Stan:

Vilmar,

What we need to address this problem is thousands of those remote controlled internet rifles, strung out across the US side of the Mexican border. They could be manned in shifts, by a concerned citizen militia. Why just think of how many illegal aliens that the members of this web site could bag, given the opportunity.

I know that you are opposed to this concept, but perhaps you should reconsider.

Stan

PS: For those of you who were not party to our email conversation over the weekend, here are a few excerpts.

Stan:

Speaking of vision impaired web sites and firearms, what do you thing about this?

http://www.live-shot.com/

Unless you are willing to field-dress it, I don’t think you ought to be able to shoot it. You can’t even smell the cordite for God sake.

Stan

Stan:

I went and signed up for target practice. More to follow.

Stan

Allan:

Hmmmmmm, now that looks like an interesting concept.

Allan

Stan:

It is an interesting concept. I don’t think that I approve of it for hunting. It is one thing to shoot at a target that doesn’t move. If you are shooting at an antelope or something, you might go from a clean kill shot, to just blowing the poor bastard’s jaw off, due to internet response time issues. Maybe this type of hunting should be confined to people in wheelchairs with high bandwidth connections.

An interesting concept, but I am not quite comfortable with it.

No more getting out of bed at 4AM to go get into the deer blind however.

I have mixed emotions.

Stan

Stan:

Well I have to install some software.

http://www.sunrise-data.com/liveshot/pic1.bmp

It is a java app. You need the Java runtime 1.4.

http://www.sunrise-data.com/liveshot/pic2.bmp

These guys are sitting on a goldmine; no shooting slots are available for the entire month of my membership. I am going to ask for a refund!

http://www.sunrise-data.com/liveshot/pic3.bmp

I am able to move a camera around on somebody’s pasture. Here is a deer feeder.

http://www.sunrise-data.com/liveshot/pic4.bmp

Conclusion:

This web site is a ripoff in its current incarnation, but they do seem to be getting some response.

Stan

Allan:

I’ll pass since it’s java. My experience is the response would be too slow since java SUCKS.

Allan

Stan:

Subject: Well this is actually kind of… fun

Well in spite of the fact that I want my money back because I can’t click my mouse and shoot anything (all the shooting schedules are taken for about the next 100 years), this site is kind of fun to play with. The camera on the left can be controlled by the observer (me in this instance). I scanned around and found a deer feeder. I scanned a bit more and found the shooting range.

http://www.sunrise-data.com/liveshot/pic4.bmp

The camera on the left is controlled by me. The camera on the right is the 22 rifle. You can zoom in and out. This is all causing quite a hubbub do a search on Google news for live-shot.

Lets fire up the browsers and go kill something.

Stan

Stan:

Subject: Illegal Alien Defense

The founder, John seems to have a potential application of this invention for the US Border Patrol.

http://www.houston-press.com/issues/2005-03-10/news/hairballs.html

You can’t just go all Lee Harvey Oswald from your keyboard, however. A ranch employee is positioned next to the rifle, and he does not remove the safety to allow a shot until he’s sure everything’s okay.

“We’ve got a lot of illegal aliens who come through our area, and you don’t want somebody who doesn’t know any better to sight on a person and pull the trigger,” says Lockwood, whose naïveté about at least some of his audience’s attitude toward illegal aliens is charming.

Imagine about a couple of thousand of these gadgets scattered out through the desert between Laredo and Cotullia. You can bag your trophy buck, or if hunting is slow, bag an illegal alien or two.

Stan

Stan:

Subject: Livestock on the Range (Shooting not Home on the Range)

There is a horse loose in this pasture! Several actually.

Is that a good idea?

http://www.sunrise-data.com/liveshot/pic6.bmp
http://www.sunrise-data.com/liveshot/pic7.bmp

Stan

Vilmar:

There’s something VERY wrong about doing ANYTHING like this (relative to hunting).  It’s just that I can’t put it into words.
Now, imagine if our military were to deploy something like this in “urban areas” of Iraq?

Vilmar

Stan:

Vilmar,

Yes, this is creepy and compelling all at once. I wouldn’t shoot a deer like this, but it might be fun to fire 10 rounds at a target.

I find myself sort of pulling for John Lockwood, the guy that came up with the concept. He is an estimator at a body shop in San Antonio. He is raking in some pretty good money hanging a target and reloading a 22 Ruger rifle. According to the voluminous press he has been getting, he has at least 300 members at $20 per pop. He can quit his estimator job if allowed to continue.

He has all the animal rights groups and every state legislature trying to stop him.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_63419.asp
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/sports/outdoors/s_306913.html
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0309-14.htm
http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_24020.shtml
http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/summaries/reader/0%2C2061%2C576405%2C00.html
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/legislature/11099080.htm

And many, many more… Do an “Internet Hunting” search on Google news.

Why shouldn’t the guy be allowed to profit from his idea? What if the Texas Parks and Wildlife issued a special hunting license for handicapped people? What about the recreational rights of the handicapped? Maybe the ACLU will find itself arguing both sides of this issue.

There is a person with a rifle sitting there also. If a hog got his jaw shot off instead of getting killed, the real life hunter could track him down and finish him off.

If you are going to make sausage, the first step is to kill the hog. This is just one other lawful (temporarily) way to accomplish the first step.

This is a little creepy but, why shouldn’t the guy be allowed to profit from his idea? Hummm…

Allan, maybe we can get paid to port the application to some other platform besides Java.

Stan

Vilmar:

Stan,

The guy came up with a novel idea and I am impressed at the ingenuity of the American mind when it comes to making money.  I have no problem with the business.

It’s just not something I care to do.  There’s no fun shooting unless the trigger snaps your finger back or the pistol’s recoil causes your arms to go upwards or the rifle’s recoil makes your shoulder sore.

Check back in 30 years and people will be divided on this like the ones who will NEVER type a letter on keyboard or typewriter preferring to “write one” on paper instead.  (I hope I made sense.)

Hey, are the bluebonnets in bloom yet?  I was wanting to drive to Austin to do some photography.  I will call the TDOT or Ladybird Johnson center tomorrow, too.

Vilmar

Stan:

Yes I prefer to smell the smoke myself.

The bluebonnets are just now coming out. It should be a good year because there has been lots of rain.

Stan

Allan:

Vilmar,

They already have “force feed” joysticks that provide physical feedback from on-line games. There are even some joysticks that shock the piss out of you when you die in a game. Why not a “rifle” joystick with tactile trigger and shot feedback? The technology is already there.

Simply combine this ....

http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=4976259

With this ....

http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=313568

Allan

Allan:

Stan,

I like the way you think. Perl would be faster but use more memory. Perhaps PHP? Or maybe, server-side includes or even ASP. This requires thought. Hmmmmm ....

Allan

Stan:

Smoke, we need the smoke too. Maybe something to set off two or three grains of powder. Just enough for the smell, but not enough to set off the smoke alarms. Maybe a freezer closet too to approximate sitting on your ass in a cold deer blind.

We could get rich!!!

Stan

Stan:

Folks,

Here is good powder load for this application:

http://www.reloadammo.com/32swlong.htm

You could load the blank in the rifle, and aim at the target, through a virtual goggle system, and fire. To make it work without a whole lot of virtual running around the pasture, to start with, both rifles would need to be on a tripod (sandbag), which is what you are usually doing from a good deer blind anyway. Later, maybe you could have a virtual four-wheeler to navigate around the pasture and stop at certain spot to wait for a shot.

Food for thought.

Stan

Robotic Internet Firearm Update

Well for whatever reason http://www.live-shot.com has come back on line. I have a thirty minute shooting session set up for 1PM today.

I am really getting to like this John Lockwood guy. He has managed to get everybody from PETA to the NRA pissed off at him, and it doesn’t seem to be bothering him a bit. And he did all this by applying existing technology, in an innovative and lawful way, to make money. What is more American than that? I hope that internet hunting is approved, if not for everybody, then at least for the disabled. The first (and only) pig killed, so far, got shot by a paraplegic. CBS has a picture of another murderous paraplegic posted on their web site today.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/15/eveningnews/main680404.shtml

This would also be a great thing for the vision impaired. Consider this:

Allan:

Steel, my eyes are almost shot. Even with glasses, 100 yards is a difficulty due to 40/400 vision in both eyes. On my last visit to the eye doctor, he told me there was nothing further he could do. Therefore, a scope is almost a necessity at any range beyond 75 yards. Old age really sucks. Allan

Steel Turman:

Allan, I am legally blind at 20/800. My best with correction is 20/150. I’ll cut ya some slack amigo, but since you’re still driving I KNOW ya got 20/150. If ya wanna put a scope on somethin’ ... put it on a .270. And buy a StreetSweeper. If it’s for the range ... get used to a 20 guage ‘slide rifle’ with slugs. Me personally, I like the Henry 44MAG Model 94 and The AutoMag and a Thompson Contender with a scope. 44MAG of course. And then run Hot Shot every other round. Can’t miss amigo. Bring earplugs. Steel Turman

Dan D:

Allan: re: #4 - I have a real problem too with bi(tri)focals. I can see either the rear sight, front sight or the target; but not all of them at once with iron sights - especially with handguns, (Combat) IPSC. But I lucked out and found an optician (also a shooter) who cut a 1/8” X 3/4” diopter in the upper inside corner of my glasses that splits the difference between the bifocal diopters. It’s a passable solution if you can find somone to do it. Mind you he died and I had to resort to:

The other option that you might want to look into are “pilot’s” glasses for shooting. Normal bifocals have the lower crescent for close and the upper ‘clear part for ‘looking far’. These have a lower and upper diopter with a ‘look far’ center. It’s for airline pilots who need to see the gauges and switches above their heads in todays cockpits and they’re both the same on each side. Trouble is, you look like a goof wearing them and get asked all sorts of stupid questions....(but not from other shooters. Heh.)

And you’re right - it sucks to be a-gittin’ old. (Damned arthritis!) Dan D Canuckistan

As Posted:

http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/comments/3783/

If I ever go on a hunting trip with you three blind old farts, I want you looking at the target on the biggest computer monitor money can buy. Either that or be hunting by remote control myself, from the safety of my office.

There is also the homeland security aspect of this invention, which I so eloquently pointed out in my comments at:

http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/comments/3814/

Vilmar seems to be warming up to this concept.

I’ll be back with an update after my shooting session.

Stan

Robotic Internet Firearms Update – The Shooting Session

OK, the time is about 10 minutes till 1PM. I have to fire 10 rounds in 20 minutes. I should be able to write about it as I do it.

In an effort to keep the shooting experience as close to real life as possible I have opened up a package of saltines, a can of Vienna sausages and a pint of bourbon.

I am logged in to http://www.live-shot.com waiting for 1PM to come around.

1PM is here! I have a firing control option on my menu now. There is a guy out there hanging up some targets for me.

I have a wide view and a scope view.

Great, I have a java stack trace error!!! That almost never happens on my 30.06.

The guy was still out there hanging up the balloons. The java error went away. I guess they disable the applet until the guy gets back. That’s a good safety feature.

I now have some arrows to move the crosshairs and a fire button where the java stack trace was.

I tried to get on the target in the middle, and the arrow keys move the crosshairs way too fast. Well let me find something else to shoot. How about a balloon?

Missed! It is hard to tell when the round goes off. You can’t hear anything. I don’t like that! It is also hard to judge your distance. Maybe 30 to 50 yards? I know that it is windy, because all the balloons are going around, but I can’t tell which way it is going. How can you calculate your elevation and windage? You can’t smell the smoke either. I’ll go for an iron turkey.

Missed again! I have an Iron pig in my crosshairs now.

Die you son-of-a-bitch!!! There is about a 2 to 3 second time lapse between the time you pull the trigger and the time the target goes down.

I think that if you hold down the control key while moving the crosshairs, it moves in smaller increments. This application could use some documentation. I am going after a balloon.

Die you fat red bastard!!! I’ll try the pink one next to it.

Got it!

Well now that I have figured out how to move the crosshairs a little better. I’ll go after the target.

I’ve got it on the target.

The bullet hole winds up where you are aiming. I am going to use up the rest of my ammo here.

Nice grouping!!! I haven’t been counting my shots. I think I have fired at least 20 rounds. They must reload for you. Cool! I will go after the rest of the balloons!

I got ‘em all!!!

I still have a little time left. I’ll shoot some iron targets.

Time’s up! Well that was a lot of fun! The rifle is accurate. You can definitely hit what you are aiming at. I hope the government lets this guy make a ton money from this idea. If you can’t have Robotic Internet Firearms Ranging Across Frontiers (RIFRAF) in Texas where can you have RIFRAF? They’ll take my RIFRAF away from me when they pry my cold dead fingers off of the mouse!!!

Stan

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