Category: Geekitude

Monday Links

January 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This one is going to be a bit all over the place.

First, let’s do some fun gun stuff with a couple of articles from The Firearms Blog.

Mossberg is putting out a version of their new 940 Tactical with a red dot installed. I have a serious case of the wants for this. My gun fund is currently in “save up cash” mode with an aim to replace my current Mossberg 590. This is looking like a contender.

And someone put out a bullpup revolver. I find this interesting from a technological aspect, kind of like the Bond Bullpup. It’s also something I wouldn’t buy unless I had significant money to throw away on an experiment. After I got a Bond Bullpup.

Now for some not-so-fun gun stuff.

Local Fox affiliate article on a woman facing murder charges after tracking down the two lowlifes who carjacked her and gunned them down. This is one of those cases where you sympathize with the carjacking victim – and the vengeance part of your brain wants to cheer that two violent criminals aren’t going to trouble anyone else. Unfortunately, there are reasons why self-defense laws require an immediate threat. Those of us who choose to carry a gun need to know the laws. I’m hoping the local DA cuts this woman a good deal.

Let’s do some business news.

From another Fox affiliate comes an article about a highly automated McDonalds where customers have almost no interaction with the employees. Per the article: Social media response indicated people did not universally agree whether this was a positive or negative change: Some people celebrated the innovation as a move towards faster and more accurate orders, but others took a more cynical position and predicted that it would lead to a loss of “millions of jobs.” Having spent six years as a night manager for the local Mickey D’s franchise, I would have loved a store where my interaction with customers was nil, and I had less employees to worry about. As to the loss of millions of jobs? From all the help wanted signs and increases in pay to attract said help, it doesn’t look like people want those jobs. You know who won’t be losing their jobs? The high performers.

From Bloomberg comes an article on the IRS delaying its rule for reporting on transactions of more than $600. E-commerce sites and payment apps (like ApplePay and Venmo) are pushing back on the new reporting requirements.

Let’s end with a couple of entertainment items.

First, from IGN is an article that people can sue movie studios for deceptive trailers. Particularly if the trailer boasts scenes that don’t make the final cut. The ruling – however – does not mean that people can sue for bad movies. Much to Hollywood’s relief, I’m sure.

Finally, an article from Bleeding Cool that James Gunn’s DCEU will take inspiration from the DC Animated Universe. I’ve adored the animated universe, and this is very heartening.

Monday Links

December 19, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Hang on, I’ve got a lot this week.

First, from The Reload comes an article that the CDC removed information about defensive gun uses at the behest of gun control advocates. Um, yeah. This is the kind of stuff that undermines an agency’s credibility. And you wonder why no one trusts it on COVID stuff anymore.

An article from the Volokh Conspiracy describes how recent court rulings should make it hard to ban AR-15’s and other EBRs. The book sounds interesting, and I’ll have to add it on to my reading list. Maybe if it comes out on Audible…

This article from The Hill describes the administration handing over $36 billion to the Teamsters to save their pension fund from benefit cuts. I’m kinda surprised at how this seems to be flying below the radar on my normal feeds. Particularly considering how many pension funds are looking at billions – if not trillions – in unfunded liabilities.

From Reuters comes an article about the House passing a bill to allow for Puerto Rican independence. My personal opinion is that Puerto Rico either needs to become a state or it needs to be independent. We’re not doing anything great for its folks with the current regime.

Perhaps one of the big stories was the announcement that researchers managed to get more energy out of a fusion reaction that was put in. This was a critical hurdle to overcome. I’m still not sure I’ll see mass use of fusion power in my lifetime, but I’m more optimistic to that my nieces and nephews will see it in theirs.

Via Freethink, Pandora has stated that it will begin using only lab-grown diamonds for its jewelry. I understand why they want to do that because the diamond industry is rife with abuse, but the economist in me is worried about the lowest rung on that ladder. What happens to the miners when their jobs go away? It’s not like Africa is known for handling instability well.

From War Is Boring, the Navy announced it’s naming one of its new America-class baby carriers the USS Fallujah. The name will honor both the First and Second Battles of Fallujah. Which when you consider that by the time the ship launches, those battles will be twenty years old…

Finally, from StudioJake Media comes his listicle on his top 10 favorite mecha in Robotech. It’s not how I expected him to list his mecha – less by type and more the individual mecha – but it’s not bad. And while I like the VF-1 series – and I admit it’s icon status to the franchise – I’m still much more on the Shadow Alpha side.

Derek’s Mildly Useful Reviews – The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie

December 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Last weekend, The Wife and I went to go see the dubbed version of The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie. I watched both seasons of the show, while The Wife had not been exposed in any way. Overall, we both liked the movie.

The movie is pretty much a finale for the main story that goes through the television series. This meant I understood all the callbacks and references, where The Wife was just trying to pick it up as it went along. It does answer the question of which of the quintuplets does Futaro marry.

The first half of the movie is set up with Futaro telling the sisters he would choose one of them by the end of the school festival. From there, it’s kind of a Rashamon going through Futaro’s encounters with each of the sisters over the festival. It lays the groundwork that he could choose any of them. The final choosing scene is very well done. I had the surprise spoiled for me by an article, and I’m not going to spoil it here. I will admit that the choice wasn’t the one I thought should have been chosen.

The second half of the movie is a lot of drama about the sisters and Futaro dealing with his choice. Personally, this felt a bit too drawn out. The movie goes deep into the sisters’ history with their mother, their stepfather, and their bio-father. Some of it was interesting, some felt overdone.

Overall, the movie was great for fans of the show, but probably could have been a half-hour shorter.

Monday Links – All Light Items

November 28, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I’m not really in the mood to go into the news today. So, just some lighter items I’ve found in the last week or so.

First, we have an article on the seventh anniversary of the grandma who accidentally invited a boy – now man – to Thanksgiving dinner. And he kept coming every year. It’s one of those heartwarming stories that I’m glad to see continue. It hits a lot of the more optimistic themes, such as altruism, chosen family, and putting aside differences to make human connections.

Next is an article on a new cat café coming to Tampa. It’s going to be relatively close to where my mom lives. Which bodes for interesting options when The Wife and I visit. Particularly since it’s no longer necessary to trek all the way up there to get my 5.11 fix.

From FEE, we have a listicle on “Six Books That Will Rewire Your Brain.” I’ve read most of them, but even those should probably go back into the “to-read” stack.

TFB has a review of the B&T TP9. This is one of those guns I want if I get “stupid amount of money.” Of course, like the author, if I actually could get one, I’d pay the tax stamp, SBR the thing, and turn it into a semi-auto clone of their MP9. Maybe pair it with my L9A1 if I did some kind of competition.

As for something else that I kind of want comes a company offering bullet shaped dice. Including revolver cylinder tray. I’d be more tempted, but my fun money is currently going to upgrading my Civ game for the iPad.

Monday Links

November 21, 2022 / / 0 Comments

One of the big stories from last week was NASA launching their big new rocket for a trip around the moon. I, unfortunately, did not see it launch, but Rocket Engineer Brother and his family were kind enough to send over a video.

Heading over from space to the tech sector, the apparent Ponzi scheme that was FTX came crashing down. This is an item in the crypto arena that bears watching, because it may be the catalyst that drives regulation of the crypto arena that will kill its promise. One bit of advice for those of you who have any crypto currency? Don’t leave it on an exchange. Put it in a cold storage wallet.

Amazon has joined the ranks of massive layoffs in the tech sector – particularly in the Alexa and Luna teams. This is of some concern because Ward Manor’s smart systems are in the Alexa ecosystem. And with the Matter standard not quite ready for prime-time means interoperability with another digital assistant will be tricky.

Oregon’s recently passed anti-RKBA Measure 114 is facing heavy attacks on its many issues. Ammoland reports that many sheriffs are refusing to enforce the magazine limit. Other sources are reporting that many small departments are refusing to even handle the new purchase permit due to cost and the fact that the state doesn’t even have the permits available – even though they’re supposed to go into effect next month. Let the shitshow commence!

It was a couple-three weeks ago I shared an article about a 3D printed home in Tallahassee. Now, we have an article about a company doing it in Tampa. Since it’s running about $600K for the list price, I’m not as hopeful on the cost savings. Particularly since a townhome in the same area is going for $400K.

Now on to light items:

War Is Boring has an article on how warfare is responsible for the necktie.

The Wife and I have tickets to the Quintessential Quintuplets Movie coming out next month. I really enjoyed the series, and I’m hoping The Wife enjoys the movie.

Losing Two Greats

November 17, 2022 / / 0 Comments

On Veterans Day came word of the passing of the comedian Gallagher and Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy.

Gallagher’s infamous Sledge-o-matic entertained me as a kid, and then I grew to appreciate his humor as I matured.

Kevin Conroy will always be the definitive voice of Batman. His work on the Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and the Justice League series cemented his voice in my mind.

I leave you with these videos.

https://youtu.be/wThPHMGWZXg

Derek’s Mildly Useful Reviews – Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

November 9, 2022 / / 0 Comments

On our last movie night, The Wife and I sat down to watch the movie on the Roku channel. We got ads through out the movie, which was annoying.

The movie itself was hilarious. The best way I can describe it is if there sprung up a Weird Al cult a couple of generations from now, and one of the most fervent followers decided to make a “holy video”. It is over the top, bears little resemblance to reality, and I was laughing throughout.

Monday Links Time

October 3, 2022 / / 0 Comments

As many of you have heard, the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic “suffered a mischief”, as the Brits say. The linked CNN article – and just about every major news outlet – is saying sabotage on the Russians part. Why? Jonah Goldberg had the most plausible explanation behind sabotage – to get out of paying contract costs by simply not delivering the agreed upon gas. Oops sorry, broken pipe, can’t hold us accountable for non-delivery fees if we can’t deliver.

However, Lawdog, who grew up on oil fields has another take. Which is pretty much greed, corruption, and lack of preventive maintenance resulting in bad things happening. More explanation here. When it comes to Russia, I’m more apt to blame incompetence and bureaucratic ineptitude than outright malfeasance.

Another couple of stories came across that I think point to the future in entertainment. First, James Earl Jones has signed off on allowing AI to use his voice for Darth Vader. Using specialized software, Disney will be able to clone Jones’s voice so that it can continue to be used for one of the Star Wars franchise’s most notable characters. Next came news that Bruce Willis, who recently retired from acting due to health issues, licensed his likeness to be used for deepfakes. From the Ars Technica story: “Bruce Willis has sold the “digital twin” rights to his likeness for commercial video production use, according to a report by The Telegraph. This move allows the Hollywood actor to digitally appear in future commercials and possibly even films, and he has already appeared in a Russian commercial using the technology.” I can see this having some very interesting ramifications for actors in the future.

Finally, a news story about a couple who found a bit more than they were expecting when they bought a bunch of surplus storage containers. From the Guns.com article: “The unidentified winners of an auction for over 100 green plastic Hardigg rifle shipping and storage cases from a Georgia-based online surplus company cracked open one to find at least a dozen M16s inside, reports KTRK in Houston. In what was probably the right move from a legal standpoint but what will be an epic letdown for many, they called the ATF who “quickly” arrived to pick up the guns.” For the record, if this was me, my first call would be to my attorney. Who would then contact the authorities and arrange for their return. Because I wouldn’t want to get caught in the blame game of how these ended up in my possession without having arranged legal representation beforehand.

Derek’s Mildly Useful Reviews – Peaky Blinders and Reacher

August 25, 2022 / / 0 Comments

The Wife, MIL, and I watch a show while we eat a meal. Mostly dinner, but sometimes over a weekend breakfast. Sometimes, we will end up binging a show we planned to watch more slowly. Two of the more recent shows were Peaky Blinders on Netflix and Reacher on Amazon Prime.

Peaky Blinders starts as a gangster show about a family of gypsy street gangsters and their rise in post-WWI Birmingham England. The first four seasons are solid gangster crime heist type shows. Smart writing, interesting characters, twisty plots. Soundtrack is solid, but not period. The fifth and sixth seasons were good, but the writers were infected with a common need to prove their correctness. All of the sudden, the gangsters are fighting fascists with the communists in late twenties Britain. It felt very much like they were taking modern issues and loosely draping history. And it felt a bit preachy. Which is not what I wanted. The rest of the story was at least interesting. Would I still recommend the show (including the last two seasons)? Hell yes.

Reacher, by contrast, was great popcorn fun television. Amusing characters and dialogue, but heavily driven with action and a kind of tropey plot and atrocious tactics/gun handling/fight physics. I think The Wife got tired of me yelling at the screen. She also learned what it meant to “rat-fuck a body”. You know it was good when what should have been a week’s or so worth of viewing ended up being watched over a weekend.