Lee.org

This reprint is worthwhile

If your hard drive has crashed hard, IE your computer burned up in a house fire, then DriveSavers are the people to call. They are crazy expensive but they are the only company I know of that can recover a hard drive that was burned in a fire, drowned in a flood or run over by a truck. They might charge $2,500 to recover the contents of a hard drive. But they work very fast and they are very good. They have saved many businesses from disaster.

I have a $500 discount coupon off a hard-drive recovery. I will happily split the coupon with you. You send me $250 and I will mail you the coupon. If they can’t recover your hard drive, they don’t charge you. I will do the same, refunding the $250.

Sorry, this coupon expired on 12-31-08. But you can still save some money just by mentioning my reseller number, see below.

In addition, I am an authorized Drivesavers reseller, when you call them, tell them about the $500 coupon AND give them my reseller number, DS14221. That will give you a 10% discount on your order!

You can reach DriveSavers at 800-440-1904. You can reach me at .

The Washington DC handgun ban was repealed by the US Supreme Court on June 26, 2008. Here is the ruling: (local) Supreme Court Ruling on the Washington DC handgun ban

Short Form: DC made laws making it impossible for anyone to keep or bear (own or carry…) a handgun in the city. And everyone knows how effective that has been (IE “murder capital of the United States”). A police officer wanted to keep a gun in his home so he sued for the right. He won in a 5-4 split decision in the Supreme Court.

For all you Second Amendment nay-sayers, the very first statement made on page 1 is this:

Held:
1. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a
firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for
traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.

There is a good bit of discussion and clarification about the wording of the Second Amendment starting at the end of page 2. If there are any questions about it, I recomend you read it.

Some excerpts (this is non-inclusive, I recommend you read the whole thing)

Some have made the argument, bordering on the frivolous,
that only those arms in existence in the 18th century
are protected by the Second Amendment. We do not interpret
constitutional rights that way.

.

In numerous instances,
“bear arms” was unambiguously used to refer to
the carrying of weapons outside of an organized militia.

.

The phrase “bear Arms” also had at the time of the
founding an idiomatic meaning that was significantly
different from its natural meaning: “to serve as a soldier,

After this decision, there have been a flurry of lawsuits. One of which is in San Francisco. Take a look.

Travis wrote about the Pink Pistols last week. The news story that he quoted and my comment bears repeating here:

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Rifle Association sued the city of San Francisco on Friday to overturn its ban on handguns in public housing, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the nation’s capital.

The legal action follows a similar lawsuit against the city of Chicago over its handgun ban, filed within hours of Thursday’s high court ruling.

In San Francisco, the NRA was joined by the Washington state-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and a gun owner who lives in the city’s Valencia Gardens housing project.

The gun owner, who is gay, says he keeps the weapon to defend himself from “sexual orientation hate crimes.” He was not identified in the complaint because he said he fears retaliation.

Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city will “vigorously fight the NRA” and defended the ban as good for public safety.

“Is there anyone out there who really believes that we need more guns in public housing?” Newsom said.

Mu.

I really believe that there should be no such thing as “public housing”.

The very phrase is a perversion – an abomination in two words like “poisoned icecream” or “abandoned dog”.

(my comment)

#   Lee Says: June 28th, 2008 at 6:08 pm Quote

Putting aside the “public housing” question, I think that the best argument to eliminate the public housing ban are Newsom’s words, “Is there anyone out there who really believes that we need more guns in public housing?”

To reword, “I know that illegal handgun possession is rampant in public housing. We don’t regularly enforce the public housing handgun ban. We would rather there -only- be illegal handguns in public housing.”

On 3 of the last 3 nights I’ve been in Hunters Point (at The Box Shop art space), I’ve heard gun shots coming from the projects. While firing a weapon in San Francisco without cause is illegal, no police ever showed up.

I’ll look into getting behind this Pink Pistols initiative.

Saw WALL-E with Charlotte Friday night. Very enjoyable. Reminds me of Charlie Chaplin.   :-)

I have been talking with the person who wrote “The Best Thing I Read All Day“. the project that he is working on is pretty sweet. From Sasha:

Here is our artcar project this year: http://urbanabsurd.com/reelmobile2008/ (don’t miss the “night view” :)) and the previous one, “dust2music”, several years ago: http://www.urbanachiever.com/gallery/Burning-Man-2005/aav
Trainspotting was this train station I made – http://www.urbanachiever.com/gallery/Burning-Man-2005/aaw – with sound, light and motions from the passing “phantom” trains – when the batteries that ran the whole thing were fresh, that is, which unfortunately was far from 24/7. That was my tiny BM claim to fame that was burned – apart from the laptop and the lamp with the servos that swang it – at the end.
http://www.urbanachiever.com/gallery/SashaBM2005/abq

The truck burned too – the engine ignited on the freeway – http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximbo/739460049/ – and we all took a break from BM last year, for the first time since 2000, to “mourn”.

P.S. Btw, I found this – http://lee.org/blog/2008/06/05/san-francisco-rent-strike – particularly, I guess, encouraging and refreshing? — since the views on topics like this by the majority of SF (or Berkeley, etc.) BM attendees are depressing to even think about.

Want to learn about Copyright Law? Read this: (local copy)
Copyright Law Second Edition by Robert Gorman

I found it at the Federal Judicial Center.

The consumerist menace that is Burning Man, with all it’s bunny ears and cool neon and pasties, is back.

Here is my own Burning Man guide I wrote a couple years ago. I start with that as a checklist each year before I go.

Update June 2011: be sure to check out the 2011 Burning Man Resource Guide
—-

Here is a potentially useful Jack Rabbit Speaks issue talking about what and where to buy stuff for Burning Man. Enjoy!

JRS VOLUME #12; ISSUE #18

Burning Man Update: The Jack Rabbit Speaks
Volume 12, Issue #18 (Resources Edition)
July 9, 2008

Welcome to the Resources Edition of your Jack Rabbit Speaks Newsletter!

OK, so apparently there are oodles of great resources out there that can help you prepare for Burning Man. In fact, it seems a full-fledged cottage industry has sprung up around the event. Big surprise, right? Well, we get emails from some readers pretty regularly, offering up wares to other attendees, and in the early days, we just passed on the ones we thought were truly relevant to preparing for Burning Man. But for the past few years, rather than mention them piecemeal, we gather ’em up into a single issue so you can refer back to it and save yourself going bonkers searching your inbox.

Continue reading ‘Where to Buy Stuff for Burning Man’ »

I paid $3 apiece for two Vanson NiCad NiMH battery chargers at BatteriesandButter.com. I’m astounded that this same charger and many like it are for sale on Amazon for $20+.

I also got 28 GP Brand 1700MaH AA batteries for $1 each.

We’ll see how it works out. In the mean time, here are the instructions for the charger. The most useful details are this:

For AA batteries

• When set to “Nicad” it delivers 200mAh for 5 hours
• When set to “NiMH” it delivers 200mAh for 10 hours

For AAA batteries

• When set to “Nicad” it delivers 100mAh for 5 hours
• When set to “NiMH” it delivers 100mAh for 10 hours

After it’s finished, it delivers 10 mAh until unplugged.

I verified with a multimeter that it delivers the same amount of power to each cell regardless of how many batteries are plugged in. That’s good.

It looks like I got a super-duper deal. Check back on this page in a few months and if you don’t see me swearing, then they’re probably peachy keen.

(The instructions OCR-ed with no proofreading)

AUTOMATIC Ni-CD / Ni-MH BATTERY CHARGER WITH IC TIMER CONTROL FOR 8PIECES AA & AAA

OPERATIN6 INSTRUTIONS:

1 .         Set the battery type switch according to the type of your battery. ie. NiCd or NiMH.
2.         Place 2, 4, 6 or 8 pieces of batteries (AA or AAA) in the battery charging compartment. Do not place batteries of different size or kind in a charging group. The charging group provides the correct charging current when only 2 rechargeable batteries of the same size are in 1 battery group. In case, accidentally, put in 1 charging group are placed different batteries (AA and AAA), then automatically both batteries are charged with the charging current of the AAA battery. DO NOT MIX NICKEL-METAL HYDRIDE AND NICKEL-CADMIUM BATTERIES.
3.         Plug the AC plug into the wall outlet.
4.         Each compartment’s indicator lights where batteries are inserted.       ^
If you have inserted batteries in a compartment, and the charging indicator for that
compartment does not light, unplug the charger immediately. Remove the batteries
and clean their contacts. Then, re-insert the batteries, confirm correct polarity, plug
in the charger again. If the charging indicator still does not light, either the charger
is not working properly or the batteries you are trying to Charge are defective.
5.         After the 5 hours charging for NiCd (AA: 600-800mAh; AAA: 200-300mAh) or 10 hours charging for NiMH (AA: 1300-2000mAh; AAA: 500-800mAh) battery, the recharging System has delivered 80-90% of Charge cycle to the batteries and LED goes off. The charger automatically switch to trickle Charge to assure a safe 100% füll Charge. (At trickle Charge Status, it will keep the batteries füll for instant use.)
6.         Unplug and then replug the charger each time when you recharge the empty batteries.
7.         Unplug the charger and remove the batteries from the charger when not in use. CHARGING CURRENT:

FAST CHARGE:-

‘AA       -200mA
‘AAA’       -80mA

TRICKLE CHARGE:-

‘AA/AAA       – 15-20mA(APPROX.)

CAUTION:
1 . Before charging, read instruction.
2. This charger is intended for use with Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries only. Attempting to Charge other types of batteries may cause personal injury and damage to the charger.
3. Recharge only one type of battery (Ni-Cd or Ni-MH) at each time.
4. Do not Charge longer than time specified. Overcharging may cause damage to the charger and battery.
5. Do not expose charger to rain or moisture. Indoor use only.
6. Remove from mains when not in use.
7. The supply cord of this charger cannot be replaced; if the cord is damaged, the charger should be discarded or retumed to the supplier for repair.
8. This charger is intended to be correctly orientated in a vertical or floor mount position.

V-868B

Is Government Cheese