To The Metal

Justice for Martin AND Zimmerman

marlin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:06:43 +0000

I’ve been following the Treyvon Martin / George Zimmerman case since the story broke over a month ago. In the interim, I’ve seen the media manipulate the events for ratings, race baiting stooges like Al Sharpton insert themselves in the events for attention, and an understandable outcry over the reported events.

Cliffs Notes Version:

George Zimmerman was the head of neighborhood watch. He saw someone acting funny, and reported it to 911 because there had been several burglaries in his neighborhood. The operator advised him not to follow Treyvon Martin, but he apparently did so anyhow. (now this is where things get foggy depending on which media outlet you subscribe to) – Zimmerman either pulled open his jacket to reveal a Punisher t-shirt and executed Treyvon Martin on the spot, or (and this is the version I believe) – Martin saw Zimmerman following him, confronted him, threw him a beating, and was shot to death as a result.

My take:

One of the spins on this which I absolutely do not believe, is that the only reason Zimmerman was following Martin was to get the street-name. The guy is the head of neighborhood watch, he has a record of calling 911 and getting results – he knew what street he was on. I also don’t believe that Martin set out to kill the teenager. It irked me to no end that the media has constantly portrayed Martin as innocent in this, going as far as to only show a non-current photo of a smiling early-teenager to further reinforce the innocent victim spin. He didn’t deserve to die, but he wasn’t innocent.

Neither of them are innocent in this IMHO. Zimmerman did his due diligence in calling 911 and reporting something he believed to be suspicious. His first mistake was ignoring the 911 operator’s request to stop following Martin which subsequently spurred the chain of events leading to Martin’s death. Martin was obviously a ‘take no shit’ type of guy, so when he realized he was being followed, he confronted Zimmerman. Neither of them backed down and their mistakes culminated in a tragedy.

Should Zimmerman be punished for his part in contributing to the tragedy? Absolutely. He’s not a cop. I’ve been told by 911 operators not to follow someone I believed was driving drunk – and I complied. Does he deserve to be convicted of 2nd degree murder? Absolutely not. Reckless endangerment or involuntary manslaughter would make more sense to this arm-chair quarterback. As for all the talk of racial profiling, unless there were two teenagers out there of different races, and Zimmerman decided to pick Martin and ignore the other (fill in the race) teenager, it wasn’t profiling, it was wrong place, wrong time.

The ‘stand your ground’ law is a good idea, but just the same – if a cop is involved in a shooting he/she is relieved of duty until the investigation completes. That Zimmerman was able to shoot and kill another human being and be home in time for dinner while the other party was stored in a morgue as ‘john doe’ for more than a few days just doesn’t make sense to me. He should have been arrested, processed, and the courts should have made the decision on his guilt or innocence from day one, after 40 days of the media and talking heads spinning the event for their own benefit.

Both of them made mistakes, both of them are guilty of a crime, and unfortunately a life was lost because of their mistakes. It’s a tragedy no matter how you look at it. Zimmerman should be charged with a crime, not to dissuade potential victims from ‘standing their ground’ but to remind people that there are limits to what can and should be done when confronted with a situation like this. If both of them backed down, Martin would likely still be alive today.

Zen and the Art of IID Maintenance

marlin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:52:30 +0000

Just the other day I had an Ignition Interlock Device (IID) removed from my car.

Now drunk driving *IS* a big problem. More people do it with or without thinking than you could even imagine. If there was a breathalyzer checkpoint at the door of any bar in the tri-state area, I’d imagine that bar would look like one hopping place because while many enter, very few would actually be able to leave when they wanted to.

In New York State, should you be the lucky recipient of a DWI, you will be subject to fines (around $900), a state government surcharge ($750), lawyers fees (at last estimate around… $3000), impound fees ($300+), suspension and/or restriction of your driving privileges, being hurled back into the assigned-risk insurance pool (75% surcharge on your standard automotive policy for 39 months), and of course – the pièce de résistance, an IID ($120 install, $120 monthly monitoring, $80 removal, and $60 per reset due to a fail).

Now the theory behind the IID is that when installed in the vehicle of a DWI offender, it will prevent the car from being started if the driver blows over .020% BAC. The devices have many countermeasures to prevent tampering such as built-in infra-red cameras to identify who is taking the test, rolling retests (every 15-30 minutes), as well a spiffy data log which keeps track of whether power to the device has been interrupted in any way. Blow anything but a fresh lungful of bad breath, a violation is logged, reported to your case-worker instantly, and you may or may not find yourself back in court. Following that theory, it works. In reality…

From day 1 you will be told that these devices never malfunction. That is an absolute lie.

Like any other modern electronic device, an IID can and will malfunction. From false positives due to alcohol based mouthwash like Listerine or Scope, or energy drinks like Red Bull, to failed readings which trigger an ‘Abort’ or ‘Wait’ alert, to failing due to internal corrosion, hardware defect, etc… they are fully capable of keeping both inebriated and stone sober drivers from getting behind the wheel of their cars.

If you ask what to avoid besides alcohol, you won’t be told anything – everyone involved knows what can trigger these things to fail – but to admit that drinking a Red Bull or eating the wrong type of bread would cause a fail would be admitting that the IID can malfunction. If the manufacturer, the government, or even the well-intentioned groups like MADD who champion the cause of these devices were to ever acknowledge that the IID is not 100% effective – it would quickly open up the laws that require their use to attack. With no laws to require an IID, the revenue stream into the Government as well as the manufacturers which rely on raking in BAC violations would be drastically cut if not eliminated… and therein lies the rub.

I’ve had the IID replaced a total of 4 times across 2 vehicles. Remember – these DO NOT malfunction…but why have them replaced if they’re always working as expected? The very last time I had one replaced, the regional manager of the interlock company went as far as to accuse me of tampering with the device to make it fail.

Consider the logic at work here folks, it is mind boggling. The device malfunctions, as a result I am late to work, late to appointments, have to completely scrap plans, and not to mention drop $60 to have the unit reset and re-calibrated so the car isn’t locked out 5 days after the initial malfunction…. And I was supposedly doing this ON PURPOSE!? Every time it was obvious that the unit was malfunctioning, the regional manager fought tooth and nail against replacing the unit. We were told repeatedly that we were the ONLY ONES having problems with these devices (a quick trip to Google will prove otherwise). After all of the BS, and after paying enough reset fees, eventually they would authorize the replacement (with no mention of malfunction in the reason behind it).

After repeated calls to the regional manager went un-answered (mind you, she ASKED for me to call and discuss what was going on) – I resorted to my tried and true method of problem resolution commonly referred to as “Sherman’s March to The Sea.” Using Google.com, I located the contact information for the top executives and owners of the interlock company, and emailed them directly to explain the situation and ask VERY NICELY for a resolution.

Within 2 days, the installer had contacted me and advised that the replacement was approved – and the best part – the regional manager was no longer with the company.

The culprit here – and this is key because I was *NEVER* told that they would cause a false positive or malfunction, was my electronic cigarette. Early on I had discovered that any flavored electronic cigarette would quickly trigger a fail. After much hyperventilating the fail would clear on a retest, but this is what the manufacturers and government force you to do – learn by trial and error – all the while forking over hard earned cash to resolve problems with a device they say NEVER MALFUNCTIONS.

For months then, I continued not smoking real cigarettes – instead smoking my electronic variety which did not trigger any failures or malfunctions… that is until the outside temperature dropped below 32F. Almost overnight the unit would fail nearly every test until it warmed up enough, even failing for the installer after driving an hour to have the unit reset. The very day I had the unit replaced the first time, I decided ‘no more e-cigarettes while driving’ thinking that would be enough. NAY. After sitting at my desk for 8 hours and attempting to leave for the day (and not vaping for an hour prior to leaving) – the IID repeatedly failed me. Eventually I gave up, abandoned the car at my office, and got a ride home.

Now since these devices never malfunction, I had to resort to my own methods of avoiding these malfunctions. A few things worked… First was unplugging the head unit and bringing it inside with me when it wasn’t in use. From a warm start, it would either WARN or pass on the first test… but the common thing here was normally that my first test of the morning would pass, then after about 10 minutes I would fail the retest. The other thing was to make sure I removed the clear plastic mouthpiece when the device wasn’t in use, which allowed the condensation from my breath to slowly evaporate from the IID.

Still, despite those efforts – it still malfunctioned – and I was never advised to modify my behavior, simply that the IID does NOT MALFUNCTION, that NOBODY HAS EVER HAD A PROBLEM LIKE THIS, and that I must be DOING THIS ON PURPOSE. After the final replacement, I stopped using my e-cigarrettes, and from that day to the joyous removal date – no malfunctions. My best guess here is that the chemicals in the e-cigarette liquid must have built up on the sensor as once the device began to malfunction, all BAC readings were in the .020% range.

Recently passed laws make the absurd requirement of installing an IID in every household vehicle (regardless of guilt or innocence) that the offender may have access to drive. Local municipalities are going even further, attempting to enact policies which prohibit your God given and constitutionally protected right to have a drink (as long as you don’t drive). IID’s are becoming more widespread every day despite their inherent flaws and numerous malfunctions (ever see a BAC test given at a police station? Did you wonder why the officer keeps telling the suspect to blow even after the test has apparently completed? It’s to drive every bit of alcohol from your lungs and into the machine, so that your BAC reading is actually HIGHER than what is ACTUALLY IN YOUR BLOOD).

So to anyone who has to deal with an IID in their life, please remember the following (I am not responsible for anything that happens to you if you do or do not heed my suggestions) :

Don’t drink and drive!!!
Get help!!! Even if you don’t THINK you’re an alcoholic, go to AA, get substance abuse counceling, and see first hand what alcohol abuse can do to people… if that doesn’t elevate your thinking, nothing short of a bullet in the head is going to help you.
Buy a portable breathalyzer, they range in price from $10 to $100 and can be found in many convenience stores (even Best Buy sells them). When in doubt, take a breath test. I picked up a small keychain unit for $10 at Best Buy which let me know when my BAC was negligible.
Don’t believe the hype, the units malfunction every day, keep track of every malfunction (date, time, what you’ve eaten, drank, or smoked). Report any and every malfunction to the installer as well as your case worker. If you’re called back to court, the malfunction log is your friend. A replacement could get every reading on the unit invalidated.
If you’re ever stopped for suspicion of DWI, and you know you are drunk, don’t admit to drinking anything, don’t admit to being drunk, be polite and cooperative – but remember – they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are committing a crime. You have the right to remain silent whether or not you are under arrest. Worst case, you take a field sobriety test, you get arrested, and eventually wind up at the station. Refusing to take a breathalyzer test results in an immediate 6-month suspension of driving privileges. Demand an actual blood test, it is the only truly accurate way to determine BAC, and could be the difference between having a criminal record or just having a bad night. You could fail a field sobriety test, get arrested, and unless you were completely trashed – by the time you get that blood test – be in the clear or have a BAC reading within DAI range (driving while abilities impaired).
If you are arrested, get a good lawyer, and get everything in writing. The court is not going to grant you any quarter, they are hell bent on making an example out of every single person before the bench regardless of guilt, innocence, or context. DWI is a big problem, but also a huge money-maker for the Government as well as IID manufacturers, so they have every intention of squeezing you dry and burying you – with the end result being that you may or may not (depending on whether you’re an alcoholic, an idiot, or just plain unlucky) drive drunk again.

I’m glad it is done with. I’ve never been arrested for DWI, DUI, or DAI – everyone has driven at while at least buzzed, but I pray that you never have to see the effect this has on those you love. It is an unmitigated nightmare at every level. Driving under the influence of alcohol is stupid, avoidable, and not worth losing your money, self respect, or life. Avoid driving after drinking at all costs.

Flatout 3 STINKS

marlin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:23:22 +0000

Arcade racing titles are few and far between these days. The days of the old Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 and Carmageddon have long since past. A ray of sunshine existed for some time with the Flatout series. In addition to your standard arcade formula was a fun mode that involved catapulting your driver out of the car into various targets. The pinnacle of the Flatout series was Ultimate Carnage. Great arcade style racing, smooth progression, hours upon hours of vehicular carnage and fun. When I saw Flatout 3 on Steam, I bought it without question… whoops.

Where UC had a logical tree-style progression through the race and carnage modes, 3 gives you a ridiculous selection of half assed modes. The entire game feels like a B side. Plenty of detailed tracks, plenty of cars, but no balance whatsoever. Every race is a practice in sheer frustration. Vehicles either have control or speed, the AI is absurdly aggressive, some of the tracks are insanely huge, and just about every car you can get does a few percentage of damage to the AI cars while you’ll self destruct after tapping the smallest obstacle.

In short, the game feels rushed, sloppy, and incomplete… not even close to the $30 sticker price that makes me wish Steam had a return policy. If you enjoy a good arcade racer, pick up Flatout Ultimate Carnage, and spare yourself the steaming pungent load of shit that is Flatout 3.

Zen and The Art of Home Ownership

marlin — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:48:02 +0000

We’ve been in the new house for a little over 2 months now and I’ve really taken to my new role as handyman. In the past I’ve always fixed things in my various apartments if I could, but now it is all on me to keep the place running well. Big or small, I’ve been having a blast fixing things. When we first moved in, for some oddball reason the kitchen faucet was on BACKWARDS… the handle was facing the back of the sink. Then we’ve got these pull out shelves in our under-counter cabinets where we store our dishes, cookware, etc… They had a habit of falling off the tracks at the rear. The braces are supposed to snap in tight so the rails stay attached, but they were moving around freely. That’s where the cable ties came in, I used them to keep the rails from sliding away from each other and has worked well so far. I’m going to get stronger brackets at some point. Next up was the icemaker in the fridge. We had one, but it wasn’t hooked up… another easy fix. I just picked up the kit at Michaels in Middletown and hooked it up. It took a bit of tweaking to get the duration that water flows into the ice maker correct, but it works perfect now. Our kitchen pantry is a small closet under the stairs that lead to the second floor. It had some massively deep shelves on it that could hold a lot, but made retrieving what we needed a real pain in the ass. I knocked the shelves out altogether and relocated some utility shelving from the attic into the pantry. Eventually I’m going to install sliding shelves in there. The real kicker was that the last owner used telephone wire to connect the furnace to the thermostat in the living room, and routed it loosely through the pantry. I’ve replaced the manual thermostat with a programmable unit, but still need to run a new line that I can neatly route out of the way. Some of the outlets in the house are still 2 prongs, I’ve had to swap them out with 3 prongs, not a big deal. After the hurricane tore through the area, I picked up a 6800 watt generator… coincidentally, as I drove home with the generator in tow the power (which had been out for 2 days) had come back on, so the thing sat in my garage for several weeks before the October storm hit. Saturday afternoon, the power to my house went out in the middle of the storm, so I ran out to Lowes to get what I thought I needed. There was already a 60 amp run from the house to the garage, but the problem was that the outlet was a 50 amp 3-prong, and the generator had a 30 amp 4 prong. I accidentally picked up a 3 prong plug for the generator, as well as a heavy duty cord for the massive 3 prong outlet on the wall. I wired a connection and managed to get everything on phase A in the house running. Come Sunday when I finally had a chance to get out again to pick up the correct parts, Lowes was closed at 7pm, and Home Depot was completely sold out of the plugs and recepticals I needed. Seriously – you’d think these places might consider staying open LATE when the surrounding area gets pimp smacked by mother nature. First thing Monday I went to Werners in Florida and picked up the plugs, the 10 gauge wire, everything I needed – end result, the entire house had power. The generator ran for a good 34 hours straight without a single problem, its 6 gallon tank would get me a good 10+ hours depending on the load. When the power came back on Monday evening, I relocated the plug for our stove’s electronic ignition to its original outlet and immediately smelled gas. Looking at the stove, the previous owner ran 3/8″ copper pipe directly from the tank in the back, around the side of the house, through the wall, and up to the stove. The problem is that copper pipe doesn’t like to bend too much and it finally snapped. I shut off the gas at the tank outside, and then crimped the pipe flat with a pair of channel lock pliers to seal the leak. See – the building code says that you run the supply line to a shut off valve and then run flex pipe to the stove. Again I headed out to my home away from home, lowes – picked up a flaring tool, a complete gas stove hookup kit, shutoff valve, flaring adapter, flaring nut, gas line pipe thread tape, and fixed it all up again.

At least now if the power goes out (like it did the other night for about an hour) I can have the house back online in under 5 minutes… I still have a fairly long list of things to address – but so far I’m having fun with it. One thing is certain, if I ever look to buy another house, I’ll have a list of things to check even before I bring in the home inspector, etc…

The Honeymoon is OVER!

marlin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:02:12 +0000

Unfortunately I had to test a website in IE this morning and when I loaded it I saw the following on the MSN home page…

Could it be a mistake? I then decided to follow the link to the actual story, here: The Root 100 2011: Influencers and Iconoclasts. Again I look and see that the only constant between the two images is the lovely Beyonce, as evidenced by this screen shot:

In fact, there is no mention whatsoever on the front page of the article of the noble, the anointed, the one and only – President Barack Hussein Obama. In fact, he isn’t even on the list! There are plenty of entries of people who have worked with Obama, but not the Man Himself. Now maybe I’m missing something here, but theroot.com claims “The Root is the leading online source of news and commentary from an African-American perspective. Founded in 2008 under the leadership of Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University.“ Not even an organization founded by the guy that Obama stood up and jammed a size-11 in his mouth for is stumping for the One.

In my humble opinion, I’m not surprised he’s not on the list. While he may have elevated the African American community by achieving the highest office in the land, it’s no secret that he has completely squandered the opportunity and continues to embarrass his party by repeatedly making decisions that are analogous to George W Bush’s public speaking ability. Who’d have thought that Joe Biden would be the brains of the operation?

The Left is in trouble, Obama is in trouble, and if they want to stand a chance in 2012 – Barack should bow out gracefully and hopefully allow someone into office that can actually move this country forward instead of continuing the failed policies of George W Bush and attempting to act on the failed ideology of Socialism.

Tower Defense Games for the iPad

marlin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:10:36 +0000

After doing many searches for this very topic via Google, and seeing numerous posts with the same 4 or 5 titles, I’ve decided to compile a list here for anyone browsing the Internet for a Tower Defense fix on their iPad. I’m currently running an iPad 2 as my tablet of choice, and while I do manage to get a ton of work done on it, I also have an immense collection of games. My favorite genre of course is Tower Defense. A typical TD title involves enemies crossing a field, and the player must implement any number of defense structures to stop them. It sounds simple, the concept is, but how that concept is put into action is what separates a good TD title from utter rubbish.

The following list is in alphabetical order, listing games that I have played through the single player campaigns until completion, and earned my miniscule contribution to the developers retirement plans.

3 Kingdoms TD – Legend of Shu. Straight forward TD with an Asian theme and guided maps.
Anomaly HD. A different take on the TD concept, in this game you are the attacker controlling a single wave of units as you attempt to push out an unknown invasion force from Iraq. Units can be upgraded and rerouted on the fly.
Castle Attack HD. More or less a “Plants Vs. Zombies” knockoff, where you must prevent various units from crossing the field of battle.
Epic War TD / Pro. Typical TD, tons of creeps, decent weapon selection, very challenging, guided maps. Many of the titles I’ve played involve accessing new maps only after succeeding at a previous one. This title has all maps unlocked to begin with. My biggest complaint however is that after purchasing, you are forced to go to either an advertisement for the new content, or the new content itself. I’d like one reminder, maybe a link on the main screen, but I don’t need to be reminded every time I load the game that you’ve got new crap.
Fieldrunners. Fun game with mainly open maps.
GDefense HD. Typical tower defense, mainly open map, ants trying to reach your food. Kill them at all costs. Can be frustrating when certain bugs are able to go over structures that others must go around.
GemCraft. Guided maps, use various gems to power your towers and traps. A little more complicated than I’d care to deal with, but fun.
geoDefense. Vector graphics stand out in this TD title, which can be excruciatingly difficult, and guided maps that are as confusing as they are fun.
GunsNGlory. This game could be better if it had a fast forward button.
iBomber Defense. Guided maps and a world war 2 theme.
Medieval HD. Two castles, one field, upgradable units and weaponry. Fun until you have everything just about maxed out.
LandGrabbers. Not so much tower defense, but fun nonetheless. Multiple enemies per map all competing for the same structures, whoever controls all the structures first wins.
Lord Of The Rings Prologue. Besides familiar characters, nothing much to say here. I didn’t care for it.
Sentinel 3. Typical tower defense with guided maps.
Starfall. Amazing TD with a combination of challenging open and guided maps.
Swarm. Same setup as geoDefense, only with open maps.
TanksNTurrets HD. Typical TD, guided maps and challenging gameplay until you figure out that all you need are rocket towers.
Tower Defense HD. Typical TD with open and guided maps.

I’m still waiting for TowerMadness to either have a free offer or come down in price, as I’m not paying $7.99 for any game I don’t care how popular it is. I’ve played the iPhone version which is OK, but I generally prefer games that are already optimized for the iPad.

The following list are TD style games that I’ve either played, tried to play, but either way determined that they are complete rubbish.

AutoRobot HD EX. I generally try a free version of a game before paying for it. In this case, loading the game resulted in a forced full screen video advertisement. By forced I mean that it opens, gives you the option to exit it, and a few seconds after you reach the main menu you are forced to view it again. Adding insult to injury, if you try to watch the whole ad just to play the game, you can’t escape the ‘Click here for more information’ screen. I even tried starting the game before the ad, and you can hear it playing in the background behind the ad – but you have no way of actually getting to it. Pointless rubbish.
Kretures HD Lite. Huge maps, weapons with vast range, but completely chaotic. Needs more structure IMHO.
TapDefenseHD. Guided maps, can’t recall why I disliked it, but I played it for about 5 minutes then deleted it.
Three Kingdoms TD – Fate of Wei. Updated game from the “3 Kingdoms” franchise. Might be fun if it worked correctly. One of the fun parts of the 3 Kingdoms games I found were ‘magic’ units that could only be seen by specific towers. In the version on the top list, you start the game with wizards who can see these creeps and make them visible to all other towers. In this version, you have 20 lives and none of the characters you start with on the first map can see the 20 creeps that are invisible. Rubbish!

There are a few other games I’ve played and have enjoyed, but I’ll save those for a non Tower-Defense related post.

GPS for Android

marlin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:01:36 +0000

I’m a big fan of GPS, even when I know where to go, I like to keep an eye on the statistics of my current trip. My first experience was with a Garmin Nuvi, which still works fine – but mainly I use the Google Navigation on my Incredible. Problem is, Google Navigation isn’t very smart. The app doesn’t allow you to choose between the ‘shortest’ or the ‘fastest’ route to a location, instead it simply believes that the route it suggest is what is best for you. Most times, that may not be a big deal, however in the case of my recent drive to North Carolina, it added nearly 2 hours to the drive.

Instead of keeping me on the highway for a majority of the trip, it sent me on back roads which shortened the overall drive by about 100 miles. This would have been fine if the short cut wasn’t packed with 30mph zones and traffic lights. Pretty much every other GPS and mapping application out there skipped the back roads and sent me on a more direct route. 100 more miles, nearly 2 hours less to drive. That lead me to the Android Market to find a suitable replacement that provided more accurate routing.

Right now my top 2 are Waze and Sygic.

Waze is free, and community based. So far its directions aren’t the best (a recent trip from North Jersey to my house skipped 3 other routes that I know for a fact are faster) – but it has a large user base and they constantly keep other users up to date on traffic, hazards, speed traps, etc… in the area. The graphics are basic but effective, the navigation voice appears to be human (instead of the robot used by Google Nav), and the vehicle tracking is accurate. That’s one thing I like about most GPS units, it shows you where your car is… something lacking in the next option, Sygic.

Sygic is a paid application, it runs $15.99 in Euros and has the bonus of being able to download updated maps directly to the SD storage on the phone. Sygic attempts to bring a more traditional GPS interface to the Android phone, multiple map packages, voices, etc… Its directions are accurate, and its short/fast options are also well implemented. My biggest complaints are that Sygic will take the turn for you – and then auto-correct. Meaning if it asks you take a left, and you continue straight, the mini-map will take the turn and for a few moments continue on before it corrects. I’ve found other GPS options handle recalculating much quicker. My other complaint is that the icon for your current location is a HUGE ORANGE ARROW that takes up a VERY large portion of the screen unless you’re driving very fast. I want a small icon, that’s it. Voice navigation is computerized, but also better than the Google Nav option.

I attempted to purchase Sygic the other day but had some trouble with the card processing…. going to give it another shot. As much as I am enjoying Waze, I need a GPS app I can count on, and Sygic is it.

A question…

marlin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:07:04 +0000

Nagasaki, 1945 – After the atomic bomb…

Nagasaki, 2011 – After the earthquake and tsunami…

What the FUCK is that arch made of?

Brilliant in its simplicity…

marlin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:13:45 +0000

A) Back off and let those men who want to marry men, marry men.
B) Allow those women who want to marry women, marry women.
C) Allow those folks who want to abort their babies, abort their babies.
D) In three generations, there will be no Democrats.

Say you want a Revolution?

marlin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:48:28 +0000

For the past 2 weeks I have been thoroughly enjoying my latest personal vaporizer (aka E-Cigarette). It is the Revolution V2.1 by Chinese manufacturer Boge. The $60 kit came with the vaporizer, charging plug, micro-USB charging cable (compatible with ANY USB port), 5 cartomizers, 2 fluid bottles and syringe tips. I purchased an additional bottle and syringe tip for another $7 since I like to alternating flavors.

The device itself contains two 700 mah batteries wired in parallel which offer up 1400mah of total power. I’ve gone as long as 3 days without needing to recharge. While it comes with a cartomizer (heating coil and wicking material in one) it is capable of supporting standard 510 atomizers. I currently use Boge LR 510 atomizers which generally deliver more consistent vapor and flavor than any cartomizer I’ve tried thus far. One thing to keep in mind is that the Revolution V2.1 is designed to use cartomizers. Not all atomizers will work, but (and don’t blame me if you do this and break the thing) if you remove the fluid bottle and gently press an unsharped pencil against the underside of the port where the atomizer screws in, it will nudge it just enough so that the atomizer can make a solid contact with the Revolution.

A convenient on/off switch provides security from pocket-vaping (a lot like pocket dialing, only you’ll drain the battery, ruin your atomizer, and possibly burn your leg). Apparently prior models had some sort of ionizer feature which was removed in order to make room for the additional battery – but the switch and LED’s were carried over. It also has a set of 3 power LED’s which indicate the current battery level, as well as an indication of charging and full charge.

The underside has two removable panels, one that holds in the juice bottle and the other allows you to carry an extra cartomizer or atomizer. The underside also holds one of my most favorite features, the micro-usb plug that allows you to charge the device on any USB port (computer, cellphone charger, etc…) as well as vape WHILE it is charging.

Without any atomizer/cartomizer attached, it is about 2/3 the width of a pack of cigarettes, which makes carrying it around very convenient.

My only complaint about the device are that if left in any position except upright, it has a tendency to leak. It does come with a cap that can be screwed on in place of the atomizer – which if you’re like me, you will lose within 10 minutes of un-boxing the vaporizer. It leaks whether using a cartomizer or atomizer, although the cartomizer will absorb most of the fluid (thus flooding it) instead of coating the top of the device and whatever it is sitting on in smoke juice.

So far this is my 4th vaporizer and by far the most satisfying, efficient, and convenient of them all. I still carry around my ‘box o stuff’ but if I don’t, I can be confident that a full bottle and charge will easily last me 2-3 days of constant vaping. If you want to pick one up or check one out, I recommend visiting vapelite.com. They’re based out of West Milford, NJ at PAC Computers (I’ve only bought things in the store) but the owner is well versed on everything related to vaping and is fantastic to deal with.