If this is a regular ol' guy just moving into a new home and getting a new phone number, I recommend getting a new number. He is going to be getting faxes to his phone day and night for years, and has only been there a short time (it sounds like.) As much hassle as it is to change numbers, in the long run he will be happy he did.
Driving while intoxicated. Twenty plus years ago Americans as a group were pretty good at it, or so we thought, but twenty plus years of pussification has made it all but a death sentence (not from crashing, but from the fiscal and legal reaming you get when you get caught.)
Get busted for DWI nowadays and your life is pretty well fscked.
-Two: assign the whole class one project, something that a smaller number can't complete. This method reflects what I like to call "the real world".
What happens is the 2 or 3 uberStudents will do the project while the other 27 will either simply stand around, get in the way, arrange accomodations to insure the 2 or 3 have access to whatever they need to succeed, bring food so the 2 or 3 can concentrate on the task, possibly even manage some of the real world issues on the behalf of those 2 or 3 in order to free them up to hack on the primary task. That's how it happened during class sized projects while I was in college.
And you are totally correct, very similar to the real world.
You may be on to something here - social engineering to a positive effect being more powerful than the technical applications of cheat detection.
Perhaps the first day dedicate a 15 minute sermon asking the students to be completely honest as to why they are there. Some are going to be there because they have to be there (and thus more likely tempted to cheat simply to get out of the class) and some are there because they genuinely want to know / learn the material (and thus the only ones they would be cheating would be themselves)... and some are there from a foreign country with severe penalties for not passing and doing well (and thus very motivated to exceed at any cost - I have seen some of the (insert nationality here) syndicates in action : entire sets of class material including exams in advance.) And some are just lazy.
Also differentiate between cheating on homework and cheating on exams / projects.
At the collegiate level homework is simply a formality, the professor's way of indicating which material in the book he finds important and which can be ignored, and sort of a form of extended classroom instruction. It gives the student an opportunity to apply the theories and formulas in a controlled environment and determine which he has a solid grasp of, and which not (hopefully so he can get it explained during the next class or during office hours 1 on 1.) It is to get him ready for the exams... so copying someone else's homework totally defeats the purpose of the homework in the first place... the prof doesn't care if you get it right or wrong or even do it - it is his way to help you help yourself for the upcoming exams (and thus cheating on homework really is only cheating yourself and shouldn't be monitored.)
At the exam / report / computer program level, let the students know that first sermon that you are looking for someone to make an example of, that you look forward to catching someone cheating so you can document it very well, assure a 100% no questions asked case of cheating, let the student float along the entire semester and regardless of the marks in class / exams / programs / papers that student will fail the class horribly, only not realize it until he gets his report card. You will not acknowledge that he has failed, but you will know and because he cheated he will know. And you are willing to do it for more than one. Perhaps after the first major exam or paper or program take a minute at the beginning of class to announce that one student was determined with 100% certainty to have cheated and will be failing the class regardless of their marks over the course of the semester, but don't tell them which one it was. Any one of them that was even borderline considering cheating even a little is going to fly totally straight the rest of the semester.
When the penalty is too extreme, most people will pass on the crime. As a child the penalty for stealing a banana from a fruit stand is pretty wimpy, so it happens. As an adult in Saudi Arabia the penalty for stealing a banana from a fruit stand is what(?) the loss of a finger or a hand? I don't envision too many cases of that. When the penalty for DWI in the USA was pretty wimpy it happened all the time, but now the penalty is total financial and employable destruction - and I for one don't do it.
Make sure it has a 19" LCD and the fastest CPU / RAM / Video card combination available from your vendor, and make sure it never gets used for anything more taxing than Solitare.
-On universities, 99% of computers run with nearly zero CPU load for most of the time.
Every once in a while I walk past a totally idle server and I say 'take THAT!' and I pick a massive data directory at random and zip the contents onto a share on another server. Pegs the CPU, shakes up the RAM utilization, hammers the local hard drive and jacks up my network utilization.
Works with people too. I learned that at PHB school.
Consider evaporative cooling, particularly on a motorcycle rider because the wearer is moving fairly fast and is exposed to the constant stream of wind.
At that point all you need is a water reserve and a simple mechanism to pump is slowly onto the evaporative material, insuring that it gets distributed to all the places needing cooling.
Suzuki GSX-1100R/750R, circa 1986 through ?? a few years ago. Used the same lubricating oil that circulates through the engine as a coolant (had a massive oil cooler, ran the oil all through the engine and actually had streams of oil directed on the hot spots.) Theoretically the engine was more efficient because it could run a little hotter than a water cooled engine without concern for a boil-over or friction induced ultra hot spots.
Pretty much the same effect as the link above to the guy that submerged his motherboard in mineral oil, just continually cycle the oil through a heat exchanger to keep it fairly cool and you could pretty much go crazy with heat, I guess.
It looks a LOT like everybody in this thread is pretty well versed in hardening the network from outside attacks, but I would suggest that they have a clueless secretary (or PHB) equiv of a workstation inside the firewall and from time to time have it automagically do stuff like : run email attachments, install spyware, randomly delete files on network shares it has access to, install random packages on top of each other out on the network, try to share some mp3 files using any number of available P2P clients (use stuff you record so as not to get the RIAA music nazi's knocking on your door),...
Discuss some of the wetware network security issues - Kevin M got a lot of what he got by social engineering, not by hacking through hardened systems. As a consultant onsite (anywhere) I can walk up to any user, bump them from their computer and from their chair say matter of factly 'What is your password?' - 9 out of 10 will rattle it off without second guessing me (the other 1 just flips over his keyboard and shows me the post it note where he keeps it written down.)
If you think for a second that your landline is 100% private or secure... just a sec... (muffled 'wassat boss? huh? ok)... whoops nevermind, we hereby assure you that your landline is 100% private and secure and -get this- now completely anonymous also! That's right, use your completely private, secure, and anonymous land line to call whoever you want, get calls from whoever you like, and talk about whatever you want.
We promise, we aren't listening! - As for the 'net, odds are he has a cablemodem. Voice mail is the equiv of an answering machine, even works when you are talking to someone (answering machines can't do that.) And my GSM cell phone is easily as clear as my land line. - Damn, it is still early in the day. Did I just get trolled?
Insert blithe appreciation and support for Courageous (228506) here. If it was later in the day I could drudge up some good quotes from Star Wars or Pulp Fiction describing my appreciation, but you were heard by your peers and you were cheered.
Exactly - I was saying that within the small econo-culture of the area they were a de-facto form of accepted currency that had fallen outside of the government's control - granted their scope of acceptance was fairly small (within the casino, and possibly by those that also go to the casino (hence the church accepting them, as they can convert them back to cash) and as tips for the wait-staff.
I am just saying that with the chips it would be entirely possible to convert a minimal to mid range set of winnings into cash bypassing the pesky tax rules, or do some fairly hefty money laundering, but with these paper slips that sort of goes away, or potentially so.
I am surprised nobody has figured it out - I read this thread top to bottom and nobody has suggested INCOME TAXES.
Why do you think unregulated gambling is illegal in the first place? As if the government could give a damn about morals and values - they just get their panties in a twist if they don't get their 39.6% of anything over $80,000 a year in the form of income taxes.
With the universally accepted gambling chips as an unregulated new currency (you can even leave them in the donation basket in a Las Vegas church) things got pretty much out of hand, but if you think you are going to get $9,350 in cash for that paper ticket on a major slot payout and it is going to go unreported... between the rewards cards knowing exactly who you are and the new fun paper bar code scanners - hell why don't they just tatoo a GUID on your forearm or embed you with a RFID.
Al Capone did not go to jail for killing a bunch of people, or selling bootleg booze, or for being a mobster. Al Capone went to jail for not paying 39.6% (of the proceeds he earned killing people and selling bootleg booze and being a mobster) to the IRS.
No, that pretty much covers how it was handled at the first place I worked. Trust me, your response rate from IT is a LOT better when you ask nicely (and have a nice rack) than when you are rude (and frumpy.)
I would think that if you could chrono it and get repeatable speeds with accurately measured powder loads, and if the repeatable speed was quite a bit below the terminal velocity for a bowling ball, and if the elevation was accurate (ie, mounted compass with a weighted string on it to get real accurate angle of inclination) I would hope you could get pretty good results. A rifled barrel is important in a flat shooting trajectory but I would imagine much less so using indirect fire (ie, a 45 degree angle) using 5kg bowling balls. I just can't imagine a gentle wind having much effect on a bowling ball.
Of course accuracy being a relative term, I am thinking of good results as being accurate to land in the same swimming pool on a recurring basis.
The big question of course is... how well does it work with pumpkins:)
-
Mounted full auto weapons are very accurate. Short bursts from a SMG are pretty accurate (particularly the first two or three rounds.)
At anything farther than 25 yards I would be amazed to see anybody with a shoulder fired (shooter standing with the weapon held up to his shoulder, not prone or kneeling, not tripod mounted) carbine or SMG hit a gallon milk jug more than twice in a full mag emptying burst (25 - 30 rounds). Hella fun to shoot, makes a lot of noise, but not exactly precision fire.
Did you ever see the video from the two bank robbers wearing dragon scales, carrying AK looking full autos in California from a few years ago? I think '44 Minutes' was a recent made for TV movie on the subject. Amazing to watch an actual firefight using SMGs / LMGs go down at close range.
I was surprised at how few references to Cross I found in this thread. Lifetime no hassle warranty, the refills are easy to find and fairly cheap in a variety of colors and sizes, and they are reliable.
As a poor college kid years ago I treated myself to the one chrome ballpoint a year (about $10) - if I lost it before the year was up I figured I didn't deserve it, and if I kept it for longer than a year I figured I was one year closer to being responsible (with respect to pens) enough to deserve a gold one.
I happened upon the black graphite barrel one with the gold highlights a few years go (like $20) and unlike the chrome ones this one doesn't get slippery when your hand gets moist from lots of furious writing in hot climates - it retains its grip. I guess the gold one would have the same slippery problems, I gave up getting one as a goal once I found how much I like this one. I have managed to keep the same one for a few years and it is holding up fine, and uses the regular Cross refills. Looks pretty good, at least given my complete lack of fashion sense.
I use the medium refills, black.
It isn't leet or fancy, but it works fine on post-it notes, writing checks and signing credit card slips. Anything else gets run through a laser printer.
I had always been curious about the mechanism behind the fountain pen so when the Pilot Varsity came out at a price point that justified buying one just to play with it I bought one. It is a disposable, the only fountain pen that Pilot makes, has all the functionality of a fountain pen, but when I write with it the feedback is somewhat akin to writing with one of those mechanical pencils that have a metal tip, only it feels like when the lead runs out and you are just scratching the paper with the metal.
Not fluid or smooth at all. In reading this thread I have to wonder if perhaps the folded stamped sheet-metal nib on my $5 disposable fountain pen isn't giving me a true representation of what a fountain should feel like...
Is there a way to smooth it out? I hadn't considered buffing the nib with sandpaper or something - but if it is part of what real fountain pen users all go through maybe I need to figure it out.
Thanks in advance for your wisdom, if you can perhaps help me figure this out.
If you are ever in the area (Manchester NH, 03102) look for Wolf's or Brown's out by the airport. Excellent indoor range that suppliments his normal customer base by renting out his VAST assortment of Class III hardware for use on his range, using the ammo you buy from him naturally. $20 an hour for any Class III you can think - he has an M-60 up there but I didn't inquire (enough 9mm to last an hour is expensive enough, I don't want to try feeding an M60 for an hour.)
I spent an hour or two with an HK MP5-A3, it dispelled a lot of myths in my head about what a sub can and cannot do (can : make a lot of noise. can't : stay on target at 75 feet.) The first bullet out of the barrel from aimed fire is pretty accurate (ie, signif more accurate than my pistol shooting at the same range) but it goes down hill FAST. I wish I had taken the opportunity to spend an hour with one of his silenced weapons, I have a few myths in my head about those that need dispelling.
The tripod mounted hardware (like the 1917, IIRC) with T+E hand cranks - now those are a different story. Once you got your fields of fire dialed in they seemed real accurate (compared to the hand held sub's.) Not real agile, but if someone happens to waltz through your field of fire their destiny was thereupon decided by you. Milk jugs were my enemy of choice, followed closely by bowling pins.
That reminds me about the original topic : the bowling ball mortar. It is very, very cool but I will be about 5x as impressed the minute it gets a mounted T+E and some nerd with a hand calculator is actually delivering elevation recommendations for desired distance, and they actually HIT something (ie, land the bowling ball within a few feet of where it was intended.) Right now it is a proof of concept, more along the lines of fireworks (minus the rapport) than improvised munitions. The minute it gets some calculations and repeatedly hitting targets... now THAT is when I will be really impressed.
Quite honestly it wouldn't surprise me if they were 'restricted' simply because of how much fun they are... but a target has a lot more to fear from someone with a semi-auto rifle than someone that decides to spray-n-pray.
Wouldn't the 1917 be Class III? Then again anybody getting that far into it probably went for the gusto.
-Good idea. I forget, can you go under 18" on the barrel if you file the paperwork? I would love a pocket 870!
I don't know, and I'm not afraid to admit it when I don't know. However, if anybody could point you in the right direction it would by my buddies AltaVista and Google, they pointed me here:
http://www.keepshooting.com/pms12.htm
Mossberg 500 Action * Laser Engraved Receiver * Custom FOLDING "K" Grip * 6.5" Barrel * Sling Swivels * Blade Front Sight * Only $5 NFA Transfer Tax * 2 3/4 or 3" Shells * Price: $650
I imagine that if anybody can do this with a Remington they could or could recommend someone. Mossberg and Ithica are the names that keep popping up in my head.
Oh yea, and regardless of how legal it actually is, expect to get some major hassles just for having it. Remember that a short barrel shotgun was the catalyst behind Randy Weaver's wife getting shot and killed by the Feds while her children watched, in the comfort of her own home. Disclaimer : Randy's wasn't legal.
Come to think of it, those weren't pocket UZI's either - having held the full size units myself I am pretty amazed those guys were able to conceal them too.
You install a new copy into the VMware virtual machine and while doing so you fill it with bogus data. Shut down the virtual machine and just copy the files to a new directory every time you need a sandbox to play in.
-Before I part with'em: two pennies weigh ~4.996+/-0.014g,
Just for the record, dimes and quarters are $20 to the pound. Pretty much exactly, enough that you can accurately count money on an electronic grocery store scale.
Yea I know, totally OT but Im wicked undercaffeinated this morning.
-I was replying to the "NFA weapons illegal in most states" comment.
Ah yes. That is the one I generally use to separate the men from the boys. Anybody holding the 'machine guns are illegal to own' line in a thread obviously has no clue and thus needs to have anything they say discounted heavily.
Know the coolest thing about having a Class II buddy? Take him your shotgun, let HIM saw off the barrel and put on a pistol grip, run the paperwork and pay your $5 transfer fee (for sawed off's it is only $5, not the $200 for Class III) and Voila! instant legal sawed off shotgun.
I remember watching footage when Reagan got shot, one of the SS troopers in a three piece suit reached into his pants pocket and pulled one of these out... surely the pocket had been cut because it is still a pretty big piece of machinery but still - the effect was amazing.
Slashdot Mirror
If this is a regular ol' guy just moving into a new home and getting a new phone number, I recommend getting a new number. He is going to be getting faxes to his phone day and night for years, and has only been there a short time (it sounds like.) As much hassle as it is to change numbers, in the long run he will be happy he did.
Umm it only dropped by three cents a share overnight.
The bad news of course is that THAT was dropping by 1/3rd. HAH!
Driving while intoxicated. Twenty plus years ago Americans as a group were pretty good at it, or so we thought, but twenty plus years of pussification has made it all but a death sentence (not from crashing, but from the fiscal and legal reaming you get when you get caught.)
Get busted for DWI nowadays and your life is pretty well fscked.
I have a separate Hotmail account account for emailing a few friends that has never received spam - and it is about a year old.
The trick? Whitelist my friends. Voila! Instant no-spam email.
My other Hotmail accounts are a few years old and they get TONS of spam, for the record.
Granted Whitelisting works a lot better when you only have three friends, your mileage may vary.
-Two: assign the whole class one project, something that a smaller number can't complete. This method reflects what I like to call "the real world".
What happens is the 2 or 3 uberStudents will do the project while the other 27 will either simply stand around, get in the way, arrange accomodations to insure the 2 or 3 have access to whatever they need to succeed, bring food so the 2 or 3 can concentrate on the task, possibly even manage some of the real world issues on the behalf of those 2 or 3 in order to free them up to hack on the primary task. That's how it happened during class sized projects while I was in college.
And you are totally correct, very similar to the real world.
You may be on to something here - social engineering to a positive effect being more powerful than the technical applications of cheat detection.
... and some are there from a foreign country with severe penalties for not passing and doing well (and thus very motivated to exceed at any cost - I have seen some of the (insert nationality here) syndicates in action : entire sets of class material including exams in advance.) And some are just lazy.
... so copying someone else's homework totally defeats the purpose of the homework in the first place ... the prof doesn't care if you get it right or wrong or even do it - it is his way to help you help yourself for the upcoming exams (and thus cheating on homework really is only cheating yourself and shouldn't be monitored.)
Perhaps the first day dedicate a 15 minute sermon asking the students to be completely honest as to why they are there. Some are going to be there because they have to be there (and thus more likely tempted to cheat simply to get out of the class) and some are there because they genuinely want to know / learn the material (and thus the only ones they would be cheating would be themselves)
Also differentiate between cheating on homework and cheating on exams / projects.
At the collegiate level homework is simply a formality, the professor's way of indicating which material in the book he finds important and which can be ignored, and sort of a form of extended classroom instruction. It gives the student an opportunity to apply the theories and formulas in a controlled environment and determine which he has a solid grasp of, and which not (hopefully so he can get it explained during the next class or during office hours 1 on 1.) It is to get him ready for the exams
At the exam / report / computer program level, let the students know that first sermon that you are looking for someone to make an example of, that you look forward to catching someone cheating so you can document it very well, assure a 100% no questions asked case of cheating, let the student float along the entire semester and regardless of the marks in class / exams / programs / papers that student will fail the class horribly, only not realize it until he gets his report card. You will not acknowledge that he has failed, but you will know and because he cheated he will know. And you are willing to do it for more than one. Perhaps after the first major exam or paper or program take a minute at the beginning of class to announce that one student was determined with 100% certainty to have cheated and will be failing the class regardless of their marks over the course of the semester, but don't tell them which one it was. Any one of them that was even borderline considering cheating even a little is going to fly totally straight the rest of the semester.
When the penalty is too extreme, most people will pass on the crime. As a child the penalty for stealing a banana from a fruit stand is pretty wimpy, so it happens. As an adult in Saudi Arabia the penalty for stealing a banana from a fruit stand is what(?) the loss of a finger or a hand? I don't envision too many cases of that. When the penalty for DWI in the USA was pretty wimpy it happened all the time, but now the penalty is total financial and employable destruction - and I for one don't do it.
Make sure it has a 19" LCD and the fastest CPU / RAM / Video card combination available from your vendor, and make sure it never gets used for anything more taxing than Solitare.
-On universities, 99% of computers run with nearly zero CPU load for most of the time.
Every once in a while I walk past a totally idle server and I say 'take THAT!' and I pick a massive data directory at random and zip the contents onto a share on another server. Pegs the CPU, shakes up the RAM utilization, hammers the local hard drive and jacks up my network utilization.
Works with people too. I learned that at PHB school.
Consider evaporative cooling, particularly on a motorcycle rider because the wearer is moving fairly fast and is exposed to the constant stream of wind.
At that point all you need is a water reserve and a simple mechanism to pump is slowly onto the evaporative material, insuring that it gets distributed to all the places needing cooling.
-(maybe someone could change the cooling fluid?).
Suzuki GSX-1100R/750R, circa 1986 through ?? a few years ago. Used the same lubricating oil that circulates through the engine as a coolant (had a massive oil cooler, ran the oil all through the engine and actually had streams of oil directed on the hot spots.) Theoretically the engine was more efficient because it could run a little hotter than a water cooled engine without concern for a boil-over or friction induced ultra hot spots.
Pretty much the same effect as the link above to the guy that submerged his motherboard in mineral oil, just continually cycle the oil through a heat exchanger to keep it fairly cool and you could pretty much go crazy with heat, I guess.
It looks a LOT like everybody in this thread is pretty well versed in hardening the network from outside attacks, but I would suggest that they have a clueless secretary (or PHB) equiv of a workstation inside the firewall and from time to time have it automagically do stuff like : run email attachments, install spyware, randomly delete files on network shares it has access to, install random packages on top of each other out on the network, try to share some mp3 files using any number of available P2P clients (use stuff you record so as not to get the RIAA music nazi's knocking on your door), ...
Discuss some of the wetware network security issues - Kevin M got a lot of what he got by social engineering, not by hacking through hardened systems. As a consultant onsite (anywhere) I can walk up to any user, bump them from their computer and from their chair say matter of factly 'What is your password?' - 9 out of 10 will rattle it off without second guessing me (the other 1 just flips over his keyboard and shows me the post it note where he keeps it written down.)
If you think for a second that your landline is 100% private or secure ... just a sec ... (muffled 'wassat boss? huh? ok) ... whoops nevermind, we hereby assure you that your landline is 100% private and secure and -get this- now completely anonymous also! That's right, use your completely private, secure, and anonymous land line to call whoever you want, get calls from whoever you like, and talk about whatever you want.
We promise, we aren't listening!
-
As for the 'net, odds are he has a cablemodem. Voice mail is the equiv of an answering machine, even works when you are talking to someone (answering machines can't do that.) And my GSM cell phone is easily as clear as my land line.
-
Damn, it is still early in the day. Did I just get trolled?
Insert blithe appreciation and support for Courageous (228506) here. If it was later in the day I could drudge up some good quotes from Star Wars or Pulp Fiction describing my appreciation, but you were heard by your peers and you were cheered.
Exactly - I was saying that within the small econo-culture of the area they were a de-facto form of accepted currency that had fallen outside of the government's control - granted their scope of acceptance was fairly small (within the casino, and possibly by those that also go to the casino (hence the church accepting them, as they can convert them back to cash) and as tips for the wait-staff.
I am just saying that with the chips it would be entirely possible to convert a minimal to mid range set of winnings into cash bypassing the pesky tax rules, or do some fairly hefty money laundering, but with these paper slips that sort of goes away, or potentially so.
I am surprised nobody has figured it out - I read this thread top to bottom and nobody has suggested INCOME TAXES.
... between the rewards cards knowing exactly who you are and the new fun paper bar code scanners - hell why don't they just tatoo a GUID on your forearm or embed you with a RFID.
Why do you think unregulated gambling is illegal in the first place? As if the government could give a damn about morals and values - they just get their panties in a twist if they don't get their 39.6% of anything over $80,000 a year in the form of income taxes.
With the universally accepted gambling chips as an unregulated new currency (you can even leave them in the donation basket in a Las Vegas church) things got pretty much out of hand, but if you think you are going to get $9,350 in cash for that paper ticket on a major slot payout and it is going to go unreported
Al Capone did not go to jail for killing a bunch of people, or selling bootleg booze, or for being a mobster. Al Capone went to jail for not paying 39.6% (of the proceeds he earned killing people and selling bootleg booze and being a mobster) to the IRS.
Trust me. I put $100 into a machine over the course of less than an hour and $97 did NOT come pouring out.
It is over the course of a long period of time (like a year, or machine lifetime perhaps.) Statistical bell curves and all that biz.
-At least, that's how it looks from the outside.
No, that pretty much covers how it was handled at the first place I worked. Trust me, your response rate from IT is a LOT better when you ask nicely (and have a nice rack) than when you are rude (and frumpy.)
I would think that if you could chrono it and get repeatable speeds with accurately measured powder loads, and if the repeatable speed was quite a bit below the terminal velocity for a bowling ball, and if the elevation was accurate (ie, mounted compass with a weighted string on it to get real accurate angle of inclination) I would hope you could get pretty good results. A rifled barrel is important in a flat shooting trajectory but I would imagine much less so using indirect fire (ie, a 45 degree angle) using 5kg bowling balls. I just can't imagine a gentle wind having much effect on a bowling ball.
... how well does it work with pumpkins :)
Of course accuracy being a relative term, I am thinking of good results as being accurate to land in the same swimming pool on a recurring basis.
The big question of course is
-
Mounted full auto weapons are very accurate.
Short bursts from a SMG are pretty accurate (particularly the first two or three rounds.)
At anything farther than 25 yards I would be amazed to see anybody with a shoulder fired (shooter standing with the weapon held up to his shoulder, not prone or kneeling, not tripod mounted) carbine or SMG hit a gallon milk jug more than twice in a full mag emptying burst (25 - 30 rounds). Hella fun to shoot, makes a lot of noise, but not exactly precision fire.
Did you ever see the video from the two bank robbers wearing dragon scales, carrying AK looking full autos in California from a few years ago? I think '44 Minutes' was a recent made for TV movie on the subject. Amazing to watch an actual firefight using SMGs / LMGs go down at close range.
I was surprised at how few references to Cross I found in this thread. Lifetime no hassle warranty, the refills are easy to find and fairly cheap in a variety of colors and sizes, and they are reliable.
As a poor college kid years ago I treated myself to the one chrome ballpoint a year (about $10) - if I lost it before the year was up I figured I didn't deserve it, and if I kept it for longer than a year I figured I was one year closer to being responsible (with respect to pens) enough to deserve a gold one.
I happened upon the black graphite barrel one with the gold highlights a few years go (like $20) and unlike the chrome ones this one doesn't get slippery when your hand gets moist from lots of furious writing in hot climates - it retains its grip. I guess the gold one would have the same slippery problems, I gave up getting one as a goal once I found how much I like this one. I have managed to keep the same one for a few years and it is holding up fine, and uses the regular Cross refills. Looks pretty good, at least given my complete lack of fashion sense.
I use the medium refills, black.
It isn't leet or fancy, but it works fine on post-it notes, writing checks and signing credit card slips. Anything else gets run through a laser printer.
Yes, people read down this far.
...
Question about fountain pens : scratchy?
I had always been curious about the mechanism behind the fountain pen so when the Pilot Varsity came out at a price point that justified buying one just to play with it I bought one. It is a disposable, the only fountain pen that Pilot makes, has all the functionality of a fountain pen, but when I write with it the feedback is somewhat akin to writing with one of those mechanical pencils that have a metal tip, only it feels like when the lead runs out and you are just scratching the paper with the metal.
Not fluid or smooth at all. In reading this thread I have to wonder if perhaps the folded stamped sheet-metal nib on my $5 disposable fountain pen isn't giving me a true representation of what a fountain should feel like
Is there a way to smooth it out? I hadn't considered buffing the nib with sandpaper or something - but if it is part of what real fountain pen users all go through maybe I need to figure it out.
Thanks in advance for your wisdom, if you can perhaps help me figure this out.
If you are ever in the area (Manchester NH, 03102) look for Wolf's or Brown's out by the airport. Excellent indoor range that suppliments his normal customer base by renting out his VAST assortment of Class III hardware for use on his range, using the ammo you buy from him naturally. $20 an hour for any Class III you can think - he has an M-60 up there but I didn't inquire (enough 9mm to last an hour is expensive enough, I don't want to try feeding an M60 for an hour.)
... now THAT is when I will be really impressed.
... but a target has a lot more to fear from someone with a semi-auto rifle than someone that decides to spray-n-pray.
I spent an hour or two with an HK MP5-A3, it dispelled a lot of myths in my head about what a sub can and cannot do (can : make a lot of noise. can't : stay on target at 75 feet.) The first bullet out of the barrel from aimed fire is pretty accurate (ie, signif more accurate than my pistol shooting at the same range) but it goes down hill FAST. I wish I had taken the opportunity to spend an hour with one of his silenced weapons, I have a few myths in my head about those that need dispelling.
The tripod mounted hardware (like the 1917, IIRC) with T+E hand cranks - now those are a different story. Once you got your fields of fire dialed in they seemed real accurate (compared to the hand held sub's.) Not real agile, but if someone happens to waltz through your field of fire their destiny was thereupon decided by you. Milk jugs were my enemy of choice, followed closely by bowling pins.
That reminds me about the original topic : the bowling ball mortar. It is very, very cool but I will be about 5x as impressed the minute it gets a mounted T+E and some nerd with a hand calculator is actually delivering elevation recommendations for desired distance, and they actually HIT something (ie, land the bowling ball within a few feet of where it was intended.) Right now it is a proof of concept, more along the lines of fireworks (minus the rapport) than improvised munitions. The minute it gets some calculations and repeatedly hitting targets
Quite honestly it wouldn't surprise me if they were 'restricted' simply because of how much fun they are
Wouldn't the 1917 be Class III? Then again anybody getting that far into it probably went for the gusto.
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-Good idea. I forget, can you go under 18" on the barrel if you file the paperwork? I would love a pocket 870!
I don't know, and I'm not afraid to admit it when I don't know. However, if anybody could point you in the right direction it would by my buddies AltaVista and Google, they pointed me here
http://www.keepshooting.com/pms12.htm
Mossberg 500 Action
* Laser Engraved Receiver
* Custom FOLDING "K" Grip
* 6.5" Barrel
* Sling Swivels
* Blade Front Sight
* Only $5 NFA Transfer Tax
* 2 3/4 or 3" Shells
* Price: $650
I imagine that if anybody can do this with a Remington they could or could recommend someone. Mossberg and Ithica are the names that keep popping up in my head.
Oh yea, and regardless of how legal it actually is, expect to get some major hassles just for having it. Remember that a short barrel shotgun was the catalyst behind Randy Weaver's wife getting shot and killed by the Feds while her children watched, in the comfort of her own home. Disclaimer : Randy's wasn't legal.
Come to think of it, those weren't pocket UZI's either - having held the full size units myself I am pretty amazed those guys were able to conceal them too.
You install a new copy into the VMware virtual machine and while doing so you fill it with bogus data. Shut down the virtual machine and just copy the files to a new directory every time you need a sandbox to play in.
Simple.
-Before I part with'em: two pennies weigh ~4.996+/-0.014g,
Just for the record, dimes and quarters are $20 to the pound. Pretty much exactly, enough that you can accurately count money on an electronic grocery store scale.
Yea I know, totally OT but Im wicked undercaffeinated this morning.
-I was replying to the "NFA weapons illegal in most states" comment.
... surely the pocket had been cut because it is still a pretty big piece of machinery but still - the effect was amazing.
Ah yes. That is the one I generally use to separate the men from the boys. Anybody holding the 'machine guns are illegal to own' line in a thread obviously has no clue and thus needs to have anything they say discounted heavily.
Know the coolest thing about having a Class II buddy? Take him your shotgun, let HIM saw off the barrel and put on a pistol grip, run the paperwork and pay your $5 transfer fee (for sawed off's it is only $5, not the $200 for Class III) and Voila! instant legal sawed off shotgun.
I remember watching footage when Reagan got shot, one of the SS troopers in a three piece suit reached into his pants pocket and pulled one of these out