They contain all of the hardware, but not the rods, for which you can use inexpensive materials; they recommend roof battens, hardwood dowels, broom handles or whatever you can get your hands on.
The design of the hardware is clever. Basically, you screw these ball connectors into the ends of whatever you’re using as rods.
The ball connectors then snap into the injection-molded hubs, and have a range of motion to them. This simplifies and speeds construction as you don’t have to have everything lined up dead-nuts.
Both five- and six-way hubs are included.
On Instagram and Facebook they’ve got fun galleries of user-provided projects. People have built everything from raised-bed greenhouses to chicken coops to music festival breakrooms.
Here’s a highly-satisfying time-lapse video that shows you just how quickly one of these goes up:
The memorial for the victims of a shooting at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
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By Deepah Bharath and Luis Andres Henao, AP
The Rev. Steven Marsh never thought he would see the day his church in Laguna Woods, California — a town of 16,500 populated largely by retirees — would be spending $20,000 a month for security.
Then a gunman opened fire on May 15 during a luncheon at Geneva Presbyterian Church, where Marsh is senior pastor, killing one and injuring five other members of a Taiwanese congregation that met there. Officials said the man, who was motivated by political hatred against Taiwan, chained the church’s doors shut and hid firebombs inside before shooting at the gathering of elderly church members.
Houses of worship are meant to be places of shelter, reflection and peace, where strangers are welcome. But the recent string of high-profile mass shootings in the U.S. is a reminder violence can happen anywhere, prompting some faith leaders to ramp up security.
At Geneva Presbyterian, armed security guards now stand watch every weekday and during Sunday services. The church also is adding more security cameras, developing an active shooter plan and applying for Department of Homeland Security funding.
“We’re not trying to militarize the church,” Marsh said. “We prayed about it and made a decision to have armed security as an act of faith.”
Without the new security measures, Marsh predicted that a mass exodus by the congregation and the schools on the church’s campus would have followed the shooting.
Creating a space that is both safe and welcoming is possible, said Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the former spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.
In January, he and three others were taken hostage by a pistol-wielding man during a Shabbat service. Cytron-Walker threw a chair at the gunman — a courageous act that helped them safely escape — after a nearly 11-hour standoff. He credits the several rounds of active shooter training he has taken.
“When you are unable to run away or find a hiding place, you need to find a way to act and to fight back,” Cytron-Walker said. “When we were most afraid he was going to kill us, I saw a moment I had been looking for all day long.”
Cytron-Walker now leads Temple Emanuel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As he works on a security plan with his new congregation, he is being mindful of how a welcoming synagogue can enhance safety “because someone who wants to do harm can see that they are not going to be able to walk in anonymous.”
Historically, sanctuaries have been vulnerable to violent attacks — from bombings at black churches during the civil rights era to more recent shootings in the U.S. at mosques and Sikh gurdwaras. In the U.S., FBI hate crime statistics show that incidents in churches, synagogues, temples and mosques increased 34.8% between 2014 and 2018.
“All faiths are under attack in America by radicals and extremists,” said Alon Stivi, a security consultant for synagogues, Jewish community centers and day schools. Some congregants are reticent to show up.
Tree of Life synagogue, Pittsburgh (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
“They’re asking a lot more questions: ‘Should I come to the weekly services or just come for the holidays? And if I come, should I bring my kids?’”
Religious leaders who once preferred to leave security in the hands of the divine are taking precautions that seemed unthinkable years prior, Stivi said. More congregants are carrying concealed handguns to services, too, he said.
From $25 million in 2016 to $180 million last year, the federal government has steadily increased the amount of funding it sets aside to help the faith community with security costs, Stivi said. But not all faith leaders are aware they can apply for it, he said.
Past attacks on houses of worship and other public spaces have prompted faith leaders to evaluate — sometimes for the first time — if there is more that can be done to keep their flocks safe.
FILE – Police tape surrounds the parking lot behind the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. on June 19, 2015, as FBI forensic experts work at the crime scene of the shooting of nine members of the black congregation. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
Today an armed police officer watches over Sunday services at Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, said the Rev. Kylon Middleton, who leads the congregation. When an officer is unable to be on campus for church events, members carrying concealed weapons keep watch.
“It is sad, but we are in such times where we must have armed security to protect our people,” he said.
The church is two blocks away from Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 2015, a self-proclaimed white supremacist opened fire during Bible study and killed nine worshippers, including the senior pastor. Middleton said the late pastor was like a brother to him.
In the wake of the massacre, security discussions at Mt. Zion factor worship style into the equation, including the need for some to always keep their eyes open, especially when most have theirs closed in prayer, Middleton said.
“No one ever thought mass shootings would happen in churches, which are sacred sanctuaries where you can escape the world and seek spiritual refuge,” he said. “When that space has been violated, it creates a restlessness of spirit.”
After the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Rabbi Jon Leener met with local New York police to discuss safety for Base BKLYN, his home-based ministry that has welcomed thousands.
For years, he and his wife, Faith, would unlock their front door right before Shabbat dinners, believing in a Judaism where no door is shut or locked. That changed after Tree of Life — the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Leener also installed a security camera and a buzz-in system for visitors. He hired an armed guard after this year’s hostage situation in Texas.
“It’s terribly unfortunate that we live in an age when we need to compromise our value of openness for the threat of violence, but that is just the reality at the moment,” Leener said.
Church security screening visitors to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
It is a balancing act for many. Marsh said the shooting in his church happened because members of the Taiwanese congregation were welcoming to the shooter — a person they didn’t know.
“The church needs to be welcoming to all people, and we cannot lose that,” he said.
“Are there ways an active shooter could get on our campus again? Yes. But we have to be willing to have this happen again. Otherwise, we would all have to go through metal detectors. It would no longer be a church.”
The following career paths for coders interested in the broad database space are ordered alphabetically. The table shows the annual income of different job descriptions in the database space:
Job/Career Description
Annual Income $USD (Lower)
Annual Income $USD (Higher)
Cassandra Developer
110,000
145,000
Couchbase Developer
87,000
212,000
Database Administrator
83,000
131,000
Database Developer
72,000
135,000
DynamoDB Developer
70,000
160,000
IBM DB2 Developer
90,000
132,000
MariaDB Developer
70,000
100,000
Microsoft SQL Server Developer
74,000
137,000
MongoDB Developer
59,000
146,000
MS Access Developer
45,000
75,000
MySQL Developer
87,000
149,000
Oracle Developer
86,000
107,000
PL-SQL Developer
72,000
103,000
PostgreSQL Developer
104,000
133,000
RavenDB Developer
101,000
130,000
Redis Developer
100,000
126,000
SQL Developer
76,000
87,000
SQLite Developer
49,000
107,000
Table: Annual income in the US ($) of different job descriptions in the database space
Let’s dive into each of those job descriptions next!
Cassandra Developer
Cassandra is a free, open-source, distributed, NoSQL database management system (DBMS) for large amounts of data that may be distributed across many commodity servers.
A Cassandra developer manages the Cassandra system and integrates applications with the database storage solution and API.
The average annual income of a Cassandra Developer is between $110,000 and $145,500, according to Glassdoor (source).
Do you want to become a Cassandra Developer? Here’s a learning path I’d propose in five steps to get started:
Couchbase is an open-source, distributed NoSQL database infrastructure for interactive applications to serve concurrent users.
A Couchbase developer creates applications using this infrastructure—mostly for business clients.
The average Couchbase salary ranges from approximately $87,504 per year for an Inside Sales Representative to $212,621 per year for a Senior Software Engineer (source).
A database administrator (DBA) is an IT professional responsible for maintaining the reliable, efficient, and secure execution of a database management system (DBMS).
In this way, a database administrator is responsible for providing the data infrastructure of a company or organization. This involves installing, configuring, debugging, optimizing, securing, troubleshooting, and managing database systems.
DBAs can either work as employees or as freelancers remotely or onsite.
Figure: Average Income of a Database Admin in the US by Source. [1]
The average annual income of a Database Administrator in the United States is between $83,533 and $131,056, with an average of $100,920 and a statistical median of $98,860 per year.
A database engineer is responsible for providing the data infrastructure of a company or organization. This involves designing, creating, installing, configuring, debugging, optimizing, securing, and managing databases.
Database engineers can either work as employees or as freelancers remotely or onsite.
A database engineer has the following responsibilities:
Creating a new database system.
Finding a database system tailored to the needs of an organization.
Designing the data models.
Accessing the data with scripting languages including SQL-like syntax.
Installing an existing database software system onsite.
Configuring a database system.
Optimizing a database management system for performance, speed, or reliability.
Consulting management regarding data management issues.
Keeping databases secure and providing proper access control to users.
Monitoring and managing an existing database system to keep it running smoothly.
Debugging potential bugs, errors, and security issues detected at runtime.
Testing and deploying a database system on a public cloud infrastructure such as AWS.
Handling distribution issues in the case of a distributed database management system.
Ensuring budget adherence when running on a public cloud and estimating costs for private database solutions.
Communicating and negotiating with salespeople (e.g., from Oracle).
The average annual income of a Database Engineer in the United States is between $72,536 and $135,000, with an average of $103,652 and a statistical median of $106,589 per year.
Figure: Average Income of a Database Engineer in the US by Source. [1]
Amazon’s DynamoDB is a NoSQL, serverless, key-value database for high-performance applications. It is fully managed so a DynamoDB developer usually helps clients set up and connect to the database—and provides minimal maintenance support.
As a DynamoDB Developer, you can expect to earn between $70,000 and $160,000 per year according to Google (source).
Do you want to become a DynamoDB Developer?
Here’s a learning path I’d propose in five steps to get started:
Note: If I may be so blunt—I don’t recommend this career path anymore due to the “dying” interest in IBM DB2 technology.
IBM DB2 is a data processing and storage solution that helps developers quickly build and deploy applications such as natural language querying and AI. An IBM DB2 developer creates apps for and integrates them into this system.
The average annual income of an IBM DB2 Developer is $132,000 according to Glassdoor (source).
MariaDB is a database framework focusing on relational databases that are compatible with Oracle. MariaDB developers provide value to clients by integrating their applications with new or existing MariaDB databases. (Source)
The average annual income of a MariaDB Developer is $85,000 according to Payscale (source).
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) to store and retrieve data on the same computer or across a network. A Microsoft SQL Server Developer creates and connects applications that access the Microsoft SQL Server API. (Source)
The average annual income of a Microsoft SQL Server Developer is between $74,000 and $137,500 according to Ziprecruiter (source):
The average annual income of a MongoDB Developer is $92,414 with a most likely range between $59,000 and $146,000 and a top earner income of $222,000 according to Glassdoor (source).
MongoDB is a source-available cross-platform document-oriented database program. As a NoSQL database program, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas.
A MongoDB developer implements, maintains, and designs MongoDB database applications. (Source)
The average annual income of an MS Access Developer is between $45,000 (25th percentile) and $75,000 (75th percentile) according to Ziprecruiter with top developers making $122,000 and more (source).
A Microsoft Access Developer developer creates, edits, analyzes, debugs, and supervises the development of software written in the MS Access programming language.
MS Access is a database system. Although it isn’t used that much anymore, it is still a great tool for small projects. And there is a huge number of legacy systems that depend upon MS Access. (Source)
A MySQL Developer is responsible for database administration, such as performance optimization, troubleshooting, problem-solving, and customer support.
The average annual income of a MySQL Developer is between $87,828 and $149,975, according to Glassdoor (source).
An Oracle developer creates or maintains the database components of an Oracle application. They often develop new applications or convert existing applications to run in an Oracle Database environment. (Source)
The average annual income of an Oracle Developer in the United States is between $86,074 and $107,675, according to Salary.com, with an average of $97,941. (source)
PostgreSQL calls itself “The World’s Most Advanced Open Source Relational Database”.
A PostgreSQL database developer works on the PostgreSQL project whereas a PostgreSQL developer works with PostgreSQL on a third-party application. Most will take the second route, for which you need to know how to access the API. (Source)
Do you want to become a PostgreSQL developer? Here’s a learning path I’d propose in five steps to get started:
According to ZipRecruiter, the annual income of PostgreSQL developers is between $104,000 for the bottom 25th percentile, $133,000 for the 75th Percentile, and $171,500 for the top earners.
The monthly pay ranges from $8,666 to $14,291 with an average monthly income of $10,052.
The average annual income of a RavenDB Developer is hard to estimate given the limited data availability. However, RavenDB developers are NoSQL developers who earn between $101,000 (25th percentile) and $130,500 (75th percentile) with an average of $119,105 per year in the US according to Ziprecruiter (source).
A RavenDB Developer developer creates, edits, analyzes, debugs, and supervises the development of software written in the RavenDB programming language. RavenDB is a NoSQL document-oriented database written especially for the .NET framework. (Source)
Redis (Remote Dictionary Server) is a fast, open source, in-memory, key-value data store.
As a Redis developer, you will apply and develop Redis solutions for databases, caches, message brokers, and queues.
Other use cases are chat apps, gaming leaderboards, session stores, streaming apps, and handling geospatial data sources — to name just a few. (Source)
The average annual income of a Redis developer is $113,000 in the US according to PayScale (source).
An SQL Developer creates, among other things, SQL code for database access. SQL is short for Structured Query Language that is designed to manage data stored in relational databases. (Source)
The average annual income of a SQL Developer in the US is $76,110 according to PayScale and $87,489 according to Indeed.com.
SQLite is the most used database engine in the world. SQLite implements a small, fast, self-contained, high-reliability, full-featured, SQL database engine.
SQLite developers help clients set up, maintain, and manage an SQLite database for their applications. (Source)
The average annual income of a SQLite Developer is between $49,000 and $107,000 with an average of $64,977 per year according to PayScale (source).
The /tmp/myrouter directory is created with the configuration, keys and scripts.
The mysqlrouter.conf is defined with the following settings. The rest API settings with 8443 is enabled by default.
—
[http_server]
port=8443
ssl=1
ssl_cert=/tmp/myrouter/data/router-cert.pem
ssl_key=/tmp/myrouter/data/router-key.pem
[http_auth_realm:default_auth_realm]
backend=default_auth_backend
method=basic
name=default_realm
[rest_router]
require_realm=default_auth_realm
[rest_api]
[http_auth_backend:default_auth_backend]
backend=metadata_cache
[rest_routing]
require_realm=default_auth_realm
[rest_metadata_cache]
require_realm=default_auth_realm
—
Router Account Setup
The authentication is configured as ‘backend=metadata_cache’ under the mysqlrouter.conf
[http_auth_backend:default_auth_backend]
backend=metadata_cache
The table mysql_innodb_cluster_metadata.v2_router_rest_accounts defines the user(s) which is allowed to access the Restful API.
The following steps provides the details about the user creation
1. Login to MySQL Server node (Primary node) with root or administrator with User Creation privileges and Create User Account (for example : myapiuser) – It is a dummy account and it will be removed in step 3.
mysql> CREATE USER myapiuser IDENTIFIED BY ‘myapiuser’;
2. Create the User Account Entry – The password is the authentication string from mysql.user. The following SQL is to create the user entry in router metadata table "v2_router_rest_accounts’. User name = ‘myapiuser’ and Cluster Name = ‘mycluster’. You can change according to your setup.
mysql> INSERT INTO mysql_innodb_cluster_metadata.v2_router_rest_accounts
The Court would have ruled that “assault weapons” do fall within Second Amendment protection, and that would have saved the American people a lot of aggravation. iStock FabrikaCr
“I reiterate: All that we decide in this case is that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding people to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense and that the Sullivan Law, which makes that virtually impossible for most New Yorkers, is unconstitutional.” ~ Closing paragraph of Part One of Justice Alito’s Concurring Opinion in Bruen
There are two key components of Bruen.
One involves the test that Federal and State Courts must employ when they are called upon to review Governmental actions that impact the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
The second involves the matter of “proper cause”/ “may issue”, aka “justifiable need”, which is at the heart of the gun licensing regime of New York, and that was the central topic of concern at oral argument in Bruen. And Bruen impacts other jurisdictions around the country that have similar handgun licensing structures.
As we all know, the High Court in Bruen struck down the foundation of New York’s concealed handgun carry license regime—the salient constituent of which is the unrestricted concealed handgun carry license component.
Few people in New York “are privileged” to hold such valued and rare licenses, as those that have them can rely on handguns for self-defense in the public sphere, i.e., outside the home—a right denied to almost all New York residents.
First things first. We deal with the test that reviewing Courts must use when reviewing Governmental actions impacting 2A.
The U.S. Supreme Court did articulate in Heller the test to be utilized by the Federal and State Courts when reviewing Governmental actions impacting the Second Amendment, but all too many Courts demonstrated a barely disguised antipathy toward it or otherwise exhibited a tired apathy apropos of it. In either case, such jurisdictions resorted to their own case precedent.
The appropriate test to be employed—the Heller test—involves a two-step process.
The first step is easy or should be easy if a reviewing Court doesn’t make what is a simple matter difficult.
A reviewing Court first ascertains whether the Governmental action conflicts with the plain meaning of the Second Amendment. This means that the Court looks to see if the Governmental action affects the Second Amendment. If the Governmental action impacts on the individual right to keep and bear arms, then the first part of the test is met. The Government action is presumed unconstitutional, and the burden to prove that the action is constitutional rests on the Government, not on the individual asserting the right to be exercised—the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
Thus, in the second part of the test, the Government must prove that the action is consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation.
If the Government fails to establish historical precedent, then the regulation must be struck down.
Justice Thomas, writing for the majority, said this:
“We reiterate that the standard for applying the Second Amendment is as follows: When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Only then may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command.’”
Pay close attention to the phrase “we reiterate” as utilized by Justice Thomas in the main Majority Opinion and as also utilized by Justice Alito in his Concurring Opinion.
In colloquial parlance, the word ‘reiterate’ means ‘to say something again or several times, typically for emphasis or clarity, and often alluding to a feeling of weariness for having to do so.’ Such is the reason for the term’s appearance in Bruen, and such is the profound frustration apparent in the Majority Opinion.
By using the word ‘reiterate,’ in Bruen, the High Court expressed its disdain for the lower Courts for continually failing to heed Heller. This may be due to antipathy, even spite, toward the Heller decision. Or it may be due to ignorance, apathy or sloppiness, philosophical leanings, or stubborn adherence to lower Court precedence. That it happens at all is a dreadful thing—thus the need for Bruen—and, still, we see the Federal Government and State Governments and State and Federal Courts contending with Heller and with McDonald and intending now to contend with Bruen, as well.
How many cases must the U.S. Supreme Court hear before Government gets the message: that the right codified in the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution is a natural law right: fundamental, unalienable, immutable, illimitable, eternal, and absolute?
Heller laid out the test, and the Majority Opinion stated that fact explicitly.
—The point being that the High Court wasn’t positing a new standard of review of Second Amendment cases in Bruen, but it was merely confirming the test as promulgated in Heller that all too many lower Courts had heretofore failed to apply. And in that failure, the lower Courts were jeopardizing the sanctity of the fundamental right of the people to keep and bear arms, as an individual right unconnected with one’s service in a militia.
Justice Thomas, writing for the Court Majority, was telling those lower Federal and State Courts that had heretofore applied a ‘means-test analysis’ in Second Amendment cases—a test also referred to as an ‘interest-balancing approach’ or ‘interest-balancing inquiry,’ or, in Court vernacular, an ‘intermediate scrutiny test’ in testing the Constitutionality of a Governmental action—that those Courts had gotten it all wrong!
Those lower Courts were giving their imprimatur to Governmental actions that all was well and good when nothing was well and good with those actions as they infringed the clear intent of the Second Amendment. The Courts should have struck those actions down. They didn’t. And in affirming the constitutional correctness of unconstitutional acts, those Courts compounded their sin against the people and against the Divine Creator. For the Divine Creator had bestowed on man and in man the right of self-defense.
And the general sacred right of self-defense subsumes armed self-defense, which is but a species of the Divine Right of personal survival of body, mind, and spirit against those people or Governments that would dare to destroy or subjugate body, mind, or spirit to another’s will or to the will of the State over the Self.
The Friedman case is particularly noteworthy, especially today, because the Court had the opportunity to deal head-on with the issue of whether so-called “assault weapons” fall within the core of Second Amendment protection. Had the Court taken that case up, it would have ruled that “assault weapons” do fall within Second Amendment protection, and that would have saved the American people a lot of aggravation and heartache that is at present heaped on them by a treacherous and obstructionist Biden Administration, a treacherous, obstinate Democrat Party-controlled Congress, an obstreperous, perfidious legacy Press, and a painfully passive, acquiescent, obsequious, worthless Republican Party.
Of course, the expression ‘assault weapon’ is fiction. That’s all it ever was. It isn’t a military term of art, and never was a military term of art, and it isn’t and wasn’t ever used in the arms industry as such either.
Propagandists devised the term for politicians and a seditious Press for its effect on gullible members of the American public who allow the Government and the Press to do their thinking for them—seducing them through emotive words and images to sacrifice their God-Given Rights for nothing but an illusion of or false hope of security if they would but place their faith in the State to protect them, but from what is never made clear.
What is clear is that the State wishes to protect itself from the armed citizenry, as it is the end goal of the State to oppress the citizenry, not provide for the citizenry’s succor, much less its salvation. For salvation can only come from the Divine Creator anyway, not from the State—a false god, a fake, cardboard god.
Propagandists originally meant to ascribe the expression ‘assault weapon,’ to some but not all semiautomatic handguns, rifles, and shotguns. But, of late, especially with the latest Texas public school shooting incident—with the Biden Administration riding a wave of public anxiety and anger over public school shootings—the Administration has chosen to exasperate public anxiety rather than allay it, seeking to ban all semiautomatic weapons or placing them under the purview of the NFA and that means under the heavy hand of the ATF. And this is as we at AQ had predicted long ago and have mentioned several times since.
But this would all be a non-issue if the U.S. Supreme Court had a chance to rule on “assault weapons” in the years following the Heller decision. The Court certainly had the chance to do so in the Friedman case. And, God knows, Justice Thomas, for one, wanted to deal with this matter but obviously could not get support from the liberal wing of the Court, or from the Chief Justice, John Roberts, and from Justice Kennedy, both of whom had no stomach for establishing clearly and categorically the salient reason for the Second Amendment: which is that Government was created to serve the American people, not the other way around.
An armed citizenry signals to the Government that the people are Sovereign over the Government and over their Nation and that firearms provide the means by which Government must bow to the will and sovereignty of the people, whether Government reluctantly agrees to do so or not.
It is curious that the supporters of tyranny constantly complain about the firepower of modern semiautomatic weaponry, emphasizing in a hysterical way that such weapons are designed for the military—the standing army of the Federal Government.
To be sure, that weaponry of the American citizen is supposed to be military weaponry, designed for just such a cataclysm: to prevent an unrestrained Government and its standing army, its militarized police, and its vast intelligence apparatus that seeks to bend the citizenry to its will.
The right of the people, the people’s duty, and the people’s ability to resist Government oppression and subjugation are only feasible where the citizenry is armed and armed to the hilt and armed with military weapons.
In fact, it is not just the semiautomatic weapons that Americans have a fundamental right to possess then; it is the selective fire weapons and fully automatic personnel weapons that Americans have a God-Given right to wield. Of course, a tyrannical Government would attempt to prevent the citizenry from having access to just that sort of weaponry by which the people might succeed in resisting tyranny.
The NFA should be repealed; no question about that. Instead, the Harris-Biden Administration wants to extend its purview over semiautomatic weaponry and, of course, eventually over all weapons.
A dire confrontation between the citizenry and the Government is inevitable if the Executive and Legislative Branches do not soon come to their senses and acknowledge that those that serve in those Branches of Government owe their allegiance to the U.S. Constitution as written, and to the American people they have a duty to serve. It is not the American people that must bow down or defer to these Government servants, much less deify them.
It is they, the smug, sanctimonious, self-righteous servants of Government that need to be put in their place, and that place may well be the chopping block.
About The Arbalest Quarrel:
Arbalest Group created `The Arbalest Quarrel’ website for a special purpose. That purpose is to educate the American public about recent Federal and State firearms control legislation. No other website, to our knowledge, provides as deep an analysis or as thorough an analysis. Arbalest Group offers this information free.
Google today announced in a blog post that ChromeOS Flex, a version of its Chromebook operating system suitable for most hardware, has moved from early access to general availability. It also said it certified “over 400” devices, including systems from Apple, Dell, and HP, to run the OS smoothly and stably.
Google announced ChromeOS Flex in February, building upon its 2020 acquisition of CloudReady (CloudReady becomes ChromeOS Flex now that the latter is stable). Cloud OS Flex is downloadable to a USB drive for free, allowing you to install it on a Mac or Windows PC.
The most obvious use for ChromeOS Flex is to bring new life to a dated machine that may be too old to get software updates for its native OS. Our ChromeOS Flex beta review found the OS to be an interesting alternative for people content with doing most of their computing in a browser and for getting a budget-level Chromebook experience from an 8-to 9-year-old system.
In his blog post today, Thomas Riedl, director of Product, Enterprise and Education at Google, also highlighted enterprise potential for ChromeOS Flex, detailing 200 Nordic Choice hotels that reportedly used ChromeOS Flex to restore 2,000 computers in about two days after a ransomware attack.
In his blog, Riedl claimed that Google used ChromeOS Flex’s early access period to resolve “over 600 issues” and that the company will continue to certify more devices to run the OS. He said the hundreds devices already certified—including the Apple Mac Mini 7,1; Apple MacBook 7,1; Apple MacBook Air 5,1; and 1st Gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon—will provide a “consistent and high-quality experience” while running ChromeOS Flex.
You can still install ChromeOS Flex on a device Google hasn’t certified, assuming it meets the minimum requirements (Arm chips, for example, aren’t supported), but, according to Google, the machine has to be certified for the following functions to be Google-guaranteed:
System UI and graphics
Installation
Wi-Fi
Ethernet
Internal display (if applicable)
At least one method each of audio input and output
Sleep and resume
Touchpad
Keyboard
USB
Non-infrared (IR) webcam (if applicable)
Even with ChromeOS Flex certification, however, there are some functions that Google says it tested but are “not necessarily guaranteed to work on every certified model.” They are:
Bluetooth
Touchscreen
Automatic screen rotation
Keyboard shortcuts and function keys
SD card slots
And there are numerous features and ports that Google says aren’t tested or supported on ChromeOS Flex at all, including fingerprint readers, optical drivers, IR webcams, proprietary connectors, stylus input, and Thunderbolt functionality.
In general, a non-Chromebook running ChromeOS Flex may not have lesser performance, including boot speed, battery life, and power savings, as a machine running ChromeOS, according to Google.
ChromeOS Flex’s certified devices list shows a broad range, but for those used to a different operating system, the transition won’t necessarily be seamless. Still, it remains a viable option for those who would rather have a low-power, makeshift Chromebook than more e-waste.
Unless you’ve got access to loads of gamma radiation or some mystical stones, your chances of becoming a real life superhero are very slim. The easier way to achieve your heroic aspirations is through Hasbro’s new Selfie Series: collector-grade six-inch figures featuring a custom 3D-printed version of your own face digitally scanned using your smartphone.
Creating action figures based on real people isn’t an entirely new idea; a few years ago Hasbro and Formlabs actually ran a contest where five super fans were given the chance to create an action figure based on their own likenesses. At the time, limitations in 3D printing and digital scanning meant that Hasbro couldn’t offer every fan the chance to turn themselves into a figure, but the technology has improved enough since then that the Hasbro Selfie Series will now be open to anyone who wants to pony up $60 for a six-inch figure that looks exactly like the person staring back at them in the mirror every morning—but with a better costume.
Hasbro Selfie Series: Make Anyone a Hero With 3D Printing
Face scanning is done through the Hasbro Pulse mobile app available for iOS and Android, and fans will be able to base their action figure on “classic to current characters seen across popular films, television series and comics.” Initially, that will include costumes based on G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters, Power Rangers, Marvel, and designs inspired by Star Wars characters. You probably won’t be able to slap your face on Princess Leia’s body, or get a green face lift to become Yoda—but a provided press release did mention at the least an X-Wing pilot, so you can probably imagine what other kinds of generic bodies could be used.
The Hasbro Selfie Series is currently limited to collectors in the United States, and figures won’t actually ship out until sometime in the Fall. Hasbro hasn’t provided any details on how long it will actually take for a custom figure to be created and shipped out after a digital face scan is completed and submitted, but the company will be offering “a select number of fans” the chance to be the first to create their own figures at San Diego Comic-Con next week, but like everyone else, they’ll have to wait a few months for delivery.
There are a few features across Apple devices that remind me why I’m tied into their ecosystem. Universal Control lets my move between my Mac and iPad with using the same keyboard and mouse; AirDrop makes file sharing stupidly simple; Handoff allows you to copy and paste between devices with ease. And a new photo feature in iOS 16 is now part of that list, because it is way too cool.
The idea is simple: In iOS 16 you can quickly and accurately “lift” the subject out of any given photo by just dragging it away from the background. There’s no need to trace or cut out the subject ahead of time, or to use a special app or software. In fact, the feature works in multiple apps that display pictures, including Photos, Screenshot, Quick Look, Safari, and more.
In order to use the feature, though, you’ll need an iPhone with the A12 Bionic chip, which means an iPhone XS, XR or later. While iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X will all run iOS 16, their A11 Bionic chips aren’t compatible with this photo feature—a reminder that not all iOS 16 features are available on all iPhones.
How to lift subjects out of photos in iOS 16
There are two ways to use the feature. The first, and the coolest, is to simply touch the subject of the photo, then drag it around with your finger. Your iPhone will instantly lift the subject from the photo and tie it to your finger as you move it around the screen. You can then use another finger to exit the photo or app and switch to another app, allowing you to drop in the image wherever you like. For example, you could paste it into a new document in Pages, or add it to a new iMessage to send to a friend.
The second way to use the feature is similar: Hold down on the subject for a half second then lift up. It may take a few tries to get the timing right (it’s faster than a simple tap, but not as long as a hard press), but when done successfully, iOS will highlight the subject, presenting two options above it: “Copy” and “Share.” Tap Copy to copy it to iOS’ clipboard, and you can paste it wherever you see fit. Share opens up the share sheet so you can choose exactly which app or which contact you want to send the subject to.
iOS 16 Hands-On: Top 5 New Features!
In my use, the feature is remarkably good at grabbing the subject or subjects of any given photo. Even in photos with harsh lightning and/or with two or three subjects together in a row, iOS 16 manages to wrangle the group together into one, liftable cutout. Sometimes it takes some trial and error to find the right part of the photo to press in order to trigger the feature, and other times, you might need to zoom in on the subject to give iOS enough to work with, true.
And when the photo presents a clear subject and background, this feature is so easy, it’s basically magic. While there are plenty of awesome quality-of-life improvements in iOS 16, some of them even hidden, this addition is the kind of thing big software updates are all about.
http://img.youtube.com/vi/gN349cSMJsE/0.jpgA new addition to the Laravel framework: more structured syntax to avoid repeating the same relationship.Laravel News Links
Do you want to go deep into databases?
Learn More: Feel free to read my full guide on this career role on 
Note: If I may be so blunt—I don’t recommend this career path anymore due to the “dying” interest in IBM DB2 technology.
