Ipod toUch and Linux

One of the drawbacks of Linux is using it with an Ipod Touch or an Iphone.   There are stable utilities for older iPods, but the Touch and Iphone use a different system, and support is still somewhat experimental.  

I've finally got music and photos synching with GTKpod and libiphone.  Music is fine, easier than ituNes.  Getting pictures on the ipoD is slightly clumsy, but easier than making the iTunes on my wife's computer play nice with two separate accounts and finding a time when she isn't using it.   (Itunes does not understand user accounts on Windows--even though my ipod is set up under a different user account, I have to hold shift when launching to be able to select my ipod files, and remember to switch it back before my wife uses hers)

The other major issue is ebooks.  I use Stanza to read ebooks, and I now prefer reading on the iPod to reading a paper book.  My page is kept, I have one thing to keep track of, and it fits a huge library of books in my pocket.  Unfortunately the part of Stanza that loads your books isn't available on Linux, again requiring my wife's computer. 

The final piece for ebooks on Linux was Calibre.   Stanza on the ipOd has the capability to download directly from the web.  Calibre takes advantage of this and sets your computer to serve your books.   Another advantage to this is that the books are pulled onto the ipod, rather than pushed to it from the computer.  This means that one install of Calibre could serve many people without bothering the user of the computer.  

Calibre also converts to and from various document and ebook formats, so you can take a .pdf or .html file and turn it into a format your reader can use, although with some limits.  One of the limits is dealing with an original that is badly formatted.   Several of the books I downloaded had word wrap set so that on the ipod, I'd get a full line, half a line, then a blank line.  The original document had lines that were set to a fixed length longer than the ipod screen can display.  I fixed this by opening in Open Office, replacing all instances of two carriage returns in a row and replacing them with a ::::, then finding all remaining carriage returns and replacing them with two spaces.  Finally, replace all the :::: with a carriage return, and you now have sensible paragraphs that will wrap properly regardless of screen size.    Open Office can save in .rtf and HTML formats that Calibre can read. 

Unfortunately there is apparently a bug in Calibre's .rtf conversion that makes pages after the first one blank..  Oddly, this is one page, regardless of font size--Decreasing the font to something barely readable showed more text, but still a blank second page.  Saving as .html and using that to create the ebook solved that.  

A lot of work, but in the end worth the effort.  I now have plenty of reading material on my iPod, including quite a few Heinlein stories I haven't read in decades, and some I can't remember reading ever.  

Apple pork chops

Brown pork chops (ideally in a heavy iron skillet)

While the chops are browning, slice 3 apples and layer in a casserole dish big enough to handle the chops in a single layer.  Add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons melted butter.   Place the browned chops in a single layer, cover with foil, and bake at 400 for an hour.

The pork has a hint of apple flavor, and the apples are good served over the pork.

Snow

Last night, the wet snow turned to light fluffy and drifting snow.  The dogs didn't like the deep parts.   I'm guessing we have about a foot or so--hard to tell because it is very drifted.   This is looking east down my sidewalk. 

Happy Farms Cheese

Occasionally we shop at Aldi.  Most of their canned and frozen stuff is good, bagged salads good, most fresh fruits and vegetables lousy.   Milk is usually closer to the sell-by date than other stores, and their selection is pretty limited.

I really like cheddar cheese, but I'm not at all picky about it--Store brand, major brand or gourmet are all about the same to me.  Except Happy Farms. one of Aldi's many house brands.  I had to check the ingredients--I was convinced they were using candle wax as a filler.


Apparently not.  They managed to get that nasty texture and lack of taste completely naturally.   We also had a block of Colby-Jack that was distressingly similar.

Book Review: Deadly Force by Chris McNab

I'm a member of Librarything, a web site that makes it easy to catalog books.   One of the auxiliary features is an Early Review program, where in exchange for promising a review, you get free books.

The first book I received is "Deadly Force:  Firearms and American Law Enforcement" by Chris McNab--several months later than promised, so I was slightly confused at first when it did show.

Overall I enjoyed the book--It is basically a history of American law enforcement, with an emphasis on the evolving standards for use of force, with chapters on various eras.    It describes the changes in use of force, evolving from relying almost entirely on the individual officer's judgement to todays written policies.

McNab acknowledges a debt to Massad Ayoob--a necessity, since several long portions of Deadly Force recount incidents covered in "The Ayoob Files", a book on modern gunfights.

There are quite a few interesting charts and statistics.  However, this leads to my major complaint--In areas where I am familiar enough to spot errors, I have found many, leading me to doubt the areas where I am less familiar.  My copy is an "uncorrected proof"--not being familiar with the publishing process, I don't know if these errors are likely to be corrected in the final copy.   The book reads like a rough draft rather than almost ready for publication.

In discussing gun law, he counts both the 1986 Hughes Amendment (banning civilian ownership of newly manufactured or imported machine guns) and elements of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban as being enacted as part of the 1968 Gun Control Act.  

In many cases, he uses terms with unclear meanings, without enough context--It took me some time to understand whether "police homicide" was referring to death of police, or death caused by them.  He continually uses the term "Assault Rifle"  without specifying that he is not  using the original "machine gun" definition, and refers to an SKS rifle in a particular incident as an "AKS Assault rifle".  

In some cases he is using technical information for dramatic effect--Unfortunately, in some cases he gets the information drastically wrong, as in describing a Taser as having 5000 volts of current--not only are tasers generally 50,000 volts or more, current is measured in amps.

With significantly better fact checking, this would be a very good book.

Duct tape can fix almost anything

Icemakers are relatively simple---the tray fills with water with a solenoid valve, and a thermostat controls when the harvest cycle starts.  Mine was doing something wrong, and leaving me with a solid mass of ice on the bottom of the bucket.  It turned out that the cycle was starting before the ice was completely frozen, and the half-frozen cubes would leak and then refreeze.

I removed the icemaker--three screws and an electrical plug.  The thermostat was clipped to the side.  I made sure it was clipped in tightly, and I added about 4 layers of duct tape to the outside of the thermostat, so it was affected more by the ice tray than the freezer air. 

So far so good, there hasn't been a big lump in the bottom of the tray since.  

Shot timer--there's an app for that

I finally went to the range today after a fairly long absence--I haven't done much winter shooting, wanted to try my carry gun with the gloves I usually wear (knit wool with a few gripper dots) and finally try the Ipod shot timer app from Surefire.  I installed the timer app quite a while ago, but hadn't had the mic needed to use with the Ipod touch until recently. 

The app works as advertised, with one significant issue on the Ipod Touch ]-The app requires a mic, which requires the accessory headset with mic to be plugged in. The app then routes the start buzzer sound through the headphones rather than the external speaker--a slight issue if you shoot with earplugs rather than muffs.  I was using earplugs for sound, and cold-weather earmuffs for insulation, so I tucked the earbud into the muff and it worked well enough. 

A minor issue I had was was specific to the shooting I was trying to do--I wanted gloved practice, but the Touch can't be controlled with gloves on.  I had to set the start delay long enough to push the button and get my glove back on. 

The instructions have you fire to set the sensitivity--I only read the instructions after I was done...  I did have a little trouble the first time I tried to draw from the holster under my coat--squirming around dragged the mic across the zipper, and this was detected as a shot string.  I manually turned the sensitivity down and it worked fine.   There was nobody else at the range, so I don't know how it does with distinguishing your shots from someone else's.

The app has the capability to email your results to you.

I've had a Pact club timer for a couple years.  The Pact has a much louder buzzer and slightly easier controls--you can run it without looking, better for club or match use.  The Surefire app is easier to review and more flexible, probably better than the Pact for individual use, and certainly a better value.

Other things I discovered today;
My XD40 works fine even with knit gloves.  (Unlike my J-frame)
It takes me almost exactly 3 seconds to get my XD out from under a heavy coat and hit a target.
Shoot-n-see targets don't stick very well in the cold.
Shoot-n-see pasters barely stick in the cold, and fall off when you shoot.

Perpetuity

I recently gave a subscription to Sports Illustrated as a gift. There is apparently no mechanism on the Sports Illustrated site to buy a single year. Instead, you can buy a year which will automatically renew, with no obvious way to opt out of automatic renewal. If you cancel, the subscription stops immediately and you get a refund. Obviously a lot of people will forget, and the subscription will continue.

I was willing to pay the price on the Sports Illustrated website, but I was not willing to accept the auto-renewal. I was close to getting a different gift, but I discovered that Amazon had a non-renewing single year available, and at a 25% better price.

It seems strange to me that not offering a choice of automatic renewal (especially for a gift subscription) is beneficial--I would expect people interested in a single non-renewing year to skip the whole thing rather than accept being forced into automatic renewal.

Media and Machine Guns

This morning I heard about a shooting where (according to the radio) a man pulled a "Mac 10 machine gun" on police, and was shot and killed when his gun jammed. Several other reports talked about the gun, " a machine pistol capable of firing thousands of rounds per minute"


I doubted it was actually a machine gun.  I finally found an article that mentioned the actual gun in detail.

The model Raymond Martinez was carrying Thursday was a semi-automatic variation called the Masterpiece Arms 9-mm

The gun in question was not a machine gun. Rather, it was a semiautomatic copy of a Mac 10 machine pistol with a 30 round magazine. Bulky and awkward, poor quality and inaccurate.  One shot per trigger pull.  Scary looking, but virtually every modern 9mm is smaller, lighter, less bulky, more ergonomic, more reliable and more accurate.  Many have available 30 round magazines.

Even the actual machine gun version is not capable of firing thousands of rounds per minute--After a few seconds to empty the 30 round magazine, the gun is empty.  If you had the 34 magazines needed to fire 1000 rounds and switched them as quickly as possible the gun would overheat and malfunction before you were finished. 

One of the clues was "purchased from a dealer".  A true Mac 10 costs around $4000 used, requires an extensive background check and a $200 federal transfer fee.  A non-machine gun copy is around $400 new. 

Tactical Tandy

Last week I had some time to kill and found myself near a Tandy Leather store. Store had a sign "ask about holster lessons" and I did. The guy explained the class, and it appears to be a fantastic deal--$20 including materials, even if the holster isn't one I'd use often. Unfortunately it is unlikely to be quite worth the trip to Columbus.

I thought it was amusing that he called any holster other than the variations made in the class "Tactical".

Lawman

I watch very little television, so I miss a lot of pop culture.  I saw promos for Steven Seagal's Lawman, and was smirking a bit. 

...until I found out that it isn't a drama, but a reality show.  WTF?

Belated thanksgiving meal

I went to both my in-laws and parents house for thanksgiving dinner, then cooked my own thanksgivig dinner on Saturday.

I had planned to use Alton Brown's brined turkey recipe, but I had almost none of the spices. I wound up getting a commercial brining mix with similar ingredients and soaking the bird in it overnight. In the morning i stuffed an apple, an onion, cinnamon stick, sage and rosemary in the cavity while the bird cooked.

I will absolutely be brining my turkey from now on. The turkey was moist, flavorful and tender, the best turkey I've ever cooked by a wide margin. It also has room for improvement by adjusting spices--I think it had a bit too much rosemary.

I also made twice-baked garlic-rosemary potatoes. (Bake potatoes, cut in half and scoop the insides without damaging the skin. Mash, add flavors and butter, put the mash back into the skin, cover with bacon and cheese, bake again) Again, very good, but with a little too much rosemary.

The meal was great, especially considering all the experimenting that I did.

Federally subsidized free golf carts

I was talking to my brother on Thanksgiving, and he mentioned a federal scheme that is (as usual) being abused--A subsidy on electric vehicles can be fairly easily used to get a free golf cart. The dealer puts bumpers and lights on it, the Feds accept that as transforming it into an "electric vehicle" and the subsidy equals or exceeds the cost of the cart. You don't have to actually use the cart for anything.

I thought Cash for Clunkers was about as stupid as they could get. Now I only wish it was.

Tomato Router long-term test

About 2 months ago, I switched the firmware on my router from the stock Linksys to Tomato, an open source, Linux-based router project.

The results have been fantastic. I had been having trouble where once or twice a week I would have to reboot the router to get it to work properly. Tomato has an option to reboot itself--I set it to reboot every morning at 4am, and I have not had to reboot it manually since. I don't know if it is necessary, or if Tomato is just more stable on its own, but it works and doesn't bother me so I'll leave it.

Quality of Service (QoS) is a router feature that allows different priorities for different types of internet use, and keeps one use from blocking others. I didn't bother setting up QoS when I first installed Tomato, but this morning my internet was very slow because my wife is using Bittorent. I logged on the router, checked the "enable QoS" checkbox and then the Save button. Took about 30 seconds. Web browsing speeded up dramatically, with no noticeable change in Bittorrent. The default settings appear to work very well here, although other sources say that they can be vastly improved. They give priority to the most common web usage, while giving Bittorrent and similar whatever is left-sort of like a traffic cop giving top priority to ambulances, and making sure that semi trucks leave plenty of room for regular cars.

So the end result is more useful features, more stability without sacrificing ease of us or requiring a steep learning curve. I'm very pleased.

Liner Lock knives

It has been decades since I've bought a pocketknife--Instead, I've relied on the blade from my Gerber multitool.

My current job needs a knife frequently throughout the day, so I wanted something that would open quickly and easily, and that would clip to my pocket. I was initially set on an assisted opening knife, but after playing with a Gerber Liner Lock that was on clearance at Walmart, decided it was good enough for what I wanted, at a very good price.

I was unfamiliar with the modern liner lock system, although long ago I've had knives with the type of lock they evolved from. The older style was a traditional pocket knife, where the blade was held in position by a spring on the spine. These required some effort to open and close. The lock was a brass-colored spring that snapped into place when the blade was fully open. The lock did not rigidly hold the blade in place, but it did prevent it from closing unless you pushed the lock aside. One problem was that the pressure would suddenly decrease as the blade began to close--this could catch the finger pushing the lock aside if you did not maintain a firm hold on the blade while closing.

Until I experimented with the knife I bought, I was not aware of how much better the modern liner lock system is. With the liner lock, the spine spring is removed, and its functions accomplished with a ball detent and the lock itself.




The blade is held in the closed position by a tiny ball detent, with the majority of the pressure removed after the tip moves a quarter inch or so. There is little friction until the blade reaches the full open position, when the lock snaps in place. Once the lock engages, the blade is effectively a fixed blade. Because of the greatly reduced friction in opening, the thumb studs easily generate enough force to quickly open the blade, either with only thumb pressure, or with both thumb pressure and a wrist flick.

One-handed closing is much safer than the old version as well. When the lock is pushed aside, resistance is low but constant until the blade reaches the fully closed position. The back of the blade has a raised section with a tooth pattern. This naturally allows the index finger to easily close the knife up to about 45 degrees, although only a small amount is necessary. At this point you can remove your thumb from the lock and use it on the thumb stud to finish closing. Closing the blade beyond 90 degrees with the index finger along the back is difficult. Additionally, even if your thumb were to remain in place, the first part of the blade to contact the thumb is a notch behind the sharp part of the blade.

I am not thrilled with the easily-damaged black paint on the blade, and I wish the pocket clip was reversible, so I could more effectively carry this in my left pocket. However, for the price I'm happy.

Smallest Minority Beer Bread

After making the Trader Joe's beer bread, I decided to try the recepie from Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority. Very easy, very good, just a touch sweeter than I would prefer.

I modified his recepie a bit, cutting back on the sugar and adding butter to the top:

3 cups self-rising flour
2 tablespoons sugar (one tablespoon less than Kevin's)
12 oz beer
1 tablespoon melted butter



Mix the flour, sugar and beer. You will wind up with a stiff batter.








Put in a buttered loaf pan and smooth the top a bit. Dump melted butter on top, bake at 350 for 1 hour.

A couple of weeks ago in the middle of the night, something started chirping, then turned to a constant beep. I finally got out of bed to figure out where the noise was from, but it stopped before I could find it. Went back to bed, and of course it started up again a bit later.

It turned out that one of the buttons on my electronic deadbolt was intermittently pressing itself. The lock took this as someone trying to break the combination, and complained. I took the batteries out and went back to bed.

Later, 10 minutes on Google didn't turn up any parts available, and I'm trying to be extra frugal, so I decided to roll my own.


I found an old Princess-style phone in clear plastic--I could see that the keypad was a separate part, not molded into the case. With about 45 minutes work with a soldering iron and a multimeter, I had this mounted to my front door:

I did make sure the redial button doesn't actually work...

Trader Joe's Beer Bread

Trader Joe's beer bread mix. Surprisingly good, even made with cheap malt liquor. Dense, good crust, not quite as stretchy or chewy as I'd like. A little too sweet to use as a sandwich bread, but really good with butter. 45 minutes to bake, about 5 minutes prep time--Add beer to mix in a mixing bowl, stir until mixed but not too much, dump in a greased loaf pan, dump melted butter over the top, bake. Directions claim anything carbonated will work, I don't think I would use sweet pop, but plain seltzer might be good.

Triangle of power

The traditional political spectrum is left vs. right. This is overly simplistic. A slightly more nuanced view is 2 dimensional--the same left vs. right, but also an up/down, with libertarian/anarchist at the top, and authoritarian/statist at the bottom, giving a square diagram.

I forget which episode, but on the Vicious Circle podcast someone said that the proper diagram would be a triangle--As you move towards libartarianism the left vs right difference matters less and less, because there is less government, and therefore a larger chance that whatever it is you are worried about will fall outside the scope of government intervention.

I used to work with a very fundamentalist Christian-According to him, the bible says it is wrong for women to rule over men, homosexuality is an abomination, etc.. I wound up convincing him that religion should not be a basis for government policy by asking him "What do you think the chances are that the particular version of government Christianity used will match yours?" The same basic thought works regardless of belief system.

Trader Joe's Plantain chips

These plantain chips look like Banana chips, but taste pretty much like slightly nutty potato sticks. If you are expecting banana, the first bite is very strange. Once you clear your expectations, they aren't bad. Probably won't get them again, but I'll finish them.


(Once again filler, not a paid endorsement)

Lazy with forethought

My current job is installing computers in small offices across the country. We are talking well over 10,000 offices, and each office has an inventory sheet as part of the process. (Obviously I'm not the only one involved...)

Unfortunately, the sheet was designed very poorly. There is a part of the sheet that must be filled out by hand. That part was editable text. The rest of the sheet could potentially be filled out by cut and pasting from email, except it was actually an image. I am pretty sure that this was done for formatting purposes, allowing slight resizing of the left side without affecting the spacing of the right. The result is a form that has data available electronically, but must be entirely filled in by hand.

I wound up making my own version, with the eventual end result a form where you could cut and paste part of the standard schedule email as a single blob of text and that would fill in about 2/3 of the form. The rest could be typed, in fields that were in the order you would usually find the information. Took about 90 minutes all told, but it will save me alone that much time in a couple weeks. (It is also trading very boring administrative work for problem solving, so even if the net result was no time saved, it was a more pleasant use of time)

I don't know if this is the best way to do this, but it is certainly better. Things like the original form bug me--The solution was simple and if the rest of the installers adopt it, this could save thousands of hours, a few minutes at a time.

Karmic Koala first look

I've been having some glitches on my main laptop--Video downloads refusing to play in either Totem or VLC (even files that used to work), and Skype had quit. It turned out that the Skype problem was a dead mic in my headset, but in trying to figure it out I messed up the input settings. I had other alternatives, and wasn't very motivated to fix these, especially with the imminent release of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).

9.10 Release Candiate 1 is out, and I decided to try a fresh install. After backing up my home folder, I downloaded the ISO, burned it to a disk and rebooted.

Dual monitors did not work at first--I would either get a blank screen with nothing but a mouse cursor that I could move, or the same with a non-moving cursor. The moving cursor problem would revert after 30 seconds, the stuck pointer was stuck until cycling the power. After a bit of Google, I turned Visual Effects off, and that allowed dual monitors.

The microphone was turned off by default. As soon as I turned it on, Skype worked. Video was still broken, but in a different way--Totem, VLC and Mplayer would play the audio but show a blank screen rather than just shutting down. I did not turn up a fix for Totem, (although that has never worked well for me) (one of my gripes is that naming is not consistent--Totem is called Movie Player in menus) but I was able to fix VLC--Tools, Preferences, Video and changing the output from Default to X11. I was also able to fix Mplayer, by editing the config file for X11 output. Odd that it isn't set by default.

The default IM program has switched from Pidgin to Empathy. I have noticed some annoyances in the user interface. The biggest annoyance so far is that if someone sends you a message when the conversations window is not open, it does not open by default--you have to open it yourself before you can answer. It appears that I can change that in settings, and in some circumstances clicking on the notification icon will open it. Haven't found anything that leads me to believe I'll like it better, so I've installed Pidgin.

One of the nice things about Linux is that most settings are stored in .config files and .folders in the user's home directory--The program Xchat will have a folder called .Xchat (The beginning dot makes it hidden by default) with the settings in a plain text file. If you copy your old .Xchat folder when you reinstall, anything you customized before will be brought to the new system.

So far, with about a day of use, everything else seems to be fairly smooth. Nothing amazing, nothing particularly bad.

And as always, much faster and easier than a Windows install.

My Desk

My desk:

(Click to enlarge) The middle computer is my main laptop, with Ubuntu Linux. To the right is a second monitor from the main laptop. To the left is an old laptop running Windows XP, for Windows-only applications--Mostly iTunes and my GPS. Usually turned off. Below the second monitor is my EeePC, running the Easy Peasy version of Ubuntu Linux, so far my favorite for the Eee. All three computers have Synergy, a free program that lets me control all three computers from the keyboard (an IBM model M2 from 1990--Similar to the Model M, in a smaller package) and mouse from my main computer--scrolling down controls the EeePC, scrolling to the left takes me to the Windows XP computer. (Macs are also supported, but I have not tried that) Cut and paste usually works between computers, but can be buggy at times. The full size laptops are on wire Closetmaid shelving for better ventilation--this reduces the amount the fans have to run, and keeps my office a bit quieter.

The "frankenstein's lab" thing behind the left laptop is the fuse panel from a big old house behind the house I grew up in. Big knife blade switches, cartridge fuses, all exposed and mounted on an inch thick slab of slate. I don't know much more about it, except that it has fused neutrals, banned by the National Electric Code in 1928.

Health care

I recently bought a new pair of glasses for an amazingly high price--Progressive bifocals with light-sensitive lenses. Nearly $500 at Walmart, which will be reimbursed via a use-or-loose health care spending account.

Although I like them, if it were "my" money, I wouldn't have spent nearly that much--I could have lived with my old glasses for quite a while longer, or I could have ordered traditional bifocals from a company like Zenni, starting at $25. The Zenni equivalent in features would have been around $100. I wound up getting the exact same frames as my previous glasses--If I were paying, I would have at least re-used my old frames.

This illustrates a major problem with non-patient-paid health care--there is often discressionary spending. When the person benefiting isn't the one paying, it is very hard to judge whether a particular spending is a good value. When the payor is judging, whatever is cheapest and meets their minimum obligation wins. When it is a non-paying consumer, some combination of "best" and "least effort" wins, regardless of cost.

If we must have universal coverage of some sort, there has to be some mechanism to encourage reasonable economic decisions. The patient has to benefit by taking cheaper options, but in a way that does not force everyone into the cheapest regardless of other factors. Assuming we have no choice but to offer universal health care, something like the Whole Foods healthcare system appears to be the "least bad" way of going about it--Health care savings accounts controlled by the patient (and ideally that roll over and are not tied to an employer), combined with high-deductible catastrophic coverage. Whole foods has lower costs, but higher satisfaction with this system, because patients have control of costs, and incentives to save.

It will be interesting to see what happens. In Massachusetts (with a universal system), a couple was fined because the rules changed and their catastrophic-only plan was deemed inadequate because their maximum out of pocket cost was $2500. They had to pay an extra $1000 in fines, about as much as the worst case scenario if they both were extremely ill in the same year. That was still cheaper than either the next higher option, or going with the state paid system.

Definitions of the second

I've never had a satisfactory explanation on what the second amendment means to an anti gunner. Instead of logic, there's something like "Of course I support the constitution, but the second is a collective right, and only applies to militia service, and doesn't actually mean your right to keep guns is protected".


Questions I'd like their answers to:

What does "collective right" mean?

Exactly whose 'right to bear arms" is it that "shall not be infringed"?

Under your theory of actual meaning, what would constitute a violation or infringement?

If your theory is that it is obsolete, what made it obsolete? How did that change the law? What other laws or constitutional provisions no longer apply due to the passage of time?

News Awareness

Mostly Cajun had a link to this quiz on current events, where I scored 10 out of 12, better than 89% of the public.

I don't think this is something for me to be proud of--I don't consider myself well-informed, and I really don't know what my primary news source is--I don't deliberately watch (or avoid) traditional news sources. Rather, I think this shows a disturbing lack of awareness by the general public.

Too nice for a gun

Drunk patron shoves owner, grabs bank bag. Scuffle ensues involving thief, owner and another patron helping the owner. Owner gets a a gun, thief runs, owner fires a warning shot. Thief returns, more fighting, owner throws gun into a truck bed so he doesn't have to shoot thief. Thief winds up with gun, leaves, is arrested later.

I know the bar owner involved. He is a really nice guy, possibly too nice to carry a gun. I haven't talked to him yet, so my comments assume that the newspaper account is closer to reality than most stories.

First of all, the paper says the warning shot was after the thief was fleeing. In Ohio (like most states), you can't use deadly force to protect property. Warning shots are rarely a good idea, and in an area as populated as where this happened, a warning shot into the air is a really bad idea.

Don't involve a gun if you are going to throw it away rather than use it--especially if you will throw it where a criminal can retrieve it. I think the criminal thought that the owner wasn't willing to shoot.

If the owner doesn't get charged, this worked out reasonably well, but only by really good luck.

Not my fault

Near the end of June, I had a Tiki torch catch fire. Turns out that it wasn't my fault, the refill bottle in question has been recalled for doing the same to others.

Marko has done a couple of posts on the IBM Model M keyboard, quite possibly the best PC hardware ever made.

IBM made some significant mistakes with the design of the original PC, but they got the keyboard right. This was all the more impressive because many computers of the day had keyboards that were impossible to touch type on, like the membrane keyboard of the Atari 400, or the keyboards with remote-control style rubber keys on some others. To make matters worse, most of these keyboards were built in and could not be easily upgraded.

The original PC keyboard was further refined into the Model M--Same key feel, but with additional keys and a better layout.

When a low cost IBM PC was $2500 and even cheap keyboards weren't all that cheap, this made sense. When computers are down to $300, spending 1/4 of the cost on a keyboard doesn't. This is reflected in the keyboards for most PC's getting cheaper and cheaper

IBM also had the best laptop keyboards I've ever used on the mid 90s Thinkpads--A similar feel, with a shorter stroke. One of the dumbest purchase choices I've made was when I bought a new low-end Toshiba laptop instead of the clearance IBM of marginally lower spec.

New type M's are around $70 shipped from pckeyboards.com This sounds outrageous for a keyboard, until you figure the per-year cost. I retired my 1988 keyboard that was still in perfect working order to replace it with a 1990 M2, the slightly smaller, lighter and less rugged version. I'm a little lucky that my USB port will drive this keyboard, some of them draw too much current for some USB ports.

If you need peace and quiet, the Type M isn't for you--they make a quite loud click on both the press and release. On the other hand, when someone hears you typing, they think you are twice as fast as you really are...

Easy chili recepie

1 can Bush's Chili Hot Beans
Equal amount diced tomatoes
tomato paste (small can)
Corn Meal (about 2 tbsp--I don't measure)
Onion (to taste--about 1 small onion)
Fresh diced Jalapeño peppers (2 or so)
Minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
Cooked hamburger (half a pound or so)

(This recepie is for regular sized cans)

Dump it all in a crock pot, simmer an hour or three. Even though it is in a crock pot, you will likely still have to stir occasionally.

I usually make this using gallon cans of beans and tomatoes. For that amount I use two small cans tomato paste, a lot more fresh onion, and about half a head of garlic. It freezes very well.

Simple chili recepie

1 can bush's Chil Hot Beans
1 can diced tomatoes

Jam Jacket Ipod case

Since buying my Ipod Touch, I have been looking for a decent case for it, and a better way to store the headphones. As a temporary solution I had the 3 pack of silicone covers from Walmart, but they didn't stay on all that well. I kept the earbuds in a tiny plastic box in my pocket, separate from the iPod. I wanted a belt clip, and some way of storing the earbuds would be nice. A friend had a case for his Nano that had headphone storage, and I really wanted one like that.

I had pretty much given up, when I found the Jam Jacket while shopping for something else. The clip on the back does triple duty as cord storage, a belt clip, and a stand.

The clip is rubber coated metal X, and has a three dimensional curve to it. The clip will sort of pop and turn inside out to make the legs stick out to use as a stand, and to make winding the cord easier. I'd rather the stand function were a bit less upright. The clip also twists, but I have not found an advantage to that yet. The case adds considerably to the thickness of the iPod, especially in the center. The rubber is much thicker and sturdier than the silicone covers I had. The case also comes with a pre-cut screen protector.

As a belt clip, the iPod has to be vertical, and if you are shaped like I am needs to be on the rear half of your body if you plan to sit. (Someone with a smaller belly may not have this problem).

Cord storage works best if you arrange the earbuds at the top of the clip, and then wrap the first half of the cord in a figure 8 around one pair of legs, the other half around the other 2 legs. Tuck the jack in. This minimizes bulk by keeping the winding of the cord away from the thickest part (in the same way that holsters with their loops or clips beside the gun rather than on top do). The clip can keep the cord stowed reasonably well when using it as a stand, but not so much if being used as a belt clip.

(This is a filler post, not a compensated endorsement)

Gordon Food Service Primo Gusto pasta sauce

Years ago, Sam's club had a really good pasta sauce, really cheap. When they discontinued it, I tried to find it elsewhere, and was unsuccessful.

Not so long ago, Meijer's had a premium house brand pasta sauce that was really good, in several varieties, at about the same price as cheap sauce. Unfortunately they have shuffled their product line. They now carry a generic sauce, and a super-premium at twice the price.

Most of the time if sugar or corn syrup is not in the top 5 ingredients of a pasta sauce, it will be at least a little better than average, and if there is no added sugar it will be pretty good.

We were at Gordon Food Service and I checked the ingredients on their gallon cans of pasta sauce--No sugar! I bought a can, and it is really good sauce by itself. (Full disclosure--I haven't found a bottled sauce that isn't better with some fresh garlic and anise or fennel) The price is right too--Under $6 per gallon. The downside is that like a lot of Gordon products, you can't get less than a gallon.

(Not a paid endorsement--If I ever start doing them, I will mention the fact)

Tomato Router software

I recently switched my Linksys WRT54G router from the original firmware to Tomato.

Linksys routers use a version of Linux. Because Linux is open source, interested people can modify the code and make improvements. Various people have done various versions of replacement software with different features. One version is Tomato, and it has other sub-versions with less mainstream options. Also being Linux, this is free. I'm using the base version.

The install process could not be much simpler--Basically the same as updating the router firmware with the official updates, except with the Tomato file instead of the file from Linksys. The router will pull the file in, then reboot. Your internet connection drops for about 10 seconds. then comes back up using Tomato, preserving all the settings you had before--same SSID, same security settings. The admin password is the same, but you now have to use the "admin" or "root" account instead of leaving the user blank. The most difficult part is making sure you use the proper file for your particular version of router--there is a chart to verify by serial number. There is a small risk of a failed upgrade leaving your router in a state that is unusable--In theory there is a method to set up TFTP on one of your computers to push working firmware if this happens. I would rather not have to test that, but I had the instructions handy beforehand.

Tomato solved a problem I had with my Ipod Touch, where it could connect to the network but not the Internet. At home (and only at home) I had to give it a static DNS (which required static IP) and put it in the DMZ--directly on the Internet rather than firewalled. It worked without modification everywhere else. Now it works properly at home with no workarounds.

It also lets me used "fixed DHCP", which is the main reason I installed it. This lets the router manage IP addresses, but also lets you tell the router to give particular computers the same address every time. Setting up a fixed DHCP IP for a computer that is on the network is simple--find it in the Having stable IP addresses makes a lot of network based stuff easier to do. On my computer, the "save" button was not initially visible, I had to scroll down to find it.

There are a lot of other features that look promising, but I haven't tried yet--QOS to control and prioritize bandwidth use of various applications, (don't let Bitttorent take ALL the bandwidth, for instance) and the ability to run scripts at set times. Timed automatic reboot option--I now have it set to reboot at 4am every morning--I am hoping this prevents the need for rebooting when the router has been on for a long time. You can adjust transmit power from the pre-set of 42mw up to 251 (I would be cautious about extreme increases, there is a potential for overheating and permanent damage) You can block certain combinations of computer and Internet application at certain times--this would be good for some control of kids useage. You can limit wireless connections to pre-defined devices.

I haven't used this long enough to know if it is stable--If it is at least equal to the Linksys firmware, I am impressed.

Not as bad as it sounds

Wife: "Would you cut some of that thin plywood for my plastic drawers? I've got a drawing of what I want"

Me: "Sure, if you come help"

"But I did a drawing..."

Me: "We both know I won't be able to read your drawing"

(move to garage, where the saw is)

Me: "How wide do you want the first piece?

Wife: "What do you mean wide?

Me: "What dimensions do you want the first piece cut?

Wife: "There are 4 dimensions....

Me: "There can't be 4 dimensions, that violates the laws of physics.

Wife: "There are too!

Me: "Um. Anyway...(I look at the drawing) You need a piece 6 inches by 15?

Wife: "No, that's the drawer.

(no further information....)

Me: "SO HOW DO YOU WANT ME TO CUT THE FIRST PIECE?

Wife: "Oh...Let me look at the drawing....Um....

Me: "And you thought I could read your drawing when you can't?

Wife: "Hush. OK, I need this one 4 inches wide by 12 inches deep

Me: "Just one?

Wife: "No.

(no further information)

Me: "....Well, how many?

Wife: "Oh! I need 4 of those.

Me: "Do you need any other 4 inch wide pieces?

Wife: "No.

/me (rips wood, removes rip fence set at 4 inches, cuts to length)

Ok, what next?

Wife: "I need some that are 4 inches by 6 1/2.

Me: "I thought you didn't need any more that were 4 inches wide?

Wife: "I don't...I need them 6 inches wide by 4 inches tall.

....

(Despite what it sounds like here, we were laughing hard enough through most of this that I had to delay turning the saw on)