This weekend was a mixed bag. Had to do a 4am (really 3am with the time change) release of some software updates. I haven't stayed up all night since college. Man, these 30 odd year old bones can't handle that anymore. Fortunately, my speaker phone has mute, I simply needed to watch the screen and there were plenty of ships to kill in Eve Online.
Saturday I took a friend to Quantico. He wanted to do some long range shooting and sight in his scoped K31. Happy to oblige. I brought my K31 and my unfired Yugo M48 Mauser. We shot at around 200 yards off sandbags. I didn't hit a thing with the K31. 8mm Mauser was better. I was just plinking and besides, I was shooting cheap, surplus Romanian steel-cased ammo. Pulling out a handful at a time from the can, loading and firing. The virgin rifle performed rather nicely.
I will make one observation. Range 1 at Quantico has a wall along the left side and stretches for around 150 yards. This wall has the interesting effect of reflecting sound. Specifically, the sound of the bullets going downrange. So you hear the "BOOM!" of the rifle going off in the enclosed shoot house followed by the "Ziiiiiiipppp!" echoing across the range from your bullet. Very nifty sound. Not something you generally hear unless your on or near the receiving end of said bullet.
I was firing in the general direction of the target just to hear that sound. I wish there was a way to turn that into a high school physics lesson in wave propagation. Hey, I have plenty of 8mm Mauser for the demonstrations!
Then I let the inner geek run free. I came to the conclusion that I am rapidly filling up my backup storage. It seems a 500GB USB 2.0 hard drive isn't all that big once your ripped and encoded a couple hundred DVDs. And lest I receive exhortations of "Piracy!", I actually do own all of the DVDs in question. But it fills up half a terabyte in a big hurry.
Something had to be done.
Unfortunately, some prankster decided that temptation was meant to be resisted and ultimately caved in to. A couple years ago they built a Micro Center 10 minutes down the road from the house to achieve that goal. Not good. I had one in Fairfax when I lived in Virginia but that required planning to drive the 30-40 minutes to reach. Not this. This is jump-in-the-car-and-succumb whenever I want type of thing.
And succumb I did.
One thing I like about technology is it advances. As I've gotten older and lazy, I no longer want to tinker with things like setting up my own RAID arrays just for the fun of it. I've become a typical consumer of computer technology: I want to plug it in and have it just work. So I went with a mission. I wanted a Network Accessible Storage (NAS) array that I could plug in and have all the boxes in the house, Mac, Linux and Windows alike, all access. It had to have a RAID mirror configuration option.
I picked up an 1TB Iomega StorCenter ix2. Why? It was on sale and advertised Linux support on the box. I have to say, I am impressed. One, this thing is tiny! Smaller than my Western Digital 500GB USB external and it has two drives in it, not just one. Two, it really is simple to set up. Plug it in, hook it up to the switch and run the install software on any machine. Even had a Linux version on the CD. Five minutes later, you're on the web configuring the device, setting up security and the various operating systems are seeing it just fine through their various "Network Places" options.
Strangely, Vista was the hardest to configure. Linux, as usual, said "Ok, here it is!". It's sad when a free OS, who had to match Microsoft's network protocols bug-for-bug to get them to work right, has an easier time playing with Windows network devices than Windows does!
After was all said and done, "Voila!", another 500GB of network storage accessible from any machine in the house! And with the bonus I can plug additional external drives and a USB printer into this thing and let it manage them too! All over Gigabit Ethernet. And since I was still on 10/100 Ethernet, I just had to upgrade the switch too. No complaints, I prefer Netgear hardware anyway.
And finally, Barbie turned 50. A big deal with my sisters growing up. But it elicited a comment from me to the wife-to-be that I am really waiting for her 65th birthday. Then we'll have AARP Barbie! She'll come with a social security check, AARP newsletter, a walker (wheelchair or scooter would be an add-on accessory), blue hair dye, a pen for drawing on varicose veins, a shapeless floral dress and a lock on her purse so she can keep her jewelry safe from her thieving friends.
Ken, who'll come with a denture cup and golf pants that ride up to his chest, will run off with Hawaiian Fun Skipper in Barbie's Corvette (co-opted for his earlier midlife crisis). Bitter divorce to follow.
Expect Nursing Home Barbie on her 70th birthday followed sometime thereafter and not sure when, by Alzheimer's Barbie. Except by then she won't be able to remember her anniversaries and Mattel can start over and no one will be the wiser.
I have a twisted sense of humor.
Saturday I took a friend to Quantico. He wanted to do some long range shooting and sight in his scoped K31. Happy to oblige. I brought my K31 and my unfired Yugo M48 Mauser. We shot at around 200 yards off sandbags. I didn't hit a thing with the K31. 8mm Mauser was better. I was just plinking and besides, I was shooting cheap, surplus Romanian steel-cased ammo. Pulling out a handful at a time from the can, loading and firing. The virgin rifle performed rather nicely.
I will make one observation. Range 1 at Quantico has a wall along the left side and stretches for around 150 yards. This wall has the interesting effect of reflecting sound. Specifically, the sound of the bullets going downrange. So you hear the "BOOM!" of the rifle going off in the enclosed shoot house followed by the "Ziiiiiiipppp!" echoing across the range from your bullet. Very nifty sound. Not something you generally hear unless your on or near the receiving end of said bullet.
I was firing in the general direction of the target just to hear that sound. I wish there was a way to turn that into a high school physics lesson in wave propagation. Hey, I have plenty of 8mm Mauser for the demonstrations!
Then I let the inner geek run free. I came to the conclusion that I am rapidly filling up my backup storage. It seems a 500GB USB 2.0 hard drive isn't all that big once your ripped and encoded a couple hundred DVDs. And lest I receive exhortations of "Piracy!", I actually do own all of the DVDs in question. But it fills up half a terabyte in a big hurry.
Something had to be done.
Unfortunately, some prankster decided that temptation was meant to be resisted and ultimately caved in to. A couple years ago they built a Micro Center 10 minutes down the road from the house to achieve that goal. Not good. I had one in Fairfax when I lived in Virginia but that required planning to drive the 30-40 minutes to reach. Not this. This is jump-in-the-car-and-succumb whenever I want type of thing.
And succumb I did.
One thing I like about technology is it advances. As I've gotten older and lazy, I no longer want to tinker with things like setting up my own RAID arrays just for the fun of it. I've become a typical consumer of computer technology: I want to plug it in and have it just work. So I went with a mission. I wanted a Network Accessible Storage (NAS) array that I could plug in and have all the boxes in the house, Mac, Linux and Windows alike, all access. It had to have a RAID mirror configuration option.
I picked up an 1TB Iomega StorCenter ix2. Why? It was on sale and advertised Linux support on the box. I have to say, I am impressed. One, this thing is tiny! Smaller than my Western Digital 500GB USB external and it has two drives in it, not just one. Two, it really is simple to set up. Plug it in, hook it up to the switch and run the install software on any machine. Even had a Linux version on the CD. Five minutes later, you're on the web configuring the device, setting up security and the various operating systems are seeing it just fine through their various "Network Places" options.
Strangely, Vista was the hardest to configure. Linux, as usual, said "Ok, here it is!". It's sad when a free OS, who had to match Microsoft's network protocols bug-for-bug to get them to work right, has an easier time playing with Windows network devices than Windows does!
After was all said and done, "Voila!", another 500GB of network storage accessible from any machine in the house! And with the bonus I can plug additional external drives and a USB printer into this thing and let it manage them too! All over Gigabit Ethernet. And since I was still on 10/100 Ethernet, I just had to upgrade the switch too. No complaints, I prefer Netgear hardware anyway.
And finally, Barbie turned 50. A big deal with my sisters growing up. But it elicited a comment from me to the wife-to-be that I am really waiting for her 65th birthday. Then we'll have AARP Barbie! She'll come with a social security check, AARP newsletter, a walker (wheelchair or scooter would be an add-on accessory), blue hair dye, a pen for drawing on varicose veins, a shapeless floral dress and a lock on her purse so she can keep her jewelry safe from her thieving friends.
Ken, who'll come with a denture cup and golf pants that ride up to his chest, will run off with Hawaiian Fun Skipper in Barbie's Corvette (co-opted for his earlier midlife crisis). Bitter divorce to follow.
Expect Nursing Home Barbie on her 70th birthday followed sometime thereafter and not sure when, by Alzheimer's Barbie. Except by then she won't be able to remember her anniversaries and Mattel can start over and no one will be the wiser.
I have a twisted sense of humor.
1 comments:
Barbie told Ken that she wanted to have breast-reduction surgery.
Ken told her, that he wanted to start dating other dolls.
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