Saturday, May 5, 2012

The March of The E-75

"Comrades fast and little, fearful and brittle, follow me as I drive,"
 Said the lumbering hulk, that huge steel bulk, known as the E-75.

"Many guns have they, but scared I say, are they as much as we."
 And he turned and faced, like a runner at race, the sun it seemed with glee.

All were amazed, dark smoke was raised, from the mouths of his great exhaust,
 And thus drove on, that leviathan, who seemed not to know the cost.

As though pulled along, his brethren fell on, his flanks but not ahead,
 Of the great dark hunk, that towering chunk, rolling on as an ominous dread.

It wasn't long, before a sniper song, of pings and chinks and lead,
 Speckled his coat, battle-worn and smote, in a hail that he could not shed.

Still on he stroked, through the churned-black smoke, toward their battle-line,
 Some comrades bowed, as he continually plowed, now with holes where
 metal shined.

Enemies alit, and seeming to quit, he stopped dead in his tracks,
 but not with fear, for he was sincere, and raised his great gun-rack.

His aim was true, and soon all knew, his gunner was not poor.
 He killed a tank, who realized too late, this was no easy score.

On he marched, soon all took part, in the awe that he inspired,
 And more and more, of the enemy core, came to end his furious ire.

Then larger tanks, filled the ranks, of those opposed to him,
 And damage deep, into him seeped, for his engine with fire brimmed.

Now his tracks, turned into wax, for foes had shot them out,
 And in this arena, of the goddess Athena, they meant to end his route.

They must assemble, instead of tremble, if they wish to bring him down,
 So all surrounded, hammered and pounded, this titan commanding the ground.

Round after round, blow after blow, landed into his hull,
 He refused to show, and he refused them know, that soon his life they'd cull.

Turned this way and that, like dragon spit and spat, he seemed to damage all.
 They were amazed, bright-eyed they gazed, for he refused to fall.

Now most his life, had gone away, and soon the end would come,
 But not before, he felled four more, who thought that he was done.

And so he died, while none could hide, him seeing his gamble pay,
 As they had ignored, his brethren corps, who capitalized on the day.

The last enemy died, and some did cry, o'er the hulk who had no fear,
 Who instead had chose, give his life for those, fast and little and dear.


Friday, May 4, 2012

Can I has a can of air?

Apparently, there is a mo' betta way to give blow jobs now, vs., the old, dangerous, way.  It's the:

Canless Air Systems O2 Hurricane Computer Duster!




It slices, dices and juliennes! (wtf does juliennes mean?), and look at that shine!

It will produce approx. 150mph air flow for upwards of 18 minutes, and has 500 charges.  It will apparently replace $100s, if not $1000s of dollars in cost for old-fashioned, chemical-based, gas-based, "canned air."

And eets about $80.

The _only_ question I have, is: how fast is the air flow that comes out of old-fashioned, sucky "canned-air?"  If it is significanly faster than 150mph, then you might be tempted to reach for a can of it the next time you have some stubborn debris, and the fancy/shmancy new fangled, Canless Air Systems O2 Hurricane Computer Duster! don't cut it.

Please someone tell me how fast old-fashioned canned air-flow is -- my googles skills are t3h fails....

And now, a couple more images of folks using the Canless Air Systems O2 Hurricane Computer Duster!





Friday, April 27, 2012

WoT: The IS-4 & The KV & The 7.3 Changes

I've been playing World of Tanks since closed beta, since July 2010 to be exact.  If I've successfully backwards-engineered my player profile page, I was the 5,148th accepted closed beta tester.  I went through all of the betas, restarting each time.



I focused on the German tree.  I am currently only 2 vehicles from completing/eliting the entire tree.  My point?  Glad you asked.

The two ancient nemesis of the me are about to go through the most significant changes since evar! in the game since they were in the game

I'm talking about the IS-4 and KV:

An IS-4
The only information for this picture states, "Soviet post-war heavy tanks"

A KV-2
Similar to the iconic "KV" in World of Tanks, pre 7.2

As a German-centric player, I have to say: I have loathed, feared and hated these 2 vehicles.  They have been my bane.  The IS-4, I simply hated to face, in any German tank, at any tier.  Even in my Maus or JDT, when one is about to fire on me -- and I cannot stop it or get away from it -- I say to self, "this is going to hurt."

The IS-4 has an incredible gun, the 130 mm S-70

This was basically a naval gun, modified for field and tank usage.


Entitled: "Here's a Guide To The Military Qaddafi Is Using To Crush His Own People"
(The Wiki states this gun did not show up until the IS-7)
World of Tanks Forum Discussion on the 130 mm S-70 Gun utilized in the IS-4

The coming changes will move this tank to Tier 10, with no more S-70 at Tier 9 in the replacement to the IS-4: the IS-8.

Likewise, the KV of World of Tanks, is like the IS-4 just discussed: great, horrific, predators of a Pleistocene battlefield, praying on the herbivores of German and US tanks.  Soon to be relics of a museum, with onlookers wondering how they used to behave, what they ate, as they peer upon their hulking skeletons.

The great 152 mm M-10 Gun of the monstrosity known as the ... 'current' ... KV, shook the hulls of all around it when it would let out its bellowing roar.  It became _the_ "derp" of the game, and forever will hold that moniker.

The KV, soon, will be moved as a KV-2 to Tier 6, and the KV-1 will get a 57mm gun.

Yes, the great roar of the "derp" will still be heard, but never again at Tier 5.  How those leviathans prowled the battlefields at that tier, eating other Tier 5s and lesser tiers.  Always, they tilted the balance.

It is soon to be a new epoch in World of Tanks, as we say goodbye to these titans of the battlefield, never again to be seen again in their original tiers, with their original guns.  We shall never again have, at Tier 5, the 152mm "derp" or, at Tier 9, the 130mm finger-of-god.

Yes, I finally got me a KV, and did play it a bunch, but only late, and only after many, many ages of facing it in my German tanks and tank destroyers.

As a former opponent of them, I salute.  It was a gg....

-FKD

More IS-4 and KV pics:



















Tuesday, April 24, 2012

WoT: Can't Login? "Scheduled Maintenance"? Try This

There's been an obvious DNS change with the World of Tanks authentication server.  I have no clue what's happened, but that's my best guess.  Starting about a day ago, many folks cannot login.


Ye ol' "Server is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance" message.  Some are going, "man, how long is this going?  It's been over 24 hours now?!?"  That's cuz it ain't.  It's borked....

Oh the horror....

Meanwhile, World of Tanks engineers are hard at work trying to resolve:


...in the mean-time, there's something you can do to fix (as discussed on the forums):

If you're trying to login to World of Tanks, and can't, and get the red-lettered message about "Scheduled Maintenance," but then search news for such at www.worldoftanks.com to realize, well, they've not announced any "scheduled maintenance," then it could be a problem you can resolve yourself, on your 'puter.

Windows 7:  Do this:
-Close all web browsers (and any other app you have open for that matter).
-Click "start".
-In "Search programs and files" type, "cmd."
-"cmd.exe" will show up at the top of the pop-up menu.
-Right-click and choose, "run as administrator."
-Choose, "Yes" to the "User Account Control" security pop-up.
-You now have a black box with a blinking command prompt.
-Type the following in that box: "ipconfig /flushdns".
-Hit "enter"

It should look like this when you've done all just listed:


Now, try to log back-in to World of Tanks.

This should fix it.

Another great link 'splaining this procedure across operating systems:
http://www.whatsmydns.net/flush-dns.html

Now, go play World of Tanks:

Sunday, April 22, 2012

WoT: Mumble Voice Server

As clans are challenged to provide voice communication for their members, there are lotsa choices out there: ventrilo, teamspeak ... and mumble.  I recently setup a mumble server and I highly recommend it.

A. It is free, open source.
B. Unlimited users.
C. Arguably, out-performs the other 2

More:
http://mumble.sourceforge.net/
Watch the video at the bottom of this page to see performance:
http://gcguild.net/movie/ventrilo-vs-teamspeak-vs-mumble

Saturday, April 21, 2012

World Record Sniper Shot From Over 1.5 Miles Away

Read More: A World Record Sniper Shot


Craig Harrison killed the two insurgents from an astounding distance of 8,120 feet -- or 1.54 miles
The Accuracy International L115A3 Sniper Rifle
 Over 1.5 miles away from the target a world record sniper shot.  After firing several test shots, Harrison had to aim 6 feet above, and 20 inches wide to hit the target.

The Accuracy International L115A3 Sniper Rifle



The muzzle velocity of the L115A3 is 936 metres per second (up from 838m/s) giving it an effective range of 1400 metres compared to the L96’s 800m, and not surprisingly, the Schmidt & Bender day sights now magnify up to 25 times, compared with the L96’s 12 times.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

World's Smallest Pistol

The Downsizer WSP


This little guy can pack a wallop....

Specifications Model WSP (World’s Smallest Pistol)
Calibers 45 ACP, 357 Magnum (Also fires 38 Special), 9mm & 40 S&W





FTA:

The Downsizer Corp in Santee, CA made and delivered a handful of its WSP models for a few years before SB15 became law and production stopped for good. I believe fewer than 100 pistols were delivered up to that point. Whatever the exact number was, it was’t very large.
The WSP model received lots of positive reviews after they were introduced at the SHOT Show (1998, I think). There is a very detailed article by Robert Hausman in HANDGUNS 2001.
Specifications Model WSP (World’s Smallest Pistol)
Calibers 45 ACP, 357 Magnum (Also fires 38 Special), 9mm & 40 S&W
Capacity Single Shot
Trigger Double action only
Action Tip up barrel, push button release
Materials Stainless steel, CNC machined
Sights None, smooth snag free top
Safety Internal firing pin block
Overall Length 3.25″ (Smaller than a playing card)
Barrel Length 2.10″
Height 2.25″ (Smaller than a playing card)
Thickness 0.90″
Weight 11 oz.