Ryan Paul
Archive for November, 2009
Airsoft M4
A couple of weeks ago I bought a cheap M4 Airsoft rifle from Walmart for about $100. Needless to say I was hooked. I’ve been out shooting Tim Horton’s cups in my porch and taking a microwave packing box full of polystyrene to the parking lot of Two Bears Marina and shooting the crap out of it (I shoot out towards the water for safety).
Anyway… so almost immediately I felt the need for something more powerful and better quality. I went and checked out 007 Airsoft to see what Ken had. Needless to say I was rather excited by his range of Airsoft weapons – it’s only too bad some of them are available to law enforcement or licensed movie production companies.
Canadian law basically states the lower receiver has to be clear plastic. If you look closely in the picture you’ll see the lower receiver on the weapon I bought is tinted dark so it’s a bit more realistic.
It has an anodized aluminum upper receiver and detachable carrying handle, tinted clear glass fiber reinforced C8 lower receiver conforming to Canadian regulations, CNC Aluminum RIS unit, a Nylon fiber pistol grip, railed vertical grip, RIS panels, retractable crane stock (holds battery) with two styles butt plates, 14mm threaded aluminum CNC outer barrel, iron chamber block, 6.05mm tight bore inner barrel, a metal one-piece hop up chamber, ultra high torque motor, 300rd high capacity magazine,
The gear box has an M120 spring, steel gears, 8mm ball bearings, aluminum cylinder, aluminum cylinder head with double o-rings, reinforced nylon fiber piston with steel teeth, aluminum piston head with bearings, aluminum bearing spring guide, POM nozzle with internal o-ring, high temperature wires.
Steel furniture includes charging handle, magazine catch, bolt catch, selector, front sight, and flash hider. The other metal parts are rear sight assembly, trigger, ejection port cover, trigger guard, magazine, front/rear sling mounts, forward assist knob, steel motor pinion gear, and locking body pins.
The best part is the velocity is 400fps using 0.20g plastic BBs. I can’t wait to get out and start shooting helpless little moggies. I’m also going to check out Xtreme Tactics in Winnipeg and kick some serious ass – show some of those newbie punks how British dudes with a rifle get busy!
Oh yeah… Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare 2 kicks serious arse. Every review I heard about it was positive – the reputation was well worth it.
Useful WordPress Stuff
I’m constantly looking and re looking for various tiny tricks and tips I’ve used over the years on multiple WordPress powered websites. I’ve grown sick of trying to remember which sites, and so I’ve spent a few hours compiling this list. This list is primarily for my own use, but if you should find it helpful… then knock yourself out 
This list will definitely be expanding so I can use it for a one-stop-shop for every website I build.
But for now folks.. I hope you find this stuff useful.
I’d love to hear from people if anyone uses these… so leave a comment!
You plum!
Individual Dynamic Link To A Post / Page:
<a href="<?php echo get_permalink(1); ?>"><?php echo get_the_title(1); ?></a>
This will output a single dynamic link to a post or a page.
Individual Dynamic Link To A Category:
<a href="<?php echo get_category_link(1); ?>"><?php echo get_cat_name(1); ?></a>
This will output a single dynamic link to a category.
Front End Delete Post Link For Authorised Users
If you don’t have a functions.php in your WordPress theme, create ‘functions.php’ and add this function to it.
function wp_delete_post_link($link = 'Delete This', $before = '', $after = '')
{
global $post;
if ( $post->post_type == 'page' ) {
if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_page', $post->ID ) )
return;
} else {
if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_post', $post->ID ) )
return;
}
$link = "<a onclick=\"return confirm('Are you SURE you want to delete this post/page?')\" href='" . wp_nonce_url( get_bloginfo('url') . "/wp-admin/post.php?action=delete&post=" . $post->ID, 'delete-post_' . $post->ID) . "'>".$link."</a>";
echo $before . $link . $after;
}
Then add the following into your template within The Loop wherever you wish the delete link to go.
<?php wp_delete_post_link('Delete', ' <strong class="delete">', '</strong> ') ?>
Front End Delete Comment Link
Open ‘comments.php’ and look for the edit comment link which will be something like: <?php edit_comment_link(‘Edit’,’ [ ',' ] ‘); ?> and add the following after it:
<?php if (current_user_can('edit_post', $post->ID)) { ?><strong>[ <a onclick="return confirm('Are you SURE you want to delete this comment?')" href='<?php echo wp_nonce_url("/wp-admin/comment.php?action=deletecomment&c=$comment->comment_ID&_wp_original_http_referer=" . wp_get_referer(), 'delete-comment_' . $comment->comment_ID.""); ?>'>Delete</a> ]</strong><?php } ?>
Get Slug:
You should be able to put the code below into your functions.php… or into the html head of your theme:
<?php
$post_id = get_post($post->ID); // get current post or page
$slug = $post_id->post_name; // define slug as $slug
?>
Then use the following to echo the slug:
<?php echo $slug; ?>
Retrieve Post ID Outside of the Loop
Put this code into your functions.php:
function function_name() {
global $wp_query;
$thePostID = $wp_query->post->ID;
}
Then use the following to echo the Post ID:
<?php echo $post->ID ?>
A good experience with Associated Bank
I have an account in the United States with Associated Bank. The story is my former girlfriend (who is now apparently married to an extremely jealous dude) used to work at First Federal Bank in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A number of years later Associated Bank bought First Federal. The first thing I lost was the ability to use internet banking to check my accounts and stuff like that – because Associated Bank’s system used only Social Security numbers, and as I’m not an American resident I don’t have a SS number.
When the account was originally set up I was told that I would only be allowed to spend what I had in my account (no overdraft). I was given a Debit card with a MasterCard symbol on it. Turns out this is a very handy card to have as I can use it at Tim Horton’s to get coffee.
So anyway to cut a long story short… I called up yesterday to get a new card and found out I had USD$798 in overdraft fees. I was obviously livid which was made even worse to find out that the fees all stemmed from four transactions totalling USD$13. I told the guy on the phone to cancel the charges or close the account, and then I asked to speak to a supervisor. I got through to a nice lady who took all the information and sent it up the corporate ladder to a splendid lady called Jennifer Fox who is (I think) the Vice-President of Customer Service for Associated Bank.
Ms Fox zeroed my balance, removed those late fees and gave me back the deposit I’d made a few weeks earlier. She said that she’d looked at the account, saw the charges were small and knew right away I’d never have made those tiny transactions knowing it would cost $35 a time. Ms Fox also removed the ability to go overdrawn so now if I have a balance of $10 and try to swipe $11… the transaction will be refused (which is how I always figured my account functioned).
Ms Fox also had a web banking specialist in her office at the time and they set me up with web banking so now I can check my balance online.
Suffice to say I am very happy with the outcome. I’m very pleasantly surprised that Associated Bank cared enough about their customers to come to an agreeable ending. No doubt I’ll be referring customers whenever possible.
More Awesome Political Websites
Denmark
This badass website totally looks like a blog to me – whoever was in charge of approving it I think took bold steps!
Bill Thompson for Mayor
To me this has similarities to Barack Obama’s website.
Honduras
Mayor of Los Angeles
This has definite similarities between Barack Obama’s website and the Whitehouse website.
France
Awesome political websites
For a lot of people, websites are the first point of contact they’ll have with a particular organization/business/government entity. As with all groups I believe that the quality of the website should reflect the quality of the group. I’ve compiled a list of some political websites of various international government departments that I think are awesome. Read more...
Various Stuff
Comments
- Wiesetiffiny: toay i was sittin down my pant
- : Operation Ajax... the operati
- Jester: Would love to get my hands on
- Justreal: fickle things those ribs huh.
- Justreal: oops-should be #their grandpar
- Justreal: u need to keep better company
- : Ha ha, what a hot topic. I h
- Celena332: White skin and blue and green
- : Thank you for your opinion.
- Sally: You are a complete idiot.
