top-quark.blog
Lifelong Fitness
Wed, 12/22/2004, 02:05Featured cardiovascular exercise (#1): Drink excessively. Then, find a Santa hat and sing a tone-deaf rendition of "Scotland the Brave" at 1 AM, while (slowly) marching down a residential street. When the police show up,
RUN
Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.
(Planned) Email Outage
Sat, 12/11/2004, 05:03For the readers my blog (all two), it should be known that my email's gonna be out for a couple days. Despite being a liberal shithole 99% of the time, Slashdot sometimes posts interesting articles with useful links. As a variation of the technique described in the article, instead of despamming my account(s) by shutting down my mail server (that I don't have), I'm just going to sever my email forwards for a couple days. God bless Gmail, but the spam's out of control.
Olympic Arms Gasrings
Sat, 12/11/2004, 04:36More gun crap. I know it's been the trend for the better part of the year. I promise to move it off to a dedicated gun nut blog soon, and get back to writing about my pet rock and the other brainrot trash you've come to expect on a blog. Soon.
Anyhow, Olympic Arms one-piece "ERing" gasrings. These are sorta like the MacFarland one-piece gasrings you see selling for more than they should. The rings are supposed to prevent gasring gap alignment and prolong replacement cycles. The story is that the standard M16's bolt uses three split gasrings, which means the rings are discontinuous and have a bit of a gap. Every time you clean your gun, you're supposed to stagger those gaps (120 degrees apart). Apparently, if the gasrings align just right, a terrible plague will befall the planet. Also, cycling problems. The funny thing is that I've pulled out bolts with lined-up gaps, and not noticed preceding cycling issues. The offensive condition looks like this:
Gap, not just bad for overpriced clothes
So, to "fix" the problem, what you do is pop out your old rings (all three), and worm the ERing on. It's a bit of a pain in the ass, and you'll probably want pliars for the task.
Grandpa's gasrings on the left (3), newfangled OlyArms ring on the right (1)
So when you get it on, you notice that because of its continuous nature, it's impossible to get a gapped condition:
No gap!
Hooray, we solved a non-problem. We've also introduced a new problem, though. Apparently the overall diameter on the ring is slightly larger, and the bolt is resistant to going into battery. The "solution", if you want to call it that, is to add lots of CLP, and shoot a bunch. You'll be good friends with your forward assist for the first couple magazines, I've found. Definitely don't rely on your rifle for duty until after the rings break in. As for ring life, I can't tell yet. I'll post more data, if you send me more ammo.
Conclusion: Once you get them broken in, they're good for peace-of-mind and maybe longer ring replacement schedules. If you can get them cheap, buy them, but don't pay more than $5. I got mine free from a friend. YMMV.
As usual, I don't work for Olympic Arms, and besides, they'd be nucking futs to pay me for this lukewarm review.
Battlebots, for reals
Tue, 11/02/2004, 01:42Well, I'm taking an online science writing class to meet the requirements for engineering majors. Aside from laughing at truly terrible English, it's a good opportunity to go over my old crap in notebooks. Today, we turned in hypothetical funding proposals... I think mine was the most militant by far.
Traditionally, placing troops in occupied territory has been the only means of effectively controlling an area. As recent military actions have shown, though, post-combat resistance is extremely costly in resources and lost lives. Though many companies have now begun to offer robotic telepresent combat systems, these systems are, for the most part, proprietary and poorly performing. Further impeding the adoption of these systems is the uniform high cost involved. An inexpensive platform using modified off-the-shelf technologies, developed with free and open-source software, has potential to largely replace the need for human presence in hostile areas. This is an area of great and growing military demand. A proposed communications and weapons platform utilizing civilian "All Terrain Vehicles" (ATV), consumer laptops, and adapted small arms, could meet this demand as an interim solution, pending development of more dedicated systems.
Granted, the open-source crap makes me want to punch myself in the face, and a lot of my "proposal" is crap to make it sound techno-fabulous, but it's very practical. I think with about $10k in funding, you could easily get a prototype device that handles 75% of a human soldier's combat duties. I'm thinking a hunting-purpose ATV, hardened consumer laptop, consumer video cameras, and an M249 on an RC mount. Add in a video screen with hardware from a conference call box, and you can interact with the "organics". Applications would be enormous, though better to keep it away from social situations.. perimeter patrol, initial checkpoint contact, area denial, or convoy escort.
Tack on an SPR, add in thermal sights, and you can deal with snipers with near-impunity... MK-19s: bad taste, more filling. You could fit a LOT of 40mm yumminess on there!
Then I'm thinking about sitting in a control trailer, and having it go down the road to get me hot apple pies at McD's... Aim high!
Magpul Triggerguard
Thu, 10/21/2004, 16:09Remember when I was bitching about how the Battlegrip didn't allow the winter triggerguard to function? No?!? Well, I was... Anyhow, I recently found a solution that’s a lot less ghetto than my idea of bending the stock guard.
Magpul Industries is going to send me to the poorhouse with all their gear. I recently bought one of their MIAD triggerguards from Bowers Tactical. Unlike my idea, the Magpul triggerguard is specifically designed to provide a larger interior area for winter gloves and faster trigger access. It’s permanently fixed, but it bows out slightly to allow gloves to work.
Installation isn't too hard, if you know a little about your rifle. Simply unhinge the original triggerguard, then drive out the rear roll pin with a punch. The little baggie includes a replacement rollpin, even. The front attaches with a setscrew.
Using it with my TD Battlegrip seems to work fine, despite the “duckbill”. The slope of the MIAD guard does contact the BG, but with a very slight tilt of the BG, it fits with only a little gap. Hardly an impediment to function; anal-retentive types can modify either the BG or Magpul to work more harmoniously.
My only issue was with the setscrew being overly soft and the internal hex wrench… “slot” stripping out. Apparently there were some early examples with overly soft screws, and Mike at Bowers Tactical is going to send me a new one. I’ll report back when I get it.
Overall, a nice accessory. Pricey, but the best always is.
Wolf Reloadable!!!
Sat, 10/09/2004, 01:01Looks like Wolf (cheapass steel-cased Russian ammo) is reloadable..
...or at least some of it is. This is 55gr M196 tracer loaded up in a Wolf steel casing. I've found it's a little harder to size, but it's hardly concerning. Doesn't appear to contribute to die wear abnormally, as well. It's confusing how it varies, but preliminary examinations of "brass" have indicated the following primings:
9mm - Berdan
40 S&W - Boxer
45 ACP - Boxer
5.56mm - Boxer
7.62x39 - Berdan
7.62x54R - Berdan
I've noticed a lot of places immediately say all Wolf is Berdan, but it's not true. I suspect it's because of the inconsistency of priming technologies. Something about when people "assume" comes to mind..
I still need to get ahold of some of the 7.62x51 NATO, but that stuff's as rare as hen's teeth. I also need something that fires it. Grr.
Boing!
Mon, 09/13/2004, 02:22As my cheerfully cheerful aquabotanic/photographic/blogging master friend Erik might say after I say it..
Another day, squandered.
But I didn't say it today! Nosir, today is a great day for me. Today marks the end of ten years of ridiculous restrictions on firearms. Yes, the abomination that is the so-called "Assault weapons" ban is dead.
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"What does it all mean, though?," Joe Average asks, in a rhetorical manner.
"Does it mean that cop/baby killing death machines are now available?," Joe inquires..
"Does it mean full auto weapons will be on every street corner?," Joe asks..
"So then why did they ban all these guns?!", Joe asks in exasperation...
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Well, contrived conversation aside, this is a very good day for gun owners in free America. It's a good step in the process of reversing the incrementalist prohibition legislation passed over the last years.
It's a little bit funny, really. The ban was made in the name of restricting criminals. Problem is, so-called "assault weapons" are almost exclusively found in the hands of law-abiders. Possibly more so than any other firearm demographic.
That liberal politicians have tried to ban these guns is evidence that they rely on sensationalism and fear to achieve their agendas. Especially enjoyable over the last several weeks have been the cries of "AK47s in the streets" and Al-Qaeda's supposed interest in small arms. Pleas of desperation from a lost cause. Beautiful.
Yours truly is considering stacking his two civilian AKs and the AR15 on the closest street corner, just so the nutcases get to be right for once. Maybe videotape for comedic effect and profit. Downloads available soon? (...likely idle banter)
Updates as soon as they develop! (wait a month for another entry)
Get a (Battle)grip!!! ...maybe
Thu, 09/02/2004, 22:08The A2 grip, standard on M16s since.. um.. after the A1, is a pretty good grip. It provides a standard that works for most people, which is important, should you need to use a fellow soldier's rifle. I'm not in the military, though, so I don't care about the "army way", and I want something that works well for me. Though a truly custom grip can't be mass-manufactured, the aftermarket provides a number of pre-made solutions that often work better than the standard.
I've been reading up on ARFCOM for some time now, and I've gotten a couple opportunities to try out different grips. After a while, I worked my list of desired grips down to three. The Hogue OverMolded, the Sierra Precision ("SPR") grip, and the TangoDown Battlegrip.
Hogue - I found that the Hogue, while comfortable, has a disadvantage. The rubber that makes it so comfortable also has a tendency to stick and bind on clothes and such. I'm a bit of a klutz, so I could easily see that being a problem with sling transitions and such. The finger grooves work great for me, but not for others. They also interfere with the usage of the "winter trigger", which I use, living in Colorado. With gloves on, the grip is also clunky. It is, however, inexpensive.. around $15.
SPR - The SPR grip is regarded by many as a very good solution for precision rifles. One of the big criticisms of the A2 grip is that the distance from the trigger to the rear of the grip is too short. The SPR addresses this with a very "fat" grip that puts the trigger closer to the pad of your finger; a setup considered conducive to precise shooting. The SPR, however, has a thumb shelf designed for right-handed shooters. Though I am right handed, I do train for needing to switch sides. The SPR is absolutely terrible with left-handed shooting. With heavy winter gloves on, it's like trying to grab a tube of ground beef. Way too big. Pricey, at $30.
TD - Ever since I got my Surefire, I've looked for a place to put the batteries. I've got them in my foregrip right now, but that's more ghetto than I'd like. I'm also planning on getting an EOTech soon, so it'd be nice to have a place to put those batteries as well. The Battlegrip is designed firstly to carry batteries; Aimpoint button cells, CR123A's, as featured in Surefire flashlights, and the ubiquitous AAs. I didn't really have much real-life experience with the BG, and the other two had flaws I knew about, so the BG is what I bought.
Out of the box. Pretty packaging, with an extensive essay on the back. I ordered mine from Bowers Tactical, here in Colorado. Mike is very responsive, and shipped very quickly. He also has the best price I've seen anywhere. I had to pay sales tax for ordering from him, but I consider it a cheap upgrade to virtually "overnight" shipping.
Inside the box.. looks pretty complete. Grip, stainless hex screw with thread locker and a nylon washer, a hex driver, instruction leaflet, and two thin foam anti-rattle plugs. Offhand, the grip seems very sturdy; the plastic is VERY hard, and the texture is pretty nice. Not rubbery like I thought.
The rubber compartment plug. Sturdily attached; this won't fall off. Seems like it should be easy to remove in a panic, and it should give a pretty good seal against water. Y'all know about the monsoons we have here in Colorado, anyhow.
Opening it up, it looks like there's even more foam plugs. These would be for padding Aimpoint batteries or for cutting down to fit CR123As and such.
Using a flathead screwdriver and a few twists, we loosen the screw.
Be wary of the spring that'll come out (the detent will probably stay in; watch out for it, though)
Side by side comparison. A2, its screw, and the spring on left, Battlegrip and its screw on right. The BG screw is much shorter and much fancier. Note that I am currently overhauling my rifle, so the barrel's conspicuously absent.
Using the hex driver and special screw, the grip is attached. The BG was pretty hard to get on the rifle, but it's secure.
Looks nice.. feels nice, too. It's reaaaaallly narrow at the top, so my "precision shooting" quibble about the A2 remains unaddressed. The grip shifts my hand down a bit, so there isn't much difference.
The gapper function. Unfortunately, this impedes the winter trigger function. I'll see how irritating this becomes. Still, this is about 40x less ghetto than the earplug I usually shove in the gap.
With use, I'm finding that I can overlook some of the shortcomings of the grip, given the comfort it provides. The shape somehow makes it easier to hold the rifle one-handed. The grip feels cool to touch, which is nice with sweaty hands. The texture is aggressive, but totally non-binding, since it's hard plastic. Though the coarse roughness provides a good grip, it does so without being abusive on the hands.
I still think, though, that the price is way too high for what it is. $30 is waaaay too friggen much. Bear in mind, though, that TangoDown is just matching market prices for other "premium" grips. For example, the SPR, which sells also for around $30, has a lot less engineering involved. When you compare it to other market offerings, the TD isn't too terrible.
I like organizing my data into comparisons:
| Advantages | Disadvantages | |
| A2 Grip |
Standard
Stores bolt, FP, cam pin, FP retainer inside Ambidextrous Reasonably durable Cheap |
O.K. traction
No way to retain contents, except with tape Gap underneath trigger guard Trigger distance doesn't promote good shooting Finger rest prevents effective use of winter trigger (Personal) Doesn't feel right |
| Battlegrip |
Carries batteries
*Very* tough Ambidextrous Incorporates "gapper" function No middle finger rest (Personal) (Personal) Good feel, good texture (Personal) Looks nicer |
Expensive
Lose capability to store bolt components "Gapper" prevents use of winter trigger Non-standard hex head attachment screw |
Conclusion: I have to be honest. I like the grip, but I'm lukewarm as to whether I'd buy it again. A future possible replacement is the Magpul Industries modular grip, which seems like it may address several of the issues I have with the A2 grip. The modular grip system, though, is really lavishly expensive. Maybe it's worthwhile if you need the absolute best, though. In the meantime, I won't return the BG.
Disclaimer: I'm not a shill, and I don't sell the grip. In fact, I don't sell anything. SO STOP EMAILING ME ORDERS, PEOPLE.
Wireless Adventure!
Sun, 08/22/2004, 04:06(Executive summary at the end), finally put up pics
So, I'm a cheapass. Everyone knows this; I'm pretty sure I'd be one even if I had a gazillion dollars.
Got this 802.11g wireless card off Pricewatch.. IIRC, it was the cheapest one around. Surfing the net with it is great, but not too terribly fulfilling. Particularly, I'm fond of wardriving and signals fun, so NetStumbler is a favorite tool of mine. Problem is, the drivers included with the card are uber-generic, and NetStumbler pretty much pukes chunks (says no cards detected).
"I think it's the drivers", I say aloud. I'm a fucking nerd. Anyhow, a lot of cards are just OEMed.. I have no idea who the hell makes this card, since it's so fucking generic. It's called "802.11g Wireless LAN CardBus PC Card". Given enough crackrocks, I could come up with a more palatable name.. maybe something like the "Verbose2000g XTREME EDITION" or something. The packaging, for chrissake:
Yeah; not even a goddamn brand name. So, I try an FCC ID search first. The FCC ID is "MQ4WG2K4", which tells us it's made by a Taiwanese company called "AboCom". Net search doesn't come up with anything relevant, so it looks like I'm trodding on new soil here. Aside from pics of ghetto-fab tech setups from my homeland, the FCC listing is otherwise useless, so let's dig hardware. I love hardware.
Well, time to look at the chipset... breaking and entering time, that is (more the former than the latter). A little while later, delicately prodding with specific tools (pointy end of a compass), and it's open. Here are its guts, along with the chosen tools:
Sooo.. looking at the board, our main chip is a TI, which for the dim-witted, is Texas Instruments.
Specific Chip markings read:
TI TNETW1130GVF 3BZ3408 CD
That "NET" bit tells me it's probably the culprit, but I write down the other chip numbers. It's not like I can look em up on the fly, because I'm lazy, and the card I'm dissecting is the one I use to connect to the net.
Well, shits & giggles, here's the other big chips, along with the dirt I dug up:
ATMEL320 (NE OF MAIN CHIP) 24C08N S127 C (EEPROM; not recommended for new designs!) RADIA (S OF MAIN CHIP, #2 IN SIZE) RC2422B HK0344 A111 (RF stuff? Made in Hong Kong?) RADIA (SOUTHMOST CHIP) RC2326 SG0349 3BF3R2K (RF stuff? Made in Singapore?)
On the way out of the hardware, I see this little gem:
I'd noticed in the OEM drivers an option to switch antennas. This looks like tracks for a surface-mount antenna connector socket, so I'll probably revisit this. Probably MCX is my guess... gotta figure out what kind of plug goes there. I've drilled a hole for it anyway.
Massage the whole thing back together, and hallelujah, the damn thing works. Good, because I'm not putting this much effort into messing with something I've killed.
Well, the small shit checks out to be just small shit, so it's got to be the TI. Google for TNETW1130GVF and get some Seattle hippy coffee-addict wireless page that talks about an example piece of hardware, find out that dropping the "GVF" gives more data (TNETW1130), then finally we find out that the chip is in the "ACX111" family. Now we're getting somewhere, except that the only stuff I can find on that is for Linux nerds. I don't care about linux drivers, but I read along the way that the following have similar chipsets:
US Robotics 5410
Dlink G650+
Fuck, I like USR. Let's read up on them. Netstumbler.org forums shows that it sorta works in NS, you just need the 4.0 drivers. Go to USR's support page, and like an idiot I download 5.0 drivers. I don't know that then, so I keep installing like the dumbass I am. Uninstall old drivers, sucker Win2k into accepting the USR ones, and....
Net works. Cool. Actually seems a good bit speedier and less crappy.
...but NetStumbler doesn't work. Assorted voodoo fails. Go back and reread the post, figure out I'm using the wrong drivers. Shit. Download 4.0 drivers, uninstall old ones, install 4.0, lather, rinse, repeat. Netstumbler works. Yay.
So you, uncaring habitual reader, or battle-wary Googler, now know how to get a cheapass card to work in NetStumbler. I think I put in 3 hours to save something like $10 on a name-brand card. But, I've no money and lots of time.
I know I ramble, and most of you don't care, so here's the executive summary, you lazy bastard:
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1) Don't take apart your card like I did. If you want to mess with the antenna, good. Lemme know how it goes; I'll probably never get around to it otherwise.
2) Just install the USR 5410 v.4 drivers. 3) Use NetStumbler for evil and such |
Have fun, kids. If this article's been helpful to you, lemme know. That means a comment or something, so I don't look like a total computer nerd, blogging away his life. If you have a job open, I'd like that. Also, please remember me for the holidays, inheritances, oversized checks (publisher's clearinghouse-style), and marriage requests (not from guys).
Til next decade..
Alive!!
Thu, 08/05/2004, 03:19You see that subtitle of mine, under "top-quark :: blog"..? That's not a joke.. Instead of reading this blog, I suggest you take up a number of other equally-rewarding hobbies, such as:
-Watching paint dry
-Watching grass grow
But, to reward my occasional reader, I'll sometimes put up morsels of goodness. In truth, I've had the photos for this installment prepared for some time, but.. writing's no fun.
Today, we have... Magpul Industries' brand new, fancy-schmancy anti-tilt followers for M16 magazines! Make no mistake, these aren't your green followers that are so last-century.. These are a brand new design, and quite the feat of modern engineering.
After the Sanchez/Cooper magazine issues which prompted the redesign of the traditional black followers, the US military adopted a new green-colored follower, with anti-tilt features. Unfortunately, someone overdosed on crack, and only did a half-assed job. The result is typically military; it fixes the problem, but just barely. If tilted too much, you can quite easily jam a green follower. It may be a 30 second fix, but if you're loading your magazines in a battle environment, your situation is probably time-sensitive. Solutions exist already; H&K, in overhauling the ailing British SA80, has come up with some new high reliability mags, with some sort of chromed metal anti-tilt follower. This is about ideal, but because of the Clinton "assault weapons" ban, citizen shooters can't buy these new normal-capacity magazines. Also, they're very expensive, at around $40 for law-enforcement.
Magpul, being an innovative company, has created something of an interim, or upgrade option in the polymer anti-tilt followers. Also, as a new company connected to users pretty directly by the internet, they've been exposed to the concept of the "beta test". So, lucky us, Magpul made available for a short time a limited number of "beta" Magpul followers. These are colored red, and made in a different process than the production followers. They're also made to be dimensionally close to the magazine size; plainly-stated, that means they're kinda tight. Sand and grit could potentially be a problem, but these are test pieces, and not made for combat.
Here it is; the top of this wondrous lump of plastic. The really nice thing about these is that they're molded with Teflon; this makes them very slick, and improves the smoothness of feeding. I say they're worth it just for the slickness.
Compared to the now-standard green follower, the Magpul followers have a lot more "beef" to them. This makes them far more resistant to tilt. Sharp/experienced eyes will also note that these are molded in such a way as to account for the magazine ribs. Normal followers require a degree of finesse (or brute-force) in getting them in/out of the magazine body. With Magpul followers, you simply insert them straight-in. It's easy, but mine lost some plastic on insertion. I don't count it against the followers, as magazine tolerances do vary, and it doesn't impair function.
The followers in their natural environment...
Update!
(kinda contrived, since I'm writing this whole article now..)Magpul has now started to sell production versions of the follower. How do they vary from beta? The production followers are by comparison slightly undersized for reliability, and are manufactured apparently in a more consistent manner (no shenanigans). They're also colored Coyote Brown, as popularized by Cavalry Arms.. I guess that makes them more suitable for tactical use, but that could be debated.. at any rate, it lets a user distinguish the production from the (rare) beta versions.
Coyote brown-a-riffic.
I'm guessing some people don't understand why these exist.. Just try doing this with a green or black follower. They'd bind up, or go totally nuts. With these, you could push the follower all the way to the bottom, and it still won't jam or bind. It's great. Same goes for the red ones.
Some empirical observations:
1) The red followers weren't made as consistently; I had a couple with odd bumps that interfered with proper operation. Actually, the mags wouldn't work at all. Magpul switched these out for me, though; great customer service. The production followers are very, very consistent.
2) The red followers, though theoretically more prone to sand/grit than the coyote followers, have functioned perfectly. I don't baby my equipment, either, and often drop my mags in the jagged rock/dirt we have in the mountains. The coyote ones should be even better, but I haven't used them much.
3) The followers have another nice feature; they can resurrect crappy mags. Back when I was stupid(er), I bought a couple USA mags; they never worked right, because they'd always tilt. With these, they function great... which is bad, because I look like a dumb n00b. *shrug*
Overall, these are highly recommended! If you look at reliability factors in a modern weapon, the weakest point in any system is the magazine system. With an $800+ rifle, you'd be insane not to spend a little extra to positively ensure perfect function.
Disclaimer: I don't work for these people. If I did, I wouldn't whine as much as I do about being poor.
Disappointments of the 21st century...
Sun, 04/18/2004, 09:53I went to the grocery store today.. I was looking for caffeine tabs, reading over labels faster then I could mentally process what they meant.. typical stuff.. carmex, antacid, laxatives, vitami...*pause* *shakes head in disbelief*.. what?!... *zoom in: basket drops, bounces in slow motion*..
Holy shit, they make CHOCOLATE EX-LAX!?!?! It was friggen surreal. I just stood there slackjawed in shock/awe. Why the f*** didn't anyone tell me when I was younger? Hot damn, if that doesn't have "potential for abuse" written all over it... Brownies, cupcakes, or just straight-up to the other clueless kids. Talk about missed opportunities..
Easter...
Tue, 04/13/2004, 04:20
..is cancelled.
I feel terrible for laughing at this picture...
More updates soon, life's just a little to hectic for now to do anything regular.
"Hired Guns"
Really interesting and objective article on civilian "contractors" in Iraq. I've known about the Dyncorp guys for a while, but I've never read an account of what actually goes on. It's pretty fascinating; The benefits of mercenary work, but under the aegis of a national government. Self-direction and somewhat limited accountability. Sounds like my idea of a job.
Getting shot or blown up, though, isn't my cup of tea. But it certainly is exciting tea!
Bang.
Tue, 03/23/2004, 03:45Saturday at the gun show was unproductive as usual. I must be getting on in my years, because nobody asks me how old I am at the handgun tables. I've been shopping for a replacement to the Glock 22c, and there are a *buttload* of choices on the market today. The selections available are really international, covering all sorts of price and quality ranges. I'm looking for a quality piece in 9mm. At one point I would have been a tightwad college kid, but I'm not rich enough to afford cheap things...
Switzerland makes all kinds of precision stuff. Watches, clocks, Swiss Miss hot chocolate yummmmm.. and SIGARMS! Sigs have been an interest of mine for a long time; they're a status symbol, and priced that way. I'd actually convinced myself that I *needed* a Sig P239 as a carry piece (I'd never fired one). Picking one up in a more objective mindset really changed my opinion, though. Ergonomics need work!! P239s are fat and sassy, in an uncomfortable midsize Glock sort of way. I could feel my tendons crunching about just picking it up. I'm back to my old assertion of the P226 being a nice piece. Everything else Sig is a brick. Overengineered bricks, even.
Zee Ahs-chreeans! Glock's always an oldie/goody, but who doesn't know that? Light rail (important!), reliability, reliability, and *UNDYING RELIABILITY WORTHY OF A ZOMBIE MOVIE*. Fullsize only for me, though. The midis and minis are really uncomfortable. I'm rather fond of the original G17. It's not new, expensive, or particularily anything but reliable. It's just basic, and damn that's good. Gordon Freeman uses one, so it's gotta be good.
I can't figure out anything to say about the Czechs. Oh well, I really like CZ! I recently got a bit of range time with a CZ75 on a recent trip to Lefthand Canyon with a friend. They're pretty darn ergonomic , accurate, and *almost* too heavy. Very solid, though, and well-priced. Only downside is funky european styling, but this is a damn gun. I think a CZ75 is my prime choice for when I turn 21. Concealed carrying this thing's gonna be a b*tch, though. I'm imagining shuffling around with my waistband hanging about somewhere mid-shin. Oh well, I can get the authentic "streets" look!
Lastly.. the 1911s. Big sigh here. I've liked the design, but can't stand the.. zealots?.. evangelists? more like luddites... This is the crowd insisting it's the best thing since sliced toast, and that anything made in the last nine decades is crap. 1911 creeps scream reliability, but it's almost a joke that the first thing to do is polish feedramps. The 1911 was designed for another era, with FMJ rounds. I'm a civilian, and hollowpoint reliability is key.
I shouldn't bash, though. I think it's good, but there are nicer choices a century later. I've mentally crossed the 1911 off my list for a long time just to avoid association with these folks, but... picking a 1911 up is a nice feeling. It's growing on me, actually. Heavy, but not overly so. The grip profile's thinner than my mental impression; still thick enough. They're all pretty substantial pieces; very nice that you could give someone a pretty good smack if it came down to it. Buggers are pricey, though. The garish trash is the most expensive, but practical pieces are somewhat affordable ($800 range). Basic + nightsights. 1911 talk is idle banter, though; I'm too poor to shoot .45 often.
I left pretty much empty handed, except for a case of 62 grain 5.56mm JSC Barnaul ammo for my AR-15. I've heard this stuff is nice and hot, and pretty accurate too. About the same price as Wolf, so I figure there's no reason I shouldn't try it. I'll have a report up when I test it.
Ret zher be Right!
Tue, 03/16/2004, 21:15
A lifetime's yearning has now come to an end! I managed to score a pretty darn good deal on a Surefire flashlight, using funds from a game I won.
For those not in the know, Surefire is the maker of premium flashlights used by military types. While the majority of their line is still multihundred dollar metal body lights, they're now coming out with a more affordable series of impact-resistant plastic-body lights. The little gem I picked up is a Surefire G2. Though I got a pretty hefty discount on it, they do usually run about $30 from any number of online retailers.
Now you might be laughing that anyone would spend $30 on a flashlight. Normally you'd have a point. But these are friggen Surefires... Besides construction, which is quite nice, there is one thing about these lights that stands out. These are friggen' bright, sizewize, and on an absolute scale. It's hard to imagine, but something about the size of a Minimag puts out more light than the famous Maglite D-cell "Police Brutality Specials". One of the secrets is that they use Lithium CR123A batteries. The y're expensive, at a buck-a-pop, but it's not that terrible. The G2 goes through a pair in an hour. $2 an hour for some really intense, dependable light is actually a great deal, if you're in a bind. Plus, unlike other battery chemistries, Lithium batteries retain a charge for ten years.
You actually have to be careful with this thing; if you're not careful, you can blind yourself for a few seconds. It's actually an advertising point for Surefire; that these lights are bright enough to temporarily blind/stun people in the dark. This of course appeals to me. You can probably tell from the tape switch and mount that this sucker's going on my rifle. For a defensive use light, the temporary stun effect gives a few extra seconds to shoot or scoot. The glare from the light also makes it extremely hard for your opponent to aim back. It's not quite the same, but you can observe the same effect in Tom Clancy's Raven Shield computer game. It's very effective.
I'll have pics of it mounted to the rifle this weekend, when I come home for spring break.
...if I can survive this week!
Anything big starts small..
Sun, 02/29/2004, 23:03Now, I'm really, really confused. This morning, I'm reading a thread over on ar15.com, when I notice this little picture:
Originally from: http://www.optonline.net/media//image/XPA10802291525.jpg
I'm guessing it's a government soldier in the Haiti violence. People mockingly wanted to know how he was going to aim without a rear sight. I did a photoshop to show that it did actually have a rear sight. I thought initially that it was a back-up-iron sight, an pretty common accessory for flat topped rifles. Inside the discussion thread, though, someone mentioned it being a Taiwanese T68 rifle. I was under the impression that the T68 was pretty much a Steyr AUG, but it did set off a trigger in my head about other Taiwanese rifles; specifically the early T65s. As I understand it, the earlier T65s were rather close the the Armalite AR-18, and had a single integrated rear sight.
I fired up my browser, and tracked down a webpage I use a lot for Taiwanese arms.. one of those pages has at the top a large line drawing of generational T65s.. The T65 and T65K1 rifles are pretty similar, except the handguards; the original has the ribs spaced farther apart; a pretty good match for the pictured rifle. I opened the line drawing in Photoshop, inverted it, desaturated it, and eliminated whitespace, then rotated and scaled it to overlay the original picture, magnified a few times. The result is.. interesting:
Aside from the line drawing being of the other side of the rifle, the outline matches completely; the handguard ribs, the position of the rear sight, even the stock, which flares wider at the base, similar to the aftermarket "Sully Stock". This might also be a vestige of the rifle's AR-18 heritage. As an aside, it's interesting to note the lack of brass deflector and forward assist, as are found on the modern M16.
My dad had always mentioned that stealing arms and ammo from the Taiwan military was punishable by death, presumably to stem some sort of gang violence issue. Civilian ownership of arms isn't allowed in Taiwan, either. Together, these two bits somehow combined in my head to give the impression that Taiwan didn't really have much of an arms trade.. Apparently someone has a source, though.. Criminally obtained, or otherwise, it's interesting to see these rifles in service elsewhere..
It gets scary now, though. I remember a couple months ago an article I read.. a search of google yielded this gem. Note that in the article, Taiwan isn't noted once.. the weapons designations give it away, though. Somehow, an Islamic independance group in the Philippines is trying to purchase bulk quantities of Taiwanese T75 and T65-K2 arms from North Korea. Also included in the order are "M30 machineguns".. since Taiwan doesn't use the M designation (the T designation is actually a western convenience, as well), I guessed it was a western piece. The only M30 machinegun I can find is the Italian Breda M30, of WWII. At this point, I'm just trying my damn hardest to keep my geography straight... I'm sure more searching will get more info, but I'm not sure what to think right now.
If that article has any weight, and the North Koreans weren't pulling anything, then some questions have to be asked.. Taiwanese rifles are domestically produced, and stealing them in the ten thousands is quite the feat.
-Maybe a shipment to another organization was intercepted?
-Maybe another country's stash was stolen?
-...
There's a lot of funny business going on. The alternatives to my scenarios are just a little more interesting...
Hi, art of war.. if you could just link to the images, instead of [img] tagging them, it'd be much nicer.
Over the hill..
Thu, 02/26/2004, 04:05
...has something of a different meaning for cars. Mine hit that mark coming home from school last Friday. I've only had it since 60k miles, but I'm still overjoyed that my 1995 Ford Contour has made it through to the 100k mark. I've been a mean owner, and it's treated me right, for the most part. Despite my abuse, it's still in pretty fine condition, with a few notable exceptions.. One of my side mirrors is cracked, the passenger sun visor's gone, and the paint job's suffering. Not yet (Yet..) ghetto-fabulous, but getting there. There is one hope!... with my improving mechanical skills, I can even do such insanely hard maintainance as:
Filling Gas while picking my nose
Refilling the windshield fluid
Changing oil
Changing ATF (actually kinda hard)
Changing lightbulbs
The entire thing's a bit embarrassing, really. I'm the biggest gadget nut I know, but I didn't learn to change my oil until last year. Something about cars makes them very difficult to work on; large parts that require manhandling and forcing, carcinogenic fluids, complicated tools, something.
Or maybe it's the idea of working on something that costs several thousand dollars and could well kill me.. (c'mon, you had to have seen the negative quip coming!)
Rumors of my demise...
Thu, 02/12/2004, 23:12...have been more or less correct. The last few weeks have been obscenely busy for me, so I've not had much time to think, and not much time to think about my blog.
Well, as long as we're on the topic of rumors, a long standing small arms rumor was confirmed last night. Heckler & Koch, makers of such wonderful products as the MP5 and G36, publicly announced the introduction of a product long awaited; the HK M4.
Now it might seem odd that H&K would seek to enter into an arena with longstanding and established giants as FN, Colt, Bushmaster, but they do have something to offer besides the name.
Current manufacturers are still closely following the recipe for the M16 system, which has remained virtually the same for the better part of half a century. There's a good reason for this; the M16 design is pretty good. Though its flaws have pretty much been ironed out in combat, there is that one that everyone knows about. Talk to anyone, your grandma even, and you'll doubtlessly hear that the M16 system is less reliable than its foe, the AK-47.
It's been known that the M16 family's dirty secret lies in the fact that sooty combustion gasses are routed through the operating mechanism. In time, this forms deposits that can cause malfunctions.
The venerable AK-47 and G36 systems avoid this issue by making the gas piston external to the firearm's action, allowing for a much cleaner system. What HK has done is to integrate the G36's externalized short stroke gas piston design into the M16 rifle, so as to achieve a cleaner action.
From the details at the HKM4 website, the major modifications are present mostly in the upper receiver assembly. Buffer modifications are claimed, but that's a minor point. The lower receiver remains mostly mil-spec M16. What this indicates, then, is that this is not so much a full rifle system, as much as it is a retrofit to current rifles. This mirrors in a way the HK contract to improve to the maligned British SA80A1. It might be a new, but limited business model; HK designs retrofits to adopted systems, assuring lower R&D costs, and an eager customer.
Downside? HK's distinctly leftist European politics make them less than eager to sell to the citizen. Actually, this isn't definitely true; they're very eager to sell their "mitary" Mk23 pistol. One wonders if their reluctance to sell to the civilian sector is politics-based or sales based. Their SL8-1 (neutered g36) was a major flop, as was their USC (neutered UMP). Nobody even hears about their shotguns or bolt rifles.
Arguments can be made that the pricing on HK items is outrageous, but I think another aspect to consider is that the USC and SL8-1 were stripped of their military styling and ability to accept military magazines. Maybe they'll be smarter with the HKM4; there are probably millions of AR15s in civilian hands in the US; most of which belong to dedicated firearms enthusiasts willing to shell out the big bucks for something new and improved.
Keep it under $1k, and I might buy. (dreams on)
Round two... fight!
Fri, 01/23/2004, 04:09Yeah, it's come around again; the flu. As I'm typing this away, I'm urgently trying to stuff my lungs back in through my mouth. Actually, it's not that bad, and there are people in a lot worse shape. Still, it's hard to be attentive in class when you're the W&W Phlegm Factory.
I'd planned on writing my Chinese New Year's message in Chinese, but apparently I've found a deficiency in the Blosxom bloggin software.. it doesn't like BIG-5 encoding. So, in Romanization that will cause me to have kidney stones for eternity, "Gong Shi Fah Tsai" !! (hong bao nah lai).
Welcome to year 4701.
hohoho...
Sun, 01/18/2004, 03:52
So apparently I had a power issue at home, and didn't notice that my beloved top-quark box had gone down... My ever-capable sister came to the rescue and got my ghetto-riffic box online.. really, this thing is *ghetto*.. it doesn't even have a power switch; you touch two wires together with TEN TRILLION VOLTS between them... (thanks sis! ^^)
School's fun and reasonable this semester.. It's the picture of balance; the perfect measure. I've been having fun "hangin' " with my floormates and studying for my really neat classes.. Computer organization is a surprisingly "visionary" course, and shows me what I'm doing relative to current industry.
School food does suck terribly, though..
Home away from home...
Sat, 01/10/2004, 05:33
Being back at college, I've concluded that Boulder is a fantastically poor substitute for Denver. I could bitch about anything, though.
Really, there's only one other place in the world that I could ever call "home", and that's the city of Taipei, Taiwan. Despite collectively having lived there far less than a year in all my visits, I never feel like an outsider.
As a massive sprawling metropolis, the first word to come to mind about Taipei usually isn't "beauty", but viewing it from farther out can often provide some perspective.. one of my aunts happens to live outside the city on a mountainside, and I was fortunate to visit with my camera right before the onset of a typhoon, during "hong-tai-tee", or typhoon weather.
This typhoon weather is something that warrants explanation, especially for landlocked types. Taipei, being a large developing city, has massive problems with smog. The typical weather of Taiwan further augments the hazy feeling with a thick layer of clouds, providing a nearly-constant neutral gray monotony (that I happen to like!).. The low pressure of an incoming typhoon, though, draws away the haze, making for clear, warm days. The drawn-out remnants of cloud provide for very photogenic scenery, if one's far enough away.
Visible in this picture, taken August 17 of 2003, is the silhouette of the then-unfinished Taipei 101 tower. It's nauseating to personally see it at a closer distance.
Inaneness Strikes! (movie at 9:00)
Fri, 01/09/2004, 03:06Yeah, it's pretty much my greatest fear, but I'll let in one "daily life" type of entry..
The last couple days have been.. well, "fun" isn't quite the word to use... I've mostly been mentally preparing to return to school.. Most significantly, I've pretty much fine tuned my dosage of Methylphenidate (yeah, I'm the latest inductee to the ADD club..) That should help *immensely*, since everyone knows that single greatest issue I have is that I'm never able to stay on one subject.. The problem is that this is also one of my few assets, and I question how this'll impact the other facets of my life. Mixed blessings all around. Here's to boring conversations... *clink*
One of my other major concerns is that of wasted time in my daily life. How much of this is ADD related, I dunno. Regardless, a large percentage of my excessive internet time is spent for crap purposes... since I'm now something like a junior in college (overworked, underpaid), I have even less time than before. Soo... since I can't self-regulate time wastage on the net, I'm bringing along my Mesozoic-Era boatanchor of a laptop to school. Yep, I'll let technology regulate me. As a plus, I'll have more deskspace to do.. well, whatever.
All my best-laid plans, though, are ravaged by.. well, reality. Being a junior also means that I'm starting to do more serious analysis, which requires a powerful computer.. I think I'll bring my desktop in reserve for those purposes.. I guess we'll be testing my self-control in that regard.
Oh, what exciting (sleep deprived) times we have coming...
And news to make my shooting partners happy.. Next week I'm sending my AR-15 upper receiver to Kurt's Kustom Firearms for a barrel weight reduction service.. almost $100 and a two months later, it'll come back to me as a turned, flluted lightweight wonder (I hope). I've high expectations, since this guy's got a godlike reputation on AR15.com.
Comments (writebacks, actually) should be working now, in a crappy sort of way.. give it a shot, if only for giggles..
Clear as mud...
Tue, 01/06/2004, 03:33I'll openly admit that I'm just grasping for content here, but nVidia's latest 53.x series drivers have a pretty neat little transparency feature included. Though being able to make transparent selected windows is of limited use, the aesthetics are undeniably nice...
It's interesting to note that Trillian (the window to the right) has for the longest time had transparency capabilities. It's rather useful (and usable) in transparency mode, because it's not an application you normally have to pay attention to, but still want to keep an eye on. A bit of a balancing act.
With a tool like your computer, though, prettiness should be strictly secondary to usability. Frank Llyod Wright and all that stuff. Having a focused window be transparent is murder on productivity, and its really just dumb to be a slave to vanity. With reported extensive usage of alpha-channel controls in MS' upcoming Longhorn, I hope they'll keep this in mind. Ideally, I'd like to see all background (unfocused) windows set to something like 60% transparency,. then spring to 100% visibility when clicked. This should be done at a native system level, too, not some company's hack.
Of course, if I used linux, I'm sure I could cobble something up to that effect. But I'm too unmotivated.
Getting old sucks.
Thoughts, cheaper by the dozen...
Tue, 01/06/2004, 02:55God damn is it cold. Walking outside right now's about as pleasant as a surprise gang initiation. I'm now a firm supporter of indoor heating and plumbing. Anyhow, since I'm still in hoppin' suburban Denver, my weekend was filled with exciting activities and colorful people. Not really, but I'll soon be headed somewhere with lots of nothing to do and stoners/drunkards by the boxfull. The only good bit of my weekend was going to the gun show on Saturday, where I failed to:
a) Sell my rifle.
b) Buy a Mossberg 590 w/ ghost rings for $275
I'm kicking myself repeatedly for that last one; I was halfway expecting the first. Actually, it's probably better I didn't sell my rifle at the show. Being the uninhibited person I am, I would instantly have splurged on beanie babies and beef jerky. Or so said vendors would wish. As much as a gunshow is a family sort of event (no, really, it is), I've yet to have seen anyone (kids included) patronize those tables. Maybe someone should kindly explain that it's a gunshow.
Oddly enough, the National Alliance had a table this time. With publications like "Is there a future for white children in America?", they do manage to catch people's attention. The question is what sort of attention... Usually event organizers ban these folks because they're bad press.. Though I myself am probably on the periphery of their derisiveness, I'm totally supportive of their right to free speech. Regardless the truth of their views, though, one recognizes that the organization is viewed dimly by the general public. This further carries over with what impact this will have on gun owners in general, when the local news, hungry for a story, shows up with their hidden cameras and paints gun owning America as a subset of this organization. God bless media whitewash. (play on words unintentional)
Other topics, though..
Since the holidays finished, I've been slowly processing my haul of gifts. One of my giftcard purchases at Best Buy was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Though I hate doing such a totally common thing of reviewing a movie, I will say (briefly) that this is a pretty good movie. It's also a perfectly good example of an exotic fad that sweeps the country in a wave of "I'm hip, too". The movie has good fights and nice filming, but viewing it in English (dubs especially) isn't nearly the same experience as watching in Chinese. In Chinese, the movie is a mostly plot-less kung-fu movie. In English, it's a mostly plot-less kung-fu movie. Any review that praises its "awesome" story line is full of shit, frankly.
Overall the movie was good, but some very boring people make it to be some sort of cinematic messiah so that they can make themselves look sophisticated/international. Something comes to mind about molehills/mountains, and a particular Nietzsche quote about muddying puddles to make one's points seem deeper.
Interestingly enough, both Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh had to both memorize Mandarin for the movie. Even though they both already speak Cantonese, it still seems like an insane burden to make an entire movie in what amounts in some degree to a foreign language. At least it didn't come out the same as William Shatner in the slightly obscure Incubus. My opinion of that film would otherwise be good, were it not for good ol' Will Shatner. Even though it's in Esperanto, he still. speaks. like. every. word. is. its. own. goddamn. sentence. If you want comedy, listen to the audio they have on the Incubus website. It's hilarious, in a multiple car pileup/numerous fatalities sort of way.
Before I vector totally off Crouching Tiger, though, I'd like to mention that the movie is the subject of the stupidest quote that has ever gracedcursed my ears. That being "Wow, I didn't know Chinese people could fly!"
Thoughts and idiots available; inquire about bulk quantities.
Yet More Testing..
Fri, 01/02/2004, 00:24For the most part, I'm just trying to modify some page behaviours now, and I still haven't gotten around to adding comments.. it's hard to plan out just how to implement this; Slashdot-style seems logical, but I'm having a bear of a time figuring out how to do it...
Diabetics need not apply...
Thu, 01/01/2004, 23:18It's kinda stupid, but something I always like to try when travelling is foreign candy. Variously, it's good, ok, or awful. Perhaps by genetic predisposition, though, I'm rather fond of most Asian candies. When I went to Taiwan this past summer, I was a positive fanatic for "Hi-Chew" fruit chews.. one of my cousins actually bought me close to a pound as a going-away present.. I was perfectly expecting, then, to eat them again when I next returned... Wasn't I surprised to find that they sell them in the US...
At first I was pretty much inspecting it like I do most Japanese candies.. then it started to work into my head that the package seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn't pin down what was bothering me.. The color scheme tipped me off, though, and I recognized it behind its veil of katakana as what it truly was. I will jealously guard this until my end days... or until I eat it all, which shouldn't be long...
OMG KAWAII-DESU-NE? kekekekkekekekekekeke (^______^)
\(^o^)/\(^o^)/\(^o^)/...
I hate myself...
Incidentally, this page is awesomely awful...