Blackmoor Vituperative

I decided to try my hand at turning a Nerf Maverick into a steampunk costume accessory. I made a lot of misteps with my first attempt, primarily by putting too many coats of paint on it. Here is how it went.

This is the Nerf Maverick as it comes out of the packaging. It doesn’t shoot more than about ten feet, but it’s a spiffy looking toy.

This is what it looks like on the inside of the frame. I have real pistols which are not this complicated.

This is the cylinder assembly, disassembled. Some people call this the “barrel”. That’s not correct. It’s the cylinder.

This is a portion of the cylinder assembly, with the air restrictors removed. To be perfectly frank, I saw no difference at all in the power of the toy after the air restrictors were removed.

The parts are washed and now drying.

Here the parts are primed, first with two lights coats of “plastic primer”, then with two lights coats of glossy black paint, then with two lights coats of stain black paint. In retrospect, this is four coats of paint too many. The “plastic primer”, in particular, is as thick as molasses, and I think the function of the toy was impaired by this.

I then painted some of the parts with glossy metallic chrome paint. This looked really spiffy, if not altogether steampunkish — a bit too shiny.

I misted the satin black with the metallic chrome, and this gave me a really neat effect. I call it “dark steel”. It’s more cyberpunk than steampunk, so I decided to paint over it with metallic brass paint (making the paint job even thicker), but it looked really neat, even though you can’t really see it in this photo.

Another coat of the metallic chrome on some parts, and another misting of the metallic chrome on the stain black slide. You can see the “dark steel” effect a bit better here.

Masking off the cylinder was the single most tedious part of this whole project.

Here the frame has been painted with the metallic brass, and everything has been given several coats of glossy clear lacquer (making the paint even thicker),and I am starting to reassemble it.

Here the cylinder has been assembled and inserted, and the frame is nearly reassembled. I had to take apart my other Nerf Maverick to see how to put everything back together, because there are a lot of very similar — but not identical — springs, and I was not sure which went where.

And here we are, all assembled and more or less functional. The failure to fire rate is something like 75%, which is horrible. I think it’s because the paint is so darn thick. Still, it’s not bad looking for a costume prop. I like most of this color scheme, and I think my “real” attempt will greatly benefit from what I learned on this prototype. For example, flat clearcoat on metallic chrome paint turns it plain old grey.

By the way, if you use lubricant, use silicone lubricant from an auto parts store. Vaseline, WD-40, etc. will eat the damage the plastic.

Public schools in the USA are to eduction as chicken factories are to farming.

If you love your children, do not make them eat a school lunch.

If you are installing Windows 7, or if you just got a new computer, there are a few things you should do before you start using it. Here they are.

1. Configure the Start Menu.
   • Right-click the Windows logo on the taskbar.
   • Select “Properties”.
   • On the “Start Menu” tab, click the “Customize” button.
   • Computer: display as a menu.
   • Connect to: not checked.
   • Control panel: display as a menu.
   • Default programs: not checked.
   • Devices and printers: not checked.
   • Documents: display as a menu.
   • Downloads: do not display this item.
   • Enable context menus: checked.
   • Favorites menu: not checked.
   • Games: do not display this item.
   • Help: not checked.
   • Highlight newly installed programs: not checked.
   • Homegroup: not checked.
   • Music: display as a menu.
   • Network: not checked.
   • Open submenus: checked.
   • Personal folder: do not display this item.
   • Pictures: display as a menu.
   • Recent items: checked.
   • Recorded TV: do not display this item.
   • Run command: checked.
   • Search other files: search with public folders.
   • Search programs: checked.
   • Sort All programs menu: checked.
   • System administrative tools: Don’t display this item.
   • Use large icons: checked.
   • Videos: Display as a menu.
2. Configure Windows Explorer.
   • Hide Libraries. (Or hide favorites, but you certainly do not need both.) (I changed my mind about this. I actually do use both.)
   • Make your local network a Work network (or just hide Homegroup).
   • Open Windows Explorer, click the “Organize” button, and select “Folder and Search options”.
     1. On the “General” tab…
     2. Show all folders: not checked
     3. Automatically expand: checked
     4. On the “View” tab…
     5. Always show icons: not checked.
     6. Always show menus: checked.
     7. Display file icon: checked.
     8. Display file size: checked.
     9. Display the full path: checked.
     10. Hidden files and folders: Don’t show (we will do something about this further down).
     11. Hide empty drives: not checked.
     12. Hide extensions: not checked (this is the most idiotic option ever).
     13. Hide protected OS files: not checked.
     14. Launch folder windows in a separate process: not checked.
     15. Restore previous folders: checked.
     16. Show drive letters: checked.
     17. Show encrypted: checked.
     18. Show pop-up: checked.
     19. Show preview handlers: checked.
     20. Use check boxes to select: not checked.
     21. Use Sharing Wizard: checked.
     22. When typing into list view: Select the typed item.
     23. Click the “Apply To Folders” button, and click OK.
3. Configure My Documents.
   • In Windows Explorer, navigate to “C:\Users\[your user name]”.
   • Right-click “My Documents”, and rename it to “Documents”.
   • Right-click “My Music”, and rename it to “Music”.
   • Right-click “My Pictures”, and rename it to “Images”.
   • Right-click “My Videos”, and rename it to “Videos”.
   • Drag and drop “Music” into the “Documents” folder.
   • Drag and drop “Pictures” into the “Documents” folder.
   • Drag and drop “Videos” into the “Documents” folder.
   • Drag and drop “Downloads” into the “Documents” folder.
4. Move the Taskbar to the left side of the screen. With a widescreen monitor (which any new computer will have), it makes much more sense to waste a small strip on the left than a strip that runs all the way across the bottom of the screen, making a narrow display area even narrower.
5. Install Classic Shell.
6. Install Toggle Hidden Files and assign a hotkey to it (I use “Windows+h”).
7. Show drive letters before the drive name.
8. Install Search Everything.
9. Install KeyTweak and remap the Caps Lock key to Left Shift.
10. Add a Take Ownership context menu to Windows Explorer.
11. Install Ditto clipboard manager.
12. Install AllSnap (the 64 bit version, if you are running 64-bit Windows). You must disable “Aero Snap” (which is useless) first!
13. If you use Photoshop, install FastPictureViewer Codec Pack
14. Remove the user folder from the Explorer navigation pane.

Now that you have done all of that, there are a few essential applications you should consider installing:

1. 7-Zip
2. Notepad++
3. Firefox You might also consider these addons:
   • bug 489729
   • Context Search
   • IE Tab V2
   • Lastpass
   • Tab Mix Plus
   • uBlock Origin
   • Xmarks (I synchronize bookmarks, but not passwords, and I turn Xmarks’ “Discovery” features off.)
4. Thunderbird with the calendar plugin (You might also consider linking Thunderbird’s address book and calendar to Google.)
5. Irfanview and the Irfanview plugins
6. OpenOffice LibreOffice
7. Avast! Free Antivirus (I eventually uninstalled this. It was just too much of a resource hog, even on a brand new computer.)
8. Copernic Desktop Search (I paid for the professional version. I think it’s worth it.) (I eventually uninstalled this. It was just too much of a resource hog, even on a brand new computer.)
9. SmartDefrag
10. Dexpot
11. Bulk Rename Utility
12. FontExpert (It costs money, but if you work with fonts a great deal, it is worth it.) When you put fonts into groups, make sure you create shortcuts, rather than copying the font files.
13. PeerBlock (Idon’t use this anymore. It interfered with games and I think the benefit is dubious.)
14. Install VistaSwitcher

In this blog post on infolawgroup.com, David Navetta takes a closer look at the PCI and encryption requirements of Nevada’s Security of Personal Information law, including the interplay between the PCI and encryption requirements, the scope of the obligations, potential problems/ambiguities in the law, and the applicability of a “safe harbor” for security breaches.

Never content to twist US law into pretzels, the media robber barons also attempt to use their power to make other nation’s laws as bad as those we have here….

In accordance with US trade law, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) is required to conduct an annual review of the status of foreign intellectual property laws. This review, which is referred to as Special 301, is typically used to denounce countries that have less restrictive copyright policies than the United States.

The review process is increasingly dominated by content industry lobbyists who want to subvert US trade policy and make it more favorable to their own interests. […] One of the organizations that plays a key role in influencing the Special 301 review is the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a powerful coalition that includes the RIAA, the MPAA, and the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The IIPA, which recently published its official recommendations to the USTR for the 2010 edition of the 301 review, has managed to achieve a whole new level of absurdity.

University of Edinburgh law lecturer Andres Guadamuz wrote a blog entry this week highlighting some particularly troubling aspects of the IIPA’s 301 recommendations. The organization has condemned Indonesia and several other countries for encouraging government adoption of open source software. According to the IIPA, official government endorsements of open source software create “trade barriers” and restrict “equitable market access” for software companies.

[…]

The Indonesian government issued a statement in 2009 informing municipal governments that they had to stop using pirated software. The statement said that government agencies must either purchase legally licensed commercial software or switch to free and open source alternatives in order to comply with copyright law. This attempt by Indonesia to promote legal software procurement processes by endorsing the viability of open source software has apparently angered the IIPA.

In its 301 recommendations for Indonesia, the IIPA demands that the government rescind its 2009 statement. According to the IIPA, Indonesia’s policy “weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term competitiveness” because open source software “encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations [and] fails to build respect for intellectual property rights.”

The number of ways in which the IIPA’s statements regarding open source software are egregiously misleading and dishonest are too numerous to count.

(from Big Content condemns foreign governments that endorse FOSS, Ars Technica)

“The IIPA — destroying your cultural future to line our pockets today!”

I picked up the TV series “Invasion” on DVD at Kroger, from a bargain bin. I am up to episode 5 or 6. This is a weird show.

There is clearly an alien invasion going on, but it’s not clear that the aliens are even aware that they are aliens. I had always assumed that pod people would know that they are pod people. But what if they didn’t know?

What if you were a pod person, and didn’t know it? What if you just felt… off, somehow?

I have said it before, but I will say it again: don’t take anything posted in this blog too seriously. It’s mainly a place for me to grumble harmlessly about things that are beyond my control, so that I can get it out of my system and go on with my life as the generally optimistic, upbeat person that I prefer to be.

Life is too short to be pissed off all the time.

Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.

(From George Washington’s Rules of Civility)

George Washington’s Rules of Civility is pretty cool, in a Victorian sort of way.

It appears that the Digital Rights Mafia and the media robber barons have successfully done in Britain what they failed to do in the USA in 2003 — bullied the broadcasters into allowing the robber barons to control not only the content, but the devices used to play that content.

In my latest Guardian column, “Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC?” I look at how lamentably credulous both the BBC and its UK regulator, Ofcom, have been in accepting US media’ giants threats to boycott the Beeb if it doesn’t add digital rights management to its broadcasts. The BBC is publicly funded, and it is supposed to be acting in the public interest: but crippling British TV sets in response for demands from offshore media barons is no way to do this — and the threats the studios have made are wildly improbable. When the content companies lost their bid to add DRM to American TV, they made exactly the same threats, and then promptly caved and went on allowing their material to be broadcast without any technical restrictions.

How they rattled their sabers and promised a boycott of HD that would destroy America’s chances for an analogue switchoff. For example, the MPAA’s CTO, Fritz Attaway, said that “high-value content will migrate away” from telly without DRM.

Viacom added: “[i]f a broadcast flag is not implemented and enforced by Summer 2003, Viacom’s CBS Television Network will not provide any programming in high definition for the 2003-2004 television season.”

One by one, the big entertainment companies – and sporting giants like the baseball and American football leagues – promised that without the Broadcast Flag, they would take their balls and go home.

So what happened? Did they make good on their threats? Did they go to their shareholders and explain that the reason they weren’t broadcasting anything this year is because the government wouldn’t let them control TVs?

No. They broadcast. They continue to broadcast today, with no DRM.

They were full of it. They did not make good on their threats. They didn’t boycott.

They caved.

Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC?

(From New column: Why is Ofcom ready to allow BBC DRM?, Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com

What the hell has happened to the once-great Britain? They gave us the foundations of our society — the rights of free men to bear arms, the rights of a jury to decide not only if a law was broken, but whether that law should be enforced at all, and the basic right of the governed to expect their government to treat them justly… all of this is due to our country’s British origins.

I have to say, I am a little disappointed with what’s become of them.

Religious conservatives argue the Founding Fathers intended the United States to be a Judeo-Christian country. But President Obama is right when he says it isn’t.

(From America is not a Christian nation, Salon)

I am no great fan of President Obama (nor was I of President Bush). But when someone is right, they are right.