Random Ruminations: Hardware

No Kahr, A Kimber

Posted Sat Sep 17, 2011 in Hardware

After my experience with the Kahr CW-45 eating the web of my right hand, I decided that wasn’t the sidearm for me. The only other sidearm that is that slim (that I know of) is the 1911 platform. I know the folks at Carson Armory carry the Kimber line, so I spent a little time on the Kimber website.

What I learned is that the Commander-size Kimber pistols with the allow frame weigh only a few ounces more than the Kahr polymer frames. I know the 1911 platform reasonably well. I spent some time last weekend looking at Kimber pistols. I considered the Ultra Carry line, but didn’t like the bobbed beavertail. I tend to use a deep hold and I know that bobbed beavertail would result in a big hammer-bite out of the webbing of my hands.

So, I traded the Kahr for a Kimber. I picked up the pistol last week (so long, Kahr&hellip glad I got to meet you, not sad to leave you) and was waiting for the weekend to go shoot it in. Kimber recommends running at least 250 rounds through the gun before carrying it.

I packed up my range gear this morning and headed out about 0730 for the Carson Range. I had a couple hundred rounds of Wolf (steel-cased) and some Winchester White Box (brass cased) and a handful of magazines. I had my target setup planned and ready to rock-and-roll.

However, when I arrived at the range, the 4H’ers had the bays all tied up for the day. Blast! So, I parked at the square range, disappointed I would not be able to set up my targets for combat shooting and would not be able to work from the holster.

Oh well.

Moreover, there was a class going on at one end of the line, so I’d have to share. I can do it, but prefer to work at my own pace.

Oh well.

One of the line officers approached to let me know what they were doing and that the range was cold. I appreciated that. I set up a couple of targets — one at about 7 yards and the other at about 10 yards. I loaded up my magazines and called range hot.

I had a few failures to feed, but no extraction problems. The gun shot better near the end of my third box of ammunition. It’s a handful and knocked off the scab from my Kahr war-wound, but I wasn’t leaking at the end of my session. The pistol definitely prefers brass cases. That’s OK, the Glocks eat anything so I can always use up my Wolf in them.

By the end of the session, I was confident that the pistol will run. I still need to shoot it some more and run some defensive rounds through it to confirm they will feed and fire reliably. I have a holster, but need a magazine carrier to go with it.

The Kimber will make a fine carry gun. I pray I never need it. But, after the IHOP shooting a couple of weeks ago, I will have something with me wherever and whenever I can.

But, the IHOP story is another tale to tell. It will have to wait. The Girl is wanting to walk.

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Labors

Posted Mon Sep 5, 2011 in Hardware

For the last several week I’ve been saying I need a range trip. I need some range time and should get out at least once each month. But, Saturday mornings have been filled with errands and things around the house and Sunday mornings have been busy with yard work and such. Afternoons have been too warm and The Girl likes to walk about 1700–1800.

After work I’m generally too tired, once I walk The Girl and get supper.

In short, I haven’t been able to make it work. That’s not a good thing and not good for me.

Well, this weekend I got most of my chores done and this morning, after walking The Girl, playing with her for awhile, and then getting breakfast taken care of, I decided to load up my stuff and drive out to the Carson City Range. I have a new/used Kahr CW-45 that needs to be shot in.

When I arrived, all of the bays were full, so I pulled up to the east end and parked. I was far enough from the line to leave the windows down and not need ears, so I watched a middle-aged man and a young man working the bay. They had a variety of long and short guns and were pretty good with line discipline and gun handling.

While I waited, a Subaru pulled in, circled around, and parked near the west end of the bay where I waited. A 20-something man and young woman exited the vehicle and started shooting.

The middle-aged man looked at me, shrugged, and said “WTF?!?” I lifted my arms in response and waited. The younger couple were OK, but the 20-something didn’t manage his muzzle very well. He covered the young woman several times, albeit with an empty sidearm, but still that’s a violation of range discipline and will get you ejected from some ranges.

I stepped over to the middle-aged man and said “There’s no reason to get upset. I’m not bothered.”

“I can tell,” he replied.

“Life’s too short.” We chatted a bit about the couple and the lack of courtesy shown by their assumption they could just use the bay. Yeah, there was room. But, it’s not polite to make the assumption.

Eventually, the man and his son (I learned) left and I took their position. I only wanted a five- and seven-yard target. I had 200 rounds of 45 ACP to shoot so I could confirm operation of the Kahr.

I found the double-action only trigger to be much like shooting a revolver. I’m not as skilled with revolvers and my groups showed it. I’m going to have to work with the Kahr a bit more to become really proficient with it. I’m OK with that.

I noticed a couple of rounds where the slide seemed slow. My guess there was some drag as the slide picked up the next round from the magazine. I had no failure to feed and no stoppage, but I did have a couple of light primer strikes. It was probably the hard primers in the Wolf ammunition I grabbed from the case on my way out. The both fired the second time I cycled them through the sidearm, though.

There was a two-gallon plastic bottle near the end of the bay. My estimate is that it is about 75 yards to the back of the bay. I was able to consistently get hits on that bottle with a compact sidearm. It’s clear that the weapon will do the job if I do mine.

After I finished my time, I noticed a burning on the webbing between my thumb and index finger on my right hand. I had two blisters where the beavertail of the frame contacts my hand. Heh!

All in all, it was a good day to go the range. It was warm, but not overly hot. Even with the impolite shooters, it was a good day.

Now I need to attend to the grill. I’m going to grill some steak, burgers, and hot dogs.

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Upgrading my iPhone

Posted Tue Jun 14, 2011 in Hardware

I decided to take the plunge… probably late to the party, but that’s my way of doing things. I decided to upgrade my iPhone and decided to get an iPhone 4. There are a couple of things about the latest edition (despite the fact the iPhone 5 might be out in the fall) that were worth it for me.

First there’s the upgraded camera. I don’t have friends with iPhone 4s, so I probably won’t do Facetime, although that might be fun if Wife decided to upgrade her iPhone as well. But, the upgraded camera does HDR implicitly (obviating the need for specialized software to do that) and offers more pixels than it’s predecessor. That’s good for me because I tend to use my iPhone as my carry-camera.

Second there is the improved battery. From what I can tell, the iPhone 4’s battery provides at least 40 percent more capacity than that of the 3GS. That’s particularly important to me when I’m away from the house and the car.

Third, but of lesser importance, is the improved display. My old eyes have some trouble resolving the fonts on the iPhone 3GS. We’ll see whether the iPhone 4’s display works better for me. I’ll need more time to decide.

I’ve had the new iPhone for about a week. So far, I’m really liking the upgrade. It was expensive (damned third-party warranty — maybe I should have just bought it outright?), but that’s just smartphones in general.

It’s jailbroken and I have my usual suspects installed. I did make one great new find — lockscreen info. It reminds me so much of the Today screen from my old Window$ Mobile PDAs. I can get a glance at my day (and duties) just by pressing the wake-up button on my iPhone. It wasn’t very expensive at $7.99 or so. It’s definitely worth the few bucks.

One thing to note, however, is the station code for the weather application. The protocol for resolving this is to obtain the Yahoo! Station Identification by going to the weather site (weather.com), entering the Zip code desired, and wait for the page to load. Then click the 6–10 day forecast. The code in the URL (mine is the USNV0032 from the URL http://www.weather.com/weather/extended/USNV0032) is the code to enter for the location of interest. My weather would not update unless I entered this code.

Now back to work.

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iPhone 3GS Jailbreak iOS 4.1

Posted Sun Nov 7, 2010 in Hardware

dev-team Pineapple The new version of iOS has been out for awhile. I decided to wait to see how it was received by the community and for a jailbreak before upgrading. The jailbreak for iOS 4.1 was released about a week ago. I decided to wait for the weekend before undertaking the process. I like to have plenty of time available and not be pressured in the evening if something goes awry.

My iPhone just finished the install of the custom firmware. It is restoring as I write. So, I should have jailbroken iOS 4.1 when I post this. If not, I’ll live with an native firmware while I figure out what went wrong.

The process was not quite as simple as some of the installs. But, the dev-team did the job. I used support from dks-zone here and here to help me through the process.

Part of the deal is that I’m not quite ready to buy a new iPhone. Yeah, the iPhone 4 is dead-sexy and would be a nice upgrade. But, my 3GS still has a lot of kick to it and it works well enough for me now while Apple works on the next generation. As long as my 3GS is still working, I think I’ll take a pass on the few new features the iPhone 4 offers and wait to see what the next generation looks like.

The software finished its install a couple of minutes ago. My iPhone and iTunes are now synchronizing so my software will be available. The next step is to confirm all is working and install the few applications I jailbreak for. There aren’t many. Mostly I want a five-column screen (even with the lower resolution of the 3GS), a five-column dock, SBSettings (wonderful control from the home screen), and my current favorite theme.

I haven’t done much else beyond those few things. I might opt for the MyWi wireless tethering sometime because I could then use some of my 3G bandwidth with my iPad when I’m away from WiFi. Other than that, I’m satisfied with my software suite.

OK, I think it’s done. Cydia is loading now, so it’s time to button everything up and clean up my workspace.

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The iPad

Posted Mon Oct 25, 2010 in Hardware

I’m writing this on my iPad, using the wireless Bluetooth keyboard I bought for my MacBook Pro a few years ago. Most of the time, the MBP is connected to a wired keyboard (full-size numeric keypad is very useful), so the wireless keyboard is now set aside for use with the iPad. At least, that is my intent for now.

I bought my iPad a few months ago. I don’t recall exactly when, but long enough that I think I have a good idea of how I will use it. I thought I would share a few of those ideas on my weblog. Maybe this will help someone else along the way.

The iPad is nearly perfect for consumption of content. I use a feed reader to track the websites I follow regularly. I tried a couple of them, but Reeder is my current choice. The interface is nearly perfect for the iPad. It’s beautiful. It’s easy to use.

The continued talk about the lack of Adobe’s Flash on the iPad bores me. A colleague and friend tells me that is the only thing about his iPad he doesn’t like. I really don’t care about Flash. I can’t think of a site I visited in recent history that required Flash. Furthermore, I eschew sites that rely on Flash for the user interface. It usually bores me.

I use Tweet Library for most of my Twitter work. I like that it keeps an archive of my twitter activity so I can return to my writing, even if it’s nothing much. Tweet Library is a first release, so some features are missing. For retweets, I’m still using the official Twitter client [iTunes link]. I also can manage my Twitter account using the Twitter client, so it will probably remain on my iPad.

I follow quite a few sites using really simple syndication (RSS) feeds. Those are curated through Google Reader. I used the website through mobile Safari, but find it a little clunky. It works well enough, but is not elegant. However, the excellent Reeder is a wonderful iPad interface to Google Reader. The interface is perfect for IOS, it’s gorgeous, and it works. The only thing lacking is the ability to manage my Reader account; that has to be done through the website (at least for now).

Email works well. I read and write email on my iPad all the time. I don’t touch type on the soft keyboard (at least not yet), but I can two-finger type fast enough for the kinds of responses usually needed. Longer writing can be delayed until I get to a keyboard (or I can use the keyboard I’m writing this with).

When away from the computer, I manage my images on my iPad. I bought the camera connection kit and was able to migrate images from my Canon PowerShot G11 to the iPad for review and light editing. Posting to Flickr is trivial through Flick Stacker. Browsing Flickr using Flick Stacker is an excellent experience and I can get lost for hours looking at others’ images.

See what I mean about the iPad being an excellent device for content consumption?

So, I can see using my iPad as a notebook replacement (net book?) when I’m not working, but want to have a computer along for browsing, working on my weblog, managing images when I’m away, handling email, and keeping up with my friends and feeds. The next time I leave the house for a vacation, I’ll leave the MBP behind and take just my iPad. I can carry the iPad, support systems, and my wireless keyboard in my messenger bag and still have room left over for my journal, reporter’s notebook, and other necessaries. I’m already carrying it in my bag when I’m out and about and don’t want to use my iPhone for email and such. In a pinch, the iPhone is fine. But for more serious work the iPad is much better.

I have a lot to learn about content creation on the iPad. I think it can be done (after all, I wrote this entry in its entirety). I think I can use my iPad for presentations, too. I’m going to do my next seminar with my iPad as the presentation tool. I might want to add a text editor to my collection of software, as well. I don’t usually use a word processor, although I could use Pages to capture text.

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Autumnal Equinox, 2010

Posted Thu Sep 23, 2010 in Hardware

All kinds of new goodies arrived yesterday. Wife and I placed a rather large order from Amazon — mostly toys for me, but some supplies for her as well.

Based on experience with my ex-student’s Canon PowerShot G11, I decided there was enough upgrade for me to give up my G9 and purchase a G11. The tilt-out screen is something I missed from my old Nikon Coolpix. The expanded sensor sensitivity of the G11 is something I also wanted. There are times when the G9’s sensor doesn’t offer quite enough sensitivity, or is too noisy for what I’m trying to capture. Given that most of my images are currently made with either my iPhone or my carry camera, I rationalized the purchase.

We found a unit on sale at Best Buy last weekend (that story is already told), so I needed a few pieces to complete the system. I always have a spare battery and two memory cards. That’s redundancy in case one fails. The energy in any battery is finite and a charging station is not always available. Memory cards fail or are filled. It’s just a good idea to have a spare in the bag.

I also needed new adapters for my auxiliary lenses. I have two Raynox extenders. One is a wide-angle (0.7x) and the other a mild telephoto (1.54x). Canon changed the mount (of course), so I needed an new adapter tube.

I usually buy Lensmate adapters, but they are expensive. I’m waffling on that purchase, plus they are out of the filter adapter for the G11. So, I decided to try a less-expensive product. I won’t have that much invested and can always resell if I don’t like the quality¹.

I’ll have to buy a couple of filters too, because the size changed. For the G9, I could use 58mm filters. With the G11 I’ll need 72mm filters. eBay is my friend. Good quality optical glass is not cheap.

I also bought a lightweight tripod to carry in the car or on the bike. My heavy Manfrotto legs are too much to lug around except when I need the extra stability for the long lenses on the Nikon.

Everything arrived yesterday and most of it is tested. The Bower adapter tube exhibits a little shimmy when attached to the G11, but it’s rotational and not longitudinal, so I don’t think there will be an optical effect. Still, it’s not “right” and that irritates the engineer. I might buy the Lensmate adapters, but I think I’ll wait for a couple of weeks and give what I have a solid workout.

I was reminded by Deb of the autumnal equinox and the full moon. Young Son and I stepped out the front door about 1930 to have a look. The evening air was already cool (60F or so) and the wind blew, so it was chilly in the front yard. The moon was about 30 degrees above the horizon and was already very bright.

“Is that a star or a plane?” asked Young Son, “I can’t tell if it’s moving.” I looked for a moment and could detect no motion, but the object was too bright for a star.

“I think it’s a planet, probably Jupiter,” I responded, noting the pinkish color of the object.

We stood there for a few minutes, talking about the equinox and the moon, and I spent some time remembering my dad, who didn’t have much use for the moon, but enjoyed watching Missouri thunderstorms.

Chilled, we returned to the house. He went back to his game and I finished ripping my new/used CDs so I could listen to them. Music is often my link to sanity. I’m glad for it.

¹ Canon makes an adapter tube, but it is plastic and I prefer aluminum.

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Jailbreaking iPhone 3GS

Posted Sat Aug 21, 2010 in Hardware

winterboard I’ve been working through the jailbreaking process for iOS 4.0.1 on my iPhone 3GS. I waited a long time before instituting the process because it’s a hassle. I only upgrade the iPhone’s firmware when there is a reason to.

The reason arrived last week. HDR Pro was upgraded and improved. It requires iOS 4 to install. Time for the upgrade…

I made a weak attempt at jailbreaking the new iOS a week or so ago, but gave up when Pwnage 4.0.1 err’d out with the cryptic error message “Wrong Firmware Version” even when I had the correct version of the 4.0.1 firmware downloaded. So, I gave up.

When I revisited the problem a few evenings ago, the issue remained. So, I spent some time using Google to search for an answer. There is a lot of material out there. Most of it seems untrustworthy and so I wouldn’t nibble (so to speak). However, directions (and the required iPhone 3GS bundle) provided by Blancer saved my ass.

I followed the directions, got the correct bundle stored in the application contents, and Pwnage built the custom IPSW. I backed up my iPhone (just in case — always recommended), then installed the new firmware. After a few minutes of screwing around, the iPhone rebooted and I was on Firmware Version 4.0.1.

The next step was to patch the security issue with PDF documents. Fortunately, Saurik and Cydia came to my rescue through PDF Patch. Even if you are not going to upgrade the firmware on your iPhone, you should install the patch if you’re running a jailbroken system. Someone will take advantage of the issue.

Unfortunately, the firmware upgrade broke my favorite iPhone Theme, Matte Nano. That’s because the underlying user interface modification, Matte Graphite UI is broken under iOS 4. The Matte Nano icons are fine, but the system icons do no rescale to the smaller size as they did under iOS 3. Urgh…

I’m an engineer. I’m not an obsessive-compulsive. But, I think things should be “right.” This wasn’t “right.”

I spent some quality time with Google searching for an answer. I tried uninstalling my non-Matte applications, but all that did was delete my user data. (D’Oh!) I tried deleting all the cached icons (using ssh to manipulate the iPhone’s file system — cool!). But again, no joy.

So, I diverted my attention to finding an alternative user interface and theme suitable for my well-refined eye. MP2 received some favorable reviews and the interface looked clean on the MBP screen. So, I decided to nibble and dropped $3US on a license.

MP2 will do the trick. It’s iOS 4 compatible, uses the faster Winterboard interface, and rescales the system icons well. I’m going to live with it for awhile. I think I found something I like — and that looks good.

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