They are pulling the plug on the gun and gun owner registry in Canada and the nationwide long gun registry (handguns have all been confiscated--except those owned by the criminals) in the UK can't get off the ground after ten years.  Details are here:

Dunblane gun crackdown 'a failure'

ALMOST a decade after the Dunblane massacre, ministers have been accused of an "abject failure" to crack down on the number of firearms in circulation. Tories have joined Labour MPs, gun-control campaigners and peers in condemning the government over the National Firearms Register, which was promised after Dunblane but will not be delivered for at least another year.

The need to establish a searchable, nationwide computer system to track those who hold firearms licences was established after Thomas Hamilton's murderous attack on Dunblane Primary School on March 13, 1996.

Several investigations, including the inquiry led by Lord Cullen, found disparities in the records of legally held firearms maintained by police forces across the country. Hamilton had legal certificates allowing him to own the guns.

Legislation paving the way for the register of certificates was rushed through Parliament during Tony Blair's first days in office in 1997, but the project has since become bogged down by a succession of technical problems.

The Home Office and police chiefs have since reversed the plan for a standalone firearms register, opting instead to link it to the Police National Computer. That will not happen until March 2007 at the earliest.

More details are here:

Pilots highlighted "data quality issues" which have yet to be ironed out, much to the anger of campaigners such as Dr Mick North, father of five-year-old victim Sophie.

Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe told the Jonathan Dimbleby programme that there had been "great progress" in gun control but admitted that 10 years was "too long" for the register.

He said: "I understand that they've had two pilots and we're told that there are IT problems to actually resolving it, but I'm with Dr North in the sense that 10 years on, this is too long.

"We want it, there's certainly no resistance from the police service to have it and clearly what we do need is a register of all the people with a licence and we certainly need a register of those people who have applied for a licence and had it refused because the danger is they apply to one force, fail, and then re-apply to another."

The establishment of a searchable database of everyone who holds a firearms certificate, or who has ever applied for one, was one of the central demands of the campaign for greater gun control that followed the Dunblane massacre in 1996.

It was promised by Prime Minister Tony Blair to members of the Snowdrop Campaign, set up by victims' families to call for tighter gun controls.

About £5.5 million has so far been spent on setting up the register, which will be piloted once again in May.

"Great progress" in gun control?  They make that claim when the number of crimes committed with guns has skyrocketed?  Oh yeah, I forgot that's not how they measure progress.  They measure progress by how few people can legally own firearms, not how often guns are used criminally.  These people have mental problems.

This delay is yet another example of Home Office inability to operate computer systems, and if they cannot get a relatively simple system for a firearms register like this to work so many years after such an awful disaster, what hope is there for the vast system needed to make identity cards work?

Alistair Carmichael
Orkney and Shetland MP
March 5, 2006
Dunblane gun crackdown 'a failure'
News.Scotsman.com
[There is no hope of a system of national identity cards working.  If you have doubts read this.--Joe]

I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.

William F. Buckley, Jr.
Literature
Rumbles

We were recently treated to a bizarre exchange between a hapless Englishman and some BATchick in some front office in Washington. Our English friend was inquiring about bringing his arms into the United States, and was told that he could not import a Peacemaker (Colt Single-action Army) because it had no "legitimate sporting purpose!" Now, apart from the fact that "legitimate sporting purpose" is a blatantly unconstitutional interpretation of the Second Amendment, it is apparent that these poor souls who are confined to the District of Columbia cannot keep up with the times. Clearly the girl involved had not heard of the proliferation of "Cowboy Action Shooting." I stuck my oar in to tell her that this sort of bureaucratic behavior gives ignorance a bad name. I guess I can expect the black helicopters any night now.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 5, No. 5
April 1997

I'm all for religious tolerance as long as they are also tolerant of others.  I'm intolerant of intolerance.  The Supreme Court of Canada just made an important ruling with an 8-0 victory for freedom and tolerance.  I think it's time for some Canadian gun owners to start a new religion to "push the envelope" just a little bit more for the cause of freedom.  Here are the details on the ruling:

For nearly five years, Gurbaj Singh has argued that he has a legal right under religious freedom to wear a ceremonial dagger to school.

The Supreme Court of Canada now agrees with him.

In a unanimous 8-0 decision yesterday, the top court sided with Singh, now 17, that a Montreal school board went too far in banning his wearing of a Sikh kirpan, stating that it is an infringement on religious freedom that "cannot be justified" under the Charter of Rights.

The Illinois State Rifle Association walloped the Brady Bunch, etc. yesterday in a news release:

The very foundations of the gun control movement were rocked today by the results of a survey taken by the National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP). In a nutshell, the survey shows that the nation's top law enforcement officers believe that average citizens can be trusted to responsibly own firearms; that criminals ignore gun control laws; and that concealed carry laws reduce crime.

These revelations come as a stark contrast to gun control movement propaganda that asserts that police officials feel that our streets would be safer if law-abiding citizens were disarmed.

Specifically, the survey revealed that 93 percent of chiefs and sheriffs felt that citizens should be able to purchase firearms for sport and self defense; 73 percent opposed so-called "one gun a month" laws; 96 percent believed that criminals ignore gun control laws and; 63 percent supported laws that allow citizens to carry defensive firearms as a means to control crime.

The complete survey can be found here.

Keep the pressure up.  We need to politically exterminate these bigots.

For them, a gun is a symbol of power and potency... The gun has replaced the spear as a phallic symbol.

Peter Mwaura
Nairobi
The Nation
Owning a Gun Sign of Power And Success
February 25, 2006
[I get rather annoyed at people that believe they can read the minds of others and invariably fail.  This guy is no exception.  In all likelihood it is Mwaura that has the mental problems.  Thanks to Jeff for the pointer.--Joe]

By the time of the nation's tricentennial, there will be more government workers in the United States than there are workers.

Norman R. Augustine
From: "Defense Systems Management Review"

I have tears coming down my cheeks from laughing.  This is so funny to me.  A bunch of kids doing something dangerous--following the law.

People with Asperger get annoyed, angry even, with people who don't follow the rules.  To have other people get angry because someone else is following the law and inconveniencing the law breakers is just so sweet.

Thanks to Sean who sent it to me with the subject line "More hope for today's youth."

Long story made short: There is a new version of Modern Ballistics available here.

Long story made long:  As many of you know I wrote the exterior ballistics program Modern Ballistics.  I had the free demo require a license to be updated once a month by contacting server which kept track of how many computers were using the demo.  The user interface to the server had a limit of 100 computers using any copy of the software at a time.  It turned out that more than 100 people were using the demo in a month and new users couldn't test out the software.  This happened just as I moved everything to a new computer and was in the middle of converting my code to use a new compiler.  I had deleted the old compiler off the old computer and I had no way to fix the problem people were having.  Last night (early this morning actually) I got the new build of the program tested.  To get things out quicker I just made the demo not require connecting to the server at all.  Then I had to update the installation process and test it.  Then I had to update the website.  I finished up about 0200 this morning.  Download the latest version here.

Let me know if you run into any bugs. The testing was rather "thin".  In particular I am concerned about it working on various operating systems.  I only tested it on Windows XP and XP-x64.  I have a Win98 and Win95 available at home but I'm not home now.  Send an email to bugs@modernballistics.com if you notice something broken.  Thanks.

I'm not praticularily surprised to see the average barking moonbat saying guns used in a murder are going to hell.  But when the leader of a nation says "they're evil" you have to wonder what kind of insanity has taken hold of an entire nation.  The story is here:

PRIME Minister John Howard tightened gun laws after the Port Arthur massacre because he did not want Australia going down the same path as the US, he said today.

Mr Howard, on the eve of his 10th anniversary in office, said today the nation's grief over the 1996 Port Arthur massacre had been a great opportunity to tighten Australia's gun laws.

"I would call that very definitely an extraordinary outpouring of amazement and grief in this country and I knew out of that there was an opportunity to grab the moment and think about a fundamental change to gun laws in this country," he told the Nine Network.

Mr Howard said he did not want Australia to adopt the American stance on guns.

"I did not want Australia to go down the American path," he said.

"There are some things about America I admire and there are some things I don't.

"And one of the things I don't admire about America is their ... slavish love of guns. They're evil."

And you, mister Prime Minister, are irrational.  Answer Just One Question.

And one of the things I don't admire about America is their ... slavish love of guns. They're evil.

John Howard
Prime Minister of Australia
March 01, 2006
The Australian

A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.... Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.

Albert Camus

The power of Liberty is often called depravity by those who do not possess it.

Lyle Keeney
Comment on The View From North Central Idaho
February 27, 2006

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who do not possess it.

George Bernard Shaw
[I'm thinking of the crisis the world has with Islamic extremists.--Joe]

I need to find the actual report or at least other news stories on it but this is a nice teaser on the subject:

WASHINGTON: A new study has revealed the mystery behind lovers getting more sexual satisfaction after intercourse than masturbation.

Following an orgasm, the hormone prolactin is released into the bloodstream in both men and women. The hormone makes one feel satiated by countering the effect of dopamine, which is released during sexual arousal.

Stuart Brody of the University of Paisley, UK, and Tillmann Kriger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, measured blood prolactin levels in male and female volunteers who watched erotic films before engaging in masturbation or sexual intercourse to orgasm in the laboratory.

Surprisingly, after orgasm from sexual intercourse, the increase in blood prolactin levels is 400 per cent higher in both sexes compared with after orgasm from masturbation.

This explains why orgasm from intercourse is more satisfying than masturbation, says Brody. Since elevated levels of prolactin have been linked to erectile dysfunction, this may also explain why most men need a recovery period after sex.

I wonder how long it will be before there is a recreational drug on the market that mimics this?  I think there is a business opportunity here.  I've never used a drug, legal or illegal, recreationally.  But there certainly are a lot of people that do.

I got a call from our son James yesterday.  He had just finished taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE).  Except for the essay portion they get the results back immediately afterwards.  He got a 560/800 on the verbal portion and 800/800 on the quantitative portion.  This is particularily noteworthy because it is an online, adaptive test.  The questions presented get harder if you are getting them all correct or easier if you are having difficulties with them.  He said it was "brutal".  He just barely finished the problems in the time given.  He was pretty "up" about things though--as well he should be.  We are very proud of him.

Another post from someone I used to work with at Microsoft.  Craig was my lead when I first started at Microsoft.  Here he gives the early history of DirectX.  I started in May of '95 and was responsible for the Cirrus chips for DirectX 1.  I took the summer off to be with my wife and kids for the summer of '96 and just barely had contact with DirectX 3.  But I was involved with 2 and 5. 

The "military coat" Craig talks about is a black M-65 field jacket.  I still have my DirectX jacket in my closet with the patches.  Ry and I now wear black M-65 jackets with Boomershoot embroidered on them.

Some of the patches for the various versions of DirectX had the project names on them.  Some of the project names were Manhattan (DirectX 1 was to "compete" with the Japanese game machines), Orion (reference to nuclear explosion powered space travel), and Orange (as in Agent Orange used in Vietnam to defoliate the jungle).  I think it was DirectX 6 that had the project name of "Diesel".  This was a veiled reference to ammonium nitrate/diesel mixture which was believed (nitromethane was the actual fuel) to be used in the then recent bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City.  Another time I will tell you of the mementos I made of ammonium nitrate for people on the project and shipped to Raymond to distribute.

See also Renegades of the Empire for DirectX history and lots of stories about Alex, Craig, and Eric.

Update: Fixed the broken link to Craigs post on DirectX history.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

Lao Tsu
[In the more narrow context of "gun crime" this is also true.  The more restrictions on firearms the more useful they are to criminals and the more likely they are to use them.  If all potential victims were armed the criminals would be more likely to avoid situations where they could be shot.--Joe]

Via an old friend from Microsoft.  A work safe comedy video that probably hits a little "too close to home" for a lot of people I know.

...the Noam Chomskys and Michael Moores and Robert Fisks of the world (and their thousands of lesser imitators in faculty lounges everywhere) are not brave transgressive forward-thinkers but pathetic memebots running the program of a dead tyrant.

Eric Steven Raymond (ESR)
Gramscian damage
[ESR doesn't just claim this.  He proves it.  Great blog posting.--Joe]