DLink 2553 syslog

The DLink 2553 Wireless Access Point has the option of logging to a syslog server.
I configured on of my Linux machines to receive the syslog messages.

To make this happen I need to configure the linux machine to listen for and log messages and then configure the WAP to send them. I used a Mandriva 2010.1 machine which is using rsyslog as opposed to syslog so there are a few differences from what you may google. Rsyslog is in the process of removing all command line switches and replacing them with config file directives so the often googled add -r to syslog does not work.

The file /etc/rsyslog.d/00_common.conf has most of the rsyslog directives in it. In this file I found the following two lines and uncommented them.

$ModLoad imudp.so
$UDPServerRun 514

This enabled the UDP server on port 514. Then make sure that your firewall allows inbound packets on that port. I restarted the rsyslog server with the following command.

service rsyslogd restart

Now I logged into the DLink and entered the IP address of the linux machine and clicked apply.
Once it restarted I logged into one of the mobile machines and checked the log on the linux machine and to my happiness I saw some log messages.

Oct 11 15:23:34 192.168.1.21 hostapd: [Wireless]Group key update success:STA 00:16:FF:C2:E8:FF

Now I want to be able to send all of the Wireless messages to a separate file.

Konus Spotting Scope Review

Up for review today is the Konus Spotting Scope 20-60x 80mm which I purchased from Midway USA  on sale for $198.00. Midway has some of the best prices around and I have good experiences both of the times I have had to contact customer service.

A decent spotting scope is a necessity for high power rifle shooting. The Konus scope has been talked about quite a bit with an assortment of good reviews, and Jim Owens seems to like it.

The Konus has a variable zoom from 20x to 60x and an 80mm objective lens with a sun shade. It weighs just under four pounds and is about 17" long. Here is the picture of the box that the scope comes packaged in.

Once you open the box you can see the carrying case that comes with the scope. The carrying case is kind of thin and nothing special but it helps keep everything together.

Unzipping the carrying case reveals the scope itself and the accessories that come with it. Included are a camera adapter and a plastic table top tripod.

The tripod works acceptably on the table but it is a bit wobbly and apt to tip over. I will be looking for a replacement tripod in the near future but the included one works for now.

When I first started to use the scope, the zoom adjustment was VERY tight and was difficult to turn. The eyepiece would come unscrewed from the force of turning the zoom. After a few minutes of use and turning the zoom and tightening the eyepiece, the tightness has appeared to go away and it is adjusting smoothly for now. I hope that it stays this way.

The scope also comes with a camera adapter for taking pictures. It screws on to the eyepiece and allows you to adjust the zoom even when installed.

Once I had it unpacked and setup and finished playing with the adjustments, I settled in to shoot and try it out. Overall I was impressed with the optics and the quality of the image. Even when the zoom was cranked all the way up the image was clear and color was close to normal. Having only used this scope two times now I would not hesitate to recommend it to some one else as long as you plan on getting another tripod.

I had intended to take pictures with my camera attached but I forgot to bring the camera to range so I took a few shots with my cell phone camera. I am hesitant to put them up since they were taken with a shaky cell phone but I will put one up and post another image that was taken by another reviewer with a better camera.

Shaky cell phone camera shot.

200 meter shot from a review on Inland Shooters.

Stock Refinishing with Tru Oil

Not too long ago I bought one of the Civilian Marksmanship specials. The specials are remanufactured M1 Garands with new barrels and new stocks. Once mine arrived I was rather pleased with how it looked, however I needed to do something with the stock as it was essentially bare wood when I got it. I decided to use Birchwood Casey's Tru Oil on this project.

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures before I started so I will use some proxy pictures that hopefully will serve the purpose.

On the right is a picture of the CMP special from the CMP website. You can see that the wood looks nice but it needs some finish. After receiving mine I took all of the furniture off and used a bit of 400 grit paper to smooth out a few rough places and then give it a light sanding overall.

Then I blew all the dust off with my compressor and then used a tack cloth to remove anything else.





Seeing as how I failed to take pictures of my stock before refinishing, I am going to shoe some pictures of a box that I made for my wife not too long ago. I made a small jewelry type box out of mahogany and I used Tru Oil to finish it.

The piece on the left is this picture is raw mahogany that I had cut to form one side of the box. I sanded it with 200 and then 400 grit paper to smooth it out. Then after cleaning it and wiping it down I applied the first coat of Tru Oil. I used a piece of cheese cloth folded up into a pad and applied a light coat. I stress the light coat part. You do not want to put this on too heavy. It would probably be a good idea to do this in a dust free environment.

The piece on the right has had one coat of Tru Oil applied to it.

The first coat will probably soak right in but keep it light and spread the oil into the wood grain. The first coat will probably need to dry for at least 2 to 3 hours depending on the humidity.

Once the first coat is dry you will need to buff it out with some steel wool. I usually use OO or medium grade steel wool depending on the branding. In the picture on the right the steel wool grades from the left are coarse, medium, and fine. This brand of steel wool the medium is about OO and the fine was close to OOOO steel wool.

You do not need to push hard when buffing the finish, just some light pressure should be fine.

After buffing out the finish I used the compressor to blow out the dust and wool particles and used a tack cloth to clean up the surface. Then I applied a second coat of Tru Oil. You will find that the second coat will use less oil than the first coat so go sparingly at first.

In the picture on the left you can compare the raw mahogany to a piece with two coats of Tru Oil on it.

For my Garand I used three coats of Tru Oil. Some people will say that you need to use more. I have seen some nice rifles that have used six to eight coats but I was pleased with finish after three and at the time I was tired of buffing it with steel wool and I wanted to get out and shoot it!!!!

On the right is a picture of my Garand with the three coats of Tru Oil. You can see that it has a nice satin finish and the Tru Oil really made the grain pop.

And now since I know you want to see it is a picture of the box that I made for my wife. With this I went to six coats of Tru Oil. If you click on the picture and look close you can see that not all of the grain is filled in. You could go even further if you wanted and continue applying coats and buffing until all of the grain is filled but I kind of like the way it looks.

You can put a really nice finish on your gun stock with Birchwood Casey's Tru Oil. There is a little bit of work required with the prep work and buffing. If you take your time and plan carefully you can end up with some nice looking furniture.

Email Content Type

I have a Drupal 6.15 instance that uses the SimpleNews(6.x-1.0) and Mimemail(6.x-1.0-alpha1) modules.

When I send a newsletter and receive it in Outlook 2007 I receive a poorly formatted text email with an html attachment. What I want is for the html attachment to be the email.

At first glance this is a client side problem with the client(Outlook) not interpreting the content-type correctly. But it is not real important if that is correct or not because I cannot expect all of the customers to change their email clients just for me. So I need to change something on the server side to force this to appear correctly in the email clients of the customers.

The content type I am seeing the received email is

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; charset="utf-8";

I read some forums and dug around in the Mimemail module code and decided to change the module to force the content type to multipart/mixed.

To do this added an extra line to mimemail.inc at line 321

$content_type = 'multipart/mixed';
return mimemail_multipart_body($parts, "$content_type; charset=utf-8");

After sending a few test emails this seems to have addressed the problem. There may be a better or more correct way to address this but it works for now.

UPDATE:
There was an update to the Mimemail Module that invalidates the line number I mentioned before.

The new version is 6.x-1.0-alpha2 dated 24 March 2010.

 The following line is the last line and the return from the function mimemail_html_body

return mimemail_multipart_body($parts, "$content_type; charset=utf-8"); 

What you want to do is force the mime type just before the function returns. So just prior to the return set the mimetype with the following line.

$content_type = 'multipart/mixed';

Leupold Mark AR Review

I have been in the market for some decent optics for my flat-top AR. With the economy the way it is I initially tried to keep the cost down and crashed and burned with the NCStar Mark III. Thankfully Midway USA made the recovery much easier with their no hassle return policy. After that experience I put aside some money for a little while until I was able to save up enough to order a Leupold Mark AR from Optics Planet with a coupon. I also purchased a one-piece Burris Scope Mount from Midway to go with the scope.

The Leupold Mark AR comes in a 1.5-4x20 model and a 3-9x40 model. You can buy it in Duplxe or Mildot reticles and the lenses are coated with Leupold's Multicoat 4 System. This system is supposed to result in increased brightness, contrast, and clarity. The view through the scope looked good to me although I did have some issues making out 22 cal holes at 100yds.

I bought the 3-9x40 version with the Mildot Reticle. It is a one inch tube in matte finish. 

The elevation knob is adjustable in 1/2 moa increments and includes a built in bullet drop compensator calibrated for the M193 round. A 55gr bullet at 3200fps. Leupold offers the ability to purchase a custom calibrated compensator for the load of your choice.

I mounted the scope to my AR using a Burris one piece mount.  This particular mount is really intended for AR platforms with shorter stocks. I was very impressed with the amount of eye-relief that this scope offered. The optics were clear and easy to see.

For the real test I used some more of the Black Hills 55 gr ammo that I got on sale back before the election of '08. I bought a whole lot at the time, one because I got a good deal, two because I was under the impression that Black Hills was some good stuff. I have gone through quite a lot of this in the past few years and I have not been impressed. It is supposed to be 3200fps but I have had it chrono from 2800 to about 3120 and everywhere in between. Not the most accurate in the world but it was cheap and good for plinking.

I didn't have a lot of time this day so I got it sighted in and then started firing 3 round groups starting at 9x. 3 at 9x, 3 at 8x and so on down to 3x. You can see the results here 21 shots at 100yds. Not the best shooting in the world but I am happy to report that I did not have any real change in the point of Impact like I did with the NCStar. The next chance I get I will take some of my handloads out and practice for a little while. Even though the Leupold and the mount together were about four times the cost of the NCStar, there is a noticeable difference in the quality and I think it was worth saving up to purchase.

My Heart, My Choice

Canadian Politician comes to the United Stated for Health Care.

Source

'My heart, my choice,' Williams says, defending decision for U.S. heart surgery
By Tara Brautigam (CP) – 22 hours ago

An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors.

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

The 60-year-old Williams said doctors detected a heart murmur last spring and told him that one of his heart valves wasn't closing properly, creating a leakage.

He said he was told at the time that the problem was "moderate" and that he should come back for a checkup in six months.

Eight months later, in December, his doctors told him the problem had become severe and urged him to get his valve repaired immediately or risk heart failure, he said.

His doctors in Canada presented him with two options - a full or partial sternotomy, both of which would've required breaking bones, he said.

He said he spoke with and provided his medical information to a leading cardiac surgeon in New Jersey who is also from Newfoundland and Labrador. He advised him to seek treatment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.

That's where he was treated by Dr. Joseph Lamelas, a cardiac surgeon who has performed more than 8,000 open-heart surgeries.

Williams said Lamelas made an incision under his arm that didn't require any bone breakage.

"I wanted to get in, get out fast, get back to work in a short period of time," the premier said.

Williams said he didn't announce his departure south of the border because he didn't want to create "a media gong show," but added that criticism would've followed him had he chose to have surgery in Canada.

"I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. ... I accept that. That's public life," he said.

"(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that."

Williams said his decision to go to the U.S. did not reflect any lack of faith in his own province's health care system.

"I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but we are just over half a million people," he said.

"We do whatever we can to provide the best possible health care that we can in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian health care system has a great reputation, but this is a very specialized piece of surgery that had to be done and I went to somebody who's doing this three or four times a day, five, six days a week."

He quipped that he had "a heart of a 40-year-old, so that gives me 20 years new life," and said he intends to run in the next provincial election in 2011.

"I'm probably going to be around for a long time, hopefully, if God willing," he said.

"God forbid for the Canadian public I won't be around longer than ever."

Williams also said he paid for the treatment, but added he would seek any refunds he would be eligible for in Canada.

"If I'm entitled to any reimbursement from any Canadian health care system or any provincial health care system, then obviously I will apply for that as anybody else would," he said.

"But I wrote out the cheque myself and paid for it myself and to this point, I haven't even looked into the possibility of any reimbursement. I don't know what I'm entitled to, if anything, and if it's nothing, then so be it."

He is expected back at work in early March.

Content Negotiation Apache Style

If the apache server is configured to allow it, you can turn on per directory Content Negotiation with an htaccess file.

Contents of .htaccess file

Options All +MultiViews

The permissions of the .htaccess file should be readable

-rw----r-- 1 owner group 24 2010-03-08 19:48 .htaccess

Apache instructions for Content Negotiation

SBS 2008 Task Errors

On my Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 server I use the Forefront Security for Exchange system. It uses a suite of licensed antivirus algorithms to scan incoming email. The idea is that using multiple engines increases the probability of finding a virus.

SBS 2008 has a nice monitoring report system built int. You can define what you want in the report and what time to run it. The server will then run the report and email the results to any designated email addresses. Recently my system has shown a few errors stating that some of the engines used by Forefront have been discontinued.

Microsoft retired some of the engines and introduced some new ones. So I disabled the retired ones and enabled the new engines. Then I enabled the updates for the new engines and disabled the updates for the retired engines. Then I started getting errors like the following.

So I started poking around in the Task Scheduler configuration and I saw something strange. The configuration for each of the Forefront updates was set to run as Windows 2003, 2000 instead of Server 2008.

 

I clicked on Properties for each task and changed it to the 2008 options like this.

 

So far the errors have gone away. I will let it run for another week or so and see what happens.

Dillon Powder Measure Tuning

I love reloading on my Dillon. I usually use it for straight wall pistol ammunition. Once it is set up and dialed I can crank out plenty of 9mm and 45 to feed our shooting habit. My wife even likes the Dillon as it saves money on ammo and she thinks that sound of me reloading on the Dillon and reaching into the brass bucket reminds her of the Pink Floyd song Money.

In the past I have usually reloaded my rifle ammunition on a single stage press. For no particular reason I wanted to reload some rifle rounds on the Dillon. I started with 30-06 as I had the dies and I could use the shellplate, buttons, etc from other rounds that I already reloaded.


I set the Dillon up with the 30-06 dies and filled the powder measure up with some IMR-4895. This load was going to be for the Garand so it will not be too hot. About 45 grains of 4895 behind a 168gr SMK. I was trying to get the powder measure dialed in but I kept on noticing that when I brought the handle up I still had grains of powder dropping out. After about ten repetitions of handle I had a noticeable amount of powder sprinkled around the shellplate and surrounding area.

Long grain extruded powders are known to have a bit of an issue metering through the Dillon but this seemed to be problem to me. I decided to throw about 30 rounds and I would weigh each one on two different scales to see what kind of a shot to shot difference I was getting. I measured each round twice and then added the powder back into the powder measure.

30 measurements everything stock

Min: 44.4
Max 44.9
Range: 0.5
Mean: 44.62
Std Dev: 0.16

I then tried to add a powder baffle from UniqueTek. This baffle is supposed to provide an uniform flow of powder  even as the level of powder in the measure changes. Since I was pouring the powder back in after every measure I did not really test the baffle for what it was designed for.

30 measurements with powder baffle

Min: 44.1
Max 45.4
Range: 1.3
Mean: 44.84
Std Dev: 0.33

That did not work out very well. A 1.3 grain difference and the standard deviation doubled.

I took the baffle out and while I had the powder measure apart I pulled out my dremel and some went to work. I started with a scotch brite pad bit and finished up with a polishing pad and some jewelers rouge.

I polished up the entire funnel, the mouth, and all parts of the powder bar inside and out. I did not remove any metal but I polished it up and made it smooth. You can see the difference between an untouched measure and an "improved" measure.

Now I put it back together without the baffle and measured another 30 rounds. This time I also decided to slow down the stroke I was using. When reloading pistol ammunition you can crank out some rounds but when reloading rifle and using extruded powders you should slow down a bit. I chose a 4 count from the time the powder bar starts to move until the the powder bar stops moving. Four was an arbitrary number but it seemed to be about right and I needed to make each stroke as repeatable as possible. It is not like I just made some numbers up called my self a climate scientist and made a movie about it.

30 measurements with polished funnel and 4 count stroke.

Min: 44.0
Max 44.3
Range: 0.3
Mean: 44.15
Std Dev: 0.08

Now that is what I am talking about! 30 rounds and the largest difference was only 0.3 grains. I think that will be accurate enough for me. I just need to hold the rifle steady now.

Just to ease my curiosity I put the powder baffle back in and tried again.
30 measurements with polished funnel, powder baffle, and 4 count stroke.

Min: 44.3
Max 44.8
Range: 0.5
Mean: 44.595
Std Dev: 0.13

Again the standard deviation increased with the baffle installed. Granted, I did not test with a varying amount of powder in the measure but to have this much of an impact on the measurement at this stage makes me want to leave it out.

So what does all this mean. When reloading bottle neck rifle cases on a Dillon with extruded powders you should polish up your funnel and powder bar and sloooow down with handle especially on the down stroke.

Magic Numbers

If you do not like the numbers make up some new ones.

This article will probably get buried so read it here from the Star Tribune.


WASHINGTON - The White House has abandoned its controversial method of counting jobs under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus, making it impossible to track the number of jobs saved or created with the $787 billion in recovery money.
Despite mounting a vigorous defense of its earlier count of more than 640,000 jobs credited to the stimulus, even after numerous errors were identified, the Obama administration now is making it easier to give the stimulus credit for hiring. It's no longer about counting a job as saved or created; now it's a matter of counting jobs funded by the stimulus.
That means that any stimulus money used to cover payroll will be included in the jobs credited to the program, including pay raises for existing employees and pay for people who never were in jeopardy of losing their positions.
The new rules, quietly published last month in a memorandum to federal agencies, mark the White House's latest response to criticism about the way it counts jobs credited to the stimulus. When The Associated Press first reported flaws in the job counts in October, the White House said errors were being corrected and future counts would provide a full and correct accounting of just how many stimulus jobs were saved or created.
Numbers published later identified more than 640,000 jobs linked to stimulus projects around the country. The White House said the public could have confidence in those new numbers, which officials argued proved the administration was on track to keep Obama's promise that the stimulus would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year.
But more errors were found, with tens of thousands of problems documented in corrected counts, from the substantive to the clerical. Republicans have used those flaws to attack what so far is the signature domestic policy approved during Obama's presidency.

The new rules are intended to streamline the process, said Tom Gavin, spokesman for the White House's Office of Management and Budget. They came in response to grant recipients who complained the reporting was too complicated, from lawmakers who complained the job counts were inconsistent and from watchdog groups who complained the information was unreliable, Gavin said.
"We're trying to make this as consistent and as uniform as we possibly can," he said.
The new stimulus job reports will continue to offer details about jobs and projects. But they were never expected to be the public accounting of Obama's goal to save or create 3.5 million jobs, Gavin said.
The quarterly job reports posted on the Web site for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board reflect only a fraction of the jobs created under the program and can't account for job creation stemming from other stimulus programs such as tax rebates and other federal aid, the spokesman said.
One scenario could see job counts on some projects decrease from the number that would have been reported under the old rules, if saved full-time jobs are converted into partial jobs under the new reporting rules. But other job counts for projects likely will increase, with recipients now required to add jobs under new rules that previously weren't counted because they were not in jeopardy.
The changes are in line with Government Accountability Office recommendations and "should reduce the debate around these figures," said Elizabeth Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for the White House recovery office.
But the result of the new rules will be that future claims of job creation from the stimulus will be even more misleading, said Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
"It is troubling that the administration is changing the rules and further inflating the Recovery Act's impact and masking the failure of the stimulus to produce sustainable economic growth or real job creation," Issa said in a letter sent last week to the government board monitoring stimulus spending.

Recipients of recovery money no longer have to show that a job would have been lost without the stimulus help, and they no longer are required to keep an ongoing tally of jobs saved or created. The new rules allow stimulus recipients to limit the job tally to quarterly reports, making it impossible to avoid double-counting a job that was created in one quarter and continued into the next.
Issa wants the Recovery Board, the government's independent oversight panel, to change how it identifies the count of stimulus jobs and to add a note on its Recovery.gov Web site explaining that there is now a different definition for what constitutes a job under the stimulus.

NC Star Mark III Review

Up for review this month is the NC Star Mark III Tactical Scope. I got this from Midway with a coupon for about $115. I was kind of apprehensive about this purchase as I had read a couple of not so hot reviews and I am usually of the mind that you get what you pay for.

Anyhow this is a 3 to 9 variable power scope with illuminated mildot reticules. It comes with an integrated quick release weaver style mount. My intention was to put this scope one of my flat top ARs.

The package from Midway was packaged adequately as usual and I pulled the scope box out to take a look. The box packaging looked decent and I did not see any damage to the box.

 The end of the box shows the 3-9X with a 42mm objective. the actual model number is STM3942G.

I carefully removed the scope from the box and checked it out. One of the reasons that I picked this one is that it has the built in bullet drop compensator that is calibrated for 223. It is actually calibrated for a 55gr M193 round and I usually shoot 69 or 75 gr. Supposedly you sight it in for 100 yds and then you can adjust the compensator out to 500 yds. I never actually got that far with it.

Some of the negative reviews I read indicated that the mount did not hold onto the rail very well and would come loose. I followed the instructions and mounted mine, then put a drop of loctite on the locking screw.
I do not forsee this thing coming loose and after 200 rds it has not budged at all. Here is a shot if it mounted on my AR.

Here is another shot zoomed out a little bit with the included dust covers on.

Now I have never had a scope with illuminated reticules before so I wanted to try this out. Supposedly the illumination will help in low light situations. However I found that even on the dimmest settings the illumination destroyed my night vision and I could barely see anything well enough to shoot it. Here is a shot from the aft end of the scope at night.
It is a little out of focus but you can get the idea, it is very bright and that is lowest setting.

The view was only a little better with the green light. Again it is a little out of focus but you get the point I hope.








Alright enough of the fancy stuff how well does it shoot? I was not expecting great clarity out of a scope this price but at 100yds and with the scope at maximum magnification 9x, I could make out most ( not all ) of the 22 cal holes. Not that bad I suppose. I went through 200rds of 55gr ball ammo that I got on sale back before the election of 08. Not the most accurate stuff in the world but it puts holes in the paper. As I was shooting something seemed strange and I was not sure what was going on. So I opened up the bipod and set up the bench to make myself  nice and stable. I got the rifle sighted in so that I could put my shots into a group the size of a quarter at 100yds with the scope at  9x.

Then I loaded up the magazine hunkered down and put 6 shots into the center of the target. I then carefully moved the power from 9x to 8x and took 3 more shots. Then moved the power to 7x and took 3 more shots. I continued this at 6x, 5x, 4x, and finally 3x. You can see the results to the right. With each change in power the point of impact changed. After 5x I was no longer even on the paper. At this point I was kind of disgusted and it was starting to get late so I called it a day.


I don't know about you but the point of impact should not be moving when I change the magnification level. I could accept a little bit of a change but to be off the paper is unacceptable. There is supposed to be a lifetime warranty from NCStar on these. At this point I am glad I bought this with my American Express as I can definitely get my money back. I am undecided if I should deal with trying to get warranty replacement or just return it. At this juncture in time I cannot recommend one of these scopes. Let me know what you think in the comments.