Sciroccin'

Brewnews

2009-09-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

Ironically, another German Hef was produced yesterday. I must say, I am needing to spend less and less time planning these things as I prety much know off the top of me head that 13# of grain at 1qt/lb will need the strike water to be 172 for a 151F mash. Kind of sad I suppose.
I shook it like crazy for a few minutes after getting it into the carboy. I dont usually areate like this, even though it is generally recomended. I pitched nealy a full qt of slury from the last Gh I made. Hte lag time was nearly a day, but now it is bubbling away nicely. I wonder if the delay was partly due to the extra oxygen in the wort, pushing back the time when the yeast go from reproducing, to actually consuming.
Hoping for a little drier finished product this time. The last few like this were a bit sweet I thought.

Brew Day

2009-07-11T17:14:00.001-07:00

Making beer today. A German Hefeweizen. Similar to the Sierra Nevada Kellerweis that I just ried for the first time today. Moderate Banana, clove Bubblegum flavora that are so classic to that style.
We'll see how it turns out.

Complicated...

2009-03-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

In my efforts to increase options, functionality and features for my home network, I have run my total of computers, servers, switches, routers and other networking devices up to 15 total.
The days of simply hooking up my computer to my phone line are long gone.
Today, my Linksys WRT54GS comes in, via a big brown truck, and in a matter of hours I will be uploading a replacement firmware for it. This third party firmware is called Tomato and is advantagous to what the router comes with in that it has a very strong reputation of being stable efficient and easy to use.
I will disable any router type functions on my craptacular DSL "Modem" and run all of my QoS, port forwarding, and any other routing functions on this modded Linksys.
After that is set up and realitively stable, attention to the voip adapter wil be next on the list.
It is a GS-502 and I just need to do some configuration tweaks to get its sound quality acceptable. I am still undecided weather this device should go at the "top" of my network, just after the modem, or have it hanging off of one of the ports on my switch. Experiances and opinions seem to to be mixed on the forums I have been trolling on about this.
Somewhere during all this, I'll also be calling Qwest to purchase the new 7MB line.
Then there is still, getting the website transplanted onto the Linux LAMP that is up and running, currently hosting the Teamspeak server. and more of course...

2009-01-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

After a realatively painless ordeal, I have my Linux server up and running. It is an Ubuntu 8.10 LAMP that was actually pretty easy. The whole thing pretty much sets itself up, even though the "15 minutes to a LAMP" guide was a bit of an optomistic title. Here is the guide I used.
After that, I knew that i would need SOME kind of GUI to manage it, but wanteed to avoid an actual "desktop" installed on teh server itself. 1.3Ghz and <1Gb of RAM will make yo uwant to stay "lean and mean".
A web based management tool called Webmin seems the way to go. After about an hour of following the install instructions for Windows XP and having it stillnot work, I realized that Webmin is supposed to be installed on the webserver...not on the PC you want to use to manage it.
DUH !. So I then followed the much simpler instructions for adding the necessary "packages" to my ubuntu server, using a slightly scarry but elgently simple command line.
Then it was just a matter of "surfing" to its IP address on a special port https://192.168.0.5:10000 and BAM! A login that wanted my ubuntu server user and pass.
Now I am faced with dozens of toools switches and features w/o a clue what to do with them. But hey, it works. At least I think it does. I've never seen a broken one so I can't say for sure.
No error mesages anyway.
Now I just ned to develop some actual content.
We'll see.

American Idolatry

2009-01-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

We are upon yet another season of the insanely popular "American Idol" TV show on FOX. Even if you have never seen it before, you undoubtedly have seen the eleventy-billion commercials and teaser spots that FOX shows ever 12 seconds.
I have a few problems with it and rue the day every year it begins its several week run for the season. This is season 8 now and after this many times around, I have no longer considered it one of the signs of the impending apocalypse, directly, but I'm afraid to think what could be worse.
I realize that the point of nearly any company is to make a profit, and TV programs are not excluded from this economical constant. As a capitalist, I am all for "going for it" in that pure sense. Even if I don't particularly like the individual(s) that stand to gain the most from each instance of it.
If American Idol is really about the talent and the exceptional performances that it and its fans claim that it is, then it wouldn't take a few months to cut to the chase. Instead we see for several weeks, the miserably pathetic auditioners that we are expected to laugh at for not realizing their own lack of talent. This and the drummed up drama, grandstanding, the suposed back stage stress, arguing, and trash talking, crying on the phone to mom cuz Simon was so mean etc, etc...blah..blah...
It just seems to contrived, fake and manufactured. The blatant dragging out of the results on the votes that come in. "The results...that YOU the fans voted on are here in my hand...and they are.....coming up right after this message.." Coca-Cola commercial "... Joey, I have the vote results here in my hand. and they are.. ...quite a shock... Joey...you are..." (looks at the camera to make sure we are all haning on the next word out of Ryan's mouth) "...NOT..."
(looks at the camera again) "...voted off.." Pandemonium ensues because now there are only 73 centestants remaining in the semi-semi-semi-half-way finals and there is only 11 weeks to go.

VOMIT ! ! !

How can anyone who has just been willing to sit through all that fake drama still have any self respcect after being so manipulated and patronized. How can they sit there and realize that FOX assumes they are mindless lemmings stopping their lives for an hour (or four) and hanging on to find out who "made it" and who the loser is that week.

"Who cares, as long as they keep watching..." I'm sure is the response from the advertisers who fought to shell out between $600-700 Thousand per minute, for commercial spots, and that was in 2006.

To quote Rod Tidwell, "...it's all about the 'Quan' "

Home Theater thoughts

2008-12-31T18:50:00.000-08:00

After some thought, confusion, revelations and then more thinking, I have decided I need to organize, and better utilize my music and video collection.
I am in the process of ripping all the DVDs I own and storing the images on my NAS box. Now any computer on the network can navigate to the share where they are stored and start watching any title they double click on. That's handy, but I ned more. I need to blur the distinction between my computer network, and my TV, a modest 32" Vizio HD720p.
Apparently the "need" I just recently realized I had is something the rest of the world, Micrsoft included realized years ago. Hence, Windows Media Center, MythTV, Tivo and other such beasts. More specificlaly, what I need is a network streaming, multimedia home entertainment center, with secondary capabilities of a Digital video recorder.
Since Cable, Dish, or Satalite service is not in my near future, I mainly want to be able to call up and view, movies and music from my own collection of ripped CD's and DVD's. Preferably with a remote. A Media Extender is basically what this would be. A bridge, if you will, that lets my TV display what the extender sends it from what it can find on my network.
"Tivo" functionality that most of us are familiar with, requires a tuner, that actually picks up the signal, cable, antenna or whatever and allows live recording of that incoming signal. Even tough these capabilities would not be very useful for me now, as I only get about 5 channels.
More research is needed, but the days of popping in DVD's to watch a movie are numbered.

2008-09-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

A little fun with PhotoShop

VoIP

2008-07-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of factors are hearding me toward the prospect of dropping traditional phone service in favor of Voice over IP. Not least of which is the lees money I put in Qwest's deep pockets, the better I sleep at night. A close second, however is the higher level of control I will have over another piece of my home's total data and communication solution.
The money I save after dropping the PSTS conection will be partially taken up by the added expense of a faster DSL connection and of cource the VOIP providers contract.
Viatalk will likely be the provider I go with, as a co-worker has had good experience with them and the feature/price ratio is attractive.
And oh Joy, the DSL speed options have jumped up for my area. 7MB as well as 12 MB are now avalible in addition to the 1.5 I have been "limping" along with the last several years. Funny...I didn't untill today realize how slow that is. Ho ever did I manage.
Curently, 38$ for phone service plus 28$ for 1.5M DSL will be replaced by 42$ for 7M DSL and 21$ for the VOIP. The latter also has a second year free which prorates out to a total bottom line of about 50$/mo vs about 67$ now. Hey, don't laugh. While that won't even buy me one "Double Tall 2-pump Mocha" per week, I'l' still take it.
2 "virtual lines" plus another phone number that can be in any area code I want (which will give family in Western WA a local number to call that will reach us will be sweet. Especially considering the fact that as 2 of our kids are in 5th and 7th grade respectively, total phone usage is going to likely sky-rocket. Tones of fun features are included like custom VM greetings for a given caller, a home number that follows you to nearly any internet connection, configurable forwarding of your phone number based on who is calling you, the list goes on.
The "geek" factor I will freely admit, is enticing. It is very "gadgetal"
As it is now, I have procured another DSL "modem" and configured it as a backup for hot-swap fail-over coverage as more than just surfing will depen on my Internet up-time, here shortly.

Going "YARD"

2008-06-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

After nearly 3 years, I have completely rebuilt the sprinkler system and am about ready to bring in new sod for the front yard. I have had the worst yard in the neighborhood for several months, but next week it will be the best.
After serious consideration of a special hybrid composed of Bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, featherbed bent, and northern California sinsemilla, I decided instead to go with a new variety of Fescue called RTF

Scirocco

2008-05-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

My VW restoration project is sadly neglected. It is a full 16V conversion of a '79 Scirocco. Originaly sold to me in completely stock trip by my uncle in 1992, I bought a "doner" '86 16v Scirocco in 2003 and transfered as much of the important parts as I could. Being that both models were built around the same chasis, everything is a clean bolt on swap. Particularly the engine/trans. Going from a 78hp 1.6 to a 123 hp 1.8 16v on a car that barely weighs 2000# with
15" Borbet Type C's and a 1" lowered H&R/Koni suspension, will make a nice little giddy-up.
Anyway, it is put together, now I just need a couple grand of disposable $$$ to get it painted.
(Can you say "Economic Stimulus check")
I am going with a close reproduction of the original "Indiana Red" metalic.
Maybe this summer/fall. That will be it's 30 year aniversary.
Here is my inspiration, Craig Williams' '81 that he built several years ago.
BTW those are the exact same wheels that I have.
Here is an excellent example of what it lookd like stock...and like new.

Sniff...Sniff...

2008-04-30T22:56:00.001-07:00

Well, due to what I consider an abnormal level of LAN traffic, I feel compelled to install and utilize some packet analysers on my network. Wireshark is what I will be using, or rather, learning to use. With a webserver, an FTP server and a PTP client running, with merely an actiontec router/firewall, I suppose I was a bit naieve to wait this long.
Pacet sniffers like wireshark, look interesting and can be very usefull. Before long even my kids IM chat will be subject to random checking for inapropriate conversations. That is, after I can figure out what all that gobblety-gook is that wireshark is telling me is inside each packet on my network.

NAS

2008-04-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

While looking for a much better long term solution to my ever expanding library of Music and video, I decided finally on a NAS device. While external HDs are nice, I needed something more permanant and robust and a "Network Attached Storage" device seemed the best option.
I went with a product called FreeNas. FreeNAS is a very basic Linux (BDS actually) OS that does really nothing but manage and serve a configuration of harddrives on even very old slow computers. As a PC hardware junkie I always have a few in various states of repair/upgrade, and so the bare bones PC configuration was not hard to put together.
I currently have it installed on a P3-800 w/ 256MB of ram and a couple of new 500GB WD Hds.
While it is possible to load and run the "OS" (about 60MB is needed) on a flash card or even a USB thumb drive, I went with the "stock" 10G HD as my BIOS did not offer these other exotic boot options w/o a special adapter ot two.
As I expand the storage capacity, (an undoubtable eventuality) I will go with a gadget that converts 2 of the 5.25" bays up top to a 3 bay HD "cartridge. Probably this one.
Included FTP server, RAID optins (which I do not use), Logical WEB interface and best of all, an included dynamic DNS updater for my zoneedit account.
Now I don't have to call home and have my wife run a whatismyip.com every time I want to remote access something on my home network. Now I can instead just go to amazingpowerplunger.com.

Second Post

2008-02-03T00:31:00.001-08:00

Test # 2

New Blog

2008-02-02T22:12:00.000-08:00

First !