Cool! I am especially thrilled with all the tall good-looking women (RobertaX, Tamara, and Brigid) I get to hang out with and help save the world.
Author Archives: Joe
Quote of the day–Terry
Liberals absolutely cannot deal with facts. Cannot weigh evidence. In a place far away geographically and in the past a liberal would not believe me, and stood up, and was cut in half by NVA machine gun fire. This poor fools last words prior to committing suicide was “…they won’t shoot at us if we wave to them.”
Terry
November 26, 2008
From a comment to Kevin’s Quote of The Day for November 26, 2008
[I could have pulled quotes from the comments for my collection for an hour and it was inspiration for a future post that I would spend several hours writing if I ever get around to it. There was some really good stuff in there.–Joe]
“Papers please” no longer needed
If you have a cell phone and it is turned on your cell phone company knows where it is within a few hundred yards. If the government wants this data from the provider it generally (emergency exemptions apparently exist) has to get a court order.
However, the FBI has the technology to trigger phones into giving up their serial numbers and their phone numbers. This does not require a court order! Currently they use a van to drive around town and try to find their target. But that doesn’t have to be the way they always do it. All they have to do is put this technology on major travel routes and in travel hubs and they can do a pretty good job of tracking a large proportion of the population. If they put up their own devices on most of cell towers around the country they can track every active cell phone in the country.
I write software for mobile phones for Microsoft and it is rare that a day goes by where we don’t talk about and implement privacy protections for the customer and now I find out the Federal Government is actively working to defeat us.
Bowling pin match results
I said I was going to a bowling pin match yesterday.
Only three people showed up in the cold and the rain. I was the only one who had ever actually shot at a bowling pin match before and that was probably 10 years ago. We didn’t exactly remember the rules and some of the things we did we knew were “not according to spec”. For example we always drew from a holster with a starting position of wrist above our shoulders.
Also, the plan was to have a little bit of money riding on the results. We didn’t do that.
After doing the five pins in any order pretty much as the game is usually played we messed around with other things.
The results were:
5 pin first stage
Joe 7.55 7.40 8.91 Total: 14.95
Mike 17.09 8.74 6.11 Total: 14.85
Roger(winner) 7.41 16.40 7.08 Total: 14.49
5 pin second stage
Joe 8.87 8.95 9.00 Total: 17.82
Mike(winner) 5.75 7.22 8.73 Total: 12.97
Roger 8.77 6.54 12.65 Total: 15.31
10 pin (arranged like in a bowling alley)
Joe(winner) 9.25 8.21 19.78 Total: 17.46
Mike 11.08 8.31 11.34 Total: 19.39
Roger 13.94 15.18 14.59 Total: 28.53
Inside Out 7 pin (7 pins in a line, but you had to shoot the standing pin in the middle then work your way out)
Joe 12.17 +1 = 13.17 (I got a 1 second penalty for shooting one pin out of order)
Mike(winner) 10.32
Roger 14.65
Inside Out 5 pin (5 pins in a line, but you had to shoot the standing pin in the middle then work your way out)
Joe 12.11
Mike(winner) 6.46
Roger 9.08
Outside In 7 pin (7 pins in a line, but you had to shoot the standing pins in the ends first then work your way in)
Joe 9.65
Mike(winner) 7.83
Roger 10.92
Shoot one, skip one 7 pin (7 pins in a line, but you had to shoot every other standing pin from one end first then reverse it, repeating until all the pins were down or off the table)
Joe 11.92
Mike(winner) 11.33
Roger 21.33
What media bias?
Alan Korwin confronts them asking if the bias hadn’t been there might have the presidental election gone the other way and they say:
Her answer: “No. Because the country was ready for change, you could just tell.” Her husband Carl Leubsdorf, Washington Bureau Chief for the Dallas Morning News, agreed.
…
What does she read to get a sense of what people are thinking?
Her answer: “Daily Kos and The Huffington Post.” She saw nothing unusual in this, adding, these are good places for finding story leads.
There is more. Take your blood pressure meds with you.
Thanksgiving day pictures
Also from Xenia is a set from Thanksgiving 1991 with the Huffman family. I especially like this one:
That is her first gun. It was given to her by her Grandpa Huffman who made it himself.
Quote of the day–Mahatma Gandhi
As I proceeded further and further with my inquiry into the atrocities that had been committed on the people, I came across tales of Government’s tyranny and the arbitrary despotism of it’s officers such as I was hardly prepared for, and they filled me with deep pain. What surprised me then, and what still continues to fill me with surprise, was the fact that a province that had furnished the largest number of soldiers to the British Government during the war, should have taken all these brutal excesses lying down.
Mathatma Gandhi
An autobiography. The story of my experiments with Truth. There are many versions but I have this one.
[H/T to Ry who has the background on another, more famous quote, from Gandhi. Gandhi is no stranger to my QOTD posts either:
- QOTD October 8, 2007
- QOTD June 30, 2007
- QOTD December 18, 2006
- QOTD September 11, 2005
- QOTD July 8, 2005
- QOTD June 30, 2005
- QOTD April 5, 2005
- QOTD December 20, 2004
–Joe]
I want these as mil-surplus
In a lot of ways it would take a lot of the fun out of long range shooting but I’d still buy a few rounds if I could get them “cheap”. I’m sure even as mil-surplus they would be expensive enough I wouldn’t be shooting a lot of these:
Darpa, the Defense Department’s far-out research arm, announced a pair of contracts yesterday, to start designing a super, .50-caliber sniper rifle that fires guided bullets. Lockheed Martin recieved $12.3 million for the “EXACTO” (EXtreme ACcuracy Tasked Ordnance) project, while Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, LLC got another $9.5 million.
If the system works, it’ll “provide a dramatic new capability to the U.S. military,” Darpa says. “The use of an actively controlled bullet will make it possible to counter environmental effects such as crosswinds and air density, and prosecute both stationary and moving targets while enhancing shooter covertness. This capability would have the further benefit of providing increased accuracy and range while reducing training requirements.”
And from the same article:
The agency has earmarked $7.5 million for a laser-guided bullet program. Darpa gave Lockheed $2 million for advanced sniper scopes that could boost kill rates by tenfold, or more. If the system works out as planned, it would actually allow snipers to remain virtually invisible, lost in the “heat haze” in between them and their targets. Our own David Hamling called the project the “next war’s secret weapon.”
Quote of the day–Boyertown Berk Montgomery News
People get so caught up in their right to have a gun that they lose sight of what is important: Public safety.
I know there are some legitimate hunters who think they are allowed to have semi-automatic guns too. It is ridiculous to call yourself a sportsman if you need to use a semi-automatic gun. Each shot should be carefully calculated, not just haphazardly shot repeatedly in seconds in the approximate direction of an animal.
These guns, the ones that should never hit the streets, are getting into the hands of criminals and innocent people are dying. Why? Because guns get stolen.
In my opinion, there is no legitamate use for civilians to use a semi-automatic weapon.
Boyertown Berk Montgomery News
November 27, 2008
Gun restrictions are inevitable in today’s violent climate
[Reading the article I kept thinking, “This could have been written by a sixth grader.” I’m not surprised they didn’t put their name on it. It was pathetic in organization, illogical, and obviously had no basis in fact. I guess he or she is just another bigot proselyting.–Joe]
Bowling pin match tomorrow
I plan to attend a pistol match at the Lewiston Pistol Club outdoor range tomorrow (Friday). From organizer Mike Brown:
We’re going to have a “Black Friday” bowling pin shoot for those of you who would rather shoot than shop. $1 a table, fastest time in each run gets the pot.
Just pistol. 1100 start.
Everyone who can play safe is welcome.
Quote of the day–Timothy Lynch
A new generation of young people who have never heard of Ruby Ridge are now emerging from the public school system and are heading off to college and will thereafter begin their careers in business, education, journalism, government and other fields. This generation will find it hard to fathom that the federal government could have killed a boy and an unarmed woman and then tried to deceive everyone about what had actually occurred and, in some instances, rationalize what did occur. That is why it is important to remember Ruby Ridge. Someone needs to remind the young people (and everyone else) that it really did happen — and that it will happen again if the government is not kept on a short leash. No one will learn about the incident when they tour the FBI facility in Washington. It goes unmentioned for some reason.
Timothy Lynch
August 21, 2002
Remember Ruby Ridge
[Read the whole thing if you don’t understand why we are outraged.–Joe]
Gun Blogger Summer Camp shoothouse video
From Gun Blogger 2008 Summer Camp. See also the slide show I made.
My pathetic run:
Others have put theirs up too:
Quote of the day–Tonya Payne
Who really cares about it being unconstitutional? This is what’s right to do, and if this means that we have to go out and have a court battle, then that’s fine … We have plenty of dead bodies coming up in our streets every single day, and that is unacceptable.
Tonya Payne
Pittsburgh City Councilwoman
November 24, 2008
Litigation likely on weapons measure City wants missing guns reported to police in 24 hours
[H/T to Sebastian.
Forget about her crap for brains for thinking the proposed law would reduce crime in any way, this statement should be sufficient grounds for the Feds to immediately arrest her along with her co-conspirators and to get a conviction for an 18 USC 242 violation.–Joe]
McMillan makes good stocks
I won’t be buying HS Precision any time soon. I have a HS Precision stock on my Spud Gun and really like it. But not if they are going to be associating with people like Horiuchi. Horiuchi was a sniper and had kills at Ruby Ridge and (allegedly) Waco.
I would like to suggest McMillan stocks as a great alternative.
Update: See also what Tamara, Say Uncle, Caleb, and David Codrea have to say about it.
People are checking it out and remembering:
| Domain Name | qwest.net ? (Network) | |||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | 65.121.133.# (Abrams Airborne Manufacturing) | |||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | Qwest Communications | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Language | English (U.S.) en-us | |||||||||||||||||||
| Operating System | Microsoft WinXP | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browser | Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008102920 Firefox/3.0.4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Javascript | version 1.5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Monitor |
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| Time of Visit | Nov 26 2008 6:10:32 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Last Page View | Nov 26 2008 6:10:32 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length | 0 seconds | |||||||||||||||||||
| Page Views | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL | http://www.google.co…ial&client=firefox-a | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Engine | google.com | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Words | lon horiuchi jeff cooper | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Entry Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/2006/09/26/jeff-cooper/ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Exit Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/2006/09/26/jeff-cooper/ | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Time Zone | UTC-7:00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visitor’s Time | Nov 26 2008 7:10:32 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Number | 390,655 |
Update2: See also my Idaho neighbor Laurel’s post.
Quote of the day–Bruce Schneier
Ephemeral conversation is dying.
Cardinal Richelieu famously said, “If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.” When all our ephemeral conversations can be saved for later examination, different rules have to apply. Conversation is not the same thing as correspondence. Words uttered in haste over morning coffee, whether spoken in a coffee shop or thumbed on a Blackberry, are not official pronouncements. Discussions in a meeting, whether held in a boardroom or a chat room, are not the same as answers at a press conference. And privacy isn’t just about having something to hide; it has enormous value to democracy, liberty, and our basic humanity.
We can’t turn back technology; electronic communications are here to stay and even our voice conversations are threatened. But as technology makes our conversations less ephemeral, we need laws to step in and safeguard ephemeral conversation. We need a comprehensive data privacy law, protecting our data and communications regardless of where it is stored or how it is processed. We need laws forcing companies to keep it private and delete it as soon as it is no longer needed. Laws requiring ISPs to store e-mails and other personal communications are exactly what we don’t need.
Rules pertaining to government need to be different, because of the power differential. Subjecting the president’s communications to eventual public review increases liberty because it reduces the government’s power with respect to the people. Subjecting our communications to government review decreases liberty because it reduces our power with respect to the government. The president, as well as other members of government, need some ability to converse ephemerally — just as they’re allowed to have unrecorded meetings and phone calls — but more of their actions need to be subject to public scrutiny. But laws can only go so far. Law or no law, when something is made public it’s too late. And many of us like having complete records of all our e-mail at our fingertips; it’s like our offline brains.
In the end, this is cultural.
The Internet is the greatest generation gap since rock and roll. We’re now witnessing one aspect of that generation gap: the younger generation chats digitally, and the older generation treats those chats as written correspondence. Until our CEOs blog, our Congressmen Twitter, and our world leaders send each other LOLcats – until we have a Presidential election where both candidates have a complete history on social networking sites from before they were teenagers– we aren’t fully an information age society.
When everyone leaves a public digital trail of their personal thoughts since birth, no one will think twice about it being there. Obama might be on the younger side of the generation gap, but the rules he’s operating under were written by the older side. It will take another generation before society’s tolerance for digital ephemera changes.
Bruce Schneier
November 24, 2008
The Future of Ephemeral Conversation
[What I fear will happen is that people, and politicians in particular, will fail to realize is that the society needs to compensate for the power differential and open up government while securing the individual and private organizations. They will think government “needs” to be private and that in order for the government to “protect” us they need to monitor our every word and move.
You can see this mindset in that so many people fear “large corporations” more than governments. They want the government to protect them from the corporations. They want more power for the government so it can further regulate businesses and individuals. They apparently are totally oblivious to the fact that an abusive corporation can be taken down in a few months by a massive boycott. Corporations don’t have the means to force you to buy their goods. On the other hand a government uses guns to take your money, your property, your freedom, and/or your life. Giving governments a monopoly on force and privacy is extremely poor social hygiene.–Joe]
More on wearable sniper detectors
Saturday I mentioned some sniper detection devices designed by the Brits. It turns out the U.S. Army ordered $10 million dollars worth of them:
QinetiQ North America’s Technology Solutions Group, a global developer of innovative technology solutions for national defense, today announced a $9.95 million order from the U. S. Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF) for SWATS(R) Soldier-Wearable Acoustic Targeting Systems. Part of the Ears(R) Gunshot Localization System product family, SWATS(R) soldier-worn units will be deployed to U.S. Army troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan this year. The deployment is expected to be completed by early next year.
A brochure and other info are here.
I wonder if it would crash if it were placed down range at Boomershoot when the opening horn was sounded.
Quote of the day–William Clayton
The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they’re going to be when you kill them.
William Clayton
[There are more than one William Clayton I found on the net and none are particularly good candidates for this quote. But he is the only one I found this quote attributed to.–Joe]
Software alpha release
I have my software project ready for an alpha release (feature complete, but there are known bugs which must be fixed before release).
This was designed for cell phones not a desktop. It will work on desktop and laptop computers but whenever a user interface design was a trade-off between a desktop user and a mobile user the mobile user was given the advantage.
The software is a web based exterior ballistics calculator and can be found here: http://test.joehuffman.org/ http://field.modernballistics.com.This is much different that Modern Ballistics but uses the same algorithms and concepts. This web based version is for use in the field. Example, while at Boomershoot you can input the exact ranges and inclination to a set of targets combined with the weather conditions to get the scope setting needed for one shot, one “kill” hits on the boomers. I plan to have it running on a local server at Boomershoot 2009 so cell phones (and laptops) with WiFi support can get really fast results even with a heavy load of users.
I’m also thinking that maybe for Boomershoot 2010 I will have a weather station on site that will update the conditions for a special version of the software in real time.
Known bugs:
- The help page is for the desktop version not the web based version.
- If the bullet velocity at the target is less than 1400 fps all parameters such as elevation angle, windage, time to target, etc. are in error.
- Some optimization for response time and load handling should still be done.
All data is stored in cookies on your device. This means the website does not need to save the data on the site in order to save your data. The downside is that all your input from the desktop does not show up on your cell phone or if you get a new cell phone the data will have to be reentered.
At this point I’m mostly looking for user interface and device compatibility issues. Does it appear to work on your Blackberry? Does it work on your iPhone? Is the user interface easy enough to understand and use? If you have problems with your cell phone try using it on a desktop computer to make sure you are using the software right before assuming the cell phone is having problems with the website.
Leave comments here.
Thanks for your feedback.
Quote of the day–Greg Hamilton
Recently I was told “well you guys are all Glock guys” “you all just like glocks” we are surely NOT “glock guys” I don’t shoot glocks because I like them. I like them because they do for me what I want. They have the combination of reliability and longevity I want; in a reasonable package size, for a reasonable price. Funny things is a lot of people pick Glocks because of how much ammo they carry, that wasn’t really in my criteria at all. The only way that would fit into my decision making is if two guns were equal in ALL other areas and one carried more ammo, then sure I’ll always take more for no trade off.
Greg Hamilton
Founder and Chief Instructor Insights Training
Insights Email List: October 25, 2008 12:21 PM Subject: Random Thoughts
[I frequently get asked “What gun should I buy?” My response is typically a heavy sigh. It depends on what you are going to use it for, how often you are going to shoot, and probably a dozen other things. The Insights instructors mostly shoot Glocks but their criteria is a little different than mine. And my criteria is a little different than the last five people that have asked me what gun to buy.
I advise new shooters to buy something fairly cheap and shoot it until they are fairly certain they are shooting better than the gun or they understand their needs well enough to buy something more appropriate. My first rifle was a SKS I paid $125 for. I put over 1000 rounds through it before I had a need for a better rifle. But I knew the rifle was holding me back and a better rifle would get better results. My first handgun was a Ruger P89. I put about 30,000 rounds through it. I even won a few steel and USPSA matches with it. By that time I knew the P89 was holding me back and I knew why. I then bought my STI Eagle because it would overcome the weaknesses for my uses I had exposed in the P89.–Joe]
Anti-sniper technology
The palm-sized device designed by Qinetiq, the British defence firm that was once the government research laboratories, is pinned to the uniform and uses acoustic technology to calculate the exact position of the rifle fire.
Then a electronic voice passes on the “bearing and range” to the soldier allowing him to jump to safety and return fire.
The machine has already been purchased by the Americans for deployment in the New Year and the British are looking at a vehicle mounted version.
…
The device, which costs around £2,500, works by isolating the crack of the sniper rifle thanks to four microphones, a GPS system and a powerful microprocessor.
It takes less than a tenth of a second and provides the results in audio and visual formats. It can even send a grid reference via radio to supporting artillery and aircraft.
The system, which weighs less than 6oz, is so sensitive it can tell the difference between outgoing friendly fire and incoming enemy fire and can distinguish a sniper even in a gun battle.
It also works when the soldier is travelling at up to 50 mph on a vehicle.
The device has already been road tested in Iraq and Afghanistan to claims of great success.