Optimizing My Gcode Generators

I had originally written several programs intended to produce gCode for the different sides of this part: bottom, sides, slot, and I was going to have to write a top program as well, and I suddenly realized that rezeroing the axes was not that big a task, and bottom, top, and sides were really the same program, excavate a rectangle with different depths and widths, so I have replaced bottom, top, and sides with excavate, and  different command line arguments.  This is not only simpler for this part, but makes it easy to produce other parts in the future.

Blue Lives Matter Too

From Sept. 3, 2015 WISC:

The officer stopped in the area of Prairie Road and Jacobs Way around 6:20 p.m. after spotting a large number of people in the street. He said that as he approached he saw a woman punch a man in the face, and he could see that the woman had a can of pepper spray.

The officer said that as he went to arrest the woman he was surrounded by a crowd that was voicing anti-police sentiments, including "We need to start killing these officers."

Police said the woman’s daughter was grabbing the officer while trying to free her mother. The officer said he tried to diffuse the situation by explaining to the crowd that the woman had just punched someone and was armed with pepper spray. Police said his words were ignored, and the struggle with the two people continued.

The older woman punched the officer in the face and grabbed him by the throat, according to the release.

The officer said he could see many in the crowd were recording the incident on their cellphones while some accused him of misconduct and using excessive force.

I guess police should stop enforcing laws in the black community and allow criminals to do as they wish to other blacks.

And why can't reporters figure out that diffuse is not defuse?  I keep seeing this mistake everywhere by journalists.

LGBT Activists Reveal Their True Nature

It is an article of faith among liberals that gay people are just like the rest of us except for who they love.  But then, how to explain this?  From September 3, 2015 New York Post:

Branding the raid a “digital Stonewall,” roughly 70 LGBT activists blasted Brooklyn federal prosecutors Thursday for busting up popular online escort site rentboy.com last week.
Holding signs and chanting, the raucous group gathered in front of the Brooklyn federal courthouse to demand that all charges against employees at the multimillion-dollar enterprise be dropped immediately.

The activists — including current sex workers who advertised their services on the site — argued that the feds should not be allocating resources to policing consensual sex.

Shouting “Bl–jobs, not no jobs” and “Sex work is real work,” the protesters suggested that the operation was aimed at gays and transgender sex workers.

I guess there are no other jobs available except prostitution.

Several attendees cited graphic sexual descriptions in the complaint against the rentboy.com staffers as peculiarly prurient and unnecessary.

The website — which has since gone dark because of the bust — helped to protect sex workers who would otherwise risk harm on unpredictable streets or operate through less reputable online outlets like Craigslist or Backpage.com, several protesters said.

“It is taking away from the safety of the people who are doing this work,” said organizer Bill Dobbs.

Technical Difficulties

I am about to start the next phase of machining these parts, and suddenly, my ancient notebook running Ubuntu 10.04 (the special version for LinuxCNC) is in its own universe.    The wireless network no longer works, nor does a wired Ethernet connection.  I tried to copy the files to print to a USB drive, but there is a permission problem that does not allow copying to it.  I even tried installing a USB 3.5" floppy drive, but Ubuntru 10.04 seems to have no idea what it is.  I fear I will have to type these programs in by hand on my other obsolete notebook.  But the latest version of LinuxCNC bundles withj a Debian version of Linux.

Just needed to reset my router.  It appears that DHCP requests were not being processed correctly.

How Did I Miss This?

I have always known the gun control movement has some marginaaly sane fanatics.  This column from October 2, 2014 National Review is a reminder of how many there are:

A cursory trawl through those sites reveals that Owens is correct in his assessment. The lion’s share of the commenters are innocuous and cordial — nothing more than law-abiding Americans participating in civil society. There are peaceful promises not to shop at Target or Kroger or Chili’s unless those businesses explicitly prohibit customers from bringing their firearms in with them; there are vehement-but-idle suggestions that anybody who wishes to carry a gun in public must have something seriously wrong with him; and there are the usual ignorant claims that shootings in America are on the increase (in fact, the opposite is true). But, every 20 comments or so, one sees exactly what Owens describes. Reacting to a photograph of a man standing at a checkout with a handgun holstered upon his hip, mom-who-demands-action Joyce Ward asks, “Why weren’t the police called immediately?” And “why,” Ward continues, “wasn’t he shot by the police for having a weapon”? Fellow poster Lisa McLogan Shaheen has a similar inquiry, wondering, “Why hasn’t someone called 911 so the cops can gun him down?” Others go a little further, proposing that they might help their cause along if they were actively to bring about an altercation. “Every time I see someone with a gun in a store I will call 911,” Jennifer Decker vows, “they’ll get tired of that right quick!!!” Even that plan is too limited for Ann Marie. “Just call the police every time you see someone with one,” she counsels, “the police will get sick of it eventually or have a run in with one of these clowns and then things will change.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389441/moms-demand-swatting-charles-c-w-cooke

There is an example of one of the gun control crazies causing a death falsely describing the circumstances to 911:

The “black man holding a toy air rifle” to whom Senftner refers was named John Crawford III, and he was killed because, to borrow a phrase from Lisa McLogan Shaheen, a fellow shopper “called 911 so the cops could gun him down.” “If you sync the phone call to the footage,” Bob Owens tells me, “you’ll notice that Ronald Ritchie, the caller, makes claims that are not true.” Among those claims, the Guardian records, were that “Crawford was pointing the air rifle at customers,” that he threatened “two children,” and that he was recklessly “waving it around.” This does not appear to have been the case. Indeed, when the lattermost statement was made, Owens notes, “the gun’s muzzle was pointed to the ground.” So pronounced are the discrepancies between Ritchie’s story and the surveillance footage that John Crawford’s family is hoping to take legal action. “He’s basically lying with the dispatchers,” the family’s attorney, Michael Wright argues. “He’s making up the story. So should he be prosecuted? Yes, I believe so.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389441/moms-demand-swatting-charles-c-w-cooke

 This iis an argument for not openly carrying and making sure your concealed carry is truly concealed.

At A Slow Enough Feed Rate...

The Sherline could cut a battleship in half.  Say 1 inch/century.  I screwed setting Z=0 and ended up millinf a 0.1" deep section earlier, at about 1 inch/min.  Slow works, but patience is required.

DuraCoat: Want To Try It?

I have most of the can of paint, andv degaser left.  The paint is still useful for four weeks after the hardening agent is released.  There's enough to recoat a large handgun or two.  If you are in Boise area,. and want to try DuraCoat on your gun, contact me in the next couple of days and you are welcome to the leftovers.