Author Archives: Dave

About Dave

Bridgewater, NJ

Hackintosh VirtualBox

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I successfully created a Hackintosh inside VirtualBox. For those that don’t know, a Hackintosh is a PC, originally designed to run Windows, running the Macintosh operating system instead. I had bought an eMac about five years ago but the hard drive died in it about two years ago. I’ve wanted to get a new Mac (most likely a MacBook) to replace but just couldn’t justify the expense. I had Windows computers in my house which were still running and were cheaper to replace. For a while now, I was thinking about trying to create a Hackintosh but I didn’t want to dual-boot one of my computers or blow away the operating system just to install OS X. I had read an article on Lifehacker which gave step-by-step instructions on creating a virtual Hackintosh. I haven’t had the motivation to try it until today.
I originally tried with an image I found called SnowLeo. I got that to install to the virtual hard drive without an issue; yet when I rebooted, I got the spinning beach ball of death (the OS X equivalent to a BSOD – Blue Screen of Death). Then I found an image put out by a person/group called Hazard. Not only did that version match up with the instructions that were listed in the article, but it installed and rebooted successfully.
I’m a little hesitant to update the OS because I don’t want something to break afterwards. It did only take me about an hour from start to finish, so it wouldn’t be too time consuming if I had to do it all over again.

 

Gun For Hire

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Last Friday, I took an NRA pistol course in Belleville, NJ at Gun for Hire. The main reasons why I took the course were to get a certificate showing I’ve taken a firearms training course after 2003 (the last time I took a training course was back in the late 80s) – which my future father-in-law’s shooting range requires – and to learn proper shooting technique. Another benefit to taking the course is that the certificate would qualify me for a Florida non-resident CCW license.
The course was about four hours long, with three hours in a classroom and the last hour across the street at the Bullet Hole Range. I’m considering taking the next pistol course which covers:

  • Strong Hand Shooting
  • Weak Hand Shooting
  • Strong Side Cover
  • Weak Side Cover
  • Reloading – Stress and Rapid
  • Controlled Groups
  • Shooting Over Cover
  • Shooting Under Cover
  • Holster or Concealment Draw

I’m also considering sending my fiancée to the course I just took so that she can learn how to shoot and feel comfortable with my 9mm in her hands, just in case she ever needs to use it while I’m away on business.

Yesterday, I went to one of Gun for Hire’s other locations, in Bayonne, NJ, for a 60 minute shooting range session which I purchased off of Living Social for $65. This is actually how I first heard about Gun for Hire. After purchasing the range session for 50% off, I decided to learn more about what else they offer. That’s when I came across the NRA approved pistol course. I shot a .22 cal. double action revolver, a .22 cal. single action revolver, a .22 cal. semi-automatic pistol, a .22 cal. AR, and a 12 ga. shotgun. The double action revolver looked like a .44 Magnum.

From the looks of it, the AR rifle might have been a Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22. Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 AR-15

I didn’t care for the single action revolver because you had to load/unload ammo one at a time instead of dumping out the entire cylinder. I think it was a Ruger.Ruger Single-Six Single Action Revolver

The .22 cal. semi-automatic pistol was a Ruger Mark III 22/45 with the fluted barrel.Ruger Mark III 22/45 Hunter

Today, I’m heading back to Belleville to get photographed and fingerprinted so I can get a Florida CCW license. Even though I won’t be able to carry in New Jersey, I would be able to carry in 30+ other states including Pennsylvania, which is where my gun club is located.

 

Springpad v. Evernote

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I’ve been using Evernote for a couple of years now; and recently I subscribed to their Premium service. For the last few months now, I’ve been trying out a competitor to Evernote – Springpad.
While Evernote has a client for Windows and Mac OS X PCs, Springpad is only available through a web browser. Both though have apps for iOS and Android devices.
Springpad recognizes what you’re “clipping” and classifies it accordingly. If you clip a recipe from a website, it will mark it as a recipe to make finding it later much easier. Springpad considers recipes as copyrighted material, so they link to the recipe online instead of including the directions. The downside is that if a recipe you have stored winds up getting deleted, you lose the directions. The only solution is to manually copy and paste the directions from the recipe into your note. I was going to use Springpad for this reason but immediately changed my mind when I learned it only linked to the instructions.
One feature I do like about Springpad involves remembering movies. Let’s say you’re really looking forward to a movie coming to the theaters. If you add it to Springpad, you’ll receive alerts when it’s

  • released to the movie theaters
  • available on DVD/Blu-ray
  • available on Netflix

Unlike Evernote, Springpad can scan a barcode and add the appropriate item to your notebook.

Will I switch? Probably not right now. There are still a lot of things I find useful with Evernote. I would like it if they added some of the features already available in Springpad (auto-detection of note type, barcode scanning, alerts). Until then, I’ll use Springpad when it’s the better app to use; otherwise I’ll stick with Evernote.

Below are videos about Springpad and Evernote created by each company.


 

Genius Scan

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Genius ScanI found a very cool program for my iPhone called Genius Scan. It comes in a free version and a ‘plus’ version, for $2.99, called Genius Scan+. Both versions allow you to

  • Scan a picture with the camera or pick one from the library.
  • Crop and straighten your page thanks to Genius Scan frame autodetection and perspective correction.
  • Enhance your document. Genius Scan turns your grayish documents into real black and white. And it makes color documents look more vivid.
  • Group pages together to easily create PDF documents.
  • Quickly copy documents to your computer via Wifi sharing
  • Share your documents by email or export them to iBooks

The ‘plus’ version allows you to export your documents to Dropbox, Evernote or Google Docs.
I decided to upgrade to the ‘plus’ version since I use Dropbox and Evernote a lot.

 

Ruger Mark III Pistol

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Ruger Mark III pistolBecause the ammunition for my 9mm pistol isn’t exactly cheap ($20 for 50 rounds), I recently purchased a Ruger Mark III pistol which shoots .22 LR ammo. .22 LR ammo runs $20 for about 500 rounds, so it is a lot more economical to practice with the Ruger than the Smith & Wesson. I plan on using the Ruger to work on my trigger control since .22 LR doesn’t have much recoil. Once I become a better marksman, it should carry over to the 9mm.

 

Went To The Shooting Range

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My future father-in-law and I went to his gun club to break-in my new Smith & Wesson SD9. He brought along his Ruger SR9 handgun also. Personally, I liked my SD9 over his SR9 even though I only got to put about 50 rounds through each one. The SD9 felt better in my hands. For most of the time we were there, we shot from the 25yd line. It was freezing cold inside the range even though they had the wood burning stove going for a couple of hours at that point. I hit the target most of the time, which I’m ok with considering I couldn’t feel my fingers after an hour and a half, and I had never fired the gun before.
I’m definitely not going back to the range until the spring time, when I won’t have to worry about it being frigid inside the range. My future father-in-law suggest I join his gun club but I’m not too sure; he believes it’s $200/yr plus you have to work there a couple times a year. It’s a shame there isn’t an outdoor range like when I was up in Maine last summer.
Here are some videos of the guns I got to shoot up in Maine.

 

Smith & Wesson SD9

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Home Defense Kit SD9
It took a month and a half for my local police department to complete the paperwork for my handgun permits, partially because my employer didn’t feel comfortable answering some of the questions asked on the questionnaire. And to be honest, I don’t blame them. Some of the questions they were asked, most employers wouldn’t be able to answer confidently.
Yesterday morning, I picked up my new Smith & Wesson SD9 Home Defense Kit which I purchased from Bud’s Gun Shop and had shipped to a local FFL. I decided I wanted to purchase a 9mm semi-automatic pistol for home protection because I want to make sure my fiancée and I are safe regardless of where we move to after we’re married. Her father has a Ruger SR9 semi-automatic pistol, which is partially why I chose a 9mm instead of a .40 cal for home protection. I also chose a 9mm because I wanted a gun that my fiancée could shoot without knocking herself over and I thought a .40 cal would be a little too powerful for her to handle.
I plan on purchasing a biometric gun safe and some ammunition from Cabela’s. I’d also like to get a light/laser combo to mount to the gun (even though the home defense kit comes with a light), a holster and some extra magazines.

 

Google Chrome

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I’ve been using Firefox for the last five years and have been very happy with it (other than being a bit of a memory hog if left running for a long period of time). It allowed tabbed browsing long before IE. I’ve tried other browsers in the past, yet always came back to using Firefox. I even tried Google Chrome when it was first released. I didn’t care for it then but lately I’ve decided to give it another try.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a lot more minimal than Firefox is. There isn’t any menu bar or bookmarks bar. There are tabs across the very top and directly beneath the tabs is a combination address and search box. Chrome also doesn’t have a title bar, which allows the browser window to show more of the web page being visited.
Mozilla Firefox
It is possible to turn off the menu bar in Firefox but it does make certain tasks (like disabling or uninstalling addons) more difficult without the menu bar. Firefox has two separate boxes for web addresses and searches. Firefox also has a title bar, which can’t be turned off without going “under the hood”, which make the viewed page smaller.
After Firefox 4 is finally released, I’ll try it and see if I’m willing to stay with Firefox or if I’ll make Google Chrome my default browser.

 

Blue Nile

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About two weeks ago, I got engaged to a wonderful woman. We’ve been together for almost a year and I knew after about 6 months that she was “the one”. We started looking at engagement rings a few months ago so that I could get an idea of the style of ring and size of diamond she wanted. I was convinced I’d purchase it from a brick-and-mortar store but after talking to a few coworkers, I was directed towards Blue Nile.
I had never heard of Blue Nile before but after a few different people highly recommended it, I decided to take a look. What I found was GIA certified diamonds placed in the setting of my choice for about 2/3 of what I would pay in a retail store. When I was ready to buy, I had the ring in 3 days (ordered on Monday, received on Thursday) with free shipping. I wound up getting an engagement ring/wedding band matching set for my fiancée. Since I had it shipped to my home, I didn’t even have to pay any sales tax. After I got the ring, I noticed the included appraised value was about 50% more than what I had paid. I couldn’t be happier and my now fiancée loves it. I’ll definitely recommend Blue Nile to anyone else I know looking to purchase an engagement ring; and I will definitely try to convince my fiancée to purchase my wedding band from Blue Nile also.

 

Evernote

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I’ve been using Evernote for a while now, so much so that I’m surprised I haven’t written about it yet. The beauty of Evernote is that it can help you remember anything. You can type a text note, clip a web page, snap a photo or grab a screenshot. It’s all searchable too!! Premium users get priority image recognition, though. I’ve been using Evernote recently to keep track of different jewelers my girlfriend and I have visited and engagement rings we’ve looked at. I took photos of the business cards of the associates who assisted us. On the back of the cards are the specifications about the ring(s) my girlfriend liked. I can go back and search for keywords in the specs and view the entire card. I don’t have to keep track of the original card. As long as I have an Internet connection, I can also view the notes on my iPhone. If I mark a note as a favorite, I can view it even if I don’t have Internet access.
Premium accounts can upload 500MB/month (free users only get 40MB/month) and notes up to 50MB in size (free users can only upload notes <25MB). One nice feature about Evernote is it can be configured to monitor selected folders for importing files. I have mine set to monitor my Dropbox folder on my home PC. I wish Evernote offered a referral system, similar to Dropbox, and would grant additional upload capacity (10MB?) per month for each referral.