Choosing an EDC knife

UPDATE 11/17/08: I've had some new ideas and changed opinions since I've written this. If you enjoy this post, please take the time to read More thoughts on choosing an EDC knife

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Many people have asked me what kind of knife they should buy, and I've always answered in the same way, "it depends." Well, that was kind of a cop-out answer because I didn't have/take the time to go over all the qualities you should be looking for in an EDC knife. Well, here's my definitive answer to that very question.

In the following paragraphs I will go over the qualities that I require from an EDC knife. In reading you will also find my definition of an EDC knife, should you be confused about what should be required and expected of an Every Day Carry knife.

Should you wish to bypass all my conclusions, you can skip to the bottom of this post where I make a recommendation for an EDC knife that will probably fit most people and their uses.

General
Always remember: all knives are not created equal. You've probably seen a lot of knives in your life, and either think you know a bit, a little bit, or nothing about them. Don't make uneducated decisions. Consult the internet as much as you can, and wrap your hands around all the knives that you can before making your decision. $30 knives have their place just as $200 knives do, find out what you need and don't be afraid of price. If you're in a reputable knife shop, it's pretty safe to assume that the expensive knife is expensive for a reason. Don't get into the trap of renting knives by buying cheap (though not always inexpensive) knives, and replacing them every year or two.

Type
When some of you think of a pocket knife, the first thing you think of is your first "Swiss army" knife with a corkscrew (drunky!), bottle opener, and a blade capable of cutting soft fruit. This is not what I'm talking about. Your EDC knife should be a folder with a locking blade that can be rapidly deployed to cut people free in an emergency situation. The next time some kid gets his pants caught in an escalator you shouldn't be fumbling with that little thumbnail slot on your pocket knife/can opener/corkscrew/melon baller, your knife should ready and cutting before the kid's mom realizes what a poor parent she was for letting her kid sit on the escalator. Should you wish to carry a bottle opener, corkscrew or tools that are actually useful; I recommend you do so on another knife, or with a multi-tool of some kind. Sure, there are some tool-bearing pocket knives out there that satisfy a number of the requirements for an EDC folder, but there is no substitute for a locking blade that satisfies ALL the EDC requirements.

Blade
To me, partial-serrations are a no brainer. Your knife is for utility cutting, and serrations are deep, pointy, and retain their sharpness. Serrations will help you start a cut into thick material, and will tear into materials you wouldn't be able to cut with a plain blade. Sadly, your sarrations cannot be sharpened by most knife sharpeners, but if you're actually dulling your serrations (you know who you are), you're probably misusing your knife. I should note that I opted not to get serrations on my EDC favorite, and have paid for it on a number of occasions. Using a plain blade where serrations are needed qualifies as misuse. (doh.) Blade point is a matter of preference. My good friend has a knife that eats nails and shits razor blades, it's a large hunk of steel with a worn edge, worn serrations, and a tanto blade for strength. My EDC, on the other hand, is more elegant; it has a reverse tanto blade to ensure strength without sacrificing a curved blade for cutting ease. It depends on what you plan on using it. If you know you'll mistreat it (and some of you do) get a knife that'll take a beating. If you want it for some minor cutting here and there, get a blade that's quick to cut, and fast. Spear points (to me) aren't good choices for an EDC knife. Flat points are supposed to be for rescue type operations, but to me, you severely impair the ability of the blade by limiting it's ability to penetrate thick material. The non-cutting side of the pointed end should carry some of the thickness from the base of the blade to give some added security, should the knife be tweaked in a way that puts sideways pressure on the blade. Your blade should be forged from (at least) 440 steel keep a working edge. It should have 440 printed on the blade. I prefer the black coating on the blade because I think it protects the blade more than no coating does. And no, it doesn't make you a l33t super sniper ninja pirate spec-ops mofo to have a black blade, so don't even think about it. I actually prefer uncoated blades on non-work knives.

Grip
Here, I might get some people who disagree with me. I promote thick grips because thick grips fit your hands better than skinny grips. The grip is called a grip for a reason, you should be able to grip it! If you grasp a ruler, you'll find that it's fairly easy for you to slide the ruler up and down with your other hand. But if you grip a highlighter, you're going to have trouble moving it up and down in your hand. Don't get hung up on a slender profile, if it's uncomfortable in your hand, you don't have a sure grip on it, and it's not as functional as it could be. Your fingertips should just barely touch the strong part of your hand under your thumb, or be just short of touching it. The grip should not be like grasping a wooden pencil; that grip doesn't use the strength of the fingers in the grip. A clip is a requirement. The escalator is eating more and more of Little Timmy's jeans while you fish around in your pocket for the object of his salvation. Clips that place the knife in a downward facing position are preferred; it saves you the motion of flipping the knife around to ready it. I prefer wide clips to thin ones, as the wide ones tend to be looser without sacrificing tensile strength. I also find that the clip also affords a bit of girth, and friction which helps solidify my grip.

Opening Method
A stud on the blade is probably the most preferred opening method. It can be opened with a thumb-flick (once the knife is worn in), and doesn't require the thumb move very far from a gripping position. As opposed to a thumb hole which requires that your thumb move to a "thumbs-up" position to open the knife, which leaves your four fingers to be the only things holding on to the grip. The only choice in rapid deployment is the thumbstud. Auto opening knives that require only a button press to open are only slightly better than the thumbstud, but carry legal issues, and will make your coworkers wonder what the hell you're doing with a switchblade. I'd stay away from them for a number of reasons, but if it's legal, and you don't mind the stigma, feel free. "Flipper" style opening methods (a protrusion that sticks out the spine of the grip) must be opened with your index finger, and while reliable and effective, require your hand to be too far from a standard grip to be seriously fast. Note that you certainly don't need a lightening fast opening for standard tasks, and could easily get by with any of the other opening methods, but when you DO need it, you'll wish you had it. Is is advisable that you not to a wrist flip opening as it (usually) requires you to break the standard grip, and (usually) requires a recoil, a forward motion, and a flip back motion to open. This is just not as fast as a thumbstud, and attracts the same switchblade attention to you (while causing you to wave a knife around with a weak grip).
NOTE on thumbstuds: NOT all thumbstuds will allow you a thumb-flip opening! Try to get a thumbstud that is far from the pivot point of the blade. The farther it is, the easier it will be to flip open. When you're trying thumb-flips on thumbstuds in the knife shop, try to open the blade by pushing up on the thumbstud with the top of the end of your thumb-nail. Note that you probably won't be able to flick the knife open since it is new, and needs to be worn in. If you are able to open the knife easily by pressing up on the thumbstud with the top of the tip of your thumb-nail, you should be able to thumb-flick it once worn in.

Porportions
I know I shouldn't have to get into this but pick a knife that fits the size of your hand! I know someone who carries around one of those obscenely long Spydercos! You should be able to wrap your fist around the blade without it poking out. Don't pick up something that doesn't fit your frame, you won't carry it, and if you do, you get into aggressive appearance issues (check the law section below). Knives are short for a reason, their strength is not in the how hard you can swing the blade like a sword, it's how solidly you can manipulate it with your arm and hand strength.

Lock
Your EDC folder must have a blade lock. Serious operation of a knife without one is dangerous to your fingers. I enjoy being able to unlock and close my knife in one motion, but that is not a requirement. What IS a requirement, is a lock that you feel is secure. I try to stay away from liner locks since they usually require a secondary lock to keep the liner lock from returning to a position where the blade is no longer locked. Why I'm locking my lock in place when there are other possible locking solutions is beyond me. However, liner locks allow pretty safe closing with only one hand, so it's really your call; maybe you like safeties on your safeties, it's a preference thing. One thing I won't abide, is a liner lock that does not stop against the center of the blade, and allows the blade to rock back and forth a few millimeters. If the lock is not firmly in the center of the blade, holding it in place, it is at the edge of the blade, holding it. A thin liner lock at the edge of a blade does not seem safe to me. Sufficient force could cause the blade to slip past the liner lock, and put your fingers in danger. Note that I don't feel the same about thick liner locks that may not lock right in the middle of the blade, but are thick enough that they reach the middle of the blade. The spine locks are very strong and reliable. My preferred locking method is the axis lock by Benchmade. The lock is strong and secure, easy to manipulate, and high enough that it doesn't interfere with the grip like other locks that use the side of the grips.

Weight
This shouldn't even be a factor. But if you're holding a knife, and find yourself thinking about how much it weighs; put it down. It's too heavy. A natural grip will keep the weight from being noticeable.

Laws
There are many laws that deal with carrying knives. It is necessary that you understand the laws for your state (and possibly city) before deciding on an EDC folder. Blade length is probably the most prominent one, but they're usually not unreasonable (well, considering there really shouldn't be regulations about this, I guess they're all unreasonable). Opening action is usually limited to the prevention of switch blades. Even in hoplophobic California, the fastest thumb-flick doesn't qualify as an automatic knife. We also allow switch blades with blades shorter than 2 inches (1 1/2"?). Auto-close became a big one a few years back, check to see that the knife "prefers" to remain closed. This means that if the knife is very close to being closed, it will go the last few centimeters by itself. I'm not sure why this was such an important legal issue, but it was. Aggressive appearance is an important one. This is your EDC folder, not your fantasy Klingon dagger of doom. Should you be required to use your knife in defense, a plain-looking EDC folder will look better in court than a double-bladed, spiney, black, etc... knife. When in doubt, just imagine the prosecution holding up the knife for the jury to see, are they going to gasp in horror, or have a surprised look on their faces? Or are they going to be underwhelmed and confused as to why the prosecutor is trying to convince them that this IS the dagger of doom? For the most part, you don't have to worry about what kind of knife you carry since most people folks don't care. Remember that if you go to a courthouse or other government property, you will be asked to relinquish your blade. In places like this, there are boxes (and boxes) of unreclaimed blades that folks have left there. Some of these guys have sticky fingers, so make sure you get a property receipt for your $200 knife before you hand it over to Bubba (or just don't bring it in the first place).

Folding
An EDC knife should be a folder instead of a fixed blade for one important reason. EDC knives should always be ready to go, and fixed blade knives are not always ready to go. Aside from being frowned upon (and illegal) in some areas (IE: everywhere but Texas :), they require a holster, and holsters require attachment apparatai. Belts, straps, hooks, etc, are all stuff you don't want to deal with, and probably won't when you decide whether or not to grab your knife before running out the door. With few exceptions, I always have a knife on me or within arms reach, and I wouldn't be able to do that if I carried a fixed blade knife (though I sure would like to be able to).

Durability
How long will it last? Does it come with a lifetime warranty? What materials is it made of? Will the blade rust? (it better not!) Does the handle look like it would shatter into a million plastic shards if it was dropped from 12 feet? Some of these questions can be answered by simply looking at the knife, or asking the knife salesman, but some of these answers can only be found through anecdotes and internet reviews. Talk to the knife salesman, ask if they know anything about the durability of the knife or if they get any returns of it. The easy way out of having to wonder about these questions is, you stick with a trusted brand name, and you actually pay a bit of money for it. All those quality materials aren't cheap, and won't come cheap. Spend the money now for piece of mind later.

Mechanical
Loose and tight, to me, it's all about loose, and tight. Tight is where different pieces touch. The tolerances should be extremely tight in almost every area. The only areas that should be loose are the clip tension (for easy clipping), and the area around the blade when closed. When closed, the cutting edge of the blade should NOT touch the grip in any way, this dulls the blade and smacks of poor craftsmanship. When closed the sides of the blade should not touch the sides of the grip. Inspect the hinge the blade pivots on, is it very well sealed? Open the blade slowly while inspecting the pivot point. Are there any burs or catches on the hinge? Or does it look like a solid, well machined... machine? Does it have cavities that stuff like pocket fuzz can get into? Like checking for durability, the easy way out is to pick a well known brand name, and spend a decent bit of money on the craftsmanship that comes with the name.

Should you consider your EDC knife an implement of self-defense, please read this post;
Dangerous Misconceptions about EDC knives

Should you be apathetic to finding your perfect EDC knife, I'll leave you with this excellent, average size, general purpose knife that fits the EDC requirements perfectly. My EDC. (except mine doesn't have sarrations, buy yours with sarrations) You should have no problem ordering one, should you live nowhere near a knife shop.

Parlee Posit #2884

In which ExistingThing unhinges his opponent; lets listen in...

You can't say that guns are the same as knives or other weapons! Guns let you kill ANYONE from a distance! It makes it EASIER to kill someone!
I agree.
Then you see why we need to ban guns!
I do not.
But you just agreed with me! You said that guns make it too EASY to kill someone! It shouldn't be that easy!
I beg to differ.
Why?!
If you're a 300 pound wrestler, and I'm a 90 pound robber with a gun, you're saying that I have an unfair advantage, right?
Right! Without the gun, you'd be powerless!
Exactly. Now, lets switch it up; If you're a 300 pound robber, and I'm a 90 pound woman with a gun, you're saying that I have an unfair advantage, right?
... ... I... You... uh... hmm...
[sorry, your shit appears to have been ruined, please try again]

Disclaimer: A posit is, by definition, postulation. This posit has been provided for entertainment purposes only. Any similarities to actual events are entirely coincidental (no matter how many witnesses were there that day), and smack of paranoia on your part, if I do say so myself.
*ExistingThing vanishes in a puff of logic*

Parlee Posit #4614

In which ExistingThing requires an air horn; lets listen in...

*ring*
Hello, this is (my name).
JAKE?!
... Hello, this is (my name).
Jake is that you?!
This is (my name).
JAKE? IS THIS JAKE???
No.
WHO IS THIS???
(my name)!
You're not Jake!
I find your grasp of the obvious keen.
Huh?!
I called you an idiot.
WHAT? Why?!
Because I thought you should know.
*click*

Hmm...

*ring*
Hello, this is-- Jake.
JAKE! What're we doing tonight?
We're all going to sit down and ponder your inability to successfully operate your telephone, eventually culminating in a ritualized destruction of said phone to free it from the sins of past transgressions.
What?!
I called you an idiot!
WHAT?! #&*$!! *click*

Disclaimer: A posit is, by definition, postulation. This posit has been provided for entertainment purposes only. Any similarities to actual events are entirely coincidental (no matter how many witnesses were there that day), and smack of paranoia on your part, if I do say so myself.
*ExistingThing vanishes in a puff of logic*

Hey man, want some speakers?

On my way to work today I stopped to fill up on gas. As I waited a black Chevy SUV pulled up, with the passenger hanging out the window. He asked me something that I couldn't quite hear.

Two white guys with shaved heads, small build driver, medium build passenger, "tribal" tattoos on both, back seat full to the roof with large cardboard boxes. "Well, they can't intend on tossing me into the back, and they'd be pretty bold to do anything at such a crowded gas station. They probably just need directions..." I thought. I got within 6 feet of the car, and asked him what he said.

"Man, you want some speakers? FexEx screwed up, and I got a double shipment, and I don't want to give them back to my boss! You interested?"

"Naw, I'll pass."

As the car then sped away I heard him say, "why would he pass?" It looked like it got on the freeway.

Hmm, why WOULD I pass? I dunno, maybe because receiving stolen goods is against the law. (yes, even if you didn't know it at the time) Maybe because your story didn't make any sense. Maybe because you only drove up to me; someone who looked like he would be "cool" about picking up some possibly hot merchandise. Maybe because people don't usually conduct business with total strangers at a gas station. Maybe because your driver looked like he had a horde of Red Chinese after him. Maybe because holding on to a package stolen off of someone's front porch is a bad idea (especially if you're the neighborhood petty criminals, which I'd bet money they were). Maybe because you might be able to convince the cops that some dude paid you to steal the package, and by the way, here's his license plate number. And finally; maybe because when a deal is too good to be true, it probably is...

Better luck next time guys, hopefully you'll get rid of the goods before the police match someone missing a shipment of speakers with the license plate number I gave them.

When to hesitate

I'm a black-and-white kind of guy when it comes involving myself in a situation. To me, whether or not a situation warrants action is almost always clear. If someone is in danger of being hurt, action is required. If someone is calling for help, action is required. If a situation is escalating quickly, action is required. I will never be one of those people who stands idlely by and thinks aloud, "Someone should do something!" Being able to stop something and doing nothing makes you just as bad as the perpetrator. Enabling bad people makes you no better than them.

(I should point out that I specified that you should help if you are ABLE. If you see no way that YOU can control a situation, do not attempt to!)

For all my action and resolve, there is one situation that makes me hesitate; domestic issues. Here's why. No matter how clear cut the situation seems, if it involves a husband and wife, it will ALWAYS be clear as mud. Wives refusing to prosecute their husbands is a very common thing. Wives testifying against their non-police saviors is almost as common.

Why wives insist on maintaining abusive relationships is a mystery to everyone but them, but they don't want to see their "hubby" go to jail, and they need to charge someone for the incident. Without the victim, the prosecution is almost completely lame. The only saving grace is if there are multiple witnesses who see the incident (not just hear it); even then there are no guarantees.

Getting involved in domestic situations is never simple, so think hard about some of the possibilities before hand. What would you be forced to tolerate? When would the situation warrant witness-less action? Should you wait for screams for help? (many domestic disturbances don't involve screams for help) In what situations do you retreat to a phone to call 911 before proceeding?

Engaging in a situation is always risky business, but remember that the next time you stop an assault, you could easily find yourself in jail for doing the right thing.

I HATE "cooling off" periods!

MAN, I HATE cooling off periods! I would shoot cooling off periods if I could! I'M SO ANGRY!!!! AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Not really. They're just funny, actually. But not like funny: "Ha Ha, you have to wait" more like funny: "Raped and strangled by the man stalking you because the police can't protect you, restraining orders aren't worth the paper they're printed on, and you had to wait a cooling off period before you could protect yourself" which, tragically enough, isn't even actually that funny...

One week till I can pick up my legally purchased property.

One man's trash...

Since I live in an apartment complex there are always people moving in and out, and leaving furniture and other odds and ends by the dumpster. I'm not too proud to admit grabbing a couple of old (broken?) monitors to take shooting in the desert, but that was the extent of the "treasure" until recently.

A bit ago, I saw a scanner sitting next to the dumpster. Trash right? Wrong. (when I first saw this project on MAKE I thought it was a little silly to make something so obvious. But, had I not seen the project, I wouldn't have thought twice about seeing a scanner sitting by the dumpster.) I picked up the scanner, and put it somewhere out of the way. Anxious to trace over some of my sketches, I almost bought a lighting fixture last weekend, but didn't. Guess what was sitting by the dumpster last night when I got home? A standing lamp. I stripped out the bulb fixtures, and electrical cord, and checked those two items off my list.

Now that I'm pretty close to having a free light table, I want to hold off on buying the fluorescent bulb... I realize that the likelihood of finding a discarded fluorescent bulb is pretty slim, but I'm still going to give it a little bit before I cave in.

Isn't recycling fun?

Just in case you didn't believe me

Just in case my earlier post didn't convince some of you that the first amendment is vulnerable; Bruce points out an instance where this is already happening.

The two amendments are connected, and it's a two way street... If the 2nd goes, the 1st will go, and if the 1st goes, the 2nd will go.

The gunnies are doing their part to fight this attack on the 1st amendment, where are you antis???

Mutually assured destruction

One thing all of you anti 2nd amendment folks don't realize, is that if the 2nd amendment is ever repealed, the 1st won't be far behind.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

And you guys complain that the 2nd amendment is worded poorly! You don't think a good enough lawyer can fill this amendment with holes??? Hell, why would they even have to do that? They could just choose to ignore it as they do the 2nd amendment.

I bet you all smile a smug little smirk when ever you see gunners complaining that their 2nd amendment rights are being infringed, but you should know that we won't be doing the same when you guys are rallying, passing petitions, and trying to raise awareness for the 1st amendment infringement that will be going on after the 2nd amendment is nullified.

You're all shooting yourselves in the foot! Our two amendments are extremely close together, and if one falls, the other will soon follow.

... and while I have your attention; what part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?!

SMS notification for new Gmail

Awesome! After some searching, I found a free SMS site that will allow unlimited messages without a captcha, (damn google) but it does add a short ad for the service to the text message which is tolerable considering the utility.

Instead of being a jerk, and just posting the code, and encouraging you to figure it out "yer damn self" I'm going to explain each of the lines cuz I'm in a teaching mood, and it's 3:30 in the morning...

#!/usr/bin/perl
$oldmail='0';

The first line declares this file as a Perl script
The second line declares the scalar ($) variable "oldmail" with a value of "0"

while(1){

This begins a WHILE loop (while) that will go on forever (1). It will continuously run the code contained within the {} following the statement. The opening { is at the end of this line, the closing } is all the way at the end of the script. This means it will continuously run the code contained within these curly brackets.

`curl -u USERNAME:PASSWORD https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom 2>/dev/null`=~/<fullcount>(\d+)<\/fullcount>/;

Err... Ok, so here's the tricky part... :)
We'll start with the first part:
`curl -u USERNAME:PASSWORD https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom 2>/dev/null`
Curl is a linux program which interacts with web servers. It's basicly a browser. What we're going to do here is obtain some information from Gmail's feed. The feed will tell us how many unread messages there are. The ` ("~" without the shift) is a container for shell code, this means that the code within is run in linux (bash, namely) instead of Perl. We have the name of the program we wish to run, curl, the user and pass info it will need, and the site it will get for us. The 2>/dev/null just says that if there are any errors, it should trash them to keep them from mucking up our output. Were I to run this line of code in a plain bash prompt I would get the following:

[bishop@Aemaeth ~]$ curl -u myusername:mypassword https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom 2>/dev/null
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<feed version="0.3" xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#"><title>Gmail - Inbox for myemailaddy@gmail.com</title><tagline>New messages in your Gmail Inbox</tagline><fullcount>2</fullcount><link rel="alternate" href="http://mail.google.com/mail" type="text/html"/><modified>2006-09-16T10:27:27Z</modified></feed>

As you can see, the command will give us the info we want; the number of new messages we have. It's right between the two "fullcount" tags, and that's how we're going to find it...

Ok, now that we've covered the first part of that line of code, lets finish it up:
=~/<fullcount>(\d+)<\/fullcount>/;
The =~ means that the preceeding statement (the output of the command we just went over) should contain (=) the following expression (~) held within the forward slashes /.../ If you look inside those slashes you can see that fullcount HTML tag we were going to use to help the script pick up the number we want it to find. If you compair the match code <fullcount>(\d+)<\/fullcount> with the output of the command ...ne><fullcount>2</fullcount><li... You can see where we're we're going. But what does (/d+) mean? First, the parentheses (...) mean that whatever is within them will be assigned to a new variable named $1 that will be important in the next line. The /d is a code that means that program should try to match a digit (0123456789) in that spot, and the + means that it should try to match that digit one or more times. So, we're going to take one or more digits found between <fullcount> and </fullcount> and put those digits into a new variable called $1.

Everyone still with me??? :-\ That was the tough part.

if($1>$oldmail){

This is an IF statement. It says that if $1 (the number of unread messages) is bigger than the oldmail variable (0 at first) to run the code contained within the following curly brackets {...} So, using our example, I had two unread messages, so 2 is greater than 0, and the code will run.

`curl -s -c cookie https://www.vazu.com 2> /dev/null >/dev/null;curl -s -b cookie -d 'send_to=714-555-5555&send_from=714-555-5555&send_message=j00 %20haev%20teh%20mail&formstatus=1&countdown=96&Submit=Send' https://www.vazu.com/library/homepagesend.php 2> /dev/null > /dev/null; rm cookie`;

Ok, this is more linux code, since it's between the `...` basically, this code sends the SMS message to your phone by using a website that provides that service (for free). It's not critical that you understand it inside and out, but I've bolded some key points to make this a little clearer, and I'll go over some of the highlights. Note that there are three different commands here, lumped into one line; they are seperated by the semi-colon (;). The first command makes internet cookies by connecting to the web site. The next command uses those cookies to send a POST request to the server with some special codes the server needs to complete its job. The last command deletes the cookies as they are of no use. This code will tell the server to send a text message to 714-555-5555 saying "j00 haev teh mail" (because you do).

Congratulations! You've just received a text message for getting a new piece of mail! I have no doubt that this is the most meaningful moment of your life. :)

The next line is simply a "}" which signals the termination of the code to be run from that IF statement earlier.

$oldmail=$1;

Here, we're setting the oldmail number to the current number of unread messages for the next cycle. This way, it won't constantly get SMS messages because the number of unread messages is more than 0. Once it's reset to 2, if I get another message later, 3 will be greater than 2, and I'll receive an SMS saying I have new mail. Concordinately, if I read all my unread messages, and have 0 unread messages, 0 will not be greater than 3, and no SMS will be sent, and the 3 will be reset to 0 for the next round of messages. that made sense, right?

sleep(180);

This tells the script to wait for 180 seconds, otherwise it would run as fast as it could, and that would just be rude and unnecessary. You might set it to 10 seconds for testing, but in practice, 3 minutes is probably the fastest you could want it to update...

The last line is simply a "}" which closes the WHILE statement for code that should be run forever. Once the code gets here, it will go back to right after the WHILE statement and start over.


#!/usr/bin/perl
$oldmail='0';
while(1){
`curl -u USERNAME:PASSWORD https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom 2>/dev/null`=~/<fullcount>(\d+)<\/fullcount>/;
if($1>$oldmail){
`curl -s -c cookie https://www.vazu.com 2> /dev/null >/dev/null;curl -s -b cookie -d 'send_to=714-555-5555&send_from=714-555-5555&send_message=j00%20haev%20teh%20mail&formstatus=1&countdown=96&Submit=Send' https://www.vazu.com/library/homepagesend.php 2> /dev/null > /dev/null; rm cookie`;
}
$oldmail=$1;
sleep(180);
}


All your content are belong to me

I love writing spiders and scrapers. Why do webmasters have to be such dicks and limit, complicate or convolute access to the content they provide?

What?

They want me to look at ads?!

Well, lets just see what my pet spider has to say about that...

...That's right, Spidey Now say it so everyone else can hear...

"All your content are belong to us!!! You have no chance to survive, make your time! Bwahahaha!"

For great justice!

INDEED!

It's 2am PST

And blogger is down. Just thought I'd point that out...

Bugger... Little help here?

Ok, so I need another gun. (I can quit whenever I want!) I've got a bit of cash lying around, and while it's not enough to buy whatever I can think of, I'm having a hell of a time thinking of what I can spend it on!

Here's what I've been knocking around...

SKS

(would probably be a yugo) cheap, reliable, effective, and damn fun! (and it should tide me over until I can build my AK)

G22

It looks fun as hell, I could see plinking turning into a more frequent event with the low cost of .22 ammo. One poster argued about the G22; "The G22 is more of a toy since it's relatively impractical. Unless, that is, you need to do some CQB against an elite force of gophers." Plus it will fill the hole in my carbine-loving heart left by the California-illegal Storm *sniff*... So it's a little bit tacticool, sue me. :) It's a bullpup design which gives me a manageable 20" barrel, and it comes in lefty!

Benelli Nova or wood 870

I'm pretty decided on the Nova, but I just love the wood so much! (btw, DROOL)

1911 Springfield GI

Good starter 1911 that can be upgraded pretty well.

Savage 110

Or any other reliable precision rifle.

Some kind of Czeckoslovackizeign pistol

I don't know why either, the guys on calguns won't shut up about the damn thing!

MKII

More .22 love, and why? I blame Xavier for this...

sp101 (snubby)

A snubby serves a very particular purpose that no other kind of gun can, and I want one. Nay! Need one... (there, that should convince me)

Kel-Tec SU-16CA

Folding, light weight, .223 rifle of doom. And it takes AR mags!

I'd like to have a .22 very much so I can make more frequent trips to the range, but I'd also like to have a shotgun and a snubby! I can easily see myself getting all of these, but my question to you is what order should I get them in??? Of course, if you have any other recommendations, please leave them!

Have you forgotten?

We may not have forgotten; but that doesn't mean we're remembering.

Linky-linka-do

EDIT: read THIS before you read anything else.

Sometimes people with a "duty to retreat" can't...
Linky
suprisingly pro-carry undertones from the NY Times!

An excellent case to get these dangerous weapons off our streets! Linky

A hilarious post from the Defiant Infidel on Bill Clinton's record with the military.
Linky

Just when you think they've hit rock bottom, they get a jackhammer...
Linky
the terrible thing is; abusing the memory of a boy lost in Columbine is just the means to an end for the Brady bunch. No respect for anything except their agenda.

Bruce over at mAss Backwards finally has the much awaited bumper sticker: Give Peace a chance / Kill Terrorists
Go now, and get 1 or 14!
Linky

The story Bush doesn't want you to hear!

Yes, the story you won't see anywhere else; Bush pressures TV network to edit or not show a film that portrays him in a bad light!

How far can we be from a Stalinist, totalitarianistic, big brother society!!!

We must fight to keep our speech free! We can't have politicians telling us what we can or can't see!!! WHAT WILL GO NEXT!!!!!!?!?!?????!?!?!11111

EDIT: Sorry, slight error; it was actually Clinton about ABC's "The Path to 9/11", and no one cares...

Some good news for a change

Blogagog over at Blogiburton has some good news for us.

Give him a click and feel better about the state of our world.

Real life confessions of a knife-o-holic

I would argue that I'm not really a knife-o-holic, but I really don't have any data to back it up... and have a perponderance of data to to the contrary... damn

I would argue that all... erm... (I'll have to count them later) all of my knives server different purposes.

• EDC folder: Benchmade 940 (my baby!)
  
• Extra EDC folder: Seki Cut SC-141
  
• Sub EDC folder: CRKT M16-01K
  
• Utility knife: CRKT Bear Claw 2515
  
• Multi-use Pocket knife: Victorinox German Army (Bundeswehr) Issue
  
• Car knife: Gerber Applegate-Fairbairn Covert
  
• Combat concealable folder: Tarani Karambit (yes, I am skilled with it)
  
• Combat concealable fixed: Short Ka-Bar Recurve

There are others, and I love them all; but these were the serious ones.

For as full as my collection was, it was incomplete. I needed a true fighting knife. There were some strict requirements for this category.

Length: The blade had to be long and thick to ensure maximum damage on stabbing motions, and sufficient effective range when swung in a downward, blade out position. But not long enough to be unweildly or difficult to operate.
Grip: The grip had to fit my hand perfectly, and be slim enough to manipulated to different grip styles quickly and reliably. A slight forward angle would make it more effective in the downward position, but was not necessary. A grip with a bottom that was not flat would make a suitable striking area for non-lethal strikes to the head or appendages, but was not required. Grip aids (finger notches, holes to put fingers through) aid in blade retention, but hinder manipulation. It may be possible to find a grip aid that doesn't, but my best bet were rubberized grips that stuck when gripped tightly, but still slipped enough to be manipulated freely. The bottom of the grip should be wider than the middle of the grip to help retention. (The grips on full sized Ka-Bars were too big for my hand to grip comfortably, and were too round to allow fast manipulation)
Blade: Spear-point has the advantage of a curved cutting area, and strength in penetration; it was a requirement. A concave curve on the blade close to the grip would be a (cosmetic) bonus, but was not required. Sarrations are not required or necessary. There should be some level of forward and rear guard that is part of the blade. (I don't trust guards that are not part of the blade) Full tang is required. Blade thickness must be reenforced on the back of the blade to a satisfactory degree. No blade coating is required, lack of coating may even be favorable.
Weight/Balance: There should be enough weight to add to any swing, but not enough to make gripping a problem. Balance should be just above a standard grip if the handle is weighted properly, and the blade is long enough. The handle should be heavy enough that a low grip and hatchet swing should give the blade a machette feel (didn't think I was going to get this one)
Sheath: Sheath must have all tactical ammenities. Eyelets for tying to the thigh, and attaching to a military-style belt, velcro, adjustable belt-loops, and possibly a pressure retention device (I like them, but am not sure if I trust them when carried upside-down).

I'd been looking or this perfect knife for some time, but last Sunday I think I got as close as I was going to get (which was pretty damn close!) As soon as I walked in I picked it up and was sure I had found was I was looking for, but still looked at the other selections. Nothing else fit the category as well as this knife did. I couldn't resist.

Benchmade Offsider

Blogger be fuxored

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with blogger.com but the comments are acting funny...

They seem to be updating how many comments there are for a post (slowly) but not showing them.

If a post says there are 2 comments, and when you click through it only shows 1, just click on "post a comment" to read the other(s).

Crappy choose your own adventure book.

While we're at it lets hit home defense long guns real quick.
You wake to the unmistakable sound of glass breaking, you wake your spouse to dial 911 or dial yourself. Knowing the police are still a distance away, you pick up your long gun (shotgun/rifle), call out "Who's there?!" and work the action loudly (or maybe you're silent, it doesn't matter). You don't hear anyone running away so you carefully open your door and quickly enter the hallway. You see a goblin standing in the middle of your hallway 8 feet from you next to a door to another room holding a knife. You smugly think to yourself that he was a fool to bring a knife to a gunfight. You order him to the ground and he and ducks into the room (possibly before you could shoot him) and slams the door behind him. There's a window in the room, and you think he's taking a flying leap through it right about now (or maybe it goes elsewhere in the house, and you don't want him there). You pursue him and kick open or open the door to find the room seemingly empty. You move toward the room, and as soon as the barrel of your long gun breaks the plane of the doorjam (or maybe it already did when you pointed it into the room) a gloved hand reaches for the barrel. You discharge into the ceiling and grip your gun fiercely thinking it would be taken from you, but before your eyes have adjusted after the flash, you're against the wall, barrel in the air acquiring some unnecessary ventilation.

You have died. Do you want your possessions identified? [ynq].

Don't Monday morning quarterback this one; just ask yourself whether or not this could happen to you.

Bats, Shotguns, and Knives (oh my!)

So I annoyed some folks at the gun shop today; though I suspect it was just because I let some air out of their comfort zone (which is a good thing).

Two guys (Roommates?) were at the counter talking about buying a shotgun for home defense. One was trying to convince the other it was safe and a good idea, the other said a bat was all you needed. My ignorance-o-meter pegged, and I stopped to listen to their conversation and positioned myself to become part of it. The bat-promoting one looked at me for help (not a good idea in a gun shop), I said that someone with a knife could beat someone with a bat 80% of the time. This earned me silence and looks of disbelief from both guys and the two guys behind the counter. I elaborated...

Swinging a bat or club has three steps; readying, striking, and recovering. Readying is pulling the bat back, striking is the actual swing, and the recovery is returning the bat to the ready position. All of these steps take time, and only one of them can inflict damage. You also must consider the effective area of a club weapon. When swinging a bat, the part that will do the most damage is the end of the bat because it's moving the fastest. Since you're swinging the bat, either from the side or from above the head, the speed of the bat decreases as it gets closer to your grip and becomes less effective. This means that if you hit someone with a bat right above where you are gripping it, it will hurt less than if you hit them with the end of the bat. So lets say that a bat has an effective area of two feet, starting from the end of the bat, and going back towards the handle, this means that if anyone is either in front or behind this effective area; the bat will do no or little damage. Couple that with the fact that a bat must be recovered to a swinging position to be reused, and there are a lot of openings for someone to get close enough to you to incapacitate you with a knife. See, people always think they should get away from the person swinging the bat, when they should really get closer. You might say that you could just not pull the club back as far, but then you make the club less effective by not swinging it broadly enough. If you have the bat pulled back and someone's walking towards you, can you honestly say that they can't approach two feet in either the time it takes you to swing and miss or pull the bat back more before swinging? Even if you catch hit him with the bat, if he only makes it 1.5 feet, it may not be going fast enough to incapacitate him. Once he's under the bat's range with a knife, you're done. And that's all assuming that you even have enough room to swing the bat effectively.

One of the clerks said, "Well, some robber isn't going to know to try that." To which I replied; "You gonna bet your life on that?" His reply; "...Well, I still know that the best thing for home defense is a good old 870." I thought briefly and decided to respond; "I don't trust long guns for checking out things that go bump in the night." "What?!" "It's the same argument..."

The effective area of any gun is beyond it's barrel, if someone can get between you and the end of the barrel, you're gun is useless. Remember that the barrel of a gun enters a room before you do, and if you can't see someone pressed against the wall next to the entrance, and they grab the barrel and point it in a safe direction while they tackle you, and get you with a knife, there's not much you can do.

"Feh! (yes he actually said "feh") He's actually going to get close enough to grab the barrel of my shotgun?! That's crazy. He'd be better off running."

"True, but what if he's cornered or thinks he's cornered? And you seriously don't think that he'd be able to get close enough to you in a house full of hallways, doors, and furniture? Door frames aren't wide enough for you to slice the pie completely without your barrel poking into the room."

"I still don't think that would happen."

Another clerk chimed in; "Ok; what would YOU use to clear your house?"

"A hi-cap pistol with a mounted flashlight so you can see, and laser sight so you can see where it's aiming when you pull close to your body when you enter a room blind. If you hold it to the side of your chest or under your chin against your chest it can't be grabbed or redirected by someone close. And a fixed blade knife on my left hip."

(the first clerk:) "A knife! Hah! I'm not listening anymore!"

"90% of fights wind up on the ground that's why Brazilian Jujitsu is such a popular fighting style. If one of you has a gun, chances are you're going to be fighting over it. When you're rolling on the ground a shotgun isn't going to help at all, and a handgun can be lost or change hands in the scuffle. With a knife ready, you can stick him to get the advantage. A knife is the most effective close range weapon. If two guys are rolling on the ground unarmed or fighting over a gun, the one with the knife will win."

"...Hmm. I still don't know..."

By now I noticed that more people were listening to our conversation and all seemed to have thoughtful expressions on the faces. I smiled inside because it looked like I got through to some people... But I had to go.

"Well, it's been fun guys; if you decide to go with the shottie, go with an 870, and get a sling for it so you can make sure it stays close to your body, and can't get wrestled away from you."

And I left without anyone saying a word.

Am I the only one who thinks of these things???

mmm... sling...

I put one of these together this morning, and I must say that it's pretty damn cool...

Of course, it kind of helps that I'm a big DIY lover, but who couldn't appreciate such a complex compendium of nylon webbing and sling locks???

(note: once you put it on; spend some time playing around with it. At first it looks damn complex, but after you get the hang of it; it's still damn complex, but you know how to use it)

I think slings are important, as it's not always viable for you to carry your rifle in your hands in a SHTF type situation; especially when you'd have to put it down to do something else or use your hands (as most are wont to do...)

Add speech to your server

As all coders everywhere all the time say; "Why code it, when someone else already did?!"

Yes, normally adding speech to a server is a long, drawn out process. Not to mention the fact that they normally suck pretty hard... Enter AT&T Labs! (head over there; the demo is pretty fun to play with!)

They (or Wizzard) seem to have developed an engine that works rather well. Sadly, they think that you should have to pay money to use their impressive engine, no matter how limited the use. Normally, this would cause you to go back to something like festival for your text-to-speech needs, but not this time...

AT&T was kind enough to provide a demo of their service that allows you up to 300 characters of text, and offers to host the speech wav file for 5 minutes. This is more than enough for us...

We simply need to take web input, forward it off to AT&T's page, and when it replies with the file, download the file so it's hosted locally, and link to it on the cgi script's reply page...

The following code is supposed to be a CGI script. It will accept input from a page that sends the script one variable and one value for that variable. (Of course all of that is easily changed)

Even if you only know a bit of perl you shouldn't have a tough time understanding the code, otherwise, increase your coding skill by 2 points...

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n";

my @rray=split('=', $ENV{QUERY_STRING});
http://192.20.225.55/tts/cgi-bin/nph-talk 2> /dev/null|grep wav`;
if(`curl -d "voice=crystal&txt=@rray[1]&downloadButton=DOWNLOAD" http://192.20.225.55/tts/cgi-bin/nph-talk 2> /dev/null|grep wav`=~/href=".+\/speech\/(.+)"/i){
$filename=$1;
`wget -O "/var/www/html/dump/$filename" "http://192.20.225.55/tts/speech/$filename"`;
}

print "<bgsound src=\"../dump/$filename\">";

As with all my other scripts, modularity is the name of the game. This is why I didn't use Perl's download function, and used linux tools to process some of the input. Besides; why write the code when someone else has already written it!

Recap of today...

Today I pretty much hung out with my dad for most of the day, then went to see Idlewild. Good day. As a bonus, my girlfriend made some brownies!

Please note the milk accompaniment. Brownies without milk, is like beef jerky without pineapple juice. (you've never tried it?!)

Here's the brownies about 20 seconds later.


My dad was kind enough to bring along his good friend Jack...

The picture fails to relate the sheer size of this bottle...

So I've provided something for scale:

Please direct your attention to the dinosaur at the bottom of the picture. Yes, this enormous Cretaceous behemoth is dwarfed by the immense size of this bottle of Jack Daniels.

With an idea of the size of that bottle, please allow me to convey to you the size of Ava, our house rabbit...


Yes, she's really that big.

It's a little-known fact that these nuclear rabbits used to rule over the dinosaurs with an iron fist. Sadly, archeological have mistaken the remains of these immense once rulers of the Earth, and so their secret fades with history...

Re-zeroing and some "active" shooting

I've been extending my AR research, and have found some useful information that I'd like very much to put into practice. Mainly tips on handling, proper zeroing for carbines, tips on troubleshooting, and more.

The only problem is, the nearest range that will allow me to shoot a rifle is just far enough away to be an inconvenience, and charges more than I'd be willing to pay to spend an hour or two fiddling with my AR. So, my baby was developing a case of closet fever...

So I decided to let her stretch her legs a bit!

I'm going to be going up to the Victorville quarry on Saturday morning (only time I can go and not have to bother with traffic) so I can do all those lovely things I wanted to do.

I found this site with tons of AR info, here. Including how to make some of your own reactive targets, the improved battlesight zero, and plenty more. Lots of how to articles, and plenty of pictures for those who need them! So, I'll be constructing some reactive targets, and zeroing my rifle at 50 yards for uber-carbine-ability.

I didn't invite anyone else along as I knew I was planning on doing some drilling with the AR and the XD, and didn't want another soul around to worry about. But it strikes me that I may want to reconsider... The desert isn't the best area to be without someone to get help, but I think I'll be OK.

If I don't come back; sack a 'yote for me...

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Heroic bleeding

From War On Guns.

'Hero' turns her attention to gun control
WARNING; Do not read this article if you dislike seeing people refusing to learn from an important lesson about life.

She gets SO CLOSE to figuring it out! It's like watching a monkey trying to put the round peg in the round hole; he'll beat it against the square holes for a few minutes, and when he finally puts it in the right hole and you feel happy for his success; he removes it from the hole, and begins beating himself in the head with it. HE JUST DOESN'T FUCKING GET IT. STOP TRYING.

Klein said her American Red Cross training helped her instinctively know what to do when she was confronted and shot by the gunman.

...bleed? No, seriously; what fucking help did taking a deep breath do, besides prepare your soul's evacuation? FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! Don't lay back and accept your fate! Even if you can't fight for your own life, fight for the life of your unborn child! I'm disgusted.

How and why Haq "was able to legally acquire two semi-automatic weapons in our state is still a very disturbing mystery to me," she said.

Maybe it's a "very disturbing mystery" to me why people think that ANY LAWS will stop law-breakers... But hey, living in a fantasy world where everyone's your friend, and everyone wishes everyone else the best works out OK sometimes... I guess; unless you're bleeding to death from a slit throat in your own driveway. (which, incidentally, would be a bad time to learn that lesson...)

She urged employers around the region to take advantage of free- and low-cost workplace safety training programs.

Now, THIS I gotta see...
Touchy, feely, balding, instructor in hemp sandals: "Ok, so, if a crazed gunman enters your workplace, try to reason with him."
Employee: "Reason with him? But didn't you just said he was crazed?"
Hippy McHempSandals: "Well, just because someone appears to be crazed doesn't mean that we can't try to understand him."
Concerned employee: "But-- Umm, ok, how should we do that?"
Hippy: "Let him know that you understand his anger and that --"
Me: "BANG! BANG! 'OH GOD!' BANG! BANG! 'PLEASE NO!' BANG BANG!"
Cross instructor: "That's not funny."
Me: "You're god-damned right that wasn't funny! What was funny was the part where you tried to reason with him."

He said Klein likely remembered the training program's four Cs: check the scene for safety; call 911; care for the injured; and remain calm.

Sounds like good tips if you've just arrived at the scene, and the gunman is gone. But what tips did she have for preventing the murder of her coworkers as she watched helplessly? What? Huh? Nothing? Oh...

Despite her strong composure during press appearances, Klein said she is taking life day by day.

Congratulations! You've taken the first step! You've realized that you're life IS important, and that it could be taken from you at any time! Here's your token, good work! Now, on to lesson two, taking action to protect life from those with disregard for it. What's that? Gun control?! Give me that token back...

While there, they met with former President Clinton to discuss gun control and safety, issues his foundation supports.

-snip-

They proudly showed the photo to reporters Thursday at a press conference "Best to you and your child," Clinton wrote on the back of the picture frame.

Wow. Just wow. You know, that photo came very close to being signed "My condolences on your loss." A grand bit of help either one would have done to stop this tragedy.

"I know these people, which makes it so much harder," she said. "It also makes it so much more rewarding when I see us all rise to the occasion and heal with bravery and integrity."

Clearly, she believes that the best revenge is living well. Maybe she should tell that to her dead coworkers. "Hey, you crazed gunman intent on killing everyone you can; after you shoot all these innocent people, those of us who survive are going to all get together and heal with bravery and integrity! THEN what are you going to do!?" *BANG*

This kind of crap frustrates me to no end.

If she sat down and actually THOUGHT about the situation for more than 30 seconds, she'd realize that her current baby, and her unborn child rely on HER AND ONLY HER for their protection. She FAILED THEM.

She failed to adequately protect her life, and the lives of those she loves. And who was there to stop that piece of trash from almost killing her? The police? Some security guard? Happy thoughts? NOBODY.

She doesn't realize that the exact same thing could happen to her tomorrow, and the outcome would be the same (or worse) because SHE failed to take precautions!

Maybe she SHOULD get shot in the arm again. Then after it heals, she can be shot again. Then again, and again, and again; until she figures it out!
Note: existingthing in no way supports the repeated shooting of someone to help them learn an important lesson because he understands that some people are proud of their inability to change the way they think.

Frustrated with the article, I went straight to the horse's mouth, and had a fake interview with this hero; here's the fake transcript:

Me: First, of all, I want to commend you on your bravery.
Hero: Thank you, when I saw that man shooting all those people, and turn the gun towards me, I just knew that I had to do something. That's when my ninja-like Red Cross training kicked in, and I performed a triple flip towards the gunman, and took a deep breath in his face.
M: Excuse me, I get a little choked up when I hear you tell it like that. What was going through you mind?
H: Well, I was totally in charge of the situation. I got a little concerned when he shot me, and took me hostage, but I just remembered my training, and took another deep breath.
M: Incredible... And from a pregnant mother no less.
H: Yes. When I was lying on the floor bleeding, I could almost hear my unborn child calling on me to protect him by taking more deep breaths, and staying calm.
M: Unbelievable. Now, when did you get the idea to call 911?
H: Well, I remembered from my crisis training that calling 911 causes a SWAT team to be magically teleported into the room, heal all wounds, and revive the dead, so I knew I had to do it. Apparently, though some mix-up, they weren't able to do any of those things.
M: How terrible. Now, that you're out of that life threatening situation, how do you feel when returning to work?
H: Much safer. You see, they've installed a camera at the door, and a no trespassing sign.
M: Uh... I... see...
H: Yeah, I just wish that we had that before this incident happened. Then he would have thought twice about shooting people with the intention of giving himself up to make a political statement! Because then we'd have his picture seconds before he began!
M: *looks around nervously* Erm... So what are you up to now???
H: Well, I've taken measures to protect my family from this kind of violence.
M: How empowered of you; you've picked up a gun?
H: What?! NO! Guns cause violence; I read it in a book!
M: Oh! My apologies. You've hired a security firm for your family?
H: Don't be ridiculous!
M: Um, you've put 911 on "memory 1" to save the time of dialing one digit?
H: I already had done that, but my cell phone didn't get any reception there.
M: You'll have to forgive me, I'm not sure of other ways to protect your family from this kind of violence... Some kind of voodoo protection spell?
H: Now you're just being silly. It's really obvious when you think about it.
M: Forgive me.
H: It's fine; now, what did this man use to inflict so much violence?
M: Ah! A gun! You've bought a number of bullet proof (resistant!!!) vests!
H: No! How did he GET the gun?
M: Ah! He got it legally! You wish for stronger gun control laws!
H: Now, you've got it! If he couldn't legally get that gun, this never would have happened!
M: Brilliant. Now, what would you do if he had gotten the gun illegally?
H: I'd be fighting for a ban on illegal gun purchases.
M: ... To make them illegal?
H: Yes. Now, you should know that I'm not stopping there! I'm fighting for a law that says that if you plan to shoot someone, you are legally required, by law, to call the police on yourself.
M: ... But-- It's already illegal to shoot people.
H: Yes, but this would make sure the police know about it.
M: But, what he did is against the law; he violated the law.
H: Yes, but it would be illegal for him to not call the police. He'd have to do it!
M: Erm... *ahem* So!.. er... no talk about getting any kind of security at your workplace?
H: Don't be silly! Who would shoot up a Jewish Center?
M: *stunned silence*... Naveed Afzal Haq?
H: Allegedly!
M: *stunned silence* Yes... of course... So, how do you think this experience would have been different if an ex-military coworker was legally carrying a gun at the time of the shooting?
H: Well! I think the answer is obvious! We'd all be dead! Everyone knows guns can only be used to kill people, so a coworker would have no reason to bring a gun, except to go on a shooting spree!
M: What if she was carrying it to protect her office and herself from others like Haq?
H: First, I resent the idea of you implying that a crazed gun-owning coworker would be a woman. But, what are the chances something like what happened would happen???
M: So, what would your course of action be if the gunman used a knife instead?
H: Ban knives.
M: A hammer?
H: Ban Hammers.
M: A brick?
H: Ban bricks.
M: ...A... uh... kicking?
H: Ban fee-- Ah! Almost got me; ban shoes.
M: *I open my mouth but no words come out*
H: ... I couldn't help but notice... You're wearing shoes...
M: Well, that's all the time we have for today! I'll let you have the final word.
H: Remember people; just because it happened to me doesn't mean it'll happen to you.
M: *nodding slowly* ... what are you basing that on?
H: Cognitive dissonance.
M: Terrific!
FIN

erm... hmmm.. er- yeah.

 |...+#
 |.e.| 
#+...| 

If I were a NetHack monster, I would be a floating eye. I see and sense absolutely everything that happens around me. I just don't do very much about it.

Which NetHack Monster Are You?

Birdy Nam Nam's Phone Game 4

Yikes. Just yikes...

On my way home on Friday, I made a quick stop Turners to pick up their weekend ad, and take a quick look around. I checked the ammo prices and hit the gun counter.

There was a middle-aged guy heavily sunned skin, tough hands and seriously toned (muscularly) arms in the process of buying a gun. "A working man," I thought to myself. He turned slightly to reveal a "Got work?" shirt with an X through a Canadian flag, "A working union man." I corrected myself.

When asked if he had any restraining orders against him he answered negatively, and added, "See, the thing about that question was that you don't always know if someone had a restraining order against you."

I then did something I only do in three places; attempted to strike up a conversation with a stranger. (the three places are; a gun shop, the range, and Defcon. Places where I feel I'm with like-minded people.) I turned to the gentleman and said, "What's worse is that if someone is after YOU, they can file a restraining order against you, which will require you to disarm before any judge sees it." (I head it a few places, and thought it to be true but haven't been able to confirmed it, so don't hold me to it!) (btw; bonus points to anyone who can find what I couldn't) The clerk excused himself to the back room to get some paperwork. The guy turned to me with a surprised look;

"So you're telling me that someone who wants me dead could file a restraining order against ME; and make me disarm???"
"Yes; that is my understanding."
"So you're telling ME that; hang on--"
He then picked up his wallet from the counter and started digging around in it. He produced a small wad of papers folded into a 2"x3" square, and bound by a rubber band.
"You're telling me..." He unbound the bundle, and a collection of folded magazine and newspaper clippings spilled onto the counter. "...that if..." He picked up a magazine clipping and unfolded it to reveal several highlighted lines, and pointed to a name in the highlighted portion, "...this guy, [insert Italian name here], from the [insert Italian last name here] mob could file a restraining order against ME, and make ME give up my gun?!"
"...That is my understanding." I said with what was probably the first deer-in-the-headlights look I'd worn in years.
"Hang on!" he proclaimed to everyone and no one as he returned to his clippings.

He then went through the exact same conversation, no less than three times, interchanging different highlighted Italian names from different news clippings. This is why I said [insert Italian name here], by the end of this exchange I had had more Italian names thrown at me than I'd probably heard in a year. As he went on, I stopped listening and began to notice that his hands were shaking slightly, which showed to me that he was getting severely agitated. I noticed his left eye, which, in accordance with every cliche you've ever heard, was twitching like someone just poured sand into it. I began to realize that this fellow wasn't just telling me something he knew, he was SHOWING me, with information that he saw fit to carry on his person at all times.

By this time people at the counter were taking baby steps away from our friend here; even the clerk who was about to return was standing just on the other side of the doorway to the back room, waiting. I still gave him the benefit of the doubt; sure, he was worked up about something serious; but that certainly doesn't make you a nut.

I spoke when he took a breath; "Look, if you've something to fear from these mobsters; file a restraining order against them. It will almost guarantee you a concealed carry permit. What county do you live in?"

He lifted his shirt to reveal a large vertical scar up the center of his stomach, and said that the [Italian name] family tried to poison him, so he definitely had something to fear from them. "That's why I need this gun! And if I can't get it here; I'll have to pick one up off the street." He said that he lived in Orange, but it didn't matter, because the [insert yet another Italian name here] family had [insert a number of random names here] on the take, and had their tentacles in all parts of the west coast; from the government and unions down to the DMV and the PTA. He then picked up two slides from his collection, held them to the light, and told me that they were pictures of him as a kid holding the Emmy from The Godfather. (Not sure why; to prove his mob affiliation?)

Let there be no doubt; by this time I wanted to get end this conversation, when he produced the final straw; who killed JFK. At this point I was ready to point behind him, and run away when he looked. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to because the clerk entered (tired of his nonsense, no doubt) and reclaimed his attention long enough for me to escape.

I'm going to have to remember to thank him later...

For the love of GOD!

PLEASE STOP sending me that idiotic 9/11 conspiracy thing!!!

HERE is all I have to say about it!

Untitled short story

This is something I did for some reason. My first short story, enjoy.

I turned off the sidewalk and into an alley as naturally as I could, and paid close attention to the sound of the puddle as its splash echoed lightly in the dark. Someone was following me. Or maybe no one was. When you've lived like me for long enough, and you've walked down the same alleys I have, you always think someone is following you. Just in case, I turned left into another alley, one between two apartment buildings; one I knew.

My legs itched with misgivings as I tried to maintain my casual gait and step pressure, while straining to focus on the sounds coming from the alley I left. I almost missed the soft sound of someone taking a jumping step over the puddle I crossed. I was being followed; and he was better than the others.

I began to talk larger strides with the same timing, making my way to the two doors at the far end of the alley. I got half way there before he figured it out, and started running. I started running, and knew I'd have more than enough time.

This was one of my escape alleys, I set up at least 10 whenever I get to a new city. They're pretty much alleys with multiple possible exit points, and one good hiding place. I usually have to make the hiding place myself, but as long as I find a place neglected enough, my setups remain undisturbed. This particular spot was a dead end with a pallet set up against a brick wall, and two doors. One door was a fire exit to some stores on the lower level; it lead into a hallway that branched off three or four times. The other door lead into the dark, unused laundry room in the basement of an apartment building, with steps going up to the first floor. This was where I had my hiding spot; a large intake vent facing the door that was mostly covered by one of the old dryers so it couldn't be pulled out. I had bent back the fittings on the vent so it could slide up and down freely, and glued screw heads to the corners. I had a latch inside in case someone wanted to tug on it, and an old black shirt I found that I could put over myself if someone tried to look inside.

I ran full speed to the first door, it creaked loudly as I threw it open, and continued past it. The heavy door only opened part of the way as it banged against some metal trash cans in the way, and creaked shut quickly with a slam. I dragged my jacket against the wall sporadically as I ran to sound like shoes scuffling over the wall, and opened the laundry door and threw myself in. I almost slipped on something gritty on the linoleum floor, and got into the vent with only the slightest scraping sound as I heard his steps echo into the alley. He may be good, but I'm better.

Now I wait. I never had a problem waiting before. I'd waited for hours in the past, but I didn't think I'd have to this time. I heard him slow to a stop. "Good bye, my friend." I thought to myself as I heard his steps retreating. I had decided to wait a bit longer just to be sure, when I heard his steps return.

He stepped twice and stopped for a while, then took another two steps and stopped again. I tried to imagine what he was doing stopping so frequently and so early in the alley. What was there to see? Was he trying to find the direction of my footprints? Was he tracking me like an animal?! I searched my memory from a few moments ago to remember what was on the ground of the alley; was there dirt or trash? Was it just asphalt? I chastised myself for jumping to conclusions, and forced myself to calm down as I heard his footsteps resume normally and stop. The fire exit door creaked slowly as he opened it, then clammored against the trash can and slowly creaked shut again. I was sure he was taking the bait when he opened it again, but faster this time. The door creaked open, hit the trash cans, and creaked shut with a slam. Now I was starting to worry. He was trying to copy the creak to see how fast I opened it. He was very good. Maybe the best I've had after me. I tried to remember how long the door was open when I threw it open on my way in when he opened the door again, but this time it sounded more like when I had opened it. The time between the first creak and the final slam could have been enough for me to get through, but I wasn't sure. I swallowed hard as he closed the door, and resumed his two step walk down the alley. By the diffused light through the two dirty alley windows I could see his dark figure cautiously step forward, and bend down. He was tracking me.

He stepped beyond the windows, and I returned to my imagination to determine what he was doing. A hard step; a slight creak. He was on the pallet, looking over the wall. Shit, I didn't make a creaking sound; but maybe it was quiet enough that he wouldn't have heard it. What if there were trash cans on the other side of the wall? Damnit, I'll never set up in another dead end like this. I heard more scuffling, which could either be him straining to look over the wall, or him actually going over the wall. Would I hear him land if he did? I couldn't remember if the ground was the same level it was on the other side. Did I even check?

I heard the sound of feet landing on pavement softly. Was it soft because he jumped over to the other side, or because he wanted me to think that? It was silent for some time, but I wasn't moving; I didn't want to take any chances with this one. I knew I was going to spend a few hours in here; if only for piece of mind.

I had sat silently for about 20 minutes. At first I stared intently at the doorknob, fearing that he was just moving slowly enough that I couldn't hear him, but now I was just trying to keep from cramping up. I was thinking about the black shirt, and whether or not it would withstand close scrutiny with a flashlight, when I heard the metal-on-metal grinding of the doorknob being slowly turned. My mind focused like a laser, and I carefully readied the shirt to cover me.

It was overcast outside, so the light that crept in was grey and dim. The door made a short, hesitant squeak as it opened half way. A man in a beanie with a pale face took a quick look through the opening, and pushed the door in all the way. He stood outside, holding the door open, and slowly scanned the dim room behind an odd pair of glasses.

His clothes were plain. Perfectly plain. The kind of plain you can only accomplish by spending days watching what people wear in the target area, and hours finding used clothes to match. Rookies usually wear a trench coat or a gun or an expensive watch; something slight that distinguishes them. He wore no such wear. Everything about his attire made him no one in particular. He was a professional; but a professional what?

His hard eyes and shrewd expression were the only thing that identified him as a professional, though I'm sure he rarely wore them when on the hunt. His stance appeared to be somewhat casual, but his dark eyes flickered back and forth beneath his hard features. Then I realized; my trail was cold. He tried to trick me out from hiding by being silent, but it was obvious to me now that this was one of his final efforts. I wondered what made him initially excuse this room?

I watched his gaze soften as it shifted to the stairs. I sighed with relief as he sighed angrily, and stepped into the room in the direction of the stairs, when the linoleum crunched under him. I instantly recalled almost slipping on something on the floor, and held my breath as he looked down at the floor. He produced a flashlight from his pocket and shone it on the floor. His glancing eyes squinted, and he kneeled. I gripped the shirt.

He jerked his head up in my direction, eyes hard again, and shone the flashlight on the wall. I raised the shirt, and held my breath.

He took a step and stopped. The faint light danced through the vent against the shirt, he was shining it back and forth on the wall looking for someplace I could have hidden, then it came to rest on the vent and the shirt. He was going to find me. The light turned off and I brought the shirt down slightly, he was standing right in front of the vent. Should I give up? No. I won't be found. I'll never be found. *BAM* My startled jump inside the vent was masked by the metal ringing the vent made as it was kicked. The latch held. I saw his shoes go into an wide, sideways stance. The shrill sound of the metal feet of the dryer dragging along the concrete made me grit my teeth as the groaning echoed in the vent. I heard him groan, and knew it was heavy, but then the movement stopped abruptly. They hadn't spread the linoleum under the dryer; lazy fucks. He stood facing the vent again, and I heard his flashlight click on, and saw him begin to kneel. I drew the shirt up; this was it.

I was horified as light poured through the shirt, illuminating my cramped, sad frame, and blinding me. I slammed my eyes shut, and awaited my judgement. I guess 11 years was a good run, but now I was going to have to go back, and face the past; my past. I wondered if he worked for the people who wanted to save me, or the people who wanted to screw me. But quickly cast the thought out; it didn't make a difference. I was found.

But still; there was silence. Then the light began to move across the shirt. I was lit up through the shirt, but he still couldn't see me! The light bounced around the edges of the shirt, and then clicked off as he stood up. "Sheise!" exclaimed a German accent, accompanied by a hard sigh. He began walking to the door, and said with no detectable accent, "I will find him. He IS good; but I'm better!"

Do you have a hall pass?!

I think we need to address an issue here, because some folks don't seem to understand this basic line of logic...

If I was a school principal, and I had authority over students, would I have authority over everyone else too? No. Because my rules apply only to children attending my school. If I were to tell someone on the street to go to detention, they probably wouldn't go, and I shouldn't expect them to. Because my rules do not apply to them.

So now, lets bring this into the "real" world.

If I'm a legislator, and I have authority over all the law-abiding citizens in my area, would I have authority over all the law breaking ones too? No. Because my rules only apply to people who obey my rules. If I were to tell a law breaker what the law demands of him, he probably wouldn't do it, (here's the tricky part) yet I expect him to. Even though my rules don't apply to him.

Keep making laws to stop the people breaking the law. If you throw enough legislation at a criminal, something's eventually going to stick, right? Right?! (Riiiiiiight...)

History in the making

Oh my gosh! I had the most brilliant idea!

See, legislators have been trying to stop crime by writing legislation that makes weapons harder or to legally obtain, but they're not thinking big enough;

Ban crime!

If banning guns stops gun violence, then just ban crime!

Wow! I've just solved one of America's biggest problems! Time for a Coke... I've earned it.

Mod your pocket!

Love the convenience of personal organizers, but hate having to carry them around? Looking for a small, portable notepad? Want to have reference material, games, or calendars at your fingertips? Want it to be customized to your specifications? What?! You want it for free too?! geez!

Then check out PocketMod.

PocketMod is a disposable, 8 page, 4" x 2.75" organizer that you customize, print, fold, and carry.

I carried one of these for some time, and due to recent need, renewed my interest in this great little notepad.

You can set the pages using templates for lines, tables, story boards, music sheets, weekly, daily, or monthly calendars, shopping lists, expenses table, conversions, tip tables, morse code reference, sudoku, emergency contact information and a bit more.

It's perfect for me, since I hate lugging around organizers, and love the idea that it's totally disposable.

It's seriously cool, check it out.

Post Defcon

The speakers were good with few exceptions, but I don't want to bore anyone with the details...

The capture the flag room projected the score board, a movie, and random videos; here are a few favorites of the random videos...

Insane rejected commercials


Crazy German on safe secks


Voltron "battles" the bad guy


And the insane scratching below...
Also included music videos from Aphix Twin, Bjork, Daft Punk, and many others. All were quality.

While at the Con you are to retain a beneficial fear of all things electronic. All forms of internet access, ATMs, kiosks, phones, nose-hair trimmers, etc. This means that if you wish to obtain cash, you are strongly encouraged to do so elsewhere. Any internet activity involving any form of password should be conducted over an encrypted tunnel to somewhere safe.
In the chill out area, they have what they call The Wall of Sheep Which is a server which passively collects wireless internet traffic, and picks out all the usernames and passwords transmitted. People's logins for their banking websites, myspace accounts, webmail, etc. are all picked up and displayed on a projector for all to see (though passwords only showed the first three characters). The people running the wall were actively monitoring some sessions, and posted the picture of the people logging into their myspace accounts.

There were also plenty of locks of different types you could try your hand at picking, and I spent about two hours (total) picking locks and BSing with other lock picking enthusiasts.

When I searched for networks on my laptop in our room at Circus Circus (what? I didn't buy the tickets!) I found an open access point which, once connected to, redirected you to a pay-us-$11-per-day-per-computer-for-24-hours-of-internet-access webpage. I clicked around and found that you could sign up for the access by credit card, through the TV, or by supplying your last name and room number (Yes, really.) Since the router was not letting me access any other parts of the network, I couldn't find an authenticated user to pretend to be, I began picking through the page to find out how to script an attack against it. I told the friend I came with what I was doing, and a visitor (non-hacker) wondered why I didn't simply pay the $11 dollars. To which I replied, "We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons" It's just $11, it's not like it's that much. Exactly, if it's not that much, and I shouldn't mind paying it; then they shouldn't mind me NOT paying it. So I got some input on common last names, and went to town... Unfortunately there was apparently an issue with my script's success testing (which I blame entirely on lack of sleep!) which caused it to continue trying even if it was successful. So, I extend my apologies to anyone who attended Circus Circus last Saturday who had the last name Smith with a room number in the low 12000's; Rodriguez in the low 10000's; Franklin in the low 14000's; or Gray in the low 17000's. I understand there may have been a possibility that you could have incurred a charge for internet access you did not specifically request. But hey; it's just $11... though, thinking about the hackers I saw staying at the same casino, and the fact that this system was so easily defeated; I imagine a whole hell of a lot of people with common names were probably charged for internet access... I'd wager there were even enough for Circus Circus to simply NOT charge anyone for the internet access they supposedly purchased... (I feel a bit better) :-]

PS: thanks to Hack a day for the free T-shirt!

Infamous

This year the Black and White Ball was spread to two nights, the Black Ball, and the White Ball. We arrived at the Black ball around 11, and enjoyed some alright house music until about 3:30 when we crashed. The next night we arrived in time to catch DJ Jackalope who blew us away... for about 10 (awesome)minutes, before she had to leave for three other gigs. Some other DJ hopped up there, and was pretty good, but was missing something. THEN another guy hopped up there (DJ Shim) and started out kicking ass, and did not stop for an hour. It was truly epic, and I was sure to let him know that when his set was done. Next up was Regenerator, a slightly formulaic (but still good) Rammstein-ish group, complete with the obligatory eye candy raver/punker/gogo/whatever chick. (too cliche to be enjoyable)

As the set started I noticed the goons beginning to spread themselves out against the walls as the house lights came up, but Regenerator continued, and the goons were kind enough to let them finish their song (it rocked) before interrupting. My friend pointed to the corner and said that Priest was here. Priest is the head of Defcon security and head goon, if he was there, there were problems.

Priest stopped the music after the song and took the stage. He began by talking about our reputation in this town; essensially, we were notorious. This was met with applause which he quelled by announcing that all precincts of SWAT were on full alert at our presence. This drew a more concerned response...

Apparently some underaged gentlemen, (very possibly of hacker descent) became inebriated and decided to test the aerodynamics of redbull cans by tossing them out their high level hotel room window. Unfortunately, a janitor on the ground level did not know that he was taking part in this experiment (near miss). This explained the police involvement.

He explained that the head of security for the Riviera had been losing sleep (since about 5 weeks prior) at the thought of having to deal with the hacker convention his hotel had agreed to host. (It should be noted that his worry was compounded by the 5 inch thick binder of Defcon attendees' past transgressions against bystanders, the hosting hotel, and entire city. Priest quoted him as saying he was "prepared for the second coming." (A little overdramatic to me, but I haven't read that file...) The head of Riviera security received phone calls approximately every hour from different hotel directors who conveyed similar queries; specifically "Is the hotel still standing???" (ahem, erm, yes...)

Additionally, people had been voluntarily evacuating four floors down (we were on the top floor penthouse) due to the loud music. Also, it seems, we scare the crap out of all the non-attendees in the building (like seriously), and this is bad for business.

All this aside, Priest said that the head of security was amazed that we'd been so well behaved for the majority of the con (one day left), and the he would support an invitation for our return next year. This was good news for us, as we started off on the wrong foot (some fire marshal inspection issues), and judging by the casino patrons' reactions to us, we were not very welcome.

But Priest was sure to warn us that we could "fuck that up in a heartbeat" and warned that Vegas simply doesn't much like us; so we needed to be on our best behavior to ensure we had a place to Con in the future.

A few people gave him crap, but he threw it back at them. He's a good guy, and we respected what he was trying to do for us, and readily (though reluctantly) left the Ball at 2.

I mean, if we manage to get kicked out of Las Vegas; who the fuck is going to take us?!

Incredible

How traceable is your internet presence?

With all the recent nonsense regarding the delivery of threats over the internet, people must be wondering if it could happen to them.

Yes.
Alright, moving on...

I'm going to hit on some of the information required to locate you in the non-intarweb world, and what you can do to minimize this risk. So, read up!

Your IP address
To those who are not familiar, your IP address is similar to your regular address. It shows where you're coming from, and can provide fuzzy information about your physical location. Your IP address is tied to your point of internet presence, so if you connect from home your IP will be different from when you connect from work. Your IP address can be tracked to a general geographical location (usually, down to the city), but can not provide any more information than that.

Determining IP addresses
Obtaining your IP address would be the first step of someone looking for you. Finding your address can be difficult, as it requires direct interaction between you and the searcher, or the searcher's hardware. The searcher may use a direct-connect instant messaging program to find your IP (should your IM name be public or attainable), or try to match a connection to his server or website with a comment or message left by you. The most effective way of determining your IP address is by use of a web bug. Web bugs are not special software or hardware, but a different way of using existing software. The searcher will create a webpage or post an image that no one else will know about, they will then send you a link to this secret image or page, and when you click on the link to the page, or load the image, the server logs will show the exact IP that requested the page/image that only you should know about. Unfortunately, with so many e-mail applications processing HTML no matter what the user prefers (really, it's just outlook), you may not know that you've been bugged. The searcher may send you an e-mail that contains a 1x1 pixel image in the corner, your mail program will request this image from the searcher's server, and you'll never see it, or know it has happened. Some mail programs have the ability to disable external links to images, you should activate this setting if you don't have html turned off. Picking up your IP address will only be part of the battle, but it's one that the searcher will likely win, unless you are particularly sneaky.

Geolocation
This is the scary one; this is where someone actually gets your street address. Fortunately, this rarely happens (if you're even remotely careful). If the person seeking you, is doing it to puruse legal action against you, your personal information can be subpoenaed (jesus, that's spelled strangely) from your ISP. You may do some searches to see how protective your ISP is of your personal information, some will give it up at the mere threat of legal action, while others will demand proper documentation be sent through the proper channels. Legal action aside, from only the IP address, someone can easily find your general location. The your state will always be found, your general location within the state will likely be found (IE: North West New Mexico) (my example is notably unfortunate, as a quick search on google maps notes only two cities in that particular region), and your city may or may not be found. My advice? Don't move to North Western New Mexico! (it should also be noted that that particular bit of advice applies to much more than avoiding geolocation)

Protecting your IP
The easiest way to protect your IP address is not to use it! There are a number of free web proxies that can afford you a pretty good level of anonymity. You may also remotely connect to a PC at another location (work, grandma's house, etc.) and do your protected work from there. Though the easiest and probably best, is simply to use someone else's network. This could be your local coffee shop, or your neighbor's unsecured wireless connection (existingthing does not endorse the activity of illegally establishing a connection to, and using the bandwidth of any networking hardware that does not belong to the reader, and strongly encourages his readers to do as he says, and not as he does).

Protecting your name
If you mention your full name (assuming your name isn't John Smith, or something), and own a home, your address is as good as found (with a little legwork). Most people are unaware of this. Renting is a little bit tougher to find, but not impossible. Your best bet is to adopt an alias. While some folks find use of an alias childish, they probably haven't had someone coming after them (or they just don't know about it yet!). Try not to use any names you use elsewhere on the internet. I have about 10 different names, and try to keep them as separate as possible. If you go to great lengths to keep your blog personal information free, but talk about visiting a board, and use a similar name on that board; you need to sanitize the personal information from that board too. If you have a notable internet presence, it can become hard to keep track of what can lead to where. You may be leaving puzzle pieces around the internet, that someone is trying to put together. My choice of name was kind of a lark; I wished I could have changed it in the past, but have grown rather attached to it. When I got an e-mail talking about how professional looking my blog was (wha?!), but wondering why I had to hide behind an alias, my answer was simple. If I used my real name it would take someone about two seconds to find a pretty good clue to find more information about me, and another 8 seconds to find out where to find me. (even less if my work e-mail was known!) (after some work, I was able to make my picture a bit harder to find :)
When doing expensive penetration tests (or just when I get bored or hit a wall with a cheap one) I'll find employee names and do internet searches for the presence of that person elsewhere on the internet. Sometimes I find information that leads me to an address, sometimes I find information that leads me to a password.

Protecting your e-mail address
This can become similar to protecting your name when you have one main address that you use a lot. That address may be getting around. If a google search doesn't bring anything up, think of what you may be able to get with a few bucks and an e-mail to a company that gathers demographics. Post to any newsgroups? Chances are that your e-mail address is out there somewhere. I'd recommend establishing a free e-mail address for just public purposes and using it that way. Just because your e-mail address isn't public information on a board you frequent doesn't mean it's unattainable. Use the public one as often as possible. When it fills up with spam and junk, make a new one with an obscure name, and point the sites using the old one to the new one.

Protecting your dealings
This is an obscure one, but keep in mind that businesses or persons with whom you have dealings may not be as disciplined about keeping their lips zipped about your personal information. If I were to mention the shop that I purchased my upper receiver from, someone may be able to call pretending to be me to "confirm" shipping information for future order. Unfortunately, people are notably susceptible to social engineering, so refrain from mentioning specifics when talking about people or businesses with which you deal.

Don't think it can't happen to you!
If you think you're small enough that you're flying below the radar, or haven't made any enemies on-line, you're probably wrong. People are fucking nuts. You have NO idea if some innocent comment sent some wack job on the far side of the net off the deep end. When dealing with these kinds of people, you don't usually worry about the folks who say they're going to kill you; you worry about the kind who are passively seeking you, the ones you never know about. You may be laughing, and thinking that anyone who posts their address or personal information is a fool for doing so, and deserves whatever he or she gets. Well, the chances are that you've let slip some telling information about yourself somewhere on the internet, and even if it seemed harmless at the time; a dedicated stalker (for lack of a better word) will put these pieces together, and may come up with enough information to find something really dangerous. And if you are someone in the public eye, who can not avoid your information being made public? Erm... Get a gun. I'm sure that even the most tight-assed police agencies would be happy to furnish you with a CCW once you receive some e-death threats (though you may have to open a case with the FBI) (which is advisable if you're receiving threats, even if you aren't doing it just for the CCW)

There's little reason for some personal information to be made public on the internet, and more reason to do just the opposite. Think before you post.

Just because you aren't paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you... *knock knock knock*