Wouter's Blog – Page 39 – Who said it was your cheese in the first place?

Range time

So, having successfully retrieved a bundle of toys, a trip to the range was indicated.

Top left, Star BS, next to it my 22 Llama XV that I’ve had for a while, below them a horribly gold-plated Star PD (45 ACP) that actually shoots really well, to the right of that an Astra Constable at the bottom and a Constable II at the top with a Star M30PK between them. Then two 22 target pistols, a Star FR at the bottom and an Astra TS-22 above. North of that an Astra 7000, also in 22 LR. The two revolvers are both 38 Special, a Llama Martial (top) and an Astra Cadix.

These will all at some stage make their way into the Gundex.

2012-01-08 by wrm Guns 0

Road trip

Alone on the open road with a mixtape for company. A purpose is optional, but nice.

It’s a luxury, fuel’s expensive and accommodation adds up.

But it’s cheaper than a head mechanic.

2011-12-31 by wrm Cars Geek Guns 1

Every year is getting shorter…

… never seem to find the time.

From The New Yorker, via Give Me Something to Read, via MetaFilter, this fascinating article on how we process the world around us, and why, perhaps, years seem to fly by more quickly as we get older.

“This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older,” Eagleman said—why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we’re dozing. The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass.

For me, 2011 was quite eventful. We survived a trip to the USA with two teenagers, I got a whole bunch of gun licences, and I even managed to get some work done on the house.

Not great, but not bad.

2011-12-27 by wrm Farting around 1

Satsuma

My mother-in-law bought this vase from Maurits Lammers Antiques close to Rademacher’s outside George. She was told that it’s Satsuma, but not knowing anything about pottery I don’t know whether this is the case or whether it’s authentic (the price seems to suggest it’s probably not).

Well, it doesn’t say “Japan” anywhere, which suggests it might be original, but it also doesn’t have the cross-in-circle on the bottom, so…

Anyways, I’ve asked the nice people over at MetaFi, so answers will undoubtedly be found :-)

2011-12-22 by wrm Uncategorized 1

The View From Our Porch*

Knysna Heads. We’re off to purchase a substantial quantity of the fine produce of the Mitchell’s Brewing Company. Oh, and maybe some food.

* Apologies to Tamara.

2011-12-20 by wrm Farting around 0

Mystery object

Long story short, my Father in Law ended up with Marconi Instruments Ltd No 1 Mark II* signal generator and a dozen boxes of assorted parts. I’d guess it was an Elmer‘s Junkbox.

Can’t find any information on this on the web. Marked IN 2631 and SI 7545, my best guess is that it might be a solid-state rectifier intended to replace a vacuum tube.

So if Google brings you here and you know more… that’s what the comments are for.

Edit: It’s a ONE N 2631.

2011-12-19 by wrm Electronics 0

Some pigs are more equal

My favourite top cop, former head of Interpol, ex struggle hero and one of the architects of our Firearms Control Act, Jackie Selebi launched an appeal against his 15 year sentence. The appeal succeeded in keeping him out of jail for sixteen months, but now that his appeal ultimately failed, he needs Plan B.

A variation on a tactic which proved very successful for Schabir Shaik — make sure you are too ill for jail, know the right people, and beat up journalists who catch you playing golf, Selebi, who was perfectly fine on Friday, has suddenly been ill for a long time.

Time will tell if this little piggy’s status as “only one” is enough to keep him out of jail.

2011-12-05 by wrm Uncategorized 1

Cowboys & Aliens

It’s a beautifully made film, with a bunch of good actors, lots of leverguns, good CGI, everything… except a decent plot.

A great idea which could have been implemented a LOT better.

Ah well.

2011-12-04 by wrm Farting around 0

The times, they are a-changin’

Consider the significance of the following sentence, from a review of a book.

I got the book in trade paperback, which cost more but I’m glad I did it because I want this little book on my shelf.

Just think about that for a while.

2011-11-22 by wrm Geek 0

30 Years

Thirty years ago Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was released. I bought my copy soon after that — unfortunately the invoice is not dated. (incidentally, R65 was a lot of money back in 1981).

I played the living bits out of this game. Eventually beat it, too. In the process I figured out, all on my own, how the characters were stored on disk and of course, how to cheat. How? Well, edit a byte on the disk, check what changed, make notes. After all, there’s only about 200 bytes per character, and each byte has 256 possible values… this can’t take long, can it? (Hint: yes, it does…)

After Proving Grounds it was Knight of Diamonds and Legacy of Llylgamyn after which… life happened. I went to varsity, didn’t quite yet discover girls, but… pretty much stopped spending endless hours on computer games.

Yet I’m still a retrogeek, and I follow various retro websites.

Wizardry is now available on iOS. And it’s thirty years better.

If there’s a reason for me to get an iDevice, this is it.

2011-11-15 by wrm Computers Geek 0