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What do guns and drones^Wquadcopters have in common? They both are a lot of fun and dangerous for people who are not involved in any way. I'm an avid R/C flight enthusiast and enjoy flying airplanes, traditional helicopters, and the modern quadcopter in many forms from gimbaled aerial video rig with video downlink, sport/stunt craft, and models so precision I can slalom them through the banisters in my staircase even though the flying machine fits in the palm of my hand. If I fly in public I'm respectful of others, generally don't want to be near anyone else not involved in flying, and I have liability insurance in case someone is accidently injured.

It really sucks when drone dolts wind up in the news because of some close call that happened or epicly bad idea they executed because the responsible R/C pilots get caught up in the mess because of guit by association. Unfortunately it is hard to argue with someone who is angry because their safety was threatened with someone elses careless act. Quadcopters falling out of the air isn't something the public should have to resonably worry about but the risks don't stop there. LiPo battery packs are a large safety hazard on their own because if they are punctured or shorted out they will get extremely hot and can catch themselves and other stuff on fire. Stabilized craft are also prone to "fly away" where the control system loses track of what direction gravity was pulling it, they pitch over sideways and start hauling ass in some random direction even though there is no input for that. If that happens who knows how far away it could fly - could be miles if you don't think to cut the throttle while you can still see it and control the crash to limit damage to property or people.

The FAA just formed a recommendation for registration of all remote control aircraft over 250 grams/9 ounces. The intent is sound: protect the public through education but I doubt this registration will have much effect. The Academy of Model Aeronautics, of which I am a member, believes that education of the public is the correct way to handle these safety problems and the impact on the image of R/C pilots as an entire community. To this end I propose a common sense set of rules to follow when flying your "drone"; they should keep you from hurting anyone else or winding up in front of a judge. Here are the Knowledge Troll Four Rules of Drone Safety:

1. All quadcopters are always dangerous.
2. Remove the throttle lock or arm the craft only immediately before takeoff.
3. Be sure of your airspace and what is under it.
4. Never point the camera of your quadcopter at something you are not prepared to defend yourself in court against.

The only problem is that people who care already think about these things. The 4 parallel rules for guns are also just too much for some people to grasp. Idiots aren't smart no mater how much information is provided to them. The ignorant can become educated and resolve the problem but an idiot lacks the part of their brain where learning happens. I would really hate to see the FAA continue to restrict access to the airspace for model craft and other small scale R/C devices used for non-commercial operation and I would much rather see them complete a comprehensive system where commercial access is available safely and with minimal total cost. I very much would let to get myself a commercial license instead of flying only under hobbyist rules.

PS> I typed drone so many times I almost threw up in my mouth.

PPS> Slashcode ate my previous journal entry on this topic and I think another persons journal too though I'd need a screen capture to be sure. This second iteration came out better anyway. Thanks slashcode, you are tops.

edit 1> s/(\^H)+/^W/g; #thanks AC claiming to be gewg_

Black Friday 2015

Laptops

• $99: 11.6 inch Chromebook, Best Buy
• $300: Core i3, 15.6 inch, Best Buy
• $140: Celeron, 15.6 inch, Best Buy

Storage

• $100: 4 TB Western Digital My Book external hard drive, Best Buy
• $100: 4 TB Toshiba Canvio external hard drive, Office Max and Office Depot
• $120: 5 TB Seagate external hard drive, Costco
• $120: 5 TB Toshiba Canvio external hard drive, Office Max and Office Depot
• $40: 1 TB Seagate portable hard drive, Staples
• $200: SanDisk Ultra II 2.5" SSD 960GB, Newegg

Consoles

• $300: Dell Home & Office Black Friday: Xbox One Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Bundle Plus Fallout 4 & Extra Controller
• $300: Target Black Friday: 500GB Xbox One Console w/ Gears of War Digital Download Code + $60 Target Gift Card

Categories

• Blank Media (CDs, DVDs)
• USB Flash Drives
• Hard Drives

Articles

Best Laptops: Holiday 2015
Best SSDs: Holiday 2015

I'm watching my oldest son read The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander, second book in my favorite childhood book series. He's near the end of the book where things really get exciting and horrific, he seems amazingly absorbed, his eyes are wide, and he looks a bit horrified.

Unlike me, he's read the entire book in pretty much a day. Having trouble keeping up with the voracious book appetite around here, which is a great problem to have.

A friend of mine asked me to take a look at his computer because one day the fan speed started oscillating, it turned off while running, and never turned on again. He brought over his computer and some pizza and I started to prep the machine for an inspection. With the computer on the bench I tried to remove the power cord but encountered a broken flange on the C14 bulkhead socket and the cord was stuck in the power supply extremely tight. I put my thumb over the flange to hold the socket in place and rocked the plug back and forth while it crackled like brittle plastic and slowly loosened. In my head I'm wondering if a can of coke got spilled in this thing.

Once I got the power cord out I had an idea of what the problem might be: http://imgur.com/a/I3imi - I'm not quite sure how the smell stayed under the radar but that sure looks like it got hot. The cause of failure is likely to have been the cord being inserted loosely because the computer was moved in the last few days, the power supply fuse is not blown, and no internal parts look failed.

I ordered some new bulkhead sockets and should be able to get this power supply going again for a few dollars and a few minutes of soldering. I've certainly never seen something like this before!

Over at the other place, when I get a link to a comment, the comment provides no context about the story other than the headline. Here, a link to a comment shows the story as well. Kudos to the guys who made all this work, from little things like that to big things like Unicode support. (And I'm sure bigger stuff than that, but I'm not really educated about it.)

If you haven't shown SN a little love financially maybe think about some of those little details that have been so nicely handled. They took time and work on somebody's part. The least the rest of us can do is help keep the lights on around here.

Most people don't celebrate St. Martin's Day, but we make it a family holiday. Martin of Tours is one of our family heroes, even though we come from a church that typically doesn't honor saints of ages past. We honor Martin for his pacifism, and we also honor Martin for his belief that secular authorities should not enforce religious laws, certainly not with execution! You can read more about Martin here if you are interested.

It's nice that Martin's day occurs on Armistice Day, which used to be a day for celebrating the one thing about war worth celebrating: when it ends.

So, our annual family Remember the Fifth of November fireworks have been delayed two nights in a row due to rain. So what do we wind up doing? The kids come over while I'm washing dishes, look at my laptop on the counter, and see a tab opened to keep track of Bitcoin's current price. They start watching it change and asking questions and before I know it I've explained how a commodities exchange works, along with a lot about supply and demand.

Boy we are a bunch of geeks! (And I love it.)

[A]narchy is in fact the only political position that is actually possible. I believe that all other political states are in fact variations or outgrowths of a basic state of anarchy; after all, when you mention the idea of anarchy to most people they will tell you what a bad idea it is because the biggest gang would just take over. Which is pretty much how I see contemporary society. We live in a badly developed anarchist situation in which the biggest gang has taken over and have declared that it is not an anarchist situation—that it is a capitalist or a communist situation. But I tend to think that anarchy is the most natural form of politics for a human being to actually practice. All it means, the word, is no leaders. An-archon. No leaders.

-- Alan Moore

Thanks, Alan.

I got an update for Star Trek Continues from Kickstarter saying they've finished their engine room! There's only one picture, but it looks pretty cool. They say their newsletter will have some updates later this year for production of episode 6. I submitted a story about Star Trek Continues when they released episode 5, and tried to include a lot of good information and links for those who haven't encountered it before.