I’m reposting this because it’s getting lost in the Signal-to-Noise ratio since CNN carried it on the Lou Dobbs segment. The best link to the case is here, which includes links to the Lou Dobbs program.

Now, I love a good bit of armchair lawyering, so here goes:

Prosecution: They should bring up the fact that the guy is in the army and consequently a weapons expert. He is overly qualified by his profession to work on these weapons and he would have surely known about the ATF.

Defence: A malfunction is a malfunction. (Fred Thompson’s argument about Clinton and perjury here). More to the point it wasn’t built with any automatic parts.

To Lou Dobb’s credit, that’s exactly the argument he used and he said “fire selector” and “auto seer” on air. So apparently Lou knows a bit about guns. Since I’m firmly in the “use, not design” camp (DVD recorders aren’t supposed to be used to copy hollywood movies so keep the CSS crap off the device), then his buddy would be guilty of firing a machine gun. But is Olofson guilty of transferring a machine gun? No, he never transferred ownership.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.

The Rise and Fall of Thinking Machines is a good read.

What does it boil down to? The CEO had no business skills and spent money on really stupid stuff.

Instead of making an interesting machine people could use, they made a machine as a very expensive foray into interesting hacking projects and the result was an unusable mess. At very least Sun has solaris and encourages porting to it, but this could have run Linux and didn’t.

more cat pictures

SCHLITZ - BEER OF THE POLISH is back with it’s 1960s recipe. From a historical perspective, this might be really neat to drink. However I’m not going to spring for a case of it before I establish that it’s interesting in owning 24 pieces of history I have to struggle through.

Typical Philadelphia bullshit this week: The city is abuzz over a serial killer and a cop killer. Mayor Michael Nigger Nutter, in typical useless piece of shit fashion, is calling for more gun control and asking why Harrisburg has obstructed his gun laws.

The Philadelphia Daily News has had a circus with it, mostly all anti-gun with a strange smattering of half truths and popular opinion. To their credit, they hat tip the paper with a single letter in opposition to the theme of the paper, but the rag from Tuesday (May 6th, 200 was particularly bad with contradictory stories and mostly all anonymous sources yelling “facts” which varied article to article.

The politics in PA mostly come down to state versus “city of the first class”. Usually this is interpreted to mean Philadelphia (and localities are specifically mentioned in the constitution), but Philly, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh all qualify for this designation all being proper class 1 cities according to the population requirements. While the state constitution allows for preemption (more specific laws) in places, it contains the text “The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned” (section 21). It’s pretty well outlined that Penn’s Woods are supposed to be armed to the teeth.

An incensed reader proposed a thought experiment:

About 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shooting were African-American.

Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed, and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns?

The answer is that this is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and punish all members of that group, irrespective of their individual answers, is unconscionable.

Yet, it’s deemed perfectly acceptable to discriminate against one particular group — gun owners.

Lets just tell the truth. The moment Mayor Nutter get the right to pass gun laws for Philly, it will become a practical impossibility to own a handgun or any other weapon the city deems “inappropriate”.

I’ve done nothing wrong, but my rights are being removed step-by-step because others — entirely outside the law — are using guns feloniously. How is this any less outrageous a suggestion than that black people shouldn’t be allowed to have guns?

Discuss.

Debian Bug #477454 is why Linux probably isn’t ready for the desktop (if you work in HR).

This hasn’t made it to WTF yet and probably won’t. However, it’s still hilarious.

First, I am going to review this page about fuel saving technology:

Multistage Oil Pump: Talk about craptacular, oil pressure does little or nothing for an engine. Oil viscosity does a lot more for the engine. But, underflowing oil will destroy an engine. A multistage oil pump is only good for pumping failure. Better alternative - electrical oil pump.

Shortened Head: I sort of like the idea. But making the valve guides shorter means that the head is more prone to valve deflection. Toyota figured this out with the 3SGTE engines back in 1991: A bucket is used to shim the valves. Better alternative: Lighter metals = less mass, but this is a neat idea if they can pull it off.

Variable Compression Ratio: Good idea, terribly poor execution. This is traditionally accomplished with a dual-lobe cam similar to VANOS. Introduced in 1992, BMW’s system allows for 12 degrees of timing change. What could possibly go wrong with individual pistons? When the actuator dies, you’ve got a dead piston, and you need a new shortblock. I’m absolutely sure if the pistons get even a hair out of sync, the main bearing on your engine is toast.

Guided Spray Turbo: Anything that improves fuel economy through turbos is good. Buy stock. Best idea of the set. It’s tried and true.

Electromagnet Valves: Another really good idea. This engine is so tunable it’s stupid, and could probably run on CNG, LPG, E85, whatever. With a high pressure fuel pump and the right injectors, you could tune the dwell and timing to run on absolutely anything. Hell, you could even switch it from diesel to gasoline.

Hydraulic Power Electrification: Electric pumps are a good idea, but not a 100+ MPG idea. Still, every little bit helps. Or you could just be a man and learn to drive without power steering (LOOK AT YOU RED MR2).