsements as well. For example, it wouldn't make much sense to give a Public Carry endorsement to someone without a Handgun endorsement, right? And you'd have to get a Semi-Auto endorsement before going for a Full-Auto because .. well, do I really have to explain that to anyone?<br>
<br></div>
<div>
Any conviction for a violent crime, mental illness that warrants it, etc., would result in the suspension or revocation of the license and seizure of the guns.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
What do you think, liberals? Sounds good so far?</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
Well, here come the parts you might not like as much. Compromise, remember?</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
1. Licenses and endorsements (<i>all</i> of them, including PC) are on a shall-issue basis, meaning that no one who meets the qualifications will be denied a license or endorsement. If an applicant can prove they already know the material and possess the skills, they may "test out" and not have to sit through training they obviously don't need. I do think that requiring a license for a constitutional right is an infringement on that right, but having the license on a shall-issue basis will mitigate that somewhat.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
2. License fees will be either non-existent, very minimal, or even tax-payer funded (especially for the more advanced endorsements). The PC endorsement, for example, should not be a "rich old men only" domain. Again, this mitigates the infringement aspect of it. License fees should be considered the equivalent of a poll tax.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
3. Licenses and all endorsements are valid in all US jurisdictions without exception, including all states, DC, remote territories (like Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands), etc.. No one who has jumped through all these hoops should face prison time for nothing more than carrying their otherwise legal firearm across the wrong state line. I'm looking at you, NY, NJ, CA, HI, DC, etc..</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
4. Public schools will be required to teach gun safety courses at all levels. This is KEY to removing both the fear and "forbidden fruit" issues surrounding kids and guns. We could put an opt-in here for students who want to get their Learner's Permit (with parental consent) and study for their Full License and endorsements, too. As part of this, marksmanship courses and competitions would once again be welcome in public schools. Some parents may squirm about this, so an individual opt-out option could be placed here. However, they should consider that we do have a "gun culture" here in America, and ask themselves, would they rather have their children learn about guns in a safe environment from a certified instructor, or take the chance it'll happen somewhere else beyond their control?</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
5. Once you've got your full license and your endorsements, there are no more restrictions. You can buy (or make / 3D print for yourself) any firearm for which your endorsements qualify you. No magazine capacity restrictions, no bans on accessories (like suppressors), etc., no closed machine gun registry, etc.. Of course, you assume full legal responsibility for your firearms and their safe operation and storage at all times. This is fine, though, because you've already shown you've had the training and skills required for that, or you wouldn't have the license.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
6. With a Public Carry endorsement, you can carry your firearm wherever you want, period. That includes schools, bars (but there should still be strict laws against carrying while intoxicated), hospitals, on airplanes, etc.. No more "no guns" places for licensed people. No more helpless victim zones. No more registrations, back-door or otherwise. I would be willing to allow state and local governments to specify what kind of carry (concealed / open) would be allowed in certain areas, but "no carry" would be off the table. For example, in a school, concealed carry only is probably a better idea, as well as in certain urban areas (like NYC). Privately owned businesses that open their doors to the public would be able to adopt something like a "don't ask / don't tell" policy where they could ask someone to leave if they see them carrying, but concealing and carrying into such a place would not be a crime in and of itself. Businesses and employers could still enact policies that forbid the carry of weapons while "on the clock," but they would also be held fully responsible for the safety and security of their employees and visitors. Employees, if your workplace is "gun free" and some whack-job decides to shoot up the place anyway, the company and/or the guy in charge of the building who enacted that policy is civilly and maybe even criminally liable for whatever mayhem happens. Employers, you can still disarm your employees at the door, but if you do, you will probably want to hire armed security to stop the nut-job who got the memo but didn't care. You can't fire a person for keeping their legal firearm safely in their car in your parking lot, though.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
Of course, all of these rights must come with great responsibility. This does not give anyone the right to "shoot first, ask questions later." Applicable laws regarding the threat and/or use of deadly force would still apply, and the gun owner / carrier would be responsible for following them at all times. Screw up, and your license gets suspended for a time or revoked, as appropriate, as determined by the judge.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
This, to me, sounds like a compromise. Each side gets something they want. The gun control crowd gets licensing, vetting, and training for anyone who wants to own and/or carry a gun, and the training will benefit the gun owners as well. More background checks would be conducted on gun buyers and on licensees, and the checks themselves would be less error-prone both ways. The gun-nuts like myself, once they get the license, get their full second amendment rights nation-wide. The only ones who would be denied the license are the ones who everyone agrees shouldn't have a gun in the first place. To prevent abuses, there would be a system in place where someone denied a license could appeal to an impartial court, present evidence, and petition for relief.</div>
<div>
<br></div>
<div>
The bad news is, this scheme will not completely stop bad people from acquiring or using guns illegally. It would, however, ensure that everyone who legally acquired one was properly trained and screened first, and I do think that's important. It would also allow licensed carriers to act as a first line of defense in more places. There's a reason you don't see massacres at NRA conventions, folks. It would also strengthen the idea of individual responsibility, which is something that I think is lacking across the board currently. I like the idea because it emphasizes education and training over prohibition, but still has some strong checks and balances in place to weed out as many idiots as possible. Under this scheme, everyone who wanted to legally own a gun would have to prove they're competent enough to do so first. Plus, when all else fails, the whack-jobs have a better chance of earning themselves a Darwin Award without hurting so many people first.<br>
<br>
One other caveat is what to do about current gun owners who are "off the books?" Perhaps an appropriate window of amnesty would be appropriate, providing it would be of sufficient length to allow anyone ample time to complete or test out of all of the training. Then, once the window expires, how do we go about enforcing the law on those who refuse to comply, but sit quietly with their now-unlicensed guns and don't bother anyone? Well .. my answer to that is basically leave them alone unless they commit a crime - but then, throw the book at them. What we really don't want to see is SWAT teams going door-to-door looking for unlicensed guns. That's how you get innocent civilians and good officers killed, not to mention the very real possibility of igniting a second civil war in which the rebels wouldn't have the same moral baggage as last time that demanded they lose.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Compromise (n): 2. a solution no one is happy with.</blockquote>
Now that you've read through this, I'd like to make it clear that I understand that the likelihood is that something like this will never happen. It would require starting over from scratch, for one thing - wiping out all of the existing laws at federal, state, and local levels, and replacing them with one uniform, national set. I understand it'll never happen. I intend it as more of a thought experiment - an attempt to find some sort of common ground that both ensures that anyone who chooses to exercise their second amendment rights also receives the training necessary to do so responsibly and safely.<br>
<br>
Perhaps the toughest obstacle, though, is that both sides of this debate will need to change their attitudes about guns and their use in crimes. The gun control crowd would need to acknowledge that guns themselves aren't evil, and focus on the "people problem." The gun nuts should recognize that gun violence, as much or more-so than unconstitutional laws, is an affront to the second amendment of the worst kind and work more earnestly to end it.<br>
<br>
I think the two sides of the debate are very polarized now, but at the end of the day we both want the same thing - to end, or at least dramatically reduce the problem of "gun violence" in America. If we're ever going to reach a consensus, though, both sides are going to have to be willing to give a little, or maybe even a lot. Most importantly, we have got to find common ground and work together. I think this concept does that in a manner that is at least somewhat fair to both sides, and stands a good chance of improving things. A guy can dream, can't he?Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-49862758753623584642014-10-30T15:30:00.000-04:002015-11-18T13:12:08.532-05:00The Doctor and the Albatross - Prologue<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Prologue </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's All This, Then?</b></div>
<br />
My oldest daughter is 14.5 as of the time I'm writing this. She is an avid author, mostly of fan-fiction with a little poetry and other stuff thrown in for flavor. Ask her what she wants to do for fun, and she'll ask you for a notebook, something to write with, and a few hours of peace and quiet. She's also very talented. I've read most of her stuff and it's really quite good.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs10/i/2006/077/0/4/The_Tardis_by_DISENT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs10/i/2006/077/0/4/The_Tardis_by_DISENT.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tardis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In fact, she's inspired me to take my own stab at a piece of fan-fiction. That is what I'm going to present here, as a series of entries to my blog. What you are about to read, for those unfamiliar with the fan-fiction universe, is called a "cross-over." It's a story in which characters and universes of two separate franchises interact to create a new adventure for both .. basically. Usually a cross-over assumes that the reader is familiar with both "parent universes," and this will contribute to his enjoyment of the story. I've tried to do that, but at the same time I've provided some details to try and help those who may not be overly familiar with either of the universes I'm about to unceremoniously smash together.<br />
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With that said, however, if you haven't seen David Tennant as Doctor Who, and/or you haven't watched Joss Whedon's masterpiece <i>Firefly</i> and the movie that followed it (called <i>Serenity</i>) then please stop what you're doing, go log onto Netflix or whatever, and watch them. Do it now. Not so much because it will help you better appreciate this story, but just because they are both excellent series and you will be a better, wiser person for having viewed them.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090714124528/firefly/images/1/11/Firefly_class_ship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090714124528/firefly/images/1/11/Firefly_class_ship.jpg" height="197" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Serenity</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Firefly and Doctor Who are two sci-fi series on the opposite ends of not only the longevity spectrum, but others as well. The Doctor has been puttering around through space-time in his bizarre police box ship for over 65 years now, and is the longest running sci-fi show ever. Conversely, Firefly was canceled, most fans believe unjustly, after just one season. Firefly portrays a more believable future than most sci-fi shows - there are no phasers, light-sabers, or photon torpedoes. Humanity, after having expanded into space to survive (and having done so without warp drive or transporters), still believes itself to be the only intelligent life in the universe, and maintains its conflicted nature which breeds corruption and war along with compassion and love. Doctor Who, however, contains some of the craziest, most outlandish, wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, cheesy, steam-punk-ish, and mind-numbing .. stuff I've ever seen, complete with time travel paradoxes that inexplicably sort themselves out, alien robots with toilet plungers protruding from their forms .. the list goes on and on. Obviously, I am a huge fan of both.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/de/f4/cb/def4cb017b782eb4e6f088310dc2a190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/de/f4/cb/def4cb017b782eb4e6f088310dc2a190.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Possibilities ...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So what would happen if the Tardis suddenly showed up in Serenity's cargo bay? To be fair, I did search the web for other Firefly/Doctor Who crossovers, and there are plenty. I didn't read any of them.<br />
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I had originally presented this story as a series of posts, but I have now consolidated it into one giant page that you can get to from the front of my blog, or <a href="http://blog.efpophis.net/p/the-doctor-and-albatross.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I did this to make it easier on the reader to follow along since, in blog format, the posts appear in reverse order, and .. you know .. spoilers.<br />
<br />Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-76946762452735244062014-09-05T16:04:00.000-04:002018-01-02T14:43:33.151-05:00Catching Up and Giving up the CupYes, I know it's been an awful long time since last I blogged anything. I've been awfully busy, still with the baby and family. I've also been devoting a little more time when I can to my amateur radio hobby by either making contacts or working to improve my antennas. Once I have something I'm reasonably happy with, I may blog about that, too.<br />
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I've had to go on another hiatus with regard to my ninjutsu training as well. It's just not realistic to continue that when I have a one-year-old who still won't sleep through the night. A friend of our family rightfully refers to the early years of a child's life as "the Cave Years." Hopefully once everyone's a little older and more independent, I will be able to start up again permanently.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4j5UVsBJho9oi0ljftqYAua002JY6DtZ-QYG1WdhAwvZLb5N1yXU9rmwVQ5ZzOkVRosZKn2NyaaEnnnKJMaXRNq_Ml4eOurlb5D6HJ_Vw6ZjR9Yo1kanvtcSN5Okdxq1JOlcWjVSrQ8/s1600/20140829_191909_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4j5UVsBJho9oi0ljftqYAua002JY6DtZ-QYG1WdhAwvZLb5N1yXU9rmwVQ5ZzOkVRosZKn2NyaaEnnnKJMaXRNq_Ml4eOurlb5D6HJ_Vw6ZjR9Yo1kanvtcSN5Okdxq1JOlcWjVSrQ8/s1600/20140829_191909_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of my antenna system</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyway, something that happened last week inspired me to write again, and that will be the main focus of this article. On Friday, I spent several hours working on my antenna project. This involved climbing up and down off the roof, using ropes to lift a bunch of wires into the air with the help of some well-placed trees, a slingshot, and some 1.5 Oz lead sinkers - not to mention constantly fending off swarms of blood-sucking, bite-y sting-y bugs. Did you know mosquitoes come in two sizes here in Michigan? They're either small enough to crawl through your screen door, or large enough to knock it off its hinges and drag you into the woods.<br />
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After this antenna work, I was pretty worn out - it was a pretty good workout. I slept really well that night, and the next day I started to feel like utter crap after being awake for a few hours. I felt run-down, exhausted, weak, and completely lethargic. To top it off, I got the mother of all headaches that just wouldn't go away, in spite of taking a bunch of ibuprofin and drinking lots of coffee - the two things that usually help me with that. This was Saturday. Sunday was even worse. My headache never went away and kept me awake most of Saturday night - that is, when Isabel wasn't screaming for attention. I don't remember much of Sunday, other than it was bad. At one point, I felt like I was going to be sick and needed to lay down. I went to bed early, and felt even worse in the morning.<br />
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Monday morning was, thankfully, Labor Day, so I didn't have to go to work. I dragged my exhausted body out of bed at about 8:30AM and began to make my morning cup of coffee when something on the K-cup box caught my eye. It was one word - "Decaffeinated."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXEvgpMp7YP5SfVGamcoVKSI2rmPHt_N_5NeCTrw4b_XYCTjJXQSYMTiN4RQMyh2H5Qo72xQydfOF9oftvF1beg2u7L3fs6p4M5wwAg7YX_JpBPiW6aZ6jSr4t0jSralChabURErRPdk/s1600/2014-09-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXEvgpMp7YP5SfVGamcoVKSI2rmPHt_N_5NeCTrw4b_XYCTjJXQSYMTiN4RQMyh2H5Qo72xQydfOF9oftvF1beg2u7L3fs6p4M5wwAg7YX_JpBPiW6aZ6jSr4t0jSralChabURErRPdk/s1600/2014-09-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Dreaded Decaf Discovery</td></tr>
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As it turns out, my wife had bought the box on Friday because it was on sale and hadn't noticed that it was decaf. Suddenly, it all made sense - I had been going through caffeine withdrawals the whole weekend! Fortunately, we had some of the real stuff, too, so I made myself a cup of that right away. Of course, as soon as I had some caffeine back in my bloodstream, I felt a thousand percent better. My energy level was back to normal, the nausea went away, the headache disappeared, and I realized that I am most likely physiologically addicted to caffeine.<br />
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So, I've decided to quit caffeine altogether. I've heard people who have done this often feel much better and have more energy after their body recovers from the addiction, so I'm hoping that will be the case for me, too. Now, understand that I don't drink that much to begin with. I usually have a 10Oz cup three times a day, plus a diet soda with lunch. Still, it's amazing how hard the withdrawal symptoms hit me! I think if Al Qaeda or ISIS want to really screw America over, they should disrupt our coffee supply - we'd all be too tired and worn out to respond! I certainly know that if the zombie apocalypse happens, and I have to quit coffee cold-turkey, I'd have a hard time functioning.<br />
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Therefore, I've decided I'm not going to quit cold-turkey. Rather, I'm going to gradually wean myself off of it. I've already given up the lunchtime soda and my afternoon cup, and I haven't noticed any ill effects. I still have two cups first thing in the morning, though. I'm going to give myself a few more days like this, and then see about spreading those two out, shrinking their size, and eventually eliminating them and drinking more water instead. For now, though ...<br />
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<br />Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-40227086101405206492014-02-18T13:17:00.000-05:002016-12-07T18:41:04.464-05:00A Hero's PassingIt's Christmas Eve, 1944 or thereabouts. A fleet of transport ships has set sail on the English Channel carrying fresh troops bound for France and the European theater of allied operations during World War 2. Their mission would be to bolster allied defenses in the face of a fresh German onslaught that would later be referred to as The Battle of the Bulge. For the moment, things are not going well - not for the allies, and not for the fleet of ships now being harassed and picked off by u-boats. Aboard one of the ships, a country boy from some no-name backwoods town in upstate New York tries to tune out the cries for help coming from his fellow soldiers who were so unfortunate as to be aboard one of the sinking ships. They can't be helped - stopping would make them sitting ducks and all would be lost. It wouldn't be the first time he said goodbye in his mind to everything he knew back home, including the wife and unborn child he had left behind, and waited for his own inevitable and imminent demise.<br />
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"Any minute now," he mutters to himself as he thinks of his wife - my grandmother, and her child - my dad, for what he is sure will be the last time.</div>
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It didn't happen. Ships were sunk to the left and right, but not his. A miracle? Perhaps .. but miracles don't usually deliver a man into the depth of horror that was western Europe at the time. Over the next few months, that simple country boy would see things and do things that no one should ever have to see or do - freezing foxholes, concentration camps, massacres, bombed out cities, and God only knows what else. He would see and inflict death more often than he could track, yet somehow manage to avoid its grasp. There were probably more than a few times when he thought those men drowning in the Channel on Christmas Eve were the lucky ones. Some of those things he would never speak of, not even to those closest to him, and the things he would be able to discuss would be the stuff of nightmares.</div>
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Finally, it was over. The war in Europe had been won, and Japan would soon surrender after witnessing devastating fury of America's newest weapon. Against all odds, grandpa came home. Back to his sleepy little hometown in upstate NY. Back to his family where he finally got to meet his son for the first time. He would never forget what he went through, and it would always be there in the back of his mind. But, he would manage. He would raise his family as best he knew how, and they would turn out ok, too. That's what he had fought for, after all. He had done his duty, and the world, for the moment, would be safe.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdhclkE2ctOmBaM31o4uAe3xolRrKmp3gta5bnol-vYr5pP6xi5Kty7USkohfggROdgkoNj1sd6pzIHRMMTbIg9iuiTmNcfDpGV2-UjUCC890eCkc6JsN2KLIz81uiUo8zzm-H0SfbFk/s1600/IMG00085-20100629-1549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdhclkE2ctOmBaM31o4uAe3xolRrKmp3gta5bnol-vYr5pP6xi5Kty7USkohfggROdgkoNj1sd6pzIHRMMTbIg9iuiTmNcfDpGV2-UjUCC890eCkc6JsN2KLIz81uiUo8zzm-H0SfbFk/s1600/IMG00085-20100629-1549.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grandpa liked the 2A, too!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Grandpa went on to lead a simple life after the war. Two more children would come, as would grandchildren and eventually great grandchildren. He retired long before I understood the concept, and concentrated his efforts on things he enjoyed: music, motorcycles, ham radio, etc., and he would pass those interests on to his descendants - some of whom would carry on what seems to have become a family tradition of military service as well. More importantly, he and my grandmother would pass down their values and faith. Even though it took Grandpa a long time to rediscover his faith after all he'd witnessed, he spent the latter years of his life making sure he was a blessing to others and never hesitating to share what Christ had done for him and brought him through.</div>
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On February 7, 2014, having completed 88 years on this earth, Grandpa went home to be with his savior in the manner that every soldier hopes for - in his home, at peace, and surrounded by family and loved ones. He had run the race, kept the faith, and was ready to be at rest. His funeral was a celebration of his life, full of country music, and touching, sometimes amusing stories about the man we all love and miss. I think I was the only one who wasn't able to sing along, but that was only because I didn't know the songs - country music isn't really my "thing," you see. In fact, I had to "cleanse my brain" afterwards with some real music (see video), but that's beside the point.</div>
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/hWNS_cBNpeY/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/hWNS_cBNpeY&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/hWNS_cBNpeY&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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Real Music, ha ha</div>
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I've posted this story for a couple of fairly simple reasons. Mainly, I want the world to know that it has lost a true hero, but the world's loss is Heaven's gain. I firmly believe that my grandfather lives on in Heaven, thanks to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and he's now more alive than we are. Secondarily, I wanted to tell a small part of his story and let the world know that I'm proud of my grandpa and grateful for his sacrifices, and those of his comrades. I hope we will all remember and preserve the faith and freedoms Grandpa and those men and women fought and died to pass on to us.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Greatest Generation," indeed.</td></tr>
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Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-32802087874712902832013-10-19T22:18:00.003-04:002013-10-19T22:18:40.816-04:00Free Software Everyone Should Know AboutThe other day, a good friend asked me a question - one that I hear frequently. "Hey, Efpophis, my <relative> just got a nice new computer, what software do you recommend for <purpose>?" So, I decided to compile a fairly comprehensive list of the miscellaneous software stuff I know is out there and use myself. Why? Well, because I'm a cheapskate when it comes to software, so most of what I use is open source and free. Further, you'd be shocked at how much of that stuff is out there and what you can do with it.<br />
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So, without further ado, here is my list of personal favorites:<br />
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1. ClamWin - a free antivirus program for Windows. It works well, and it finds stuff that other commercial software doesn't. It's not intrusive at all, either - meaning it doesn't stop working every month/year and demand you pay its author more money, unlike some others out there. You can find ClamWin at: <a href="http://clamwin.sourceforge.net/">http://clamwin.sourceforge.net</a><br />
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2. SpyBot Search and Destroy - a free anti-spyware program for Windows. It will let you search your computer for software that secretly tracks your movements on the internet and get rid of it if you like. It will also warn you if you're about to visit a site that has that sort of thing on it. You can find this at: <a href="http://www.safer-networking.org/private">http://www.safer-networking.org/private</a>.<br />
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3. LibreOffice - a free office suite for Windows (and Linux and Mac) that is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office and even offers a few more features. I use this personally on all my computers where I require a word processor and/or spreadsheet, etc.. If you don't feel like shelling out big money for an office suite, just go download this from <a href="http://www.libreoffice.org/">http://www.libreoffice.org</a>.<br />
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Side-bar: I always recommend that you NEVER use Internet Explorer as your default web browser. Microsoft has, at times, deliberately left gaping security holes in it in order to maintain "features" that no one really needs anyway. I strongly recommend installing a replacement and only using Explorer when nothing else will work. This way, not only will you be immune to about 95% of the viruses out there, but you'll also enjoy a faster, cleaner internet experience.<br />
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4. Google Chrome - a free, screaming fast, and feature packed web browser from Google. If, like me, you use a lot of google services like gmail, google+, blogger, etc., then this is the browser for you. You can get it at <a href="http://chrome.google.com/">http://chrome.google.com</a>.<br />
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5. Mozilla Firefox - the one drawback to Chrome is that Google does use it to gather information about your browsing habits so they can better serve you ads on their pages (but you can get rid of those - more on that later). If you're a paranoid privacy person, then use Firefox instead - it's the best rated web browser in terms of privacy and security on the market. Find it at <a href="http://getfirefox.com/">http://getfirefox.com</a>.<br />
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6. If you use one of the browsers above, you'll want a couple of add-ons to make your browsing experience a little more safe and enjoyable. Web Of Trust, or WOT, is the first one. It will warn you if you're about to visit a malicious or unsafe web site. It features an extensive and set of controls allowing you to customize its behavior to your own needs, and allows you to post your own ratings of web sites you visit. Find it here for your favorite browser: <a href="https://www.mywot.com/en/download">https://www.mywot.com/en/download</a>.<br />
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7. Finally, if you're annoyed by all those advertisements sprinkled all over the content you're trying to see, or if you have limited bandwidth and don't want them hogging up all your bits, you need AdBlock plus. Just install it and say goodbye to irritating ads. Find it at <a href="https://adblockplus.org/">https://adblockplus.org/</a>.<br />
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This ends the basic list that I recommend for pretty much everyone when setting up a new computer. There are literally thousands upon thousands of other free, open source programs out there for just about every purpose you can imagine. If I haven't covered something you need here, feel free to drop me a line and I'll add it. In the meantime, enjoy your new computer - without breaking your bank any more than you already did when you bought it!<br />
<br />Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-17621622030477132162013-10-18T10:10:00.001-04:002013-10-18T15:16:13.293-04:00Where the Heck I've Been for 4 MonthsWow, have I really neglected my blog for that long? Assuming I have any Devoted Followers(TM) left .. or that I had any to begin with .. I apologize. There has been a LOT of life happening since last I posted.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpNcLvSuBCNLYB2Oo2D_li2q_mtBZNQ3ZSAVpcp1I16gYp0p6cIUTa9dpEEKQ8Vd_s-VZ3PzHtQbIomZwHXIorQ5m6h5XZn9X9PKJXPfGToL_xwxSkwYDFS8IoWug0ppSFP2TEAlI3mc/s1600/IMG_20131009_222119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpNcLvSuBCNLYB2Oo2D_li2q_mtBZNQ3ZSAVpcp1I16gYp0p6cIUTa9dpEEKQ8Vd_s-VZ3PzHtQbIomZwHXIorQ5m6h5XZn9X9PKJXPfGToL_xwxSkwYDFS8IoWug0ppSFP2TEAlI3mc/s320/IMG_20131009_222119.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A more recent picture of Isabel looking<br />
somewhat sleepy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Certainly the biggest deal is that my newest daughter was born on July 29th this year. Isabel Scarlet arrived at 5:13 PM, weighing in at 5lb, 5.7oz, and 18.75 inches long. For you metric folks, that's 2.4kg and 47.6cm .. but I figure if God wanted everyone to use the metric system, we'd have all been born with 10 fingers. Just let that sink in for a while.<br />
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We're all doing well and adjusting to having a newborn in the house. It's been pretty crazy, what with all the sleep deprivation and diapers and mayhem that goes along with having a family. As anyone who's ever been there can tell you, it's exhausting, frustrating, and completely worth it.<br />
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I've also re-kindled what is perhaps my longest-held hobby - Amateur Radio. I've managed to erect a set of home built antennas and resurrect some old equipment I had in boxes and have a more or less fully functional station set up. Now I'm starting to think about upgrading pretty much everything next time I have a big wad of cash I don't know what to do with.<br />
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That will be, as they say, an interesting day.<br />
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My martial arts training had to take a back seat from about a month prior to Isabel's arrival to this month. I started classes again the first week of October. Fortunately, this hiatus was much shorter than my last one, and I seem to be getting back into the swing of things. Hopefully my next belt will come by the end of the year. In any case, I am still learning a lot and I can tell I'm making progress. Even if the progress is slow, it's at least thorough, so I won't advance prematurely and miss something important.<br />
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So yeah, that's mainly what's been going on.Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-6191713823263843002013-06-29T21:08:00.003-04:002018-01-02T14:41:12.007-05:00The NSA and You - Privacy in a Connected WorldBy now everyone has (hopefully) heard about the most recent scandal involving the National Security Agency (NSA) collecting data on everyone's "private" phone calls, emails, internet activity, etc.. While I do agree that this activity is illegal, a violation of our rights, and not to mention wildly inappropriate in a nation formerly known as "the land of the free," I am not in the least bit surprised. You shouldn't be, either. Here's why.<br />
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The thing that makes the internet wonderfully awesome is that, at its core, it is really dirt simple. It's just a really great and (usually) efficient way of moving bits and bytes of data across networks of computers. It was never designed with security in mind - just simplicity. It's that simplicity that has allowed it to be used for so many different things from email to streaming music videos to phone calls to shopping .. the sky's the limit, really. If it can be done by moving information from one point to another, it can be done on the internet. And the convenience and speed with which it can accomplish that simple task has become an inextricable part of our modern lives.<br />
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The thing is, we have also developed several unrealistic expectations when it comes to privacy on the internet. We expect our email and text messages, for example, to only be "opened" and read by the recipient - similar to when we send a letter via the US Postal Service. We expect our phone calls made over digital networks to be private, just like our old analog phones were back when you had to get a warrant and climb a telephone pole to establish a wire-tap. And for some reason that is incomprehensible to me, we also seem to expect information we post on public web sites like Facebook and Twitter to only be seen by people we want to see it and no one else. The thing is, these things just aren't so. Those of us who make a living in the computer industry and have been exposed to the internet and its internal workings for a long time know this, and it's about time the rest of the world did, too.<br />
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Your "private" email and text messages are not at all like a sealed letter going through the post office. They're more like postcards - able to be read, copied, archived, and even modified undetectably any time during transit. The protocols that handle these "letters" were not designed with security in mind - they were designed to be dirt simple and fast. Security was to be the responsibility of the user, not the transporter. And don't even get me started about your facebook and twitter activity - you might as well be publishing your information in a newspaper or yelling it through a megaphone on a street corner.<br />
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"Well, what does all this have to do with the NSA spying program," you ask?<br />
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"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."</div>
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-- US Constitution, Amendment 4</div>
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Written as part of the original Bill of Rights, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution">Fourth Amendment</a> pre-dates the internet by 2 centuries. However, it has been interpreted to apply to modern forms of communications like telephone calls, etc, and presumably also to internet communications. At this point, before you continue, I'd like you to followthat link up there and read the Wikipedia page on the Fourth Amendment. Go ahead, read it. I'll wait...</div>
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So .. did you notice how much it's already been eroded over time by the courts? Did you notice how the government can basically look at anything you say or do as long as they can show you had no "reasonable expectation of privacy?" Did you notice how "reasonable" isn't clearly defined, so it can mean whatever they want it to? So, how do you think they will argue when you say your un-encrypted email had a reasonable expectation of privacy? What about your unencrypted text messages?</div>
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What you need to know is that there's a very good reason the NSA and other government agencies and even corporations are spying on internet users the way they are: it's because it's so EASY, and because we let them in exchange for convenience. That's right, when you sign up for a gmail or facebook or yahoo or whatever account, you usually agree to allow them to collect, analyze, and sell anything you do with that account. You basically waive your "reasonable expectation" of privacy by agreeing to the terms and conditions for your shiny and very convenient google account. Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience these things offer - I even have 2 google accounts myself! But, I harbor no delusions about privacy or security of anything I do online, because I know how the internet works. And now you have an idea, too.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">"I don't use encryption because no-<br />one I communicate with uses encryption."</i><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"> -- Me</span></td></tr>
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If you want the privacy afforded in the "snail mail" world by a "privacy envelope," then you need to use encryption, and you need to encrypt your stuff in files on your own computer before you type them into your GMail (or whatever web mail client you like) window. You need to learn about public key cryptography and secure passwords and entropy and a host of other complex and scary-sounding words. You need to learn about SSL and secure data destruction as well, as well as all the shortcomings and vulnerabilities of these methods. Did you know that, for example, anything stored to your hard drive can be recovered after being deleted? This is true to the point that even so-called "secure data destruction" software isn't a guarantee. In fact, the standard FBI-approved method for secure data destruction involves melting the hard drive with a thermite bomb!</div>
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The thing is, encryption and security is HARD. Certainly harder than it was in 1789! Back then, if you wanted privacy, all you had to do was lock your papers up in your house, or talk to your buddy out behind the woodshed without anyone in earshot. Today, the "lock" is strong encryption .. the "secure envelope" is public key crypto with strong digital message signing and trusted public keys. And while some degree of anonymity and privacy can be had from Virtual Private Networking and projects like TOR, "Behind the woodshed" remains unchanged: if you want real privacy in your communications, that's where you have to be - not on the internet and not through the mail. I think the real purpose of these tools, rather than to actually keep your stuff away from prying eyes, is to allow us to reclaim some of that "reasonable expectation of privacy" in case we're ever taken to court over something we said in an email. A lawyer could conceivably argue that the evidence, if seized without a warrant or probable cause (as in the case of NSA surveillance), was inadmissible if the user attempted to protect it with strong encryption.</div>
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Anyway, the whole point of this article is to shatter your illusions of privacy online, and provide you some search terms to check out if you're interested in trying to get some of those illusions back. Meanwhile, one simple rule applies: don't do or say anything on the internet that you wouldn't want Big Brother to know. Because if you think they're going to stop spying on us, you're even more delusional than I thought.</div>
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Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-35042230267221981682013-06-26T14:41:00.000-04:002018-01-02T14:40:42.195-05:00Harry Potter and the Zombie ApocalypseConsider the following scenario. You are a wizard or witch from the Harry Potter universe. You find yourself confronted with a horde of mindless zombies, like the ones found in The Zombie Survival Guide or World War Z (both by Max Brooks). Armed with only your wand and your magical abilities, how do you eradicate the undead threat? What spells do you use and when? Hopefully, this post can help.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110808142348/harrypotter/images/4/4c/Voldemort-spell-avada-kedavra-harry-potter-14771461-500-335.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110808142348/harrypotter/images/4/4c/Voldemort-spell-avada-kedavra-harry-potter-14771461-500-335.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Avada Kadavra*<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*not for use with zombies</span></td></tr>
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Perhaps everyone's favorite spell is the unforgivable killing curse. When cast, it shoots a green bolt from the caster's wand that instantly kills whoever it hits. Like all spells, though, this one can miss its intended target, reflect off of objects with shiny surfaces, or strike something that's not alive with zero effect. Therein lies the problem: zombies, by definition, are already dead. Avada Kadavra all you like, you can't kill that which is already dead.<br />
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You can, however, set it on fire with an Incendio spell. While this particular charm can be very effective against a horde of undead, it can also backfire on you, and therefore should be used only with the greatest caution. A flaming zombie will still be able to move for a time, and it won't stop chasing you until it's brain is consumed by the fire. Meanwhile, it<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fire! Fire! Fire!</td></tr>
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will set ablaze anything else it comes in contact with for even a second or two, including other zombies, curtains, trees, dry grass, wooden structures, and any unfortunate wizard who happens to trip while fleeing the conflagration. While this is not to say that setting a zombie ablaze is never a good thing, one must be very aware of your surroundings when using Incendio in order to avoid being killed by their own firestorm.<br />
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At this point, let's take a breather and consider what we really wish to accomplish. From this article's perspective, we're looking for a spell to permanently end the zombie threat - in other words, to "kill" the zombie. We know from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Zombie-Survival-Guide-Protection/dp/1400049628/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370008190&sr=8-1&keywords=zombie+survival+guide" target="_blank">other sources</a> that in order to do this, one must destroy the zombie's brain, therefore we will concentrate on that goal. While kinetic energy spells (such as levitation and/or push-back effects) may have their place in combat with the undead, simply throwing zombies around will not usually permanently destroy them unless you're fortunate enough to be able to levitate a zombie into boiling lava or something.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reducto - to dust!</td></tr>
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Perhaps the most effective counter-zombie spell, then, is the multi-mode Reducto charm. I'm told this spell can have several different effects, depending on what the wizard is envisioning while casting. These include shrinking the object, cutting it into multiple pieces, and an immediate incineration effect that reduces the target to ash rather quickly. <br />
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While examining the usefulness of each effect, one must also consider the tactical situation at hand and consider any unintended consequences. For example, in a close-combat situation with multiple attackers, you probably don't want a cloud of burning hot ash obstructing your view, or landing on your skin. In this case, you may be better off with going with a vertical wand flourish and slicing the zombie straight down the middle. As long as the cut goes through the head, it will slice through the brain and destroy it, granting you victory. For multiple zombies, you might be able to accomplish multiple kills in one cast by using a horizontal flourish at about eye level. I wouldn't want to be the person to have to clean up that mess, though.<br />
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As for the shrinking effect, further research and caution is definitely required. We simply don't know yet if the zombie brain can still function after being reduced in size this way. If you're going to try it, be sure to shrink them to a size where they can be easily squashed under-foot, and be sure you're wearing strong shoes that can't be bitten through. The virus that causes zombification in the first place can almost certainly be passed through a puncture wound or bite to the foot, regardless of the size of the biter.<br />
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For longer range open-air combat, the obvious choice is the incineration-to-ash effect. The will probably work best if you're upwind of the zombie horde and atop a structure they won't be able to climb. You can simply perch up there and take them out one-by-one until all that remains is a giant pile of smoldering ash. Your only limitation is the range and accuracy of your wand, which we will now discuss.<br />
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Your typical wizard's wand is, at the very basic level, a handheld piece of wood infused with some sort of empowering magical core. All of the spells we've discussed need to be aimed by the wizard - there are no "fire and forget" charms or "smart spells" known to the wizarding world. It is also well documented that spells and especially curses can not only miss their intended targets, but also reflect off of certain surfaces and sometimes fly off in unexpected directions similar to a ricochet or stray bullet. Therefore, in any magical combat situation, it is important to have a precise and accurate aim, as well as finely-tuned situational awareness.<br />
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Since your typical wand is held in a single hand, it can be assumed to have roughly the accuracy and accurate range of a typical handgun - about 6 or 7 meters. Of course, when the I first made this connection, a <a href="http://electricmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/jacobs_ladder_1.jpg" target="_blank">Jacob's Ladder</a> of brilliant ideas began to buzz inside my backwoods, redneck-turned-engineer, firearm-loving brain.<br />
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At first I thought, why not fit a wizard's wand with some optics - a scope, for example. But why stop there? Why not add a laser site?<br />
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Then, it hit me. What a wizard really needs for effective zombie combat is a long-range wand with an advanced tactical sighting system that can be extended and adapted to meet his or her individual needs as situations arise. What you need, young sorcerer, is an assault wand!<br />
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As far as I can tell, Wand Lore contains nothing to suggest that a wand must be held in one hand, or even maintain the traditional wand shape. So, we could, theoretically, form-fit the wooden section of the wand to resemble, say, an AR-15, complete with rails, pistol grip, etc. Instead of a magazine, the magical core of the wand would be precisely aligned inside the "barrel" of this creation, allowing for precision long-range casting of any spell the wizard could conjure. Combine this type of wand with the Reducto charm, and you'll be disintegrating zombies from 300 meters or farther. Since spell bolts don't drop over distances like bullets, we wouldn't need to design a separate platform for those record distance shots from kilometers away - it simply becomes a training issue.<br />
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Alternatively, it may be possible to simply attach a wizard's existing wand as an accessory to a traditional tactical rifle. The best place for this would probably be on the forearm of the rifle since the wizard would then be able to maintain the physical contact with the wand itself that seems to be required for spell casting. Conveniently, this position also offers close proximity to the barrel and, therefore allows spells to be aimed just as precisely as bullets without having to adjust the rifle's sights.Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-53570860283810376842013-05-08T11:45:00.003-04:002013-05-08T11:45:27.306-04:00A Ninja's Progress<div dir="ltr">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Someday, this will be me</td></tr>
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I have finally passed an important milestone in my ninjutsu training. After 2 or 3 years (I don't actually remember how long it's been), I have at last earned my next belt: solid green. For many, this particular rank is just one more step along the way to black belt, and not even really worth mentioning. But for me, this is a huge deal.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Old Belts<br />In a Box</td></tr>
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When I earned my green/white belt (my previous rank, for those who aren't familiar with our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To-Shin_Do" target="_blank">ranking system</a>), I had been divorced for just over a year and had just started dating my wife. At the time, I was only able to see my kids for an hour at a time under supervision, thanks to the vicious lies my ex had been spreading about me. I had also lost my home to foreclosure and had to move into a cheap apartment closer to work - 50+ miles away. This made attending class at my home dojo in Ann Arbor on a regular basis somewhat difficult. In short, life was happening all around me, and as I left Quest with my shiny new green/white belt, I just kind of ... knew .. I would have to find a different path if I wanted to progress further. As it turns out, I wouldn't train again for a long time.</div>
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The intervening years weren't necessarily difficult. Like life in general, they had their ups and downs. I got married again, had a baby, moved a couple more times, and changed jobs. I've paid off most of my debts, including the ones left over from my previous marriage. I've fought and (mostly) won a drawn out custody battle in court and finally have something that resembles a fair arrangement for my kids. The court system seems to finally recognize that my ex has been lying to them all along (took them long enough, though), and I'm starting to finally see some improvement in my relationship with my older kids. My wife broke her ankle a couple summers ago and had to recover from corrective surgery while caring for our newborn daughter - that was a trying time for all of us. I still don't think "difficult" is the right word to use - perhaps "busy" will work.</div>
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During the whole time, I became frustrated with my inability to continue my training. I even tried starting over in a different martial art at a school close to home. It just .. didn't "do it" for me, and I quit after 3 months. I struggled (and still do) with staying motivated and many times failed to make training even a concern, let alone a priority. My health suffered, too .. I went from being in the best physical shape of my life to what is now probably the worst. I'm currently only 5 lbs down from the most I've ever weighed in my life. I feel like I'm getting old and perhaps nearing that "mid-life crisis" everyone talks about when a man reaches middle age - if I'm not already smack in the middle of it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DING, level up!<br />Shout out to my awesome Sensei, too!</td></tr>
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But .. a few months ago, I was able to start training again under my awesome sensei, Joel Iverson at the <a href="http://www.roninninjutsu.com/" target="_blank">Art of Life Sanctuary</a> in Detroit (shameless plug), and I've managed to stick with it. As I've chronicled before, it's been tough at times. I've felt like giving up more than I'll ever actually admit. I've had to overcome the frustration that goes with realizing I've forgotten so much of what I had learned before. I've learned the value of self-discipline the hard way - by not having any and reaping the consequences. I still have a long way to go, too - 5 more belts before my first black belt, and I don't plan on stopping there. Today, I will tie around my waist the first tangible token of my recovery and progress as a developing ninja - my first new belt in close to 3 years.<br />
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To me, this belt symbolizes many victories. It reminds me of everything I've had to overcome and adapt to over the last couple of years in order to earn it. My sensei at Ann Arbor once told us how he was more proud of his white belt than any other (and he was a 3rd degree black belt at the time), because that was the one that started everything - that was the belt he had to overcome the most obstacles in order to earn. Today, I understand what he meant.</div>
Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-47204225642038616192013-05-03T10:38:00.000-04:002018-01-02T14:34:39.845-05:00Fixing the Otterbox Echo Phenomenon<br />
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I recently purchased an <a href="http://www.otterbox.com/" target="_blank">Otterbox Defender</a> case for my shiny new <a href="http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/samsung/galaxy-note-ii-titanium-gray.html" target="_blank">Galaxy Note 2 from AT&T</a>. I like it a lot - it's durable, sturdy, and the holster doesn't break off all the time like those annoying $6 cases you can get from that site that begins with "Am" and ends with "azon." But .. there's always a but.<br />
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As soon as I installed the case and made a phone call, the person on the other end complained that they were hearing a loud, obnoxious echo of themselves speaking. This basically rendered the phone useless for what is supposed to be its primary function: making actual phone calls! So, I went immediately to <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=phone+case+causing+echo&aq=f&oq=phone+case+causing+echo" target="_blank">Google </a>to do some research.<br />
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It turns out, a lot of people experience this problem, not only with Otterbox cases, and not only with the Note 2. I read reports of the same behavior with the Galaxy S3, iPhone 5, Galaxy S2, Motorola Droid whatever, HTC phones .. the list goes on and on and on and on. Sidebar: That last bit is better if you sing it like a grunge rock song.<br />
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So, what to do about this? Well, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/otterbox/posts/10151217751903003" target="_blank">Otterbox says</a> it's the fault of the phone and not their case, citing numerous users of the same product that don't experience the issue. All the carriers are either silent, or say that, since the issue shows up when you add the case, it must be the case's fault. Neither is going to do anything about it except point fingers at the other and leave their customers hung out to dry. Thanks. Jerks.<br />
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Not satisfied with the corporate buck-passing, I decided to take things into my own hands. I'm an engineer, after all, I should be able to solve this problem. And indeed I have. In fact, this solution highlights the fact that I am a messed up combination of engineer, redneck, and former wanna-be musician.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAT4WVjT4Re_ts4DmALoacW61nwt4ABgK6zOSh2KVCp9rZhEiVTzfrV-A3FkZPkD2ONX_45BjmK-cPQ0d5d_yugpi0GVapszJKrsG2-gGcjawQ3NHDe1AJvxt9oKv7uc7p9A3oUnN0uZg/s1600/IMG_20130506_112226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAT4WVjT4Re_ts4DmALoacW61nwt4ABgK6zOSh2KVCp9rZhEiVTzfrV-A3FkZPkD2ONX_45BjmK-cPQ0d5d_yugpi0GVapszJKrsG2-gGcjawQ3NHDe1AJvxt9oKv7uc7p9A3oUnN0uZg/s200/IMG_20130506_112226.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The Earplugs</td></tr>
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The idea is to acoustically isolate the primary microphone (the one you speak into) from the rest of the phone, and especially the earpiece speaker. To do this, you'll need the following materials:<br />
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1. Some disposable foam ear-plugs. The kind you squash and stick directly into your ear. You can usually find them at your local shooting range, usually for free if you spend some time on the range (which I highly recommend).<br />
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2. A good, SHARP pocket knife. No, seriously - if it's not sharp enough to shave your arm hairs with minimal pressure, then sharpen it until it is - then sharpen it some more. If you don't have a pocket knife, a good sharp scalpel, art or surgical, will do.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJHLbe3nIOL9Tc7Y3rDfrYXh15JiSk2hGTkE6AyiaDN6AYhdN5-dUUjUY-XEpxPxLXyx4qZIzyaOgY3HEBfUfeLRJw44aZ18RHLjPRW18ef4eirumNdbcgCzdS0oT9ewbds9FNj1GO0M/s1600/IMG_20130506_104509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJHLbe3nIOL9Tc7Y3rDfrYXh15JiSk2hGTkE6AyiaDN6AYhdN5-dUUjUY-XEpxPxLXyx4qZIzyaOgY3HEBfUfeLRJw44aZ18RHLjPRW18ef4eirumNdbcgCzdS0oT9ewbds9FNj1GO0M/s200/IMG_20130506_104509.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Sliced</td></tr>
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First, use your sharp knife to slice off the wide edge of one of your ear-plugs, making the slice as thin as you can make it. A fraction of a millimeter is all it takes. Actually, do this twice. In order to have uniformly sized slices, I used two separate earplugs. If the earplugs you find are not the tapered kind, you can use the same one twice. What matters is that you end up with 2 thin slices of earplug foam, which you'll use to surround the primary mic pinhole of your phone.<br />
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Next, use your sharp pointy thing to cut a very small opening into the very center of each slice. This opening needs only to be 1 to 1.5mm in diameter, and it can be square or whatever shape you end up with. You just have to make sure you actually physically remove some of the material - simply poking a hole isn't enough. The material has to be able to fully expand and retain the opening. UPDATE: I've found that a hand-held hole punch is perfect for this part of the task. It leaves a nice big hole making it much easier to align with the mic, too.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-foGQnV2yUviOPqD0Mkf7KG6fk_3vaNTSMFRgOOJNIykfi-HS5BX0Dh33TLoUHSl-_KZCtF-llhICtDaDb-PjSw-PSjmN9vjslw-rOtKZSIxl42dR4nsYVwaaRgyqgaCyO2m0xfGARU/s1600/note-2-with-plug-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-foGQnV2yUviOPqD0Mkf7KG6fk_3vaNTSMFRgOOJNIykfi-HS5BX0Dh33TLoUHSl-_KZCtF-llhICtDaDb-PjSw-PSjmN9vjslw-rOtKZSIxl42dR4nsYVwaaRgyqgaCyO2m0xfGARU/s200/note-2-with-plug-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Hole poked and Applied to Phone<br />
note the mic pinhole is visible</td></tr>
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Now, take one of your perforated slices and fit it over your phone, leaving the hole over the primary microphone opening in your phone as shown.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhWyUFgX9SU7tmmEyXJQ9zzfclq3MVGId6ACgipFJDgAjA9OXd6vH4ZnXaKifVAfE1-LcJQjMvFYfSEB4B2mdmxLMx_a7i4SHR5L0WYEo4yAAUcVB51j-sqTQdcm8QjVz7KOafpPDJww/s1600/note-2-with-shell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhWyUFgX9SU7tmmEyXJQ9zzfclq3MVGId6ACgipFJDgAjA9OXd6vH4ZnXaKifVAfE1-LcJQjMvFYfSEB4B2mdmxLMx_a7i4SHR5L0WYEo4yAAUcVB51j-sqTQdcm8QjVz7KOafpPDJww/s200/note-2-with-shell.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Back in the hard shell. See the mic?<br />
Pay no attention to the<br />
weirdo behind the phone</td></tr>
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With the slice in place, fit the phone back into the hard shell. Make sure you can still see the primary microphone's pinhole in the phone, otherwise no one will hear you when you make calls. I found that it took quite a bit of fiddling (and some cursing and swearing) to make sure the shell closed completely while leaving the microphone exposed. If you have a Note 2 like me, you can use the stylus to finesse the foam a little once it's closed in order to accomplish this. I presume some other pointy object like a pushpin could also suffice.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQbbRuiW8zZ6oBQeJiJ58lIbOJvg3z4sZwr9QesspWgbWE4UdXS5AOD36a9kdf3bHf8Sww1n4bAohf_mYWxuxFDpknnprtfRnABoD96ZotA8mGHWq7lWfsS8md7CANvHTwIXRebjOGR7o/s1600/finished-pinhole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQbbRuiW8zZ6oBQeJiJ58lIbOJvg3z4sZwr9QesspWgbWE4UdXS5AOD36a9kdf3bHf8Sww1n4bAohf_mYWxuxFDpknnprtfRnABoD96ZotA8mGHWq7lWfsS8md7CANvHTwIXRebjOGR7o/s200/finished-pinhole.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Everything back on. See the mic?<br />
Yeah, me neither. I had to re-do it.</td></tr>
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Now, take one of your slices and fit it to the bottom microphone hole on the inner (hard) shell of your Otterbox. I had to trim one side of mine because it ran up against the porthole for the USB charger. Again, you have have to make sure that the opening in your slice is over the opening of the hard case, which is over the opening of the first slice, which is over the primary mic's pinhole. With this in place, fit the outer rubber shell of your Otterbox onto your phone. Once again, this will be tricky and your profanity skills will likely be called upon. At the end of the process, you should still be able to see all the way to the primary mic pinhole.<br />
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Finally, you're done. Make a test call, preferably to someone who's complained frequently of the echo problem. If they don't hear the echo, you're done. If they do .. well .. please post here and let me know, and feel free to try something different. Remember - it's more likely to work if you swear at it.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHmaQ4Qchs5WMuNVr5qnl1kQ8M5Ni0LFK8nnB_WTiP5DqDMxkXzDCFVsj9sywcGH5HjQExcrDE5rS-0iQtKGxdVt4e4UEnIXqKIeUvkrbPMMEM8GsWKyTSthX5hh92lm1etF2dL5swVY/s1600/note-2-aokp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHmaQ4Qchs5WMuNVr5qnl1kQ8M5Ni0LFK8nnB_WTiP5DqDMxkXzDCFVsj9sywcGH5HjQExcrDE5rS-0iQtKGxdVt4e4UEnIXqKIeUvkrbPMMEM8GsWKyTSthX5hh92lm1etF2dL5swVY/s320/note-2-aokp.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Just for Fun - the finished product*<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*feel the swagger</span></td></tr>
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Remember, this solution is specific to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in an Otterbox Defender case. However, the main principle should apply to any phone/case combination. If you're reading this post, you are probably smart enough to adapt it to your specific situation, so please feel free. Good luck!<br />
<br />Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-83902531579902589212013-04-12T09:04:00.001-04:002013-04-12T15:20:30.977-04:00Why I oppose "universal background checks"The truth is, I really don't - at least not in spirit.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfn82s4YjSl6ljEWdgrxDLv5zFUUuJqEbAwafNS6XGkZqnXZg1upYs8l93HrBjiDmblaBJHx5umMikliidukJVNmYBh6zUJb5uTa-nCCTn9aOeDFvN-wPWun7KguCgbfTE1eNdMwIL3A/s1600/ar15_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="65" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfn82s4YjSl6ljEWdgrxDLv5zFUUuJqEbAwafNS6XGkZqnXZg1upYs8l93HrBjiDmblaBJHx5umMikliidukJVNmYBh6zUJb5uTa-nCCTn9aOeDFvN-wPWun7KguCgbfTE1eNdMwIL3A/s200/ar15_1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can haz rifle?</td></tr>
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I think it's a great idea to keep guns out of the hands of the violent and crazy people who would do harm with them. The NRA (of which I am a card-carrying life member) even agrees with that principle, and there is already a system in place that covers the vast majority of legal firearm purchases: the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Instant_Criminal_Background_Check_System" target="_blank">NICS</a> (National Instant Criminal Background Check System). Check out the link to see the laws that are <i><b>already in place</b>, </i>contradicting the popular misconception that "any nut can go buy a gun."<br />
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You'll note that private transfers don't require a NICS check .. so, if my dad wanted to give me his AR-15, for example, he could do that (hint hint, Dad ;)) - as long as I'm allowed to have it. Background check or not, it's <i><b>already illegal</b></i> to transfer a firearm to someone who is subject to prohibition (in addition to being a dumb idea to begin with).<br />
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I think it would be great if private individuals could run a background check on the person about to buy their gun. The problem is, we can't. Currently, only a federally licensed dealer can do that. Truthfully, I wouldn't even be that upset if it ended there, but it doesn't. The devil, as they say, is in the details...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfTM9K6Ym-BHMCqC-BNOw4wsptqEAtuIEtQHv2Et73xJR6JuIBLwQSdHzXtAjnZd16GXTSwTtL2DNkAx8QE_QnbqmptRT05cRkiVSjObowq5xtwP4dkDJyXeHLAW4VdZ4AzSfd1mO6Dg/s1600/Charvel-Dont-Tread-On-Me-7-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfTM9K6Ym-BHMCqC-BNOw4wsptqEAtuIEtQHv2Et73xJR6JuIBLwQSdHzXtAjnZd16GXTSwTtL2DNkAx8QE_QnbqmptRT05cRkiVSjObowq5xtwP4dkDJyXeHLAW4VdZ4AzSfd1mO6Dg/s320/Charvel-Dont-Tread-On-Me-7-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Because guitars are cool, too!</td></tr>
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What I am actually opposed to is the other baggage that goes along with every NICS background check performed. A lot of people don't realize this, but a background check involves far more than a yes or no decision on whether a person can have a gun. Besides collecting personally identifying information, the serial number and model of gun is also collected, along with a record of who received it - name, address, social security number, etc.. The government, by law, is supposed to destroy these records, but frankly I don't trust them to do that. The dealer, however, is required by law to maintain those records and to turn them over to the feds when/if he goes out of business. And these same feds are always looking for a good excuse to revoke anyone's federal firearms license and seize this paperwork. This creates a de-facto registry, in the hands of the federal government, of every firearm purchase that involves one of these "background checks," and that is what I have a problem with. You can see my <a href="http://blog.efpophis.net/p/firearm.html" target="_blank">FAQ and FRO page</a> for the reason why.<br />
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You want expanded background checks? Fine .. open up the NICS system to anyone, not just FFL dealers, and do away with the back-door registration scheme. I wouldn't mind at all calling up the NICS number, giving them my information, and the prospective buyer's information, waiting a few minutes, and being told "go" or "no-go." But, that's all that's really necessary .. they don't need to know what kind of gun it is, or if (in the event of a "go" decision) I even decide to go through with it after all. This is fine, because, let's face it, a criminal isn't even going to bother to call in the first place.<br />
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As I asserted before, it's already illegal for me to sell or give a firearm to anyone who shouldn't have one - this idea just gives me another tool to help me make sure I don't run afoul of that law, and it allows me, a responsible gun owning individual, to help keep them out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them.<br />
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Unfortunately, that's not even close to what's being proposed in Washington and several states. What they're after is just the next step in a much broader agenda which, they hope, will eventually lead to the complete disarming of law abiding Americans - and God only knows what after that. This is yet another devil in the details that begs the question, "who gets to decide who should and shouldn't have a gun, anyway?" But that's for another post, I'm afraid ...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrJdfDLovVokqP9Rrvdh_VjaTIbtIhxwVuAHQY29YgfDZRZte5Z5RUUGlgONXkvFmON-OIvwyKblVHhHd5kmSF2ZUAt4NWrlcaNXlsvbUVN1Rvc5ghUvzhAQfCmipIYy2VlEgvetDC7jk/s1600/ak-guitar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrJdfDLovVokqP9Rrvdh_VjaTIbtIhxwVuAHQY29YgfDZRZte5Z5RUUGlgONXkvFmON-OIvwyKblVHhHd5kmSF2ZUAt4NWrlcaNXlsvbUVN1Rvc5ghUvzhAQfCmipIYy2VlEgvetDC7jk/s320/ak-guitar.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NOW we're talkin'</td></tr>
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Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-48666543758852818522013-04-12T08:27:00.000-04:002013-04-12T08:27:05.481-04:00My Pretty Awesome uVerse SetupWARNING: technical content - may not be suitable for non-nerds.<br />
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So, I just moved to a new house and brought my AT&T uVerse service with me. I decided at the same time to upgrade my in-home network to gigabit ethernet and 802.11n wireless. Both are up to 10 times faster than what I previously had. There were a few issues, though:<br />
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1. The uVerse RG, or "residential gateway," is not compatible with gigabit ethernet or 802.11n wireless. Instead, AT&T seems to be stuck in the dark ages of 100-base-t and 802.11g.<br />
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2. The service typically doesn't jive well with setting up your own router behind the RG. It can be done, but you kind of have to know what you're doing. Since I do .. well .. challenge accepted.<br />
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3. The tech who did my install was a pretty awesome guy. When I told him I wanted to have Gig-E in the house, he made sure to run all the connections for the TV and stuff so that they would be compatible with Gig-E. If you decide to duplicate this setup at some point, make sure your technician does this, too, or you'll be out of luck. Anyway .. the problem here is that the TV signal takes up a LOT of bandwidth, and all that stuff was getting re-broadcast back onto my LAN and strangling it. Even the wifi was constantly transmitting, and it was stuff that's useless to the rest of the devices on the network.<br />
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So, the first step was to buy a gigabit router with 802.11n. I chose the D-Link DIR-825 for this, and got a refurbished one from Newegg for about $50. This is a dual-band router with quite a few bells and whistles, and it ended up being the key component in this installation - in fact, I ended up using 2 of them.<br />
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My original plan was to run the DIR-825 (known as "the router" henceforth) as an access point in the living room and have the TV hooked into it on the wired interface. This resulted in problem #3, so no-go there. I eventually do want to have a wifi access point in the living room, though, so the way I got around this is important.<br />
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First thing I did was to flash the latest version of OpenWRT onto both DIR-825 routers. For those who don't know, OpenWRT is an open-source firmware that runs on a lot of commercially available wireless routers and access points. It's usually far more feature-complete than the "stock" firmware that comes on these devices, and lets you do a lot more with them. You can find out about openwrt at http://openwrt.org.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUpKsUXMQWQQc59bJ-gMHL8HvzNAunnvjII-ZwGPesIbkq-FZ8PUl4BuOSVX8_t-g5IKlDcXm_mXfxHw7Mp1RFImR4T_tHtOPuuPKSOxn-4s85WxeKJQWdZWem8yovsR4N7v7Tq5y1v04/s1600/Home+Network.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUpKsUXMQWQQc59bJ-gMHL8HvzNAunnvjII-ZwGPesIbkq-FZ8PUl4BuOSVX8_t-g5IKlDcXm_mXfxHw7Mp1RFImR4T_tHtOPuuPKSOxn-4s85WxeKJQWdZWem8yovsR4N7v7Tq5y1v04/s640/Home+Network.png" width="469" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The end result<br />
Red = internet<br />
Yellow = tv<br />
Orange = vlan trunk line</td></tr>
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After that, it was a matter of configuring each one to give me what I wanted. The one in my office, next to the uVerse RG, became the actual router, and the one in the living room became a dumb access point without any routing features. I actually have 3 separate networks (called VLANs) running over the single wire between the office and the living room: 1 for the TV, 1 for my local network with internet access and access locally to my server, and 1 for guests who want to use my WiFi to get on the internet. Each network is isolated from the others, and the guest network is even isolated from itself (meaning guest devices can't see each other, only the internet). The TV signal stays out of the other networks, and everything runs really well.<br />
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Just for references sake, here are a couple of links that I found very helpful when configuring my routers:<br />
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For configuring VLANs with uVerse: <a href="http://forums.att.com/t5/Setup-and-Self-Install/UDP-Traffic-flooding-with-Airport-Express-behind-switch/m-p/2761815#M159">http://forums.att.com/t5/Setup-and-Self-Install/UDP-Traffic-flooding-with-Airport-Express-behind-switch/m-p/2761815#M159</a><br />
<br />
For using my own router with uVerse: <a href="http://forums.att.com/t5/Residential-Gateway/U-verse-for-BUSINESS-2Wire-3600HGV-bridge-mode-or-another-AT-amp/m-p/2707755#M182">http://forums.att.com/t5/Residential-Gateway/U-verse-for-BUSINESS-2Wire-3600HGV-bridge-mode-or-another-AT-amp/m-p/2707755#M182</a><br />
<br />
For OpenWRT stuff: <a href="http://wiki.openwrt.org/">http://wiki.openwrt.org/</a><br />
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For testing your firewall: <a href="https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2">https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2</a><br />
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<br />Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-50101783261053392162013-03-29T11:33:00.000-04:002013-03-29T11:33:04.604-04:00Good FridayA very long time ago, I wrote a song. The lyrics are from the point of view of Roman soldier who plays an integral role in crucifying Jesus. Some good friends helped bring it to life with their musical talents that remain far superior to mine. As the band grew, and I left on good terms to finish my computer science degree, the song eventually fell off the set list. It was never officially recorded or released - that I know of, anyway. Yet, I've always wanted to do something more with it. I feel like it still has some potential.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, today, I have taken it upon myself to re-write the lyrics a little, give it a new title, and who knows, maybe eventually it will get some new life. After all, new life is what this weekend is all about...</div>
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-= Centurion =-</div>
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You came to me</div>
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Like so many had before</div>
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Doomed to die</div>
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The crowd still shouting, "crucify!"</div>
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Crowned in thorns</div>
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Your wounded visage caught my eye</div>
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And looking past the blood I saw the love</div>
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The love that crowns and crucifies</div>
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(chorus)</div>
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And now I come to you</div>
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I plead the blood</div>
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I shed by my own hand</div>
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Father God, forgive me,</div>
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I knew not what I did</div>
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You left my whip</div>
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Beaten one lash short of death</div>
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Sadistically</div>
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I stripped your clothes and drove the nails</div>
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Darkness fell</div>
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My face turned pale, my blood ran cold</div>
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For dying on that cross I saw the Son</div>
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"My God, what have I done?"</div>
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(chorus)</div>
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Now I come to you</div>
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I plead the blood</div>
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I shed by my own hand</div>
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Father God, forgive me</div>
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I know well what I do</div>
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You rose again</div>
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Like no one had before</div>
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Victorious</div>
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Over Hades' deepest grave</div>
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Redemption dawns</div>
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As you roll the stone away</div>
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Now looking in your face I see the light</div>
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And on my knees I pray..</div>
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(chorus)</div>
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Now I come to you</div>
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I plead the blood</div>
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I shed by my own hand</div>
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Father God, forgive me</div>
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I know now what I did</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1P41ckiRwVAOP4qGNY0vZtJXWNWDszhFLSxx5sb3mwWFGLA14djH2XTfr3v0Za4sSIKGxGXobcprHCptR5bjkGGzcIjeYXmqsQv9nQdaZyjAOCHBv51JuAjAJt9NvSePUG3eieOKw8A/s1600/passion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1P41ckiRwVAOP4qGNY0vZtJXWNWDszhFLSxx5sb3mwWFGLA14djH2XTfr3v0Za4sSIKGxGXobcprHCptR5bjkGGzcIjeYXmqsQv9nQdaZyjAOCHBv51JuAjAJt9NvSePUG3eieOKw8A/s320/passion.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not The End</td></tr>
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Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-33258103919239154312013-03-13T16:29:00.000-04:002013-03-13T16:29:52.796-04:00Fighting with Your Eyes Closed<div dir="ltr">
"Walk by faith, and not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7</div>
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I had an interesting experience last week during my martial arts class. I've been struggling to teach my body the "wind" style footwork required for most of the techniques found at my level. It's completely different from what I learned before, or at least it feels that way. I'm used to moving from my hips, but wind moves from the shoulders. I'm used to 45-degree angles, but that's water - wind is more about circular motion while receiving energy.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivOyKCUWRq8P8auaK1KhhhBbX4Ob3ZDWLAXQYcXNPWyuNkoJOpnNAQaIPQtKNCFGUdyo7mJxzESSOXaBZLLi1nheylIrRyHD0uAYIIHpxl_fJ24hV8lVL-qGHhs2b0-4cufJ-zYFKodWM/s1600/8414361599_a9a6dfa9bd_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivOyKCUWRq8P8auaK1KhhhBbX4Ob3ZDWLAXQYcXNPWyuNkoJOpnNAQaIPQtKNCFGUdyo7mJxzESSOXaBZLLi1nheylIrRyHD0uAYIIHpxl_fJ24hV8lVL-qGHhs2b0-4cufJ-zYFKodWM/s200/8414361599_a9a6dfa9bd_z.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Morpheus</td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr">
Sensei says my problem is that I think about it too much instead of just doing it. My body knows what to do, he says, but my brain keeps getting in the way. I picture Morpheus during Neo's introduction to in-Matrix combat telling him to "stop trying to hit me and just hit me!"<br />
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To prove his point, he told me to do the technique with my eyes closed - a technique that begins with me getting kicked in the stomach! That's crazy-talk, right? But, I figure there's a reason he's a sensei and I'm a student, so I gave it a shot.</div>
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I had to rely completely on sensing the energy of my opponent and waiting to feel the first sensations of the incoming kick, and then receive and redirect that energy. I had to know where my opponent was just by feeling it, and defeat him by moving into the right position relative to his, applying the technique, and all of this without the benefit of sight. </div>
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I felt the beginning of the kick on my abdomen, and began to move through the dark... And you know what? It worked! Sensei even said that was the best implementation of that technique he'd ever seen me do! Not only was it possible, but it actually worked better with my eyes closed and out of the way.</div>
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Now, for perhaps the first time, I understand the scripture I quoted above. Sometimes, we just have to close our metaphorical eyes and do what we know is right in the face of a challenge, purely on faith. This doesn't mean we do nothing and wait for divine intervention, but rather that we trust in what we've learned from the divine and apply it without being distracted by fear and an over-zealous need to analyze or be in control. At least try it ... you will probably be surprised at the results.</div>
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Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-11215662736788206042012-11-13T14:54:00.000-05:002012-11-13T14:54:31.965-05:00Gunplay, Adrenaline, and Things to ComeWell, this week has certainly been interesting. I have somehow managed to pick up my third illness in two months - another sinus cold! I hope this one will go away without the need for medical intervention, but it did cause me to miss my Thursday evening To-Shin Do class. Thankfully I was feeling well enough on Saturday to attend class that day.<br />
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Remember how I said in an earlier post that I was worried that "it just wouldn't be the same?" Well, I couldn't have been more right, and it seems like that's a good thing. As it turns out, the training I'm receiving now is more geared towards potential real-life self-defense situations than previously. This is natural since the instructor has worked in law enforcement and private security for decades. Now, please don't interpret this as a put-down to my former school. Those guys know what they're doing, too, and I'm grateful for the instruction I received there. In fact, it's a testament to their awesomeness that I'm doing as well as I am, starting at level 3 at this new place after 2 years off. It's just .. different, that's all.<br />
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Now, with all that said, Saturday felt like my brain was going to explode due to information overload. Or was it sinus pressure? Well .. maybe both. The highlight of the class, for me anyway, was the workshop we did on gun defense. I was able to play the role of a gun-wielding defender and an un-armed defender. In both cases, the idea is simply to not get shot, and therefore staying out from in front of the barrel is the main goal - for both people. In either situation, once the un-armed party decides to try to take the gun, it no longer really matters how it started - both are fighting for their lives at that point. It was pretty eye-opening for me in a few ways. First of all, I learned that if you're forced to use a gun to defend yourself, it's not a good idea to let your assailant get close enough to think he has a chance to take your gun from you .. and if he's already that close, you're better off just leaving your gun in your pocket and going hand-to-hand. It was also encouraging to find that I seem to have the skills and intuition to have a pretty reasonable chance at surviving a close-range encounter with a gun-wielding assailant, or an assailant trying to disarm me.<br />
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This was an experience unlike any I've had before .. even though I knew the guns we were training with were safe, I still felt quite a surge in adrenaline each time I had to defend myself. I had tried to put myself into the mindset at the time that all that mattered was not letting that thing be pointed at me no matter what, and that I really was fighting for my life. While I realize that there is no substitute for the real thing, I hope that were I ever to face the real thing, I would at least know that I know what to do to survive, and my training would kick in.<br />
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The other neat thing that happened in class was that my instructor told me I'd be ready to move up a belt rank soon. This is an especially big deal to me because I've been at the same rank now for 2 years. Just as a comparison, it look me about 2 years to go from a beginning white belt to where I am now. When it happens, my new belt will be solid green, and it will mean a lot to me, just because of all the struggles, internal and external, that I will have overcome to earn it. In fact, I will probably consider it one of my greater achievements over all.Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-69533231410624927932012-11-01T09:39:00.000-04:002012-11-01T09:39:52.672-04:00Speakerphone Echo on the Samsung FascinateSome of you may recall a year or so ago when I released a hacked-up version of the Glitch kernel for CyanogenMod 7 on the Samsung Fascinate. In this kernel was my first of many successful shots at fixing that phone / ROM combination's abysmal in-call audio quality. Some of you may also remember that the kernel I released made the phone unbearably loud.<br />
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Since then, I've released a few more patches, and they've found their way into most, if not all kernels for MTD ROMs for the Galaxy S line of products. The major improvement over that initial release is that the "boost levels" are configurable now. Thanks to The Immortal JT1134, there is now on most ROMs a nice application to modify these parameters, allowing you to adjust them pretty much on-the-fly.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGDduxybCH33BJQ02vc_cH7x0frriOSUQd5VPfcDf8ItRRS9Jrzk1vaNPKiHKDUCsw3sExbORozMO9QuaG4-K8_tThxfHZJlNtOEB9GLv726GQg2_rXJK6Ql8I3pigvUkbixNOUO_dm4/s1600/Screenshot_2012-11-01-09-32-38.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLGDduxybCH33BJQ02vc_cH7x0frriOSUQd5VPfcDf8ItRRS9Jrzk1vaNPKiHKDUCsw3sExbORozMO9QuaG4-K8_tThxfHZJlNtOEB9GLv726GQg2_rXJK6Ql8I3pigvUkbixNOUO_dm4/s320/Screenshot_2012-11-01-09-32-38.png" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My In-Call Volume Settings<br />note the values for Speakerphone</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One draw back, though, is that in some distributions, the default settings aren't ideal - especially when the Fascinate's speakerphone is used. This results in an unpleasant echo heard by the person on the other end of your conversation whenever they talk. I've posted to the forums dozens of times about this issue, yet it keeps coming up as a new question no-one can find the answer to. Therefore, this post.<br />
<br />The speakerphone echo is caused by a combination of too high of a boost in the speakerphone call audio plus too high of a microphone gain in speakerphone mode. Both of these can be adjusted in a few places, but my preferred method is to use the Home Screen -> hit the menu button -> "System Settings" -> "Device Options" -> "In-Call Volume Controls" path.<div>
<br />Once you've got that open, adjust your "Speakerphone Volume" setting down to 1. Some people prefer 0. 2 will almost certainly cause echo. 3 will give you echo with severe distortion and probably melt your eardrums while causing a significant space-time anomaly in your fridge which will immediately consume all your beer, sending it back to 1955. You've been warned.<br /><br />Next, adjust your speakerphone mic gain down some. I've found that 14 is a good value. Some may prefer slightly more or less. I've found that anything above 19 usually results in an echo. You'll just have to play with this one. If you have it above, say, 25, then you will almost certainly get some echo along with over-modulation, and the kernel will freak out and send an email to your parents and grandparents with your entire collection of nasty sheep porn attached. You've been warned.<br /><br />Finally, make sure you hit OK, or all these settings will not be applied. They *should* stick after a reboot. Mine do.</div>
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Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-53012812480709687062012-10-28T08:34:00.001-04:002013-04-15T15:17:30.760-04:00Why We Learn to FightContinuing my new habit of posting about my To-Shin Do experiences, I'd just like to say that this week was pretty awesome, in no small part because I actually made it to TWO whole classes! Thursday and Saturday both saw me, this back-woods country boy turned nerdy ninja, hanging out in downtown Detroit learning a centuries-old martial tradition. Side-bar: when I think of everything that had to happen throughout history and in my own life in order to make this possible .. it's crazy .. and pretty cool.<br />
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Anyway, the Thursday night class was mainly concentrated on testing, which is very different from the way I am used to testing. For one thing, it seems a lot more detailed and harder, and this is a good thing. This way, I don't run the risk of wearing a black belt someday yet not really being worthy of it (and worse, not knowing it). A twist of fate or someone's administrative screw-up forced us out of our usual facility and into the building's parking garage. This was made even more interesting by two things.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://onedayindetroit.com/system/photos/131/medium/michigan-theater-parking-garage-detroit%20copy%202.jpg?1333467794" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://onedayindetroit.com/system/photos/131/medium/michigan-theater-parking-garage-detroit%20copy%202.jpg?1333467794" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Michigan Theater turned Parking Structure<br />
(not my picture - found it on the web)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
First, the parking garage used to be a very ornate old-time theater. The ceiling in particular consists of the remnants of what was once a grand cathedral-style piece of gilded-age architecture, but is now pocked with holes and crumbling, just like the rest of the place that wasn't converted into parking spaces. Littered about the ground were tiny bits of exploded "plaster bombs" that continue to fall randomly from the once majestic ceiling turned symbol of the sort of urban decay you can only find in the Motor City. It was almost surreal - I wish I had taken a picture - it was beautiful in a morbid sort of way, like ancient ruins of something great that has long since passed.</div>
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Second, we weren't the only ones using the parking lot that night. Aside from the birds and bats nesting in the ruins, it seems some local law students decided that would be a great place to have a kegger, blast loud music, and play some game that I'm unfamiliar with, so I'll just call it "throw the bean-bag into the hole in the target thingy." It reminded me of horseshoes, but without the large metal objects and therefore a lot less clanging. These folks were pleasant enough, and a few of them even wandered over to check us out - especially once the swords came out.</div>
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After class, we had to walk directly through the party in order to reach the exit, and one of the students who had obviously had a few beers stopped us and asked us a few questions. Of course, once he learned we were ninjas in training, he wanted to arrange a "fight" with one of his co-workers and asked us if we'd like to fight this guy. My friend and I answered with an immediate "No," and the guy then asked, "well, why are you learning how to fight, then?"</div>
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I thought that was a great question, and it deserves an answer. Why DO we learn these fighting skills, if not to fight? There are a lot of answers, really. We practice the art as a way to learn about our minds and bodies, as a way to strengthen and improve our health, and things like that. But why learn combat skills when you can get those benefits from things like Yoga or working out at the gym?</div>
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The truth for me is that we learn to fight hoping we never need to. But, if we do, we will have the skills to protect the ones we love, the ones who can't fight for themselves, the innocent stranger, and even, to some extent, to protect the same enemy who would challenge us. That last part seems contradictory, but it's true - most of the techniques we learn are geared towards ending the fight without doing any permanent damage to the attacker. The winner of a fight is the guy that gets to go home in one piece afterwards, but even an aggressor who instigates a fight has a family to go home to at the end of the day, too .. so we learn how to avoid first, and if we have to, diffuse a violent situation with minimal damage to everyone. Sure, someone might end up with a broken arm or at least a bruised ego, but it actually takes a LOT to escalate a situation to the point that would require a ninja to permanently maim or kill. It's this aspect of compassion and giving precedence to non-violent solutions that I think makes this art special and so appealing to me personally.</div>
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<div>
After all that, I realize I still haven't talked about Saturday's class! I'll try to keep it short and simple this time. Basically, it was awesome. We had our own room back, for one thing. I also learned I had been doing my stomp kicks wrong for pretty much the entire time I've been doing this. I should have known, really .. my kicks always felt awkward to me and seemed to land with not as much power as they should. But .. now that the error has been detected and corrected, holy crap! I feel like I really could kick down a wall, or send a guy twice my size flying across a room if I had to, and with LESS strength and effort than I had been trying to use before.</div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGniCfXgtAYgGWYk6XN7M-4PdeYRB-lyqSr5TKzrVeJQgdlj4G9UhcgdeJ7fgWSqK2J3NLlZDsGZ_L8iXTEFKGi-l4ysS9kR0TUe4FqLQq-RA9Xyd39ZTW6GSrIhRuUPwCXKcTBZo-7tY/s1600/Ninja.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGniCfXgtAYgGWYk6XN7M-4PdeYRB-lyqSr5TKzrVeJQgdlj4G9UhcgdeJ7fgWSqK2J3NLlZDsGZ_L8iXTEFKGi-l4ysS9kR0TUe4FqLQq-RA9Xyd39ZTW6GSrIhRuUPwCXKcTBZo-7tY/s320/Ninja.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ninja with Sword</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I also had what is probably my most extensive lesson on swordsmanship ever. I learned what is basically one technique (there are literally thousands), but I feel like the guy teaching me really knew his stuff and conveyed it to me in a way I won't forget. I didn't notice how long the session lasted, but it felt like hours based on the amount of information I was absorbing and the amount of perspiration dripping into my eyes. We stopped when it felt like my brain was going to explode, and that's just one technique. I have a long, long way to go before I master even that one weapon, let alone the assortment of others for which the ninja are so infamous. But, that's why this is a life-long journey and not just a phase or something to be "in to" for a while. Anyone can take a few months of any martial art and learn a few basics, but to really learn and master even the smallest fraction of what they have to offer takes a lifetime. Think of how long it would take you to walk a thousand miles if you only took one or two steps per week because that was as fast as you could physically go.</div>
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That proverbial journey of a thousand miles which begins with a single step never actually ends, nor should it. Rather it becomes a way of life - a part of your that's inextricable from the rest, nurturing and growing your spirit, with each step giving you the strength and perseverance you'll need for the next.</div>
Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-6527081496244859942012-10-25T15:57:00.002-04:002018-01-02T14:28:55.009-05:00The Infamous "We're Hosed" IncidentMy first "real job" upon graduating college was, among other things, a lot of fun and more than a little educational. This was in 1997, which was probably one of the best years in history to have graduated with a 3.0 GPA and a BS degree in computer science. They were hiring programmers off the street back then! I'm not even kidding. I had an interview and accepted an offer to work as a contractor at General Motors before I even took my last final exam. This was the job that brought me from western New York to Michigan, and as far as life-shaping decisions go, this one was pretty big.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Complete Tech 2 Kit</td></tr>
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Back then, I was working on a vehicle diagnostic tool called the Tech 2. It was a small (for its time) hand-held embedded computing device that could connect to any GM vehicle's communications bus, read, analyze, and store diagnostic information in real time, as well as reprogram all of the on-board computers. We frequently tested the tool's ability to test and modify a given vehicle's fuel-to-air mixture, and detect when a sensor had gone bad (or we'd just disconnected its power), for examples.<br />
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My assignment was with the team that developed and maintained the core operating system for this tool. Our code was the first bit of code that ran in the system, bringing it from power-up to functional, and providing all the real-time scheduling and communications protocols for the rest of the more vehicle-specific stuff. It was pretty challenging stuff for a newbie fresh out of college, but I ran with it and enjoyed it a lot.<br />
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One of the challenges we faced was that we basically had a 10MB flash "hard drive" that we could only access 1MB at a time, and that flash drive was filling up fast. Mind you, there was no file system, so we addressed the flash directly by address and used a card page register to pick which 1MB we wanted to see at any given time. This made for some .. interesting .. code constructs, and made it necessary to copy certain parts of the software into RAM at boot time - things like the OS's API layer, which was contained on the flash drive at an addressed specified in a look-up table that started at address 0. You still with me? Good.<br />
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I had written the code that would locate this API code and transfer it from the flash drive into it's designated spot in the RAM during the tool's boot-up sequence. In the name of defensive coding, I had written a block of code to detect the absence of this file and react accordingly - by disabling all interrupts and entering an infinite loop after printing an error message in the center of the screen. My downfall was having the error message read, simply, "WE'RE HOSED." I figured it was ok, though .. the API binary was an integral part of every release .. surely this error message would NEVER be displayed, right? Right??<br />
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Wrong. In fact, during the very next release cycle, the CDs that were shipped to every registered GM dealership in the WORLD were pressed without including that particular file. As soon as a few dealers updated their Tech 2s with the new software, the calls started pouring in from around the world - Australia, South Africa, Sweden, and all over the USA, to name a few. Everyone wanted to know what the heck does this "we're hosed" message mean, and why had their expensive diagnostic tool become nothing more than an expensive paperweight with a display proclaiming this ambiguous message to the entire world?<br />
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Needless to say, I was mortified. We quickly rushed a new release into production that not only replaced "we're hosed" with a more appropriate error message, but also made sure the API binary was included this time. As far as I know, the more appropriate error message was never seen .. which is a good thing.<br />
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The moral of the story? When you're coding error messages, never ever assume they won't be seen, because if you make that assumption even once, chances are that's the one time you'll be ... hosed.Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6831066444024837951.post-56636999713383097632012-10-16T14:10:00.001-04:002012-11-01T10:24:14.373-04:00Continuing the JourneyA few weeks ago, I wrote about <a href="http://blog.efpophis.net/2012/09/beginning-journey-again.html">re-starting</a> my To-Shin Do training. I thought that perhaps a good way to stay motivated and keep up with my training would be to blog about it here. So, if you keep an eye on this particular topic, you'll hopefully see an update now and then. It's not meant to be a "brag-reel," even though it might sound like one .. it's just a way to get my thoughts out and maybe hold myself accountable. And hey, if it manages to get one of my devoted readers interested in martial arts, that would be a nice bonus.<br />
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Anyway, the journey got off to a rough start. I was not actually able to start until last Thursday, a week after I had planned. Tonight, I won't be attending class because I've got the <a href="http://www.radford.edu/~ibarland/Public/Humor/DaveBarry/flu">Martian Death Flu</a> or something. I hope I feel even slightly better by Saturday so I can go to class that day. Sometimes I wonder if the universe enjoys screwing with me like that when I commit to doing something that's going to be challenging anyway.<br />
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The one class I have attended so far, though, was really good! I got a good work-out, managed to not get hurt, and even learned a few things. I was actually surprised at how much of the stuff my body just remembered to do, even though I hadn't thought about it for a couple years. We concentrated on various ways of applying a choke-hold, and getting out of one. I was once again reminded that as physical as this art is, it is still mostly mental. Let me explain.<br />
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As is usually the case when I'm learning something new, I screwed up the first few times I tried the technique. It felt difficult, un-natural, and ineffective. However, once my instructor pointed out what I was doing wrong and my mind was able to apprehend the science behind it and allow me to correct the mistakes, I was surprised at how physically easy it actually was! The real challenge was not having the physical strength to brute-force something - in fact, using my strength with incorrect body positioning and alignment proved difficult and futile. The hard part was comprehending in my mind what was actually happening and how to respond to it. Once that part clicked, the technique itself became easy, natural, and yes .. very effective.<br />
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<br />Efpophishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05651644912411936858noreply@blogger.com2