MacGyver

Everything has a price.  I wear a pair of 501's just about every day.  I find that pocket clips on knives do more damage to my pants than do my holsters, though I typically carry a j-frame in a kydex pocket holster.  It'll eventually cause a permanent "print" - even it it's not a gun-shaped one.

Unfortunately, you never seem to have to look too far to find crazy these days...

Cool!

This one's done.

I always thought he was Bluto, too. But it seems like aloof the cartoons we've watched lately have him renamed.

My kids watched Popeyes for the first time a couple of weeks ago. They all thought it was funny, but my three year old was belly laughing at Popeye and Brutus.

I got to fly with my grandfather back in 2003. He had a bunch of combat missions in one as a pilot over Europe, and then flew hundreds of missions in an H model dropping life boats over the Pacific. He was 83 years old and on a walker due to breaking his hip, but the evening before was commenting on whether or not we'd have to pull ourselves up through the hatch like they did when they had a full load. The next morning, that plane pulled onto the tarmac at John C. Tune with its Pratt and Whitneys roaring in all their glory. He tossed his walker to the side and walked up to that plane like he was 20 again. The pilots were as honored to have him on board as he was to be there. They put the navigator's chair down and a space for him in the cockpit. On the taxi out and takeoff roll you could see his head and the pilot's turning in sync as they both went through preflight checks. To the day I die, that will be one of my most cherished memories.

Man, I'm sorry to hear this.  The older I get, the more I miss all the family and friends that have passed on before me.   Y'all will be in our prayers.

This guy seems to be stepping up his campaign:   http://www.alan.com/2014/09/17/armed-open-carry-activist-walks-outside-nashville-high-school-wearing-bulletproof-vest/   Here he was yesterday prancing around in front of Hillsboro High School.  I know he lost his job.  I wonder if he's still married?  His decision making paradigm is increasingly looking like that of someone who has nothing to lose. 

No.

I'm not sure this is a problem we have any ability to fix...

I can't imagine why?

PMs sent.

He scared the heck out me as a kid when I saw him in Moonraker.

I'm happy to call if you'd rather PM me his number.

I had a nice conversation with Jeff over at Cross Machine Tool the other day.  He mentioned that they'd love to follow up on last year's AR15 group buy with an AR10 buy.  I know that we've got a knife buy that everyone's been saving their pennies for, but I thought I would throw this out there to gauge interest.   I've built a 308 on one of their first billet receiver sets, and I can say that it's absolutely one of the highest quality receivers I've put my hands on.  Here's a link detailing the set:   https://www.cmttac.com/308-CMT-Billet-Combo-Sets?product_id=115   If you're interested in pricing, shoot me a PM.  I'll just say that it's very attractive!   So, who's interested?

Thought I would update this thread.  I've not heard anything back from the email I sent - and it should be a good one as I communicated with him during the group buy.   I did a quick obituary check and didn't see one.  I hope he's doing alright.  I miss his voice as well as a few others.

I want to like the new design, but both will stick out of the rear pocket of a pair of 501s.    I laughed at a hipster the other day as he was contorting himself and trying with both hands to get his big ol' Galaxy S5 into the pocket of his skinny jeans.  Maybe he was a prophet...

If that were true, two of the largest retailers in the country wouldn't have just reported losing 100 million cards each in attacks over the last year.   Target was "compliant" when their breach happened.  So was Home Depot.    But, there's a difference between "compliant" and "secure."  Target is a wonderful example of this.  They were compliant, and had audited reports from a QSA vouching for it.  But, at the same time, they were using credit card data to track their customers' purchases so they can better target them with advertising.  They gambled on storing PAN data and lost.  That breach will cost them more than a billion dollars before it's all said and done.  But, do you think it's changing their consumer tracking behavior?    So, why do we trust retailers with this data?  We're on a gun forum where most of us take some responsibility for our own personal security.  Apple's system is allowing the customer to take some responsibility for their own financial security.  I can't see how that's a bad thing

Man, I hate to hear this!  There's nothing quite like the unconditional love that a dog shows its master - especially when that love is returned.   Rocco was a great dog that was always a pleasure to have around. I'll sure miss seeing him.

Take a step a little further back.   There's not a retailer out there right now that isn't struggling with three conversations:  end-to-end encryption, tokenization and hosted payment pages.  If they're not having these conversations in light of the last year's breaches, then they should probably pick up their last check this afternoon and go find something else to do.  I know this, because I facilitate these conversations with dozens of retailers big and small every week.   Everyone knows that the above three items are the right thing to do, but they're struggling with it - for a host of legitimate reasons.  Some of them would buckle under the capital expense of upgrading their POS systems and card terminals.  Some retailers back office systems aren't designed to handle data in that way.  There are still a whole bunch of payment processors who don't support end-to-end encryption or tokenization.  Even with the PCIDSS 3.0 spec (which Target kind of bricked) and next year's liability shift with EMV, a lot of "PCI compliant" merchants are still 18-36 months out from even beginning to secure their environments.  This implementation takes security out of the merchants' hands and lets the individual user have control of their own stuff.   This implementation is significantly different than historic NFC payments for two reasons.  One, it isn't just a novel way of getting your PAN data to a merchant like it has been historically - it's never giving that data to a merchant, period.  This system is a true two-factor authenticated system that enforces true end-to-end encryption.  The merchant never has access to the data.  If they need repeat access, then they receive a tokenized representation that they may reference in the future.  They never see your data, and that's huge since they can't seem to get their junk together to protect it.    I'm looking forward to studying the new chip and spec from an InfoSec perspective, but this is a big step forward.  Apple does have its issues (see JLaw et al last week), and individual customers should spend some time thinking about whether or not they want to give a corporation that much visibility into their spending habits.  That said, it's more than just an Apple rebranding of old tech.

NFC has been out for years, but Apple has the ability to move payments forward in ways that others have not. And, it's really just because they're Apple and retailers want to get on that bus.  Tokenization at the local level and true two factor payments are a big deal.  Apple avoided NFC forever, and I suspect it was because they couldn't control the whole ecosystem.  With the touch sensor, they can.   We'll see if it takes off, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

The payments thing is a big deal in a way that no other manufacturer has been able to pull off, yet.  It will probably be the real "game changer" of this release.   You may or may not see a personal need for it, but it moves credit card security into a true two-factor realm.  Something you have( the phone with the card)  and something you are (fingerprint).  The fact that they're tokenized at the phone and the retailer will never see the number is a big deal in light of all of the recent card breaches.   No system is perfect, but this does move the ball forward.

The monopolistic cable providers and both parties of our government would love to get control of the internet.  That said, all of the colored revolutions of the last 4 years have shown that's a pretty difficult beast to contain.   I'd be aware of bills that limit privacy and "online freedom", but wouldn't spend too much time worrying about the .gov's efforts to shove Pandora back in his box. 

I sent him a note last night. I'll let you know if I hear anything.