My name is
David Robins:
Christian, lead developer (resume), writer, photographer, runner,
libertarian (voluntaryist),
and student.
This is also my son David Geoffrey Robins' site.
New photo viewer
News ·Sunday April 10, 2011 @ 20:07 EDT (link)
The first post to use the new viewer was the FN SCAR post, which has a couple pictures up. The RSS feed uses flat photos still because Facebook and other importers probably don't allow CSS/Javascript through anyway. This viewer is based on jQuery.popeye 2.0, with a few modifications.
There's also one random photo on this post because I was doing some testing to ensure that having multiple photo sets on the same page worked properly. Seems to be fine. Still some things I want to fix and tidy up, though.
Books finished: Blood of the Fold.
Ultimate rifle case, not so great sling
News ·Thursday March 31, 2011 @ 11:22 EDT (link)
I bought a ModGear Ultimate Rifle Case (42", OD green) for the SCAR; really like it, lots of pockets, fits the rifle really well, appears to be good workmanship. Thought of going with tan to match the rifle but the green looks good. Getting it online was almost $30 cheaper than buying it locally (~$50 vs. ~$77 at WCA with tax, or 54% more); I like to buy local when I can, but not at that premium. You can also see the anarcho-capitalist flag I picked up from eBay recently in the background.
The KNS AR-15 sling I bought for it unfortunately didn't fit—one end was a normal strap on a quick-release buckle, the other a swivel; the swivel didn't fit into the SCAR's attachment point. Hard to see the sizes on the site; live and learn, etc.; I'll keep it to use on my 10/22 (when I attach swivel mounts, perhaps for Appleseed), or some other rifle, or as a backup for the AR-15. I've ordered a replacement sling—and a scope, both from Botach Tactical, but they delayed the scope "3-4 weeks" even though they said nothing about it before the order was placed, which seems like a dirty trick from here.
Bitcoin paper and presentation
News, Technical, Political, School, Trading, Media, Economics ·Wednesday March 30, 2011 @ 00:42 EDT (link)
My final Master's course, Practical Applications of Modern Cryptography (CSEP 590, which is the catch-all course number for "new" courses) required a final project and presentation in lieu of an exam. I am making my final presentation and paper available online—attribute them if you use them, but otherwise use them as you see fit to advance the cause of liberty.
Greenfield rights infringement
News, Political, Law ·Wednesday March 30, 2011 @ 00:27 EDT (link)
There is an email-writing campaign on behalf of Adam Mueller and Pete Eyre, arrested in 2010 in Greenfield, MA for filming police, and charged with illegal wiretapping (despite recording in plain sight) and other sundry crimes (e.g., resisting arrest, when they practiced passive non-resistance). Videos and a detailed timeline are available on CopBlock.org, a great site that collects videos and evidence of police misconduct. To borrow from L. Neil Smith in his (beta) book Where We Stand: Over the hundreds of years of police activity in the US, none have had to contend with such a thing as individuals who have their own portable recorders and information sources—hearing them whimper about the Internet (which is shining light on their many abuses) is nothing but sweet music to my ears.
Here is the letter I sent to EyesonGreenfield@gmail.com, which is collecting them to forward on to Greenfield's police, the judge in the case, city council, and so forth:
To whom it may concern:
I am writing to lend my support to Adam Mueller and Pete Eyre, arrested
last year in Greenfield, MA for no other reason than the police had the
power (force) to do so: "might makes right"! They had harmed nobody;
they had not even broken any rules; and for that they are subjected to
violent incarceration and infringement against their right to liberty.
Is that how things work in the town of Greenfield, in the state of
Massachusetts, in America? This violence against peaceful people must
stop. The people of Greenfield and their representatives must step up
and say, "It stops here."
Restoration of America as a nation ruled by
moral laws rather than arbitrary and capricious men must begin at the
local level. I call upon people of conscience to abjure the wickedness
that condemns harmless acts and to free Mr. Mueller and Mr. Eyre, with
apologies for the aggravation they have been put through and grateful
acknowledgment and thanks for the wake-up call that these two and their
supporters were able to deliver. It is time that victimless so-called
crimes with arbitrary penalties enacted by petty, officious employees of
the state—our servants!—were put to rest as a relic of a barbaric
past. May it begin in Greenfield.
David B. Robins, BMath, MS
Writing an email is an easy thing to do and the cause is certainly just and worth the time to set a few thoughts to paper (perhaps it aims a little high, but one's principles should energize a reach for the stars).
Books finished: The Witling, Hamilton's Curse.
First range trip, SCAR 17S
News, Guns ·Friday March 25, 2011 @ 21:17 EDT (link)
Left work early, 1530; got to the range (SVRC) around 1600; just one person was there, shooting in the pistol pit, so I set up my spotting scope, rifle rest, etc. on a table, got a cease-fire, and put out some targets at 50 yards (which I eventually moved to 25 because my eyes are ozard and they were half-size targets—two rings on a letter-sized sheet—to begin with). I was using the iron sights today; no scope yet, but I plan to try it with my EOTech from the AR-15 and perhaps get an ACOG for it. Nobody else was shooting at the rifle range the whole time I was there; one guy wandered over to give me the lock from the gate (don't know why he took it off; usually I just leave it there, sometimes locked to the gate… person I gave it to when I left thought it odd too) and admired the rifle; couple more showed up to shoot what sounded like .22s in the pistol pit; that was all. It was sunny driving over but then started to rain, which displeased me not at all because I expected it kept the range traffic light.
I was hitting the metal targets at the far end (200') of the range easily with all of the ammo I tried (a 20-round box of American Eagle, some BVAC 150 gr., and some German surplus); but shooting at the paper targets made it clear that I do need to get an optic. Generally, great gun; other reviewers were right about the recoil being very manageable; it's comparable to the AR-15. The main difference is that it's noticeably louder (one guy in the pistol pit said the same thing). Also looking for a case and sling (also in FDE) and some extra mags (which I've had little luck funding).
I left the range around 1700 and got home about 1730; traffic wasn't bad. Friday traffic is always a little weird; sometimes some people are off, or leave early; on balance it's lighter than other days. Good shooting… need to pick up some more ammo; I only have 70 more rounds of .308.
Books finished: Jury Nullification.
FNH SCAR-H (17S) finally secured!
News, Guns ·Saturday March 19, 2011 @ 22:27 EDT (link)
Picked it up today. Shooting it real soon. That is all.
Well, most. I should mention that I bought the firearm through GunBroker, from seller JERRYS GUNS (Turner's Gun Shop in Sidney, Ohio); he was quick to answer questions, everything was as specified; he gave me a tracking number for the package, and it arrived in good time. Thoroughly good experience; would buy from him again; recommend (A+ feedback).
Books finished: Rollback.
Master's degree requirements completed
News, School, Economics ·Friday March 18, 2011 @ 22:26 EDT (link)
Last presentation Friday night, for Cryptography - random ordering, 6th of 12, behind another person not on "the list" who as it happened had the same topic, Bitcoins. Think it went reasonably well; not much over the five minutes; answered questions. One I think I could have answered better in hindsight; but I don't blame myself for not apprehending it immediately. The question was about deflation—causing it—in a Bitcoin system (by recalling coins), presumably after inflation, which really can't happen, given the fixed maximum number of coins (21 million) and (controlled) steady rate of generation (300/hour). Naturally I answered that inflation or deflation (a flood or dearth of coins chasing the same amount of goods), if it were possible, is fixed by the market's price mechanism. But I use inflation and deflation in the economic sense, that is, an increase or decrease in the money supply. The layman sees inflation (deflation) as an increase (decrease) in prices: however this is actually an effect of inflation. But even if the question was more correctly, "How would the Bitcoin system handle rapidly falling (rising) prices?" the answer would be that it would do nothing. First, there is no central controller able to do anything in any case. Second, prices are a market feature, used to convey information about relative scarcity and so forth, and meddling in them is unwarranted and inimical. So, questioner, if you're out there, I hope you find this and this better answers your question.
It is a sigh of relief to be finished. Graduation is Saturday June 11 at Husky Stadium; my parents are coming to town for it. Relief. Won't miss being out late on class evenings or poring over homework, either. Feel bad about this last class: the grader was borderline incompetent and the profs, although I went through the system of appealing first to the grader, and then sent an appeal request to them, and then they asked I resend it and promised in class to give it attention, continued to ignore it. So I felt cheated and hoped the class doesn't hurt my GPA. But in the end, they re-graded everything, so I guess they agreed about the grader.
But it's great to be done. I don't know how or if I can leverage it in my present job, but it may be useful in the future (the Master's is the new Bachelor's, don't you know?) It's an accomplishment; I have an excellent GPA; no debt; I wish I knew more profs to write me a recommendation if I want to do a doctorate, but I'll worry about that when I get there.
For now, it feels good to be done.
Hanging with Matt
News, Political, Guns ·Wednesday March 16, 2011 @ 01:48 EDT (link)
Matt E. let us (the libertarian/voluntaryist/Austrian economist cadre of various DLs such as CLAMS) know he'd be in town (he works out of Microsoft's Fargo, ND office) and so we arranged to have dinner at Rock Bottom in Bellevue at 1830; we arrived a little late due to traffic, but so did Matt (we weren't sure about anyone else; it turned out nobody else could make it—middle of the week is tough, but we did try to plan things earlier and Matt let us know well in advance when he was going to be in town). He had his Murray N. Rothbard, Enemy of the State T-shirt on (first time I'd seen one; would be nice to get one sometime). The three of us ate and talked politics and Microsoft and Fargo and such. I had their pulled pork sandwich which was good.
After eating we headed over to West Coast Armory's Bellevue range to shoot—just handguns this time; we got there at around 2030 and Matt had to sign in since it was his first time there; we finished pretty close to closing time (2100).
We headed back to our place for coffee, Guitar Hero (Honey and Matt played, it's not my game), and more politics. Matt left around 0130; I believe a good time was had by all. It was great to actually meet in person after all the DL and Facebook discussions.
Books finished: Stone of Tears.
100% of Irish nationals surveyed agree my AR is better than Max's
News, Guns ·Sunday March 13, 2011 @ 16:06 EDT (link)
We were promised food, but no food was provided.
Let me start from the beginning. We were promised food. Did I mention that? Max wanted to take his Irish soon to be brother-in-law Ed (hope I got that right) who had to leave the country soon to an outdoor range where he could shoot rifles, so he asked a few of us that were members at SVRC if we could take him and Ed there as guests, and in thanks he'd provide food—mouthwatering pork cooked to perfection with several kinds of sauce. Garrett and I agreed to go shoot that weekend, at noon; I showed up at perhaps 1205 and Max and Ed were already there; Tony arrived a little after I did, Garrett maybe half an hour later. But there was to be no food: Max's sous vide blew up, or something. :(
But I did get to shoot Max's baby, his Steyr Scout, as did others; and there are pictures. Garrett showed up with his arsenal and Tony brought a few fun toys too, like a Beretta CX4 Storm carbine; and we were hitting the metal targets at the back of the range (200 yards, supposedly, although I've heard it may only be 178) quite consistently. We had a couple spotting scopes up, and I think this was the first time I had my Caldwell Rock shooting rest out.
Regarding the AR, Ed liked my red-dot scope and magnifier better but Max's Magpul stock made his better for felt recoil.
I left around 1430; there was some talk of going to eat afterward, but I don't think it went anywhere. Nice to meet Ed, and Tony (first time in person); I'd met Max before at a group buy at Surplus Ammo. We should do this sort of thing more often.
First Action Pistol shoot
News, Guns ·Saturday March 12, 2011 @ 14:12 EST (link)
I just got back from my first action pistol shoot at SVRC—first in which I participated, that is. Honey came to observe this time. We got there around 1030, and just got home a few minutes ago (1400). The weather was pretty miserable—constant drizzle—which may be why they set up four stages (one with two different courses) by the rifle range firing line instead of downrange at the sides and far end. I'd loaded mags the night before—five standard Glock mags and a 33-round mag (which I learned wasn't eligible, but hadn't expected it to be; I was loading it for another outing). The most mags needed for a course was four (three mandatory reloads), and there was plenty of time to reload between.
When we arrived they had started shooting, but I was by no means late: they put me into the (larger) "new shooter" group and most hadn't gone through the first stage yet. I had had the safety instruction at a previous event when I didn't shoot, so was good to go. Seemed like most targets were about 10 yards out, and I'd been practicing (with the Glock 34 that I used) at 15, so it wasn't too difficult; not many misses. I need to work on points on the paper targets (too many out of the A-zone) and speed, which I'll do at future events. Had fun, will definitely be back.
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