Rob Boudrie

ET - What state was your buddy in when this occured? I can think of a few that I KNOW he was Not in or he would still be in the clink! Amazingly enough, a few clubs in Massachusetts have a very active full auto contingent.

A locak shooter droipped off an HP Pavilion which is *just* out of warrantee, because it gets a "configuration error - contact service - code purple" error. The outcome: 1. This is due to the "tatoo" on the mother board not reading properly. This HP bios feature is used to prevent the HP branded XP distribution from installing on other hardware. This is verified not only at install time, but at each boot up (apparantly so you cannot install on an HP and then move the disk to another chassis). 2. Any attempt to install via the distribution disks (order from HP for $23, since the owner did not burn the dist disks from the recovery image on the PC) results in an error "this recovery disk not for this hardware" (ie, consistent with the tatoo problem) 3. A non-HP copy of XP will install - it just costs a bit. 4. HP will not provide a free tatoo fix out of warrantee. So, this system is broken because of functionality not present in other systems; not wanted by the customer; which offers no benefit whatsoever to the customer; and HP will not accept responsibility for installing a vulnerability not present on other systems. I'll take a generic over an HP any day.

I assume you mean if the partition format has been changed from FAT32 to NTFS

There is a four letter word for the reason, and it starts with "D".

You could always email roger@uspsa.org and ask, as he is the one who does is.

Yup. As I understand it, the SF ban is still on the books, but is moot since the courts ruled that it violated state pre-emption.

I think this would result in vastly smaller prize tables. People likely to be in the $$ know who they are. If those people who know they are not going to win don't pay the "prize surcharge", where is all the money for the winners going to come? Entry fee money spent on prize tables is a transfer payment from the average shooter to the better than average shooter. One can debate the merits of such a system, however, it would be hard to refute the mathematics of this statement.

Shotgun News became so popular wiht non-FFLs that it lost credibility as a "Dealers" publication. You're not going to find the prices available only to stocking FFL dealers in that publication, and some of the manufacturers prohibit mentioning of true dealer prices in any non-restricted publication.

I paid my last hotel bill by installing "wireless" - which consisted of plugging a $35 router into their network and running a cable to a 5 port hub. Sure beat paying them $350 for my stay - and they were delighted with the result.

I'll stick the relevant facts and skip the usual editorial: Some regions have stated they will not attend a WS if the Metric target is used. No regions have stated they will not attend a WS if the Metric target is not used.

fomeister - you gotta tell me where you got a set of calipers that can measure down to a hundred-thousandth of an inch!! I *need* those suckers!!! Dave Forge the calipers - what I need is a seating die that generates that sort of repeatable prevision

I'm a bit surprised SA did not call it DA, since that's a common bid requirement for governmental purchases. Any govt agency with the technical finnesse to desire a SA handgun isn't going to need the label to figure out what is going on.

Scoring in the rain is a real pain, but there is a way to make it easier, and also keep the scoresheets dry. Please a pair of FRS radios at each range, tuned to a channel unique to that stage (use the range number). If it gets wet, the scorekeeper stays under the shelter or tent while the RO goes forward with his radio to read back the scores via radio. This keeps the scoresheet dry, and doesn't increase the number of match workers required. I've been keeping a pair of radios in my range bag so I can offer this approach at the next wet match I shoot.

If you dont' have to award prizes/titles at the match itself, consider allowing a postiing period of a few days after the match so competitors can check their scores on-line and contact the stats officer with correction requests. I generally used midnight on the Wednesday after the match. The rules state protests must be filed within one hour of the posting of the provisional results. I have spoken to John Amidon and he feels that the extended posting period does not violate this (after all, we can declare the results up at 11PM Wed are the required "proivisional results") I would *MUCH* rather tell someone who thought (s)he won something that "a legitimate correction request" changed the preliminary score than tell someone who found a legitimate error "You're right, but under the rules, that score stands."

I found that on-line squadding worked wonderfully for A7/2004 www.uspsa.org/squadding, and the Golden Bullet seemed happy with it as well. This removes match staff from squadding issues; means that you don't have to deal with "my squad request did not get honored, please fix it now" issues on match day; rigorously enforces the squad size limit (the on-line system does not listen to "I promise my squad will be fast and efficient"); and lets shooters re-adjust their squads up until the day you print the squadding roster. It also gives shooters an incentive to register early to get their best choice of shoot times.

(1) Have your RO's total hits at the stage. In addition to saving stats time, this will allow the RO and shooter to confirm that the correct number of hits have been accounted for. (2) Stats should use only red pens when marking scoresheets (correcting totals, adding a check mark to indicate the data has been entered, etc.)

How about "Match finances"

How about: Registration & Squdding (Squad size, squadding procedures, registration procedures, match fees, etc.)

OK, I know I'm gonna regret asking this, but what the hell is "DU", and is it fattening?? DU = Ducks Unlimited or Depleted Uranium (as in "denser than Pb")

If there is a 230 gr load for the 40, could someone please post info? Also, does this mean that DU is now an option:)

Find out who makes em and see if you can talk Dave Thomas into adding them to the USPSA store. I'll buy one.

On idea which has been discussed is making the point series decision one for the match rather than the individual shooter. If a match decides to be "point series", everyone in the match would be in the point series - which means the match fee would go up $10, much of which would go back to the series winners. So, 1. Is this a good idea? 2. If we do it, should we mandate that Area Championships be Point Series?

This Dillon 1050 warranty expires after one year and they no longer "look the other way" and give 1050 owners with machines older than one year free parts when something breaks. The terms of the written warranty have not changed, however, the manner in which it is handled did change a few years ago.

For those without pull, and who do not mind a bit of a commute: www.bridgeclimb.com

Just wondering - how did you get to the top? Elevator, ladder or stairs (internal or external?), and what kind of pull did it take to get this access?