Rob Boudrie

The iphone is amazing, however, you're locked into one carrier (unless you're into risky and warantee voiding hackery) that may not offer the best deal for your usage pattern. I got a Blackberry 8800 since T-Mobile was offering unlimited data (including the ability to use the unit as a 115k internet connection for my laptop) for an extra $19.95/month which seemed better than what most were charging for data. I also liked having a real keyboard for sending mail. If you're into web browsing from your phone, the iphone easily beats the Blackberry. The Blackberry syncs with Outlook, Outlook Express, and even comes with its own backup program. One of the reasons AT&T may not have the best deal around is that AT&T has to pay Apple a royalty for each iphone subscriber over the 2 year subscriber contract. Requiring a 2 year contract when you're not getting a subsidized phone as part of the deal seems a bit abusive. T-Mobile requires a one year contract if you sign up over the telephone (two is you do it on-line - go figure), and they will provide the unlock code(*) at no charge once you've been a customer for three months and your bill is paid up to date. * - It is not uncommon for phones to be "software locked" to a particular provider, and providers vary in their willingness to give customers the unlock code. There are also business on the web selling codes and unlock services.

Try this with the no cases on the plate, then run a single case through each of the stations noting which one(s) correlate with the interference you note.

www.stuffbak.com looks interesting.

It's important to look at the company as well as the product. They don't get much better than CED - their president, Charles Hardy, is a regular supporter of matches and donates multiple chronographs to each area championship every year. And I'm not just saying this because of the free hat I got when I saw him at the Shot Show earlier this year.

The problem has been fixed. The IPSC database was fine - the problem was in the code that generates the file.

Roger Maier has identified the problem - one of the IPSC classification records in the file is duplicated. We download these directly from the database on IPSC.ORG, so my first step will be to check to see if have a duplicate entry in their table - and add a check to our code to de-dupe data as we extract it from their tables. I expect to have a good version of the update file on-line sometime this evening. Rob

I'll investigate tonite.

UPS is mistaken. #1: You need to got a UPS depot, not UPS store. If it's in an industrial area and there are a boatload of UPS trucks around, you've probably found the depot. #2: Ground shipping only. #3: You are shipping ORM-D, **NOT** Hazmat. It should be labeled "Catridges, Small Arms - ORM-D" I think the person you spoke to confused ORM-D with Hazmat. Hazmat is worse, and you need to have a "hazmat contract" - agreeing to terms like full financial responsibility for any cleanup regardless of who is at fault for the spill of the hazardous material.

Being in jail could interfere with OJ's efforts to find the real killer.

I use real master locks on a Pelican case for handguns (I got the yellow one so it stands out in a crowd and is less likely to be grabbed by accident). If some baggage handler is going to grab my gun, I want to put him to the trouble to taking the entire case. Although not highly pick resistant a 4 pin master padlock (NOT the warded mechanism type) it provides reasonable security against anyone not carrying power tools or a pick set. I also take a plastic coated stranded steel table and lock my gun to something inside the trunk when traveling in a rental car in a jurisdiction where I can't just take my gun with me when I stop somewhere to eat or run errands while on the road. Sometimes, there are no internal anchor points so I have to settle for the spare tire. As to "searchalert" locks - as any high school or college hacker knows, if you have physical posession of a lock on a master key system and are willing to destroy it, you can reverse engineer a key - and a combination + master key system is actually easier since you don't have to figure out which pin cuts are for the master. TSA locks may use an opening mechanism not based on traditional pin tumbler design but, in any case, the ability of anyone to obtain samples for destructive analysis renders the "security" issue a moot point if you are concerned about highly motivated and prepared miscreants. No lost guns (yet). I learned the important about standing out in a crowd when an elderly Chinese man travelling with a large group added my previous gun transport case (a hard sided very generic looking briefcase) to his family's luggage in the Toronto airport. I don't think he was trying to steal my luggage, but I'm glad I didn't find out what the procedure is when your lost luggage is returned by another passenger who "found a gun" in Canada, eh.

Correct, auto upload does not send the emails - I'll think about adding it. Also, the PIN from the Front Sight label will also work as a competitor password if you got the competitor's member number correct and the competitor has been a member long enough to be included in the on-line database (uploaded monthly).

It was a classical problem - everybody thought somebody had done something when in fact nobody had. The nationals staff was unable to post because the results area for the match had not been created. The upload area has been create and configured, interim results posted, and the system is now configured so tha nationals stats team should be able to upload without further difficulty.

Kim just called me (and Sedro people at work unless they thing it's very important). Kim told me Joy (stats) had problems, and that she sent me email last night. I didn't get the email (unless she sent it to webmaster instead of rob@boudrie.com, in which case I will have it waiting for me when I get home). Kim is giving Joy an alternate email address for me as well as my home and cell phone numbers. I look forward to working with her to get this issue fixed.

I could care less about the roles the antis play in the movies - what is more offensive is that is when a media or political person advocates laws preventing those of us without staff, bodyguards, handlers and advance teams from possessing the tools to do for ourselves what they pay others to take care of.

My 686 revolver,fewer breakdowms than my 1911.My M1A1 national match 308,just because it's the only long gun I own I've never had a 1911 break down with a 1911 that couldn't be easily fixed. I don't shoot a lot of revolver, but even with the amount I do, I managed to break the hammer pivot pin and trigger pivot pin in my 686 - both repairs that can't be done in the field.

In addition to the DNS propagation issues, our ISP didn't publish the updated zones on their server. I've been pushing on the issue trying to get a definitive resolution beyond the standard set of suggestions, and finally got the provider to ack the issue with this response:

Yup. Your representatives put in provisions for a "high cap license for competitive shooters", however, the announcement was "The interests of public safety outweigh the legitimate needs of competition shooters, therefore, no such licenses shall be issued" (close, from memory). Naturally, this possibility was not discussed when the "license bone" was thrown to placate the competitors opposing C68. When Lorne Rowe, then active in IPSC Ontario spoke before parliment or a committee thereof regarding the impact of gun laws on competition shooters, one of the conditions imposed on him was that he could not address the impact of the magazine capacity issue. This should serve as an important less on about trusting gun banning politicians. Also, once the C68 gun law was passed the usual group of antis was on the scene with active lobbying against the issuance of any high cap licenses. Throw in the fact that processing such licenses would mean additional work for provincial authorities, and you've got a recipie for disaster.

Yeah, I remember when Andy Hollar stated production was "intended for beginners". I guess Sevigny, Olhasso and a few others didn't get the memo .

This actually gives rise to some interesting questions: It is sportsmanlike conduct to use a magazine in competition that some of your opponents cannot legally buy at any price (in this case, a CA resident with "personally pre-owned" magazines competing against out state visitors? It is sportsmanlike conduct to use a magazine in competition that your opponents may not legally posess? Consider the case of an LEO with 26 round open magazines in NJ, HI, MD or any of the various localities with non-grandfathered limits on capacity.

MA, NY - Extension of federal ban - it it wasn't legal beween 92 and 04, it still isn't, pre-federal ban >10 round mags require still require a state gun license. Legal to buy pre-ban < 10 round mags if you have a MA LTC-A (handgun mags), or LTC-A or LTC-B (rifle mags). HI - 10 rounds, no grandfathering (Dillon notes "handgun only" on this limit) CA - 10 rounds, grandfathering only for magazines on personally posessed in CA prior to the Caliban. A visitors match exemtpion exists for so-called assault weapons, but not for > 10 round magazines. MD - 20 rounds NJ - 15 rounds

We'll probably change servers again in a few years so, if you forget to take the entries out of hosts, you'll have problems long after you've forgotten about making this change. It's not always winnt. If you use "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" you'll fine the correct file. If hosts is not in that directory, you'll see a sample file (no, you're not interestd in "lmhosts") with comments about hosts.

This is a byproduct of updating the DNS, and all the various cacheing policies of ISPs. Rather than "ping" try "nslookup uspsa.org" and "nslookup www.uspsa.org". If you know how to hard code a DNS address, you can set www.uspsa.org to 209.62.63.82. If you don't, I don't recommend it unless you know someone to provide support if you have a problem with it. And, if you hard code the DNS, remember to unhardcode it or you'll have trouble in a few years when we move to yet another server. Rob

You gotta be kidding -we're not about to give up uspsa.com when half the TV shows and magazine articles assume it's ".com" rather than ".org". There may be some DNS propagation issues, and there was another issue that required you enter the password twice (I fixed this one). We do occasionally get requests from people interested in buying USPSA.COM, however, we don't even get into discussions about it. These generally come from the "United States ____ ____ Association" - there are at least two others besides "Practical Shooting" - but we have USPSA registered as a trademark.

Why? You only need to use one stamp to cast a vote that counts.

As long as you notice this sort of thing before you start working on the slide, I would be surprised if any reputable company did not make it right.