• The weekend is upon us, just a few more hours.

    Allyson is off at another event. This time as a vendor, selling her cookbooks, and having fun.

    The blue-haired fairie is with her, they are going to have a grand time.

    On the nerd side of things, I am in the processing of ditching AWS. Amazon Web Services is a gateway drug. You can get started for just a few cents per month, then you suddenly find yourself shelling out serious coin.

    For me, the big cost was backups. When I was at University, I was introduced to “comprehensive backups”. The idea being that we should be able to recover a file for a very, very, very long time.

    When most services describe backups, they talk about having “daily” backups. That means you have 24 hours to realize that something is wrong, and recover it.

    My backups are different. If you have created a file, and it is on disk when backups run, it will be backed up.

    Monday through Saturday go into the daily backups. These backups are preserved for 30+ days.

    Sunday backups are different, on the first Sunday of the month, backups go to the monthly backups. These are kept for 2+ years.

    Finally, all other Sunday backups go on to the weekly backups. These are kept for 6 months.

    So, comprehensive.

    All of that takes disk space. I was exceeding 10 terabytes of data on AWS. It was running me excess dollars.

    No more. I now have a local ceph cluster with multiple nodes on multiple switches, in multiple power circuits. There are over 70 Terabytes in the cluster. Two hosts have room for another 12 TB each. Two hosts can be upgraded from 12 TB to 48 TB, each. There are spots for four more hosts, each of which can handle 48 TB each.

    Backups are now going to my ceph cluster. This is very redundant. I can take an entire host out of the cluster and the cluster still functions. At some point, I will configure the cluster so that I can take out multiple hosts at one time and still be fully functional.

    Sorry, this is about feedback, not nerd babble.

    The site is still not stable enough. The work I’m doing with ceph locally, will transfer to ceph on remote systems. Tuning ceph on the remote systems and moving the ceph cluster, proper, out of K8S will improve things greatly.

    What feedback do you have for us?

            


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  • In August 2022, Thomas and Diane Lamarco filed suit in the eastern district of New York. This is a different challenge to §922(g).

    If you read §922(g), or you are familiar with from 4473, you know there is a long list of people that are prohibited from possessing firearms. We are currently arguing about the constitutionality of most of §922(g).

    In Rahimi the Supreme Court said that people who have been adjudicated guilty in a court of law of being a credible threat of physical violence to another, can be temporarily denied their Second Amendment protected rights.

    The Supreme Court has not said anything about non-violent people, nor about people who have served their time.

    But did you know that there is another entire group of prohibited people? There is.

    These are the people that reside on the same property as a prohibited person. The state assumes that if a person resides at a property, they have access to any of the firearms at that property. It doesn’t matter whether the firearm is secured or not. The state assumes the prohibited person has access.

    At some point, officers responded to a “mental health assistance” call for somebody else at the residence. This response, in Suffolk County, means that the other residents lose their gun rights.

    The LaMarcos make no effort to explain how the suspension of their pistol licenses supposedly constitutes a Second Amendment violation. Rather, they audaciously assert that they are not required to do so. They contend that under New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1, 142 S. Ct. 2111, 213 L. Ed. 2d 387 (2022) (“Bruen”), decided after the suspensions, defendants must affirmatively justify their actions because the possession and carrying of handguns for self-defense is within the “plain text” of the Second Amendment.
    —LaMarco v. Suffolk County, No. 2:22-cv-04629, slip op. at 6 (E.D.N.Y.)

    They want to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment is implicated. The burden shifts to the state to prove a historical tradition of matching firearms regulations in this Nation’s history.

    This was filed on July 1st. The court was having none of it.

    In its papers, the Suffolk County Attorney fails to argue the proper application of New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022) by dodging the issue, asserting that the subject matter of this case is somehow outside the ambit of the Second Amendment. See Docket Entry 28-35 at 11-13. This assertion is spurious, seemingly interjected for dilatory purposes. It is obvious that this case involves the proper application of the Second Amendment, and arguments surrounding Bruen are critical to its proper resolution. Indeed, Ms. Zwilling, the Assistant County Attorney handling this case, is well aware of the applicability of the Second Amendment given her work in Torcivia v. Suffolk Cnty., New York. 409 F. Supp. 3d 19, 36 (E.D.N.Y. 2019), affid, 17 F.4th 342 (2d Cir. 2021) (“There can be no question that [Suffolk County’s] Revocation and Seizure Policies implicated conduct within the scope of the Second Amendment. At least least one of the Policies resulted in the revocation of Plaintiff’s pistol license and the temporary seizure of Plaintiff’s firearms, and limited Plaintiff’s ability to possess handguns.”). Moreover, the County’s assertion that Bruen is not retroactive is equally preposterous. See, e.g., Passalacqua v. Cnty. of Suffolk, No. 19-CV-5738 (GRB)(SIL), 2022 WL 21795141, at *3 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 9, 2022) (“Further, the fact that the events at issue took place prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen has no bearing on its applicability to the present motions.”) (citation omitted). Notably, Ms. Zwilling also represents the County in Passalacqua. Thus, the County is DIRECTED to file a supplemental brief of no more than 10 pages setting forth its position on the proper application of Bruen and United States v. Rahimi, No. 22-915, 2024 WL 3074728 (U.S. June 21, 2024) to the pending motion within 10 days. Counsel for plaintiffs shall have two weeks to file a response. Given the absence of a good faith basis for the County’s position, the Court will, pursuant to Rule 11, award Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees for the preparation of this supplemental brief. Ordered by Judge Gary R. Brown on 7/2/2024.

    This is a text order, there is no citation to a paper. It is in the docket for the case.

    This is a spanking of the state. No doubt about it. Good news.

            

  • A long time ago, I said that if I could find a politician who managed to have a positive campaign rather than a smear one, I would support him. That’s part of why I supported Gary Johnson when he was running (though it was a lot more in depth than that). But yesterday I saw something that made me really stop and listen. I saw this:

    @byte.bulletin

    A super shocking trump campaign promo!!!!#trump2024 #camping #election #political #american

    ♬ original sound – Byte bulletin

    This is raw. It’s different than some of his past stuff. It’s … It feels more real.

    I know, feels aren’t what the Right cares about. But this was a GOOD political ad. This one actually spoke to me. Yes, the world is shite. The Institution (the swamp, if you will) has protected itself at the cost of the citizens of the country. Don’t give up, keep doing what’s right, never quit. “They’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you. I’m just standing in their way.” Damn.

    I still don’t like the guy. He makes my hackles rise. But I know he’s not the demon the Left paint him as. I can mourn the fact that better candidates didn’t get in, and still know that he’s better than Biden by far. I cannot deny that this video, the words he said, paint a much different picture than the stuff he posted the first time around. Maybe he has learned. Maybe he will be better this time.

    Lots of maybes.

            

  • For the last week or more, I’ve been watching Paris burn, and with it, France.

    This is portrayed as “the far-right” vs. the “left-wing”. Which begs the question, what does it take to be “far-left”?

    Right-wing and Left-wing come from where the different parties sat in the German parliament. The communists sat on the left, the Nazi, and socialists and everybody else sat on the right.

    So to say that Nazi’s are right wing only refers to them being further right than communists. Which wasn’t very far.

    The “right” in these United States are conservatives, not Nazi’s or other socialist scumbags.

    Parliaments

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  • Following the Alex Baldwin saga is frustrating. This is a man who claims that he bears no responsibility for killing another person because somebody else should have made sure his gun was safe to shoot at people.

    The gist of the case: Alec Baldwin was an actor producer on a low-budget western called “Rust”. As the STAR, he demanded the biggest, baddest gun. He was a jackass during safety briefings. He failed to follow the safety briefings.

    There is evidence that he engaged in horseplay with the revolver while making videos during his firearms training while using full load blanks, displayed reckless behavior as it related to the use of a firearm, such as pointing it and firing a blank round at a crew member while using that crew member as a line of sight as his perceived target.”

    He then, again, failed to follow the four rules. He pointed a gun at a person, cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger. Killing the cinematographer.

    He claimed he never pulled the trigger. The FBI tested the gun to destruction, and was unable to get the gun to fire without the trigger being pulled.

    In other words, it looks like he is a lying sack of bull dung.

    Now, the state is introducing new evidence:

    After October 21, 2021 [he] was insistent that he not be required to follow safety recommendations made by film set safety experts on the continuation of the filming of Rust in Montana.

    The “continuation of the filming” means after he shot and killed a person, the asshole was still disregarding his safety briefings and the safety rules.

            

  • It still comes up on my random play list. If you want fun, go look it up on YouTube. There are some Kyle R. versions.

            

  • There are many things that are important to Conservatives and Republicans that are also important to me. First and Second Amendment issues are prime examples. Freedom to speak, to protest (not riot), to think your own thoughts, to live free, these are fundamentally American things. Other countries, if they have these things at all, have done so because we did it first. Firearms and arms in general, I might be more Right than some of you, because I firmly and 100% believe that “…shall not be infringed…” is the be-all and end-all. I am a “small government” kind of gal, and would love to see the swamp drained. I think that government has the anti-Midas touch – everything it touches turns to shit. Government should be interfering only when absolutely necessary, especially at the Federal level. It should not be possible for someone to be a “career politician.” EVER.

    And then there are other issues, ones which are not Constitutional but are near and dear to my heart. I believe that a person’s body should be inviolate, and that includes during pregnancy. I believe birth control should be inexpensive (already possible) or maybe free at point of use, and easy to get ahold of. I think marriage, from the government’s perspective, should simply be a listing of who did what, when, for the purposes of census taking and whatever Federal and State level benefits people get for being married. I think if five people want to get together and form a family, that’s fine. I think gay people are “just people” and should have exactly the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else (and not more, btw). I think black people are “just people” and should have exactly the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else (and not more, btw). I believe that people should be able to get (very basic) healthcare that is free at point of service (largely because it saves money at the community and county level, overall). I believe that religion, and freedom of AND FROM it, are between a person and their gods, and there should be no government level (including schools) statements that are inherently religious.

    There’s a lot going on here, and I labeled this article “fears” for a reason. Here are some of the concerns I have, and why I have them. Some echo the concerns that those on the Left have. Take what you will from it.

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  • What is a GVR?

    The process for an appeal is to request that a case be heard. When the superior court Grants that appeal, the case is moved to a final opinion. One of the possible outcomes is that the inferior court’s opinion is Vacated.

    When an inferior court’s opinion is vacated, the superior court has an option to Remand the case back to the inferior court for a do-over.

    When the superior court does this without hearing anything from the parties outside the request to be heard, it is called “GVR”.

    If the superior court were to just “GVR” a case, it wouldn’t be helpful to the inferior court. Nobody learns from “You are mistaken, do it over.” There needs to be some level of feedback.

    On July 2nd, 2024, the Supreme Court issued their final orders of the 2023 term.

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  • The Fort has been trying to recover from the lack of visitors during covid. It is also working with volunteers that know much about their area of interest, but not so much about other parts.

    Consider power transmission. We have been working with power transmission since ancient Roman times. What is power transmission? It is how you transmit movement from one place to another.

    In the modern era, we will convert running water, high heat or a dozen other things into electricity. That electricity is then transmitted over wires to a motor. At the motor, the power is converted back to motion.

    Another part of the transmission of power, is the simpler physical transmission. Consider a water wheel. The wheel rides on an axle. The axle sits in bearings. When the wheel turns, the shaft turns. Anything attached to that shaft will also turn, doing work.

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