Field Ballistics for Windows Phone

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I just submitted my exterior ballistics app, Field Ballistics, to the Microsoft store for Windows Phone. It will be a few days until it is published. In a day or so I’ll give more details but here is some of what I submitted:

Field Ballistics is a revolutionary exterior ballistics application. Previous ballistics app are little more than glorified pieces of paper with ballistic tables. Field Ballistics uses the phones high tech capabilities to give ballistic solutions for multiple targets.

Place push pins on a map for each target automatically computing the distance from shooter to target, use the camera and accelerometer to measure the incline, use the Internet to automatically get up to date environmental conditions from the closest weather station. Select a target on the map and see the exact scope settings needed and information such as the time of flight and bullet velocity at impact.

When the shooter moves to a new location the ballistic solution for each target is automatically updated. Range and wind direction are automatically corrected using the new shooter location and information from the nearest weather station. You just enter in the new scope settings and take the shot.

Select from any of Federal or BlackHills match ammo or add your own. Input chronograph velocities and Field Ballistics corrects for the distance from the chronograph to the muzzle.

Field Ballistics is more than a glorified piece of paper. It uses the full power of your phone to give you ballistic solutions to multi-target problems.

ScreenShotMap ScreenShotConditions

I started seriously working on this about a year and a half ago. It feels really good to get it out the door.

Update:

In response to this comment from Ray what follows is the exact text of the privacy policy stated in the app:

Requests for map and location information from Bing and other Microsoft services are made by this application and may include the current location of your device. This application uses the Microsoft location service for some actions.

These actions will cause the location of your device to be stored on the device. This information, and all other data for this app, can be deleted by using the ‘reset’ menu item. The use of the location services can be disabled by using the ‘disable use of location services’ menu item.

If ‘Auto’ shooting conditions are used then requests for current weather conditions at the shooters location are made from wunderground.com.

Other than as disclosed above, no information of any type is ever sent by this application to any other device, user, application, or web site for any purpose.

The Stars Came Back -096- Visitors

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Fade in

INT – DAY – Cargo Bay

Helton is standing next to Quinn, Lag and Kat. Helton is partially clad in space armor, looking like a high-tech cross between a space-suit and medieval head-to-toe articulated plate armor, and it looks like he’s trying to get the rest of it on. It looks both very serviceable and stylish. Quinn is dressed in shorts and a tee-shirt, and a dirty bandage on his thigh is visible below the shorts. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Brian Cates

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This demonstrates the biggest problem with Liberals isn’t KNOWING what the evidence shows. Instead, the problem is that their vested interest in a false vision compels Liberals to discount each and every fact that would destroy that vision.

Brian Cates
June 4, 2013
Why Evidence Doesn’t Matter to Liberals Enchanted by a Vision
[I’ve run into this sort of thing with numerous people. Many people simply cannot be reached with evidence.

I’ve literally had people tell me, “I don’t believe your facts.” That the facts were from the FBI UCR and there was no contrary evidence did not matter. He did not even have an interest is supplying “his facts”. He was just right and I was wrong. This was a college professor. That he was an admitted Marxist teaching in the school of business made me realize we did not have a common basis for communication. I’m pretty sure we don’t even share the same reality.

Some people have unshakable faith in things that are demonstrably false. When these type of people are encountered as individuals it can be a source of amusement, frustration, or make your job miserable. When these people are in positions of governmental power they burden you with stupid regulations, destroy economies, and commit genocide.

The Second Amendment was designed and put in place to protect us from Liberals enchanted by a vision.—Joe]

The Stars Came Back -095- BFR

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Fade in

INT – DAY – Cargo bay

The ramp is down, and another cargo truck is backing in. Stenson and Alvarez and another dozen of his trainees are there. The truck slowly lifts and deposits a mid-sized container onto the cargo bay deck with a deep booming sound as it sets down. It is apparently fairly heavy. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Christopher Burg

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@linoge_wotc @moms_no I’m only in the discussion for entertainment. People who say they oppose guns but want to use them by proxy amuse me.

Christopher Burg (@ComradeBurg)
Tweeted June 4, 2013
[I confess that I get a certain amount of amusement from it as well but it is mixed with a bit of concern. They frequently advocate ruthlessness be employed by their proxies in the application of those guns against me and other innocents.—Joe]

The Stars Came Back -094- Translation

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Fade in

INT – DAY – Officers mess

Helton sits, staring at the book, absently stirring a cup of tea. On the table-top (the whole thing of which is a screen) appear snippets and pieces and tables of text, some in English, some in the Futhark- and Bengali-like letters of the Planet-Mover text. More is scattered about on wall screens. He closes his eyes, rubs them, and leans back in his seat tiredly, sighing in frustration. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—TruthtoConservatives

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LOL! Oh my god, that’s hysterical, especially coming form a man with a penis extension. #GunFetishClowns @sdsorrentino

TruthtoConservatives (@ToConservatives)
Tweeted on February 3, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

H/T to Janelle for the email.—Joe]

Random thought of the day

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With the IRS being used as a political tool and the FBI and NSA having access to all phone records and who knows how much other private data I have to wonder how many legislative votes, court decisions, and even executive branch actions were influenced. We know that J. Edgar Hoover used the FBI for political purposes for decades. Why should we think it stopped when he died? Why should we think it was only him that wielded such power?

If nearly every government officials has been subject to blackmail for decades could that be part of the explanation for the abandonment of Constitutional principles?

Power corrupts. It corrupts those that have the power and it corrupts those who are subject to that power.

Quote of the day—Joe Markley

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I think if we acknowledge that we are putting law enforcement officers at risk by limiting their ability to defend themselves I think we have to acknowledge that we’re putting homeowners at risk by limiting their ability to defend themselves.

Joe Markley
June 3, 2013
Conn. lawmakers revise gun control legislation
[Yes, but only if you are capable and willing to follow a logical train of thought. Many people are not.—Joe]

Do you believe in mermaids?

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Today Barb L. and I went to Flaming Geyser State Park (Washington State). This was the “stomping grounds” of Ted Bundy and The Green River Killer. In fact the Green River runs right through the park:

Map picture

As we were entering the park I told Barb L. the story of when Barb S. her mom, and I came to the park about 30 years ago. Barb’s mom, Joy, used to tell the story of that visit. Some guy started talking to Barb and quickly left when Barb said that her husband was “just over there taking a nap”. Joy thought the guy was acting strange and she was very suspicious. She would point out that Barb S. looked a lot like the victims of Ted Bundy and her recollection of the guy at the park was consistent with Ted Bundy.

It was sort of a strange feeling as Barb L. and I pulled in and parked. There, just a couple hundred feet away, was “The Green River” so famous for all the women killed and dumped near or in it.

We shrugged off the feeling and found the trail to the flaming geyser. It’s not much. For a while when hole was drilled (coal exploration), back around 1900, the flame would be as high as five or six feet. Now it’s about five or six inches (see also the picture associated with this tweet):

IMG_6181Cropped2013

We found a geocache nearby. It was the first one I had looked for in a long time.

We then found the trail that went into the woods a couple hundred yards to the “bubbling geyser”. If you looked closely you could see bubbles coming up through the water. We hung around for a few minutes then some guy showed up on the trail above us with his dog and just stood there. I figured he was waiting for us to leave so I suggested we go because we really came for a hike, not to stand around and talk.

We hiked up the little hill to the trail where the guy and the dog were. The dog really wanted to approach us but the man had him on a leash and held him close. I slowly reached out my hand and let the dog sniff it. The guy started talking to us and told us a little about his dog. Then asked if we had been down the trail by the river to the Indian hieroglyphics. We told him no but that sounded interesting. He gave us directions then asked, “Do you believe in mermaids?” We smiled, and said no. He then started telling us stories about Indian paintings of people with big fins for feet and a hand coming out of fisherman’s nets and taking a swipe at the fisherman. “I believe”, he told us. As Barb and I started edging on down the trail he started talking about the UFOs (see also this tweet).

We strolled on down the trail in the direction of where the hieroglyphics might be. The guy and his dog passed us and disappeared on ahead. We found the trail near the river and followed it for a while in the proper direction until it petered out in thick brush and trees. We decided we weren’t so interested that we wanted to push through the brush. Then the voice of Mermaid Believer came to us, invisible through the brush ahead of us, “The river’s too high. You can’t get there easily now.”

Okay then. Time to head back out. We walked back toward the picnic area with Barb checking to make sure she had her knife with her. I told her, “And you know how to use my gun if need be and I’m not able to do so.”

We went back to the picnic area and there was Mermaid Believer again. He was a couple hundred feet away on the other side of the picnic area moving parallel to us. We went back to the car and I got out my telephoto lens and camera and managed to take just one picture of him before he ducked behind what we believe was his vehicle:

IMG_6197Cropped
That was interesting.

We found another trail and went on up the trail with Barb telling me “women raped and killed while hiking in the woods” stories from the knife class she took last weekend.

Our trail made a loop and we arrived back in the picnic area 20 or 30 minutes later. Mermaid Believer, his dog, and his pickup were gone.

I have just one question for you… “Do you believe in mermaids?”

Quote of the day—Harry Reid

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Right now I think everyone should just calm down and understand that this isn’t brand new. It’s been going on for some seven years.

Harry Reid
U.S. Senate Majority Leader
June 6, 2013
Reid on reaction to furor over phone records: ‘Just calm down’
[If this was your spouse telling you to “calm down, this isn’t brand new…” that they had been fooling around with someone else for seven years would that make it okay?

Maybe that is an extreme example. Let’s try some others:

  • How about your accountant telling you they had been embezzling for seven years?
  • How about your lawyer telling you they had been working for your legal opponent for seven years and billing you for the time spent doing so?
  • How about your doctor giving you unnecessary prostate exams every three months for seven years, and charging you for it, because he enjoyed giving them?

Hmm… I’m thinking Senator Reid has a severe case of rectal cranium inversion. Too bad it not so debilitating that it necessitates immediate retirement and exile.

I also think it is very telling that in Paul Barrett Business Week article he restructured the quote in such a way that it changes the meaning. Barrett rephrases it as:

“Everybody should just calm down,” the Nevada Democrat said at a press conference in Washington. “It’s a program that’s worked to prevent not all terrorism, but certainly a vast majority of it.”

If that is the measure of success and such success is sufficient justification then one should not be surprised to soon see some “common sense” restrictions on the First Amendment. I expect Senator Reid and Mr. Barrett can surely agree our government needs to pass legislation for the following:

  • Background checks, ten day waiting periods, and proof of need before allowing anyone to own a Bible/Koran/Torah
  • Registration of all religious texts
  • Limiting the purchase of religious books to one per month
  • Ban all religious books containing more than 10,000 words

They should then give enforcement powers to the ATF and rename the organization Firearms, Alcohol, Religion, and Tobacco (FART).

It’s just common sense, for the children, to prevent terrorism.—Joe]

Interesting, but not quite there

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InteliScope has an interesting product:

product-hero

The further say:

The on-screen, heads-up display of the Inteliscope app is packed with features including:

  • Intuitive User Interface
  • Custom Crosshairs
  • 5X Digital Zoom
  • Video Recording from the Shooter’s Perspective
  • Ballistics and Firearm Data
  • Built-in Compass
  • GPS Position
  • Local Prevailing Winds
  • Shot Timer
  • Flashlight and Strobe using Built-in LED

This device is limited by camera optics and is intended for short range tactical use.

…

Not recommended for calibers larger than .223 or 5.56mm.

You are supposed to use your iPhone directly as a sighting system?

Am I overlooking something here?

Sorry. I don’t think it is going to work that well for the following reasons:

  • Display brightness: With direct sunlight on the display you aren’t going to be able to see any detail, and maybe not anything at all.
  • Repeatability of the mount and even the camera stability inside the iPhone case is going to make it a 5 or 10 MOA system.
  • At short ranges, a limitation they admit, wind and ballistic calculations are so minimal that the repeatability of the mount is going to be the dominant factor. So you haven’t gained anything with the computing power you are bringing to the party.
  • Battery life: How long is your battery good for when you have the camera and CPU running?

I think it would be better if you could connect the camera through a real scope that won’t have the problems with repeatability and you get long range capability. You still have problems with bright backlighting but you have addressed two out of the three big issues.

Okay. It would be cool to have video of the target as you hit them but you can get that with something like GoPro or video glasses while using a real sighting system.

Wouldn’t it be great…

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…if we could stop fantasizing? That would be cool. I think about it all the time.

Tomorrow I will not make or act upon any plans.

I’m trying very hard to stop struggling with my tendency to fight against my conflicts.

I constantly tell myself to quit my internal dialog.

My high degree of modesty makes me better than other people.

People who judge other people are stupid and evil.

My lack of emotion gives me some amazingly good feelings.

My anger pisses me off.

I cannot forgive myself for harboring all this resentment.

My lover hates me. My predictability often catches her by surprise. She uses her meekness and victimhood as weapons of aggression. I have been enslaved by her servitude. Her tendency toward a regimented lifestyle has become spontaneous.

You can stand me up to the gates of hell, and I will never budge from my position of remaining a push-over.

I really wish I could stop wanting.

I’m afraid that I might be paranoid, but maybe it’s just that everyone around me is trying to make me paranoid.

It’s crazy to think you’re insane.

Avoiding work takes a lot of planning and effort.

I have determined my gross carelessness to a high degree of accuracy, through careful, thorough evaluation.

Simple, familiar things are awesome.

I’m a fool for objectivity.

Compensating

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Oleg takes a shot at those who invoke Markley’s Law. Here are my favorites:

compensating6356

compensating_0243web

The Stars Came Back -093- Philosophy

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Fade in

INT – NIGHT – Helton’s cabin

The door is closed. He sits at his desk, kicked back in his chair, feet up on the bed, and his pistol belt hanging from a hook on the back of the door. On the desk, the book is open, under a light, surrounded by clutter. On a screen on the wall is a ship avatar. It is a boy, not much older than Quinn. He appears to be sitting on a comfortable limb of a tree, leaning back against the trunk, with the branch sticking out amid a whole forest of trees, branches, and greenery. He wears an eye patch, and clothes similar to the uniform Allonia made for Quinn. Continue reading →

Gun Song – Shotgun – Lightnin’ Hopkins

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Classic old blues song. Kind’a sad, simple, tells a story. A twist at the end that a lot of modern rappers could learn from. Enjoy, or at least have a listen.

Lightnin’ came in at #71 of all time great guitarists on Rolling Stone’s list. Blues are not normally not my favorite genre of music, but there are some gems out there.

Quote of the day—Tom

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I would like to see the U.S. military raid every home of neighborhoods that have a high rate of gun violence. Sweep the area, bust down doors if people won’t let you in and rip the homes apart looking for illegal guns that have a potential to be used in crimes. if a thug commits a crime with an unregistered gun that results in death or injury to anyone, the penalty should be life in prison with no parole or the death penalty. Are you with me?

Tom
Rochester NY
June 1, 2013
Comment to New Jersey Pushes Gun Control
[Not just anti-gun but anti-rights.—Joe]

It’s a bird. No, it’s a drone!

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Found on Drudge. And “this is just the beginning” they say. Of what? I ask.

For some reason I’m reminded of the “Hunter-Seekers” (or were they “Hunter-Killers”? It’s been several decades since I read the series) of Frank Herbert’s Dune. They were tiny, silent, flying assassination drones that could get into your house or pretty much anywhere else. I wonder if the IRS is looking into drone technology, but then; who isn’t?

The Stars Came Back -092- History

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Fade in

INT – Helton’s cabin aboard Tajemnica

Helton sits at his desk, looking at the book. A small camera is also positioned above it. On a screen on the wall is an image of the book text, with a partial translation next to it. The door is open, and the slight hum of the various ship’s systems are the only sounds. Helton looks like he is examining the text and thinking intently. Lag walks up to the door, and raps gently with a knuckle. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Tio Hardiman

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I am Mr. Ceasefire and I got caught up in a situation and I am not here to point fingers and blame nobody. The verdict is still out. I can’t really speak about the case. Things happen for a reason and liberation comes in many forms.

Tio Hardiman
June 1, 2013
Bond set for CeaseFire head Tio Hardiman in domestic battery charge
[The organization “CeaseFire Illinois”, of which Hardiman is the director, changed their name to “Cure Violence” in September of 2012.

Some people have been calling the organization “Anti-Gun”. From what I have read about them, and I have sort of been following them for several years now, they aren’t really anti-gun. There is an undercurrent of anti-gun sentiment but I have not seen anything overt on their website although Hardiman himself has been quoted as advocating restrictions on guns. As near as I can tell they are a decent organization that attempts to prevent violence in a reasonable way. Yes, preventing violence is something that sends up warning flags for both Lyle and I (see also here and here). But these people are doing it by talking to potential perpetrators and victims when a violent situation is developing. I don’t have a problem with that.

The guy hasn’t been convicted of domestic violence yet, only accused. So I’m a little hesitant to say this anti-gun guy is a violent person. We have some strong clues and there is a strong correlation between anti-gun people and violent behavior but you should not apply statistics to an individual. So for now I’m going to glare at him and prepare to verbally lash out should the domestic battery charges turn out to be true.

Getting back to the quote. He appears to know English words but is unable to string them together in sentence in a way that make sense to me. Liberation comes from being arrested for domestic battery? But what do you expect from an anti-gunner?—Joe]