::::: : the wood : davidrobins.net

My name is David Robins: Christian, programmer (resume), writer, photographer, runner, gun enthusiast, libertarian (voluntaryist), and student.
This is also my wife Honey Robins' site.

Christmas 2011 at Hedricks

News ·Saturday December 31, 2011 @ 18:56 EST (link)

For the first time in many years, we were able to drive to be with family for Christmas. It was Honey's family's turn (lucky them!), so we made the 14-hour drive to WV on Friday the 23rd after work, and arrived early Saturday morning. Technically, I wasn't supposed to be able to take vacation—even if it was accrued—until I had worked there 90 days (some probation period that seems rather silly in an at-will state), but the company is flexible and didn't mind letting me take a couple days and rearrange the holidays so I would work on the 23rd and 2nd and be off the entire week between.

So, we had a nice visit; dinner at Papa Pollock's on the 24th, delicious turkey. It was on the 24th because there was church on the 25th—morning only; and let's just say the same people that ate showed up at the Lord's supper, although the second meeting was rather better attended; including a handbell choir and a little girl that needed to be excused from the stage to go to the bathroom.

I caught a bug sometime during the week; sore throat to start, cough added later, and difficulty sleeping; so I caught sleep whenever I could. I also logged into work a few times, did some coding and code reviews, but not as much as I'd wanted to, being unwell; although it was all extra.

Dad Hedrick took me out to a local range to shoot one day, although he didn't want to shoot because he figured with his cataracts he'd waste ammunition, even though I told him it (at least the .22) was cheap and I had decent scopes. That was at the Baileysville public shooting range; I only shot the Ruger 10/22 and Glock 34; the AR wasn't feeding well and probably needed a good cleaning, and the red dot batteries had finally died (they were the ones that came with it).

Emily was happy to see us, and Honey played various Mario and Guitar Hero games with her, and we played Euchre (Emily and I won the first game but got beat in the rematch).

The Hedricks' faucet gave up the ghost in the middle of the week, so dad and I were tasked with picking up and installing a new one. The old one was determined to stick around, but eventually I got in there, saw the nut that was holding the stubborn horseshoe washer on, sawed off a protruding bolt with a hacksaw, and then hammered in a socket (11/16") since the nut was blocked by the hot/cold leads, and ratcheted the stubborn nut off with the help of an extension. After that installing the new one was fairly easy; although we thought we had a dud—it leaked—until dad tightened up one of the nuts on the new part that we thought was factory and thus not fixable.

For Christmas I mostly got polo shirts, mainly for work—I'm not really wearing T-shirts any more at work—and gift cards, all great and useful; and we gave mostly gift cards too, except some Looney Toons DVDs for Emily. We ate at Shirly's (China One Buffet) on the day before we left.

We left at little after 1300 Friday, and got home very early Saturday, which let me—us; Honey caught something too—spend a few days trying to recuperate and relaxing around the apartment. There was a cold snap when we got back (left in the 80s, back in the 50s) but it's supposed to get warm again soon.

Books finished: The Diamond Throne, The Ruby Knight, The Sapphire Rose.

The $400 license plate

News, Political ·Saturday December 17, 2011 @ 22:38 EST (link)

I was rather disgusted at the extortion conducted by the gang of thugs known as the state of Florida when we went to get license plates for Honey's car: just about $400 for all of it. The largest part is called an "impact fee" ($225) which is required when bringing cars into the state or buying a new car (although it is transferable from another vehicle registered in the same name). A license—any license—is merely protection money; a promise not to do harm for some period of time to a person engaging in a peaceful activity. Sort of a, "Nice house, wouldn't want something to happen to it…" demand to, well, anyone they want money from, from hairdressers to hepatologists.

Calling that $225 part of the extortion an impact fee is laughable on its face. First, they do no emission test; but that's not the most obvious flaw, for it could be reasoned that the condition of each car averages out. No; what gives the lie is that it cannot be transferred from someone leaving the state (and thus taking their car and its "impact" with them) to someone entering (net theoretical "impact" change, zero). So why do they charge the fee? Because they have more guns. That is all there is to it; and I challenge anyone to find any other valid justification.

So, I designed and ordered a bumper sticker today from makestickers.com; black on white; silhouette of a gun, pointing up (fit better that way; looks like a 1911), text:

$400 PLATE FEES
=
STATE EXTORTION

They should arrive soon. It won't do anything about the cost, but it'll let people know how I feel about it. I'm happy to provide the PNG file if anyone wants it (or the Paint.NET file with the layers), for other Florida residents that have bad memories about being robbed, although apparently the higher fees are only two years old so many would be grandfathered in. Damn, the whole state is geared towards grandfathers, it seems (see also the property tax exemption). That's the downside of living in God's waiting room, I suppose (and of the majoritan tyranny called democracy). Our cars will be sporting the stickers soon.

New Arduino, project progress

News, Technical ·Saturday December 17, 2011 @ 21:56 EST (link)

I have an idea for a project, and I remembered an IEEE Spectrum article about a guy that set up a microcontroller called an Arduino to respond to tweets and update his office door ("Send a Tweet to your Office Door", June 2011). I looked into it; it seemed right for the project, based on what others had done with it, and the price was right: the board sells for under $30 (an explicit goal of the creators, a group in Italy). So I ordered a bundle with the Arduino Uno (1.0) and a breadboard and pack of jumper wires, which arrived last week. I ran the Blink example, worked fine; then I looked for something bigger and better. First I had to brush up a little on current, voltage, and resistance—I never took any formal electronics courses, but the Internet has plenty of information, although it requires sifting as always. (The Lounge was also very helpful.)

I wanted remote control, and this post had some great information, so I picked up the Radio Shack 38kHz IR module and connected it to the 3.3V Arduino power via the breadboard and the other side to ground. (I later added a 220Ω resistor, although it was working fine without it, but I didn't want to burn anything out.) In that first trip to the Shack I also grabbed a 9V snap connector (actually I had to buy a pack of them) and a size "M" DC power plug (5.5mm outer diameter, 2.1mm inner diameter) to connect it to the Arduino. It is normally powered via the USB connection, but of course that won't be possible at a remote site. I wired the signal pin of the IR receiver to a digital input pin of the Arduino, and built a basic program around the IR library from this page to decode and dump received input, and then write a basic program to turn the on-board LED on and off when the power button of an old Sony remote was pressed.

The project requires moving a motor, however (or an actuator perhaps, such as one of Firgelli's line of micro linear actuators), but since a motor is so much cheaper I started there. The Radio Shack 1.5-3.0V DC motor I had picked up drew 0.98A of current, or 980mA, and the Arduino is only rated for 40-50mA. I definitely needed another power source.

Back to Radio Shack (and I'd buy somewhere else if I knew somewhere cheaper with good selection, but I haven't found anything, although I've joined a local microcontroller meetup group and will ask there). This time, I picked up some resistors (a few to have around: pack of 5 each of 100Ω, 220Ω, and 1kΩ), an SPST reed relay, and a 2-AA battery holder. The relay allows for opening and closing a switch in another circuit (which might be passing more current) by energizing its coil. Since the relay itself is a 250Ω resistor, I didn't add a resistor there; I just added it in parallel to the existing 3.3V connection, put batteries into the holder (1.5 x 2 = 3.0V) and connected it to the second power strip on the breadboard, and made a circuit with the motor, battery, and the switched pins of the relay. I connected an Arduino digital output pin to the coil (other side to ground) and (once I remember I had to configure the pin to OUTPUT), was soon toggling the motor on and off with the remote, although I don't have a good setting or connector for the motor: I need to pick up some alligator clips and something to hold the motor. I may eventually want to slow it down (first by just using one battery, perhaps, and then with something more complex such as an H-bridge), but I'll see how it does with a moderate load first.

Nonetheless, I was glad to have it working thus far. The next steps are going to be more on the mechanical side of things: picking up bits and pieces from Home Depot to build the frame of the device, a gear to attach to the motor, etc. Eventually I'll want a soldering iron and PCB, project box (a tidy-looking box to put all the non-exposed parts in, with a hole for the IR receiver and motor control leads), and other finishing touches, but it's still very much in the design stage so I don't have to learn to solder just yet. (Keeping this equipment kit link here for reference.)

Text::DHCPLeases bug

News, Technical ·Friday December 16, 2011 @ 00:01 EST (link)

I got Honey a laptop (a Hannspree) for her birthday yesterday; and I went to add it to my local auto-DNS updater (an old Perl program I wrote that monitors the DHCP leases file and updates the local TinyDNS source file for certain hosts). Even after adding the new machine, Riva, it wasn't appearing in the DNS. Turns out that the Text::DHCPLeases module that I was using didn't understand the rewind binding state entry and it was matching binding state and clobbering that value; and my program skipped over items without a binding state of active. I made a local patch, and would like to submit a more general patch but really, the whole parse approach needs reworking using something like Parse::RecDescent or at least more systematic tokenizing and translation.

New range, old range

News, Guns ·Saturday December 3, 2011 @ 20:16 EST (link)

On Wednesday we went to the Wyoming Antelope Club Florida Chapter (only chapter!) monthly general meeting, where we became members of the range ($200, family membership) and ate in the log house there with (mostly older) range members. The general meeting was a fairly informal affair, with updates given by the various disciplines and some general notes from the treasurer. We talked to him afterward about becoming Range Officers; not merely from a desire to volunteer, but also because ROs get to shoot when the range is closed to members and public, and have the $3 daily fee (per person, not family) waived. But more about that in a moment.

I went to shoot for the first time today (first pistols, then, since it's so convenient to our apartment—literally just five minutes drive—again to shoot the SCAR), and wanted to get down some observations, especially compared to our old (outdoor) range, Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club (SVRC) in Washington.

First, Range Officers, as I have already mentioned. WAC (not to be confused with this WAC) has them; there were three on the line and one in the gatehouse admitting people; at SVRC you're your own range master (works out fine except for when uppity liberals flip switches). Their reason for it is because they're in a built up area, with lots of people around. Fair enough. The ROs wear orange caps and T-shirts, with their name clipped to the cap. When a cease-fire is called (via the microphone in the gatehouse), first a two-minute warning is given (empty your magazines; don't reload), then people are asked to make safe and stand behind a yellow line about two feet back from the shooting benches, and the ROs check that all weapons are indeed safe before declaring the range cold. To end the cease fire they similarly verify that nobody is downrange and declare a hot range. There are no mechanical alerts like the buzzer and lights at SVRC but it's quite clear (and easier on the ears).

SVRC does not concern itself with open or concealed carry of firearms in holsters; holstered firearms are forbidden at WAC (unfortunate, because at a range is one of the places one may, if the property owners permitted, open carry a firearm). Also, even cased firearms may not be carried at WAC when the range is cold. And they say only one shot every two seconds (but you can load full magazines "now"; apparently you couldn't at one time), although they don't seem too picky on that and would probably only go after someone whose shots were off-target or was doing double-taps.

At SVRC you put up your own target stands (wherever you like at the pistol range; in iron stands in preset sockets on the rifle range); at WAC, each set of lanes are fixed length with berms at the end (IIRC, 5, 7, 10, 25, 50, and 100 yards), and you hang your target at the end on hooks through two holes at the top of the cardboard (which they provide; at SVRC you must bring your own, although there's usually extra around). Paper targets may not extend beyond the edges of the cardboard, and are usually stapled (or stuck via adhesive backing). Some of this certainly is influenced by them being busier and having less space than SVRC.

While SVRC has benches and lanes in both rifle and pistol areas, the target area is not so divided (except for the iron sockets); WAC has color matched targets and lanes. It's also mostly covered over (slatted wood with gaps over the lanes; not sure why), whereas only the shooting bench area is covered at SVRC. Like SVRC, if it's not too busy they don't get too worried about people using multiple lanes (based on my limited experience they don't seem to be sticklers for any rules except safety, which is how it should be) to have more targets to shoot.

There's fencing to ensure people only enter at the gatehouse, where one of the range officers takes payment, handles questions, etc; it's open at the back (range side) and has a payment ledge at the side.

The membership is also more: $200 first year, $130 subsequently vs. $115 and $75 I believe. Supply and demand, also the facility at WAC is a little nicer. They also seem to have more events at various times. But a downside is that WAC is only open certain hours; some days 1-5, some 12-5; closed completely Mondays and Tuesdays I believe.

So, different but not bad; looks like a good range, and it's great that it's so close. I literally hear gunshots from my office at work, too. Music to my ears.

Books finished: The Golden Age.

Minor mechanical work

News ·Saturday October 22, 2011 @ 16:47 EDT (link)

Finally got the ABS sensor fixed on the Solara (brakes itself are fine, light has been on for a while); took it to Autosys as usual. Also needed one new tire, and got their oil change special. Autosys remains a quality place, with fair pricing (when the Microsoft discount is figured in), and I'd recommend it.

Books finished: The Moral Underground.

Lounge shoot the third

News, Guns ·Sunday October 9, 2011 @ 23:06 EDT (link)

We (Garrett and I, since everyone was technically our guest) took the lounge folk out to SVRC again; perhaps it will become a monthly thing, so long as codgers and sand and boards stay separate. I was there 1030 to a little past 1500; Garrett had to go a bit earlier. There were some other shooters there—didn't have the range to ourselves like before—but as seems typical with "gun people" everyone was for the most part polite and civil. Dmitry, who came to shoot my SCAR-17S (yes, I gotta talk about the SCAR always), asked about people leaving (expensive) gear and guns on the benches while we were at the far end eating, but I wasn't worried. Speaking of the SCAR, this was the first time I had stood next to it being shot, and it packs quite a wallop—but not to the shooter! There was much enjoyment of shooting it by Dmitry, Vu, Tim, and Max.

There was a good sized group, and several plan to apply for membership now, which will be nice; we need a better member-to-guest ratio. The food as usual was excellent—Max and Tim's sous-vide pork and various additions (Christine's brownies were also excellent). Jim's Mini-14 was much better to shoot; last time with different hardware the trigger was horrible; maybe it was cleaned this time (his theory). Tim's Remington 700 in 7mm, wood hardware, trigger job was a delight to shoot (I'm sure the meese will feel the same way), as was his SIG P226; I shot some clays at the end of the pistol range (thanks to whoever let me shoot their clays!); 5 shots, 5 hits, then I chased them around with the rest of the mag. I had been looking at the Elite Dark with the SRT, so may pick one up.

It was good to meet a bunch of people FTF for the first time: Christine's husband Kent; Haidle; I think I'd met Fritz's wife before but it had been a while; Dmitry of course, although he's not lounge; Ron and family; Ben again (new lounger, old shooter), and to see various others again. Although it was damp and drizzly a good time was had… as planned I shot some holes through my map of Manhattan and got some closure for that possibility. Had some feed trouble with my metal AR-15 mag (the one it came with, not a PMAG), but I suspect the AR just needs cleaning. As does everything else. Oh well.

Books finished: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, How Capitalism Saved America, The Declaration of Independents, Liberty Defined, The Bishop, The Myth of the Robber Barons, Robinson Crusoe, How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes, The Jehovah Contract.

Pollocks, zoo, Mars Hill

News ·Sunday August 7, 2011 @ 20:45 EDT (link)

Honey's uncle and aunt and cousins from Pullman arrived Saturday afternoon (they stopped at a hotel half-way); we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We were going to drive there but were saved the trouble by taking the free shuttle from the South Kirkland Park and Ride (@ 1415) across Lake Washington.

Unfortunately I didn't have my Microsoft Prime Card, which would have gotten us a substantial discount, so we ended up paying something like $35 for two tickets (even with a coupon that Aunt Lynn gave us). Oh well.

It was a beautiful day; the zoo was fun, lot of walking, glad I brought a water bottle for us. We took the second to last bus out, the 1745, heading back to Redmond. We stopped for teriyaki (I had chicken katsu) at Niko Teriyaki on Redmond Way; the Pollocks kindly treated us. That evening we played Scotland Yard—they caught me—and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, which was quite good.

In the morning we got up early (for us) and went to the 0900 service at Mars Hill Bellevue. We had sandwiches here for lunch (toasted banana!) and I talked to uncle Dave about doctoral programs, admissions, the process, etc. They left a little after 1330.

Books finished: A Patriot's History of the United States.

Cirith-ungol: new case fan

News, Technical ·Friday July 29, 2011 @ 17:34 EDT (link)

Cirith-ungol, the media box, got a new case fan from Hard Drives Northwest today. The old one had apparently died a while back, leading to the machine shutting down under high CPU load (uncompressing large RAR files, usually, while running MythTV), and also likely causing a blown capacitor on the motherboard, which may or may not lead to eventual death. I picked up a Stealth fan which is doing pretty well so far; runs quiet, and seems to be keeping the CPU fan quiet too.

Sliders: California Reich: stupid question

Political, Media ·Saturday July 23, 2011 @ 21:28 EDT (link)

Watching Sliders, episode California Reich: the "Racial Police" are rounding up all of the "impure" (nonwhites) into camps, calling them "migrants", chanting "America for Americans", etc. At one point Remy (Rembrandt Brown) is talking to another black man in the camp after they have been sent to work on processing piles clothing confiscated from other prisoners and their families. The other man, an older man, while he had resisted when they turned the firehoses on him at Selma, had given up in this present time; it's politics, he said, and it would cycle around back and they would eventually be free. "They took a vote," he shrugs—making the excellent point that majoritanism ("democracy") does not morally justify harming people; and from that we can see that neither is law necessarily moral (and by observation we can see that it rarely is, but I digress).

However, they ruin it a great deal with Remy's next question: "Did you get to vote?" It is unanswered and presumably the answer is meant to be "No" (although since the vote was necessarily before people were rounded up and their rights infringed in every way, "Yes" would be more reasonable). However, the question is irrelevant, and the writers seem not to understand that. Consider the two possibilities:

"Minorities" (not so much in California now, really) didn't get to vote. Violence was done against them simply by the choice of the rest of the populace, presumably because those others controlled the biggest gang around—the state.
They did get to vote, but were outvoted. This is more interesting, because the writers seem to have missed that this still doesn't justify violence or threat of violence—coercion—against peaceful people.

That is, in neither case is it right that violence was done against peaceful individuals: not when a majority including the victims wants it, or a majority excluding the victims, nor if the "representatives" chosen by either majority want it (a republic isn't any better than a democracy when you get down to it). Violence of this blatant sort against innocent people is not justified, nor any other, such as the extortion of "taxes" or the "laws" (opinions with a gun) against peaceful pursuits (drug use being a big one in the US, but consider the gigantic scam of licensure for a moment too; and there are many other categories of such harm done against peaceful individuals).

Books finished: Confessor.