Cocker Tech

All the old news posts go here. As of now everything will be just lumped in this one page, maybe later I'll separate the news by months.

December 18th, 2003 - The layout, er, colors, have changed again. I got tired of the images, so I redid the site to look a bit more 'clean and cut' than it did with the images. This should help with the 56k'ers as well, as there's no big images to load up. I'm also in the process of going through the pages and verifying the information within them. I've fixed a few errors already, and hopefully the rest of it will be done by the end of today.
--Also, I have recently a new 'cocker body. It's an AKA Merlin, reverse P-block, with LE milling. I picked it up for about half of what it costs, so I'm happy with it. I've got almost all the parts on it, except for a bolt and eBlade, which will be arriving at X-Mas. I'm hoping to snap some pictures and detail it's building process, and maybe take some videos of it's performance.
--As an aside from that, I would please encourage ALL of my visitors to read my lastest review. This is a store review, though, and if you're ever considering ordering a part from Extreme Sports, MI, you definitely need to read this.
--My last little tidbit of news is that for one of my classes, I wrote a research paper on paintball. As soon as I get a grade for the paper, I'm going to publish it here. If/when I do, I'd love to hear constructive criticism on the paper.

October 8, 2003 - The site has a bit of a new layout. Besides the new images, there are two basic styles. Red/blue and green/black. Please note that at the current time, only Mozilla-based browsers are supported. The site is fully operable in IE, but you will only have access to the red/blue style. Internet Explorer only supports CSS-1, and the styles of this site are in CSS-2. So, I'd suggest that you go and download Mozilla Firebird for two reasons. First is that you can see both styles. Two, it supports far more things than Internet Explorer, loads things faster, and lets you see more of a single webpage at one time than Internet Explorer does. I've been using it for the last month or so, and it is the default browser on my system.

Also, I am thinking about writing a 'book' about paintball. As of now, I'm thinking of arranging it in a how-to format, such as Linux How-To documentation, for those of you who have seen that style of how-to. If anyone's interested in contributing articles, please e-mail them to me using the contact link on the menu to your left.

Concerning content updates to the site, the soonest I forsee doing updates is when the 2004 line of WGP gear comes out. After that, it won't be until I get a digital camera so I can do pictures for the various tech sections.

September 9, 2003 - Added review of WGP Orracle 3-Way. Its' written for the viewpoint of a current Autococker user, so if you're reading it and get a bit confused, that's why.

July 27, 2003 - Changed site layout a bit, added the images you're no doubt looking at right now. Hope you like it, and if you don't, drop me a line or write in the forums and let me know. I want some honest opinions. Oh yeah, some other stuff that's been up for a while is the animations/diagram page under the Technical section and a couple pictures in the gallery. PS Look for me on the Worr Games Forums at http://www.wgppress.com.

July 24, 2003 - My Views on the whole Smart Parts thing - Basically, if you haven't heard, it comes down to this: Smart Parts has recently broadened their Shocker patent to supposedly include any gun that uses electronics to control the firing sequence of a paintball gun and fire a paintball. This could be a bad thing, as they could theoretically sue any company making an electronic paintball gun and charge royalties. There's rumors going around all over the place, and especially about royalty fees. Essentially, this has the ability to push up the price of electros quite a bit, and is putting Smart Parts in a monopolizing position of the paintball industry, i.e. they are the Microsoft of paintball. Now, SP has not released official words yet other than they will be suing ICD, makers of the Bushmaster and BKO.
Here's the catch though: depending on how the patent is read or how broad it is, or how gullable a judge might be, the lawsuits may go nowhere. Right now, it's not looking this way though. Smart Parts may monopolize the paintball industry if they go through with this.
I am officially undecided. I refuse to jump on the bandwagon without hearing official words and seeing what exactly they'll do. If they only go after companies that are infringing on the design of the Shocker or Impulse, that's ok. If they go after anyone making an electro, then fxck them. However, I'm waiting to see.
The best thing you can do is to stay educated on the situation. I suggest reading the documents here and making your own decision. The site is http://www.icedillusions.com/Anti-SP.html. I'd recommend reading the Tinker's Guild forums and the WGP Press posts, they seem to have a variety of info, and automags.org seems to have the most reliable posters.
Basically, don't jump on the anti-SP bandwagon until you're well educated on the situation.

July 1, 2004 - Added thread tapping info, allen wrench quick reference, updated Low Pressure article to more correct information and methods. Added 1 item to FAQ. More updates to come shortly.