When you're writing native desktop apps, the code that's actually running is also not the same as what you're writing and debugging - the former is assembly, the latter is C or C++.

I'm printing up a mini-gun as soon as I get my generator going.

Really didn't want to spring 10K+ for a whole-house generator so I went with a 'portable' 6KW Yamaha and a manual transfer switch.

I'm working on a natural gas hookup for the Yamaha so if I need to go long term I won't have to be out scavenging gas.

This will pretty much keep my house going except for the AC.

Hopefully I'll never need to use it. I went 20 years in this location without a problem until Irene and then Sandy.

I find it very dubious that the tech in question is actually viable today. I am not aware of any actual "smart gun" offerings on the market today, and surely there would be some if it could be pulled off in a reasonable way - there would be demand for them, if only among the casual gun owners who want an extra safety measure for the sake of peace of mind, even at the cost of reliability.

Well, we need some generic standard for push notifications first, and we need that standard to not require a centralized server - which kills it right away, since e.g. both Apple and Microsoft insist on people using its servers for all notifications on iOS, Win8 and WP8. Unfortunately, this whole battery optimization business resulted in a kind of lock-in for the new generation of high-level networking protocols.

That's easy to fix - boost them to ~260 GeV and they will last long enough to make a 1,600 km journey. It's the 1,600 km of vacuum pipe and focussing magnets that is the real problem.

Why not just sell them into slavery while you're at it?

Lead is trivially cast into bullets.

Black gunpowder is not hard to make, and, for all its disadvantages, can be used quite successfully in single-shot or manual-cycling designs (bolt/pump/lever-action), and even some repeaters (e.g. DAO revolvers).

Cases can be made out of plastic - see shotgun shells.

This leaves the primers. I don't know if these can conceivably be home-made, but I suspect it's not all that hard.

Anybody can create a gun out of a bunch of metal pipes and a couple of springs, all readily available in the local Home Depot, with as little as an electric drill. This has been true for decades now, too. It's just as untraceable, and you can actually make semi-auto (or even full-auto) weapons firing a decent-sized round that way. So, nothing new here, other than all the sudden attention.

The "future" has been here for a long time now. It's just that the media shit storm has caused more people to suddenly notice.

It's all about the rifling or lack thereof, not about the caliber. A rifled 12 ga slug gun is legally a rifle (and would be a destructive device if 12 ga wasn't specifically exempt as "suitable for sporting purposes", or some such).

They do say that Win8 Metro apps will be trivially portable. I can't help but wonder if that'll include games. For a lot of indie stuff, this would be quite sufficient.

Apple found a way to do this. Ireland determines tax residence by location of corp HQ, the US by location of incorporation.

1. Incorporate in Ireland
2. Hold board meetings in CA
3. ??????
4. Tax-free profit!!!