Transmission – Review

Light weight. Open Source. Free.

That’s the slogan of Transmission, our favorite Bit Torrent client. It certainly holds true, this strong program is feature rich and doesn’t include any thing extra. This highly functional program runs nativly on five operating systems, and boasts a well designed menu.

For our review we tested the 0.78 release (0.9o just released) for Mac OSX. After downloading and installing, we were up with no problems at all. With Transmission running, locate a torrent from the numerous torrent sites out there. Download the torrent to your desk top, and then drag and drop right into Transmission. The status bar will begin to turn green as your progress occurs and you’ll have your file in no time.

No adware, Spyware, or Malware.

[Rating:4]

Why Does 1 Minute = 60 Seconds ?

Most people take for granted that one minute is divided into sixty seconds. Why wouldn’t you, unless of course you’re from 1300 BC.

Thats when the Babylonians decided to divide the minute up. The Babylonians of Mesopotamia, or modern day Iraq, were fantastic astronomers. As such, they devised a system for doing calculations called Base 60. The first fractional place in this system is one minute. The second is, well . . . its what we call a second.

How To: Activate Express Mode on Elevators

Riding the elevator can be an interesting experience. The awkward silence and crowdedness is often punctuated with many stops between where you got on, and where you’ll get off. Why not eliminate all that and turn this machine into your own personal elevator. No more strange people crowding your space or slowing you down.

Upon entering, press the “door close” button and your destination floor “number” button simultaneously. On the majority of elevators this activates express mode. The door will close and you’ll be delivered to the target floor without delay. Occasionally the door close button is disabled. Aside from activating express mode, you’ll need a Fire Man’s key to do other advanced commands.

If you know of any particular models of elevators which allow express mode we’d love to hear from you.

String Theory

What the hell is String Theory ? We don’t know, but the folks over at Columbia University do. They recently held a contest, calling for people to explain complex topics such as this in under two minutes. Check out the winning video, it may be the most educating two minutes you spend today. Aside from reading our other posts of course !

String Theory ?

What the hell is string theory ? We don’t know, but the folks over at Columbia University do. They’ve recently held a contest calling for people to explain this complex topic in under two minutes. Check out the clip below. It might be the most educational two minutes we’ve seen in a while, aside from reading our posts of course.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid716091875/bclid686943766/bctid687029421

Bianchi CarryLok™ 82 Holster – Review

One of the newer holsters on the market is a patent pending design by Bianchi.

The CarryLok offers the speed of an open top concealment holster with the security of Bianchi’s Auto Retention™ concept. The FingerLok™ internal retention mechanism secures the pistol by the trigger guard as it is inserted into the holster. To draw, the middle finger sweeps the release lever allowing the pistol to be drawn in an upward movement.

Features:

• Dual belt slots pull gun close to body for concealability
• FingerLok™ release lever provides speed and security for quick middle finger release of firearm
• 16° forward carry angle
• Open muzzle
• Stay open design for efficient one-handed holstering
• FingerLok™ retention device secures handgun
• Exclusive Auto Retention™ feature
• Fits up to 1.75″ (45mm) belt widths

Our test was conducted with a Glock 23 and Size 11 holster, which fits Glock 19, 23, and 36. We opted for the tan colored, right hand configuration.

One of the nice things about Bianchi holsters is that you can normally open the package right in the store and get a hands-on look at the product before you buy. If you can’t actually open the package, Bianchi’s packaging is so roomy, that you can usually get a good 360 view just by rattling around the package.

The main feature that drew me to this holster was the FingerLok retention device. I personally like the open-top holster, but often have reservations about security and retention during a close encounter.After our testing, I can say that the FingerLok is well designed. It holds the weapon securely in place, doesn’t interfere when holstering, and doesn’t hang up when drawing the weapon. Basically, it does exactly what it was designed to do. In fact, the placement of the lever is very comfortable to disengage and is easily committed to muscle memory.

The open muzzle on this holster is a potential money saver for those of us with more than one barrel length of an otherwise identical weapon. Although I haven’t tested it, I should think a government, commander, and officer’s length 1911 would fit in the same holster.

On our hip is where the holster takes a turn for the worse. We liked the high-ride design, the forward cant and the widely spread belt-loops (for stability), but finding a comfortable spot to carry this holster was a problem. A big one! Due to the FingerLok device which is incorporated into the holster, we found it very difficult to get this holster to ‘mold’ to our hip. The best we could do was placing the holster somewhere around our kidney area, between the SOB and hip. We tried breaking in the form a little using neet’s foot oil, but all we acommplished was a little flexabilty in the holster loops.

In closing, we believe that Bianchi has a great idea with the CarryLok holster, but they need to work on slimming down the design a little.

The Bianchi CarryLok Model 82 holster MSRP is $69.95, but can be purchased from CopQuest for about $52. Available in both right or left hand configurations, and in either tan or black finish. The Model 82 is available for most popular handgun models.

OCS Rating: 2 out of 5

How To: Pick a Kryptonite Lock with a Ballpoint Pen

A Kryptonite lock can be opened in seconds using a Bic pen. Simply remove the ink from the pen and jam the plastic cylinder into the key opening, the lock will open with a few twists.

The manufacturer was insuring anything secured with these locks for up to $3000 in loss due to theft if their locks were sawed, chiseled, or broken. I doubt if they are still doing so, then again using a ballpoint pen doesn’t really fall under any of these. We understand that they have actually changed the design on newer models, but there are still many of these in use.

How To: Reset Your Mac’s PRAM

If you find that your Mac isn’t running quite right, there are dozens of things you can try to fix the issue. The most common resolutions are as follows:

How To: Reset Your Mac’s PRAM

If you find that your Mac isn’t running quite right, there are dozens of things you can try to fix the issue. The most common resolutions are as follows:

Repair Permissions. Open Disk Utility in the Applications/Utilities folder. Select the boot drive (probably “Macintosh HD”), click on the First Aid tab and click the Repair Permissions button.

Third Party Solutions. Try a third party system utilities program, such as OnyX, a freeware maintenance, optimization, and personalization utility for Mac OS X.

Reset the PRAM. If you’re still having trouble, try resetting the parameter random access memory (PRAM).

PRAM stores certain system and device settings in a location that Mac OS X can access quickly. Exactly which settings are stored in the computer’s PRAM varies depending on the type of computer as well as the types of devices and drives connected to the computer. Here is a list of information typically stored in PRAM:

• Status of AppleTalk
• Serial Port Configuration and Port definition
• Alarm clock setting
• Application font
• Serial printer location
• Autokey rate
• Autokey delay
• Speaker volume
• Attention (beep) sound
• Double-click time
• Caret blink time (insertion point rate)
• Mouse scaling (mouse speed)
• Startup disk
• Menu blink count
• Monitor depth
• 32-bit addressing
• Virtual memory
• RAM disk
• Disk cache

Parameter RAM (PRAM) is a small area of Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM).

Note: If your computer does not retain parameter RAM (PRAM) settings when it is turned off, this generally indicates that the battery needs to be changed. Refer to Apple’s website for batteries and part numbers.

Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (Apple key), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press and hold this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

Your computer’s PRAM and the NVRAM are reset to the default values. The clock settings may be reset to a default date on some models.

New Belgium Brewery 1554 – Review

New Belgium Brewery, the masters of many fine libations, most commonly known for Fat Tire, have been gaining popularity as their line-ups pop-up into more and more grocer’s reefers.

One of the lesser known by this Fort Collins, Colorado company, is 1551 Brussels Style Black Ale.

Other than being dark in color, 1554 has little in common with Porters or Stouts. The beer is fermented at relatively high temperatures using a European lager yeast that imparts a refreshing, zesty acidity. Chocolate and coffee tones in the nose give way to a surprisingly clean finish.

This beer is filling, but served at the right temperature, is a refreshing one after a long day’s work. It’s mild enough with those ‘chocolate & coffee’ flavors, that even those who aren’t a fan of Porters are sure to enjoy it’s sweeter taste.

New Belgium Brewery has been brewing (commercially) since 1991. Their current offerings include: Fat Tire Amber Ale, Sunshine Wheat, Mothership Wit Organic Wheat Beer, Blue Paddle Pilsener-Lager, Abbey Belgian Style Ale, Tripple Belgian Style Ale, and several seasonal releases.

We’ve tried just about all of them, and take it from us, you can’t go wrong with any of them.

OCS Rating: 3 out of 5