True Grit

I saw True Grit (2010) today. I've not see the original, but I've heard good things about the remake. I came away being being lukewarm about it. The plot was straight forward and enough to keep me interested. I didn't buy Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges in their roles. There was too much of The Dude in Cogburn and Damon doesn't make for a believable talkative, if not out right effeminate, Texas Ranger. Also, there were some rough transitions between scenes that were jarring. On the plus side, there were several excellent one-liners and bits of wisdom (like not needing a good lawyer, but rather a good judge) to keep things moving.

Since I didn't love this movie, maybe I should have gone to something with different actors like Tron: Legacy. Oh, wait, nevermind.

Big Orange Screw

The Vols got screwed out of a win at the Music City Bowl yesterday. I know I'm biased, but even some refs agree.



The last time the Volunteer Nation got treated this poorly was when Peyton Manning didn't get the Heisman Trophy.

FlexRadio

I like computers. I work with computers. I don't know that I would want a radio that is dependent on a computer like the FLEX-5000A.

From Brick O'Lore

I find it interesting that it requires FireWire. If I were to go this route, I would want a dedicated machine. Or it would be nice if you could virtualize it. My father-in-law seems impressed with the specs and the QST review was mostly positive. (I think some of the problems the reviewer had were PC/Vista related, but that is a legitimate complaint for a Software Defined Radio.) One of the guys that is often on the 940 repeater really likes his FlexRadio and may upgrade to the 5000A.

Smart Phone App for Mobile Callsign and Repeater Search

QSL.FM is a neat little app for looking up repeater information and callsigns while on the go.

Who is misinformed?

From the "How the World Works" video below...

You may have seen the study showing that Fox News Viewers are largely misinformed. Except they aren't - unless you ignore:

- The study didn't test what it claimed.
- The data collected supported opposite conclusions.
- The researchers cited disputed citations as fact.
- and more!



It reminds of:
Using statistics means you never have to say you lied.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
98% of all stats are made up.

Preparation is a Journey

Preparation is a journey. I can't prepare for everything, but over time I'd like to give myself more options.

For example, I keep improving my Emergency Car Kit as I've add cell phone chargers and some ice melt to the gloves, poncho, and hat.

Here is another food-for-thought article:
Three seconds. Three minutes. Thirty minutes.

I have no go-bag. I've had CPR, but don't have good first aid kits. A buddy is talking about scheduling some first-aid training, so maybe I can fill in that gap.

Private Enterprise

I read David Moon's article in the Sunday paper and it is another great example of what's wrong with the world. Forget if you are pro-gay rights, anti-gay rights, Christian, or an ardent supporter of the separation of church and state - let private enterprise do what they want. If people don't want to do business with a conservative or liberal bank, let them vote with their dollars.

A quick look at my ham shack

Just the basics...

How many are prevented?

Via Slashdot, the Met is reporting that cameras help solve six crimes a day in London.

I know this is a harder question, but shouldn't we be looking for ways to prevent crime? I don't have the reference handy, but I've heard that lights are a better deterrent to crime than cameras.

Book Reviews: Point of Impact & First Family

I've had some downtime around the holidays, so I read a couple of books.

First, I read David Baldacci's First Family. This is the fourth book in the Sean King and Michelle Maxwell series. I've read a handful of his books and I can't say they are that memorable. I enjoyed several of his other books in the Camel Club series, but all in all they are mostly escapist reading. I've had this one for a long time, but the last Camel Club book I read was so disappointing, I put off reading this one. His stuff is good enough that I've read more than one, but not so good that I feel compelled to ever pick up another of his novels. I think a good alternative (especially to the King and Maxwell series) would be Nelson DeMille's John Corey and Kate Mayfield from Plum Island and subsequent books.

I got Stephen Hunter's Point of Impact for Christmas and burned through it. I had seen Shooter, the movie with Marky Mark, so I had an idea of the plot. I really enjoyed this book. Not surprisingly, the novel had a lot more depth than the movie. In addition to more information about Bob Lee Swagger, you get the whole back story on Special Agent Nick Memphis. If you are into guns, you'll also appreciate Hunter's attention to details when it comes to the rifles and long range shooting. I definitely recommend it. Good thing, too, as I also got the next three books in the Bob Lee series as gifts.

Winter is Coming

Winter is coming via an HBO series.

"Winter is coming" is the motto of House Stark from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin that I've mentioned in a previous post.

I think "Preppers" would appreciate the attitude of the Starks.

I don't have HBO, so I may have to figure out a way to watch it.

New Ham Radio Setup - A Short Checklist

After we got the ICOM IC-7000 connected and powered up, my father-in-law/elmer suggested a few best practices.

1. Turn the transmit power down. This is good for a few reasons. If you don't have a good match to the antenna you might burn out your finals. When you are doing basic testing, you don't need to push max power into a dummy load.

2. Set the microphone gain. It is always a good idea to make sure you aren't too hot into the mic. The other hams will let you know if you "need to back off the mic." The IC-7000 has an ALC (Automatic Level Control) to smooth out the peaks. (We actually transmitted into the dummy load to adjust the settings - see #3).

3. Transmit into a dummy load. My father-in-law brought his Bird Wattmeter along with a MFJ Dummy Load and we connected it to the radio. We watched the meter and checked that the expected output matched what the meter was reading. The Bird can do forward and reflected power readings, so you could calculate SWR if you like. We got good readings during our testing - 5W out looked like 5W on the meter.

4. Check the SWR on the antenna. He also brought his MFJ-259B SWR Analyzer, so we used it to check our work on the dipoles and the ground plane install. You'll want to make sure your power is turned down, the frequency is clear, and that you are transmitting within your privileges. An ideal transmission line would have a 1:1 SWR. On the 10M and 20M, we were close to 1:1.5. The 15M wasn't as good as of a match. I need to play with the length, but I've not had time. Of course, I've not tried to do much on HF, so it hasn't mattered a whole lot.

Government Openness and Individual Privacy

It is a simple equation: Liberty is a function of Privacy of the People and Openness of the Government. Liberty decreases with the loss of privacy or openness.

I cannot fathom any reasonable arguments that would persuade me to think video-taping the police should be illegal. Who watches the watchmen?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Why you shouldn't buy an iPad

Here are 10 Reasons you should not buy an iPad.

They include reasons like it is too expensive and that the new version (projected to be available in April) will be better.

I still want one.

How to Write Applications that Admins can Manage

A Plea to Software Vendors from Sysadmins - 10 Do's and Do Not's

I would add #11 - Don't require admin rights on the local machine to run the application.

470 Amateur Radio Net Trivia

I learned a couple of things tonight during the trivia part of the 470 Amateur Radio Net.

Before there was SOS and Mayday, ham radio operators used "CQD" to indicate a distress call. "CQ" is used as general call for making a contact - appending the "D" indicated danger or distress.

Spark Gap Transmitters were used as digital communication before CW.

NASA CIO Letter to Santa

I'm not impressed with this letter to Santa by the NASA CIO. I thought I would give Ms. Cureton a second chance, so I watched her discuss cloud computing. She still didn't make me think she was a heavy hitter.

Maybe I should be CIO of NASA. I think it would be a cool gig. The first order of business would be to make everyone where gold, blue, or red shirts based on their role.

Vintage David Letterman: 6 Year Old Ham

The 6 year-old girl is demonstrating ham radio on the David Letterman Show in 1993. I'm sure the test she passed was harder than the one I took. Oh, the shame.

The Station Agent

The Station Agent is a great example of a movie that doesn't occur on some grand scale - it is just a movie about people, their personal struggles, and their evolving relationships. I have no idea why the XYL and I picked up this movie. We watched it some years ago and were quite surprised how much we enjoyed it. If you want more info regarding the plot, Wikipedia has the usual write-up. I generally enjoy action movies and thrillers with lots of twists, so the fact that I liked this says something I think.

Unboxing the ICOM IC-7000

I posted some time ago that I had ordered an ICOM IC-7000 radio. Below is the unboxing video. The IC-7000 covers both the HF bands as well as 2M and 70cm. It will do 100W on HF and 50W on 2M. One big selling point was the nice color screen. If I'm gonna have to struggle to learn something like this, I don't want to be messing around with a tiny screen and little buttons. It has a removable head unit and I got the separation kit for free with my order. For now, I will be using this as a base station.



Next up, a video of my rig connected and running in my shack.

My stuff

Just messing around with Picasa today...

From Brick O'Lore

Pictured:
CZ 75 SP-01
Ontario RAT Model 1
Yaesu VX-3
Fenix LD-20

Solar and HF Propagation Gadget

You can get a neat little gadget to add to your Windows desktop or webpage (like below) from N0NBH's Solar and HF Propagation Website.

Realism

Along with my complaint that every plot shouldn't involve saving the world, I wish movies and tv shows would more realistically portray gun fights.

I think the video on this link is much more representative of what happens - missing at point blank, lots of shots that don't connect, etc.

There is also this shootout at a bar - unsurprisingly, it looks nothing like the movies.

George R.R. Martin

George R. R. Martin is a favorite author of mine. (Of course, like most of his fans, I hate him, too because he can't hit a deadline to save his life.)

His Song of Ice and Fire series is probably my favorite of all time. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Magic is rare. Magic isn't so powerful that it makes armies meaningless. There is balance.
2. He isn't afraid to kill (or maim) the primary characters - even the likable ones.
3. The scope is realistic - it isn't about saving the world from the "Big Bad," but rather about families and kingdoms as they struggle to survive and conquer.

Congressman Tweets in Morse Code

Via eHam.net...

Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), aka W7EQI, used twitter to announce that he had been named Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. This subcommittee oversees the FCC.

Here is the text of his message:
.-- .. .-.. .-.. / -.-. .... .- .. .-. / -.-. --- -- -- / .- -. -.. / - . -.-. .... / ... ..- -... / --... ...-- ... / .-- --... . --.- ..

You can copy and paste the text into a Morse Code Translator, but I've saved you the trouble:

WILL CHAIR COMM AND TECH SUB 73S W7EQI

Security in 2020

Apologies for being such a Schneier fanboy, but the guy just makes a lot of sense to me.

Security in 2020

"One old trend: deperimeterization. Two current trends: consumerization and decentralization. Three future trends: deconcentration, decustomerization, and depersonization. That’s IT in 2020—­it’s not under your control, it’s doing things without your knowledge and consent, and it’s not necessarily acting in your best interests. And this is how things will be when they’re working as they’re intended to work; I haven't even started talking about the bad guys yet."

We are all going to end up like the passengers on the ship in WALL-E.

From Brick O'Lore

More Google

New tools all the time...

Google Advanced Search Reading Level - Google ranks the complexity of the language used on a web page. You can specify if you want to view Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced results.

Google Body Browser - a tool to view the various systems that make up the body. You can view start with the nervous system and add layers of muscle, bone, etc. You can also turn labels on or off.

Google Books NGram Viewer - a tool to map the frequency of a word appearing in books over time. You can determine when a word first came into use or grew in popularity.

Monster Hunter International & Vendetta

Larry Correia has made a name for himself in the gun world by writing action-packed fantasy with extremely accurate descriptions of the weapons used by his characters.

I really enjoyed Monster Hunter International. It was fast paced and the characters were interesting. I won't go into any further detail, but I give it the official Brick's Good Read Recommendation.

I picked up the second book, Monster Hunter Vendetta, when it came out. I must confess that it was slightly disappointing. It was more of the same (good), but I have grown weary of stories that always involve saving the world (bad). MHI had the advantage of being novel. Since I was familiar with the characters, Vendetta had less to offer and was viewed with a more critical eye. It was not without it's moments - I laughed out loud at some of the jokes about the G-nomes (especially the one carrying the P22) and the troll. In these instances, Correia blends fantasy, guns, and the internet cultures very well.

I will probably pick up the next book, but I hope he can tell a story that isn't dependent on saving the universe.

Red Light Cameras

I am not totally comfortable with the red light cameras. I'm not convinced they prevent accidents which should be the primary goal. One of my concerns is about an automated system to penalize citizens. According to this article, at least there appears to be human oversight. On the flip side, how good is a system where you throw out 47% of the transactions?

Technician Class License Study Guide - a No-nonsense Amateur Radio Study Guide

I wish I had found Technician Class License Study Guide - a No-nonsense Amateur Radio Study Guide before I shelled out the money for the ARRL book.

If you don't want it in PDF, you can get it for a Kindle or iPad for a small fee.

On The Rocks

My XYL likes The Sing Off. I half pay attention and surf while it is playing. I heard them say that "On the Rocks" was a YouTube hit. I see why.

Shoot House

I found a new place to practice - the KPD Shoot House.

2010 Twitter Year in Review

Calling it "The 10 Most Powerful Tweets of 2010", Twitter has a look back at 2010.

Training Drills

I really wish I had a better place to shoot. The range limits you - only one target, no drawing from holster to shoot. I don't really blame them given the close quarters.

With more room and fewer restrictions, I think these drills would be a good place to start.

Dealing with Secrets in the Internet Age - WikiLeaks

From Bruce Schneier on WikiLeaks...

"5. I think the government is learning what the music and movie industries were forced to learn years ago: it's easy to copy and distribute digital files. That's what's different between the 1970s and today. Amassing and releasing that many documents was hard in the paper and photocopier era; it's trivial in the Internet era. And just as the music and movie industries are going to have to change their business models for the Internet era, governments are going to have to change their secrecy models. I don't know what those new models will be, but they will be different."

Here Bruce acknowledges the very phenomenon that I thought he was ignoring when talking about cyber warfare. The world is changing - change with it or get left behind.

Christmas Music

If I was limited to only one Christmas album, it would be "A Christmas Together" with John Denver and the Muppets.



And I can't really explain it, but "When the River meets the Sea" is one of my favorites. I guess it has a positive message about the afterlife, but it is about dying. There must be something about that theme that resonates with me, since I like "It is well with my Soul."

940 BC Topic: Exploding Glassware - The End of Quality

The 940 BC guys were talking about exploding glassware. This sounds like another example where cost savings has trumped quality.

And if it isn't cost savings killing quality, then it is environmental do-gooders. They restricted the phosphates in dish detergents and now we end up washing dishes by hand or running them through the dishwasher twice. Brilliant.

Bruce Schneier on Cyber Warfare

Bruce Schneier on Cyber Warfare.

"Cyber weapons beg to be used, so limits on stockpiles, and restrictions on tactics, are a logical end point."

Beg to be used? Only if the aggressor thinks they won't be caught. Same with restrictions on tactics - if they don't feel the act can be traced back to them, then the limits are moot.

I don't understand the limit on stockpiles comment either. Aren't digital copies the miracle of the internet and computer age?

I'm usually agree with Mr. Schneier, but he lost me on this one.

Trade IP Addresses for RF Spectrum?

I had no idea that AMPRNet existed. (No surprises there - lots I don't know!)

AA6E asks the title question. I would guess the spectrum would be worth more money. Spectrum is finite and with IPv6 becoming more of an option everyday, IP address should be easier to come by.

Emergency Car Kit

Tis the season... for bad weather. We may get some this week-end if the weather guessers are right.

I don't have anything as complete as this Emergency Car Kit, but every time I come across something I toss it in the car.

I usually have a flashlight, a pocket knife, and a multi-tool on me. I've got some gloves, a hat, and a poncho in the car, but need to add a lot more items as you can see to be even remotely prepared. The good news is I don't wander to far from civilization.

940 BC: EmComm

A few days ago it started getting really cold and one local community suffered a power outage.

I was in the car on the way to work; listening to the 940 Breakfast Club. The usual rag chew was well underway when a lady's voice could barely be heard coming through the repeater. She sounded pathetic and was asking about the power outage. She was on her husband's radio. He was at work, but she knew he used it to get info on the weather. (I don't know it was an HT or if he had something more sophisticated setup in case they lost power.)

The guys quickly decided this could be considered EmComm traffic, since it was so cold. One ham dropped off to call the power company to get some info. Another offered to drop by her husband's work. Others offered to make phone calls for her. She said she was okay - in fact she went to check on some elderly neighbors.

While there may be some doubt about this meeting the standard for emergency traffic, I think everyone made the right decision to err on the side of caution. It also was amazing to see how quickly everyone adjusted to the situation and offered help. Providing aid is part of the mission of ham radio. You hear about it during large disasters like in Hati, but I think it happens a lot more on a smaller scale.

Scary World

These things make for a scary world.



Seriously... hurting someone for a cheap (quality and cost) TV.

And I don't know all the details about the tuition hikes, but I don't have any sympathy for rioters in the UK - especially since I am still paying off a student loan.

Billions

I, like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and now Mark Zuckerberg, agree to give my billions* to charity.

* Assumes my net worth grows a smidge.

Antenna Install Video

My father-in-law helped* me install four antennas in my attic and terminate them in a outlet box in my bonus room. I've passed both my Technician and General exams this year, but have zero practical experience, so I learned a lot. (I would draw a parallel between my General license and those guys that go to a MCSE boot camp to get certified. They spend a week to pass several exams and become what we call a "paper MCSE." They've got the creditials, but no experience. That's me when it comes to ham radio.)

We were lucky that the back side of the wall in the bonus room was unfinished. It made it easy to mount the box and run the cables into the attic. It was interesting to me that my father-in-law didn't use a lot of fancy, single-purpose tools. He scored the drywall with an exacto knife and did all his cable striping with his pocket knife.

He had made the 2M quarter wave ground plane antenna some time ago. He brought the PFC pipe and just trimmed it to fit. He also made the termination fixture from aluminium angle he had in his workshop.

He had some insulators laying around that he gave me for the HF antennas. He pulled the wire from his collection of random bits he has acquired over the years. We went to the ARRL Handbook (1999 Edition) and got the formula to calculate the lengths for the dipoles on the three bands. It was simple math (468 divided by the frequency to get the length of the antenna), but it was neat to do the calculation along with the hands-on work.



I really made out like a bandit since he provided everything... wire, connectors, outlet box, outlet cover, coax, insulators, solder, etc. He even loaned me his wattmeter and SWR meter. (More on those later.)

* Helped = means he did most of the work and had all of the know-how.

Uranium 500

Someone on the 2M repeater described the traffic coming out of Oak Ridge as the Uranium 500. Given the South's love for NASCAR and the history of the Secret City, that's a dang funny line.

Bang x 60 (or 100)

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

60 Round Magazine from SureFire for your AR-15.

Parenting and Texting

With all the concern about kids and sexting (or other inappropriate messaging), why don't the mobile phone companies offer a service to parents that delivers a report via e-mail of all text messages and images sent from a child's phone? It seems like an easy way to keep tabs on the kids. It also might encourage the older ones to get a job and pay for their own phone service.

GPS Enhancement

Why won't GPS devices let you use a phone number to look up an address? It couldn't be that hard to do. Entering a 10 digit number would be easier than spelling out a street and city. I know it wouldn't be perfect, but it seems like there has to be a better way to input your destination.

Press Out

I was going to write a quick post about pressing out and add a note about the Magpul reasoning for using this method, but Fred at Folgers and Pistols (or something like that) beat me to it.

P.S. I number my magazines, too.

Google +1 and Cloud Picker

More noise about Google's social app and file storage product... I'm a big fan of the apps and love the integration of all the Google tools. For my personal needs, I use Blogger, YouTube, Gmail, Reader, and Docs. (Of course, integration is the same reason I use the Microsoft products for my global, corporate enterprise.)

Google +1

Google Cloud Picker

HTTPS Everywhere

Quoting from an e-mail I received:

"This week, EFF launched a new version of HTTPS Everywhere, a free security tool that provides enhanced privacy protection for Firefox browser users. EFF built HTTPS Everywhere to automatically switch many of the websites you visit from insecure HTTP to secure HTTPS.

EFF and the Tor Project originally built the HTTPS Everywhere software to help users take advantage of secure web searching on Google and a few other sites. Browsers normally prefer HTTP, unless site operators explicitly redirect browsers to HTTPS. HTTPS Everywhere changes the browser to prefer HTTPS wherever it's known to work.

After researchers demonstrated major web security flaws on social networking sites, webmail and search engines, EFF was inspired to expand HTTPS Everywhere to include Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, Bit.ly, Cisco, Dropbox, Evernote, and GitHub. In addition to making HTTPS Everywhere open-source and available for free, EFF has released a technical guide to help website operators implement HTTPS properly, which will improve security and privacy across the web."

Radio - The Results Are In!

I ended up getting the Icom IC-7000. It is here and my father-in-law helped me install some antennas. More info to follow as I get everything powered up, connected, and on the air!

Web Privacy

Ah, I didn't need to worry about technology protecting us, policy will save us!

PC Fingerprinting/Tracking

The WSJ has published a story about the increasing sophistication of the tools used to track Internet users.

From Brick O'Lore

I'm not sure this really scares me. Worse case it is an arms race. Anonymizing services or the privacy modes of browsers could be used to fake/randomize timestamps, fonts, and versions.

XMarks

I'm not familiar with LastPass, but according to this article, they've picked up Xmarks (which I do like.)

Xmarks is a great cross-browser bookmark/favorites synching tool - extremely useful for those of us that use multiple computers. Xmarks had announced they were having to stop the service due to a lack of funds.

Gun Camera

Via SaysUncle

I may be interested in doing this gun cam. It reminds me of playing a video game. I assume it would work on a pistol with a rail under the barrel, but it wouldn't be as cool since you couldn't see the sights.

Quarterback for Sale

Sounds like a deal if it gets you a Heisman a National Championship in exchange for a $180,000.

From Brick O'Lore