CNN Does It Again

Earlier this week, I mentioned a stupid article on CNN's front page.

While this is not as bad, it still made my jaw drop. While reading an article on the redesigned "Freedom Tower" designed to replace the WTC towers, I stumbled headlong into this pearl of information.

"The original Twin Towers were destroyed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."

All I can say, again, is: No shit, Sherlock. Honestly, is there anyone in the english speaking audience of CNN.com that didn't already know that?

New Goodies

I've discovered two new toys there that have blown me away. First, there is Google Earth. If you haven't seen this, and if you have any interest in satellite photos, go get it now. Google has just re-released the acquired software system formerly known as Keyhole as a free download. It's awesome, frickin' awesome.

I've also found an addicting new game called NERO. This game is unique in my experience. You train a team of novice robot soldiers to do battle, and they 'learn' what you teach them. You can then drop them into combat with other teams to see how they fare. It doubly interesting to me because it's built on the Torque game engine - the same engine that powers a classic favorite of mine, Tribes 2. I haven't gotten deep into the game yet, but the concept intrigues me.

Oh shit. Moving is going to be painful.

I knew that going in, but it hadn't really sunk in. We've got a lot of stuff, and frankly, a lot of it needs to go away. We went through the kitchen last night, and tossed so much stuff, it's not really funny. Then we packed up a bunch of stuff to go to storage. Some of that might need to go away too. I mean, some of this stuff barely gets used. If we can survive without it for two months, I'm not sure it necessary.

We'll see.

The worst part, by far, is the fact that my wife has already found and lost a house that she loved - a week before our place goes on the market. Let's hope that the next place she finds we'll actually be able to put a bid on.

Dumbest "Headline" Ever

"The Internet transforms modern life"

No shit, Sherlock. (Says the blogger).

This was actually on the front page of CNN this morning. If ever I needed proof that the media is bored with Iraq, there it is.

Frankly, my dear...

AFI has released thier list of the 100 Top Movie Quotes.

Some of my favorites:

"What we've got here is failure to communicate."

"They call me Mister Tibbs!"

"Houston, we have a problem."

"Hasta la vista, baby."

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

"Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

And here are a couple that really, really should have been on the list (according to me.):

"What did you do, Ray?"

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Military LIDAR goes into production

This story released by the Naval Sea Systems Command talks about a the new Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS). This new system, to be mounted in the new Knighthawk (MH-60S) helicopters, uses a blue-green LIDAR system to detect sea mines at or slightly below the surface.

This is the first production military application of LIDAR that I know about, and I hope it pans out. The ability to quickly sweep harbor and littoral areas of low-tech surface mines is a valuable capablility.

Lost Sails

The Planetary Society seems to have lost another spacecraft.

I'm not really criticizing, but... okay... I am. I also discovered what thier problem is:



Five words: Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Sure, he could explain what lightning was, and could demonstrate that cools things happened when you mixed vinegar and baking soda, but he would not be my first choice to lauch an experimental spacecraft.

Seriously, though, I hope that these folks achieve thier goal. Privatized space exploration is a good thing.

Fact is, I'm not a morning person

I can't code in the morning.

I usually do trivial things like answer e-mail, tend to servers, etc. first thing in the morning. This helps me keep from engaging my brain on coding projects until I'm a little less foggy. Oh, I blog, too. :)

This morning, I had exactly two e-mail to answer, and finished that pretty quickly. I then opened my IDE and started staring at code. None of it makes sense. Oh well. Maybe after this entry it will get clear again.

Cashing in on the market?

My wife and I have been discussing, off and on, the idea of selling our house and moving. This speculation started when I happened to see a For Sale sign on a house down the street and I stopped to get a flyer. I about fell over when I saw the asking price. Now granted, it hasn't sold three weeks later, but it still started the ball rolling. A little research on our county property appraiser's site, and I started to get a pretty good idea of what our house was really worth. And it's enough to make me consider selling it to get to the equity.

Not to mention the fact that I'd like to find a place with a flatter yard, bigger master bedroom, walk in closets, and a garage. A pool would be nice too.

I'm still apprehensive about the whole process, and I haven't let myself start looking at places around town, lest I fall in 'love' with something and start making rash decisions. We have an appointment with a realtor on Thursday to discuss listing our house, and how much they estimate it would sell for.

It comes down to this. I'm not desperate to move, but if I find the right combination of selling price, new house, timing and several other factors, I'm probably going to try to make this work.

More to follow as the odyssey progresses.

Uh no...

My wife got me an awesome (!) gift for Father's Day - a Garmin Foretrex 201 GPS unit. This is the perfect unit for all my existing hobbies - hiking, canoeing, and paintballing - and is going to ensure I drag my kids out on numerous Geocaching adventures. Thanks, hon! You rock!

We spent the weekend at my parents, and when I showed my mother what Holly got me, she asked, "Oh! So she'll always know where you are!"

I did a double take. Sure the unit is wrist mounted, but.. I told her, "No, it doesn't do that, it just tells you where *you* are."

I walked away from that wondering - did my mother think that either, a) my wife feels the need to track all my movements, or b) I need to have all my movements tracked? Am I the only one that thinks that was an odd question?

On the other hand, this blog should start to see some reports from my Geocaching adventures.

Password Safe

Bruce Schneier designed and is distributing an open source password storage utility called Password Safe.

I've installed it, and it very possibly might become a standard for me. It allows for exporting the secure database to other installations, which means I can keep versions at home and at work.

I think it's worth a look.

What You Read Is Your Business... For Now

With a 238-187 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to squash the provision in the Patriot Act that allowed investigators access to bookstore and library records. Finally, a glimmer of common sense coming out of federal government. Does the FBI really need access (without a warrant or subpoena) to the list of books I check out of the library, or buy from Amazon? I don't think so.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm still confused as to why it was ever felt that the Patriot Act was necessary. Just about all of the provisions in the Act were already available to law enforcement, only they required judicial review and approval. And that's what bothers me the most. I agree that wiretapping and records research is critical to tracking down terrorists and other criminals, but why give that much power to an executive agency without any regard for personal privacy or liberty?

Whoops, bit of a rant there. Let's just sum this up for now: One nasty provision down, several still to go.

Tactical Automag

As promised, here are a few pics of my Automag with the new Intelliframe. You can easily tell that the new grip frame is new - it lacks the well worn look of the rest of the 'gun. This 'Mag has been a workhorse. I bought it in 1994, and spent a lot of money over the next four or five years adding toys to it. These days, it's not the race gun it used to be, but it's still solid, dependable, and hits what I point it at. That works for me. Also, I think it looks much cooler than all the curvy, milled, toy-looking 'guns on the fields these days.

This started life as one of the first Level 7 Automags available. I shot CO2 from an anti-siphon 20oz. tank for years, with a TASO Expansion chamber. In the mid-90's we were a TASO sponsored team, which means we had a glut of TASO products - barrels, sightrails (I still have mine), stocks, paint, etc. It was a pretty good deal. Of course, sponsorship in those days was mot anything like the NASCAR type sponsorship you see in the speedball tourneys these days. We still wore camouflage, for crying out loud. In tournaments.

I upgraded to an Air America raptor system about the same time I got the Perfect Bore Ceramic barrel you see pictured. HPA makes a heck of a difference when shooting 'Mags. I also used to sport a 'custom' double trigger on the original polymer frame with the trigger guard removed. Double triggers in 1996 were not for walking like they are today, they were there becuase as a back man, shooting 800 rounds of paint (without ramping) in four minutes made your trigger finger tired. The doube trigger allowed you to use your middle finger to without shifting your grip on the 'gun. Facinating history lesson for the kids with their electro markers.

The configuration pictured features the same Air America Raptor on remote (not shown), new Intelliframe, Benchmark cradle mounted foward (used to mount a tac light these days), Armson OEG (occluded eye gunsight), TASO bottomline, and adjustable old school stock. Inside the 'gun are a Pro Team products power tube spacer kit (this was done in the days before power tube spacers were stock - mine came with a spring), and a hi flow on/off valve. I used to run an aftermarket bolt and Phase II regulator, but since decided they didn't add anything to performance.

Click the photos for a larger view.

Paintgun Heaven

Sorry, they aren't 'paintguns' or 'paintball guns' anymore, they're 'markers'. Hogwash. I point it, I squeeze the trigger, it's a gun.

Anyway, I received my shiny new Airgun Designs Intelliframe today for my classic 68 Automag. I can't wait to get this thing put together and out on the field.

I swear, I really have been wanting a new marker (whoops, that's 'gun') for about a year now, but this frame has wiped that desire away. I'll post pics once I have it installed.

I'm taking my sick butt off to bed now. Hasta.

Strep, Again

Five weeks ago, I had the worst case of strep throat I had ever experienced. I could barely swallow at all, and actually woke up one morning and had to keep spitting because I literally could not swallow at all. Scary.

Now I have it again. It's not nearly as bad, but I decided to see the doctor just in case my scratchy red throat was what I feared. It was.

So now I'm sitting in the doctor's office waiting 20 minutes to be sure that I'm not going to die from the injection they just gave me. I doubt that is going to happen, but my right hip feels like it's on fire. Great stuff, antibiotics. The good news is that I don't need to take anything after this. One stop cures. :)

I also get a day off of work, though I'll have to go into the office to pick up my laptop. Deadlines won't move for a minor illness.

Above all, I am very very grateful for the fact that I don't actually feel that badly.

Later.

A good headset is hard to find...

My dog ate the last decent cell phone headset I owned. Really. And I lost the other one. So I'm looking to replace these with something new.

I used to carry a Jabra BT100 Bluetooth headset. It was awesome, because it was wireless, but that was probably my undoing in the end. I went to lunch one day recently, and when I got back to the office, the headset had fallen out of its belt clip. I called the restaurant, checked my car, the parking lot, everywhere I could think of. Gone. I cussed a bit, then got over it. Truth be told, yeah it was wireless, but the sound quality... well, it sucked. So much that I wasn't about to replace it.

I also owned an Panasonic wired earset with a boom mic. It worked great, was comfortable to wear, and I never had trouble with people hearing me. Then my pug pulled it off the table by the wire I carelessly left hanging and ate it. Pretty much all of it. It didn't seem to harm her (she didn't eat the wire), but it was certainly useless.

I bought a Jabra Earset. The original, you know, with no external mic. It's comfortable, but picks up background noise like crazy, according to my callers.

I bought and then returned at least two other wired earsets. They all were either uncomfortable, or picked up every scrap of background noise in the room. I then tried an unlikely set - my Xbox Live headset. That, apparently, is the best of the bunch. It's comfortable, and I sound good to my callers. And I already own it. So while it doesn't fit in my pocket very well (or at all), I'm more concerned with quality than anything else. We'll see.

IT In The Field

I'm sitting in a tabletop exercise in sunny South Florida this morning. This is my third exercise, but I was still unable to actually relax until we were well into the material and it was clear that the system (that I designed) was working properly.

It's funny, I've been doing IT work for over eight years, but I'm never convinced that any of my solutions are going to work until I actually *see* them work. It's a cross between self-doubt and severe pessimism. Oh, well. At least I've never been caught off guard when something goes wrong; I've always already imagined most possible catastrophes.

I'm going to go sit down and try to stop worrying about the server laptop exploding - since there is no spare. :)

Later.

Military Recruiting, Again

As a followup to a post I made last week, the DoD has stated pretty clearly that they will not support a draft. The primary concern of planners is not social, but performance. Today's military is so complicated and high-tech that the need to retain people past a single enlistment rules out a conscription system.

Also, last Friday's USAToday had a front page piece indicating that the Army was going to increase enlistment bonuses to up to $40,000 for hard to fill MOS's. That's a lot of cash, and may serve as a pretty good incentive.

Military Recruiting

I heard a story on NPR this morning that deserves a comment here.

U.S. Army recruiting numbers are due out today, and advance reports show they have missed thier quotas for the the fourth month in a row. This doesn't particularly surprise me, but it is dismaying.

I'm concerned about how the military, particularly the Army, can weather the dwindling influx of new recruits. The Army already has extensive Stop Loss programs in effect - programs that prevent troops from leaving service - and the Reserves and the National Guard are already stretched as thin as the Regular Army. So what is the answer?

The word 'draft' has been talked about, even debated on prime time TV. I'm not a military expert, but I can tell you that the quality of force will decline if all the troops in the line don't want to be there. I also know there are serious questions regarding the socio-economic equality of a military draft.

What I don't understand is some of the comments on NPR from high school students. One of them, a junior, said that if a recruiter tried to talk to him, he'd laugh and tell the recruiter "his stuff was weak". What the hell? The youth of this country are our future, and I hope that the attitude displayed by this young man is not becoming the norm.

Here we go...

It's 9 June 2005, and the season's first tropical system is formed. TS Arlene is south of Cuba and headed north. It is currently forcast to brush the western tip of Cuba, then proceed NNW until it makes landfall in Alabama or Mississippi early Sunday morning.

For the best info on tropical systems, I recommend Weather Underground. Check it out.

Trial by Fire

In every new job, there comes a moment when you know that you are faced with either proving yourself, or being known as a screwup for all time. For me, that was yesterday morning. And it all came out fine. :)

We ran a major tabletop bioterrorism exercise yesterday using technology that I had designed and implemented, and it all came through without a hitch. The participants loved the system, and the client was thrilled with what we were able to accomplish. Yipee.

Back to work!

Gaming

I'm in a rut. I play UT2K4 occasionally (and I still think the game is awesome), and even some Counter-Strike: Source, but neither one is exactly what I'm looking for right now.

What am I looking for? Not sure. Which is what makes this tough.

I have a few things I'd like to see in a game, but I'm not sure if such a beast exists. I'd like the game to be tactical in nature, similar to the RTS genre, but without the resource gathering. I'd like the game to not be first-person. If I want to play first person, I'll play UT or the upcoming Battlefield 2. I'd like the game to be set in the modern era. I'd settle for WWII, but I'd prefer more modern weapons and gear. I'd also accept near future, or military Sci-Fi. That said, no mech games, and no space only games. I want the scale to be very small units - if not individual troops and vehicles.

The game needs to be pretty, and be pauseable/saveable.

I didn't think this would be that tough. In fact, I have two games on my shelf that would fit the bill - both early Close Combat games - but I'd prefer something new. There was a rumor of a modern Close Combat subtitled Red Phoenix (based on Larry Bonds book of the same name) but it's not available yet, and may actually be vaporware.

I looked into Act of War: Direct Action, but was immediately turned off by the need to gather resources and build units.

So my search continues....

Sometimes, I like feeling stupid.

A group of researchers at UCLA have created controlled fusion in a near room temperature environment. That's some really cool news for me, a wanna be SF writer. I read the CSM article and felt pretty smart, I was able to follow along.

I then went back to the /. post that alerted me to the piece, and started reading the comments. That's when I started feeling pretty stupid, and gave up. Z-Pinch? Unstable plasma? huh? Oh well. That's why I'm a computer wonk, and not a physicist.

Upcoming Scenario Plans

Due to scheduling conflicts, I haven't been able to hit any scenario games in the past couple of months. Well, that is about to change... As soon as it gets cooler.

I'm setting a personal goal of getting to at least four major 24 hour games between September and December. That gives me about three months to get ready.

As my ultimate goal, and yeah, this might be overzealous, I'd like to get to MXS' Texas Throwdown the first weekend in December. I've seen Wayne's Grand Finale, I'd like to play the Texas game since I've heard it's just crazy. We'll see how that plays out, eh?

To prep for the fall season, I need to fine tune my Automag, think about my assorted tactical gear, and invest in a new mask. Some new cammies are in order as well.

I also need to get my gut in check. I did pretty well last time out, but I remember the old days where even as big as I am I could run and gun with the kids. Time to try and bring that back. Nothing like a hot southern summer to help someone build up some endurance. :)

More to post here on these topics, I'm sure.

Chindi, out.