I’ve got a new project, building an AR-15 from the ground up. This is what they end up becoming:
This is what I’m starting with:
I have bought a parts kit for the lower (the piece above), which includes the trigger, various springs, etc.
Not sure what I’m gonna do for the receiver/upper and what caliber I am going with. I could do .22LR, 5.56mm, 6.8 grendal. Suggestions? I’m kinda leaning for 5.56 right now, even though I’ve already got one.
I recently had the chance to check this out, called thincspace here in Savannah. I’ve heard about it before but haven’t followed it up.
So we booked some time for a conference room and here’s what it looks like. The lights were off so that’s why it was dark when I took the pics.
Here is a view out the window (there were plenty of windows, and being on the third floor is awesome. ok that pic wasn’t so great, right across the street is a new centerpiece and the City Market is just a hop away)
They have a refrigerator and coffee makers and almost like a little cafeteria for taking short breaks. I think they might need to stock the fridge with some RedBull.
They have some printers available from standard laser printers to high quality design printers, which I’m sure will be a god send for the SCAD kids. I can imagine this place being pretty busy soon with SCAD coming into session.
Overall they have a great start, I’d love to see it take off more, and I’d be even more interested in it if I wasn’t so far from downtown. They are just getting things in line but so far, the outcome has been great. Check them out at http://thincspace.com
I am in the process of building a server rack and while it’s fun and dandy, I don’t think I’d do it again. My first shot my measurements were off, as you can (probably) see below:
I’ve got to redo it, but it’s a work in progress. Still saving money compared to buying a rack. Total investment so far in this I think is around $100-$150.
I’ll probably make a dedicated page on here to the rack building, but I just wanted to update the blog 
Edit: here is the page http://www.riscit.info/server-rack/
It’s a service that sends an SMS with forex rates to your phone. I don’t have time to finish development. However, it works right now only with EUR/USD. All made in php. Grabs forex data from a free source. Uses a cron job to send the daily sms. I was gonna have a few more abilities, like choosing which pairs you want to send and at what time.
I finally got around to brewing my own beer. I picked up a kit last week and got around to making it this past weekend. Here are some pics.
Steeping the grains
Pouring the hops in
Primary fermenting
It has to sit in the primary fermenter for about 2-3 weeks, at which point I then bottle the beer and allow it to carbonate/ferment for another 2-3 weeks. Then we drink it!
The beer I am making is a Trappist type beer, if you’re unsure what that here, here is a wikipedia link: Trappist beer
Edit: Here’s a pic of all the equipment I received to begin with and ingredients, before brewing.
Here is a pic of all the bottles I bought. It takes about 55 12oz bottles for 5 gallons of beer. I ordered theee cases of 24 bottles (which is a total of 72 bottles).
I’m going to attempt to build a functional version of the WOPR supercomputer from the movie Wargames. Well, mine won’t have supercomputer power, but it’ll be really rad.
Here’s my project page I will be keeping updates on: http://www.riscit.info/wopr/
As an amateur chemist, I do keep tabs on what’s going with research chemicals. Perhaps the most interesting one lately is JWH-018, basically a synthetic cannabinoid with effects similar to smoking marijuana. JWH-018 has a longer duration of effects compared to marijuana however.
This is not the only synthetic cannabinoid, but possibly the most popular. 
A company called THC Pharm, in Germany, found this substance in January 2009, in the herbal smoking blend called Spice (introduced in 2002), which is sold as a legal alternative to marijuana or “incense”, as they call it. Basically as soon as THC Pharm published their findings, Germany banned this very unknown substance, JWH-018.
Currently you can find it at some research chemical shops, but most of the shops in the UK are halting sales due to pending legislation.
You can read more about JWH-018 here on Wikipedia, or leave questions.
