OCTOBER

Saturday, 10-29-05: We have a new entry into the Gunsmith Directory, and a first entry for Vermont. Chestnut Mountain Sports there in Vermont and the gunsmith's name is Karl Sokol. All of you serious shooters out there know who he is... and if you've read anything by Marcus Wynne you will know of him. (If you haven't read Wynne then you are wrong. Fix that.) Karl Sokol is a master gunsmith, and one of the best in the world. My beloved CZ-P01 is going to be sent to him to be blessed with spells of ruin... as soon as this Christmas Spending season is over. (Oh man, my wife is already all over it. She's got my next six paychecks spent already.)   I list gunsmiths not to be a regular directory... each listing is for only the best gunsmiths in that State. Some states don't have one listed... even if that state has a hundred smiths in the phonebook. The reason I posted this list is give you guys a source for recommendations. A good gunsmith is hard to find... bad ones are all over... but the great ones... they are good as gold and are few and far between. I will not list any jbird with a file and a certificate from a correspondence course... each listing I post there has been recommended by serious shooters who have used their services and found the results to be above excellent. The fact that Sokol has only now been listed was an oversight and can be counted as negligence. I'm sending Karl my P-01 to have the trigger worked on and to slick up the action... The P-01 is an excellent handgun, but the trigger is less than optimal... it has some stacking, creep, and a bit of grit that isn't "shooting out".  Everything else on the pistol is just fine save for maybe the sights... I'm fine with them as is, but they could be better.

Thursday, 10-27-05: I just found something interesting... I'm black.  Interesting, that.  I guess this explains the 2Pak selections in my MP3 collection.

President Bush folded, or did Miers just get tired of the hate? Either way, this was a good thing. It's not easy to be the subject of so much negativity... for either of them. How Bush goes from here will really mark the color of his loyalties and his character.  We wish Miers the best in her future endeavors, just as long as it isn't in any official capacity.

F.E.A.R.: Penny Arcade has a pretty accurate take on this game. I played it for an hour – 1 hour – and I have to agree with Gabe on this one. First off, this is not like any other FPS game you have ever played. Okay, so on the surface it is... the game is built on the “HAVOC” gaming engine, which we have seen before in “No One Lives Forever 2” which is an outstanding FPS shooter game. If you've never played NOLF2, then you have to try it... it is the most fun FPS you will ever play. FEAR is not “fun”. FEAR is serious. NOLF2 is fun. But FEAR takes the HAVOC engine to a whole new level. HAVOC smokes the HL2 and Doom engines... and now with FEAR's improvements the whole thing is beyond incredible. Not only are the graphics as close to cinematic as we can get right now for real time rendering, but the lighting and sound is drastically improved. You have a “Slow Mo” feature like what Max Payne had, and that's groovy too but that's not what makes it so good. I think the biggest improvement is the enemy AI. Normal games have the enemy running off set scripts, some better than others. FEAR has given the enemy as actual AI that gives the enemy characters behavior. They react with the environment, situation, and react do what you do and how you do it. They also react to each other which is seriously cool. I'm not going to go into details or examples, but it is amazing how it works. You have not played against an AI like this before – ever. So, what we have here is a great FPS game, graphics, sound, AI, weapons, effects, interactive environment... now add in a story line that is part “The Ring” and part “John Woo Movie”... this is a MUST HAVE game. I use the word game loosely here. This goes beyond “game”. This is an experience that you've got to try for yourself. Go to the store, buy it... full retail is worth it. So is the “Director's Cut” version which puts everything on a single DVD... you'll want that. If your system can't play this – get a new system. It's that good.

Speaking of scary: Check this out. Okay, so it's not scary, but some guy getting scared. That's funny stuff right there. Steve sent us that link and I just had to share it.

Does anyone have an older version of Groove?  Groove Networks now requires you to buy it... but they used to give it away.  I want to try it out but I don't want the 60 day trial... ahem... if you know what I mean...

Wednesday, 10-26-05: I was going to write a good long take on why I'm becoming less and less pleased with the Harriet Miers nomination. But I found that John Hawkins has put it in better words than what I could do. At first I was neutral on it, but now I'm disliking her more daily. Because every day this nomination looks more transparent... it looks like she is less of a nomination but more of an appointment of another political tool. Roberts was indeed a solid nomination... but Miers is nothing of the sort. I don't give a DAMN about Roe vs Wade. Grown adults can make their own choices... but the one case that I have heard no one talk about is imminent domain. Just this year imminent domain was the reason used to take private property from a citizen and sold by the government to another citizen for use that would generate more tax revenue. This is an abomination of justice and of the constitution... this is more disgusting to me than the smoke screen that is the abortion issue. I don't give a fig newton if some tart gets knocked up and wants an abortion... that's her choice... that's her life... and that's her eternal soul up for judgment at the end of days. What concerns me is the fact that some jackass judges just threw out the whole bloody reason we separated the 13 colonies from England. So we can own property. With this law being viewed as it is, we no longer own our property but use it at the whim of The Government. Miers, and everything else is just smoke. What about our borders? That has still been shoved to the back burner, and every day it's not resolved, thousands of illegal aliens flood across the border and only serves to make matters worse. 

I hate to say it, but it looks like the Bush Administration is turning out to be just like the Utah Jazz.  They do just fine through the first half of the game, but as the time runs out, the whole team just runs out of steam.  When they could be making big points, they are just dishing out turn-overs left and right... Border Security, Judicial Nominations, even Iraq now...  Where is Bush's leadership now?  He doesn't look like he is leading anything other than trying to get his friends into important positions.  This is political paybacks and why I dislike career politicos.  By the time this game is over... everyone's lost.

Tuesday, 10-25-05:  Does anyone really think Al Franken is funny? I mean, other than Al Franken. I've seen this sort of attempt at humor before, typically from Boy Scout kids doing ad-lib improv by fire light. This video clip is actually a staged production effort, which makes it all the more sad. Not only is this pathetic, but it shows us the underlying tension that is within not just Al Frankin, but the whole Liberal ideology. Let me illustrate this for you. If you go to a conservative oriented website/discussion forum... ones talking about guns even... TheHighRoad.org, TheFiringLine.com, etc. You will will not find threats of physical violence against people of different political opinion. However if you visit Liberal oriented forums such as the Democrat Underground, threats of physical violence are all over the place. Physical violence is referenced by those who are supposed to be intellectually enlightened, accepting, and peaceful. Al Franken's attempt at humor is infantile. Only young children would consider this funny, or those of the IQ of young children... or the IQ of Al Franken, which is evidently much less than my 11 year old who just said “That guy isn't all there, is he?” No, son. He isn't.

Huge congratulations to the people of Iraq. You have an official national Constitution now. This is outstanding. You are your own nation now, your future is now in your hands. But be careful... you will reap your own rewards now. A dictatorship is easy. But now you have to be responsible for your own actions. You have every opportunity to fail, to fall on your face. But you also have every opportunity now to excel. What happens from now on is your choice. Also, this means that US and other Coalition forces are now able to withdraw soon. And this is also very good news.

Red vs Blue: Downloaded seasons 1-3 and what there is of season 4. Some of it is pretty funny... the rest of it is some seriously wasted time. What makes it interesting is the way they made it... this opens up a whole new way of story telling. Not sure really about what sort of stories could or should be told this way, but it's interesting. I downloaded the whole thing all at once via bit torrent. Me likes the Torrents.

F.E.A.R, the Director's Cut is here... FINALLY! Aarrgh! Everything takes so long to get out here, I hate it! Even EMAIL is a day late! FEAR, if you took my advice and tried the demo... is absolutely awesome. I'll review it all once I've defeated it.

Upcoming gun reviews: SIG and a Bond Arms.

Monday, 10-24-05:  My new study materials. I started studying for my Private Pilot's license many moons ago, and I did rack up a good amount of airtime... but I was unable to follow through due to funding reasons. That was what, ten years ago? 12? Sheesh... a lifetime ago. It's not like I could afford to go out and buy an aircraft anyways... but I'm going to go through this material. I've got the whole bundle right here in front of me. I would love to one day get that license, but right now it's pretty much just a pipe dream.

For you geeks out there, download the full release of OpenOffice.org version 2.0. Lots of improvements. I'm loving it. What does MS Office have for the average/common office suite user that justifies it at it's price over Open Office, which is totally free. (but if you like it, please donate some bucks to the project, because they deserve it)

I've finished my review of the Taurus 605n... Sending it to Concealed Carry Magazine here in a short bit... I want to do one last read through and add in the measurements and such. So for you CCM subscribers, that should be some good news.

By a vote of 283 to 144 Congress passed a bill to protect gun makers from third party misuse of their products. This is good news for shooters, and of course bad news for the anti-gun lobby. This is only common sense... what I want to know is how these 144 jerkwads justify the support of suing legal business that are in full compliance with the law, for something a criminal does with there product. This would be like someone suing Ford because a drunk ran someone over... it makes no sense and should be barred... which is what this bill does. The only reason that this is even an issue, even in today's Sue-Happy Society is that this was a means to shut down the gun makers. This wasn't about any “Saturday Night Specials” makers – this was all makers... one by one all would have fallen.

This weekend went by all too fast. I wasn't able to hit that competition at The Farm like I wanted, had some work to take care of that couldn't be postponed. The upside was that after this work was completed, I got in a couple rounds in at a LAN Party where the game was multi-player HALO. This was a small consolation... but I did win both rounds... soundly. Later in the evening we took our kids out to the Bluebell Corn Maze. That was delightful and the kiddies had a grand old time. After dark a large section of the maze becomes “Haunted” so of course we had to stay and do that... all the kiddies and even Mom was quite freaked by it. My oldest son was the most scared I think.

There is a Celtic group coming out here tonight for a live performance. I'm there. I like my classic rock, but Celtic music... I can listen to that all day. I know, I'm a sick freak. Hey, Rob Roy is still one of my favorite movies... and sound tracks.

Wednesday, 10-19-05:  It's been some time since I've posted last. There are some reasons for this... for one, I've been a tad busy with some things. Mostly writing. The story I've been working on has spun off into a totally different direction and I've sliced it off into its own thing. Its a fun one to write... all action. Gun nuts and the like will enjoy it. The other thing I'm writing is my Taurus review. I got a few photos done on it, but then the camera died. I seriously need a good digital camera, but I just don't have the cash to get one. Anyways... the other thing I've been busy with HALO and Half Life 2. Halo was easily beaten and the regular setting and I will call that good. The game play was engaging and amusing... but it became redundant with all the indoor maps being pretty much the same again and again. We will have to do a multi player LAN party with it some time in the future. Half Life 2 is amazing stuff. While it is not without its flaws, it has a lot going for it. Graphics that are damn near photo realistic at times, game play gives you full immersion into the game. What I don't like about it, are the same things I didn't like about the first one. Namely little bitty icky things that jump on you and you can't see them... Locked doors that you can't get through... doors made of plywood... doors of chain links... Never mind that you can shoot down alien gunships or easily pick up 55 gallon drums of explosive liquid... but you can't get past this bloody door with a 2X4 nailed across it or a something leaning on it – it's just inexplicably impassable. That's just piss poor level design right there. I also hate how you can only jump 4 inches vertically. Yeah, I know this is 4 inches more than the guys in Rainbow Six can jump, so it is an improvement.... and its more realistic than the 4 yards you can jump in HALO... but in a game like this, a nice balance would have gone a long way. Still, the game makes up for these limitations with some bonuses that will please jaded veteran FPS gamers. I'm talking about airboats and dune buggies with mounted machine guns. Crazy fun, that. Real life shooters will balk at the “I can only carry 12 extra rounds of .357. Very small amounts of ammunition is probably an attempt to keep the game from seeming to be a Doom 3 clone, but I think this could have been better served with more intelligent level designs. Some of the maps are great, don't get me wrong. But others should have been more “open”. The problem solving seems to some times get in the way of the action rather than to... uh... do whatever for you the problems are supposed to do. Quiet often it was just annoying. Great game... might be worth the full retail for those who liked the original Half Life. For those that didn't, like me... ahem... just search for the Torrent... cough. This is a good hold out until F.E.A.R. Comes out. The other game I'm looking forward to playing is Hellgate: London. A FPS Roll Playing game that looks wicked cool. For Christmas, you might want to ask Santa for a new graphics card.

I am going to try to get to the IDPA competition Saturday out at “The Farm”. The Farm is a little training facility west of Lehi... drive west from Lehi past Eagle Mountain for many miles until you see some little signs that say “The Farm”. Like I said, I'm going to try to get there. I'm going to run my CZ P-01, which should do very well.

Have you seen the new police package Dodge Charger? Dang. Bo and Luke Duke would have no chance. A local police chief has offered to give me some wheel time in it on the airport's runway. Yeehaaw! Some SMG trigger time is also in the works... so I am looking forward to a few things.

President Bush's bold talk about illegal immigration is nothing more than doublespeaking lip service. If anything actually happens or comes of – I will be surprised. I don't want to hear about any programs... I want to see some action – real action – Direct Action – to get illegal aliens OUT of the country. Gone, Hasta La Buh-Bye!

Drudge has a report about a guy getting charged for trespassing in relation to his charge of horse-sex. As nasty as that sounds, I can see where the guy got confused. But it's still wrong. Very wrong. Okay, I'll stop. Some things just crack me up. BTW, that cartoon is from here. Funny stuff.

My favorite car magazine is called “Top Gear”. If you've never seen an issue before, it's worth checking out... Barnes and Nobles usually carry them. It's printed in england and will often cover cars you've never heard of, as well as giving you a different point of view of cars you do know. The head man there is one Jeremy Clarkson. I love this guy's writing. But there is something that bugs me about him. He often says “I hate America” amongst other things.... Here is a guy, dressed in an American denim jacket, wearing American denim jeans, and wearing very American Cowboy boots; while leaning up against an American Ford GT. Yet he hates America? The only way you can tell that he isn't an American himself is that he spells “tires” with a “y”. This is what you call “envy”.

If you listen to the racial-hatemongers Farrakan and Jesse Jackson... you get a clear picture of their vision of the future... and it's the 50's again. No doubt that some Gear Heads might like that, all the coolest cars were from back then... but in reality it is more than just a giant step backwords. One hatemonger, a woman, cried that there should be separate schools so “the man” doesn't hold back black students. Now didn't black americans sue for the right to go to schools with white folks back in '54? Why yes they did. Now they want to go back to Pre-1954 educational segregation? I don't have time to outline how and why these people, these so called “black leaders” are just ignorant and evil fuckwits. The only people who are holding back the black people are their own so called “leadership”. If these guys are your leaders... then you guys are just as thick headed as they are. They are NOT leaders... they are boat anchors... dead weights holding you back from your full potential.

Thursday, 10-13-05:  There is a sweet little game demo that you guys need – must – download. The Single Player Demo of “F.E.A.R.” is perhaps the sweetest “first person shooter” type game I've ever played. And this is just the brief demo of part of the first level of the game. When this game comes out, I'm getting it. I want this one. The weapons are slick. The lighting is slick. The ambient sounds and sound effects are haunting. The enemy AI is very good, I've played through the demo about 5 times now and the bad guys have yet to do the same things twice. They actually react to what I'm doing and not just where I stepped. But it's not just these things... wrap this up together into my favorite game genre of “Horror/Shooter” and you have a game I wish I made. Graphics are just as intense as Doom3 and in some places more so. Hard core gamer hardware will be needed for this one if you want to play it with the high settings. This game will make that 400 dollar graphics card you've been drooling over fully justifiable. Flat out scary stuff too. Play it with headphones on with all the lights out... you'll have to sleep with the lights on. The separate Multi Player Demo is pretty good for LAN partying. We did that last Saturday and it was excellent for just the “demo”.

Looks like Taurus has sent me out a Model 605 Titanium, a snubby .357 Magnum that weighs about the same as a Kel Tec P3AT. As Han Solo would say “I've got a bad feeling about this.” The gun is remarkably well finished, and the trigger is – wait for it – actually very good. (shocked silence fills the room) Let me be honest about this one – I am NOT looking forward to busting caps with this little featherweight magnum. Last time in SLC, I fired a .38 Special that was about the same size and weight. It hurt. This one, with the full house magnum loads that I use... I just might have to pick up a shooting glove for this one. Okay, maybe not, but still... this wont be pleasant. The upside is that this little “Maggie” is sporting some very nice little boot grips of some good rubber.

Speaking of which... a HUGE thanks goes out to Horde Member Ken for a very nice set of Pachmayr compact boot grips which are being worn on our S&W 640. They do make a difference in feel and when carrying, but I've not shot it yet to see how the feel in recoil. These grips are shorter than the factory, but you can still grip the weapon well enough to get the job done... but packing it around, this Magnum just evaporates on me now... I wore it for two days before Mrs. Ogre discovered I was packing... and that was just because I started getting ready for bed.

Wednesday, 10-12-05: I'm sitting here reading a magazine, and I'm getting pissed off with every sentence I'm reading. I want you MadOgre.com Readers, Horde Members, Lurkers, and accidental stumblers to get pissed off too. You guys, every single one of you, need to go out and pick up the November 2005 issue of PC World Magazine. Our shop here subscribes to it, and it's good stuff. This issue focuses on something very serious. Spyware, Adware, Malware, and something new starting to emerge... Nastyware. Why is this important? Well, check this out. I pretty much make my bread and butter by removing this “sleazeware” and viruses off of the average PC User's systems. Maybe 8 out of 10 systems are infected with this crap to the point that it causes other system problems that can lead to crashes, data loss, downtime, and the resulting expenditures caused by the lack of productivity cam be outrageously expensive. Let me say this again another way so that it sinks in. I bank on this stuff. There is that much crap out there infecting peoples system that it just the removal of it supports me and my family. Now here is the deal. All this crap out there – it is only going to get much much worse. Some very big companies have invested well over 5o Million Dollars into the companies that create, design, produce, and distribute spyware and adware and all the other sleazeware out there. This means that all this crap is just going to get so much worse. If you think you are immune to this stuff – think again. Just ask yourself these two simple questions: 1. Does your computer run Microsoft Windows? 2. Does your computer connect to the internet, ever? If the answers are yes to these questions, then you are vulnerable and it is very likely that you have some of this crap and you don't even know it. Many businesses have this spyware on their systems, and they don't know it... information is being dug up... it's called “Data Mining” and its being sent back to God Only Knows Who. GOKW then takes that data, and sells it or uses it come back at you for advertising, spam, or Identity Theft... or things we don't even realize yet. This spyware can even open doors for more spyware, worms, and viruses. Here is the problem with all this – it is perfectly legal for these unidentifiable companies to do this. They install unauthorized programs on your machine... so much so that eventually 100% of your computer's workload is just trying to deal with the spyware and your machine is no longer able to do what you want it to do. Ask yourself this, is your computer running slower than it used to? Why? Most likely it's spyware. Legally speaking, spyware is not a virus. You have no recourse to use against the companies that make this stuff... because it isn't illegal. These companies act as if they have every right to ruin your computers and steal your information. They are belligerent about it too... because there is nothing we can do to stop them. They have too much money, too many lawyers to stop them. The only thing we can do is to fight them box by box, and petition our legislatures to ban these practices. Until Congress and the Supreme Court both get together and say “stop it”... and until some of these aholes get tossed into the hole... we've got to fight it ourselves.

Here is what I want you to do... I want you to clean your machine up. Time to get rid of the crap. Unless you want to buy me a new 2006 Ford Fusion.

The first thing you need to do is to download a few applications. Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, MicroSoft AntiSpyWare, and Spy Sweeper. The first 3 are free applications that you can download and install and run for free... the last application is the best of the bunch, but its 30 bucks. Luckily you can download a 30 Day Trial of it and this will go a long way to cleaning up your system. As it stands right now, there is no one single application you can get that will eliminate all the spyware. Well, there is actually, it's called Linux. But since we are talking about Windows here, let's stick to the subject. There is no one antispyware app that will get them all. once you download and install each one in the order I gave them to you... make sure you run each program and do an “update” in each one. New spyware comes out daily, so update often. Each one of thes run better and do a better job at removal while you are in Safe Mode. While you are doing this, you might as well download and install and update a 5^th application, called AVG FREE. Google for it. Company is called Grisoft. free.grisoft.com will get you there. AVG is excellent stuff for Anti-Virus. Remember back in the good old days when Viruses were the only real problem? Now let's get to Safe Mode. Tell the computer to reboot. While it's restarting, tap the F8 key, then select Safe Mode. Once you are there, I want you to go into your C Drive and tell Windows via Tools, Options, View to View All Folders. Then go to the Documents and Settings folder. Select each user name one at a time and go into the Local Settings folder. Then delete everything in the TEMP folder. Go back and go into the Temporary Internet Files folder and in the IE sub folder and clear out all the folders in there, leave the index file. Once that is done, close the windows and go back to the desktop. Rrun each application and remove everything. Spybot first, then Ad-Aware, then MS-ASW, then Spy Sweeper. Then hit Start, Run, MSCONFIG and “Selective Startup” and open the Start Up tab and deselect everything but the AVG stuff and whatever else you have to have on.
Once you reboot, you should be free of damn near everything. But since new stuff is out every day and getting updates out takes a bit of time, I suggest you update and scan at least once a week. It would be a good idea to go ahead and do a full Defrag now too. Now that you are clean and clear of the crap, hopefully your Windows will run much better. Unless the crap has turned your OS into swiss cheese, which sometimes happens. But if everything is cool and groovy now, time to add some protection to keep this from happening again. Time for a Firewall. Kerio or Zone Alarm are two of my favorites... Kerio being my choice. Zone Alarm is free, but I think the bucks for Kerio is worth it. Try them both and see which one you like better, you can get a trial of Kerio and I recommend that highly. Any firewall will help. However no firewall will help if you download stupid shit. Screen Savers, Tool Bars, Games or any of these bullshit “free” applications that you think you just have to get... don't. If you want to waste time on your computer, get up, go outside, shut and lock the door behind you. You and your computer will be better off.

My favorite techy gadget: USB2 external hard drive enclosure for laptop hard drives. I love the little USB thumb drives. They are awesome little tools. Like a pocket knife, everyone should have one. However they offer limited capacity. If you have an old laptop, yank the HD out and throw it into one of these external enclosures... that old hard drive becomes a big fat USB drive. Mine is only 20 gigs, but its still awesome. 40, 60, even 80 gig options are out there. Hell, even if you have an old 2 gig drive, it's still worth it. 512meg USB drives are how much? 50 bucks on average retail? Less than 23 bucks for a decent enclosure, and that old hardware you were thinking about tossing gets a new life. You get this drive, get a copy of Ubuntu Live or some other Live distro of Linux... and you are set for totally safe, go anywhere computing. Lets say you are a business traveler and for some reason you need to use the hotel's computer that most hotels have in their lobby. Or at a public library or college computer lab. You don't want to check your important email on that machine... your bank accounts... don't do it. Who knows what the next guy is going to do if you forget to clear the cache and the temp files. That's a good path to ID Theft right there. So you take your Linux Live CD, pop in there, reboot making sure to set the PC to boot to CD first... and you are there in your favorite Linux. Now you can do your thing... save all your docs and data to your USB HD. Edit those files as you need. Whatever you have to do. Then you just unplug that USB drive, reboot the PC and take that CD out before the OS loads... there you go. No one can get any residual data of yours off that system. Not only that, but some of these live Linux distros will have tools that will let you gleen information off that Windows box that you could not otherwise get. Password hash files, unencrypted data... pretty much everything. Not that I condone such a thing. If you want to learn how to do that, look for a video you can download by Kevin Rose. Sometimes you gotta do that very thing for legitimate reasons.. Say you have to get some data off a machine that wont boot? Or a guy at work forgot his password. See, there are Light Side uses... Linux, is not just for the Sith anymore. One last word on this Linux stuff... all that spyware and virus crap I was talking about... not a worry with Linux. Cheers!

Tuesday, 10-11-05: Out of all the emails I've got regarding Little Johny's email yesterday, this one right here is the best and pretty much says everything everyone else was saying:

“Troops in the sandboxes are begging for M-14's to be re-issued. "Johnny" has no concept of physics if he confuses a .223's knockdown (I refer to it as .223 instead of 5.56 so as to never lose sight of its true nature as a glorified .22LR squirrel gun) with that of any a .308. If it hadn't been for that hack McNamara we wouldn't be saddled with it and its weak ass gas tube system. I would rather slam my balls in a car door as clean an AR. We are in the process of trying to find a good gas piston upper to replace our present Colt uppers. The PD insists on sticking with .223 instead of .308 due to over penetration in CQB situations and I can understand that. However there is no question of .308's superiority in combat. I don't even like the thought of the new 6.8 cartridge. WHY? why not just bump it up the extra notch back up to .308. I am a SWAT cop who has to carry an AR-15A3 as a "sneak into the hide site" weapon and except for CQB situations, feral dogs and feral hogs, it sucks. I am the sniper for our team and that is my only assignment. They offered to buy a .223 bolt gun for me and I refused as .308 will undoubtedly put a man down the first round. I was in a shooting last year where I had to fire into a vehicle. My 7.62x39 rounds ( I was on health leave from the SWAT team at the time and was toting my personal Romanian SAR-1) although only equivalent to say a 30-30 did the trick but my partner's ballistic tip (Hornady TAP rounds) .223 rounds disintegrated on the suspect's windshield and the "A" pillar of the windshield. As you said, johnny is probably rubbing one off on the latest gun porn mag with some tricked out AR on the cover. Such an angry boy...whats he so threatened of? The truth it seems. Keep up the great blog! Respectfully, Neil.”

With readership like this... This makes it all worth while, in spite of the flies like Little Johny. To guys who only shoot paper targets, the .223 will always be Thor's Hammer.

I've done a review of the Gerber Suspension multi-tool. Read about it here. I like multi tools, but few out there are ones that I would actually spend my own money on. The Suspension is one such tool. Wearing it on my hip right now, and I've already used it several times today.  I've been finding uses for it since last Friday... damn fine tool.  Less than 30 bucks too.

Monday,10-10-05:  Looks like News Week has a spread about “Mormons”. For those new to MadOgre.com, I am a proud Mormon. I do not pretend to be a very good one, and do not look to me as an example of what a Mormon is... I am not the typical Mormon. But I am what I am. The article is an interesting read, and pretty much an attempt at a fair shake. But it doesn't quite make it there. Here is one bit that strikes me as odd:

“Central tenets of Mormonism seem confusing—even literally incredible—to those outside the faith. An angel named Moroni? "Plural" marriage? A resurrected Jesus visiting the New World? These are questions posed by potential converts, and also by historians and scientists testing Smith's claims.”

Okay, now the rest of Christianity believes that Jesus Christ was resurrected. This is a general “Christian” belief, is it not? Yes or no? If no, then move on to the next topic... If yes, then explain to me what Jesus said (Taking from the King James version of the bible, not the latest New Downtown Homies version) forgive me for quoting from memory but he said something like this... “Other Sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them must I also bring, that their will be one fold and one Shepard.” Or something to that effect. It's in the bible, look it up if you like. He said this just before he ascended into heaven after talking with his apostles. Okay, If Jesus said this... then who was he talking about? Who were these other sheep? We Mormons believe that Jesus was talking about those that lived in these Ancient Americas... And The Book of Mormon is their record. If Christians can believe in resurrected beings ascending into heaven, how can the same said being coming to ancient America be “incredible”? All of Christianity is rather “incredible” if you do not look at it through eyes of faith. This is the great thing about living in the USA... our Freedom Of Religion allows you to believe in what you want, and allows me to believe in what I want... and neither one of us has to car bomb the other. I have my faith... feel free to get some of your own... or not. The article also seems to take an effort not to talk about any of the good things that have come from Mormons, or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as it is really called. Read that name again... the Church of Jesus Christ... Yet to many unchristianlike Christians, we are not “Christians”. I find arguing about matters of faith to be more fruitless than talking to Liberals about the Constitution. If you want to learn of Ford automobiles, do not go and ask the Chevy dealers... Yet when many people want to learn of Mormons, that's exactly what they do. My only suggestion is to get a Book of Mormon and simply read it for yourself. If you are serious about studying it, you will find that it meshes perfectly with The Bible and doesn't conflict. But that is not hard to say... the Bible conflicts enough with its self as it is.

I think this question had best be answered shortly.  Probably Not?  That doesn't cut it. This is a yes or no question, and the ramifications of it are serious.

So Ben Affleck is supporting gun owners in Florida now? He was on Bill Maher's show this weekend and the subject of the Brady Bunch's fliers down there came up. Billy Boy of course ripped gun owners as he always does and then Ben Affleck actually defends gun owners. This is one of those things that just spins your head around. As confusing as this is, I have to give kudos to Ben. Well done. Exercising a degree of common sense and rational thought... if more Hollywood types did that, well then, the DNC would pretty much just evaporate.

Now, about Florida and these fliers... I like them. The message should get out there... If you come to the USA, you had best be polite. Also, if you do, know that you are better protected because the good guys are armed! Why do some people see this as a negative?

Reader Email: This one came in today, and I'm going to post it for The Horde's enjoyment. I'm also going to fisk it to the elbow for my own enjoyment. Lots of guys email me about my “Why I hate the AR-15” article posted in the weapons section. Most of the email I get about it comes from guys who have served in the military, either in US Army Infantry or other combat arms MOS's within the Army, or they come from US Marines. Some even come from combat arms branches of other nations military forces such as England, Israel, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Norway, Germany... you get the picture. All of these are coming from the perspective that they agree with me and were glad I posted the article. On the other hand, I get some hate mail about it too. Mainly this hate mail comes from guys who play Counter Strike a lot, never served in the military, masturbate to the Bushmaster website, and most of these guys do not even own an AR-15. Such is an email I got today from a guy named “John”, who's email address is cty44342@centurytel.net. I will post his email in whole, unedited. My comments in response will be in bold. To the fisking:

“You don't know your ass from a  hole in the ground.  Not 1 AR owner in 1000 is in the military, so they can use softpoints. 223 sp's will blow your guts out on the ground, so why lug around something that's a lot heavier, like  308, and use ball ammo in it ,and have less effect?

If you are going to compare softpoints to ball, then the argument can go the other way as well... a .223 soft point, or hollow point for that matter is a weak sister to the same bullet type in .308.

The 308 rd is a lot less replaceable for the survivalist,making its wt and bulk just that much more of a problem.  The 308 is not concealable when disassembled, the way the shorty CAR-15's are. 

Okay, this argument makes no sense. You can pick up bulk packs of cheap surplus 7.62MM ammunition at any gun show, just like you can with 5.56MM. Pricing from what I have seen is really not that much more... maybe as high as twenty bucks difference between a case of one or the other... so as far as it being replaceable? I don't get you at all. Also, every sporting goods store I've been in, have all had good quality .308 ammunition readily available. Most of the time it is just one shelf down from the .223 stuff. As far taking down the rifle from concealment... this scenario is just silly. What good is concealing a weapon that is taken down? Traveling or storage? What tactical application does this this give you any advantage in? But okay, I'll give you this one... you score a point here... A AR is a better rifle for NOT shooting.

The 308 has no 22 conversion unit, for low cost practice, indoor range use, built up area practice, or for use with the suppressor on the 223.  That makes any shot you fire with another gun many times more likely to call in somebody that will kill you. you also lack proper flash suppression. Making a lot of noise, and being obvious about being armed is a real good way to have lots more problems than you can handle.

So where you go shooting, people could come in and kill you? What sort of range are you shooting at? I don't shoot a lot of rifles at indoor ranges... clean, heated, roof over the head... I guess this is an environment that the AR-15 is better at... okay, you get another point. Typically when I'm picking out a concealable weapon, it's generally a handgun of some sort.

There's no decently performing  308 suppressor (that adequately handles full charge ammo) that doesn't RUIN the handling of the rifle, because htey are all 1.5 lbs or more and 10" or more in length.  8" and 12 ozs of can adequately suppresses the 10.5" barreled 223.  The gun is then just as handy as the .30 Carbine ever was.

How do you know? Have you ever really played around with lots of different rifle suppressors? Not many people do... they are spendy, a pain in the rear to get (legally) and not all that common. Typically a can for a .308 isn't really all that much bigger than a can for a 5.56MM. And when you consider the difference between the rifles, it isn't throwing off the handling any more than one would on an AR. You site some measurements, but those are only for one surpressor. There are others, and “adequately” is a word that can mean different things for different people.

Civilians have no resupply, no chopper evac, no safe base to run to, no air strikes or artillery to call in when they bite off more than they can chew.  So light weight and compact ammo, and suppressed fire are many times more important than they are to the military. The troops fire  50,000 rds of rifle ammo for every hit that they get, so there's just no way for the civilian to be even 1% that stupid and ineffective (and expect to live thru even the first shoot em up they ever have, except by pure luck.

You just called every grunt in the US Military stupid. Now THAT is stupid. You criticize people in combat and comparing their shooting to civilians who are shooting at unarmed paper targets. Nice. Yeah, I can really see that you are indeed a Firearms Expert and really know the real deal.

Paying 15x as much for 308 practice ammo (as vs using the .22lr unit) guarantees that you wont shoot it nearly as much, which means you wont be nearly as fast to hit with it (especially not from the weak shoulder).

You really seem to have a thing about the .22LR cartridge. I thought the argument was about Combat Rifles. Comparing a .308 to a .22LR makes no sense. And as far as .22LR platforms go, the AR is not even a good one at that either. Lead fouling into the gas tube can cause a lot of problems down the road if you do this a lot. A Ruger 10-22 is a much better platform. And the take down version is certainly better than the AR-15's when it comes to concealability.

I and hundreds of thousands like me have or have had ARs that worked fine, even without cleaning for many hundreds, even thousands of rds. If yours won't, spend the money to get it fixed, dumbass. you can bring it one any FUCKING TIME, too, punk. I have no reason to fear anyone who is as stupid as you are.”

Yeah, lots of guys have rifles that work just fine when they take them to the range, fire a few boxes to make holes in paper, pat themselves on the back, clean their rifles for over an hour, and put them away until next range day. That is all fine and well, and I'm not against that. That is pretty much all I don these days too. However you are missing the whole point of my article. It was a discussion regarding the AR-15's suitability as a combat weapon. Something evidently you know nothing about.

This is the downside of having a website... it can attract flies. This cat seems to think that the military would be better off if they only used .22LR weapons and didn't bother at all with training. Why, with super heroes like these, why do we even need a military? The thing that just makes me laugh is the emotional response we see in this guy's email. I must have really stepped on his Pee-pee here. Can you sense this guy's outright anger and hostility? This is what happens when a guy has a small penis and selects his rifle as compensation, and that rifle is rebuked. He takes it like he was in the high school gym's locker room again. This guy has a lot of issues... I suggest therapy.

Now, on to a lighter subject. Gaming. Saturday we had a little LAN party here at work. One game we played was the Multi Player Demo of F.E.A.R. This was a fun game. I am wanting to get the full version of it now! Creepy First Person Shooter sort of game... my favorite sort. Another game I installed, but we didn't play... The HALO demo. I played it Sunday. Big fun. I'm going to have to find a full version of that, and HALO 2 now. I've never played it before as I thought it too “cartoonish”. But the gameplay is engaging and enjoyable... I liked it. Writing: I'm writing again, and it feels good. I've actually started what has turned out to be a new project. It was going to be a part of my current story, but it has spun off all on its own. Interesting how that happens.

Thrusday: 10-06-05: This weekend I think it was, on Larry King: Walter Cronkite said that Americans were too stupid now to vote and that Democracy was in jeopardy. Now Al Gore as picked up on this... for one reason, to the Liberals, it sounds good; for the other reason, Al Gore could not come up with a new and original idea to save his life. Here is the thing: Liberals believe at their core, that they are smarter and better than the rest of us. They know how to run our lives, our businesses, how to raise our kids, how to educate our kids... To quote “Braveheart”, “Slaves are made this way”. They think anyone that doesn't agree with their ideas are too stupid to be allowed to live without adult supervision. That's the whole place these guys are coming from. So now when they see that their minority status is actually being recognized by the Silent Majority, and that they are loosing their place as Our Nation's Masters. Funny how as soon as we get Judge Roberts and now this other nominee that will most likely be sworn in with little opposition... now the Liberals are crying out the threat to Democracy, and Conservatives are too stupid to run the nation. Well, let's take a look at this, shall we? The biggest natural disaster... the Hurricane Katrina. We see clearly how the Liberals handled that. They ignored the threat until it was too late, and then bitterly cried about the Federal Government not bailing them out fast enough. FEMA is NOT a first responder organization. If the Liberals whole battle plan was to put everyone's lives riding in a bunch of School Busses – then I am sorry but that is not a plan at all. If that is what the Liberals have in mind for the rest of the nation, well then I will take a pass on that. That is not a plan at all. For all the Liberals complaints about not being bailed out fast enough, FEMA's response was faster and greater than any other FEMA action before. More money has been donated, and is still being donated to these poor helpless Democrats, than to the 911 situation in New York.... I've heard the figure that these guys have racked in enough to give every “victim” a cool half million bucks. That's impressive. According to the Libs, that's not enough. This asinine notion that everyone should be wards of the Federal State is revolting to me, and should be revolting to every Red Blooded American. These power mad lunatics on the far left... Gore, Dean, Reid, and their ilk are disgusting examples of just how low a politician can get.

Taurus Problems: Looks like Taurus is completely out of the 24/7 pistol and they do not have a single unit that they could send to me. This is interesting. Taurus has also said they have a new version of the 24/7 that is coming out. This raises some question marks in my mind. I'm sure that if they tried hard enough, they could have sent me a pistol. Methinks they didn't want me to review this “old version”. I am guessing it went something like this:

Taurus Manager 1: “Oh hell, Ogre is going to review our gun!”

TM2: “We can't let him review it yet!”

TM1: “He's got to review it...”

TM2: “We'll have to improve the gun first!”

So in my own very small way, I am improving the whole gun industry... You Are Welcome. I'm just joking about this, but Taurus is working on some improvements to the 24/7 and I am still looking forward to battle testing the product. In the mean time, they are going to be sending out a different gun. Which one that is will be a surprise. I'm hoping its the snub nosed .500 S&W Magnum.

Wednesday: 10-05-05: Rip Off:  Seems someone over at the "Nation of Riflemen" forums is signing their posts "Righteous Vitrol Ogre".  Uh huh... of course this has nothing to do with Mad Ogre's "Vitriol Velocity Vengeance"... Noooo... not a thing.  For those that have been asking about this, no, that guy is not me.  I don't know who that guy is.  I don't want to know.  But I am not he.  He is not me.  Move along...  There are more important matters at hand. 

Bush's latest nomination... a lawyer he used to represent him and his campaign.  Nice.  Good to see the old Buddy System is still alive and well.  No, I am not pleased with his pick.  Not at all.  But I am not up in arms about it either.  I don't see how someone actually needs to be a life long lawyer to be able to look at a case, and weight it against the constitution.  Because THAT is all that matters and that is all that the Supreme Court is for.  I think too many of us have forgotten that little tiny detail.  If she can do that, then that is all that matters in the end. 

I want to talk about two things today. First is computer related (yeah, I know... its getting old) and the second is about some guns. (cheers) Okay, the computer stuff. There are a lot of new laptops coming out on the market now using 64bit processors. Avoid these like the plague. Why? First off, Windows XP64 version is based not off of XP, but off of Microsoft's Server 2003. This is neither good nor bad in and of its self, however the problem is with device drivers. If you buy a reconfigured unit, this should not be a problem, but if you upgrade the OS to XP64, then it will be. The other problem is heat, and I can not stress this enough. Normal 32 bit processors used in laptop will generate anywhere from 4 to 22 watts of thermal energy (heat) whereas 64 bit chips will generate 22 to 72 watts of thermal laptop destruction. (Source: WindowsITPro Magazine) The only 64 bit chip to consider is the AMD Turion, which generates a bit less heat because it throttles back in ways the others do not. The Turion also is better for mobile units because when it throttles back, it also sucks less juice. 64Bit chips are serious power sucking freaks and will drain a fresh battery in minutes. The Turion, while still thirsty, is somewhat less so than the other 64bit units. Makers are calling these “desktop replacements” but the truth is that this is nothing more than an marketing ploy and a better way of saying “You are going to be seriously tethered to the wall outlet.” As far as the OS issues go, if you need 64 bit power, consider Linux. Linux can use 64 bit chips just fine with out the complications that the Server/XP64 is having. But really, I would totally avoid the whole 64bit laptop thing... these units are still using the same 32 bit coolers that have a hard time keeping them from going nova.

Now, about the guns. If you get a chance, pick up a Taurus catalog from your local dealer. They have some really neat new guns coming out. The one that really grabs my attention is the new IB frame revolver series. They have one in 9MM which looks like a real peach. The took the normal compact “J-frame” sized gun, shortened the cylinder down the 9MM length, and chopped the frame to match. From a comparison to a J frame .38, they are shortening the package by a full ½ inch. That is bloody brilliant! The IB guns are also available in .17HMR, .17Mach2 (WTF?) and .22... but for CCW work, the 9MM is of course the only one to consider. 5 shots of 9MM in a package that small... that's a gem. The only question about them would be Blued or Stainless? They have another gun for some reason trips my trigger. Its a Raging Bull frame, done as an Ultralight... in .44 Mag with a full 6 round payload. Normally, I wouldn't like that, but in this package, I think I do. The other one I like is the Tracker, in .357 Magnum (6 shots instead of the Tracker's normal 5) with a 2.5 inch barrel. That would be a sweet carry package right there. One of these three guns are going to have to be reviewed pronto. I'm sure some of the gun rags have already mentioned these or even done some amazingly sexy spreads on them... but that's not exactly what I do. :)  It looks like Taurus is being managed by some guys who, like us, are some serious Gun Nuts.  They have that Lifetime Warranty thing too, which is a bonus.  I am looking forward to testing out this 24/7 which should be here any moment now...

Tuesday, 10-4-05: Congratulations to my brother Josh on his engagement. He is still in Iraq, and his girl is in Seattle, but hopefully before Christmas they will be together.

Surprising email came in yesterday, from the author or “No Other Option”, Marcus Wynne. As was suspected, Marcus is a genuinely good guy, a reader of MadOgre.com, and a fellow gun guy of the finest order. While getting his amiable email was surprising, it really wasn't all that unexpected. If you are the solid fellow type that believes in the rugged individual, and you have an internet connect, you will very likely end up here at some point. Welcome Marcus. Guys, check out his site, get one of his books, and enjoy it. I sure as hell did. I'm going to have to check out his other books soon. “No Other Option” has a very unique character in it... the bad guy. This bad guy is not just really nasty, but is one of the most vicious of villains in any book I've ever read. But I don't know what is worse... this evil villain, or me reading about him and what he does to deter anyone from following him, and me thinking, “I've gotta remember that one!” I know, there is a special place in hell for me.
Just want to say this to all the other bloggers out there – My readers can kick your readers' asses. HA!

Some thoughts regarding the movie “Serenity”. Lots of emails have come in about it. First off, I loved. Second off, I hated it. I hated it for some pretty obvious reasons. If you are a fan of The Series That Was, then you know exactly what I mean. This movie is on some ways, a gift. A gift for the series fans. Yet at the same time, this movie was a big slap across the face. Let me explain that. You see, this movie is not a reintroduction of anything, it is a direct continuation that takes place in the time line some years after the last episode of the series. All the characters are there and pretty much acting the same as the characters we all know and already understand... and they are acting as those characters would be having been on board Serenity (the name of their spaceship) for an extended period of time. The crew is conflicted with both a tightly knitted bond, and with inner tensions. Such as Jayne not liking Simon and River... this stemming from Jayne being very much afraid of River. After all, she did slash him with a knife and kicked his ass. Inara had left Serenity like she said she was going to, and Book found his little Haven where he can live with some peace. Kaylee being all the more sexually frustrated, she has some tension of her own. Zoe and Wash, being the only married couple are forced to deal with certain situations and limitations of life aboard a rogue ship, and dealing with the Captain, Mal Reynolds, who is becoming increasingly tense and terse given their more stressful and dire situation. So the stage is pretty much set as it should be. Everyone even looks the same, save for Kaylee who has lost about 20 pounds and looks skinny as hell. She was perfectly sexy to begin with. I am very happy that they didn't waste movie time in reintroductions of all the characters. I am also very happy that they did give some background on the whole overall “universe” setting... explaining that the story takes place in a large solar system and all that. That was cool, because they never really said that in the series. The plot line was good too... a bigger and more determined push to capture River... something that would be expected to happen. The characters are all cool, and so are the new ones we meet... such as the villain. I would have loved to have seen a couple of the characters from the series, such as Mal's ex-wife, “YoSafBridge”, and his old Army buddy who also married her. We get to see a lot more of the Reavers this time around, and we also get to learn of the Reavers origins. This ties in well with River's story line. But one story line that was left totally unexplored was that of Shepard Book's history. The most interestingly mysterious background story of any of the characters, and it is totally dropped. The potential was there... Mal hints at questioning it, “You've got to tell me about that sometime.” and Book just said “No, I don't.” Thus sealing that mystery closed. The one character that I never really taken too, Jayne, finally gets to really show his worth. Jayne is the Grunt on the show, and during the series he only really got to strut once as a worthwhile crew member. In the movie, he gets frisky several times proving that he is a valuable fighter... he even directs the defenses of the crew during their most dire hour of need... and he even proves himself a more level headed fighter than even Zoe. (But in Zoe's defense she was emotionally challenged at that time) The biggest “who is the best fighter” surprise... or better put, the most shocking revelation of what was suspected, was just how much gratuitously kicked ass River can dish out. In the trailers we see River kick some ass... in the full scene she kicks much much more... but that is not what I am talking about. Let me leave you with this tiny little spoiler – when you see River standing there with a sword in one hand, an axe in the other, drenched in blood, and amidst piles of bodies – damn. Double damn. If you like space movies, you will love this flick. If you like movies with good dialog... again, you will love this movie. If you were a fan of the series, you will also love it... but have some very harsh “WTF!” feelings about a certain character.

HUGE SPOILER WARNING: Okay, now let me briefly touch on what I hate about the movie. Book dies. Wash dies. Book had a good death... yeah, it silenced his backstory, but it was still a good death nonetheless. It would have been better if Book had told Mal what his secret was (that he was the commanding officer he fought against during the Battle of Serenity Valley?) and Mal still came to his aide... that would have been better... maybe a bit more cheesy... but better showing of Mal's character's character. Wash's death. Totally and absolutely unnecessary. It comes out of the blue, no dialog, just there is Wash, and all the sudden Wash is just gone. That's it. Fini. That was some fresh bullshit right there. I hated that. Something all the sudden from off camera – squish – done. The character, and the actor, deserved to go out in some better fashion. Better yet – you knew that was coming – Have everyone think Wash died, and then during the darkest moments, we discover that Wash is alright. But there is no “Gandalf Falling Into Darkness” comeback from the death given to Wash... that's some kinda dead right there and this isn't a Star Trek flick. Rumor had it that the guy playing Wash had contracted for 3 Firefly movies... of course that is also the rumor that there will be any other movies. I am sure they only optioned for 2 more and are going to wait to see if popularity will support any other movie.

I'm hugely disappointed that Serenity's opening weekend at the time of this writing is coming in second place to Jody Foster's flick about a kid that disappears on a commercial flight. That movie sounds completely stupid, just listing to the base idea. Then again, had you simply said “Firefly is a Space Western” I might have rolled my eyes too... well, I think I did. But Firefly is done so bloody well that trying to sum it up in a sentence is something that can not be done... it is too good. I don't think there will be any more movies... and I don't think that there will be any more series either. It is said that the contracts stipulate no more series for 10 years. (what a-hole wrote that?) 10 years is a long time for characters – and the actors that play them – to sit on a shelf. Image a new Star Wars movie with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo... I don't think the actors are going to be able to bring the same characters back to life. Even in Hollywood, too much time has passed. Same for Firefly. What I look forward to... a release of any books based in the Firefly universe. I'm not one to read “Fan Fiction”... but for Joss to write a Firefly book – I'm buying it. Oh, and when the Serenity special edition (The Browncoat Edition?) comes out, I might have to do a Guns of Firefly review.  Oh, one more thing, don't take my word for how good this flick is.  Orson Scott Card likes it too.

Some more Linux rambling:  Because the internet connection has been so slow lately at work, I decided to purchase instead of just download a new Linux distro called “Vector SOHO 5.10 Linux”. So I hit LinuxCD.org. Placed my order. I think that was on Monday. Today I checked the order status... yup, it shipped. Sweet. Then I read something absolutely horrible. Shipped from FRANCE. WTF? Aarrgh. Oh well. I don't have a problem with France, really I don't. It's just the French I don't get along with. (rimshot) Anyways, I'm really looking forward to testing this distro. This Linux package comes with with the latest versions of damn near everything – including the kitchen sink – and none of the junk you don't need. Being based on Slackware means it is going to be fast and stable. So it's got everything you want in an operating system. $1.99 from LinuxCD.org or you can download it... whatever you want. If its good, I'm going to send the Vector guys a few Benjamins to show my appreciation.

The other Linux distro I'm going to give some jingle to is Ubuntu. These guys are giving away one of the best distros – best operating systems – on the planet. They deserve a pat on the back.

Back to Vector Linux; it has every potential to become a favorite distro... we shall see. Linspire 5.0 is still running on my “TuxBox”. I tried Xandros (yet another Linux OS distro) the other day. I did so with a swapped out HD so as to not pooch my Linspire install. Heck, I've already registered this Linspire install and everything so I'm not going to trash it... besides, I have got to learn this distro inside and out. After all, we are Linspire system builders now and are selling this stuff! Linspire is supposed to be the easiest Linux you can use – with the goal of ultimately being the easiest desktop OS you can use. They may have hit that goal. Out of all the Linspire OS's that we have put out, only one of them have come back with any issues. And that one is an ID10T error in the extreme... Other then them – we have had no problems. (knocking on some wooden objects right now) If Linspire Linux is being so well received here in the Uintah Basin, then it will fly very well anywhere. Because, man, let me tell you, this place is just lousy with people who do not even know how to turn a computer on. Mom, Dad, when you guys come out here next – bring your PC with you... You are getting Linspire Linux. Here is what Linspire Linux with do for you – NO MORE VIRUSES AND SPYWARE THAT KEEP RUINING YOUR SYSTEMS! That alone makes learning the new OS totally worth it.  Don't even think about waiting around for the new version of Windows... it is just more of the same crap plus a really neat feature. That neat feature is that you are going to have to subscribe – paid subscription mind you – to get your security updates. Do you know what that is? Paying for your security updates... paying the guys that make the buggy, faulty, and ultimately totally FUBAR'ed OS... that's extortion... it's a protection racket. It's like a couple big strapped Italian goombahs come walking into your business and demand protection money. This should be illegal... Were this any other industry besides computers, it would be! The Justice Department needs to squelch that jazz. Better yet... MS should just flat make their OS secure and such updates wouldn't be needed. If Ford was to put out a vehicle that had such problems, they would be forced to issue a Recall. But in computers, the company just issues “updates” and now they think that they can make people pay for them? That's not right, and that's one of the reasons I loath Microsoft. But that aint ever going to happen. Anyways... where was I? Oh yes... installing Linspire being so easy. Well Xandros is easy too. If you want to talk about ease of installation, Xandros is the fastest and easiest Linux – or any other OS – to install. I booted to the Xandros disk and it asked me 3 questions. 1. What will my User Name be? 2. What will my password be? 3. What time is it? That's it. 8 minutes later it was fully installed and I was on the new Xandros desktop. Everything worked, all devices installed properly.  It's a good looking KDE distro with a strange array of software... not the most loaded distros out there, but still very serviceable. If you buy the disks from the Xandros people, it is fully supported. That's another plus for Linspire too, btw. Xandros is also very fast. On a scale from one to ten, with compiled Gentoo being a ten (yeah, it's that fast); I'd have to say that Xandros Desktop 3 is about an 8 on my machine here. That's smoking fast, people. Vector, being a Slackware based distro should be about a 9 at least. At least, that's what I am hoping for. Linspire is about a 5 and Ubuntu is about a 7... just to give you guys a spectrum here. I've not really played with any especially slow distros. Mandrake 8.2 would be the slowest, ranking that as a 1, but it was still faster than Windows 98 and on the same box.

Another distro I downloaded to try out is called “Foresight”. This distro is still in beta... hopefully it is still an early beta because it has a long way to go before catching up to the other leaders. Foresight is designed to be, has aspirations to be, a cutting edge Gnome distro. And it has every potential to be such, but Ubuntu still kicks it in the pants. Foresight is supposed to be using the latest kernal with the latest release of Gnome. That's all fine and well, but for a strict end user Windows Refugee, that's not enough. It comes with an early version of Open Office during a time when 2.0 is out... that's not good enough. Yeah, you can get it yourself, but for a distro that wants to play in the major leagues, this isn't going to cut it. Since this is a beta release and not the full version, the potential for Foresight to become a real strong leader is there. It's not exactly worth delving into right now, unless you are wanting to download and install all your applications yourself... but it is worth keeping an eye on. I don't think it will be able to overtake Ubuntu's lead in top Gnome distro, but it will become a good option for those who don't like Ubuntu and want an option.

Quick update on Vector Linux... Installed fine, looks great, and it's fast. Unfortunately it doesn't recognize my Logitech MX500 mouse. Damn it. I'll have to look at this again once I get this mouse thing sorted out.  As suspected, it is screaming fast.

Saturday: 10-01-05:  Last Saturday in SLC while at Doug's Shooting Sports, I handled another S&W hammerless J-Frame... this one was unremarkable and the trigger, with it's sharply squared edges was just unpleasant. However it had a neat set of grips that I've never felt before. Pachmayr compac grips for the round butt S&W J-frame. I didn't shoot the gun with these grips, but I did get a good feel for them. I really liked them a lot, and it has been bugging me all week that my little .357 doesn't have them. I get that way sometimes about different things. I don't know if I want to drop 30 bucks on them... does anyone in The Horde have a used set that they would be willing to sell? The cheapest I've seen is 20 bucks, but from an outfit I've never heard of before. Not sure if I want to send them any cash if you know what I mean. If no one has a set of these, I'll have to look for them next time I'm in SLC... in just a couple weeks. Mrs. Ogre wants to go to this Celtic thing that is going on out there to include a concert at the LDS convention center place... where they do the general conferences. I love Celtic music, I really do. It calms me. So that's when I'm going to be out there again. I've also got to give Steve back his sunglasses that he left in my car. Yeah, I gotta give them back... they are not really my style, but they look good on Steve.

Oh, and I just got to say – GO SEE SERENITY! That is all.

CHECK ARCHIVES FOR OLDER CONTENT

Donate ogre at madogre dot com via PayPal to support MadOgre.com, or God will kill a kitten. All donations pay for hosting, Mt. Dew, and Ammunition.

Copyright G H Hill 1999-2012

Graphic Artwork by Martin White