January 31, 2007
Vista Installation
First off, I installed Microsoft Windows Vista Business on my desktop today. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I went ahead and upgraded my XP Professional OS instead of performing a clean install. I only had one issue.
I have no sound. If you recall my machine is several months past three years old. Back then the 'hot' sound card was the Sound Blaster Audigy PCI card. When I purchased the machine they had just come out with the Audigy 2. Luckily I went ahead and upgraded to the Audigy 2. I say luckily because Creative Labs, the manufacturer of these cards, has decided to only provide Vista drivers to the sounds cards starting with the Audigy 2 and newer. Sadly, this means that my card is the lowest priority card to finish the driver for.
I downloaded the 'beta' driver, replaced the Microsoft supplied driver, and still have no sound. I can't get too upset about it as Vista has only been released for two days. Even if Creative does not end up fixing this, a new top of the line sound card is less than $150.
Once I had Vista installed I ran the Window's Experience Index and was pleasantly surprised to see that the new 'value' graphics card I purchased maxed out with a 5.9 score. I was saddened to see that my CPU and memory only scored a 4.2 which dictated my final score. I guess my 3.0Ghz Pentium is now on it's last legs.
I played around with the Aero glass, the sidebar, and even downloaded the new power users command line tool that was released today. So far I like what I see and look forward to playing around with the new features in the future.
Next step will be to install Office 2007. I'll save that for next week sometime.
January 30, 2007
Microsoft Windows Vista
I have decided to upgrade the Windows side of my dual-boot desktop.
I really did not think I was going to upgrade to Vista. This would have been a major change in the way I treat upgrades. I always upgrade. There is always something that excites me about the new product. Better connectivity, richer multimedia, stability. There was always something.
This time it seems different. I rely on the operating system less and less. At least I think I do. It is amazing how different PCs look when you use Windows, OSX, and Linux. I have come to the realization that I do most of my work on the Internet. Since I spend so little time on the local machine, why would I need to upgrade the OS?
I decided that I would upgrade because I will invariably get asked for assistance. I need to be able to speak intelligently about the OS. I will need to have more knowledge than I would pick up reading about it.
I will upgrade the machine to Microsoft Windows Vista Business. I have the DVD in hand...
January 29, 2007
XHTML and CSS
Every once in a while my work and home lives converge. It just so happens that I need to develop a web site with some of the latest web techniques. This is something that I have wanted to expand my knowledge on anyway.
I have been very lazy over the last five or so years. When I first started my company back in 1994 I developed my web site in Notepad. I learned the basics of HTML and coded it by hand. It looked like it too... Over the years I started to use FrontPage. I knew that the code that was produced was not very elegant but I was more interested in getting the job done than producing efficient code.
Now that I am once again building a web site from the ground up, I thought I would expand on my ancient knowledge. I have begun learning about the differences between HTML and XHTML and I started learning CSS.
Which brings me to the point of this entry. If you are even remotely interested in web design and have a concept of what CSS is, then you need to go check the CSS Zen Garden. It is absolutely amazing. Prepare to spend some time at the web site.
January 28, 2007
PC vs Mac Commercials
Let me start off by saying that I own a DVR and do not watch commercials. I rarely even watch live TV anymore. When I am watching a recorded show that has commercials, I hit a button that skips forward ~30 seconds. The only consistent exception is when I catch a glimpse of the PC vs Mac commercials. If I see them, I hit the button to skip backwards 30 seconds and watch the commercial.
Not only do I like the commercials, I happen to like both actors. Justin Long (Mac Guy) was a favorite of mine on the old TV show "Ed". He has also starred in several movies that I liked. John Hodgman (PC Guy) co-stars on the Daily Show with John Stewart. I am assuming that you watch the Daily Show. It is probably the best news show on TV.
Well it just so happens that tomorrow's Daily Show has Bill Gates as the special guest. I can not wait to see the jokes that they make when the PC Guy and Bill Gates meet. Can the PC Guy have a bigger hero?
January 27, 2007
Chicken Cacciatore With Spagetti in Garlic Sauce
Tonight I tried something a little different. The last few weeks I have tried to serve everything simultaneously. This week I made courses. In other words, I served the Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce first and then followed that with the Chicken Cacciatore.
Sadly the better of the two dishes was the Spaghetti. Both my wife and I loved this dish. The beauty of this dish is that it takes less time to make the sauce than it does to cook the noodles. I doubt it took more than 15 minutes to make this course. Here is a picture of the first course:
The second course, and the main course, was Chicken Cacciatore. This recipe was a bit different than the recipe that I was familiar with. I was willing to give it a try though. The meal that I remember had a tomato paste topping that consisted on tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and mushrooms. This recipe had me making almost a stew like meal. Once I had the ingredients mixed together, I had the pot simmer for one hour to cook the chicken. I chose thighs as my chicken meat, and in hind sight I should have chosen breasts. While I am not a fan on white meat, in this meal it would have been a superior choice. My dislike of white meat stems from the dry nature of the meat. Had I chosen breast meat instead of thigh meat, I would have only simmered the meal for thirty minutes. I think this would have improved the meal.
The primary issue with the meal is that it tasted like a stew. All of the ingrediants blended together and nothing seemed to stick out. While I can accept for a stew, I do not want that for a meal of this nature. Oh well, it still tasted good, it just was not great. Here is a picture of the Chicken Cacciatore:
January 26, 2007
Let There Be Music!
Finally! I can now play MP3s under Ubuntu.
I spent entirely too much time on this. This was the first time I installed an application on my own. I first attempted to load EasyUbuntu but never could get the downloaded codecs to integrate with the existing applications. Specifically, I wanted to be able to run MP3s through Google Reader and the RhythmBox Music Player.
Tonight I decided to take a different tack on the problem. I figured that there had to be a way to install these codecs via the command line. After some extensive searching on Google, I found help on installing restricted formats. I followed the instructions here and once I was complete, everything worked fine.
I did notice that when the process began the installation process noted that I already had some of the packages installed. I presume this was due to the many attempts with EasyUbuntu. What was missing was the integration which was successfully completed with this process on restricted formats.
January 25, 2007
Still swamped with work
But I wanted to mention two things. One, it appears that Microsoft is going to release v3 of their Train Simulator software and two, I just watched a video about the future Microsoft Home Server over on Channel 9.
January 24, 2007
MP3
Who would have thought that it would be this difficult to play mp3s. I have spent the last two evenings trying to get Ubuntu to play an mp3. All the while I have been encoding my existing CDs into .ogg files. (I currently have about 60 CDs encoded and counting...)
I thought that I came across a great product to make this problem go away. There is a product called EasyUbuntu that supplies most of the ancillary files that Ubuntu did not supply. Besides mp3 encoders, it has DVD encoders, Java, Rar, Flash, and other similar plug-ins.
While I had no troubles installing the product, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the existing applications to see the new plug-in. Sadly, during this time of the month I am not able to spend a lot of time on it. It was this reason that I missed yesterday's entry.
I was hoping to have the problem solved tonight, but I have to go do other things and I still am not there.
January 22, 2007
Google Reader
Since I have been migrating my environment from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux I thought that one of the difficulties that I would have would be to find an iTunes like application to play my podcasts.
I already have a solution for the music. I have been re-encoding my CDs in the Ogg Vorbis format. I may still need to come up with a way to update my iPods but I suspect that this issue my never come up. If it does, I will then look for a substitute.
As for the podcasts, I realized today that Google Reader can play a podcast just as easy as an RSS feed, so I migrated the majority of my podcasts over to Reader. This evening, when I went to play my first podcast, Google Reader just hung. My first thought was that it had to download the complete podcast before starting. This would be quite annoying. I like the fact that iTunes downloads first and then allows you to play anytime in the future.
I then realized that Ubuntu does not come with an MP3 encoder! This has something to do with the fact that MP3 is not an open source format and Ubuntu is comprised of software that is completely open source. This means that I will have to download an MP3 encoder, install it, and give this test another shot tomorrow.
January 21, 2007
Automated Logins
Part of my excitement about setting up this network with Ubuntu as the backbone is the ability to automate common tasks. Several of these tasks will require the ability for one machine to access and/or copy to another machine.
When you connect to another machine in unix, you typically use ssh to connect. The old way was to use telnet but there are so many security holes in telnet that most people now recommend ssh. When ssh is run the first thing it does is ask for your password in order to determine if you have the authority to connect to the machine you are attempting to connect to.
This works fine until you want to automate a script or process. If the script has to wait for manual input to proceed, you might as well run the process manually. I need to figure out a way to connect automatically while still maintaining a reasonably high level of security.
While reading up on the ssh command I came across a reference to the ssh-keygen command. This commands creates a key set that can be used to establish a connection automatically. You run this command to create a public and private key. You can tailor this key via passphrases and passwords. Once the key is generated you can them copy the public key to the machine that you want access to. When the ssh command attempts to connect, if you have a public key resident, then it automatically allows entry.
This was exactly what I was looking for. The problem is that I don't want this capability out there for everyone to use. I chose to add another level of complexity to it. I would create a new user with limited or restricted access and use that user to communicate between machines.
To do this I first created a restricted group and then added a user called filecopy to it. I generated an ssh key for that user. I then went to the remote machine and created the same user and group. Lastly I copied over the public key to the remote machine and placed it in the hidden .ssh directory under the /home/filecopy directory.
I tested the login and it worked like a charm. Now if I was only able to do it as fast as I was able to type this up! My trials and tribulations have caused me to go back and read up on the basics of users and groups. While I understand what is that I am attempting to do here, I need to make sure that I am not leaving a huge security hole for others to exploit.
Man, this is fun!
January 20, 2007
Baked Cheese Totellini with Peas, Radicchio, and Bacon Accompanied with Cheddar Cheese Bread
This week I stretched my capabilities to the limit. I choose to make a quick bread and make a substantial meal. I think I may have pushed things a bit too far.
The tortellini casserole took quite a bit of work to create. Particularly when I had just completed the Cheese Bread. Once I had the fresh three cheese tortellini cooking, I had to create a sauce and a topping. The sauce was comprised of bacon, shallots, garlic, thyme, flour, wine, chicken broth, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese. I then had to add Radicchio and peas to the tortellini to create the casserole. Here is a picture of the dish when it was server:
In addition to the casserole, I created my first loaf of bread. This loaf was from scratch. While the casserole was good the bread was just short of fantastic. I would have to say that it was very very good. Here is a picture of the bread before it was served:
January 19, 2007
Ogg Vorbis
I was pretty excited s couple of years ago when I completed the import of my 225 CDs into iTunes. I finally had my complete audio library on the computer. I set my network up so that anyone could listen to the tunes from any machine.
Of course, when I imported the tracks, I used the default compression. The compression type was AAC and it was at 128 bit. I then proceeded to purchase hundreds of tracks from the iTunes Music store.
I also purchased several iPods and wore headphones while working in the yard, driving in the car, etc. No matter what I tried it always seemed like the audio quality was not up to par. Once, after I had purchased a track from the iTunes Music store,I became so frustrated with the quality that I went out and purchased the CD that contained that track just so I could compare the quality to make sure it wasn't me.
That is when I discovered that I could genuinely tell the difference between 128 bit AAC and CD quality encodings. My heart sank. I didn't want to have to reencode all of those CDs. What was I going to do about all of the tracks that I purchased from iTunes?
A couple of months ago I began purchasing music from AllOfMP3. I only purchased the tracks that I had downloaded from iTunes. That was my way of circumventing the DRM issue. That debate can be had again at a later date.
The straw that broke the camels back was when I started to focus my efforts in Ubuntu. iTunes does not run on Linux. The MP3s I had downloaded from AllOfMP3 could not be played either. Ubuntu does not support MP3 out of the box. I had no music.
I figured that I would have to determine the best solution to migrate my music to Ubuntu.
The first issue was how to convert the MP3s to something Ubuntu could understand? I figured that I would have to purchase an encoder to convert the file formats to the format I choose. But what format?
The bigger issue was what was I going to do about the CDs? Well, I have decided to reencode them using the Ogg Vorbis encoder at the CD quality level. It is still a lossy compression but I can not seem to hear the difference. I'm just going to encode a few at a time.
Now off to find an MP3 to Ogg Vorbis conversion application.
January 18, 2007
Added ANother Ubuntu Machine
The machine that I added a new graphics card to last month happened to be a dual boot machine. This was the first machine that I tried Ubuntu on. I was running Ubuntu 6.06 and this version sold me on the features of Ubuntu.
When I installed the new graphics card, I could no longer boot into Ubuntu. Well, I could no longer boot into Ubuntu normally. I thought about going down the path of manually changing the graphics drivers but didn't really want to try that yet.
I figured that I would just reinstall Ubuntu, and in the process upgrade to version 6.10. As luck would have it, the primary DVD drive died. I tried repairing it, making sure the connections were righ, but it still didn't work I ended up swapping the two DVD drives so that the DVD-R would become the primary drive.
With this modification complete, I was able to reinstall Ubuntu. I now have three machines that run Ubuntu, Whitney (the server), Shasta (this machine) and Lassen (the newest member).
January 16, 2007
More Than One Way To Skin A Cat
Last night after I wrote the blog entry about my failures with the vi editor I was lying in bed rehashing the situation. It occurred to me that I was attacking the problem all wrong.
I was not thinking like a command line guru. There are many ways to edit a file, only one of which is to do so locally with vi. For one thing, I could transfer the file to this machine and edit the file in a gui editor. What a genius! I will do that tomorrow, I thought. With that, I fell asleep.
This evening, as I started to work on this problem, I was confident that I had logically solved the issue. All I had to do was copy the file over. For that part of the problem I used scp. That command worked flawlessly. I edited both the interfaces file and the hosts file. I then saved both files and ran scp again to copy them back.
Permission denied.
I can tell that I am not thinking *nix yet. Of course. After viewing the files with the 'ls -l' command I could tell that when I saved the files, they were saved under my username and group.
I seem to recall a unix command that would change the permissions of files. There must be one to change the ownership as well. After some digging I found the chown command. I changed the owner and group to root and ran the scp command again.
Permission denied.
OK, that's cool. I'll bet that I need to be root when I transfer the file. I change to rrot with the sudo command and run scp yet again.
Permission denied.
Hmmm. Maybe I need to copy the files from the remote machine to the local server. That means attaching a monitor and keyboard. Well, it is still better than using vi. I attach the hardware and run scp from the server.
Permission denied.
Damn! Looks like I am going to have to use vi after all. But wait. Aren't there other editors on the machine? I seem to recall that unix is famous for numerous versions of everything. I look around and find a text editor called nano. Since I have the keyboard and monitor attached to the server I run nano and modify the interfaces file and save it as I exit.
Permission denied.
DAMN! (You know the window glass in my office does need to be replaced. Maybe I should gently toss the server.... Nah...)
Wait! I ran nano as a normal user, not root. This time I run 'sudo nano interfaces' and begin to modify the file. I attempt to save the file and IT WORKS! Woohoo!
I finish the interfaces file and then make the necessary changes in hosts. I reboot the server and all is well.
I can tell that it will take some time to think like a *nix geek. It should be fun along the way though.
January 15, 2007
Brick Wall
It seemed like it was going to be a short simple set of tasks this evening. All I was going to do was reconfigure the Ethernet card on the server. I wanted to change it from DHCP to Static and then add the new IP address to the hosts files on the clients on the network.
First, I had to do a little research on where to update the IP address. OK, simple enough. All I have to do is modify the interfaces configuration file located at /etc/network. I also found that the hosts file was located at /etc on the server so I might as well modify it as well.
Second, I had to open the interfaces file. Hmmm. In command line Linux I don't know the best editor to use. Thinking back I seem to remember using vi or emacs. I first tried vi. No luck. In fact, all I could do was destroy the file. I don't seem to remember the commands. So next I try emacs. Once again the commands are beyond me.
Obviously, tomorrow I will have to brush up on the editors in Ubuntu so that I can modify these files. I will also have to update the network map in add the new server once I set the IP address to a static address.
January 14, 2007
Off With His Head!
I originally said that I wanted a headless server on FieldsNet. In order to accomplish that I have to be able to run 'whitney' remotely. Seems simple enough. Just ssh into it from 'shasta' (This machine).
My first attempt came back with 'Connection refused.' This showed me that 'whitney' did not have the ssh server installed. OK, I guess I will have to install it. Hmmmmm....
The server runs a command line interface only, by design. I am not familiar enough with Ubuntu to install software via the command line. Off to more reading...
Now I've learned how to apt-get (Advanced Packaging Tool) new software. I was able to install the ssh server from the original CD were I loaded the iso file.
Once that was complete I attempted to remotely connect again. This time it told me that the authenticity of the host could not be established. Eureka! I accepted this, wrote my key and connected.
Now I can remove the monitor and keyboard from 'whitney' and run things from 'shasta'. Gotta love *nix.
January 13, 2007
Sloppy Joes and Corn Chowder
It has been getting pretty cold around here lately. I figured that some type of soup would be good for us.
i started the meal with a corn chowder. I'm not a big fan of the watery soups like chicken noodle or other broth based soups. I like things like clam chowder of Lobster bisque. Corn Chowder seemed like it would fit the bill.
The soup turned out pretty good. I used ten ears of corn and cut the kernels of corn off with a paring knife of four of them. I then grated the other six ears. This allowed me to get the full amount juice from the corn yet still have the crunchiness of the kernels in the bowl. Here is a picture of the corn chowder:
I also made Sloppy Joes as the entree. Most people are used to having this dish served out of a can but I wanted to make it from scratch. This is the first recipe where I altered the recipe. I substituted cocktail sauce for the ketchup. I happen to like cocktail sauce better and usually use it instead of ketchup. This was a very good recipe and ended being a very good meal. Here is a picture of the Sloppy Joes:
It's Alive!
The FieldsNet server is now up and running. I have named it Whitney, after Mount Whitney is Southern California. To get the server up and running I had to remove the RAID array, reconfigure the BIOS and reinstall the server software.
Having done the server install a few times in the last 24 hours made the install go quickly. It was nice to the prompt on the screen after the final reboot of the install.
Since I plan on running this server headless, the next item on the checklist is to operate it remotely via SSH. I will tackle that this evening or tomorrow.
January 12, 2007
RAID
I have now read way too much on RAID.
The most significant item that I read is that the hardware RAID controller on the ASUS motherboards, as is most motherboards, is in reality a software RAID solution. I have also found that the motherboard solution is primarily for Windows operating solutions.
I also read up on LVM. I have determined that I will use LVM for the file system of the server. I attempted in install the server software on one of the drives of the RAID array and the installation completed successfully. Unfortunately, when I rebooted the machine, grub hung with Error 2.
Tomorrow I will turn off RAID in the BIOS and reinstall the server software with LVM.
January 11, 2007
It's Always Something...
I was so close, and yet so far.
I first attempted to install Ubuntu Server for AMD64. I thought that since I was running an Athlon 64 x2 that it would only be logical to install the 64-bit server software. I had no luck installing it. Every time I tried the installation process would lock up before I got to the first prompt (Language Selection).
I then downloaded the x86 version of the server software and while it run, I came upon an issue. If you recall I had set up my three 500GB hard drives as a RAID 5 array in hardware and BIOS. I figured that this would mean the server would see a single 940GB hard drive when installing.
Silly me. The installation process went out and determined that I had three 500GB hard drives and wanted to know where I wanted to install the various components. It also asked if I wanted to use Logical Volume Management (LVM).
It seems silly to me to break the RAID and install the software on the drives. It seems even sillier to use the software RAID available in Ubuntu. I have the capability in hardware. Hardware RAID should beat out software RAID every time.
Since I have to research the RAID issue I might as well research LVM as well. I was not going to use LVM, figuring that I could convert to it later. Like when Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) comes out in a couple of months.
January 10, 2007
Doh!
The server boots. I wish I could tell you that I immediately knew what was wrong when I started to debug my non-booting problem but that would not be true.
I started the process by disconnecting everything extraneous and attempting to boot the machine. This was not that easy because of course, I had properly dressed up all of the cables, routing them to minimize airflow disruptions. This meant I had to clip all of the cable ties.
All I wanted to hear was the customary beep that comes out during POST. Nothing.
My next thought was that I had possibly inserted the RAM sticks into the wrong slots. The manual is a little confusing on how the dual bank and dual channel setup is supposed to work. The slots are labeled A1, B1, A2, B2. Anyway, after rereading the manual I was convinced that the RAM was correct.
The next option was that the CPU or motherboard was bad. I had now started to google my way around to see if there were other people who had the same problem. There were hundreds of examples of bad builds so the fact that there was so much information did not help me. I then went back to the ASUS (the motherboard manufacturer) website and went through their troubleshooting guide. This did not help me either.
I then went back and stared at the motherboard and realized that the primary 24 pin power connector was not seated completely. I pressed it down so that it was 100% seated and then tried to reboot the machine. It still didn't work.
While surfing around the ASUS site I came across a document that stated P4 CPUs and later needed to connect a four pin power connector in addition to 24 pin connector. This was new. I thought the 24 pin connector was the standard 20 pin connector plus the four pin connector. I looked at the motherboard and sure enough I had that connector. I looked at the power supply and I also had the connector.
I plugged in this additional power connector, rebooted the machine, and it worked like a charm!!!!
I then spent another 20 minutes reconnecting everything else and rebooting to see if everything worked. It did. Lastly I dressed the cables like I had before and put the case on the chassis. I am the proud owner of a new server.
I also configured the BIOS to support RAID 5 for the three 500GB drives and started the download of the latest Ubuntu Server 6.10. I will begin the installation of the software tomorrow. Having never installed Ubuntu Server, tomorrow could be interesting.
Now off to bed and dreaming about what to name the server....
January 09, 2007
CES, MacWorld, and Servers - Oh my!
I have been following all of the activity going on at CES and I have to say that the one thing that I see of particular interest to me is the Microsoft Home Server. While I am not interested in purchasing it, it will certainly be a product that I will compare my home built server to.
The reality is that I probably already have the server installed in my house. I happen to have a machine that is running Windows Server 2003 which I understand is the core of the software package. I would not want to force that software package on the general public. I suspect, and fear, that Microsoft probably took what they learned from Small Business Server and applied it to this new software. In other words, they added a bunch of wizards and automated processes to the existing software. This is fine as long as the consumer stays on the well trodden path, but if they go off the beaten path, they better have some understanding of the real software underneath.
As for MacWorld, I was actually waiting to purchase a new wide screen video iPod. I own a couple of older 20GB iPods that have been getting long in the tooth and wanted the ability to actually SEE the video on the screen should I download TV or movie videos.
To here that it won't be released until the Summer is disconcerting.
The new iPhone does sound like an outstanding convergence product though. The only things it seemed to be missing was an integrated GPS unit and the ability to work with multiple cellular carriers. I happen to use Verizon and to use this phone would mean that I would have to change carriers. That means that all of my employees would have to change carriers as well as all of my family members. While that may happen, it seems highly unlikely.
Lastly, I wanted to mention my server. I spent some time researching the non error that I am getting and it appears that I have to tear everything out and try to install one piece at at time to see where the error occurs. I did disconnect two of the hard drives on the off chance that I was overloading the power supply. I only have a 380 watt unit in there currently but I think it is big enough to support the components.
Tomorrow I will strip everything out but the CPU, memory, and keyboard. Then I will see if it boots. If not, then it has to be one of those components or the motherboard. The motherboard light comes on, and CPU fan, but neither of those indicate whether those components work correctly or not. Time will tell.
Actually this is kind of fun. Luckily I have no real timetable on getting this running so I can enjoy the debugging process.
January 08, 2007
Server Build Part 3 of ...
Sadly, I only had a few minutes of time to spend on the FieldsNet server today. I did receive the optical drive and installed it. I connected a keyboard, monitor, and power cord and turned the machine on....
I saw that the motherboard light came on, the power supply fan kicked in, all three hard drives spun up, but no beeps and no image on the monitor.
I turned the machine off and verified that all of the cables were seated properly, again. I turned the machine back on and the same thing occurred.
Unfortunately, I had to go do other things this evening so I will continue debugging the situation tomorrow.
January 07, 2007
Server Build Part 2 (of 3 I hope)
I went to Fry's and picked up the screws needed for the remaining hard drives. I was not able to get any rubber grommets though. All of the grommets were too large for my purposes.
I then went to Home Depot to see if they had any grommets but they did not either. I ended up selecting some rubber washers that I used instead.
After getting the parts home, I installed the hard drives in the 3 1/2 inch bays leaving one position free between each drive. Hopefully this will provide enough separation between them for heat dissipation. When installing the floppy drive, I found that I had to install between the first and second hard drives. Bummer.
I connected power to all components and tied everything off so air flow is maximized through the case.
My optical drive will not be here until tomorrow so the build will be completed then.
January 06, 2007
BLT and Cake
I thought I wold try something a little different this week. Instead of focusing on a meat for the dinner recipe I chose to make a sandwich. The sandwich I chose was a BLT. It was not a standard BLT by my standards. First off I made the sandwich on french bread. I then added avocado. Lastly I made a custom mayonnaise by added chipolte peppers and adobo sauce.
Here is a picture of the sandwich with a salad:
I felt a little guilty about choosing a sandwich for dinner so I tried to make it up also making a desert. I chose to make a lemon chiffon cake.
Let me start off by saying I know little to nothing about baking. This cake was the most difficult thing I have ever cooked. I had to warm the eggs to room temperature but read that separating the yokes from the egg whites are best done when the eggs are cold. So right lunch, I separated five eggs. And then left then on the counter to warm to room temperature. At approximately 3:00 PM I made the cake batter and had my first experience with whipping egg whites until they have hard peeks. I then folded the batter. Lastly I placed it in the oven to cook for 50 minutes and then had to let it rest for three hours.
I also made a lemon glaze that was to be poured over the top.
Here is what the cake looked like:
The sandwich was great but I felt the cake was just so-so. I think I need to practice more baking as I truly felt like a fish out of water.
January 05, 2007
Server Build
I said in an earlier post that I was going to build a machine that would become a server on FieldsNet. I have received most of the components and started the build this evening.
The component I am missing is the optical drive. According to UPS tracking, it should arrive on Monday.
I have currently prepped the case, Installed the motherboard, CPU, heatsink & fan, RAM and am working on the hard drives. Funny thing. I purchased OEM versions of the hard drives and figured that I had the accessories to install these drives. It just so happens that the Antec case uses rubber grommets to minimize the vibration of the drives when they are installed into the drive bays. This grommet causes the screws to be about 1/4" longer then the old standard screws. Of course I do not have those. I was able to scrounge four of them, but with three drives I need twelve screws. I will have to pick some up tomorrow.
So far no real surprises. I did run into a little daly when installing the heat sink. I was prepared to spread the thermal grease compound on the CPU and heatsink and was disappointed that my CPU did not include the compound. Come to find out that the heat sink already had a pad on it that replaces the compound. Let's just hope it works as well.
January 04, 2007
Safari
I used to buy computer books. In fact, I used to buy a lot of computer books. There was not a month that would go by where I didn't buy a least one book. I really enjoy reading them.
Now, I have only purchased a couple of books in the last few years.
What changed? Did I quit reading computer books? Nope. I now read them online. I read the same books that are on the book shelves at Barnes & Noble or Borders. I also read them legally.
How do I do this? I joined the Safari Books Online from O'Reilly, You know, the guys who print the animal pictures on the cover of their books. They have a service where they take the same books that are published and they format them for the screen. You can read them, print them, annotate them, what ever you like.
Of course this comes at a price. They offer several different options for their service. When I joined they just had a bookshelf. Now they have a bookshelf and a library option.
The bookshelf comes in several flavors:
Basic Starter: 5 books; No downloads; $9.99 Monthly or $109.99 annually
Basic Small: 10 books; No downloads; $14.99 Monthly or $159.99 annually
Basic Medium: 20 books; No downloads; $24.99 Monthly or $269.99 annually
Basic Large: 30 books; No downloads; $29.99 Monthly or $329.99 annually
Max Small: 10 books; 5 downloads per month; $19.99 Monthly or $219.99 annually
Max Medium: 20 books; 5 downloads per month; $29.99 Monthly or $329.99 annually
Max Large: 30 books; 5 downloads per month; $34.99 Monthly or $379.99 annually
If you have a Max subscription, you can also purchase additional downloads if needed.
The number of books refer to the number of books that you have on your virtual bookshelf. Once you put a book on your bookshelf, it must stay there for 30 days. After that it can be removed a replaced with another book for no additional charge.
O'Reilly has recently added another level of service called the Library where you no longer have the 30 day restriction. You can view all 4000+ books every month if you choose. The service is $39.99 Monthly or $439.99 per year.
I currently own a Basic Small Bookshelf and pay $159.99 per year. I easily read 20 to 30 books a year with this subscription and figure that I am saving at least $400 per year by using this service.
Highly recommended.
January 03, 2007
Something To Think About
During a conversation with an employee today, the subject of wills and living trusts came up. After the conversation was over my mind kept chewing on the plans required to pass important information on to the executer of my estate.
One of the things that hit me is that a lot of my information is out on the Internet. I have pictures on Flickr, I have gigabytes of emails in GMail, Yahoo Mail, and HotMail. I have banking at Internet only banks. I back up information to free backup sites.
All of this information needs to be documented and the access codes written down and stored with my will. Procedures will need to be written on what information is stored where and how to disseminate this data.
How many of you have thought through this portion of your plan?
Another thing to add to the list...
January 02, 2007
Convergence
Convergence was quite the buzzword back in the mid to late nineties. The 40,000 foot definition was that audio, video, cable, telephone, and cellular would all merge into one, or a few, standard and the lines separating each technology would be blurred.
When it did not occur as fast as the 'pundits' predicted, everyone dropped the buzz word and went on to the next big thing.
Funny thing happened though... The technologies continued, and still continue today, to converge.
I heard two pieces of information today that show we are getting very close to some real convergence.
One, the AT&T merge was approved. Now AT&T is almost as big as it was before it was broken up back in the mid 70's. More and more people are switching to a VOIP, Skype-like, or cellular solution for their long distance needs and this is causing the long distance phone companies to consolidate. My understanding is that this type of maneuver typically occurs before the industry implodes on itself.
The second piece of information is that there appears to be a surprising number of people who purchased HDTVs, brought them home, and had no idea what the requirements were to hook them up and receive true high definition programming.
I extract two pieces of information from this news. One, the Cable/HDTV industry needs to do a much better job at explaining the total process of HDTV and not focus solely on the sales of the televisions/monitors. The process of selling a TV is not like it was even 10 years ago. In my opinion a TV is nothing more than a monitor to the entertainment system. If people would think of their TVs like they think of the monitors for their computer systems, they would be in a better frame of mind when they need to research or ask questions.
Much like a computer monitor is virtually useless by itself, an HDTV will provide little value if the rest of the entertainment system is not brought up to HDTV standards.
The second piece of information that I extracted out of the HDTV news was that once these new HDTV owners get their cable/satellite/antennae feeds properly installed they will be pretty annoyed at the lack of quality and quantity in the HD feeds available today.
In some respects, the quantity of the feeds is understandable. HD is a new standard and most prerecorded content can't just be upscaled to the new resolutions. It probably seems obvious but all new content needs to be filmed in HD. My understanding is that cameras can now be purchased for resonable prices compared to just a few years ago.
As for the quality, my biggest beef is with the compression. Now I receive my feeds via satellite. Dish Network to be precise. The pixelation and general soft and fuzzy images I receive were fine when only the early adopters had HDTVs. But now that the average Joe was an HDTV they need to improve the quality by at least an order of magnitude.
Another issue with the quality has to do with the audio. Nothing is more annoying then when the five channel audio cuts in and out due to signal degradation. Also would it be that hard to set a consistent audio level? I know that the levels are never the same but it seems like the problem has been exacerbated since HD came along.
My last issue is the lack of HD commercials. I thought that the primary reason for having commercials was for the companies to sell their wares to the public in the best possible light. After watching 20 minutes of HD content, do they realize just how bad even the best standard definition commercial looks like.
All of these issues mentioned above have convergence as their root cause. I suspect that it will be the companies that view their products in a world where all digital technologies co-exist and intermix that will become successful or maintain their success over the next few years.
January 01, 2007
New Years Resolutions
I am not a fan of New Years Resolutions. I have no problem with resolutions in the strictest sense of the definition, I just do not subscribe to the theory that the New Year should add any special significance to the resolution.
In fact, I would like to submit that a resolution created for the New Year is more likely to fail than a resolution created any other time of the year. My primary reason for feeling this way is because people tend to create these resolutions because they feel they need to do so on this day. I do not think any resolution created for this reason will work.
Let's take probably the grand daddy of New Years resolutions, losing weight, as an example. If you really wanted to lose weight, why would you wait until New Years to start doing so? If you just happened to recognize that you need to lose weight, which is highly unlikely, would you actually tie the resolution to the day?
My personal experience, which is obviously very anecdotal, with weight loss might provide some insight. I happen to be about 50 - 60 pounds overweight. I am supposed to weigh 155 - 165 and I weigh 219. Sure I would like to weigh less, and I know I should be more active but there really is no reason to do so. I happen to be lucky enough to work out of the house and have virtually no face to face interactions with my customers. I do not consider myself unhealthy, I do jog on the treadmill on occasion and can run four or five miles. I do not find myself getting winded climbing stairs, mowing the lawn, etc. I ran track and cross country in high school and played competitive racquetball in my twenties so I have been mostly active my whole life.
I also happen to like to eat...My addiction is fried or salty foods. I love popcorn, appetizers, fried chicken, etc. Anyway...
I would periodically get on a fitness kick and lose 20 pounds but would put it back on in a few months. I suspect this is what most people do with their resolutions. What opened my eyes was when a relative of mine asked me to be in their wedding party a year or two ago.
Back then I weighed 234 pounds and felt that if I were going to be in their wedding photos, something that they will be viewing for the rest of their lives, that I should present the best possible image of myself as possible within the time frame given. They mentioned to me in November that the wedding would be in June. That gave me seven months.
The time flew by and I walked daily, adjusted my diet, lifted weights, and got my weight down to 185 by the wedding. I didn't do anything crazy, and I didn't mind making the sacrifices necessary for the event. Sure I wasn't thin but I was no where near where I started from.
After the wedding, I stopped exercising, I started eating like I had in the past and I slowly worked my way up to where I am now. I have been at this weight for several months so it seems like this is where I plateau.
What changed? The need to lose the weight. I had a genuine reason to lose the weight and I did. Once the need to lose the weight left, I went back to my old ways. I have no doubt, that should the need to lose weight again present itself that I will have no problem doing so.
To summarize a rambling and way too long entry, I do not feel that a date in time will ever provide the necessary reason to successfully complete a resolution. I think the life has an uncanny ability to provide you with the reasons to make life changes when they need to be made. When those changes occur, the resolutions made to alter your course have a very good chance at being completed successfully.